Involvement of kisspeptin and Melatonin in the seasonal entrainment of reproduction in European sea bass (Dientrarchus labrax)

Aquaculture is an essential developing sector for world food production however one of the major bottlenecks for the sustainability of the aquaculture industry is the ability to control fish reproduction in captivity and to produce high quality seeds. European sea bass is a one of most commercially important species for the European fish farming industry. If broodstock management under captivity is well established, problems remain in hatcheries where survival can be low and deformity prevalence high as well as in on growing sites where fish reach puberty early especially with skewed sex ratio towards males. Sea bass displays strong seasonality in its physiology and is therefore an excellent candidate for the study of the photo-neuroendocrine control of reproduction and growth. The overall aims of this thesis were to better understand the molecular and endocrine drivers that control the Brain-Pituitary-Gonad axis in repeat spawner sea bass, and expand our knowledge of sea bass light and temperature regulation of melatonin production. First, this PhD project investigated the seasonal expression of kisspeptin, GnRH and gonadotropin genes in relation to the gonadal development throughout a reproductive cycle in male repeat spawning sea bass (Chapter 3). A partial sequence for the receptor kissr4 was isolated and described showing similarity to all other teleost species sequences available to date. QPCR molecular assays were validated to mesure the expression of a suite of genes along the BPG axis including kisspeptin related genes (Kiss1 and Kiss2 and its receptor kissr4) over a full reproductive cycle (12 months) in adult male European sea bass. Brain Kisspeptin mRNA expression levels (kiss1, 2 and kissr4) showed clear seasonal profiles and correlated well to other BPG markers (GnRHs, fshβ and lhβ), supporting a possible involvement of kisspeptin genes in the seasonal control of reproduction in repeat spawning sea bass. Moreover, clear seasonal patterns were observed for expression of the genes encoding for pituitary mRNA expression of lhβ and fshβ, with a significant correlation between expression of both subunits and GSI and steroids levels. However, no clear seasonal profiles in brain GnRHs gene expression were observed with the exception to some peaks in GnRH1 and GnRH2. The second part of this PhD project investigated the potential direct effect of the two kisspeptin core peptides (kiss1 and kiss2) on the pituitary gonadotropin gene expression (Chapter 4). The aim of this work was to better understand the mechanism by which kisspeptin acts on the BPG axis. This was done by testing the kisspeptin decapeptide core sequences on the lhβ and fshβ transcript expression in primary culture of sea bass pituitary cells using QPCR technique. The findings, as a whole, provided evidence that kisspeptin can act directly on the pituitary gonadotroph cells and modulate fshß and lhß mRNA expression in sea bass although effects were limited and not uniform. Of note, kissr4 gene expression was also detected in the sea bass pituitary. The third part of this PhD project focused on the effects of environmental signals (photoperiod and temperature) on melatonin production (Chapter 5). Environmental manipulation is routinely used in the aquaculture industry with the purpose of enhancing growth and manipulating the timing of reproduction in seasonal fish species like sea bass. Melatonin, known as the light perception and time keeping hormone, has been suggested to play key roles in the synchronisation of most physiological functions in vertebrates, although the mechanisms by which melatonin controls reproduction, growth and behaviour are still not fully understood in fish. The studies performed aimed .to determine the synergistic effects of both temperature and photoperiod on the daily phase and amplitudinal changes in melatonin production through both in vivo and in vitro trials. The results confirmed the diel melatonin rhythm in sea bass as previously reported in many teleost species with “high at night” and “low at day” melatonin profiles. Temperature showed clear effects on the amplitude of the melatonin production under both in vivo and in vitro conditions for both long day and short day photoperiods. Furthermore, no endogenous melatonin production was found under constant darkness in both in vivo and in vitro conditions. These results suggested a lack of intrapineal (or located elsewhere such as retina and/or deep brain) oscillators in sea bass, contrasting with previous reports. These results further enhance our knowledge of light perception and circadian rhythmicity in sea bass, while the circadian system remains to be characterised in sea bass and teleosts as a whole. Overall, this doctoral work broadened our understanding on the photoneuroendocrine control of reproduction in a seasonal fish species, sea bass. New knowledge gained and tools developed from this work should help to develop/optimise husbandry techniques for the sea bass farming industry with the view to increase production and profitability and thus promoting the sustainable expansion of the sea bass aquaculture in Europe. It has also the potential to help the fishery sector in the modelling of wild sea bass populations

Definitive salvage chemotherapy for the treatment of refractory/relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a single center experience

Objective: Non Hodgkin Lymphomas (NHL)s are a group of malignancies which affect the lymphatic system. A significant proportion of NHL patients experience either relapse or failure of treatment which is called refractory disease. Relapsed or refractory NHL usually have poor prognosis due to shortage of randomized trials comparing efficacy of different treatment protocols to define the optimal salvage chemotherapy regimen in these cases. In this study, we are trying to define the best salvage chemotherapy regimen with low toxicity and better quality of life for patients by comparing outcome of 2 salvage chemotherapy regimens GDP & DHAP.Patients and methods: 100 patients diagnosed as relapsed or refractory NHL were randomly assigned to receive either Gemcitabine, Dexamethasone and Cisplatin (GDP) or Dexamethasone, Cytarabine and Cysplatin (DHAP) for 4 to 6 cycles. Primary endpoints of the study were overall survival and progression free survival. Secondary endpoints were response to treatment, toxicity profile of each regimen, and quality of life assessment.Results: The overall response rate was 70% in GDP group & 64% in DHAP group with no statistically significant difference between them (p-value 0.5). There was no significant difference between both groups regarding toxicity profile except in febrile neutropenia episodes which was much less in GDP group (p-value 0.04). Quality of life was better in GDP group than DHAP with significant difference (p-value < 0.05). There was no statistical significant difference between both groups regarding OS or PFS.Conclusion: GDP is as effective as DHAP for relapsed or refractory lymphoma with less toxicity and better quality of life.Keywords: DHAP, GDP, NHL, Relapsed, Refractory lymphom

Morphological and molecular evaluation of some Egyptian pomegranate cultivars

Six Egyptian pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cultivars were characterized by fruit characteristics (physical and chemical) and two molecular markers; Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Genetic diversity of the pomegranate genotypes was evaluated. Physical fruit traits were determined (weight, volume and diameter), calyx [diameter, length (mm) and Carpels number], fruit firmness (Newton), peel as (weight and thickness), arils weight (g), volume of juice (ml), seeds [fresh and dry weight (g)], and color parameter of (fruit skin, internal peel, arils, juice and seeds). The chemical traits such as soluble solids contents (SSC), vitamin C content, anthocyanin content, pH, and titratable acidity (TA) were assessed and wide variations were observed in each of these traits among the studied cultivars. The genetic variability and relationships among six Egyptian pomegranate cultivars were tested using ISSR and AFLP analyses. The level of polymorphism across cultivars was 53 and 90.7% as revealed by ISSR and AFLP, respectively. ISSR and AFLP revealed different genetic similarities among the six pomegranate cultivars. Each analysis differs not only in its underlying principle, but also in their in-formativeness with regard to the type and amount of polymorphism detected. Genetic similarity matrices estimated from ISSR and AFLP data, showed similarity coefficients to range from 0.77 to 0.94 and 0.33 to 0.73, respectively. ISSR and AFLP characterized the six pomegranate cultivars by a large number of unique markers being 23 and 46 unique markers, respectively. The fruit weight ranged between 479.4 to 185 g of ʻNab El Gamalʼ and ʻAssuityʼ, the firmness was 79.98 of ʻNab El Gamalʼ and 71.84 Newton of ʻManfaloutyʼ cv. The fruit peel thickness varied from 0.6 mm ʻArabyʼ, ʻHegazyʼ and ʻWardiʼ to 0.3 mm ʻAssuityʼ. The arils weight ranged from 87.5 to 275 g of ʻAssuityʼ and ʻNab El Gamalʼ cvs. The percentage net of arils weight/ fruit weight was the highest (59.34% of ʻManfaloutyʼ cv). The juice volume ranged from 62.41 to 71.81 ml/100 g arils for ʻ Wardiʼ and ʻNab El Gamalʼ cvs. The SSC content ranged between 16.01 ʻHegazyʼ and 12.55% ʻAssuityʼ. V.C. content ranged from 3.21 to 14 mg. vitamin/100 ml juice of ʻNab El Gamalʼ and ʻAssuityʼ. The anthocyanin content ranged from 1.47 to 10.03 for ʻArabyʼ and ʻHegazyʼ. The pH values varied from 3.3 (Wardi) to 2.9 (Araby). The Egyptain cultivars of pomegranate have a wide variation in the morphological and chemical characteristics for many uses of fresh fruit and of industry purpose.Keywords: Morphological and chemical fruits characterization, pomegranate, inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR), DNA markers, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP)African Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 13(2), pp. 226-237, 8 January, 201

A Proposed Approach for Predicting Liver Disease

One of the main challenges is to exploit recent technologies in a way that is able to preserve human life. Liver disease is one of the most influencing and largest organs of the human body, which has a great impact on human life, according to the massive number of deaths of this disease. So, it is important to predict liver disease with the maximum possible accuracy, as the current problem is the weak accuracy of predicting liver disease and not predicting the severity of the liver disease. Thus, through this paper, the aim behind our proposed work is to enhance the performance of predicting liver disease, predicting the severity of liver disease, and then building a recommender system that recommends the appropriate medical pieces of advice according to the patients condition using machine learning algorithms and tools like a GridsearchCV tool. Indian liver patients dataset (ILPD) and the hepatitis C virus (HCV) dataset are our training datasets. Hence, the proposed solution enhanced the prediction accuracy of liver disease by 80% and 77 % for extra tree and KNN algorithms when using ILPD datasets. And when using the HCV dataset, the accuracy is achieved by the Gradient boosting algorithm and Logistic Regression by 96% for predicting liver disease, disease severity, and patient recommendation system model

Expression of Notch 2 and ABCC8 genes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their association with diabetic kidney disease

Background. The incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has increased over the past years and early identification and management of its complications especially diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is of great importance. T2DM and DKD are of multifactorial etiology with contribution of genetic and environmental factors. We aimed to study the expression of ABCC8 and Notch 2 genes in patients with T2DM and to find their association with DKD. Methods. The present work was carried on 80 patients with T2DM (40 with DKD and 40 without DKD) and 40 healthy subjects as a control group. Real time polymerase chain reaction was used to assess gene expression. Results. Altered expression of ABCC8 and Notch 2 genes were found in patients with T2DM compared to control group. ABCC8 expression had significant positive correlation with HbA1c while Notch 2 expression had significant positive correlation with fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c. Notch 2 expression was significantly higher in patients with DKD compared to those without DKD. Multivariate regression analysis showed that Notch 2 expression had independent relation with increased urinary albumin excretion and reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate. ABCC8 gene expression did not show significant difference between diabetic patients with DKD compared to those without DKD. Conclusion. Increased expression of ABCC8 and Notch 2 genes may play a role in pathogenesis of T2DM. Overexpression of Notch 2 gene may have a role in the development of albuminuria and DKD in patients with T2DM which may represent a possible diagnostic tool and a possible therapeutic target

Detection of Helicobacter pylori oipA and dupA genes among dyspeptic patients with chronic gastritis

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori): is a microbe with wide genetic diversity that infects the stomach of most people in developing countries, leading to several clinical outcomes among different individuals such as gastritis, ulcers, or gastric cancer. Outer inflammatory protein A (oipA) and duodenal ulcer promoting (dupA) genes are among the possible virulence factors which determine the patient outcome. Aim: To detect oipA and dupA genes of H. pylori among dyspeptic Egyptian patients, and to investigate their correlation with the varying degrees of the associated chronic gastritis. Methods: The study enrolled 50 patients with dyspepsia, attending the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy unit of the Gastroenterology and Tropical Departments at Ain Shams University Hospital for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, in the period between, June and, December 2019. Four antral gastric biopsies were taken from each patient for polymerase chain reaction assay to detect the virulence genes oipA, dupA, and cagA and for histopathological assessment. Results: Forty patients were H. pylori positive by histopathology and PCR. cagA, oipA, and dupA were identified in 6 (15%), 13 (32.5%), 9 (22.5%) of biopsies, respectively. Both cagA and oipA genes were highly significantly associated with increasing the severity of gastritis. Only oipA virulence gene showed a highly significant association with gastroduodenitis. There was a highly significant moderate association between cagA and oipA genes. Conclusion: oipA could be a virulence biomarker that serves a great value in predicting the progress of gastric mucosal damage in patients with chronic gastritis, and targeting antimicrobial therapy in those patients to prevent severe gastroduodenal diseases

Impact Of Covid-19 Lockdown On Smoking (Waterpipe And Cigarette) And Participants\u27 Bmi Across Various Sociodemographic Groups In Arab Countries In The Mediterranean Region

INTRODUCTION Tobacco smokers are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19. Lockdown was a chosen strategy to deal with the spread of infectious diseases; nonetheless, it influenced people\u27s eating and smoking behaviors. The main objective of this study is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on smoking (waterpipe and cigarette) behavior and its associations with sociodemographic characteristics and body mass index. METHODS The data were derived from a large-scale retrospective cross-sectional study using a validated online international survey from 38 countries (n=37207) conducted between 17 April and 25 June 2020. The Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO-EMR countries) data related to 10 Arabic countries that participated in this survey have been selected for analysis in this study. A total of 12433 participants were included in the analysis of this study, reporting their smoking behavior and their BMI before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. Descriptive and regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between smoking practices and the participant\u27s country of origin, sociodemographic characteristics, and BMI (kg/m2). RESULTS Overall, the prevalence rate of smoking decreased significantly during the lockdown from 29.8% to 23.5% (p\u3c0.05). The percentage of females who smoke was higher than males among the studied population. The highest smoking prevalence was found in Lebanon (33.2%), and the lowest was in Oman (7.9%). In Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, the data showed a significant difference in the education level of smokers before and during the lockdown (p\u3c0.05). Smokers in Lebanon had lower education levels than those in other countries, where the majority of smokers had a Bachelor\u27s degree. The findings show that the BMI rates in Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, and Saudi Arabia significantly increased during the lockdown (p\u3c0.05). The highest percentages of obesity among smokers before the lockdown were in Oman (33.3%), followed by Bahrain (28.4%) and Qatar (26.4%), whereas, during the lockdown, the percentage of obese smokers was highest in Bahrain (32.1%) followed by Qatar (31.3%) and Oman (25%). According to the logistic regression model, the odds ratio of smoking increased during the pandemic, whereas the odds ratio of TV watching decreased. This finding was statistically significant by age, gender, education level, country of residence, and work status. CONCLUSIONS Although the overall rates of smoking among the studied countries decreased during the lockdown period, we cannot attribute this change in smoking behavior to the lockdown. Smoking cessation services need to anticipate that unexpected disruptions, such as pandemic lockdowns, may be associated with changes in daily tobacco consumption. Public health authorities should promote the adoption of healthy lifestyles to reduce the long-term negative effects of the lockdown

Natural Immunomodulators Treat the Cytokine Storm in SARS-CoV-2

Recently, the world has been dealing with a destructive global pandemic Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, since 2020; there were millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. With sequencing generations of the virus, around 60% are expected to become infected during the pandemic. Unfortunately, no drug or vaccine has been approved because no real evidence from clinical trials in treatment was reached. According to current thinking, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mortality is caused by a cytokine storm syndrome in patients with hyper-inflammatory conditions, resulting in acute respiratory distress and finally death. In this review, we discuss the various types of natural immune-modulatory agents and their role in the management of SARS-CoV-2, and cytokine storm syndrome. For example, Polyphenols as natural products can block the binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to host cell receptor ACE2, stop viral entry into the host cell and block viral RNA replication. Also, saikosaponins (A, B2, C, and D), triterpene glycosides, which are isolated from medicinal plants exert antiviral action against HCoV-22E9, and Houttuynia cordata water extract has antiviral effects on SARS-CoV. Moreover, eucalyptus oil has promising potential for COVID-19 prevention and treatment. There is an urgent need for research to improve the function of the human immune system all over the world. As a result, actions for better understanding and improving the human immune system are critical steps toward mitigating risks and negative outcomes. These approaches will be strongly recommended for future emerging viruses and pathogens

The Effect of Ephedra Foeminea Extract as an Antimicrobial and Antifungal Agent

Drugs derived from natural sources play a significant role in the prevention and treatment of human diseases. In many developing countries, traditional medicine is an essential part of primary healthcare systems (Abdallah, 2011). Due to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, it is essential to investigate new drugs with lesser resistance especially ones that can be derived from natural resources like plants. Ephedra is likely one of the oldest medicinal plants that are still currently in use. Antimicrobial and antifungal activities of some ephedra species have been noticed in recent years (ZHANG Ben-Mei et al,2018). The aim of the study is to observe and understand the effects of E. foeminea extracts as antimicrobial and antifungal agents. It is an experimental study; four different types of bacteria including, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, MRSA, and Escherichia coli as well as two different types of fungi including, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Candida albicans were used as test microorganisms. Maceration extraction technique (William P. Jones,2012) for the dried stem of E. foeminea will be used by methanol / water 90/10 for 2 days (Ali Parsaeimehr et el,2010). Three concentrations of the extract will be used on 30 plates for each type of microorganism in the laboratories of the University of Palestine. Antimicrobial activity will be tested by using plate methods in which a variable diameter of a growth inhibition zone in most types of bacteria will appear. The MIC values may also be evaluated using the broth serial dilution method according to standard methods (CLSI, 2012)