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Background Worldwide, an estimated 38.0 million people lived with the human immunodeficiency virus in 2019, and 3.4 million young people aged 15~24 years were living with HIV. Sub-Saharan Africa carries a significant HIV burden with West and Central Africa most affected with HIV. Among the young people living with HIV in West and Central Africa, an estimated 810,000 were aged 15~24 years. This study aimed to assess predictors that influence the uptake of HIV testing among youth aged 15~24 years in The Gambia. Methods The 2013 Gambia Demographic and Health Survey data for youth aged 15~24 years was used. The Andersen behavioral model of health service use guided this study. A cross-sectional study design was used on 6194 subjects, among which 4730 were female. The analysis employed Chi-squared tests and hierarchical logistic regression. Results Less than one-quarter of the youth 1404 (22.6%) had ever been tested for HIV. Young people aged 20~24 years (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.98), who were females (aOR: 1.13), married youth (aOR: 3.89), with a primary (aOR: 1.23), secondary or higher education (aOR: 1.46), and who were from the Jola/Karoninka ethnic group (aOR: 1.81), had higher odds of having been tested for HIV. Those with adequate HIV knowledge and those who were sexually active and had aged at first sex ≥15 years (aOR: 3.99) and those <15 years (aOR: 3.96) were more likely to have been tested for HIV compared to those who never had sex. Conclusion This study underscores the low level of model testing on HIV testing among youth (15~24 years) in The Gambia. Using Anderson’s Model of Health Service Utilization, the predisposing factors (socio-demographic and HIV knowledge) and the need-for-care factors (sexual risk behaviors) predict healthcare utilization services (HIV testing) in our study; however, only socio-demographic model explained most of the variance in HIV testing. The low effect of model testing could be related to the limited number of major variables selected for HIV knowledge and sexual risk behavior models. Thus, consideration for more variables is required for future studies.

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Two major superoxide dismutases (SODs; SODs I and II) were found in the crude enzyme extract of wheat seedlings after heat treatment, ammonium sulfate fractionation, anionic exchange chromatography, and gel permeation chromatography. The purification fold for SODs I and II were 154 and 98, and the yields were 11 and 2.4%, respectively. SOD I was further characterized. It was found that SOD I from wheat seedlings is a homodimer, with a subunit molecular mass of 23 kDa. Isoelectric focusing electrophoresis (IEF) and zymogram staining results indicated that the isoelectric point of SOD I is 3.95. It belongs to the MnSOD category due to the fact that it was insensitive to KCN or hydrogen peroxide inhibitor. This MnSOD from wheat seedlings was found to be stable over pH 7-9, with an optimum pH of 8, but was sensitive to extreme pH, particularly to acidic pH. It was stable over a wide range of temperatures (5-50 degrees C). Thermal inactivation of wheat seedling MnSOD followed first-order reaction kinetics, and the temperature dependence of rate constants was in agreement with the Arrhenius equation. The activation energy for thermal inactivation of wheat seedling MnSOD in the temperature range of 50-70 degrees C was found to be 150 kJ/mol. HgCl2 and SDS at a concentration of 1.0 mM significantly inhibited enzyme activity. Chemical modification agents, including diethyl pyrocarbonate (2.5 mM) and Woodward's reagent K (50 mM), significantly inhibited the activity of wheat seedling SOD, implying that imidazole groups from histidine and carboxyl groups from aspartic acid and glutamic acid are probably located at or near the active site of the enzyme.