Objective: In Libya, no pertussis booster doses are administered to children after 18 months of age. In light of evidence of waning of vaccine-induced immunity to pertussis, this study aimed to evaluate the waning of immunity in vaccinated school-entry age children, as measured by susceptibility to infection at population level. For this purpose, IgG and IgA levels were measured as markers of recent (infection in the last 6 months) and non-recent infections (infection in the last 12 months). Material and Methods: This was a cross sectional study undertaken in Tripoli, in February 2015. Children of school-entry age (> 5 to ≤ 7 years) were recruited on convenience basis at vaccination centers. Sera were tested for antibodies to pertussis. Results: Samples from791 children (421 males and 370 females, mean age 6.50 were tested). All of the participants had received 4 doses of Whole cell pertussis containing vaccine in the first 2 years of life. The prevalence of recent and non-recent pertussis infection were 4.8% and 2.5%, respectively. The proportion of children with undetectable level of IgG was 76.1%. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed significant circulation of Bordetella pertussis among vaccinated children by school-entry age. The circulation of B. pertussis in this population may be an indirect sign of waned immunity, which is simply corroborated by the absence of detectable antibodies in 76.1% of the children. arabic 14 English 76
Suleiman Abusrewil, Abdulla Bashein(1-2019)

Factor V Leiden G1691A (FVL) and Factor II prothrombin G20210A (PGM) mutations are the leading causes of thrombophilia. In this study, we have investigated the prevalence of the FVL G1691A and PGM G20210A single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) among Libyan deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and myocardial infarction (MI) patients. SNP genotyping was performed using high-resolution melt analysis (HRM) and DNA sequencing. Biochemical parameters conducted on 112 males and 93 females showed no significant difference in means between the control group and the deep vein thrombosis and myocardial infarction groups. For Factor V Leiden, 40 samples were genotyped. Of the 40 samples, 6 (15.0%) of them were heterozygous and no one was homozygous. As for Factor II SNP, 59 samples were genotyped and only 2 (3.3%) were heterozygous. All the heterozygous samples showed 100% concordance between the HRM-PCR and DNA sequence analysis. Our study showed, for the first time, that both the FVL and PGM mutations are present among Libyan DVT and MI patients and that the FVL mutation is significantly associated with DVT but not with MI. However, our results do not support the association of PGM G20210A mutation with DVT or MI. arabic 18 English 117
Abdulghani Msalati, Abdulla Bashein, Murad Ghrew, Khaled Sedaa, Abushawashi Ali, Ahmed Zaid, (1-2021)

Fungi are a huge source of unexplored bioactive compounds. Owing to their biological activities, several fungi have shown commercial application in the health industry. Tuber aestivum Vittad. is one such edible fungi with an immense scope for practical biological applications. In the present study, the anti-angiogenic activity of petroleum ether and ethanol extracts of T. aestivum was investigated using the chick chorioallantoic membrane assay and compared to the positive controls silibinin and lenalidomide. Both the extracts showed a dose-dependent anti-angiogenic response. The extracts were also assessed for their anti-inflammatory potential by lipoxygenase-inhibition assay. The IC50 values for LOX inhibition assay, computed by the Boltzmann plot, were 368.5, 147.3 and 40.2 μg/mL, for the petroleum ether extract, ethanol extract, and the positive control ascorbic acid, respectively. The ethanol extract of T. aestivum showed superior anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory activity than the petroleum ether extract. Compositional investigation of the extracts by GC–MS revealed the presence of various bioactive compounds. The compounds were correlated to their anti-angiogenic and antiinflammatory activity based on a meticulous literature search. arabic 25 English 145
Sandesh J. Marathe, Abdulla Bashein, (1-2020)