Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that belongs to the coronavirus family. The first case was reported in December 2019, and the disease has become a pandemic. Impaired immune regulation is one of the factors that play a role in its pathogenesis and results in poor outcomes of COVID-19 patients. There have been many studies with drug candidates used as antivirals or immunomodulators. However, the results of these investigations showed that the drug candidates were not significantly effective against the disease. Meanwhile, people believe that consuming herbal immunomodulators can prevent or even cure COVID-19. Unfortunately, specific preclinical and clinical trials to evaluate the effects of herbal immunoregulators have not been conducted. Certain natural compounds might be effective for the treatment of COVID-19 based on general concepts from previous experiments. This review discusses some herbal agents extracted from various plants, including Echinacea, Cinchona, Curcuma longa, and Curcuma xanthorrhiza, which are considered for the treatment of COVID-19. In addition, we discuss the pros and cons of utilising herbal medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, draw some conclusions, and make recommendations at the end of the session.

The small GTPase Rab11 plays an important role in the recycling of proteins to the plasma membrane as well as in polarised transport in epithelial cells and neurons. We generated conditional knockout mice deficient in Rab11a. Rab11a-deficient mice are embryonic lethal, and brain-specific Rab11a knockout mice show no overt abnormalities in brain architecture. In contrast, intestine-specific Rab11a knockout mice begin dying approximately 1 week after birth. Apical proteins in the intestines of knockout mice accumulate in the cytoplasm and mislocalise to the basolateral plasma membrane, whereas the localisation of basolateral proteins is unaffected. Shorter microvilli and microvillus inclusion bodies are also observed in the knockout mice. Elevation of a serum starvation marker was also observed, likely caused by the mislocalisation of apical proteins and reduced nutrient uptake. In addition, Rab8a is mislocalised in Rab11a knockout mice. Conversely, Rab11a is mislocalised in Rab8a knockout mice and in a microvillus atrophy patient, which has a mutation in the myosin Vb gene. Our data show an essential role for Rab11a in the localisation of apical proteins in the intestine and demonstrate functional relationships between Rab11a, Rab8a and myosin Vb in vivo.

VAMP7 or tetanus neurotoxin-insensitive vesicleassociated membrane protein (TI-VAMP) has been proposed to regulate apical transport in polarized epithelial cells, axonal transport in neurons and lysosomal exocytosis. To investigate the function of VAMP7 in vivo, we generated VAMP7 knockout mice. Here, we show that VAMP7 knockout mice are indistinguishable from control mice and display a similar localization of apical proteins in the kidney and small intestine and a similar localization of axonal proteins in the nervous system. Neurite outgrowth of cultured mutant hippocampal neurons was reduced in mutant neurons. However, lysosomal exocytosis was not affected in mutant fibroblasts. Our results show that VAMP7 is required in neurons to extend axons to the full extent. However, VAMP7 does not seem to be required for epithelial cell polarity and lysosomal exocytosis.

Background: Probiotics have numerous health benefits to the digestive system, one of them being clinically able to prevent and treat diarrhea. The growing scientific evidence of probiotic benefits has led to increased production of probiotic products. Health science students, as future healthcare professionals (HCPs), should have more knowledge about probiotics to be able to give the right recommendation to their future patients and the larger community. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards probiotics of health science students in Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 87 students from Medical Studies, Midwifery, Pharmacy, and Nursing majors in 2020. Proportional cluster random sampling was used to select the study subjects, and an online survey was used to collect the data. Final data were exported to statistics software for analysis. Scores of each variable were categorized. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to analyze the statistical differences among the four groups. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to analyze the relationship between knowledge, attitude, and practice variables. Results: Of all respondents, 80% had adequate knowledge. More than half (52.9%) had a positive attitude, and most (62.1%) had a positive practice. There were significant correlations between knowledge-attitude and attitude-practice variables. Most respondents gained information on probiotics from the Internet (26%) and their lecturer (24%). P-value from Kruskal-Wallis test for knowledge, attitude, and practice are 0.466, 0.801, and 0.324, respectively. Conclusion: Most respondents had an adequate level of knowledge, a positive attitude, and a positive practice towards probiotics. Incorporating scientific evidence regarding probiotics from various studies into all health science majors' academic curricula and media may help equip the students with a better understanding of probiotics, therefore improving probiotics usage to prevent and treat digestive system diseases in the future.

Inflammation plays an important role and is involved in all stages of acute ischemic stroke. One of these stages involves the recruitment of leukocytes from the peripheral circulation into the ischemic tissue. Lymphocytes as a subtype of leukocytes are important mediators and can become a predictor of neurological outcome. Several studies have been conducted regarding the correlation between differential lymphocyte counts and acute ischemic stroke. Most of these studies analyzed lymphocyte ratio to other leukocyte subtypes such as neutrophils and monocytes. This study specifically observed the role of lymphocytes as an indicator of the inflammatory response in patients with acute ischemic stroke. This study aimed to observe the correlation among risk factors, infarct location, leukocyte counts, lymphocyte value and neurologic output in acute ischemic stroke patients. Patients and Methods: We observed and analyzed 193 patients' data from medical record which met the inclusion and exclusion criteria with a diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke at the Department of Neurology of Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Bandung. Data were then analysed using appropriate statistical tests. Results: Most patients have more than one risk factor with a leukocyte count of less than 10,000 cell/mm 3 . Infarct was mostly located in subcortical area (basal ganglia), with moderate average NIHSS values at admission and at discharge. The number of lymphocytes decreased in the subject group with more than 10,000 cell/mm 3 leukocytes. Subsequently, data were analyzed using Spearman's test and there was a correlation between NIHSS on admission and lymphocyte depletion. Conclusion:The lymphocyte depletion in patients with leukocytosis is a predictor of poor NIHSS.