<div>Background: Scorpionism is considered as one of the health and medical problem in undeveloped tropical and subtropical countries in the world. In Morocco, Azilal province is considered among the most Moroccan regions affected by the scorpion sting and envenomation. Despite of its epidemiological status, little is known about the distribution of scorpions in Azilal province. Any strategy against these envenomation must first go through a good knowledge of the composition and distribution of scorpion fauna involved. The current study aimed to study the scorpion fauna of this province in order to manage and control scorpionism related problems. 
 
Methods: In this field-laboratory investigation during 2014-2017, different localities of Azilal province were surveyed. 14 sampling localities were selected based on geographical situation, climate and local data. In the laboratory, the collected scorpions were determined morphologically based on the valid taxonomic keys. 
 
Conclusion: Our investigations in the Azilal province have allowed to us to inventory seven species. Among the inventoried species some are deemed dangerous for humans. The geographical distribution of collected species was discussed. The present work will be a complementary contribution to the comprehensive study of the scorpion sting syndrome in Morocco.</div>

<div>Morphological Identification and Geographical Distribution of Scorpions in Azilal Province (Morocco)</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Southeastern Anatolia is the richest region in Turkey in terms of scorpion fauna. In this region, a number of studies on the fauna of scorpions, as well as epidemiology and clinical findings of scorpion stings in terms of public health, have been carried out, but there is no study on the phylogenetic relationships between species. In this study, 18 individuals of three species were collected from five locations. Sequence analysis was conducted by amplification of a 546 base region from part of mtDNA COI region. Six polymorphic regions and four haplotypes were determined for A. crassicauda, a species important for humans and mean haplotype and nucleotide variations were 0.602 and 0.00555 respectively. Sequences from all individuals were subjected to the blast tool of the NCBI database and assessed with close species, so a phylogenetic tree was formed. On the tree, samples from &THORN;anl&yacute;urfa and Diyarbak&yacute;r were on different branches while the sample from Iran (HM567333) was on a branch from the other two. The species that was the closest to Scorpio maurus from Batman (KF953944) was the sample from Diyarbak&yacute;r. Because there was no other sequence for Buthacus macrocentrus, it was located close to the Buthacus sp. (KF548116) sample. As a result, the locations of sample species were determined as a result of phylogenetic analyses.&nbsp;</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I-sequence variation in three scorpion species from southeast Turkey&nbsp;</div>

Background: The overall objective of this study is to confirm that normal expression of yeast NADH- dehydrogenase (NDI1) can occur in neural stem cell lines of minipig with resistance to rotenone exposure, an environmental factor responsible for dysfunction of mitochondrial enzyme complex I. In modern society, there are many diseases that cannot be treated. Diseases including LHON, Parkinson disease and dystonia, have been associated with defects in mitochondrial complexes. This experiment was performed to demonstrate that it was not sensitive. The overall objective of this study is to confirm that normal expression of yeast NADH-dehydrogenase (NDI1) can occur in neural stem cell lines of minipig with resistance to rotenone exposure, an environmental factor responsible for dysfunction of mitochondrial enzyme complex I. 
 
Methods: A Mini Pig Neural stem cell line (MPV) was used for transfection of the NDI gene, DMEM/F-12 culture medium and MPV was inoculated in a six-well plate (Corning, USA) at a concentration of 1&times;105 cells/3ml/well, with inoculation of MPV at 37&deg;C for 24 hours, 5% CO2, followed by incubation in an incubator with 95% humidity and attached. The plate containing MPV cells was treated with recombinant adeno-associated virus ndi1 (rAAV-ndi1) for transfection, with periodic replacement with a cell selection culture solution containing 10% FBS, 1% P/S and 0.2 mM rotenone. The experiment was performed for restoration of mitochondrial activity of thawed cells. RNA was extracted from MPV cells and transfection of MPV cells with the NDI1 gene was performed using Trizol (Invitrogen, USA). Reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot were performed to confirm normal expression of the NDI1 gene in MPV cells transfected with the NDI1 gene. Immunofluorescence was performed to determine the presence of the NDI1 protein in the cell and the cell count was used for LUNA and the rate of cell death for rotenone was determined using the MTS [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5- (3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium, inner salt] assay. 
 
Result: rAAV-NDI1 was successfully introduced into MPV cells and the proliferation rates for the cells were compared with those of the transformed cells; after three days, the non-infected cells were killed and the infected cells proliferated. The results after differentiating the cell lines were similar to those of previously reported studies. Toxicity analysis on rotenone was also performed using the MTS assay and the rates of cell death over three days were compared; the results showed significantly lower levels of NDI1-transformed minipig neural stem cells compared with those of minipig. The present work will be a complementary contribution to the comprehensive study of the scorpion sting syndrome. These results were similar to those of previously reported studies. Previous studies have reported that oxidoreductive stress can be a cause of apoptosis. Therefore, conduct of additional studies for measurement of ROS and oxygen utilization to determine oxidative stress in cells will be necessary.

Morphological Identification and Geographical Distribution of Scorpions in Azilal Province (Morocco)

Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I-sequence variation in three scorpion species from southeast Turkey

Effects of Rotenone Exposure on Apoptosis in rAAV-NDI1-infected Neural Stem Cell Line of Minipig