Plantibodies in human and animal health: a review.

Background: Antibodies are essential part of vertebrates’ adaptive immune system; they can now be produced by transforming plants with antibody-coding genes from mammals/humans. Although plants do not naturally make antibodies, the plant-derived antibodies (plantibodies) have been shown to function in the same way as mammalian antibodies. Methods: PubMed and Google search engines were used to download relevant publications on plantibodies in medical and veterinary fields; the papers were reviewed and findings qualitatively described. Results: The process of bioproduction of plantibodies offers several advantages over the conventional method of antibody production in mammalian cells with the cost of antibody production in plants being substantially lesser. Contrary to what is possible with animal-derived antibodies, the process of making plantibodies almost exclusively precludes transfer of pathogens to the end product. Additionally, plants not only produce a relatively high yield of antibodies in a comparatively faster time, they also serve as cost-effective bioreactors to produce antibodies of diverse specificities. Conclusion: Plantibodies are safe, cost-effective and offer more advantages over animal-derived antibodies. Methods of producing them are described with a view to inspiring African scientists on the need to embrace and harness this rapidly evolving biotechnology in solving human and animal health challenges on the continent where the climate supports growth of diverse plants.

Calcium Intake, Major Dietary Sources and Bone Health Indicators in Iranian Primary School Children

Background: Adequate calcium intake may have a crucial role with regards to prevention of many chronic diseases, including hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, different types of cancer, obesity and osteoporosis. In children, sufficient calcium intake is especially important to support the accelerated growth spurt during the preteen and teenage years and to increase bone mineral mass to lay the foundation for older age. Objectives: This study aimed to assess daily calcium intake in school-age children to ensure whether they fulfill the FGP dairy serving recommendations, the recommended levels of daily calcium intake and to assess the relationship between dietary calcium intake and major bone health indicators. Patients and Methods: A total of 501 Iranian school-age children were randomly selected. Calcium intake was assessed using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Bone health indicators were also assessed. Results: Dairy products contributed to 69.3% of the total calcium intake of the children. Daily adequate intake of calcium was achieved by 17.8% of children. Only 29.8% met the Food guide pyramid recommendations for dairy intake. Dietary calcium intake was not significantly correlated with serum calcium and other selected biochemical indicators of bone health. Conclusions: The need for planning appropriate nutrition strategies for overcoming inadequate calcium intake in school age children in the city of Tehran is inevitable.

Analysis of maternal and child health policies in Malawi: The methodological perspective

The question of why most health policies do not achieve their intended results continues to receive a considerable attention in the literature. This is in the light of the recognized gap between policy as intent and policy as practice, which calls for substantial research work to understand the factors that improve policy implementation. Although there is substantial work that explains the reasons why policies achieve or fail to achieve their intended outcomes, there are limited case studies that illustrate how to analyze policies from the methodological perspective. In this article, we report and discuss how a mixed qualitative research method was applied for analyzing maternal and child health policies in Malawi. For the purposes of this article, we do not report research findings; instead we focus our dicussion on the methodology of the study and draw lessons for policy analysis research work. We base our disusssion on our experiences from a study in which we analyzed maternal and child health policies in Malawi over the period from 1964 to 2008. Noting the multifaceted nature of maternal and child health policies, we adopted a mixed qualitative research method, whereby a number of data collection methods were employed. This approach allowed for the capturing of different perspectives of maternal and child health policies in Malawi and for strengthening of the weaknesses of each method, especially in terms of data validity. This research suggested that the multidimensional nature of maternal and child health policies, like other health policies, calls for a combination of research designs as well as a variety of methods of data collection and analysis. In addition, we suggest that, as an emerging research field, health policy analysis will benefit more from case study designs because they provide rich experiences in the actual policy context.