Abstract— Cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow out of control and spread to other body parts. cancer is an ongoing global challenge. It is a leading cause of disease worldwide. Most cancer deaths each year are related to lung, colorectal, stomach, and breast cancers. Detection of disease in early stages, enabling more effective treatment and reducing morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of different types of cancers in Libya. Methods: A retrospective study was carried out, the data was collected by visiting the Oncology Centre in Misrata, reviewing the records, and recording data on the prevalence of different types of tumours from 2018 to 2022. Results: The number of cases rises every year, the overall number of cancer cases is rising annually: 1198 cases were reported in 2018, 1143 cases in 2019, 1422 cases in 2020, 1533 cases in 2021, and 1640 cases in 2022. The breast cancer was the most prevalent type of cancer during the period 2018-2022, the following results were recorded 21.45%, 20.9%, 22.6% 24.9% and 23.7% respectively. Followed by colon cancer was recorded at 16.4%, 15.7%, 17.2%, 18.4% and 15.6 respectively, followed by lung cancer was recorded at 7.8%, 7.9%, 10.6%, 8% and 9%. the fourth to ten grades are often confined between lymphoma, ovary, prostate, leukemia, pancreas, sarcoma and brain tumor. According to our results, we concluded that there is a clear increase in the number of cases of various types of cancer in Libya every year. Early detection is the first line of defence against this dangerous disease. People need to be sensitised to regular check-ups. The government should provide the requirements for detection and treatment.

Keywords— Breast cancer, Colon cancer, Lung cancer, Lymphoma, Ovary cancer, Prostate cancer, Leukemia, Pancreas cancer, Sarcoma and Brain tumor, Prevalence of cancer in Libya.

ABSTRACT

Diagnostic radiation such as X-rays and CT scans play a central role in the diagnosis of diseases. Excessive radiation exposure poses a high risk for healthcare providers as well as patients, which may cause serious diseases such as cancer. Providing protection requirements in the radiation departments and continuous inspection to prevent radiation leakage is the right way to provide human protection. The current study aimed to evaluate the safety rate in the diagnostic radiology departments in Alkhoms City. The questionnaire designed for the study in Arabic language, presented to experts for verification and review, then distributed to eleven medical centres in the Alkhoms region containing many relevant questions regarding the radiology department such as the name and address of a medical centre, in-formation about users and safety. Lead plates are present in 91% of health centres 36% of health centres installed lead plates for 1-5 years, 27% for 6-10 years, and 36% for 21 years or more. Lead plates are inspected once in 27%, three times in 9%, and four times or more in 9% of medical centres, on the other hand, 56% of medical centres didn’t inspect lead plates since installed. The lead plates last examined in 27% of medical centres a year ago, in 9% examined less than five years ago, and in 9% examined less than twenty years ago. On the other hand, 56% of medical centres have not performed any check-ups since installation. Protection glass and lead plates are present in 82% of medical centres, a radiation protection gown is present in 36%, and a dosimeter is present in 9% of medical centres only. Only 18% of health centres have organised a training programme for their radiology department staff. The safety rate in radiology departments in Alkhoms City- Libya is low because most medical centres lack protective equipment, and if they do, there is no regular inspection or testing of this equipment.

Key words: X-rays, Radiation, CT, Risk of radiation, Dosimeter.

ABSTRACT Errors in handwritten prescriptions are a major factor in medical errors and are the main cause of harm to patients due to the lack of clarity of the prescription or the lack of correct data, which leads to the prescription of the wrong medication, causing adverse events. The present study aimed to identify the common errors in handwriting prescriptions in Zliten City. To collect information about errors in handwritten prescriptions, we used two models: first, we distributed fifty-one questionnaires to fifty-one pharmacies distributed in all areas of Zliten city, and second, we collected one hundred and fifty prescriptions from different health facilities distributed in different areas within Zliten city. The questionnaires and prescriptions then analysed to identify medical errors. In the first model of the questionnaire, the results are as follows: the patient's name and age are often present, while the gender, doctor's name, and stamp are often absent. The main issue lies in the clarity of the font for the drug's name, dose, and dosage form. In the second model of the prescriptions, the results are as follows: the patient's name is mostly present, while gender and diagnosis are absent in about 40% of the prescriptions, the doctor's name is mostly absent, and only 2% of the prescriptions have the doctor's stamp and number in the syndicate, and the main issue lies in the clarity of the font for the drug's name, dose, and dosage form., as it is unclear in between 20-30% of the prescriptions. We found that the patient's information is present in most prescriptions the opposite of the questionnaire in which it is less. Also in the prescriber's information, the analysis in our result for prescription contradicted the questionnaires, as most prescribers in the questionnaire are present, we also found that during the analysis of drug information in prescription not clear more than in the questionnaire. From this research, we concluded that there are many errors in prescriptions, possibly because of the large number of cases that need to be seen by the doctor and the speed of writing, and perhaps because doctors forget the vocabulary of the names of medicines. Because of the many errors in handwritten prescriptions, we must immediately switch to computerized prescription writing.

Keywords. Medical Prescription, Medical Errors, Prescription Errors.

Abstract:

Background: Oxidative stress is a key factor in the neurodegenerative disorder. Free radicals may play an important role. Nitric oxide may be implicated in neurotoxicity by a reaction with superoxide, which forms a highly toxic peroxynitrite radical.

Aim: This research aimed to investigate the role of nitric oxide in neuronal damage through Immunohistochemical study.

Material and method: The experiment was divided into 9 groups, each group containing 6 rats selected randomly. Group 1: control normal saline. Group 2: Aβ(1-42). Group 3: L-arginine. Group 4: L-NAME. Group 5: 7-nitroindazole Group 6: donepezil. Group 7: donepezil+ L-arginine. Group 8: donepezil+ L-NAME. Group 9: donepezil+7-nitroindazole. Neurotoxicity was induced by injection of Aβ(1-42) into the rat entorhinal cortex of all animals except the control normal saline group. After the end of the experiment brain was removed quickly for histopathological study.

Results: Aβ(1-42) significantly elevated COX-2 level when compared with control. when compared with Aβ treated rats, L-arginine, L-NAME, 7-nitroindazole and donepezil separately did not improve the changes in COX-2 level. The combination of donepezil with 7-NI is back to normal.

Conclusion: we concluded that NO plays a central role in neurotoxicity and the regulation of NO level is the key to stability and prevention of neurodegenerative disorder.

Keywords: Oxidative stress, Neuroinflammation, Beta amyloid, L- NAME, Donepezil, L-arginine, Nitric oxide, 7-nitroindazole.

Abstract :

Antibody tests can identify people with a resolving or past severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection and thereby help researchers and public health experts better understand the epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. This study is a retrospective study that included 187 Libyan individuals, who attended Attshkhesy (the diagnostic) laboratory in Alkhoms City, Libya, between January 01, 2021, and August 28, 2021. The mean ages of males and females were 48.8 and 46.8, respectively. The study utilized the CLIA quantitative antibody test. To perform the CLIA quantitative antibody test, a high throughput assay apparatus known as the YHLO - iFlash 1800 Chemiluminescence Immunoassay Analyzer was utilized, along with assay reagents called iFlash-SARS-CoV-2 IgM/IgG (manufactured by YHLO Biotech, Shenzhen, China). In female subjects, the concentration of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 IgM was higher than that of IgG in all age groups. Interestingly, in male subjects, the results showed the opposite, where the concentration of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 IgG was much higher than that of IgM in all age groups. When male data were plotted against the female data, the concentration of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 IgM in females was much higher than that of IgM in males in all age groups. Merged IgM-male and IgM-female results showed that IgM concentrations were higher in females than males at all age groups, which means that the incidence of recent COVID-19 infection was higher in females than in males. On the other hand, the IgG antibody prevalence in females was always higher than in males except at age groups 41-50 years and 51-60 years, which can be used as an indicator of high acquired immunity among females due to possible reinfection of females with COVID-19 virus.

Abstract

Objective: The manual counting of gram stained bacteria examined under a microscope becomes difficult when a large number of bacterial cells exist in a microscopic field. The present study was aimed to ease this problem by applying ImageJ software to counting of gram stained bacteria.

Method: This experiment was conducted on Elmergib university, faculty of pharmacy laboratories (Al-Khoms city- Libya). In this study, a microscopic image of a gram stained bacterial cells captured using a student’s smartphone, treated and the bacterial cells were then easily and automatically counted using ImageJ.

Results: According to ImageJ reading, the total number of bacterial particles appeared in the field of a microscopic image were 332 cells.

Conclusion: Direct staining and visualization of organisms for counting can benefit greatly from the use of ImageJ software. This method is less expensive, less contamination and less laborious than other methods and is more rapid and reproducible than counting using manual microscopy methods.

Keywords: ImageJ, Bacterial cells, Automated cell counting

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: on the last decade in Libya, the oncology center in Misurata become the most

important cancer diagnosis and follow up center on the western region of Libya. The Libyan

society was worried about the increase of the percentage of tumor incidences among the Libyans

on the last few years. This study focuses on cancer prevalence in city of Misurata and the

surrounding area in central Libya from 2012 to 2016.

METHODS: A hospital-based registry of cancer patients was formed using records from oncology

center in Misurata, focusing on patients who were diagnosed between 2012 and 2016.

RESULTS: the incidence of tumor on females was higher than males from 2014 up to higher

deference on 2016, the most common malignancies in men were cancers of the lung on years from

2012 up to 2015 even though it decrease to 18% of males patients on 2016, followed by colon, its

prevalence rate ranged from 14% to 18% of recorded male patients (For women, they were found

to be cancers of the breast ranged from 29.84% on 2012 and raised to 43.08%. Additionally, agestandardized

rates (ASR) were determined for recording patients who leaved on the city of

Misurata and compared with published record from the other countries. The incidence rates given

for the city of Misurata can be considered with the counties with low malignancy rate

CONCLUSION: Proper surveillance programs need to be in place and healthcare policy should be

adjusted to consider the more prevalent and pressing cancers in society.

Key words : Misurata cancer center, breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, Libya

ABSTRACT

Fat cadherins comprise the largest of all known members of cadherin superfamily. They are present

in all multicellular organisms and retain a high degree of structural conservation. In Drosophila

there are two Fat genes: Fat and Fat-like, whilst in vertebrates there are four members called Fat1,

Fat2, Fat3 and Fat4. Our lab group focused on the use of various biochemical methods to analyse

expression of the FAT1 protein. Because of the high molecular size of FAT1 protein our laboratory

has used affinity purification to prepare bespoke rabbit anti-FAT1 antibodies using FAT1 protein

prepared as GST fusions. five overlapping segments of the FAT1 cytoplasmic tail designated A, B,

C, D and E as GST-fusion proteins contained within pGEX plasmids were assigned in our lab.

According to their sequences and hosted rabbit name antibodies were named N34B, N35B and

N34E. To test the efficacy of each antibody preparation, two different techniques were undertaken,

first Western blotting and second immunofluorescent staining. By this analysis the

immunoreactivity of N34B, N35B and N34E compare favourably with the CTD-pAb. N34E

produced less than satisfactory results in this test with low signal to noise and these results are

omitted here. This staining pattern was largely consistent between N34B and N34E, but the signal

to background was a considerably high. According to that the use of the new B and E antibodies

was restricted to Western blotting where these reagents fulfilled the functional requirements.

Key words: Fat1, Fat1 antibodies, cadherins, western blot. Immunofluorescence staining

Abstract

The loss of cognitive function accompanying healthy aging is not associated with extensive or characteristic patterns of cell death, suggesting it is caused by more subtle changes in synaptic properties. In the hippocampal CA1 region, long-term potentiation requires stronger stimulation for induction in aged rats and mice and long-term depression becomes more prevalent. An age-dependent impairment of postsynaptic calcium homeostasis may underpin these effects. We have examined changes in presynaptic calcium signalling in aged mice using a transgenic mouse line (SyG37) that expresses a genetically encoded calcium sensor in presynaptic terminals. SyG37 mice showed an age-dependent decline in cognitive abilities in behavioural tasks that require hippocampal processing including the Barnes maze, T-maze and object location but not recognition tests. The incidence of LTP was significantly impaired in animals over 18 months of age. These effects of aging were accompanied by a persistent increase in resting presynaptic calcium, an increase in the presynaptic calcium signal following Schaffer collateral fibre stimulation, an increase in postsynaptic fEPSP slope and a reduction in paired-pulse facilitation. These effects were not caused by synapse proliferation and were of presynaptic origin since they were evident in single presynaptic boutons. Aged synapses behaved like younger ones when the extracellular calcium concentration was reduced. Raising extracellular calcium had little effect on aged synapses but altered the properties of young synapses into those of their aged counterparts. These effects can be readily explained by an age-dependent change in the properties or numbers of presynaptic calcium channels.

Neurodegenerative disorders results in inflammatory processes, including inflammatory cytokine secretion and concomitant superoxide production. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) influence neuro degeneration through anti-inflammatory effects. Donepezil as an AChEIs also provide neuro protection. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of donepezil (DZ) as a potent acetyl-cholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor, L-NG-Nitroarginine methyl ester (L.NAME) as non-selective nitric oxide synthase inhibitor and 7-nitroindazole (7-NI) as a selective neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor against Amyloid beta-peptide (1-42) (Aβ(1-42)) induced neurological disorder. Rats were divided into six groups including control, Aβ(1-42) ,Aβ(1-42) +L-arginine, Aβ(1-42) +L-NAME ,Aβ(1-42) +7-NI, and Aβ(1-42) +DZ. Brain AChE, malondialdehyde, nitric oxide, super oxidedismutase, catalase, reduced glutathione, interleukin 1-beta (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) were measured. Also, brain fatty acids fractions were estimated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Aβ(1-42) significantly alter levels of brain antioxidant, inflammatory markers and fatty acids content compared to the control group. Treatment with L.NAME, 7-NI and especially DZ improve these parameters. Administration of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors such as DZ attenuates neurodegenerative disorders through decreasing oxidation and inflammation.

Keywords: Neurotoxicity, Aβ (1-42), Donepezil, Nitric oxide, 7-nitroindazole, Fatty acids, HPLC