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This paper aims to report on the development of a novel electrochemical amperometric immunosensor to diagnose early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by detecting the Midkine (MDK) biomarker.

Anti-Midkine antibodies were immobilized covalently through carbodiimides chemistry on carbon screen-printed electrodes modified with carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The development process was characterized using cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedimetric spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. Differential pulse voltammetry was used to investigate the immunosensor performance in detecting MDK antigen within the concentration range of 1 pg/ml to 100 ng/ml.

MDK immunosensor exhibited high sensitivity and linearity with a detection limit of 0.8 pg/ml and a correlation coefficient of 0.99. The biosensor also demonstrated high selectivity, stability and reproducibility.

The developed MDK immunosensor could be a promising tool to diagnose HCC and reduce the number of related deaths.

Several types of vaccines were manufactured by different companies to control and stop the spread of COVID-19. This study aimed to identify the postvaccination side effects of the three different vaccines (Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm) among the Iraqi population in Baghdad, Iraq.

A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Baghdad, Iraq from May 2021 to March 2022. An online-based questionnaire was used to collect the data through social media, i.e. WhatsApp, Messenger and Google Classroom. A total of 737 vaccinated participants using a snowball sampling methodology were used in this study.

Among the study population, 328 (44.50%) were males and 409 (55.50%) were females. The highest age group that participated was 18–30 years (79.10%) followed by 31–40 years (12.10%), 41–50 years (4.20%), 51–60 years (2.40%) and 60 = years (2.20%). However, 58.8% of the participants received Pfizer-BioNTech, 23.7% received the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and 17.5% received Sinopharm. Out of the total participants, 56.60% showed postvaccination side-effects such as fever, headache, fatigue and dizziness, while 33% showed no side-effects and 10.40% were not sure. Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines were the most vaccines prevalent of side-effects.

The majority of the side reactions associated with the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines were manageable and self-limiting, including fever, fatigue, headache, joint pain and dizziness, compared to the Sinopharm vaccines, which reported lower postside effects.