Background: In keeping with nation-wide efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) transformed fully its pedagogical delivery to online mode, where we investigated teaching and learning experiences, physical and mental health of undergraduate students and lecturers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study on undergraduate students and lecturers in a health science faculty using a self-developed pretested questionnaire through anonymous online data collection method. Results: Fifty-six lecturers (100% response rate) and 279 students (93.3% response rate) participated. The positive experiences reported by students include becoming independent (72.8%) and adapting to online learning (67.4%), while lecturers learned new teaching techniques (50.0%) and became more innovative (50.0%) by learning new tools (48.2%). However, studying at home caused students to feel more distracted (72.0%) with a feeling of uncertainty towards examinations (66.7%), while lecturers felt that students’ laboratory skills were compromised (44.6%). Even though online delivery of assessments enabled lecturers to explore all options (50.0%), they found it difficult to maintain appropriate questions (41.1%) and fair assessments (37.5%). Majority of students missed eating out (68.8%) and felt a lack of participation in extracurricular activities (64.9%), while lecturers reported more time for exercise (51.8%), despite having more screen time (50.0%) and computer-related physical stress (44.6%). In terms of mental health, increased stress in students was reported (64.9%), though they had more time for self-reflection (54.8%). Although lecturers reported a closer relationship with family (44.6%), they also felt more stressed due to deadlines, unexpected disruptions and higher workloads (44.6%) as well as concerns related to work, family and self (39.3%). Conclusion: In this abrupt shift to online teaching, students and lecturers in our study identified both positive and negative experiences including the impact on their physical and mental health. Our findings are important to provide the evidence for online pedagogical benefits and can serve to promote the enhancement and adaptation of digital technology in education. Our findings also aim to promote the importance of addressing physical and mental health issues of the university community’s well-being through provision of emotional and mental health support and appropriate programs.

Integrating AI in medical education: embracing ethical usage and critical understanding

Context: Medicinal plants have attracted global attention for their hidden therapeutic potential. Clinacanthus nutans (Burm.f) Lindau (Acanthaceae) (CN) is endemic in Southeast Asia. CN contains phytochemicals common to medicinal plants, such as flavonoids. Traditionally, CN has been used for a broad range of human ailments including snake bites and cancer. Objectives: This article compiles the ethnomedicinal uses of CN and its phytochemistry, and thus provides a phytochemical library of CN. It also discusses the known pharmacological and biological effects of CN to enable better investigation of CN. Methods: This literature review was limited to articles and websites published in the English language. MEDLINE and Google Scholar databases were searched from December 2014 to September 2016 using the following keywords: "Clinacanthus nutans" and "Belalai gajah". The results were reviewed to identify relevant articles. Information from relevant selected studies was systematically analyzed from contemporary ethnopharmacological sources, evaluated against scientific literature, and extracted into tables. Results: The literature search yielded 124 articles which were then further scrutinized revealing the promising biological activities of CN, including antimicrobial, antiproliferative, antitumorigenic and anti-inflammatory effects. Few articles discussed the mechanisms for these pharmacological activities. Furthermore, CN was beneficial in small-scale clinical trials for genital Herpes and aphthous stomatitis. Conclusion: Despite the rich ethnomedicinal knowledge behind the traditional uses of CN, the current scientific evidence to support these claims remains scant. More research is still needed to validate these medicinal claims, beginning by increasing the understanding of the biological actions of this plant.

Carbon dot (Cdot) nanoparticles are an emerging class of carbon nanomaterials with a promising potential for drug delivery and bio imaging applications. Although the interaction between Cdots and non-immune cell types has been well studied, Cdot interactions with macrophages have not been investigated. Exposure of Cdot nanoparticles to J774.1 cells, a murine macrophage cell line, resulted in minimal toxicity, where notable toxicity was only seen with Cdot concentrations higher than 0.5 mg/ml. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that Cdots prepared from citric acid were internalized at significantly higher levels by macrophages compared with those prepared from bamboo leaves. Interestingly, macrophages preferentially took up phenylboronic acid (PB)-modified nanoparticles. By fluorescence microscopy, strong blue light-specific punctate Cdot fluorescence resembling Cdot structures in the cytosolic space was mostly observed in J774.1 macrophages exposed to PB-modified nanoparticles and not unmodified Cdot nanoparticles. PB binds to sialic acid residues that are overexpressed on diseased cell surfaces. Our findings demonstrate that PB-conjugated Cdots can be taken up by macrophages with low toxicity and high efficiency. These modified Cdots can be used to deliver drugs to suppress or eliminate aberrant immune cells such as macrophages associated with tumors such as tumor-associated macrophages.

The mistletoes, stem hemiparasites of Asia and Europe, have been used as medicinal herbs for many years and possess sophisticated systems to obtain nutrients from their host plants. Although knowledge about ethnomedicinal uses of mistletoes is prevalent in Asia, systematic scientific study of these plants is still lacking, unlike its European counterparts. This review aims to evaluate the literature on Scurrula and Viscum mistletoes. Both mistletoes were found to have anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant and antihypertensive properties. Plants from the genus Scurrula were found to inhibit cancer growth due to presence of phytoconstituents such as quercetin and fatty acid chains. Similar to plants from the genus Viscum, Scurrula also possesses TNFα activity to strengthen the immune system to combat cancer. In line with its anticancer activity, both mistletoes are rich in antioxidants that confer protection against cancer as well as neurodegeneration. Extracts from plants of both genera showed evidence of vasodilation and thus, antihypertensive effects. Other therapeutic effects such as weight loss, postpartum and gastrointestinal healing from different plants of the genus Scurrula are documented. As the therapeutic effects of plants from Scurrula are still in exploration stage, there is currently no known clinical trial on these plants. However, there are few on-going clinical trials for Viscum album that demonstrate the functionalities of these mistletoes. Future work required for exploring the benefits of these plants and ways to develop both parasitic plants as a source of pharmacological drug are explained in this article.

Introduction: The use of liquid crystalline (LC) gel formulations for drug delivery has considerably improved the current delivery methods in terms of bioavailability and efficacy. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate LC gel formulations to deliver the anti-cancer drug exemestane through transdermal route. Methods: Two LC gel formulations were prepared by phase separation coacervation method using glyceryl monooleate (GMO), Tween 80 and Pluronic® F127 (F127). The formulations were characterized with regard to encapsulation efficiency (EE), vesicle size, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, surface morphology (using light and fluorescence microscopy), in vitro release, ex vivo permeation, in vitro effectiveness test on MDA-MB231 cancer cell lines and histopathological analysis. Results: Results exhibited that the EE was 85%-92%, vesicle size was 119.9-466.2 nm while morphology showed spherical vesicles after hydration. An FTIR result also revealed that there was no significant shift in peaks corresponding to Exemestane and excipients. LC formulations release the drug from cellulose acetate and Strat-M™ membrane from 15%-88.95%, whereas ex vivo permeation ranges from 37.09-63%. The in vitro effectiveness study indicated that even at low exemestane concentrations (12.5 and 25 μg/mL) the formulations were able to induce cancer cell death, regardless of the surfactant used. Histopathological analysis thinning of the epidermis as the formulations penetrate into the intercellular regions of squamous cells. Conclusion: The results conjectured that exemestane could be incorporated into LC gels for the transdermal delivery system and further preclinical studies such as pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies will be carried out with suitable animal models.