AMM 2021, Volume 67, Number 1 | Acta Medica Marisiensis

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational process of Dental Medicine Department students in Oradea University during the lockdown period

Gabriela Ciavoi¹, Catalina Farcasiu², Edwin Sever Bechir³, Magdalena Natalia Dina², Titus Alexandru Farcasiu², Daniela Ioana Tarlungeanu², Oana Cella Andrei²

1. University of Oradea, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Oradea, Romania
2. “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucuresti, Romania
3. George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Targu Mures, Faculty of Medicine, Targu Mures,
Romania

DOI: 10.2478/amma-2021-0006

Aim: This cross-sectional study assesses the opinions regarding the abrupt change in dental health education of students from the Department of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Oradea University during the lockdown period.
Materials and methods: An on-line survey was distributed, from 30th of April 2020 until the 2nd of May 2020, collecting data about gender, nationality, year of study, sources of information about the virus, measures taken to avoid contamination, rating online teaching versus face-to face teaching, experiencing anxiety about the future of the profession, perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their life and professional future and possible measures that can be implemented in order to avoid or reduce contamination. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS and Chi-Square test.
Results and discussions: Reopening was associated with anxiety concerning the future of the profession for 44.8% of the respondents; almost half of the students experienced anxiety caused by the possibility of being infected in case of reopening (49.7%), while 62.6% were afraid of the possibility to infect their family, peers or patients. From the total number of students, 12.9% were considering changing their profession. A quarter of respondents (25.2%) declared that they will wait for a decrease in number of cases in order to reevaluate their professional career options.
Conclusions: Government provided data was preferred by the female respondents’ group, versus the men respondents’ group who preferred the information provided by the WHO. The highest percentage of respondents that considered professional psychological support from university during the lockdown period useful were in the first 4 years of study. Most of the foreign students preferred to open their own dental office, while most of the Romanian students opted for being an employee in a big Dental Clinic or for reevaluating their options at a later point.

Protein level alteration of endocannabinoid system components after chronic, oral self-administration of three atypical antipsychotics in rat

László-István Bába¹, Melinda Kolcsár¹, Zsolt Gáll¹, László Csaba Bencze², Adrian Man³, Imre Zoltán Kun⁴

1. Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy, George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Targu Mures, Romania
2. Biocatalysis and Biotransformation Research Center, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
3. Department of Microbiology, George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Targu Mures, Romania
4. Doctoral School, George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Targu Mures, Romania

DOI: 10.2478/amma-2021-0008

Objective: Atypical antipsychotics (AAPs) often cause metabolic adverse effects (mAE) such as weight gain and dyslipidemia. The mechanisms underlying AAP induced mAE are not fully elucidated. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a key system in the regulation of energy metabolism that may be involved in AAPs induced mAE. In this experiment, we studied the expression of three major components of ECS: cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1), fatty acid amidohydrolase (FAAH) and monoacyl glycerol lipase (MAGL) after chronic administration in rat of three AAPs: olanzapine (Ola), aripiprazole (Ari) and cariprazine (Car).
Methods: Drugs were self-administered orally, in two doses by female, adult Wistar white rats (n=6 per treatment group) for six weeks. After the treatment period, the animals were sacrificed and visceral (perirenal) white fat pads were collected. The fat tissue samples were homogenized and the expression level of CB1, FAAH and MAGL were compared by western-blot analysis.
Results: An increase of CB1 expression was noticed after the treatment with 1.5 mg/kg/day Ola, although not statistically significant. All three drugs augmented the FAAH expression, the effect being significant after the treatment with 0.25 mg/kg/day Car. The expression of MAGL was not influenced significantly by the three AAPs, nevertheless, an increasing tendency can be remarked in the case of Ari and Car.
Conclusions: Promoting the CB1 expression in adipose tissue could contribute to weight increasing and other mAE effects of Ola. The tendency of Ari and Car to enhance the breakdown enzymes expression might have some role in more favorable mAE of these drugs.