DNA vaccines offer a flexible and versatile platform to treat innumerable diseases due to the ease of manipulating vaccine targets simply by altering the gene sequences encoded in the plasmid DNA delivered. The DNA vaccines elicit potent humoral and cell-mediated responses and provide a promising method for treating rapidly mutating and evasive diseases such as cancer and human immunodeficiency viruses. Although this vaccine technology has been available for decades, there is no DNA vaccine that has been used in bed-side application to date. The main challenge that hinders the progress of DNA vaccines and limits their clinical application is the delivery hurdles to targeted immune cells, which obstructs the stimulation of robust antigen-specific immune responses in humans. In this updated review, we discuss various nanodelivery systems that improve DNA vaccine technologies to enhance the immunological response against target diseases. We also provide possible perspectives on how we can bring this exciting vaccine technology to bedside applications.

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. The microbes inhabiting the oral cavity and gut might play crucial roles in maintaining a favorable gut environment, and their relationship with SARS-CoV-2 infection susceptibility and severity is yet to be fully explored. This study investigates the diversity and species richness of gut and oral microbiota of patients with COVID-19, and their possible implications toward the severity of the patient's illness and clinical outcomes. Seventy-four (n = 74) clinical samples (gut and oral) were collected from 22 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 with various clinical conditions and 15 apparently healthy people (served as controls). This amplicon-based metagenomic sequencing study yielded 1,866,306 paired-end reads that were mapped to 21 phyla and 231 classified genera of bacteria. Alpha and beta diversity analyses revealed a distinct dysbiosis of the gut and oral microbial communities in patients with COVID-19, compared to healthy controls. We report that SARS-CoV-2 infection significantly reduced richness and evenness in the gut and oral microbiomes despite showing higher unique operational taxonomic units in the gut. The gut samples of the patients with COVID-19 included 46 opportunistic bacterial genera. Escherichia, Shigella, and Bacteroides were detected as the signature genera in the gut of patients with COVID-19 with diarrhea, whereas a relatively higher abundance of Streptococcus was found in patients with COVID-19 having breathing difficulties and sore throat (BDST). The patients with COVID-19 had a significantly lower abundance of Prevotella in the oral cavity, compared to healthy controls and patients with COVID-19 without diabetes, respectively. The altered metabolic pathways, including a reduction in biosynthesis capabilities of the gut and oral microbial consortia after SARS-CoV-2 infection, were also observed. The present study may, therefore, shed light on interactions of SARS-CoV-2 with resilient oral and gut microbes which might contribute toward developing microbiome-based diagnostics and therapeutics for this deadly pandemic disease.

Background: Hypertension is a known risk factor for several chronic conditions including diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known about its impact on Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in the context of Bangladesh. This study aimed to evaluate the association of hypertension on HRQoL among Bangladeshi patients corresponding to the socio-demographic condition, comorbid conditions, treatment, and health outcomes. Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted using a pre-tested structured questionnaire among patients with hypertension in 22 tertiary medical college hospitals in Bangladesh. The study recruited male and female hypertensive patients of age ≥18 years between July 2020 to February 2021 using consecutive sampling methods. Health related quality of life was measured using the widely-used index of EQ-5D that considers 243 different health-related attributes and uses a scale in which 0 indicates a health state equivalent to death and 1 indicates perfect health status. The five dimensions of the quality index included mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain or discomfort, and anxiety or depression. Ordered logit regression and linear regression models were used to estimate the predictors of comorbidity and HRQoL. Results: Of the 1,912 hypertensive patients, 56.2% were female, 86.5% were married, 70.7% were either overweight or obese, 67.6% had a family history of hypertension, and 85.5% were on anti-hypertensive medication. Among the individuals with comorbidities, 47.6% had diabetes, 32.3% were obese, 16.2% had heart disease, 15% were visually impaired, and 13.8% were suffering from psychological diseases. HRQoL was found to be inversely proportional to the number of comorbidities. The most frequent comorbidities of diabetes and obesity showed the highest EQ- 5D mean utilities of 0.59 and 0.64, respectively. Conclusions: Prevalent comorbidities, diabetes and obesity were found to be the significant underlying causes of declining HRQoL. It is recommended that the comorbidities should be adequately addressed for better HRQoL. Special attention should be given to address mental health issues of patients with hypertension.

Background and Aims: Use of technological gadgets has rapidly been increasing among adolescents, which may result in health issues and technology addiction. This study focuses on the prevalence of usage of technological gadgets and health‐related complications among secondary school‐going children of Bangladesh.Methods: A total of 1803 secondary school students from 21 different districts of Bangladesh participated in the study. The children were asked questions relating to their access to electronic gadgets, time spent on outdoor activities, and whether they experienced any health‐complications as an after‐effect of the usage. A binary logistic regression model was adapted considering time spent on gadgets as an independent variable and health problems (physical and mental) as the dependent variable.Results: Among all the gadgets, 67.11% of the participants were reported to use mobile phones on a daily basis. Due to the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic, 24.48% of respondents used electronic gadgets for attending online classes. The participants were reported to use gadgets significantly more (P < .05) in 2020 as compared to 2019. Children showed less tendency to spend time in outdoor activities. More than 50% of the participants spend time doing outdoor activities for less than 1 hour daily. An association between gadget use and health problems like headache, backache, visual disturbance, and sleeping disturbance has been observed in our study.Conclusion: This study demonstrates that different socio‐demographic factors have influence on the use of gadgets by children, and this use has greatly been affecting both the physical and mental health of the secondary school‐going students of Bangladesh.