Conference abstract
Brain Health & One Health: the “Bedside-Bench-Backyard” or B3 concept and strategy
Pan African Medical Journal - Conference Proceedings. 2023:17(36).04
Jun 2023.
doi: 10.11604/pamj-cp.2023.17.36.1820
Archived on: 04 Jun 2023
Contact the corresponding author
Keywords: One health, brain health, diseases
Oral presentation
Brain Health & One Health: the “Bedside-Bench-Backyard” or B3 concept and strategy
Seke Etet Paul1,2,3,&, Njamnshi WY1,3,4, Ngarka L1,3,5, Njamnshi AK1,3,5
1Brain Research Africa Initiative (BRAIN), Yaoundé, Cameroon, 2Department of Biochemistry and Biochemical Sciences, University of Garoua, Cameroon, 3Neuroscience Lab, Faculty of Medicine & Biomedical Medicine, The University of Yaoundé l, Cameroon, 4Division of Health Operations Research, Ministry of Public Health, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 5Department of Neurology, Central Hospital Yaoundé, Yaoundé, Cameroon
&Corresponding author
Introduction: the WHO considers “One Health” as ‘an integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and the environment. It is particularly important to prevent, predict, detect, and respond to global health threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach mobilizes multiplesectors, disciplines and communities atvaryinglevels of society to work together. This way, new and better ideas are developed that address root causes and create long-term, sustainable solutions. Similarly, “Brain Health” is ‘the state of brain functioning across cognitive, sensory, social-emotional, behavioral and motor domains, allowing a person to realize their full potential over the life course, irrespective of the presence or absence of disorders.
Methods: both initiatives of Brain Health and One Health are yet to be understood, let alone translated into policy and practice in most of Africa. As Brain Health is crucial to all health, effective therapeutics for preventing or treating brain disease are urgently needed. Although Africa and Cameroon harbor various medicinal plants with neuroprotective properties (traditional neuro-pharmacopeia), no drug as yet with such properties has been developed in Cameroon. The aim was to illustrate the importance of the “Bedside-Bench-Backyard” or B3 Concept and Strategy in health, drawing from studies of Garcinia kola used for centuries in Africa to treat neurotropic infections.
Results: cerebral malaria is a neurological disease with high mortality and morbidity caused by the neurotropic parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Clinical (Bedside) studies allowed the development of in vitro and in vivo experimental models leading to medicinal plants screening, including Garcinia kola which showed a good therapeutic potential (parasiticidal and neuroprotective properties) in pre-clinical studies (Bench). However, putting that knowledge in use for patients requires expensive and lengthy toxicological, quality control, and further efficiency studies to reach modern medicine-grade drugs. Nevertheless, Improved Traditional Medicine (ITM) appears as an appropriate/timely WHO strategy for fast-tracking the production/dispensation of efficient therapeutics based on indigenous knowledge and long-term experience. However, access to this knowledge requires collaboration between multidisciplinary experts of Western and traditional medicine in the community/field (Backyard) for benefits from the resultant ITM for the community populations. This collaborative “bedside-bench-backyard” strategy would reduce poor/dangerous brain health-seeking behaviors, improve the quality of medicinal plant extracts screened for human/animal brain diseases, and eventually contribute to socio-economic development and well-being.
Conclusion: effective and efficient collaborations are needed within the “Bedside-Bench-Backyard” strategy to develop ITM, and other interventions to promote Brain Health, the cornerstone of One and All Health.
Brain Health & One Health: the “Bedside-Bench-Backyard” or B3 concept and strategy
Seke Etet Paul1,2,3,&, Njamnshi WY1,3,4, Ngarka L1,3,5, Njamnshi AK1,3,5
1Brain Research Africa Initiative (BRAIN), Yaoundé, Cameroon, 2Department of Biochemistry and Biochemical Sciences, University of Garoua, Cameroon, 3Neuroscience Lab, Faculty of Medicine & Biomedical Medicine, The University of Yaoundé l, Cameroon, 4Division of Health Operations Research, Ministry of Public Health, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 5Department of Neurology, Central Hospital Yaoundé, Yaoundé, Cameroon
&Corresponding author
Introduction: the WHO considers “One Health” as ‘an integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and the environment. It is particularly important to prevent, predict, detect, and respond to global health threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach mobilizes multiplesectors, disciplines and communities atvaryinglevels of society to work together. This way, new and better ideas are developed that address root causes and create long-term, sustainable solutions. Similarly, “Brain Health” is ‘the state of brain functioning across cognitive, sensory, social-emotional, behavioral and motor domains, allowing a person to realize their full potential over the life course, irrespective of the presence or absence of disorders.
Methods: both initiatives of Brain Health and One Health are yet to be understood, let alone translated into policy and practice in most of Africa. As Brain Health is crucial to all health, effective therapeutics for preventing or treating brain disease are urgently needed. Although Africa and Cameroon harbor various medicinal plants with neuroprotective properties (traditional neuro-pharmacopeia), no drug as yet with such properties has been developed in Cameroon. The aim was to illustrate the importance of the “Bedside-Bench-Backyard” or B3 Concept and Strategy in health, drawing from studies of Garcinia kola used for centuries in Africa to treat neurotropic infections.
Results: cerebral malaria is a neurological disease with high mortality and morbidity caused by the neurotropic parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Clinical (Bedside) studies allowed the development of in vitro and in vivo experimental models leading to medicinal plants screening, including Garcinia kola which showed a good therapeutic potential (parasiticidal and neuroprotective properties) in pre-clinical studies (Bench). However, putting that knowledge in use for patients requires expensive and lengthy toxicological, quality control, and further efficiency studies to reach modern medicine-grade drugs. Nevertheless, Improved Traditional Medicine (ITM) appears as an appropriate/timely WHO strategy for fast-tracking the production/dispensation of efficient therapeutics based on indigenous knowledge and long-term experience. However, access to this knowledge requires collaboration between multidisciplinary experts of Western and traditional medicine in the community/field (Backyard) for benefits from the resultant ITM for the community populations. This collaborative “bedside-bench-backyard” strategy would reduce poor/dangerous brain health-seeking behaviors, improve the quality of medicinal plant extracts screened for human/animal brain diseases, and eventually contribute to socio-economic development and well-being.
Conclusion: effective and efficient collaborations are needed within the “Bedside-Bench-Backyard” strategy to develop ITM, and other interventions to promote Brain Health, the cornerstone of One and All Health.
