ROLE OF GREEN TEA AND ITS CONSTITUENT EPIGALLOCATECHIN-3-GALLATE IN THE HEALTH MANAGEMENT

Green tea and its constituents is natural beverage used worldwide especially in Asian countries and also used as natural medicine for thousands of years. The current approaches for diseases treatment based on allopathic drugs offer restricted options, adverse effect and also show alterations in biochemical and genetic pathways. Considerable achievement on green tea and its constituents has been made based on experimental studies to confirm its mechanism of action in disease modulation but the exact mechanism still under investigation. It is thought that, green tea is rich in antioxidant and shows a pivotal role in the scavenging of free radical generation and prevention of disease pathogenesis. However, further studies are needed to confirm the safe dose and the exact mechanism of action in relation to health management. In the present review, an attempt has been made to explore the role of green tea in diseases prevention and its approach on modulation of various biochemical and physiological process.Â

Novel antibacterial activity of Terfizia claveryi aqueous extract against clinical isolates of corneal ulcer

Terfizia claveryi was examined for in vitro antibacterial activity using the disc diffusion, well diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). T.claveryi exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against all clinical isolates of corneal ulcer tested, especially against Pseudomonas aeruginosa which showed the maximum antibacterial activity with mean zone of inhibition 20.33 mm at concentration of 100 mg/ml. The MIC for Staphylococcus aureus ranged from 0.040-1.250 mg/ml and MBC for Escherichia coli was 75 μl/ml. In the present study, the MIC value of the active aqueous extract were lower than the MBC values suggesting that, T. claveryi aqueous extracts were bacteriostatic at lower concentration but bactericidal at higher concentration. Also, the bacterial zone of inhibition increased with the increasing concentration of T. claveryi aqueous extract. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report for the novel antibacterial activity of T.claveryi aqueous extract. This active compound may be used as alternative therapeutic drug for the control of corneal infections. However, further research is needed to examine its in vivo mechanism of action, toxicity, and therapeutic effect.Key words: Bacteria, corneal infection, antimicrobials, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), Terfizia claveryi

Role of Natural Products in Ameliorating Drugs and Chemicals Toxicity

Herbal medicines have a long history over than 7000 years in traditional treatment, therapeutic experiences, and clinical trials including Egypt, China, and Korea. This practice is still the mainstay of about 75–80% of the world population, mainly in the developing countries, for primary health care and promotion because of better cultural acceptability, better compatibility with the human body, and lesser side effects. However, the last few years have seen a major increase in their use in the developed world. Nowadays, we can find a bipolarised market for the active ingredients: those chemically produced and mainly supported by the pharmaceutical companies and those natural constituents that are demanded by an increased number of patients. Although natural products have not been always active as supposed, some of them are scientifically recognised as therapeutically active. Indeed, it has to be noted that some drugs, still used in the current therapies, are extracted from plants. Some of these can have additive action if coadministered with synthesized drugs or ameliorate the drug toxicity

Trials to improve the response of Orechromis niloticus to Aeromonas hydrophila vaccine using immunostimulants (garlic, Echinacea) and probiotics (Organic GreenTM and Vet-YeastTM)

This work aimed to investigate the role of some immunostimulants and probiotics in improving the response of overwintered tilapia to Aeromonas hydrophila  vaccine. In this study, 15000 Nile tilapia fry (Orechromis niloticus) were collected and divided into five groups. Group 1 was the control, groups 2 to 5 were fed diet supplemented with garlic, Echinacea, Organic GreenTM and Vet-YeastTM respectively for 5 months. Vaccination with A. hydrophila bacteria was done by the end of the feeding experiment. The antibody titer of the vaccinated overwintered tilapia of all groups showed no significant changes during the same sampling time. A significant high value in the antibody titer was recognized in vaccinated overwintered tilapia at the end of 6th-8th week post-vaccination (PV) in the control group and between the 4th – 8th week PV in the immunostimulant supplemented groups (Groups 2-3), and between the 2nd – 10th week PV in probiotic supplemented groups (Groups 4 and 5). The challenge infection of the vaccinated tilapia showed the highest mortality in Group 1 while the lowest mortality was seen in Group 5. However, maximum protection after challenge was seen at 6th week PV in other treated groups. The immunostimulants and probiotics under test proved efficient in improving the immune response to vaccination which will improve the resistance of tilapia fry against infection during the winter. The overall results are promising to implement overwintering fry culture program to economically maximize and efficiently use the available aquaculture facilities throughout the year.Key words: Tilapia, overwintering, immunostimulants, probiotics, vaccines, pathogens

Lack of association of CTLA-4 +49 A/G polymorphism with predisposition to type 1 diabetes in a cohort of Egyptian families

Background: Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic childhood illnesses. Interplay between genetic susceptibility and environmental factors is thought to provide the fundamental element for the disease. Apart from the Major Histocompatibility locus which is the main contributor to risk susceptibility, more than 40 loci are recognized. One among these is the CTLA-4, however data from the literature are controversial. The aim of our study was to investigate the role of CTLA4 49 A/G as a risk susceptibility factor for the development of type 1 diabetes in a cohort of Egyptian families.Subjects and methods: This is a case control study including 88 Egyptian families with one or more index cases (<18 years). The control group comprised 369 healthy unrelated subjects with no family history of diabetes or autoimmune disease. Using PCR-RFLP methodology, CTLA4 49 A/G was analyzed in 738 samples representing 88 families (88 patients, 125 siblings and 156 parents) and 369 control.Results: The age of onset was 6 days-12.5 years with a mean of 5.3± 3.6 and a median of 5 years. The mode of presentation was classic symptoms in 51 and diabetic ketoacidosis in 37 cases. Twenty-two cases had a history of viral infection or exanthematous disease and four had associated autoimmune diseases. No significant differences were encountered between the different groups with regard to CTLA4 +49 A/G genotype or allele frequencies. Neither was there a relation between the various genotypes and age of onset or the mode of presentation.Conclusions: CTLA4 49 A/G polymorphism was not recognized as a risk susceptibility factor in our cohort. This may be attributed to the low co-incidence of autoimmune diseases. Up to our best knowledge, this is the first study involving families. We recommend that all studies performed on risk susceptibility to type 1 diabetes should include proper investigation for other autoimmune diseases to exclude their confounding effect on data analysis.Keywords: Type 1 diabetes; CTLA-4; Risk susceptibilit

Incidental congenital coronary artery vascular fistulas in adults:Evaluation with adenosine-N-13-ammonia PET-CT

AIM To assess the functionality of congenital coronary artery fistulas (CAFs) using adenosine stress N-13-ammonia positron emission tomography computed tomography (PET-CT). METHODS Congenital CAFs were incidentally detected during coronary angiography (CAG) procedures in 11 adult patients (six males and five females) with a mean age of 64.3 years (range 41-81). Patients were collected from three institutes in the Netherlands. The characteristics of the fistulas (origin, pathway and termination), multiplicity of the origins and pathways of the fistulous vessels were assessed by CAG. Five patients underwent adenosine pharmacologic stress N-13-ammonia PET-CT to assess myocardial perfusion and the functional behavior of the fistula. RESULTS Eleven patients with 12 CAFs, 10 unilateral and one bilateral, originating from the left anterior descending coronary artery (n = 8), right coronary artery (n = 2) and circumflex (n = 2). All fistulas were of the vascular type, terminating into either the pulmonary artery (n = 11) or coronary sinus (n = 1). The CAG delineated the characteristics of the fistula (origin, pathway and termination). Multiplicity of the origins and pathways of the fistulous vessels were common in most fistulas (8/12, 67% and 9/12, 75%, respectively). Multiplicity was common among the different fistula components (23/36, 64%). Adenosine pharmacologic stress N-13-ammonia PET-CT revealed normal myocardial perfusion and ejection fraction in all but one patient, who showed a reduced ejection fraction. CONCLUSION PET-CT may be helpful for assessing the functional status of congenital CAFs in selected patients regarding clinical decision-making. Studies with a larger patient series are warranted