Lipase production by Fusarium culmorum in solid state fermentation

Fusarium is a large genus of filamentous fungi which cause some of the most important diseases in agricultural and horticultural crops. This fungus is considered to be a useful producer of enzymes from an industrial point of view. In the present study, lipase production by Fusarium culmorum SY6 was investigated under solid-state fermentation (SSF). Among the several agronomic wastes, corn cob hulls and tomato pulp supported the highest yield of lipase (170 and 165 U/g of dry substrate, respectively) after five days of incubation. It was determined that pH 9 and 60°C gave optimumenzyme activity. The F. culmorum SY6 strain grown in SSF in a simple medium proved to be a promising microorganism for lipase production

Decreased Risk of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma After Gastric Bypass Surgery in a Cohort Study From 3 Nordic Countries

Objective: The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that bariatric surgery decreases the risk of esophageal and cardia adenocarcinoma. Background: Obesity is strongly associated with esophageal adenocarcinoma and moderately with cardia adenocarcinoma, but whether weight loss prevents these tumors is unknown. Methods: This population-based cohort study included patients with an obesity diagnosis in Sweden, Finland, or Denmark. Participants were divided into a bariatric surgery group and a nonoperated group. The incidence of esophageal and cardia adenocarcinoma (ECA) was first compared with the corresponding background population by calculating standardized incidence ratios (SIR) with 95% CIs. Second, the bariatric surgery group and the nonoperated group were compared using multivariable Cox regression, providing hazard ratios (HR) with 95% CI, adjusted for sex, age, comorbidity, calendar year, and country. Results: Among 748,932 participants with an obesity diagnosis, 91,731 underwent bariatric surgery, predominantly gastric bypass (n=70,176; 76.5%). The SIRs of ECA decreased over time after gastric bypass, from SIR=2.2 (95% CI, 0.9–4.3) after 2 to 5 years to SIR=0.6 (95% CI, <0.1–3.6) after 10 to 40 years. Gastric bypass patients were also at a decreased risk of ECA compared with nonoperated patients with obesity [adjusted HR=0.6, 95% CI, 0.4–1.0 (0.98)], with decreasing point estimates over time. Gastric bypass was followed by a strongly decreased adjusted risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma (HR=0.3, 95% CI, 0.1–0.8) but not of cardia adenocarcinoma (HR=0.9, 95% CI, 0.5–1.6), when analyzed separately. There were no consistent associations between other bariatric procedures (mainly gastroplasty, gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomy, and biliopancreatic diversion) and ECA. Conclusions: Gastric bypass surgery may counteract the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma in morbidly obese individuals.submittedVersio

Validation of the Arabic version of the Social Communication Questionnaire

Validated screening and diagnostic tools for autism spectrum disorder for use in Arabic-speaking individuals are scarce. This study validated the Arabic version of the Social Communication Questionnaire. The total study sample included 206 children with autism spectrum disorder and 206 typically developing children (73.8% male; mean age: 8.5 (standard deviation = 2.6) years). The mean Social Communication Questionnaire total score was significantly higher in autism spectrum disorder children than in typically developing children (p < 0.0001). Scores on the three Social Communication Questionnaire subscales also differed significantly between the groups (p < 0.001). Of the 39 items, 37 were endorsed significantly more often in the autism spectrum disorder group. The total Social Communication Questionnaire score did not vary by age or gender. Internal consistency was excellent (alpha = 0.92). In the receiver operating characteristic analysis, the area under the curve for the total score showed excellent discrimination between autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children (area under the curve = 0.95; 95% confidence interval: 0.93–0.97). The areas under the curve for the scale subscores were 0.923 (95% confidence interval: 0.898–0.949) for the social interaction score, 0.872 (95% confidence interval: 0.838–0.905) for the communication score, and 0.856 (95% confidence interval: 0.819–0.893) for the repetitive behaviors score. The findings support the use of the Arabic Social Communication Questionnaire to successfully differentiate children with clinically diagnosed autism spectrum disorder using the established cutoff value for the English version.The authors would like to thank all the staff of the autism centers and schools who contributed in distributing and collecting the SCQ forms. They also would like to thank Western Psychological Services (WPS) staff for their help during the process of translating and reviewing the Arabic SCQ. They acknowledge Jennifer Holmes, ELS, for medical editing. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The study was funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (NPRP 6-093-3-024)

Recurrent Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment: Characteristics, Risk Factors, and Outcomes

Abdelwahab Aleshawi,1,&ast; Rami Al-Dwairi,1 Omar A Saleh,1 Sharaf Adi,1 Seren Al Beiruti,1 Acil Alasheh,1 Mohammad A Alsaadi,2 Zakaria H Ouda,2 Mohammed Z Allouh2,&ast; 1Department of Special Surgery, Division of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, 22110, Jordan; 2College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, 15551, United Arab Emirates&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Abdelwahab Aleshawi, Division of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box: 3030, Irbid, 22110, Jordan, Tel +962799273019, Fax +962 2 7201064, Email [email protected] Mohammed Z Allouh, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, 15551, United Arab Emirates, Email [email protected]: Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) is a severe retinal disorder that can lead to vision impairment and potentially blindness. After RRD repair surgery, every vitreoretinal surgeon aims to understand the characteristics of the RRD and to achieve permanent flattening without any recurrence. This study aimed to identify factors predisposing patients to recurrent RRD.Patients and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at King Abdullah University Hospital and included all patients who underwent pars plana vitrectomy for RRD repair between January 2015 and December 2023. All demographic, clinical, operative, and outcome data were extracted. The primary outcome was to assess the risk factors affecting the recurrence of RRD. The secondary outcome included factors affecting the final status (flat or detached) of the retina. Using proper statistical methods, the results were generated.Results: The study comprised 348 patients with primary RRD, of whom 44.5% had a previous ocular surgical history. The rate of recurrent RRD was 28.2%. At the last follow-up, 12.6% of the whole patients had persistent retinal detachment without anatomical successful reattachment. Superior-based RRD was the most common type, affecting 145 of 290 patients, and macular involvement in the RRD was observed in 80% of the cases. Recurrent RRD was higher in younger ages, longer duration of symptoms, extensive total type of RRD, involvement of inferior quadrants, detached macula, presence of proliferative vitreoretinopathy, and insufficient prophylactic laser retinopexy (p < 0.05). On multivariate logistic analysis, extensive total RRD, presentation duration, and insufficient prophylactic laser retinopexy were considered as a significant independent factor.Conclusion: Duration of symptoms, involvement of more quadrants, and insufficient laser retinopexy could influence RRD recurrence. These results may coincide with previous literature but provide insights into the newly investigated population. Increasing the awareness of RRD symptoms, identifying high-risk patients, and ensuring prompt surgical intervention may reduce RRD-related complications and decrease the rate of recurrence.Keywords: rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, recurrent retinal detachment, prophylactic retinopexy, pars plana vitrectomy, proliferative vitreoretinopathy, retinal tamponad

Unveiling the pathogenic mechanisms of NPR2 missense variants: insights into the genotype-associated severity in acromesomelic dysplasia and short stature

Introduction: Natriuretic peptide receptor 2 (NPR2 or NPR-B) plays a central role in growth development and bone morphogenesis and therefore loss-of-function variations in NPR2 gene have been reported to cause Acromesomelic Dysplasia, Maroteaux type 1 and short stature. While several hypotheses have been proposed to underlie the pathogenic mechanisms responsible for these conditions, the exact mechanisms, and functional characteristics of many of those variants and their correlations with the clinical manifestations have not been fully established.Methods: In this study, we examined eight NPR2 genetic missense variants (p.Leu51Pro, p.Gly123Val, p.Leu314Arg, p.Arg318Gly, p.Arg388Gln, p.Arg495Cys, p.Arg557His, and p.Arg932Cys) Acromesomelic Dysplasia, Maroteaux type 1 and short stature located on diverse domains and broadly classified as variants of uncertain significance. The evaluated variants are either reported in patients with acromesomelic dysplasia in the homozygous state or short stature in the heterozygous state. Our investigation included the evaluation of their expression, subcellular trafficking and localization, N-glycosylation profiles, and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) production activity.Results and Discussion: Our results indicate that variants p.Leu51Pro, p.Gly123Val, p.Leu314Arg, p.Arg388Gln have defective cellular trafficking, being sequestered within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and consequently impaired cGMP production ability. Conversely, variants p.Arg318Gly, p.Arg495Cys, and p.Arg557His seem to display a non-statistically significant behavior that is slightly comparable to WT-NPR2. On the other hand, p.Arg932Cys which is located within the guanylyl cyclase active site displayed normal cellular trafficking profile albeit with defective cGMP. Collectively, our data highlights the genotype-phenotype relationship that might be responsible for the milder symptoms observed in short stature compared to acromesomelic dysplasia. This study enhances our understanding of the functional consequences of several NPR2 variants, shedding light on their mechanisms and roles in related genetic disorders which might also help in their pathogenicity re-classification

The Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Eocene Series in the Dababiya section (Egypt)

The GSSP for the base of the Eocene Series is located at 1.58 m above the base of Section DBH in the Dababiya Quarry, on the east bank of the Nile River, about 35 km south of Luxor, Egypt. It is the base of Bed 1 of the Dababyia Quarry Beds of the El Mahmiya Member of the Esna Formation, interpreted as having recorded the basal inflection of the carbon isotope excursion (CIE), a prominent (3 to 5%) geochemical signature which is recorded in marine (deep and shallow) and terrestrial settings around the world. The Paleocene/Eocene boundary is thus truly a globally correlatable chronostratigraphic level. It may be correlated also on the basis of 1) the mass extinction of abyssal and bathyal benthic foraminifera (Stensioina beccariiformis microfauna), and reflected at shallower depths by a minor event; 2) the transient occurrence of the excursion taxa among the planktonic foraminifera (Acarinina africana, A. sibaiyaensis, Morozovella allisonensis); 3) the transient occurrence of the Rhomboaster spp. - Discoaster araneus (RD) assemblage; 4) an acme of the dinoflagellate Apectodinium complex. The GSSP-defined Paleocene/Eocene boundary is approximately 0.8 my older than the base of the standard Eocene Series as defined by the Ypresian Stage in epicontinental northwestern Europe

A multi-centre observational cohort study on pharmacogenomic predictors of rosuvastatin discontinuation in a multiethnic population

BackgroundRosuvastatin is widely used for cardiovascular risk reduction, but treatment discontinuation limits its long-term benefit. Genetic variants, particularly in ABCG2 and SLCO1B1, influence rosuvastatin’s transport, efficacy, and tolerability. The ABCG2 rs2231142 variant is associated with enhanced efficacy due to increased systemic exposure; however, it also raises the risk of adverse effects, especially muscle-related symptoms. Evaluating the impact of these variants in a real-world, multiethnic population is essential to improving adherence and guiding personalized therapy. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of ABCG2 rs2231142 (G&gt;T; Q141K) and SLCO1B1 rs4149056 (T&gt;C; V174A) variants on rosuvastatin discontinuation and LDL cholesterol changes in a multiethnic population in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).MethodsIn this multicenter prospective cohort study, 422 adults prescribed rosuvastatin were followed for 12 months. Discontinuation data were collected from records or phone calls. Genotyping was performed using TaqMan SNP assays. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analyses assessed discontinuation risk by genotype; LDL changes were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression.ResultsThe ABCG2 rs2231142 T/T genotype had the highest risk of discontinuation (HR = 4.40, p &lt; 0.001), followed by G/T (HR = 1.75). LDL change differed significantly between continuers (−17.86%) and discontinuers (+21.89%) (p &lt; 0.001). The ABCG2 variant was more frequent among discontinuers (30.6% vs. 17.4%, p = 0.0026). SLCO1B1 rs4149056 was not associated with discontinuation.ConclusionMinor allele carriers are at higher risk of discontinuation due to adverse effects. Genetic testing for ABCG2 may support personalized rosuvastatin therapy and improve adherence