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The early detection and genotyping of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) are important in the management of this infection. The genotype is the major factor influencing treatment decisions. That's why it is necessary to use fast and accurate methods in its determination. This study reports, over a period of 3 years (from May 2012 to July 2015), the percentage of indeterminate genotypes by the Abbott RealTime HCV Genotype II test and their results using a sequencing technique. Of 309 samples of 309 patients tested, 11 were indeterminate (4.4%). There were three cases of cross-reactivity (1b/4 in one case, 2/5 in two cases) and a possible co-infection 1 + 4. Among those indeterminate genotypes, cross-reactivities and co-infections, ten samples were tested by sequencing. The results were for four of them a 1d subtype, five were a 2i subtype and one was a 2l subtype. These results support the thesis of complementarity between the two methods: genotyping for the detection of mixed reactions and sequencing for resolving indeterminate cases by genotyping., (© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global health problem. Several studies have implicated genetic host factors in predisposing populations to TB disease. In this study, we have selected NSMAF (Neutral Sphingomyelinase Activation Associated Factor) as a candidate gene to evaluate its level of association with TB disease in a Moroccan population for two reasons: first, this gene is located in a major susceptibility locus on chromosomal region 8q12-q13 in the Moroccan population, closely linked to the CYP7A1 gene, which was previously shown to be associated with TB disease; second, NSMAF has an important role in immune system function., Methods: We conducted a case-control study including 269 genomic DNA samples extracted from pulmonary TB (PTB) patients and healthy controls (HC). We genotyped three selected SNPs (rs2228505, rs36067275 and rs10505004) using TaqMan® allelic discrimination assays., Results: Only the rs1050504 C > T genotype was observed to be significantly associated with an increased risk for developing pulmonary TB (41.8% vs 27%, OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.16-3.27; p = 0.01). In contrast, the TT genotype was significantly associated with resistance to PTB (4.1% vs 15.6%, OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.08-0.63; p = 0.002)., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that genetic variations in the NSMAF gene could modulate the risk of PTB development in a Moroccan population. Further functional studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Background: Vitamin A plays numerous roles in immune system. Its deficiency alters both the innate and adaptive immunity. Previous results reported that the micronutrients deficiency, particularly vitamin A, is observed in patients with tuberculosis. Thus, we aimed in this study to assess vitamin A concentrations in Moroccan patients with tuberculosis to set up a large efficacy study of vitamin A supplementation for TB infected patients. Plasma retinol concentration was measured by HPLC in 44 recently diagnosed TB patients and 40 healthy controls., Results: We showed that plasma vitamin A is significantly lower in tuberculosis patients as compared to healthy controls (p < 0.0001). Moreover, no significant association was found between vitamin A deficiency and, TB severity and patients' ages., Conclusion: Our study confirms the association between low vitamin A levels and tuberculosis disease.

Introduction: Despite the medical progress in treatment. Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a serious global health problem. A genome-wide linkage study identified a major susceptibility locus on chromosomal region 8q12-q13 in Moroccan TB patients. The CYP7A1 gene is located in this region and codes for cholesterol 7a-hydroxylase, an enzyme involved in cholesterol catabolism., Methods: We selected three SNPs (rs3808607, rs8192875 and rs8192879) and studied their genotype and allele frequencies distribution in patients with pulmonary (PTB) or pleural TB (pTB), and compared them to Healthy Controls (HC). Genotyping of rs8192875 and rs8192879 SNPs was carried out using the Taq Man SNP genotyping Assay while rs3808607 was investigated by PCR-RFLP., Results: We reported here for the first time a statistically significant increase in the AA homozygote genotype frequency of rs3808607 in PTB patients compared to HC (p=0.02, OR=1.93, 95% CI: 1.93 (1.07;3.49). The increased risk of developing TB was maintained when we combined the groups of patients (PTB-pTB) (p=0.01, OR=1.91, 95% CI=(1.07-3.42). In contrast, no genetic association was observed between the rs8192875 or rs8192879 polymorphisms and TB., Conclusion: Our investigations suggest that rs3808607 may play a role in susceptibility to TB in a Moroccan population.