Effects of Thymoquinone Alone or in Combination with Losartan on the Cardiotoxicity Caused by Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Hypercholesterolemia.

Dietary cholesterol accelerates oxidative and pro-inflammatory processes, causing hypercholesterolemia and cardiovascular diseases. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to compare the protective effects of thymoquinone (TQ) alone or in combination with losartan (LT) against the heart damage caused by a high-cholesterol diet (HCD). HCD-fed rat groups revealed an elevated activity of indicators of cardiac enzymes in the serum. Serum and cardiac lipids were also found to be significantly higher in HCD-fed rat groups. Cardiac pro-inflammatory and oxidative markers were also increased in HCD-fed rat groups, whereas antioxidant indicators were decreased. However, all of these biochemical, inflammatory, antioxidant, and oxidative change indicators returned to levels similar to those of normal rats after treatment with TQ alone or in combination with LT administered to HCD-fed rat groups. Hypercholesterolemia considerably induced the lipid peroxidation product, thiobarbituric acid reaction substances (TBARs), and oxidative radicals in cardiac cells, which were attenuated by QT and LT treatments, particularly when combined. Finally, QT, LT, and their combination were able to reduce the histological changes changes brought on by cholesterol excess in cardiac tissues. In conclusion, administration of TQ in a combination with LT which has a better protective effect, significantly reduced the hypercholesterolemic-induced oxidative and inflammatory changes that occurred in cardiac tissue.

Impact of Methionine Synthase Reductase Polymorphisms in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients.

Introduction： Metabolism methionine and of folate play a vital function in cellular methylation reactions, DNA synthesis and epigenetic process.However, polymorphisms of methionine have received much attention in recent medical genetics research. Objectives: To ascertain whether the common polymorphisms of the MTRR (Methionine Synthase Reductase) A66G gene could play a role in affecting susceptibility to Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) in Sudanese individuals. Methods: In a case-controlled study, we extracted and analyzed DNA from 200 CML patients and 100 healthy control subjects by the PCR-RFLP method. Results: We found no significant difference in age orgender between the patient group and controls. The MTRR A66G genotypes were distributed based on the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p > 0.05). The variation of MTRR A66G was less significantly frequent in cases with CML (68.35%) than in controls (87%) (OR = 0.146, 95% CI = 0.162−0.662, p < 0.002). Additionally, AG and GG genotypes and G allele were reducing the CML risk (Odds ratio [OR] = 0.365; 95% CI [0.179−0.746]; p = 0.006; OR = 0.292; 95% CI [0.145−0.590]; p = 0.001 and OR = 0.146; 95% CI [0.162−0.662]; p = 0.002 and OR = 2.0; 95% CI [1.3853−2.817]; respectively, (p = 0.000)). Conclusions: Our data demonstrated that heterozygous and homozygous mutant genotypes of MTRR polymorphisms were associated with decreased risk of developing CML in the Sudanese population.

The Prognostic Value of Estrogen Receptor ß Isoform With Correlation of Estrogen Receptor α Among Sudanese Breast Cancer Patients.

Two estrogen receptor isoforms (ERα and ERß) have been characterized with variable and sometimes contrasting responses to estrogens, partially explained by different receptor signaling pathways in estrogen-sensitive tissues. This is a retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study, aiming to evaluate the expression pattern of ERß, employing immunohistochemical techniques using specific monoclonal antibody for ERß, to correlate its expression with that of ERα in a Sudanese population. Two-hundred and fifty formalin-fixed paraffin-wax-embedded breast tissue blocks were used in this study. Of these, 200 were taken from breast cancer patients ascertained as study cases, and the remaining 50 were noninvolved surgical margin considered as normal breast tissue. Receptor expression was demonstrated using immunohistochemical techniques. The immune expression of ERß was detected in 57.5% of breast cancers. It was differentially expressed in breast tissues encompassing normal, noninvasive, as well as invasive carcinoma (P = .02). There was no evidence of a significant relationship between ERß and ERα expression. Among the ERα-negative tumor, 60.4% expressed ERß. The expression of ERß among this subgroup was significantly associated with good clinicopathological parameters such as negative Her2/neu, lower grade, and negative lymph node metastasis (P = .002). This study concludes that ERß was commonly expressed among Sudanese patients with breast cancer, either co-expressed with ERα or expressed alone. In the ERα-negative subgroup, it was associated with better tumor outcomes suggesting ERß should be included in the diagnostic protocol as an independent marker for favorable prognosis.