COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance among Healthcare Staff in Sudan, 2021.

Elderly and patients with comorbid conditions have higher risk of infection and complications. Vaccination hesitancy is defined as the refusal of vaccine or the delay in accepting it despite the availability of vaccines and vaccination services. This study was aimed at assessing knowledge, perception, and acceptability of healthcare staff towards different types of COVID-19 vaccination. A multicenter hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study was implemented to study the knowledge, perception, and acceptability of healthcare staff towards COVID-19 vaccination. Multistage sampling technique was applied. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire filled by the participants. 400 participants were studied. 61% of the participants were females, and the most frequent age reported was between 18 and 35 years (67%). A statistically significant association (p = 0.048) was found between knowledge about vaccination and professions. The most common vaccine type known and accepted was AstraZeneca vaccine. On assessing acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination, acceptance rate was high (63.8%) and 22.7% of the participants had already got vaccinated. The rejection rate among our staff was 27.4%. This study was conducted in April, 2021. Majority of our healthcare staff believed that vaccination is the key to combat the pandemic. One of the issues and concerns about vaccination was the safety and the risk of developing acute adverse events (p = 0.001). Encouraging factor for vaccination was the fear of getting infection themselves and their families. The present study revealed the presence of good knowledge and acceptability among medical staff towards COVID-19 vaccinations in Sudan.

The anti-oncogenic influence of ellagic acid on colon cancer cells in leptin-enriched microenvironment.

Ellagic acid (EA) has been proposed as a promising candidate for therapeutic use in colon cancer. Investigation of the effectiveness of EA in a leptin-enriched model might have been given a little interest. Here in, we investigated the anti-tumor effect of EA in the presence of leptin to reflect on therapeutic use of EA in obesity-linked colon cancer. Proven effective in leptin-enriched microenvironment, EA inhibited cell proliferation of HCT-116 and CaCo-2 cell lines, modulated cell cycle, translocated Bax to the mitochondrial fraction of cells, activated caspase-8, and reduced PCNA expression. The current study findings cast a beam of light on the potential therapeutic use of EA in obesity-related colon carcinogenesis.

Expression of matrix metalloproteinase-13 and Ki-67 in nonmelanoma skin cancer in xeroderma pigmentosum and non-xeroderma pigmentosum.

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a heterogenous group of genetic diseases in which basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) followed by squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-13 and Ki-67 in SCC and BCC from patients with and without XP to elucidate their roles in the pathogenesis of these highly aggressive tumors in patients with XP. Immunolabeling using MMP-13 and Ki-67 antibodies was performed on tissue sections derived from skin biopsies of SCC and BCC of 15 patients with XP and 40 non-XP patients. There was no significant difference between XP and non-XP patients as regards MMP-13 expression by epithelial and stromal cells of SCC or BCC. Ki-67 expression in SCC and BCC of patients with XP was significantly higher than in non-XP patients. We concluded that the higher expression of Ki-67 in NMSC of patients with XP than of non-XP patients may reflect the growth and invasive capacity of these tumors in patients with XP. MMP-13 is expressed by tumor epithelial cells, stromal and inflammatory cells of NMSC of both XP and non-XP patients.