Background and Objectives: Medicines are not ordinary commercial products. In most cases, consumers are unable to decide when and how to use drugs and weigh the potential benefits against the risks, because no drug is completely safe. The use of ineffective, poor quality and harmful drugs leads to treatment failure, exacerbation of disease, drug resistance and sometimes even death. It also contributes to reducing consumer confidence in health systems, healthcare providers, manufacturers and distributors of pharmaceutical products. Methods: The survey focused on establishments identified in cross-border areas selected by the ECOWAS PMS technical working group. These can be manufacturers, importers, central purchasing bodies, wholesalers, hospital distribution centers, health centers, retail outlets. It took place from September to November 2022 and aimed to conduct quality risk-based post-marketing survey of antimalarials, antibiotics and COVID-19 drugs circulating at selected distribution levels in Mali. Results: A total of 33 samples were taken and analyzed according to a risk-based protocol, of which 27 were compliant with a rate of 82% against 06 were non-compliant or 22%. Non-compliant drugs were from both the public and private sectors. We found that 79% of drugs were unregistered among which antimicrobials were the least registered drugs with a rate of 73% and came mainly from India and China. Conclusion: This study with its cross-border character allowed us to take samples in certain areas often not covered by routine PMS. It allowed us to detect 6 non-compliant products that were withdrawn from the market and regulatory measures were taken to ensure health and guarantee access to quality medicines for health and the well-being of populations.

Background: The expression of proteins, and consequently the course of HIV-1 illness, can be influenced by the polymorphisms that can be detected in the CCR5 genes regulatory region. As a result of this major role, variants in this gene have been subjected to diverse pressures, which has led to differences in the frequency at which they occur among human populations. There is a strong correlation between polymorphisms in the CCR2V64I mutation and CCR5 gene. As a consequence of their long history as merchants who dominated large areas within and around the Indian Ocean, the people who currently live in the Middle East have a diversified genetic makeup. Methods: In this particular piece of research, we investigated the CCR2-CCR5 haplotypes that are found in the Middle East and compared the genetic diversity patterns of these haplotypes to those found in other populations. Results: A total of one hundred adults from the Middle East had blood samples taken from them, and their genomic DNA was analyzed to look for polymorphism locations in the CCR5 gene as well as the CCR2V64I mutation. The frequencies of CCR5-2554T was 49% and CCR5-2086G 46%, while the frequencies of CCR5-2459A and CCR5-2135C were 36%. Conclusions: These alleles displayed a modest degree of heterozygosity, which is an indication that balancing selection was acting upon them. On the other side, the well-known allele CCR532 was far less prevalent than expected. Eleven different haplotypes were discovered, with four of them being particularly prevalent: HHC, HH, HHA, and HHF*2. (46%, 20%, 14% and 12%) respectively.

Objective: This study aims in constructing a three-dimensional modeled Spike glycoprotein structure of novel variants of SARS CoV-2. Methods: The protein models were constructed using SWISS-Model online tool. The constructed protein models were submitted in online database called Protein Model Database (PMDB) for public access to the structures. Results: A total of 70 protein sequences of Spike glycoprotein of novel variants of SARS CoV-2 were retrieved from NCBI virus database and were subjected for sequence similarity search and homology model construction. The constructed models were subjected for Ramachandran plot analysis to validate the quality of the structures. A total of 40 structures were considered to be of significant quality and were submitted to the online database PMDB. Conclusion: These predicted structures would help greatly in identification and drug design. This would greatly help in drug development and personalized drug treatment against different variants of the pathogen. This database would significantly support the structure-based computational drug design applications toward personalized medicine against the variants of concern of SARS CoV-2.

Introduction: Paragangliomas are non-epithelial neuroendocrine tumors originating from neural crest derived paraganglion cells situated in the region of the autonomic nervous system ganglia and accompanying nerves. Very few cases of primary gastric paraganglioma have been reported in the literature till date. We report a rare case of primary gastric paraganglioma. Case Report: A 38 year old woman presented with history of melena and dyspepsia. Physical examination revealed mild tenderness in the right hypochondrium, and she was diagnosed to have gall stone disease. However, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and contrast enhanced computed tomography whole abdomen revealed presence of a small elevated intraluminal lesion at the body of stomach along greater curvature and clinically diagnosed as gastrointestinal stromal tumor(GIST). Endoscopic biopsy report revealed a diagnosis of submucosal Brunners gland hamartoma. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy and laparoscopy assisted wedge resection of the stomach mass was done and the specimens were sent for histopathological examination. The stomach mass was diagnosed as paraganglioma which was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Conclusion: Primary gastric paraganglioma is a very rare tumor. They are more difficult to diagnose if they are non-functional. Complete surgical excision is the first line treatment that can be performed with open surgical resection or laparoscopic technique.