Background The complete lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had imposed a new behavior and lifestyle especially in terms of diet, physical activity, and the management of patients with chronic diseases. Aim The present study aimed to analyze the impact of lockdown on the monitoring and care of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients in a Moroccan population from the Doukkala region. Subjects and methods We conducted a retrospective observational study including 121 T2DM patients recruited from the Diabetes Diagnosis and Treatment Center of El Jadida city. Demographic, anthropometric, and biochemical data of our T2DM patients were recorded before and after lockdown that lasted 82 days. All patients have signed an informed consent after being informed about the purely scientific aims of the study. Results Our sample involved 84 women and 37 men with an age average of 57.31 ± 0.91 years. The effects of lockdown were more marked in women than in men: women showed a significant tendency to gain weight (from 78.13 ± 1.36 kg to 81.80 ± 1.45 kg; p -value < 0.000), that impacted the body mass index ( p -value < 0.000); they also showed significant increases in HbA1c values ( p -value = 0.001), significant decrease in systolic blood pressure ( p -value = 0.0302) and a surprising increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( p -value = 0.0132). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the women sample increased from 46.4% to 54.8% after the lockdown. In men, the negative effect of lockdown was observed only in HbA1c that values increased significantly from 8.66 ± 0.21% to 9.51 ± 0.25% ( p -value = 0.0127). Conclusion Our results reveal that lockdown had impacted negatively the health status of T2DM patients, especially women. We suggest an urgent development of programs aiming to improve the hygiene of life and to reduce the impact of future crises on patients suffering chronic diseases such as T2DM.

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This study aimed to analyse, for the first time, five MHC class II polymorphic Alu insertions in a population with a strong Sub-Saharan African genetic background: the Ngazidja islanders and compare its allelic and haplotypic data with Worldwide populations. The genotyping was performed in 80 individuals, using simple PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis methods. Allele and haplotype frequencies, genetic diversity, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium deviations, normalized deviate of homozygotes and pairwise linkage disequilibrium were estimated. The phylogenetic analyses included the available population data.In Ngazidja, the MHC class II Alu insertion frequencies ranged from 0.119 for Alu-ORF10 to 0.588 for AluDPB2. Concerning haplotypes, the most predominant were the ones with only the AluDPB2 insertion allele (AluDPB2*2-AluDQA2*1-AluDQA1*1-AluDRB1*1-AluORF10*1), followed by the theoretical ancestral haplotype with no Alu insertions (AluDPB2*1-AluDQA2*1-AluDQA1*1-AluDRB1*1-AluORF10*1) and finally the haplotype with the AluDPB2 and AluDQA1 Alu insertions (AluDPB2*2-AluDQA2*1-AluDQA1*2-AluDRB1*1-AluORF10*1) with frequencies of 19.2%, 15% and 12.9%, respectively. In the phylogenetic analyses, our results indicate that the Ngazidja people are genetically differentiated from the other populations of the analysis; we found also a new haplotype that can be probably characteristic of Sub-Saharans and finally confirm the usefulness of these markers as genetic and evolutionary tools for studying genetic variations among populations of different origins.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a multifactorial coronary artery disease influenced by environmental and genetic factors. Being one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in developed countries, it is becoming a national health concern in developing countries such as Morocco. In the present work, we aim to study the association between 4 Alu polymorphisms (ACE, FXIII-B, TPA-25 and APOA1) genes and the risk of MI in the Moroccan population. 210 patients with a history of myocardial infarction and 203 healthy individuals were included in this study. The Alu polymorphisms were determined by the PCR technique followed by direct electrophoresis. Only the I / I_APOA1 genotype showed a significant association with the risk of MI (p˂0.001; OR = 2.171), while genotypes carrying the D allele (D / D or I / D) showed a protective effect (p <0.001; OR = 0.46). Patients presenting an association between I / I and a high level of triglycerides (p = 0.020, OR = 2.14)), as well as a significant association with a high level of LDLs (p = 0.035, OR = 2, 00). Subjects carrying the I / I_APOA1 genotype with dyslipidemia or hyperglycemia are more likely to develop MI, as are those carrying I / D_APOA1 with hyperglycemia or high cholesterol.