Explore the vast range of titles available.

Thalassemia is a major health problem due to iron overload, iron deposition and oxidative stress-induced tissue damage. Here, we introduce Al-hijamah (a minor surgical excretory procedure) as a novel percutaneous iron excretion therapy. Al-hijamah is a wet cupping therapy of prophetic medicine, and prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, strongly recommended Al-hijamah, saying: \"The best of your treatment is Al-hijamah\". Our study aimed at investigating the safety, iron chelation, pharmacological potentiation and oxidant clearance effects exerted by Al-hijamah to thalassemic children. Ethical committee's approval and patients' written agreement consents were obtained. We treated 20 thalassemic children (15 males and five females aged 9.07±4.26 years) with iron chelation therapy (ICT) plus Al-hijamah (using sterile disposable sets and in a complete aseptic environment) vs a control group treated with ICT only. This clinical trial was registered in the ClinicalTrial.gov registry under the name \"Study of the Therapeutic Benefits of Al-hijamah in Children with Beta Thalassemia Major\" (identifier no NCT 02761395) on 30 January 2016. Al-hijamah was quite simple, safe, effective, tolerable (with no side effects) and time-saving procedure (30-60 minutes). A single session of Al-hijamah significantly reduced iron overload ( <0.001) in all thalassemic children. Al-hijamah significantly decreased serum ferritin by 25.22% (from 3,778.350±551.633 ng/mL to 2,825.300±558.94 ng/mL), significantly decreased oxidative stress by 68.69% ( <0.05; serum malondialdehyde dropped from 42.155±12.42 to 13.195±0.68 nmol/L), exerted pharmacological potentiation to ICT and significantly increased total antioxidant capacity ( <0.001) by 260.95% (from 13.195±0.68 nmol/L to 42.86±12.40 nmol/L through excreting reactive oxygen species). Moreover, therapeutic indices for evaluating Al-hijamah were promising. Al-hijamah is a novel, safe, effective percutaneous iron excretion therapy through percutaneous iron excretion with minimal blood loss in agreement with the evidence-based Taibah mechanism. Al-hijamah is an effective outpatient hematological procedure that is safer than many pediatric procedures such as catheterization, hemofiltration and dialysis. Increasing the number of cups during Al-hijamah session or the number of sessions reduces iron overload more strongly. Medical practice of Al-hijamah is strongly recommended in hospitals.

This experiment aimed to investigate the effect of dietary  Nigella sativa  on the cell-mediated immune response. Eighteen male Wistar rats were divided equally into a control group and treated groups that received black seeds at rates of 30 and 50 g/kg in the diet (Sa30 and Sa50 groups, respectively, for 30 days. The weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and cell-mediated immune response were monitored after the injection of 0.1 mL of 10% phytohemagglutinin (PHA). The intumesce index, serum total antioxidant capacity (TAC), catalase (CAT), interleukin-12 (IL-12), gamma interferon (γ-IF) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) were determined. Histopathological examination and an immunohistochemistry analysis of splenic caspase-3 and CD8 were performed. Nigella sativa  significantly improved the weight gain and FCR. Intumesce index of Sa50 group was significantly increased. Nigella sativa significantly increased TAC, CAT, IL-12, γ-IF and TNF-α. A histological examination of PHA-stimulated foot pads showed increased leukocyte infiltration and edema in a dose-dependent pattern. Splenic caspase-3 and CD8 showed significant decreases and increases, respectively, in the Sa30 and Sa50 groups. The results indicate that Nigella sativa seeds exhibit immunostimulatory function through their antioxidant potential, induction of cytokine production, promotion of CD8 expression and reduction of splenic apoptosis.

This study investigated the ameliorative potential of methanolic date flesh extract (MDFE) against cisplatin-induced hepatic injury. Twenty male rats (weighing 180–200 g) were allocated into four groups: control; date flesh (DF) group (oral 600 mg/kg MDFE for 21 days); Cis group (7.5 mg/kg i.p. at day 16); and date flesh/cisplatin (DF/Cis) group (oral 600 mg/kg MDFE for 21 days and 7.5 mg/kg i.p. at day 16). Hepatic biochemical parameters in sera, and inflammatory and oxidant/antioxidant hepatic biomarkers were estimated. Hepatic histological changes and the immunohistochemistry of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), and alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) were assessed. Pretreatment with MDFE decreased Cis-triggered liver biochemical parameters, oxidative stress, inflammatory biomarkers, and histological damage. Moreover, MDFE treatment reduced Cis-induced hepatic NF-κB, COX-2, and α-SMA protein expression. MDFE exerted a hepatoprotective effect when used concomitantly with Cis. Its effect was mediated via its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredients.

Iron overload causes iron deposition and accumulation in the liver, heart, skin, and other tissues resulting in serious tissue damages. Significant blood clearance from iron and ferritin using wet cupping therapy (WCT) has been reported. WCT is an excretory form of treatment that needs more research efforts. WCT is an available, safe, simple, economic, and time-saving outpatient modality of treatment that has no serious side effects. There are no serious limitations or precautions to discontinue WCT. Interestingly, WCT has solid scientific and medical bases (Taibah mechanism) that explain its effectiveness in treating many disease conditions differing in etiology and pathogenesis. WCT utilizes an excretory physiological principle (pressure-dependent excretion) that resembles excretion through renal glomerular filtration and abscess evacuation. WCT exhibits a percutaneous excretory function that clears blood (through fenestrated skin capillaries) and interstitial fluids from pathological substances without adding a metabolic or detoxification burden on the liver and the kidneys. Interestingly, WCT was reported to decrease serum ferritin (circulating iron stores) significantly by about 22.25% in healthy subjects (in one session) and to decrease serum iron significantly to the level of causing iron deficiency (in multiple sessions). WCT was reported to clear blood significantly of triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, total cholesterol, uric acid, inflammatory mediators, and immunoglobulin antibodies (rheumatoid factor). Moreover, WCT was reported to enhance the natural immunity, potentiate pharmacological treatments, and to treat many different disease conditions. There are two distinct methods of WCT: traditional WCT and Al-hijamah (WCT of prophetic medicine). Both start and end with skin sterilization. In traditional WCT, there are two steps, skin scarification followed by suction using plastic cups (double S technique); Al-hijamah is a three-step procedure that includes skin suction using cups, scarification (shartat mihjam in Arabic), and second skin suction (triple S technique). Al-hijamah is a more comprehensive technique and does better than traditional WCT, as Al-hijamah includes two pressure-dependent filtration steps versus one step in traditional WCT. Whenever blood plasma is to be cleared of an excess pathological substance, Al-hijamah is indicated. We will discuss here some reported hematological and therapeutic benefits of Al-hijamah, its medical bases, methodologies, precautions, side effects, contraindications, quantitative evaluation, malpractice, combination with oral honey treatment, and to what extent it may be helpful when treating thalassemia and other conditions of iron overload and hyperferremia.

Background: Thalassemia is a major health problem due to iron overload, iron deposition and oxidative stress-induced tissue damage. Here, we introduce Al-hijamah (a minor surgical excretory procedure) as a novel percutaneous iron excretion therapy. Al-hijamah is a wet cupping therapy of prophetic medicine, and prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, strongly recommended Al-hijamah, saying: \"The best of your treatment is Al-hijamah\". Aim of the study: Our study aimed at investigating the safety, iron chelation, pharmacological potentiation and oxidant clearance effects exerted by Al-hijamah to thalassemic children. Patients and methods: Ethical committee's approval and patients' written agreement consents were obtained. We treated 20 thalassemic children (15 males and five females aged 9.07[+ or -]4.26 years) with iron chelation therapy (ICT) plus Al-hijamah (using sterile disposable sets and in a complete aseptic environment) vs a control group treated with ICT only. This clinical trial was registered in the ClinicalTrial.gov registry under the name \"Study of the Therapeutic Benefits of Al-hijamah in Children with Beta Thalassemia Major\" (identifier no NCT 02761395) on 30 January 2016. Results: Al-hijamah was quite simple, safe, effective, tolerable (with no side effects) and time-saving procedure (30-60 minutes). A single session of Al-hijamah significantly reduced iron overload (P<0.001) in all thalassemic children. Al-hijamah significantly decreased serum ferritin by 25.22% (from 3,778.350[+ or -]551.633 ng/mL to 2,825.300[+ or -]558.94 ng/mL), significantly decreased oxidative stress by 68.69% (P<0.05; serum malondialdehyde dropped from 42.155[+ or -]12.42 to 13.195[+ or -]0.68 nmol/L), exerted pharmacological potentiation to ICT and significantly increased total antioxidant capacity (P<0.001) by 260.95% (from 13.195[+ or -]0.68 nmol/L to 42.86[+ or -]12.40 nmol/L through excreting reactive oxygen species). Moreover, therapeutic indices for evaluating Al-hijamah were promising. Conclusion: Al-hijamah is a novel, safe, effective percutaneous iron excretion therapy through percutaneous iron excretion with minimal blood loss in agreement with the evidence-based Taibah mechanism. Al-hijamah is an effective outpatient hematological procedure that is safer than many pediatric procedures such as catheterization, hemofiltration and dialysis. Increasing the number of cups during Al-hijamah session or the number of sessions reduces iron overload more strongly. Medical practice of Al-hijamah is strongly recommended in hospitals. Keywords: thalassemia, Al-hijamah, iron chelation therapy, oxidative stress, clearance, Al-hijamah indices

There are many problems related to the use of machine learning and machine vision technology on a commercial scale for cutting sugarcane seeds. These obstacles are related to complex systems and the way the farmers operate them, the possibility of damage to the buds during the cleaning process, and the high cost of such technology. In order to address these issues, a set of RGB color sensors was used to develop an automated sugarcane seed cutting machine (ASSCM) capable of identifying the buds that had been manually marked with a unique color and then cutting them mechanically, and the sugarcane seed exit chute was provided with a sugarcane seed monitoring unit. The machine’s performance was evaluated by measuring the damage index at sugarcane stalk diameters of 2.03, 2.72, 3.42, and 3.94 cm. where two different types of rotary saw knives had the same diameter of 7.0 in/180 mm the two knives had 30 and 80 teeth, also we used five cutting times of 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, and 3000 ms. All tests were done at a fixed cutting speed of 12000 rpm. In addition, the machine’s performance was evaluated by conducting an economic analysis. The obtained results showed that the most damage index values were less than 0.00 for all cutting times and sugarcane stalk diameters under testing, while the DI values were equal zero (partial damage) for sugarcane stalk diameter of 3.42 cm at cutting times of 2000 ms and 2500 ms, in addition to the DI values being equal zero (extreme damage) for sugarcane stalk diameter of 3.94 cm at cutting times of 1500 ms and 2000 ms. The economic analysis showed that the total cost of sugarcane seeds per hectare is 70.865 USD. In addition, the ASSCM can pay for itself in a short period of time. The payback time is 0.536 years, which means that the ASSCM will save enough money to pay for itself in about 6.43 months. Finally, we suggest using a rotary saw knife with 80 teeth and a cutting time of 2000 ms to cut sugarcane stacks with an average diameter of 2.72 cm. This will result in higher performance and lower operating costs for the ASSCM.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306584.].

In 2018, the Egyptian government initiated a massive hepatitis C screening and treatment program. The Ministry of Health set the goal of screening all adults (target population, 62.5 million) within 1 year and provided treatment paid for by the government. Nearly 50 million people participated in screening, and approximately 1 million patients were treated for HCV infection.

Background: Precision oncology has been increasingly used in clinical practice and rapidly evolving in the oncology field. Thus, this study was performed to assess the frequency of germline mutations in early and late onset familial breast cancer (BC) Egyptian patients using multi-gene panel sequencing to better understand the contribution of the inherited germline mutations in BC predisposition. Moreover, to determine the actionable deleterious mutations associated with familial BC that might be used as biomarker for early cancer detection. Methods: Whole blood samples were collected from 101 Egyptian patients selected for BC family history, in addition to 50 age-matched healthy controls. A QIAseq targeted DNA panel (human BC panel) was used to assess the frequency of germline mutations. Results: A total of 58 patients (57.4%) out of 101 were found to have 27 deleterious germline mutations in 11 cancer susceptibility genes. Of them, 32 (31.6%) patients carried more than one pathogenic mutation and each one carried at least one pathogenic mutation. The major genes harboring the pathogenic mutations were: ATM, BRCA2, BRCA1, VHL, MSH6, APC, CHEK2, MSH2, MEN1, PALB2, and MUTYH. Thirty-one patients (30.6%) had BRCA2 mutations and twenty (19.8%) had BRCA1 mutations. Our results showed that exon 10 and exon 11 harbored 3 and 5 mutations, respectively, in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Our analysis also revealed that the VHL gene significantly co-occurred with each of the BRCA2 gene (p = 0.003, event ratio 11/21), the MSH2 gene (p = 0.01, 4/10), the CHEK2 gene (p = 0.02, 4/11), and the MSH6 gene (p = 0.04, 4/12). In addition, the APC gene significantly co-occurred with the MSH2 gene (p = 0.01, 3/7). Furthermore, there was a significant mutually exclusive event between the APC gene and the ATM gene (p = 0.04, 1/36). Interestingly, we identified population specific germline mutations in genes showing potentials for targeted therapy to meet the need for incorporating precision oncology into clinical practice. For example, the mutations identified in the ATM, APC, and MSH2 genes. Conclusions: Multi-gene panel sequencing was used to detect the deleterious mutations associated with familial BC, which in turns mitigate the essential need for implementing next generation sequencing technologies in precision oncology to identify cancer predisposing genes. Moreover, identifying DNA repair gene mutations, with focus on non-BRCA genes, might serve as candidates for targeted therapy and will be increasingly used in precision oncology.