Search

Beta-casein (β-CN) is a major dairy protein subject to preferential degradation during storage. Our study aimed to isolate β-casein from bovine milk under dissociative conditions by the electrophoretic technique using Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and optimize an immunochemical technique such as Mancini radial immunodiffusion in order to monitor the evolution of this milk protein during storage. For this purpose, a series of physicochemical and bacteriological analyses revealed conformity with international standards. This allowed us to use quality milk for more detailed studies of proteins, in particular β-casein, which was selected as a marker of milk protein quality. The total casein of mixed milk samples was isolated and then submitted to electrophoretic separation. Various combinations of acrylamide and bisacrylamide were used and the one corresponding to the ratio 8 g / 230 mg was retained. A total casein deposit of 833 µg provided an adequate b-casein concentration (300 µg) for consistent animal immunization. Thirty Wistar rats were subjected to an immunization protocol for 35 days. The obtained antisera were used to optimize the Mancini technique and to assay b-casein in our samples at different storage times ranging from 3 h to 69 h/+4°C. A decrease in b-casein content from 0.85 mg ml-1 to 0.32 mg ml-1 was detected. These results demonstrate the vulnerability of b-casein at low temperatures and provide information on the origin of milk and its application for dairy or cheese production. In addition, our study confirms the usefulness of immunochemical techniques such as the Mancini test in the determination of β-casein.

Bacteria are attracting the interest of worldwide investors; their use is interesting in several industrial fields, this organism produces a wide variety of extracellular enzymes, including proteases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the production of protease by different bacterial strains isolated from local marine samples collected from the Cap Rousseau beach in the Oran city, northwestern Algeria, 44 bacterial isolates were tested for protease production by cultivating them on skim milk agar medium. The proteolytic activities of all strains were tested using skim milk agar and gelatin agar. Among the 14 isolates that showed a significant hydrolysis diameter, two bacterial strains EC23 and EC2S3 demonstrated the highest potential for protease production and they were selected for further studies. In addition, the extracellular protease was examined using the fermentation production medium at 30°C for 48h, with a constant agitation of 150 rpm. The enzyme activity was determined under varying conditions of pH, incubation temperature, and salt concentration, using Sigma's Universal Protease Activity Assay. The enzyme from EC23 strain showed higher activity in all cases than the EC2S3 strain, which indicated that it was the most ideal organism for enzyme production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of our study was the antifungal power test of the pomegranate peel aqueous extract PPE, on a phytopathogenic fungal strain of tomato "Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.radicis-lycopersici". For this purpose, a test was carried out, by the direct contact method in PDA potato dextrose agar medium, on the phytopathogen, in different concentrations of PPE (1%, 2%, 3%, 5%). Antifungal activity was evaluated by the estimation of the mycelial growth, the mycelial inhibition rate and the spore count. Our results showed a remarkable and highly significant antifungal activity against the studied phytopathogen, an inhibition index of 100% with the 3% and 5% concentrations was noted. The effectiveness of PPE could be the subject of investigation and exploitation in the integrated control of the tested fungus that causes much damage to the tomato crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: To assess the compliance to the gluten-free diet (GFD) of Algerian patients with celiac disease (CD) and to study the impact of long-term GFD on anthropometric, serological, and histological parameters of these patients. Material and method: We conducted a retrospective study on 111 cases of CD patients followed up, from pediatric age until now, at the pediatrics department of the ORAN University Hospital Centre for many years. Two groups were made according to their adherence to the gluten-free diet. Results: The clinical presentation of the disease was typical (84.7%) and atypical (15.3%). Two groups were selected group A and B for non-compliant diets (39.6%) and compliant diets (60.4%), respectively. There was a significant difference between the current age and the two groups of adherence (p=0.008) and with body mass index (BMI) (p<10-3). However, we noticed an excellent significant difference between a serology under diet and two groups (p=0.001) also with the grade of histology (p<10-3). Moreover, a significant reduction of IgA and IgG anti-t-TG in group B (p=0.001). Conclusions: CD in Algeria is still characterized by heterogeneous clinical symptoms and good compliance to the GFD is a sign of the path to recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to demonstrate the gender and age-at-onset differences in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the western Algerian population and their impacts on patients' clinical features and medical management. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out at the Internal Medicine and Functional Rehabilitation Departments (University Hospital of Sidi-bel-Abbes region) based on medical records of over 306 RA patients diagnosed between 2016 and 2019 according to ACR 1987 criteria. Late-onset RA (LORA) was defined as disease onset at 51 years of age or older. All data were processed and analyzed via SPSS 22.0. Results:We enrolled 306 rheumatoid arthritis patients (85% women) with a mean age-at-onset of 52.47±12.14. Algerian RA women were more at risk of developing type 2 diabetes (P = 0.035), hypertension (P = 0.003), and thyroid disorders (P = 0.05). We did not find any significant relationship between clinical features, laboratory data, and gender. The LORA group comprised 60.5% of our study population with a higher number of comorbidities such as hypertension (P < 0.001), osteoporosis (P = 0.007), and scleroderma (P = 0.014). Nonetheless, we found evidence of an association between positive anti-CCP, RF rate, and age-at-onset (P = 0.001 and P < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: Algerian RA women with LORA presented a higher prevalence of comorbidities, while Young-onset RA (YORA) was associated with a high rate of RF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helicobacter pylori infection concerns half of the world's population, mainly in developing countries. It causes several gastrodudenal pathologies such as gastritis, ulcer and gastric adenocarcinoma. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of H.pylori infection and to assess the impact of different epidemiological factors as well as principal gastric diseases associated to this infection. We underwent a prospective study during 18 months (month 2016-month 2017) which implicated 201 symptomatic patients for gastric fib -optic endoscopy at the level of Sidi Bel Abbes University hospital. We collected patients' biopsies to perform a histological study and H. pylori culture. H. pylori identification was carried out based on bacteriological and biochemical analysis. The middle age of our population was (47.29 ±15.97ans) and the sex-ratio =0,8. The global prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection is of 61.2% (123/201). This rate, after a statistic analysis, seems to be significantly related to age. It is particularly high especially for patients belonging to age range (20-30)-(51-60) years. The gender did not affect the infection prevalence that is more frequent in the gastritis case. We noticed also that HP infection prevalence was important in SBA the hospital. The range age (20-30)-(51-60) years had the highest prevalence of H. pylori and of gastritis which might be a risky ground of gastric cancer appearance. The ulcer pathology maximal rate concerned the group of 51 to 60 years. Above this age, this rate dropped whereas the number of patients suffering from gastric cancer, which presents an important rate in our study, increase for the group of 61-70 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]