BACKGROUND: SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks remains a medical and economic challenge, due to the lack of a suitable drug or vaccine. The glycan in some proteins plays an important role in protein folding, sorting, transport, and oligomerization, so the hindering of N-linked glycosylation of glycoproteins will prevent assembly of the virion. Tunicamycin anticancer drug inhibits the N- linked glycan.
AIM: This study aimed to find out the mechanism action of tunicamycin on the viral glycoproteins.
RESULTS: The growth of the virus in the presence of tunicamycin conducted in the production of non-infectious and absence of spike protein (spikeless virions). Tunicamycin inhibits E2, S, and M glycoproteins of coronaviruses. Tunicamycin has also diminished glycosylation of PTMs such as HE, and 8ab of SARS-CoV. Finally,
CONCLUSION: This study recommends using this drug to treat the SARS-CoV-2.
Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a type of inflammatory condition that includes a group of symptoms, mainly affecting the nasal mucosa. Nasal obstruction, sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, in addition to swollen, itchy, red and watery eyes are the most common symptoms of the disease. These symptoms are triggered as a result of increased inflammatory mediators such as histamine and leukotrienes. Studies have recently shown the role of vitamin D (vit.D) in many allergic and immune conditions, where receptors for the active form of vit.D (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) have been discovered on the surface of almost all types of inflammatory cells. Therefore, the present study was conducted to explore the level of vit. D in AR patients and its correlation with the severity of the disease. Two groups participated in the study; the first group included 49 patients who were diagnosed in a private otolaryngology clinic by the first author as having allergic rhinitis (AR group). The second one served as a control group and included 50 apparently healthy volunteers with no history of AR. The mean level of IgE and vit. D was found to be 326.3 and 10.2 ng/ml in the AR group, respectively, and 30.8 and 23.3 ng/ml in the control group, respectively. Ninety-three percent of AR patients have shown a deficiency in vit. D level, where 56% of this group showed severe deficiency. On the other hand, 34% of the control group has shown an insufficient level of vit. D. Additionally, 64% of AR patients have shown serum levels of IgE at values ranging between 100-299 ng/ml. Higher serum levels of IgE at values ranging between 300-599 ng/ml and 600-1000 ng/ml were observed in 25% and 11% of AR patients, respectively. The prevalence of low levels of vit. D in the AR group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.001). Vit. D deficiency is significantly related to severe AR symptoms and measuring serum vit. D level is recommended in the management plan of this group of patients.
We carried out a prospective case series study in order to evaluate the laryngeal complications of the endotracheal tube. Two hundred patients aged 15 years and above who were subjected to endotracheal intubation for less than 5 hours were enrolled in the study. The data were collected from the Al-Salam Teaching Hospital in Mosul, Iraq. A preoperative assessment was accomplished clinically using 70º and/or 90º Hopkins rods or fiber optic laryngoscopy. As part of the assessment, the patients' voices were recorded as well. Five to seven days after the procedure, the same assessment was repeated and compared to the preoperative data. If the postoperative examination and the voices were similar to the preoperative data, no follow-up was performed. If any abnormality was found in the larynx, the examination was repeated once weekly for one month or until the voice was recovered. In our study, five patients (2.5%) had intubation-related laryngeal injuries. The intubation period, changes in the position of the head or body of the patient during anesthesia, and the difficulty of intubation raised the possibility of laryngeal injuries. In general, intubation is a safe procedure; however, a laryngeal injury may appear as a rare complication. We found that there is a relation between the intubation period, changing the position of the patient during intubation, and difficulty of intubation with the occurrence of laryngeal injury.
Background: Many pediatric patients present to the otolaryngologist with snoring and obstructive sleep apnea due to adenoid enlargement, which requires adenoidectomy. Due to the adenoid importance for immunity in early childhood, and the risks of anaesthesia and operative complications, an alternative medical treatment has been considered. Aim: To compare the effect of mometasone spray and montelukast, each alone or in combination on the symptoms and size of obstructive adenoid in children aged 3-13 years. Patients and Methods: A prospective randomized non-blinded study was conducted at Al-Jumhoori Teaching Hospital from August 2019 to November 2020. It included 95 patients (males 47, females 48) with nasal symptoms attributed to adenoid enlargement; they were randomly assigned to three groups; group (I) taking mometasone , group (II) taking montelukast , and group (III) taking both. Treatment continued for two months. Clinical scores were taken after two months of treatment, and then one month after cessation of treatment. Results: In group I there was improvement at three months of nasal obstruction and adenoid size. In group II there was improvement at three months of cough only. In group III there was improvement at three months of nasal obstruction, cough and adenoid size. Conclusions: There is significant improvement of adenoid size and symptom score with mometasone and montelukast, each alone or in combination. Mometasone has a better effect on adenoid size and symptoms than montelukast at two months, with less recurrence of adenoid size and symptoms one month after cessation of treatment. Combined therapy of mometasone and montelukast showed marginal improvement over mometasone alone at two months. At three months, there is no advantage of combined treatment over mometasone alone.
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