Background: Immunodeficiency, centromeric instability and facial dysmorphism (ICF) syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive immune disorder presenting with hypogammaglobulinemia, developmental delay, and facial anomalies. The ICF type 1, type 2, type 3 and type 4 are characterized by mutations in DNMT3B, ZBTB24, CDCA7 or HELLS gene, respectively. This study aimed to present a comprehensive description of the clinical, immunologic and genetic features of patients with ICF syndrome.Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched systemically to find eligible studies.Results: Forty-eight studies with 118 ICF patients who met the inclusion criteria were included in our study. Among these patients, 60% reported with ICF-1, 30% with ICF-2, 4% with ICF-3, and 6% with ICF-4. The four most common symptoms reported in patients with ICF syndrome were: delay in motor development, low birth weight, chronic infections, and diarrhea. Intellectual disability and preterm birth among patients with ICF-2 and failure to thrive, sepsis and fungal infections among patients with ICF-1 were also more frequent. Moreover, the median levels of all three immunoglobulins (IgA, IgG, IgM) were markedly reduced within four types of ICF syndrome.Conclusion: The frequency of diagnosed patients with ICF syndrome has increased. Early diagnosis of ICF is important since immunoglobulin supplementation or allogeneic stem cell transplantation can improve the disease-free survival rate.

Background: The objectives of this study were to determine for the first time, in Morocco, the nasal carriage rate, antimicrobial susceptibility profiles and virulence genes of Staphylococcus. aureus isolated from animals and breeders in close contact. Methods: From 2015 to 2016, 421 nasal swab samples were collected from 26 different livestock areas in Tangier. Antimicrobial susceptibility phenotypes were determined by disk diffusion according to EUCAST 2015. The presence of nuc, mecA, mecC, lukS/F-PV, and tst genes were determined by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for all isolates. Results: The overall S. aureus nasal carriage rate was low in animals (9.97%) and high in breeders (60%) with a statistically significant difference, (OR = 13.536; 95% CI = 7.070–25.912; p < 0.001). In general, S. aureus strains were susceptible to the majority of antibiotics and the highest resistance rates were found against tetracycline (16.7% in animals and 10% in breeders). No Methicillin-Resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was detected in animals and breeders. A high rate of tst and lukS/F-PV genes has been recovered only from animals (11.9 and 16.7%, respectively). Conclusion: Despite the lower rate of nasal carriage of S. aureus and the absence of MRSA strains in our study, S. aureus strains harbored a higher frequency of tst and lukS/F-PV virulence genes, which is associated to an increased risk of infection dissemination in humans. This highlights the need for further larger and multi-center studies to better define the transmission of the pathogenic S. aureus between livestock, environment, and humans.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease with a high female predominance. To date, studies about SLE in Morocco are few. This retrospective study describes the clinical and immunological features in a series of 50 SLE Moroccan patients in University Hospital Center of Rabat, Morocco, between December 2011 and December 2013. All patients were screened for antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and anti-DNA antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence, followed by identification of anti-extractable nuclear antigen antibodies by ELISA. The female to male ratio was 6.1:1. Mean age was 31.72 years. The main clinical manifestations were arthritis (82%), mucocutaneous manifestations (80%), renal manifestations (50%), and hematological features (46%). Of the mucocutaneous features, the highest frequencies were observed in the malar rash (68%) and photosensitivity (60%). Of the hematological features, lymphopenia was most frequently observed in 30% of patients, followed by hemolytic anemia in 16% and leucopenia and thrombocytopenia in 8%. Central nervous system was involved in 10%. ANA were found in 88%, anti-DNA antibodies in 56%, and anti-Sm antibodies in 50%. Anti-SSA, anti-SSB, anti-Sm/RNP, and anti-Scl70 antibodies were detected in 38%, 10%, 48%, and 8%, respectively. Our data show that, in our patients, the main clinical and immunological features of SLE remain comparable to patients from other Arab countries.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune inflammatory disease characterized by an unknown etiology and a highly variable clinical presentation. This clinical heterogeneity might be explained by dysregulation of tolerance to self and apoptotic mechanisms, overproduction of autoantibodies, and abnormal cytokine levels. Cytokine imbalance levels have been associated with disease activity and severity in SLE patients. In the last years, salivary cytokines related to SLE have gained significant attention and researchers have begun to focus on the identification of cytokines in the saliva of SLE patients using it as a diagnostic fluid for the inflammatory process underlying SLE. This review highlights and summarizes recent studies revealing the cytokines that have been identified in the saliva of individuals with SLE. Data reported and discussed in this report may provide useful additional information to better understand the mechanisms associated with the disease.