Basic Science Sector

Aspartame (L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester, ASP) is one of the mostwidely used artificial sweeteners. Manyconcerns have been raised about the sideeffects of ASP consumption and its safety since different studies that investigatedthe effects of ASP revealed controversial results. The aim of the present study is toinvestigate whether the daily oral administration of ASP (40 mg/kg) for 2, 4 and 6weeks induce oxidative stress in the rat cerebral cortex.

The preliminary phytochemical screening of extracts of Rumex vesicarius L. and Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) Willd. showed the presence of compounds that are biologically active against the two root rot pathogens Drechslera biseptata and Fusarium solani in vitro. The relative efficacy of this action, however, differed according to the extracted plant, solvent used, extract concentration, the target fungus and phase of growth. Ethanolic extract ranked first, followed by the remaining aqueous layer fraction. Eight flavonoid subfractions (rutin, quercetin, myricetin, apigenin, quercetin-3-O-galactoside, luteolin, kaempherol and kaempherol-3-O-robinoside) and six flavonoid subfractions (apigenin-7-O-glucoide, quercitrin, quercetin, isovitexin, rutin and quercetin-3-O lucoside-7-O-rhamnoside) were isolated from the remaining aqueous layer fraction of R. vesicarius and Z. spina-christi, respectively. Generally, spore production and germination as well as cellulolytic and pectolytic activity of F. solani were affected by plant extracts more than that of D. biseptata. F. solani failed completely to produce spores when treated

Background: An intensive research effort in the field of non-invasive evaluation of liver fibrosis has recently permitted the description of several blood markers of fibrosis, mainly in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients. Our aim was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a panel of simple blood markers of liver fibrosis in CHC patients. Materials and Methods: One hundred and thirty two patients with CHC evaluated for deciding on antiviral therapy were included. We used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and a stepwise combination algorithm was developed to assess and compare the diagnostic accuracy of blood markers. Results: The areas under the ROC curves of AST/ALT ratio, albumin, platelet count, APRI and fibronectin for discriminating advanced liver fibrosis (F3-F4) were 0.58, 0.73, 0.76 , 0.73 and 0.74; respectively. The AUC of combined markers score based on AST-ALT ratio, albumin, fibronectin and platelets count was 0.86 for advanced liver fibrosis patients. The combined markers correctly classified 35 positive patients from 43 patients with 81% sensitivity and classified 64 patients as negative from a total of 89 patients with 72% specificity. Discussions.we have developed multivariate discriminate analysis (MDA), a function may contribute to differentiating advanced fibrosis in patients with CHC. The MDA function is based on easily and routinely analyzed four blood markers as noninvasive, reproducible, quantitative, precise, accurate and low cost method that can be applied to patients who either have contraindications or refuse liver biopsy for the management of their HCV infection.

Limiting factors to the tilapia farming industry are numerous and deeply embedded in the environmental paradigm. Infectious diseases are moved to the top list of limiting factors that harshly endangering the fish health with consequent negative impact on the entire population ecology.

The study aimed to clarify the relative susceptibility of polyculture rearing African sharptooth catfish (Clarias gariepnus) and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) , the two main reared species in Egypt to Edwardsiella tarda. Experimental infection of catfish and Nile tilapia with E. tarda was carried out after determination of the Mean lethal dose in African catfish (LC50). Infectivity pattern and pathology of E. tarda in catfish and Nile tilapia were tested via intra-peritoneal inoculation of 0.2ml of 104 CFU/ml of the bacteria at 25 oC. The mortality rates were 70% and 60% in catfish and Nile tilapia respectively.

The present study was designed to explain clearly why methyltestosterone is widely used by the Egyptian producers of farmed tilapia and also to investigate its fate in treated fish to guarantee that no hazards on consumers, producers and on the environment. In this study, samples of untreated and treated Nile tilapia were collected at several time intervals. Water quality parameters were within the acceptable range for fish growth. The present analyses showed highly significant increase in body weight, body length, condition factor (K), HSI and GSI, between different time intervals (April - November, 2009) in the untreated control and treated groups. On the other hand, plasma testosterone and residual concentration of testosterone hormone in muscle showed highly significant differences between the studied months in untreated control and treated groups. Molecular biological analyses revealed that methyltestosterone was able to induce DNA fragmentation and molecular genetic variability (using RAPD- PCR fingerprinting pattern) in the testis tissues of the treated Nile tilapia; Oreochromis niloticus, which was higher in the first four studied months than the untreated control tilapia. Additionally, histopathological examination showed no changes and no traces of hormone accumulation in the muscle structure. Testis showed moderate number of spermatozoa followed by increasing in number of spermatozoa at the end of the study.

The azimuthal angle (f) dependence of the Coulomb barrier parameters (height Vb and position Rb) are studied in the framework of the double-folding model with the realistic M3Y nucleon-nucleon interaction.

Between 1950 and the beginning of the 21st century, the mortality rates for cancer did not significantly improve. Despite the discovery of dozens of novel anticancer drugs, cancer remains the leading cause of death worldwide. There are wide gaps between the disease incidence (0.16%), disease burden (5.6 %), and the mortality caused by cancer (12.5 %).1 However, in countries with a wide diversity of plant life, there have been intensified efforts to discover natural cancer therapeutics.

Today, the recombinant proteins become a major foundation of different industrial sectors. Products ofthese industries enhance the fields of medicine, pharmacology, agriculture, nutrition, petrochemicals,paper, textiles and many others. Since the mid 1980s, recombinant DNA technology has enabled thedevelopment of a wide diversity of vectors for expression of the desired recombinant protein innumerous prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Baculovirus expression vector system is consideredone of the most successful and widely acceptable means for the production of recombinant proteins inextremely large quantities.

The present work aims, primarily, at studying the problem of two bodies with varying mass which has important practical and astrophysical applications. The ejection of mass from any body depends on many parameters, amongst the most important of which are the central condensation (which means, more or less, the degree of rigidity of the body) and the velocity of rotation which provides the external layers with the angular momentum that activates the process of ejection of mass. The procedure followed is developed in the Hamiltonian framework, and is expressed explicitly in terms of the coordinates using Lie series.

Phytochemical screening of Alhagi maurorum, Calotropis procera and Datura innoxia extracts revealed the presence of carbohydrates and/or glycosides, tannins, flavonoids, steroids and/or triterpenes. Moreover, anthraquinones were detected in A. maurorum and C. procera whereas alkaloids were detected in D. innoxia only. When ethyl alcohol extract prepared from D. innoxia was further fractionated by petroleum ether and chloroform, three fractions were detected. Four triterpenes subfractions (D1-D4) were isolated from petroleum ether fraction and identified as ?- amyrin, daturadiol, daturadiol-3-acetate and daturaolone. Chloroform fraction contained alkaloids which were fractionated into 3 subfractions (D5- D7) and identified as atropine, hyoscine and hyoscyamine. Two coumarin subfactions were isolated from the remaining aqueous layer and identified as scopoletin and scopolin. All the selected plant extracts were effective in inhibiting growth, sporulation, conidial germination as well as cellulase and pectinase enzymes of Drechslera biseptata and Fusarium solani, except the remaining aquaeous layer fraction of ethanolic extract prepared from D. innoxia which exhibited stimulatory effect on spore production and nonsignificant effect on conidial germination as well as cellulase and pectinase enzymes of D. biseptata. Mostly F. solani was more susceptible to plant extracts than D. biseptata. It was evident that the antifungal activity of the plant extracts depended upon type of plant, solvent, extract concentration as well as fungal type and its phase of growth.

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The changes in phytate, phytase activity and in vitro bioavailability of iron and zinc during soaking and germination of three white sorghum varieties (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), named Dorado, Shandweel-6, and Giza-15 were investigated. Sorghum varieties were soaked for 20 h and germinated for 72 h after soaking for 20 h to reduce phytate content and increase iron and zinc in vitro bioavailability. The results revealed that iron and zinc content was significantly reduced from 28.16 to 32.16% and 13.78 to 26.69% for soaking treatment and 38.43 to 39.18% and 21.80 to 31.27% for germination treatments, respectively. Phytate content was significantly reduced from 23.59 to 32.40% for soaking treatment and 24.92 to 35.27% for germination treatments, respectively. Phytase enzymes will be activated during drying in equal form in all varieties. The results proved that the main distinct point is the change of phytase activity as well as specific activity during different treatment which showed no significant differences between the varieties used. The in vitro bioavailability of iron and zinc were significantly improved as a result of soaking and germinationtreatments.

The aim of the current investigation was to evaluate the effects of administration various levels (400, 800 and 1,200 ppm) of pomposia extracts as natural antioxidant in comparison with BHT as synthetic antioxidant on some biochemical activities and histopathological examination of rats.

Male adult albino rats were used to study the hypoglycemic effect of Mangiferaindica and Psidium guajava aqueous extracts either used individually or incombination of as well as the effect of glibenclamide as reference sulfonylureasdrug at the dose level of 0.5 mg/kg body weight in streptozotocin-diabetic rats.Preliminary test using different doses of each plant indicated that the most effectivedoses were 250 mg/kg body weight for each plant. Our studies was extended toinclude the effect of the tested doses on different biochemical parameters includingserum insulin concentration, hepatic glycogen content, total proteins, total lipidsand transaminases activities in serum and liver. The obtained data of the abovementioned investigations revealed great alleviation of the impaired glucose tolerance, serum insulin and hepatic glycogen content, also serum and hepatic totalprotein contents were increased as a result of treatment. In STZ-diabetic rats, theactivities of (ALT, AST and ALP) either detected in sera or hepatic tissues wereincreased, then the activities were improved as a result of treatments.

Plantago major (seeds and leaves) and Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (guar beans( were analyzed for general chemical components including, fatty acids and amino acids. Guar beans had high contents of proteins, fats and total hydrolysable carbohydrates. Plantago leaves high percentage of linolenic acid was characterized by 56.19%. While, P. major seeds and Guar beans had high percentages of linoleic acid (25.41 and 48.99%, respectively). Essential and non essential amino acids were present in all samples and Guar beans had high amounts of glutamic, arginine, aspartic and leucine. Total phenols, total flavonoids and tannin content were the highest in Plantago leaves.

The effects of sublethal concentrations of methanol extract of sesbania sesban plant on survival rate, egg laying of Bulinus truncatus snails, hatchability of their eggs, infection rate with Schistosoma haematobium miracidia, cercarial production and certain physiological parameters of treated snails were studied. The sublethal concentrations of the tested plant extract (LC0, LC10 and LC25) caused considerable reduction in survival rates; egg production of B. runcates snails; hatchability of eggs as well as in the infectivity of Schistosoma haematobium miracidia to the snail. Also, the tested concentrations reduced the cercarial production per snail and the period of cercarial shedding. The glucose level in haemolymph of exposed snails was elevated while the glycogen, protein content and the activities of hexokinase (HK), pyruvatekinase (PK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) showed a decrease in soft tissues when compared with the control group. It was concluded that the app lication of sublethal concentration of methanol extracts of Sesania sesban may be helpful in snail control as it interferes with the snails' biology and physiology.

Aquatic environments get contaminated with pesticides residues that result from the application of pesticidesin agricultural practices. The present study aimed to evaluate the pesticides Malathion and Deltamethrinon biological and biochemical parameters of Helisoma duryi snails. The results showed that LC10of the two pesticides caused considerable reduction in survival rates and egg production of treated snails.

Coupling of bis-enaminones with benzenediazonium chloride and 3-diazo-1,2,4-triazole proved to be convenient routes for the synthesis of novel 3,4-bis(pyrazol-3-yl)pyrazoles and 3,6-bis(heteroaryl)pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyridazines which have not been reported previously. The structures of the products were elucidated on the basis of their spectral properties, elemental analyses and, wherever possible, by alternate synthesis.

We study Boolean functions derived from Fermat quotients modulo p using the Legendre symbol. We prove bounds on several complexity measures for these Boolean functions: the nonlinearity, sparsity, average sensitivity, and combinatorial complexity. Our mmain tools are bounds on chracter sums of Fermat quotients modulo p.

In this study, a method for the detection of sarafloxacin in pig and chicken muscles was developed using HPLC-FLD as a regulatory residue technique. Good extraction efficiency was achieved using a mixture of 1% orthophosphoric acid-0.2 m MgCl(2) in water and acetonitrile as an extraction solvent, and n-hexane partitioning and centrifugation for cleanup was used in the absence of dehydration. Specificity, linearity, detection and quantification limits, recovery, accuracy and precision were all validated, and all results were sufficient for the SARA regulatory residue method in pig and chicken muscles. The method developed and described herein was not only simple but also reliable, and was applied to market samples to determine their residue contents.

Background: Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is the most aggressive form of breast cancer. In non-IBC, the cysteine protease cathepsin B (CTSB) is known to be involved in cancer progression and invasion; however, very little is known about its role in IBC.