BACKGROUND: Liver disease has emerged as a leading cause of death among PLHIV coinfected with HCV.

METHODS: A retrospective study involving all HCV viremic patients coinfected with HIV who presented to HCV/HIV multidisciplinary clinics located at Embaba fever hospital. Patients were assigned to receive DAAs according to the national treatment guidelines. The primary endpoint was SVR12.

RESULTS: Of the 519 patients enrolled, 38.73% LTFU; either not initiated (n = 170) or did not complete the treatment (n = 31). The main identified reasons behind LTFU were schedule conflict (19%) or hospitalization (13%). Among 318 patients who completed their DAAs course, nine patients had a relapse after the end of treatment and 97% had attained SVR12. There were significant differences among different virological response groups in baseline factors including smoking (p = 0.005), history of dental procedure (p = 0.007), CD4 count (p = 0.007), and HIV viral load (p = <0.001). Among responders (n = 309), there was a significant reduction of baseline hemoglobin and significant improvement of baseline platelets (p = 0.005) at on-treatment week 8. Baseline necro-inflammatory markers showed significant improvement across follow-up time points (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: DAAs are an effective and safe choice to treat HCV in PLHIV. Social stigma could be a major cause for lacking adherence to follow-up visits. ALT: Alanine Aminotransferase; ARV: Antiretroviral treatment; AST: Aspartate Aminotransferase; DAAs: Direct acting antivirals; ARVs: antiretroviral therapy; EMR: Eastern Mediterranean region; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; kPa: Kilopascal; LTFU: Patient lost to follow up; NCCVH: The National Committee for Control of Viral Hepatitis; PWID: People who inject drugs; SVR: Sustained virological response;UNAIDS: The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

BACKGROUND: Hypertensive patients' compliance to the clinic's follow-up visits is associated with a better blood pressure control. The aim of this study was to detect the reasons of non-compliance to office visits in Egyptian hypertensive patients.

RESULTS: This is an observational, prospective, cross-sectional research study where patients were enrolled from the registry of the specialized hypertension clinics of 9 university hospitals. Those who attended less than 3 office visits, throughout the registry period, were considered non-compliant and were contacted through the phone. A simple questionnaire was prepared, which included questions about the reasons of non-compliance to follow up. There were 3014 patients eligible for inclusion in this study but only 649 patients (21.5%) completed the questionnaire. Patients claimed that the reasons of non-compliance to the follow up visits in the specialized hypertension clinics were as follows: 444 patients (68.4%) preferred to follow up elsewhere mostly in pharmacies, 53 patients (8.2%) claimed that the healthcare service was unsatisfactory, 94 patients (14.5%) were asymptomatic, and 110 patients (16.9%) said that the clinic was far from their homes. Despite non-compliance to office visits, 366 patients (59.2%) were compliant to their antihypertensive medications and 312 (48.1%) patients were compliant to salt restriction. About 34% of patients used herbs, mainly hibiscus, as adjuvant to their antihypertensive medications.

CONCLUSIONS: Reasons for non-compliance to office visits in hypertensive patients were either patient-related, or healthcare-related. To improve patients' compliance, physicians need to educate their patients about hypertension, patients need to follow their doctors' instructions as regard medications, salt restriction and scheduled office visits, and governments need to provide better and cheaper healthcare services.

(Gaertn.) Desr. (known as Malabar tamarind) is a popular traditional herbal medicine and is one of the well-known folk medicines reported for the treatment of obesity and incorporated in several nutraceuticals worldwide. These effects are mediated by a myriad of bioactive compounds with most effects attributed to its hydroxy citric acid (HCA) content. This review aims to present a holistic overview on novel trends in the production of . bioactive components and how extraction optimization is important to ensure best product quality with its reported nanoformulations with particular emphasis on HCA content. Further, an overview of the different analytical approaches used for quality control assessment of . plant and its nutraceuticals is presented highlighting both advantages and limitations. Moreover, analytical approaches for detecting . metabolites in biological fluids with emphasis on HCA level to determine its pharmacokinetics and proof of efficacy are presented for the first time.

BACKGROUND: Glycyrrhizin (GL) is a major active constituent of licorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra) that is considered one of the oldest and most frequently employed botanicals in Chinese medicine and worldwide, with most effects attributed to its rich GL content. Structurally, GL a triterpene saponin that is widely used as a flavoring agent in foodstuffs and cosmetics, and also proposed for various clinical applications with a myriad of health benefits. Pharmacological and biological activities of GL include antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer activities (in vitro and in vivo). Currently, there is no comprehensive review on GL biological effects and its action mechanisms.

PURPOSE: This review summarizes GL pharmacological actions from a molecular biology perception, presented on its metabolism and side effects based on in vitro, in vitro and clinical studies. Moreover, the potential of GL as a nanomedicine delivery system is also summarized. The progress in drug delivery research using GL presented herein is expected to provide a theoretical basis for developing other novel drugs formulations.

METHODS: A systematic review was carried out in several electronic databases (Science Direct, SpringerLink, CNKI, PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier, and Scopus), using the following key words: glycyrrhizin "AND" bioactivity "OR" clinic "OR" therapeutic "OR" drug delivery. This search included manuscripts published between 1989 and 2021.

RESULTS: 126 researches were selected and summarized in this review. The analysis of these studies indicated that GL has antiviral activity against different viruses. Further, GL efficiently suppressed the respiratory manifestations associated with COVID-19 by reducing the expression of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) that employed by the virus as an entry point. Otherwise, GL was found to induce antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immune-modulatory, and anticancer activity. Besides, diminution the particle size of GL to nanometer size significantly augments their action and biodistribution.

CONCLUSION: This article summarizes the pharmacological actions of GL. The potential of GL as a nanomedicine delivery system is also presented. Nevertheless, most studies reported provide no deep insight of GL health effects warranting for more future studies to elucidate its action mechanism and potential therapeutic benefits through preclinical and clinical trials.

Overpopulation and lack of resources have become serious problems in recent years. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find renewable sources of food to confront this problem. Aquaculture is an inexpensive and important source of protein, as aquaculture have increased significantly, especially during the past two decades. The wastewater produced from those farms includes many harmful elements such as ammonia (NH3), organic matter (OM), phosphorous(P) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). So, it has become necessary to find an appropriate method to treat the wastewater produced from those farms. There are many ways to treat wastewater from fish farms, including physical, chemical or biological methods. Biological treatment is one of the best methods used in wastewater treatment from aquaculture, as it is environmentally friendly and less expensive than other methods. The biofiltration process depends on the use of microorganisms that convert ammonium (NH4+) to nitrite (NO2-) and then to nitrate (NO3-), and this is done using a Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RASs). The main component of the biofilter is the filter media, which can be compost, wood chips, beads, other organic or inorganic materials. There are many types of microorganisms used to treat wastewater like Microalgae, bacteria, fungi, yeast. The choice of the type of microorganism used depends on the chemical nature of the pollutants.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection is a major risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The RECK gene is a critical tumor suppressor gene. This study aimed to assess the association between RECK gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the development of HCC in Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis B.

PATIENTS AND METHOD: In this case-control study, we enrolled patients with CHB from the Gastroenterology Department, Benha University, from June 2016 to February 2018. The RECK gene SNP rs10814325 was identified using real-time PCR allelic discrimination via TaqMan SNP genotyping assays (Applied Biosystems, USA).

RESULTS: We enrolled 140 participants in this study. The participants were divided into Group I, which comprised 50 participants with CHB only, Group II, which comprised 50 participants with CHB and HCC, and Group III, which comprised 40 healthy participants. A significantly higher hepatitis B virus DNA viremia level was found in patients with HCC. The predominant RECK genotype was the T/T allele, followed by the T/C allele; however, no significant difference in the distribution of RECK gene SNPs was found between the study groups. No statistically significant difference in RECK gene SNPs was reported among patients with HCC of different Child classes or based on the number, site, size of HCC, and lymph node involvement. Receiver operating characteristic curves showed that a serum alpha-fetoprotein level of 92 ng/ml was 96 % sensitive and 100 % specific for the detection of HCC, with an area under the operating characteristic curve of 0.98.

CONCLUSION: RECK gene SNPs have no significant association with the development and characteristics of hepatitis B-related HCC in Egyptian patients.