No abstract

Piper sylvaticum Roxb., (Family: Piperaceae), commonly known as pahaari peepal, is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of rheumatic pain, headache, asthma, chronic cough, diarrhea, and wounds. To provide scientiic proof for its traditional use, the present study was designed to investigate the antinociceptive and anti-inlammatory properties of methanol extract of P. sylvaticum stem (MEPSS) in pain models. Additionally, computational studies viz. molecular docking, ADME and toxicological property predictions were performed to identify the potent phytochemicals of this plant for antinociceptive and anti-inlammatory activities with good oral bioavailability and safety features. Quantitative phytochemical analysis of MEPSS was performed using established protocols. The antinociceptive activity was determined using acetic acid and formalin test in mice at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg while paw edema induced by carrageenan used for anti-inlammatory activity. Molecular docking study was performed by Schrödinger Maestro 10.1 whereas the SwissADME and admetSAR were used for ADME and toxicity prediction respectively. The total phenolic and lavonoid contents of MEPSS were 93.39 and 53.74 mg gallic acid and quercetin equivalent/g of extract respectively. The methanol extract exhibited signiicant and dosedependent antinociceptive and anti-inlammatory efects in experimental pain models. Also, our docking study showed that piperine, piperlonguminine, and sylvamide have the best binding ainities to cyclooxygenase enzymes with good ADME/T properties. This study conirmed that MEPSS possess signiicant antinociceptive and anti-inlammatory activities which could be due to the presence of phytochemicals and three bioactive compounds (piperine, piperlonguminine, and sylvamide) were found to be most efective in computational studies.

Monkeypox is an emerging threat to humans since a new outbreak in May 2022. It is hypothesised that increasing the immunologically naive population after the cessation of the smallpox vaccination campaign in the 1980s is one of the leading causes of it. A literature search was conducted using different electronic databases including MEDLINE (through PubMed), SCOPUS, Web of Science, Cochrane library, and EMBASE for relevant studies. After duplication removal, abstract and title screening, and full-text screening were done, the data were extracted, tabulated, and analysed. The risk of bias was assessed following the Risk of Bias Assessment tool for Non-randomised Studies. We found a total of 1068 relevant articles and finally, we included 6 articles including 2083 participants. The studies suggested that smallpox is 80.7% efficacious to prevent human monkeypox and the immunity provided by prior smallpox vaccination is long-lasting. Moreover, the smallpox vaccination decreases the risk of human monkeypox by 5.2-folds. Two crosssectional studies based on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) including a total of around 1800 monkeypox cases found that unvaccinated participants had 2.73 and 9.64-fold increased risk of monkeypox compared to the vaccinated participants. Other studies in USA and Spain also demonstrated that unvaccinated people were more prone to develop monkeypox than vaccinated people. Furthermore, monkeypox incidence has increased by 20 folds, 30 years after the cessation of the smallpox vaccination campaign in DRC. Evidence-based preventive and therapeutic agents are still not available for human monkeypox. Further study should be done to explore the role of the smallpox vaccine in preventing human monkeypox.

Background: Vitamin D (25OHD) deficiency has become a modern-day epidemic, being the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. Many infertile men are experiencing low total sperm count or different semen abnormalities. The aim of this study was to compare serum vitamin D (25OHD) status among fertile and infertile men.Methods: This was an observational (cross sectional comparative) study and was conducted in the Department of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, BSMMU, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from April 2019 to March 2020. The sample size was 112 men where 56 participants were in fertile men group and 56 participants were infertile men group. Statistical analyses were carried out by using Windows based Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 23.0).Results: The predictability of vitamin D insufficiency was significant. Holding the effects of vitamin D deficiency constant, males with vitamin D insufficiency were 3.28 times more likely to be infertile than males with vitamin D sufficiency. Subgroup analysis of infertile men was done regarding semen parameters in different vitamin D status categories. There was statistically significant difference in semen volume and sperm concentration between infertile men of different vitamin D status but no significant difference in case of motility and morphology.Conclusions: There was no significant different of serum vitamin D (25OHD) between fertile and infertile men. Men with vitamin D insufficiency (≥20 ng/ml to <30 ng/ml) are more likely to be infertile than men with vitamin D sufficiency.