In December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) that began in China had infected so far more than 109,217,366 million individuals worldwide and accounted for more than 2,413,912 fatalities. With the dawn of this novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), there was a requirement to select potential therapies that might effectively kill the virus, accelerate the recovery, or decrease the case fatality rate. Besides the currently available antiviral medications for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), the chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine (CQ/HCQ) regimen with or without azithromycin has been repurposed in China and was recommended by the National Health Commission, China in mid-February 2020. By this time, the selection of this regimen was based on its efficacy against the previous SARS-CoV-1 virus and its potential to inhibit viral replication of the SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. There was a shortage of robust clinical proof about the effectiveness of this regimen against the novel SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, extensive research effort has been made by several researchers worldwide to investigate whether this regimen is safe and effective for the management of COVID-19. In this review, we provided a comprehensive overview of the CQ/HCQ regimen, summarizing data from in vitro studies and clinical trials for the protection against or the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Despite the initial promising results from the in vitro studies and the widespread use of CQ/HCQ in clinical settings during the 1st wave of COVID-19, current data from well-designed randomized controlled trials showed no evidence of benefit from CQ/HCQ supplementation for the treatment or prophylaxis against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Particularly, the two largest randomized controlled trials to date (RECOVERY and WHO SOLIDARITY trials), both confirmed that CQ/HCQ regimen does not provide any clinical benefit for COVID-19 patients. Therefore, we do not recommend the use of this regimen in COVID-19 patients outside the context of clinical trials.

Background and objectives: Blood screening is considered a compulsory procedure in health care services to reduce the occurrence of transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs). This study estimated the distribution rates of ABO and Rh blood group systems, prevalence rates of TTIs among blood donors and their association with the ABO blood group and Rh system. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at the national blood bank, Amman, Jordan for a period of 6 years (from January 2013 to December 2018). For TTIs analysis, about 5 mL blood sample was collected from each volunteer. A total of 365,029 persons (346,048 (94.8%) males and 18,981 (5.2%) females) donated their blood at the national blood bank, Amman, Jordan from January 2013 to December 2018. Results: The results revealed that O and A were the most prevalent blood groups (37.44% and 36.82%, respectively), followed by B (18.62%) and AB (7.12%). The distribution of Rh + ve and Rh − ve among blood donors showed that Rh + ve donors were more prevalent (88.73%) compared with Rh − ve (11.27%). HBsAg was the most prevalent viral infection (0.38%) followed by HCV (0.13%), syphilis (0.02%), HIV (0.006%) and the male donors were highly infected when compared with female donors. The association between ABO/Rh blood groups and TTIs infections was nonsignificant. Conclusions: In conclusion, low frequency rates of TTIs among blood donors were detected in the current study, but improvements are still continuously required. Low percentages of female donors need to be managed via conducting health cultural education programs.

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Eurycoma longifolia Jack has been widely used in traditional medicine for its antimalarial, aphrodisiac, anti-diabetic, antimicrobial and anti-pyretic activities. Its anticancer activity has also been recently reported on different solid tumors, however no anti-leukemic activity of this plant has been reported. Thus the present study assesses the in vitro and in vivo anti-proliferative and apoptotic potentials of E. longifolia on K-562 leukemic cell line. The K-562 cells (purchased from ATCC) were isolated from patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) were treated with the various fractions (TAF273, F3 and F4) of E. longifolia root methanolic extract at various concentrations and time intervals and the anti-proliferative activity assessed by MTS assay. Flow cytometry was used to assess the apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. Nude mice injected subcutaneously with 107 K-562 cells were used to study the anti-leukemic activity of TAF273 in vivo. TAF273, F3 and F4 showed various degrees of growth inhibition with IC50 values of 19, 55 and 62 µg/ml, respectively. TAF273 induced apoptosis in a dose and time dependent manner. TAF273 arrested cell cycle at G1and S phases. Intraperitoneal administration of TAF273 (50 mg/kg) resulted in a significant growth inhibition of subcutaneous tumor in TAF273-treated mice compared with the control mice (P = 0.024). TAF273 shows potent anti-proliferative activity in vitro and in vivo models of CML and therefore, justifies further efforts to define more clearly the potential benefits of using TAF273 as a novel therapeutic strategy for CML management.

In December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) that began in China had infected more than 56 million individuals worldwide and accounted for more than 1.344.000 fatalities. With the dawn of this novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), there was a requirement to select potential therapies that might effectively kill the virus, accelerate the recovery, or decrease the case fatality rate. Besides the currently available antiviral medications for HIV and HCV, the chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine (CQ/HCQ) regimen with or without azithromycin has been repurposed in China and was recommended by the National Health Commission, China in mid-February 2020. By this time, the selection of this regimen was based on its efficacy against the previous SARS-CoV-1 virus and its potential to inhibit viral replication of the SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. There was a shortage of robust clinical proof about the effectiveness of this regimen against the novel SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, extensive research effort has been made by several researchers worldwide to investigate whether this regimen is safe and effective for the management of COVID-19. This review article provides a comprehensive overview of the CQ/HCQ regimen. It summarizes the evaluating data from in vitro studies and clinical studies either for the protection or the treatment against SARS-CoV-2. There is a sharp difference of opinion about the role of CQ/HCQ regimen in treatment of COVID-19. The literature data are controversial and contradictory due to the diverse study design, population selection, dosage, regimen, and outcome measures. Current evidence from the two largest randomized-controlled trials (recovery and solidarity) suggests that the HCQ regimen does not decrease COVID-19 patients’ mortality. However, conflicting data were published from observational studies showing that the drug might be sufficient. Therefore, more investigations are needed to emphasize these findings.

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