Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has claimed thousands of lives worldwide. To enhance knowledge and awareness of COVID-19, considerable online resources have been made available, including aspects related to the dental profession. The study aim was to examine the knowledge, perception, and attitude of dental professionals in Indonesia toward COVID-19. We conducted a survey via a questionnaire created using Google docs and distributed to 632 members of the Indonesian Dental Association in the context of a webinar hosted by the Indonesian Oral Biology Association on first June, 2020. Materials and Methods: The questionnaire consisted of 17 items pertaining to demographic data, knowledge and virus identification, awareness regarding drugs commonly used in dentistry during pandemic and research opportunities. Participants were asked to complete the questionnaire after the webinar by choosing one answer to each question. For the analysis, participants were divided into three groups according to their professional background i.e., employment at national hospital, private hospital, or academic faculty. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and expressed as frequencies and percentages. The chi-square test was used to investigate the association between professional activity and the level of knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes about COVID-19. Results: Sixty percent of the participants correctly identified the pathogenesis of the disease. This knowledge was not associated with their professional affiliation ( p = 0.95). Sixty-seven percentage had comprehensive knowledge about virus detection methods. This knowledge was not associated with their affiliation either ( p = 0.54). Questions regarding drugs of choice, prevention, and the spread of COVID-19 were correctly answered by 89, 96, and 82% of the participants, respectively. Knowledge of these aspects were significantly associated with the professional affiliation ( p < 0.05). All respondents were optimistic regarding research opportunities ( p < 0.01). Respondents from academics were more interested in joining COVID-19-related research projects with governmental institutions ( p < 0.01). Conclusion: Knowledge and awareness of COVID-19 among Indonesian dentists are reasonably good. However, further improvement would be beneficial to manage patients during this pandemic. As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Indonesia, it is important that dentists keep abreast of the updated knowledge on this moving field. Dentist knowledge on infection control should be strengthened through continuous educational programs.

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BACKGROUND: Bromelain is a sulfhydryl proteolytic enzyme that can hydrolyze protein, protease or peptide. Bromelain can be found in pineapple stem, fruit and core. Bromelain is composed of 212 amino acid residues with cysteine-25 forming a polypeptide chain that can hydrolyze peptide bonds by H2O. In medicine, bromelain has been developed as antibiotic, cancer drug, anti-inflammatory agent and immunomodulator. In dentistry, bromelain has potential to reduce plaque formation on the teeth and to irrigate root canal.METHODS: Pineapple core was dried for 3 days to get simplicia. Then simplicia was extracted with water solvent for 24 hours. After that, the macerated-pineapple core crude extract-derived bromelain (PCB) was separated by Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) followed by Coomassie Brilliant Blue (CBB) staining to ensure the presence of bromelain. In cytotoxic test, NIH-3T3 fibroblast cultures were treated with extracts in various concentrations to for 24 or 48 hours. Number of fibroblasts was calculated using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2- yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.RESULTS: Pineapple core extraction using maceration method produced relative high yield (concentration: 1.5424 g/mL) of bromelain, which was confirmed by CBB staining results with the molecular weight of 33 kDa. Based on cytotoxic test results of PCB on NIH-3T3 fibroblasts, 24-hours-incubation LD50 was 95.7 g/L, while 48-hours-incubation LD50 was 51.1 g/L.CONCLUSION: PCB has low cytotoxic effect in NIH-3T3 fibroblasts.KEYWORDS: bromelain, pineapple, extract, cytotoxic, MTT

B ACKGROUND:Dental pulp stem cell (DPSC) and periodontal ligament stem cell (PDLSC) have been suggested as valuable seed cells for bone engineering, suggesting that both stem cells are potential osteogenic sources. Since DPSC and PDLSC seem like to have similar potential in bone formation, we conducted a study to compare morphology, immunophenotype and cell growth of DPSC and PDLSC isolated from the same teeth. METHODS:Human dental pulps and periodontal ligaments were obtained from freshly extracted partial impacted third molar teeth. Collected samples were digested with type I collagenase. Resulted cell suspension was washed and cultured. For biomarker identification, the cells were fixed and bound with anti-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-cluster of differentiation (CD)117 antibody. For cell growth quantification, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used.Meanwhile for osteogenic differentiation, the cells were cultured in osteogenic medium for 1-3 weeks, fixed and stained with alizarin red. RESULTS:Morphology of dental pulps cell (DPC) and periodontal ligament cell (PDLC) in passage 5 was similar. Clear CD117 green fluorescence of DPC and PDLC in passage 5 was observed. Cell growth rate of PDLC was higher than the one of DPC, 0.3858 and 0.3848 respectively. DPC formed bone nodule on the third week culture in osteogenic medium, while PDLC showed bone nodule formation on the second week culture. CONCLUSION:We suggest that DPC and PDLC are potential seed cells for osteogenic regeneration, since they had cell growth capacity and osteogenic differentiation, particularly PDLC that had faster osteogenic differentiation.