Background According to the first SARS-CoV-2 pandemic data, signs and symptoms were less frequently reported among pediatric patients versus adults. Later in April, was described as the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with COVID -19. The clinical presentation of MIS-C includes fever, simultaneous involvement of two or more organ systems, altered inflammation parameters and laboratory or epidemiological evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. MIS-C features some similar clinical aspects with Kawasaki disease, toxic shock syndrome, and secondary hemophagocytic lymph histiocytosis syndrome / macrophage activation syndrome. This review describes the clinical features of 7 cases of MIS-C treated in the Republic of Moldova.

Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) is a rare but a serious neurological condition characterized by sudden weakness or paralysis of one or more extremities, the respiratory or bulbar muscles and reduced muscle tone without other obvious cause. Death occurs in about 7.5% of AFP affected patients worldwide. AFP is the most common sign of acute polio. Therefore, AFP studies are important for surveillance during polio outbreaks to differentiate polio cases from AFP cases. There is a lack of information about the clinical features & causative factors of AFP among children in Gadarif, Sudan. The identification of AFP cases and its causative factors are important in the management & prevention of the disease. This study assessed the etiology and the clinical features of AFP among children in Gadarif, Sudan aiming at effective management & prevention of the disease. It was a prospective cross sectional study conducted at Gadarif Pediatrics Teaching Hospital during the period of January 2017-December 2019. It comprised 73 children with confirmed AFP, ages 6 months to < 15 years old. Our study revealed that Poliomyelitis was not the cause of AFP. AFP was significantly affected children with youngest ages 0-5 years old and from the rural areas. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) was the leading cause of AFP followed by meningitis, traumatic neuritis and hypokalemia and we believed that infections were the main triggers of GBS. Gender did not affect the prevalence of the AFP. Fever and paraplegia were the most prevalent clinical signs at onset of the weakness. Over 50% of the AFP victims showed symmetric paralysis. It is obviously that AFP-based awareness, provision of high-quality health services and fighting of illiteracy and poverty in the rural areas of Sudan are urgently needed for effective management of AFP.

A total of Two hundred and fifty (250), 1-day old (Cobb) broiler chicks with mixed sex were used to evaluate the the growth performance, caeca microbial population and immune response of starter broiler chicks fed aqueous extract of Balanites aegyptiaca and Alchornea cordifolia stem bark mixture (BACM). Birds were reared on a deep litter system and randomly divided into five treatment with five replicates consisting of 10 birds each in a completely randomized design. Treatment 1 (T1) were given basal diet + 0 % BACM, T2, T3, T4 and T5 were fed 20, 40, 60 and 80 ml/liter BACM respectively. The experiment lasted for 28 during which clean feed and water were offered ad libitum. The results obtained revealed that the average weight gain (AWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and mortality were influenced by the dietary treatments (P<0.05). Birds in T5 had the highest AWG and FCR (1159.3 g, 1.57) followed by T4 (1070.2 g, 1.70), T3 (1047.4 g, 1.74), T2 (981.1 g, 1.86) and T1 (850.7 g, 2.14) respectively. Activities of superoxide dismutase (SDA), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT) ,malonyldialdehyde (MLA) and antibody titres against Newcastle and gumboro disease were significantly affected by BACM (P<0.05). Caeca microbial population of Escherichia coli and Lactobacilli were significantly different among the treatments (P<0.05). E. coli count in T1 were higher compared to other treatments (P<0.05), Lactobacilli population increased in T2, T3, T4 and T5 compared to T1. It was concluded that BACM can be fed to broiler chicks at 80 ml/litre without any negetive effect on the performance and immune response of birds.

Apoptosis is the cell’s intrinsic death program which plays a crucial role in the regulation of many normal physiological processes in the body’s tissues. In leukemia patients, the extent of cancer cell susceptibility to apoptosis is correlated with clinical responses to chemotherapy and disease prognosis. The aim of this study was evaluation of the expression of apoptosis related genes in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of acute lymphoblastic/lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) patients. Peripheral blood samples were obtained from 20 patients with ALL and 20 healthy individuals. PBMCs were isolated using Ficoll-Paque density gradient centrifugation method. After RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, gene expression levels of apoptosis related genes including caspase-3, 8, 9, BAX, and BAK genes were measured by real-time RT-PCR technique. Gene expression analysis showed that the expression levels of the initiator caspases-8 and -9 are increased in the PBMCs of adult ALL patients when compared with that in PBMCs of healthy individuals. Increased gene expression levels of the proapoptotic protein BAK was also detected in PBMCs of ALL patients. In contrast, decreased expression levels of the proapoptotic BAX and the executioner caspase-3 were observed in the PBMCs of ALL patients. These results suggest that the expression of genes involved in both extrinsic and intrinsic signaling pathways of apoptosis are induced in PBMCs of ALL patients while the gene expression of other proapoptotic molecule, BAK, and the executioner caspase-3 diminished in PBMCs cells of ALL patients. This findings indicate that resistance to apoptosis may be one of the hallmarks of ALL cells.

Background and Objective: Wound dressing and healing in diabetic patients is encountered with many problems. This study aimed to investigate the effect of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) on the survival of random skin flap (RSF) on Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats (STZ) using an optical microscope. Materials & Methods: In this study, 60 male Albino Wistar rats were used (average weight 250-300 gr). The rats were divided into six groups: 1) Health-Non (HN), 2) Health-Cells (HC), 3) Health-Sham (HS), 4) Diabetic-Non (DN) that were became diabetic by injecting STZ 70 mg/kg intraperitoneally), 5) Diabetic-Sham (DS), and 6) Diabetic-Cell (DC). In all groups, the day of surgery was considered as the zero day, on the back area of animal, the flap was created with a size of 8 × 3 cm and the BM-MSCs were performed. The sampling was performed on day 7 after surgery from the region where Transitional Zone (TZ) necrosis was initiated. Results: BM-MSCs increased the number of blood vessels (P=0.009) and the histology parameters (wound demarcation P=0.0001, granulation tissue P=0.0001) significantly compared to the control group. But this increase was not significant in the area of the survival region. Conclusion: It was concluded that after treatment with BM-MSCs, the wound healing process in both non-diabetic and diabetic groups was increased in accordance with histological characteristics.