Al Thwiby, N. M., N. A. Hussien, E. S. Bayoumy, and M. Shokary, "HV2 fragment mutations in β-thalassemia patients and a new base pair insertion of high-altitude cases.", American journal of blood research, vol. 10, issue 5, pp. 283-293, 2020. Abstract

Worldwide, thalassemia represents one of the most common genetic disorders. There is a prevalence of Beta-thalassemia in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), however there is a genetic counseling availability and an existence of mandatory premarital testing policy. Few studies detect molecular mutations of thalassemia genes in different KSA governates, including Makkah, Hufuf, Qatif, and Dammam but in our peer knowledge there is no reports on high altitude Taif region. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the molecular mutation analysis of β-thalassemia gene in El Taif province (as a high-altitude area) patients of KSA and to estimate the iron overload toxicity due to thalassemia syndrome on the hotspot noncoding D-loop region (hypervariable, HV2 gene fragment) of mtDNA. Blood samples were collected from total 25 β-thalassemia patients and 25 normal control that were used for HPLC, hematological analysis and different molecular evaluations. Extracted nuclear DNA from blood sample was used to detect known mutations accompanied with β-thalassemia in other countries using PCR-ARMS technique targeting IVSII-1, IVSI-5, Codon 8/9, Cd44 and Cd5 genes' mutations. Moreover, mtDNA was used to detect point of mutation of HV2 fragment in the D-loop region using PCR-SSCP and then sequencing. Results show significant increase in the level of HbA2 and decrease of HbA in comparison to control by using HPLC. PCR-ARMS reports that all β-thalassemia patients have heterozygous alleles of wild and mutated regions with nucleotide transition/transversion of IVSI-5 (AC>AG), Codon 8/9 (CT>CC), and Cd44 (GG>GA), however no point of mutation was detected in IVSII-1 (AC>AT) Cd5 (CT>CG) genes. Moreover, PCR-SSCP shows points of mutations for β-thalassemia HV2 fragment that were confirmed by sequencing in the form of base pairs deletion, insertion and transition/transversion. For the first time, the present study reports the presence of 2 bps found in HV2 region that might be specific to KSA nations and not found in other countries. In conclusion, our results were in concurrent with other studies in the presence of specific genetic mutations in β-thalassemia patients that is accompanied with points of mutations in HV2 region of high altitude Taif governate.

Hussien, N. A., and H. R. H. Mohamed, "Estimation of mandarin peel oil-induced cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in human normal fibroblast and cancerous prostate cell lines.", Toxicology mechanisms and methods, vol. 31, issue 2, pp. 100-106, 2021. Abstract

The low price and high contents of bioactive compounds in citrus peel increase interest in using it in various applications. Mandarin (Citrus reticluata) peel belongs to Rutaceae family and is rich with antioxidants. However, limited studies are available on toxicity of Mandarin peel oil (MPO) on human Prostate Cancer (PC3) cells. Therefore, the present study was conducted to study the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of MPO on Human normal Fibroblast (HFB4) and PC3 cell lines. The half maximal inhibitory (IC50) and safe concentration of MPO was detected using MTT assay. Comet and DNA fragmentation assays were performed to assess apoptotic DNA damage. Also, the ROS level was evaluated and the mRNA expression level of apoptotic and antiapoptotic genes were measured using RT-PCR. Results of the cytotoxic test showed that MPO induced preferential inhibition of PC3 cells proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner with IC50 10.97 µg/ml. The time-dependent induction of DNA breaks demonstrated in PC3 cells treated with MPO safe concentration-stimulated ROS generation and apoptotic DNA damage through increased expression of tumor suppressor p53 and Bax genes and decreased expression of Bcl2 and MDM2 genes. In contrast, non-significant changes were observed in the DNA integrity, ROS levels and expressions of the tested genes in the normal HFB4 cells treated with MPO. Thus, we concluded that MPO induced preferential cytotoxic and genotoxic effects toward cancerous PC3 with no noticeable toxic effects in normal HFB4 cells and therefore further in vivo studies are recommended to test its possible use as anticancer drugs.

Hussien, N. A., and G. A. Alsulami, "Anticancer Potential of Lepidium Sativum Seeds Aqueous Extract on the Azoxymethane/ Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Colon Cancer In vivo", Current Nutraceuticals , vol. 1, issue 2, pp. 1-11, 2020.
Hussien, N. A., S. Mohamed, and F. A. T. I. M. A. H. S. ALHARBI, "HISTOPATHOLOGICAL AND DNA DAMAGE EVALUATION OF TRICLOSAN AND THE PROTECTOR ROLE OF VITAMIN E IN THE LIVER OF ALBINO MALE MICE", International Journal of Current Research, vol. 9, issue 1, pp. 45337-45340, 2017.
Hussien, N. A., S. Mohamed, S. A. Salama, and F. A. T. I. M. A. H. S. ALHARBI, "MODULATORY EFFECTS OF VITAMIN E ON TRICLOSANINDUCED GENOTOXIC, CYTOTOXIC AND OXIDATIVE STRESS IN SWISS MICE", Journal of Basic and Applied Research International, vol. 19, issue 2, pp. 140-151, 2016.
Alsulami, G. A., and N. A. Hussien, "Subchronic study of sperm morphology, genotoxic and mutagenic effect of Lepidium sativum seeds aqueous extract in vivo", Recent Research in Genetics and Genomics, vol. 2, issue 1, pp. 1-14, 2020. subchronic_lepidium_final.pdf
Mohamed, H. R. H., and N. A. Hussien, "Amelioration of cobalt oxide nanoparticles induced genomic and mitochondrial DNA damage and oxidative stress by omega-3 co-administration in mice", Caryologia International Journal of Cytology, Cytosystematics and Cytogenetics, vol. 71, issue 4, pp. 357–364, 2018.