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Congenital anomalies are the cause of prenatal death in 20-25% of the cases, while 3% of children are born with a malformation of varying size. Many of these anomalies can be detected before birth using different non-invasive and invasive prenatal diagnostic tests. This study was used to determine the distribution of genetic disorders in relation to the age of the mother, the frequency of aberrations and to study the effects and importance of prenatal diagnosis in South Serbia. Prenatal diagnostics was performed at the Pediatric Clinic within the Clinical Center of Niš. This retrospective study included a group of 8830 pregnant women, aged between 18 and 47 years during the period from 2004 to 2017. Amniocentesis was performed between the 16 th and 18 th week of pregnancy and involved the aspiration of 20 ml of amniotic fluid. Isolated cells were cultured in a medium that stimulates cell growth for 10 days. After cytogenetic processing, the obtained karyotype was analyzed using G-banding techniques. In 8830 samples of amniotic fluid cell cultures, 198 karyotypes with chromosomal aberrations were found-179 with numerical aberrations and 19 with structural aberrations such as translocations, inversions and deletions. There were 85 karyotypes with autosomal numerical aberrations and 32 karyotypes with sex chromosome numerical aberrations. The most frequent one was trisomy 21 (106 cases). The highest number of autosomal numerical aberrations, 158

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Bone loss leading to osteopenia and osteoporosis is a frequent secondary complication of diabetes. This study aimed to evaluate the value of a traditionally used ‘anti-diabetic’ polyherbal mixture as a possible remedy for the prevention of this complication. Diabetes was induced in Wistar female rats with a single intraperitoneal injection of alloxan monohydrate. The animals with blood glucose higher than 20 mmol/L for 14 consecutive days were considered diabetic. For the next 14 days, animals were treated with two concentrations of the polyherbal mixture (10 and 20 g of dry plant material/ kg). Bone histopathology was evaluated using the H&E and Masson’s trichrome staining. Alloxan-induced diabetes triggered bone histological changes characteristic for the development of osteopenia and osteoporosis and treatment with the polyherbal decoction restored these histopathological changes of the bones to the healthy animal level. At the same time, treatment with these tested doses has shown no adverse effects. These findings suggest that this mixture might be used as a remedy for the prevention of diabetic bone loss.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide, with 1.1 million cases in 2018. KRAS and NRAS genes are some of the most important molecular biomarkers of CRC. That is why, before starting treatment with anti-epidermal growth factor therapy, patients with CRC are tested for the mutation in those genes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of NRAS gene mutations among patients with wild type (wt) KRAS colorectal cancer in Southern-Eastern Serbia. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sample tissues of 55 CRC patients with wt KRAS were investigated during the period from 2017 to 2019. Following DNA extraction, the samples were analysed for common mutations of exons 2 (codons 12 and 13), 3 (codon 61), and 4 (codon 117 and 146) of the NRAS gene using two diagnostic analyses: real-time PCR and NRAS StripAssay. Among these 55 cases of colorectal cancer with wt KRAS, there were 3 (5.4%) cases with mutant NRAS. One of these patients had mutations in codon 13 and the other two in codon 61. No mutation in codon 12 was found. Moreover, two out of three patients were men with CRC in the T3 stage of tumour infiltration and liver metastases. The third one was a woman with CRC in the T3 stage of tumour infiltration and lung metastases. Our results showed that the frequency of NRAS mutation in CRC is low, which is similar to other studies covering different geographic areas of the world.

Introduction: Despite the important role of general KRAS mutational status in the selection of an adequate therapeutic protocol in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), studies that focus on its specific mutations and their significance on progression of disease are scarce. This study aimed to determine the significance of specific KRAS mutations in response to standard chemotherapy protocols with oxaliplatin-based (FOLFOX 4, OXFL) in the first-line and irinotecan-based chemotherapy (FOLFIRI, IFL) in the second-line therapy, and to evaluate the correlation between these mutations and clinicopathological characteristics of CRC patients. Methods: Genomic DNA was extracted from the FFPE tumour tissue sections while the KRAS mutation test was performed by using PCR methods. Results: Prevalence of KRAS gene mutations in CRC patients was 45%. Mutated KRAS was more frequent in later stages of tumor infiltrations (P =0.0017), on the right side of the colon (P= 0.0044), and in patients who developed metastases in the first 6 months after CRC diagnosis than in patients who developed metastases after 24 months (P=0.0083). In a group of patients with a poor therapeutic response to standard chemotherapy the most frequent mutations in KRAS gene were G12D and G12V (63.88%), while in a group of patients with a good response to therapeutic protocols the most prevalent mutation was G12A (66.66%). Conclusion: Our results indicate that there was a significant difference in biological behaviour between tumours harboring different mutations in KRAS gene. Overall, mutation G12A could be a novel prognostic biomarker for CRC patients treated with standard chemotherapy.

The use of ethnopharmacological therapies is a part of human tradition. For centuries, they have been used in the treatment of diabetes, as well as other illnesses. The aim of this study was to examine the frequency of traditional medicine use in Serbia. The study was conducted as an online survey in February 2018. 130 people were surveyed, 55.38 % of which were people diagnosed with diabetes. The most commonly used herbal substituents were M. piperita L. (21 %), traditional herbal mixtures designed to regulate the primary and secondary diabetes complications (15%), M. chamomilla L. (13 %) and pharmaceutical supplements based on traditional recipes (10 %). 100 % of people with diabetes adhere to contemporary pharmacotherapy, while 25.86 % of people without diabetes do not use pharmacotherapy, but exclusively traditional medicine. There is no significant difference between the diabetic population that uses traditional medicine (51.34 %) and the one who does not (48.61 %), whereas in non-diabetic population the difference is significant (p < 0.05) so that 87.93 % of them regularly use medicinal herbs. More women than men use ethnopharmacological treatments (p < 0.05). The age of the respondents and their education also have an impact on the choice of therapy, so ethnopharmacological approaches are the most often used by faculty educated people aged 30 to 50 years. Moreover, people pay attention to the quality of supplements they use, i.e. 57.96 % of people buy them in pharmacies, 29.55 % with certified sellers, and only 12.49 % at the local market.