Neutrophil Gelatinase Associated Lipocalin: Is not an Early Marker Inductor for Diabetic Nephropathy in Qatari Population

Background: The WHO Global Report on Diabetes (2016) showed that the number of diabetic patients quadrupled between 1980 and 2016, while causing the death of 1.5 million people. While the global prevalence of diabetes is 9%, the prevalence of diabetes in Qatar is between 17-20%, 45% of which developed diabetic nephropathy. Diabetic Nephropathy is the largest cause of End Stage Renal Disease, and it develops in 20% of diabetic patients. Currently, DN is diagnosed by the detection of microalbumin in urine samples. However, nephropathy can be present even in the absence of albuminuria, and the levels of microalbumin in urine does not correlate with the degree of nephropathic damage. Early detection can prevent total renal failure. Studies have shown that neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) was highly expressed even before the appearance of pathological microalbuminuria in both type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients. The levels of NGAL in urine also correlates with the degree of nephropathic damage. However, currently no information exists about the presence of NGAL in diabetic patients of the Qatari population. Objective: This study aims to determine if there is a relationship between the concentrations of NGAL in urine and kidney function. Methodology: Urine samples of 123 patients were acquired from the Qatar Biobank. Of these, 38 were non-diabetic controls, while 85 were diabetic patients. Type 1 diabetics, pregnant females, smokers, and kidney, liver and cardiovascular disease patients were excluded from the control and case population. Using Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), all samples were tested for the presence of NGAL, and a select few were also tested for microalbumin through an external laboratory. The results obtained were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 and Microsoft Excel 2016. Results: No significant difference was found in mean values of uNGAL concentrations in healthy patients, diabetic patients with HbA1c>6% and diabetic patients with HbA1c0.05). However, weak correlation was demonstrated between uNGAL concentrations with serum albumin, HbA1c, serum glucose concentration and albuminuria in diabetic patients with HbA1c>6% (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to the current study uNGAL concentrations does not correlate with any of the kidney function tests, such as glomerular filtration rate, serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen. So, it cannot be used as a marker to detect diabetic nephropathy in the early stages

New markers for the detection of polycystic ovary syndrome

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a highly prevalent, complex genetic disorder of the endocrine system in women. Alterations that occur in women with PCOS can be due to several predisposing factors; among these contributors are genetic and epigenetic variations. Environmental factors play a weaker role, mainly in worsening insulin resistance. Enzyme, protein and genetic markers can depend as a biochemical diagnosis of PCOs. The genetic markers have been identified to be related to PCOS wasn’t useful for early diagnosis, which can only be used to confirm PCOS in patients already exhibiting the definitive symptoms. Protein and enzyme markers are commonly used for prognosis and monitoring the patient to prevent the development of the complications of PCOS. Proteins of the adipose tissue have been found to be greatly related to insulin resistance and the development of PCOS. The nature of enzymes and proteins of instability and easily degradable have prevented sufficient research from being carried out on them. Therefore, the diagnosis of PCOS relies on the analysis of multiple factors

Compassionate Care Among Iranian Nurses Caring for Candidate Brain Death Organ Donor Patients: A hermeneutic study

Apart of cares provided at the end oflife of patients in intensive care unitsis allocated to the care of brain deathpatients, which is considered under title of one caringunit. Many nurses tend to provide high-quality and compassionatecare. However, studies indicated that almost allpatients do not receive compassionate cares. This researchwas carried out to explain the living experiences of nursesin intensive units providing care for brain death patients.In this hermeneutic phenomenological study, van Manen&rsquo;smethodology was used. Ten nurses (9 women and 1 man)working in Intensive Care Units were interviewed usingsemi-structured interviews. The data derived from the interviewswas analyzed after recording and transcribing.The main theme of this study, which manifested the importantand innovative aspect of caring the brain deathpatients, was &ldquo;compassionate care&rdquo;. It included two subthemesof commitment and devotion with sub subthemesof responsible caring and kindness in caring and sympatheticsupport with sub subthemes of providing emotionalsupport to family and emotional influence.According to the results of this research, it can be concludedthat providing care for brain death patients, whowere candidate for donation, despite imposing psychologicalburden on nurses, has provided a compassionate carefor patient and family. This care is due to commitment,professional responsibility and deep emotional effects inthem. The research results provide the conditions for educationalplanners to train nurses in order to improve theircare provided for the patients and support the nurses

The Relationship Between Leptin and PCOS

Background: The ob gene produces a leptin hormone that works as a satiety signal to the hypothalamus. Leptin may have a role in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) via its role on obesity and insulin resistance. Materials and Methods: A prospective, retrospectives cross- sectional study included 78 females student aged 17-25 years. The retrospective data included clinical, anthropometric and hormonal profile of each subject. Leptin concentration was measured by enzyme absorbent by BioVendor Human Leptin ELISA. Statistical analysis was performed by IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 for Windows XP (IBM, USA). Results: leptin found to be significantly higher in those women with PCOS than in women without PCOS (p-value 0.037). Also, Overweight/Obese subjects had higher leptin level (22.85 ng/ml) than non-overweight/non-obese subjects (8.82 ng/ml) with (p-value <0.05). OW/Ob group showed higher frequency of family history of PCOS and diabetes, irregular menstrual cycle (IP) and high Ferriman-Gallwey score. Leptin is significantly correlated with insulin, testosterone, BMI, DHEAS, progesterone, FAI and PCOS. Conclusion: PCOS, overweight and obese subjects exhibit high leptin level

Associations of Vitamin D Receptor Polymorphism rs1544410 with Adiposity Phenotypes

Background: Vitamin D receptor (VDR) is present on adipocytes, and many studies were performed to investigate the association between polymorphisms in VDR gene with obesity. However, in the Arab Gulf populations, whereas obesity prevalence is increasing dramatically, only a few studies were addressed this relation with obesity based only on body mass index. This study aimed to find the association between three different VDR polymorphisms BsmI (rs1544410), ApaI (rs7975232) and TaqI (rs731236) BsmI, with the adiposity phenotypes (BMI, body fat BF% and waist circumference (WC) as a marker of visceral obesity. Method: In this study, 142 young female subjects from Qatar University were recruited. The study subjects were classified into 88 control subjects (BMI <24.9 kg/m2) with a mean age of 21.65 years and 54 overweight/obese subjects (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) with a mean age of 22.79 years. Blood samples and anthropometric measurements were evaluated. TaqMan assay was used to examine the genotyping of the three SNPs BsmI, ApaI, and TaqI using RT-PCR. In addition, vitamin D and insulin levels were measured using ELISA kits. The adiposity phenotypes were evaluated by anthropometric measurements of body weight, height, waist circumference and BF% were assessed by Body composition analyzer. Results: The results showed that 80.3% of the study subjects were vitamin D insufficient/deficient. The main finding of the current study revealed that the carrier for the minor allele (A) in the BsmI of VDR have significantly higher BMI, WC and BF% values with p-values of 0.009, 0.015 and 0.04, respectively. In addition, it was found that increased WC is associated with lower (suboptimal) vitamin D level with an odds ratio of 3.12 and 95% CI of (1.01-9.63) with a p-value of 0.048. Conclusion: The adiposity phenotype indicators including BMI, WC, and BF% were significantly associated with the minor allele (A) for BsmI (rs1544410); suggesting the possible relation of VDR polymorphism with obesity in Qatar. Vitamin D deficiency could affect the BF% in overweight and obese subjects.Qatar university grant #supported this study QUST-CAS-FALL-15/16-23

Associations of Vitamin D Receptor Polymorphisms with Coronary Artery Diseases

Background: Previous studies have investigated the association of rs1544410, rs7975232 and rs731236 polymorphisms on vitamin D receptor gene and its impact on diseases such as cancer, diabetes and hypertension in different ethnic backgrounds. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the association between VDR polymorphisms using three SNP’s and the severity of the significant lesion in coronary arteries among angiographically diagnosed CAD . Methods: 192 CAD patients enrolled from the cardiology department-Heart Hospital, Hammed Medical Corporation (HMC). Medical records, biochemical tests data and DNA samples were obtained from a previous study conducted in 2012. Results: By studying SNP rs7975232 it has been observed that the most frequent genotype in distribution is the AA among the significant stenosis patients, while the heterozygous AC was the frequent genotype in distribution among the non-significant stenosis group. Conclusion: There is a significant association between rs7975232 and the severity of CAD lesion. The carrier of CC genotype in rs7975232 increased the risk of having significant coronary arteries atherosclerotic lesion especially in patients with smoking history

Association between Genetic Variants of GC Gene at 4q13.3 and Vitamin D Concentrations in Adult Females

Background: Vitamin D binding protein, encoded by the GC gene (on 4q13.3), plays an important role in transporting vitamin D. Several Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWASs) have established a significant association between variants of GC gene and circulating vitamin D. Objective: This study aims to determine the association of GC gene polymorphisms with vitamin D concentrations in young healthy Arab females. Methodology: 214 female subjects from Qatar University were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The cut-off value for optimal vitamin D levels was set at 30 ng/mL. The serum vitamin D was measured using ELISA, the genotyping of SNPs (rs2298850, rs3755967, rs2282679, rs7041, rs1155563, and rs17467825) of GC gene was performed by TaqMan assay, and the data was analyzed using SPSS software. Results: The mean age of 214 participants was found to be 21.97 years. Of these, only 182 subjects were included in this study. The data showed that 14.8% were found to have optimal vitamin D levels and 85.2% with suboptimal levels. All studied SNPs were in HWE except SNPs rs7041 and rs1155563. Using the dominant model for rs2298850, the odds ratio to have low vitamin D is 1.48 (p=0.419). Similarly, rs3755967 has a risk of 1.62 (p=0.294); rs2282679 has an odds ratio of 1.32 (p=0.549); and rs17467825 with a risk of 1.48 (p=0.40). The genotypes for vitamin D levels had no significant difference (p>0.05) for all study subjects. Conclusion: The current data showed no significant association between risk alleles of SNPs (rs2298850, rs3755967, rs2282679, rs7041, rs1155563, and rs17467825) with vitamin D levels. Keywords: Vitamin D deficiency; 25-hydroxyvitamin D; GC gene; Vitamin D binding protein; SNPs Abbreviations: 25-hydroxyvitamin D/calcifediol (25-(OH)D); 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D/calcitriol (1,25-(OH)2D); Vitamin D Binding Protein (DBP); Group-specific Component (GC); Ultraviolet radiation B(UVB); Vitamin D Receptor (VDR); Retinoid X Receptor (RXR); Parathyroid Hormone (PTH); DNase Hypersensitivity Site (HSIV); Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP); Chemiluminescent Immunoassay (CLIA); Chemiluminescent- Microparticle Immunoassay (CMIA); Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA); High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC); Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS); Body Mass Index (BMI); Overweight and Obese (OWOB); Waist Circumference (WC); Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL); High Density Lipoprotein (HDL); Triglycerides (TG); Interleukin-6 (IL-6); Minor Allele Frequency (MAF); Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE); Confidence Intervals (CI); Analysis of Variance (ANOVA

Indomethacin-Enhanced Anticancer Effect of Arsenic Trioxide in A549 Cell Line: Involvement of Apoptosis and Phospho-ERK and p38 MAPK Pathways

Background. Focusing on novel drug combinations that target different pathways especially apoptosis and MAPK could be a rationaleforcombinationtherapyinsuccessfultreatmentoflungcancer.Concurrentuseofcyclooxygenase(COX)inhibitorswith arsenictrioxide(ATO)mightbeapossibletreatmentoption.Methods.CytotoxicityofATO,dexamethasone(Dex),celecoxib(Cel), andIndomethacin(Indo)individuallyorincombinationwasdeterminedat24,48,and72hrsinA549lungcancercells.TheCOX-2 gene and protein expression, MAPK pathway proteins, and caspase-3 activity were studied for the most cytotoxic combinations. Results. The IC 50s of ATO and Indo were 68.

Pro-Poor Growth in the Urban Areas of Iran's Provinces

Poverty is one of the major problems of human societies that causes many social harms. Therefore, policymakers and economic development planners always aim to eliminate it. In addition, economic growth is one of the important and influential variables of macroeconomics. Therefore, examining the impact of economic growth on poverty through the lens of growth and distribution effects offers valuable insights for policymaking and poverty reduction strategies. In this study, we use the log-normal curve approach introduced by Bourguignon to estimate the growth effect on poverty utilizing data from urban households in Iran over the period 2013-2019. The results indicate that only in the one-year period of 2015-2016, the triangle of poverty, growth, and inequality has worked well and the growth has been pro-poor. Furthermore, provincial-level findings unveil discernible patterns: (a) In provinces experiencing positive growth, urban areas in Qom exhibit pro-poor growth, while those in Alborz, Golestan, and Hamedan provinces observe a trickle-down effect. Meanwhile, in other provinces, growth demonstrates an immiserizing trend. (b) In provinces with negative growth, only urban areas in Markazi province observe a reduction in poverty. However, due to the lack of growth, it cannot be concluded that this province has had pro-poor growth. In the urban areas of other provinces in this group, the situation has been unfavourable for the poor

Guanidinium (aqua-2κO)(4-hydr­oxy-6-carboxy­pyridine-2-carboxyl­ato-2κ3 O 2,N,O 6)(μ-4-hydroxy­pyridine-2,6-dicarboxyl­ato-1:2κ4 O 2,N,O 6:O 2)(4-hydroxy­pyridine-2,6-dicarboxyl­ato-1κ3 O 2,N,O 6)dizincate(II) dihydrate

The title compound, (CH6N3)[Zn2(C7H3NO5)2(C7H4NO5)(H2O)]·2H2O, has an anionic binuclear complex of ZnII balanced with a guanidinium cation. There are two uncoord­inated water mol­ecules in the structure. The asymmetric unit of the compound has two different coordination types (the coordination of Zn1 is distorted trigonal-bipyramidal, while that of Zn2 is distorted octahedral) of ZnII in the crystal structure that are bridged to each other via one hypydc2− group (hypydcH2 is 4-hydroxy­pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid). A variety of inter­molecular O—H⋯O, N—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds involving water mol­ecules, cations and anions, and also a weak π–π inter­action [3.798 (1) Å], are responsible for extending the structure into a three-dimensional network