PAEDERUS ALFIERI EXTRACT INDUCES APOPTOSIS IN HUMAN MYELOID LEUKEMIA K562 CELLS

Objective: The rove beetle Paederus alfieri Koch. (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) is well-known among natural enemies in Egypt as an important predator of agricultural insect pests, it used as an essential agent in the integrated pest management programs. Recent studies have revealed that Paederus may have anti-proliferative effect; however, its mechanisms remain unclear. The aim of the present study is to investigate the anticancer effect of P. alfieri extract (PAE) on K562 human myeloid leukemia cancer cells and elucidation of its mechanism.Methods: Human myeloid leukemia K562 cells were treated with PAE at different concentrations. Cell proliferation was measured using the3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Apoptosis was evaluated using flow cytometry analysis. The expressions of Bcl-2, Bax, active caspase-3, t-Akt, and p-Akt were evaluated by western blotting.Results:  PAE  has  a  dose-dependent  antiproliferative  effect  against  K562 cells.  The  half  maximal  inhibitory  concentration  was  estimated  as212±2.3 ng/ml. Flow cytometric analysis showed that PAE induces apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner in K562 cells. We also investigated the molecular mechanism of PAE-induced apoptosis. PAE downregulated Bcl-2 and upregulated Bax and cleaved caspase-3 proteins. Furthermore, the levels of p-Akt are dose-dependently decreased in response to PAE, whereas the total Akt protein levels remained constant during PAE treatment.Conclusion: Taken together PAE-induced apoptosis in human myeloid leukemia K562 cells by modulating PI3K/Akt pathway. Our findings suggest that may be PAE is a good extract for developing anticancer drugs for human myeloid leukemia cancer treatment.Keywords: Paederus alfieri, Pederin, K562, Apoptosis, PI3K/Akt pathway

Effect of Spraying Pota Crastal Compound and Vast Trivalioum Compound on Growth and Nutritional Status of Superior Grapevines

This study was carried out in three seasons 2019, 2020 and 2021 to examine the effect of spraying Pota crastal or Vast trivolium compounds each at 0.1% either once, twice or thrice on growth and vine nutritional status of Superior grapevines grown under El- Minia region.Application of Pota crastal or Vast trivolium compounds once, twice or thrice each at 0.1% was very effective in enhancing main shoot length, leaf area, wood ripening coefficient, pruning wood weight/ vine, chlorophylls a , b , total chlorophylls, total carotenoids, N, P, K, Mg (as %) Fe, Mn and Zn ( as ppm) of superior grapevines over the control treatment.Using vast trivolium compound was favourable in enhancing some characteristics of vegetative growth and vine nutritional status rather than application of Pota crastal compound. The improvement in the growth characteristics and vine nutritional status was associated with an increase in the number of spraying times from one to three times. The best results with regard to character growth and vine nutritional status of superior grapevines grown under El- Minia region were observed due to treating the vines three times during each season at growth start, just after berry setting and at one month later intervals with vast trivolium compound at 0.1%

Malaria As An Important Cause Of Maternal Mortality In Sudan

This study was performed to highlight the role of malaria in pregnancy as  an important cause  of maternal mortality. It reviewed the previous studies, conference presentations and postgraduate thesis . Malaria found to be the cause of death of 10.26% to 46.7% of MM. The 1998 to 2003 records of maternal deaths of Wad Medani Obstetrics and gynaecology  teaching hospital (WMOGTH) was retrospectively studies (malaria caused death of 8.82% to 39.7% The mean age was 27.57years , most of them were primigravidae and from rural areas.  37.8% of the deaths occured at 28-36 weak of gestation . The mean duration of stay in hospital was (3.22) days. 32.4% of deaths stayed for less than 24 hours This indicated  severe and serious clinical presentations. The main causes of death due to malaria or its complication  were anemae heart failure  (24.3%), cerebral malaria (21.6%) and  circulatory failure (8.1%). Others were pulmonary edema , hyperpyrexia  , puerperal psychosis , abortion , severe epistaxes , cardiac  arrest , black water fever, electrolyte imbalance, and hepatic failure. The study recommended effective prevention of malaria and an intensive care approach in its management

Malaria and Maternal Mortality In Gezira-Sudan

The objectives of this study include:(1) to identify the magnitude of malaria as a cause of maternal mortality (MM) (2) to study the demographic characteristics of MM cases caused by malaria and (3) to identify the actual cause of MM due to malaria. Methods: This is a six years hospital based retrospective review of hospital records of ladies died due to malaria in Wad Medani Teaching Hospital for Obstetrics and Gynaecology (WMTHOG), form1 January 1998 to 31 December 2003. Results: malaria caused 10% to 40% of MM per year. The mean age was 27.57 years, most of them were primigravidae and from rural areas. 37.8% of the deaths occurred between 28 and 36 weak of gestation. The median duration of stay in hospital was two days. However 32.4% of deaths stayed for less than 24 hours that indicated severe and serious clinical presentations. The main causes of death due to malaria or its complication were: anaemia (24.3), cerebral malaria (21.6%), circulatory failure (12.51 ) and renal failure (8.1%). Others were pulmonary oedema , hyperpyrexia  , puerperal psychosis , abortion , severe epistaxis , cardiac  arrest , black water fever, electrolyte imbalance, and hepatic failure. The study recommended effective prevention of malaria and an intensive care approach in its management

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Bacteria-inducing legume nodules involved in the improvement of plant growth, health and nutrition

Bacteria-inducing legume nodules are known as rhizobia and belong to the class Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria. They promote the growth and nutrition of their respective legume hosts through atmospheric nitrogen fixation which takes place in the nodules induced in their roots or stems. In addition, rhizobia have other plant growth-promoting mechanisms, mainly solubilization of phosphate and production of indoleacetic acid, ACC deaminase and siderophores. Some of these mechanisms have been reported for strains of rhizobia which are also able to promote the growth of several nonlegumes, such as cereals, oilseeds and vegetables. Less studied are the mechanisms that have the rhizobia to promote the plant health; however, these bacteria are able to exert biocontrol of some phytopathogens and to induce the plant resistance. In this chapter, we revised the available data about the ability of the legume nodule-inducing bacteria for improving the plant growth, health and nutrition of both legumes and nonlegumes. These data showed that rhizobia meet all the requirements of sustainable agriculture to be used as bio-inoculants allowing the total or partial replacement of chemicals used for fertilization or protection of crops

Utilizing convolutional neural networks to classify monkeypox skin lesions

Abstract Monkeypox is a rare viral disease that can cause severe illness in humans, presenting with skin lesions and rashes. However, accurately diagnosing monkeypox based on visual inspection of the lesions can be challenging and time-consuming, especially in resource-limited settings where laboratory tests may not be available. In recent years, deep learning methods, particularly Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), have shown great potential in image recognition and classification tasks. To this end, this study proposes an approach using CNNs to classify monkeypox skin lesions. Additionally, the study optimized the CNN model using the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) algorithm, resulting in a significant improvement in accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and AUC compared to the non-optimized model. The GWO optimization strategy can enhance the performance of CNN models on similar tasks. The optimized model achieved an impressive accuracy of 95.3%, indicating that the GWO optimizer has improved the model's ability to discriminate between positive and negative classes. The proposed approach has several potential benefits for improving the accuracy and efficiency of monkeypox diagnosis and surveillance. It could enable faster and more accurate diagnosis of monkeypox skin lesions, leading to earlier detection and better patient outcomes. Furthermore, the approach could have crucial public health implications for controlling and preventing monkeypox outbreaks. Overall, this study offers a novel and highly effective approach for diagnosing monkeypox, which could have significant real-world applications

Magnetic resonance imaging versus musculoskeletal ultrasound in the evaluation of temporomandibular joint in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Aim of the work: To evaluate temporomandibular joint (TMJ) affection in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) versus musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) and to correlate the findings with clinical manifestations, disease activity and functional status. Patients and methods: Twenty RA patients (40 TMJ) were included in this study. Disease activity score 28 (DAS28) was assessed and functional status by modified health assessment questionnaire (mHAQ). The TMJs were assessed clinically and functionally according to the Fonesca’s questionnaire. Radiological assessment of the TMJ was performed using panorama X-ray, MSUS and MRI. Results: The patients mean age was 47.3 ± 10.03 with a F:M 9:1. Out of 40 TMJs 27 (67.5%) were symptomatic; pain/tenderness in 67.5%, limited mouth opening in 65% and sounds in 47.5%. MRI was superior in detection of TMJ abnormalities compared with MSUS (82.5% vs 77.5%, respectively). The frequencies of TMJ erosions detected by MRI, MSUS and panorama were 80%, 57.5% and 27.5% respectively (p = 0.0001). TMJ effusion and disc displacement were comparable by MRI and MSUS (67.5% and 62.5%; p = 0.64 and 57.5% and 52.5%; p = 0.5,respectively). Only the effusion and disc displacement significantly correlated with the DAS28 and mHAQ. Only the erosions detected by MSUS did not significantly correlate with the Fonesca’s questionnaire. Conclusion: Detection of TMJ abnormalities tended to be higher by MRI than by MSUS yet with no difference between both modalities. TMJ erosions, effusion and disc displacement were common in RA patients as detected by MRI and MSUS. Also both were helpful in detecting subclinical TMJ radiographic abnormalities in RA patients