Correlation of circulating miRNA-33a and miRNA-122 with lipid metabolism among Egyptian patients with metabolic syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome is defined as a group of interrelated biochemical, clinical, and metabolic factors that directly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. MicroRNA-33a (miR-33a) and MicroRNA-122 (miR-122) play a crucial role in various biological processes by regulating the gene expression level through post-transcriptional mechanisms, and alterations of their levels are associated with lipid and glucose metabolic disorders. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the correlation of miR-33a and miR-122 with obesity indices and glycemic parameters in a cohort of Egyptian patients. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using TaqMan assay was carried out to estimate the expression levels of miR-33a and miR-122 in serum samples of 100 patients diagnosed as having metabolic syndrome and 50 healthy controls. All patients (100%) had type 2 diabetes (by both history and laboratory assessment) and 70% were obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2). RESULTS: Compared to controls, patients had significantly higher serum expression level of miR-33a (p value < 0.001) and miR-122 (p value = 0.0016). miR-33a was less expressed (downregulation expression) with 0.8 fold change in the patient group (obese and diabetic) compared to healthy controls, while miR-122 was highly expressed (upregulation expression) in the patient group of patients with 1.9 fold change. Clinical parameters as body mass index (BMI), wrist circumference (Wc), weight (Wt), and height (Ht) (all p < 0.001); total cholesterol (TC) (p = 0.0115); and triglyceride (TG) (p = 0.0286), all were significantly higher in patients compared to the healthy group. Both miRNAs show statistically significant correlations with clinical and biochemical parameters (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Circulating miR-33a and miR-122 might be convincing as possible biomarkers for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome.

Assessing the association of rs7574865 STAT4 gene variant and type 1 diabetes mellitus among Egyptian patients.

BACKGROUND: Variants in the signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4) gene have an important role in the incident of multiple autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). It is a genetically related auto-immune disorder that resulted from T cell-mediated destruction of pancreatic cells that are in control for the production of insulin in the blood. The current study aimed to clarify the role of STAT4 (rs7574865) variant allelic and genotypic variations in the susceptibility to type 1 diabetes among Egyptians by using the real-time PCR. RESULTS: A total of 100 patients and 100 controls were genotyped for rs7574865, and the biochemical and anthropometric parameters were measured to show that type 1 diabetic patients had significantly higher levels of HbA1c and triglycerides compared to non-diabetic individuals (P < 0.05). And genetically, the T allele and GT genotype have a significant correlation with diabetes type 1. CONCLUSION: It was confirmed by this study that the rs7574865 T allele and GT genotype have a significant correlation with diabetes type 1 incidence among Egyptian patients.

Study of DYRK1B gene expression and its association with metabolic syndrome in a small cohort of Egyptians.

BACKGROUND: A cluster of many risk factors for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease is used to describe the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Moreover, genetic differences associated with metabolic syndrome play a key role in its prevalence and side effects. This study aims to investigate the expression of DYRK1B and its association with metabolic syndrome in a small cohort of Egyptian. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 100 adult Egyptians (50 with MetS and 50 healthy control subjects) were included to this study. Clinical, biochemical and anthropometric analysis were assessed. Relative gene expressions of DYRK1B were compared between two groups of subjects using real time PCR. RESULTS: We observed marked overexpression in DYRK1B (p < 0.05) in MetS subjects when compared with the healthy control subjects. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to provide evidence that DYRK1B is highly expressed among the MetS subjects.

Insights from ancient DNA analysis of Egyptian human mummies: clues to disease and kinship.

The molecular Egyptology field started in the mid-eighties with the first publication on the ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of an Egyptian mummy. Egypt has been a major interest for historians, archeologists, laymen as well as scientists. The aDNA research on Egyptian biological remains has been fueled by their abundance and relatively well-preserved states through artificial mummification and by the advanced analytical techniques. Early doubts of aDNA integrity within the Egyptian mummies and data authenticity were later abated with studies proving successfully authenticated aDNA retrieval. The current review tries to recapitulate the published studies presenting paleogenomic evidence of disease diagnosis and kinship establishment for the Egyptian human remains. Regarding disease diagnosis, the prevailing literature was on paleogenomic evidence of infectious diseases in the human remains. A series of reports presented evidence for the presence of tuberculosis and/or malaria. In addition, there were solitary reports of the presence of leprosy, diphtheria, bacteremia, toxoplasmosis, schistosomiasis and leishmaniasis. On the contrary, paleogenomic evidence of the presence of rare diseases was quite scarce and mentioned only in two articles. On the other hand, kinship analysis of Egyptian human remains, including that of Tutankhamen, was done using both mitochondrial DNA sequences and nuclear DNA markers, to establish family relationships in four studies. It is clear that the field of molecular Egyptology is still a largely unexplored territory. Nevertheless, the paleogenomic investigation of Egyptian remains could make significant contributions to biomedical sciences (e.g. elucidation of coevolution of human host-microbe interrelationship) as well as to evidence-based archeology.

Genetic susceptibility for insulin resistance among Egyptian women.

The fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene is recognized as the strongest predictor of obesity related traits such as insulin sensitivity and plasma glucose. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of the FTO rs17817449 genetic variant (G > T) polymorphism with risk of insulin resistance (IR) among Egyptian women. The variants in FTO rs17817449 were genotyped in 301 Egyptian women comprising two study groups, 150 women with IR and 151 healthy controls. The polymorphism of FTO rs17817449 was tested for association with IR. The frequencies of the FTO genotypes differed significantly between IR patients and healthy controls. Results revealed a significant association of TT genotype (OR, 2.33; 95% CI, 1.38-3.92; p = .001) and T-allele (OR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.11-1.72; p .007) with IR. BMI, waist circumference, waist to hip and, body fat % were the highest in homozygotes TT genotype and the lowest in GG homozygotes in IR women but not observed in control subjects. Moreover, other abnormal metabolic risk parameters were significantly higher in TT carriers compared to GT and GG carriers in IR group. Association between FTO SNP (rs17817449) and IR was observed under recessive model. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that FTO rs17817449 may have an important role in development of IR in Egyptian women.