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Salsabeel H Sabi,1 Roaa K Alzreqat,2 Ammar M Almaaytah,3 Majed M Masaadeh,3 Ahmad Khaled Abualhaijaa3 1Basic Sciences Department, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan; 2Department of Biological Sciences, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan; 3Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, JordanCorrespondence: Salsabeel H Sabi, Email salsabeel@hu.edu.joAbstract: Hyperinsulinemic Hypoglycemia (HH) is a rare condition that affects newborn children in the postnatal period, represented by dangerously low levels of blood glucose in a persistent manner, which puts the baby at high risk of multiple issues, especially regarding the brain cells if the baby does not take the appropriate medication or have the correct diagnosis. Hyperinsulinemic Hypoglycemia can happen due to an active or inactive mutation in 16 genes responsible for glucose metabolism and insulin secretion (GLUD1, GCK, SLC16A1, HK1, CACNA1D, KCNJ11, ABCC8, FOXA2, HNF1A, HNF4A, HADH, PGM1, UCP2, KCNQ1, PMM2, EIF2S3). These mutations can take place in many forms, either defused or local, affecting several or all pancreatic beta cells respectively. This review summarizes genetic variations diagnosis and treatment of Hyperinsulinemic Hypoglycemia.Keywords: Hyperinsulinemic Hypoglycemia, nesidioblastosis, GLUD1, hexokinase, FOXA2

Muhamad Ali K Shakhatreh,1 Omar F Khabour,1 Karem H Alzoubi,2 Mohammed N BaniHani,3 Ahmed Abu-Siniyeh,4 Nabil A Bashir,5 Salsabeel H Sabi,2 Mahmoud Mahafdah3 1Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan; 2Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan; 3Department of General Surgery and Urology, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan; 4Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Taif University, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 5Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, JordanCorrespondence: Muhamad Ali K Shakhatreh Email mkshakhatreh@just.edu.joBackground: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is considered the main cause of gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric carcinoma in the human populations. H. pylori infection influences the secretion level of several proinflammatory cytokines including IL-1β, which encoded by the IL-1B gene.Objective: The current study aimed to investigate whether IL-1B gene polymorphisms are associated with H. pylori infection among the Jordanian population and responses to triple therapy.Subjects and Methods: The gastroscopic examination was performed on 412 subjects for H. pylori infection diagnosis, 257 subjects were found to be infected by H. Pylori (positive cases), whereas 155 subjects were uninfected (negative controls). The IL-1B gene T-31C and C3954T polymorphisms were genotyped by PCR-RFLP.Results: It was found that the T-31C polymorphism has a significant association with H. pylori infection (P< 0.05), and the TT genotype frequency was significantly higher in infected subjects (50.2%) compared to controls (38.7%). On the other hand, no significant association was detected between C3954T SNPs and H. pylori infection among the Jordanian population. In addition, none of the examined polymorphisms were found to influence the responses to triple therapy.Conclusion: The IL-1B gene T-31C SNP might be associated with an enhanced risk of H. pylori infection among the Jordanian population.Keywords: IL1B gene, IL-1β, single nucleotide polymorphism, Helicobacter pylori, interleukins

Summary:. This case exhibits a presentation of multiple primary malignancies in a patient with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, necessitating surgical excision and multistaged reconstruction. Due to Li-Fraumeni syndrome patients’ predisposition to developing malignancies, management includes lifelong surveillance and aggressive treatment of cancers. Plastic surgeons can minimize damage to patient’s quality of life by carrying out reconstruction in a thoughtful manner that maximizes function and considers a potential lifetime of future reconstructive needs.

Summary:. Necrotizing soft tissue infection (NSTI) is an acute life-threatening complication of cosmetic surgery. We present a case study of a 48-year-old woman diagnosed with NSTI of the abdominal wall following liposuction, abdominoplasty, and ventral hernia repair performed in Latin America. In the operating room, bowel perforation at the hepatic flexure was observed requiring emergent fascial debridement, bowel resection, and broad-spectrum antibiotics. She required multiple washouts and split-thickness skin grafts. Complications such as NSTI are possible after lipoabdominoplasty and are prevalent in cosmetic medical tourism, due, in part, to varying institutional standards and accreditations, and in some cases lack of consistent adherence to set standards. Complications after medical tourism contribute a significant burden to medical staff and the healthcare system in patients’ home countries. Patient education by their surgeons and plastic surgery societies should be prioritized. It is important for domestic emergency physicians, plastic surgeons, and other care providers to understand complications postcosmetic surgery to promote timely management.

Background: Antibiotic resistance is one of the main concerns of public health, and the whole world is trying to overcome such a challenge by finding novel therapeutic modalities and approaches. This study has applied the sequence hybridization approach to the original sequence of two cathelicidin natural parent peptides (BMAP-28 and LL-37) to design a novel HLM peptide with broad antimicrobial activity., Methods: The physicochemical characteristics of the newly designed peptide were determined. As well, the new peptide's antimicrobial activity (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bacterial Eradication Concentration (MBEC), and antibiofilm activity) was tested on two control ( Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922) and two resistant (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ATCC BAA41, New Delhi metallo-beta- lactamase-1 Escherichia coli ATCC BAA-2452) bacterial strains. Furthermore, synergistic studies have been applied to HLM-hybridized peptides with five conventional antibiotics by checkerboard assays. Also, the toxicity of HLM-hybridized peptide was studied on Vero cell lines to obtain the IC 50 value. Besides the percentage of hemolysis action, the peptide was tested in freshly heparinized blood., Results: The MIC values for the HLM peptide were obtained as 20, 10, 20, and 20 μM, respectively. Also, the results showed no hemolysis action, with low to slightly moderate toxicity action against mammalian cells, with an IC 50 value of 10.06. The Biomatik corporate labs, where HLM was manufactured, determined the stability results of the product by Mass Spectrophotometry (MS) and High-performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) methods. The HLM-hybridized peptide exhibited a range of synergistic to additive antimicrobial activities upon combination with five commercially available different antibiotics. It has demonstrated the biofilm-killing effects in the same concentration required to eradicate the control strains., Conclusion: The results indicated that HLM-hybridized peptide displayed a broad-spectrum activity toward different bacterial strains in planktonic and biofilm forms. It showed synergistic or additive antimicrobial activity upon combining with commercially available different antibiotics., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background: The increase in nosocomial multidrug resistance and biofilm-forming bacterial infections led to the search for new alternative antimicrobial strategies other than traditional antibiotics. Silver nanoparticles (AgNP) could be a viable treatment due to their wide range of functions, rapid lethality, and minimal resistance potential. The primary aim of this study is to prepare silver nanoparticles and explore their antibacterial activity against biofilms., Methods: AgNPs with specific physicochemical properties such as size, shape, and surface chemistry were prepared using a chemical reduction technique, and then characterized by DLS, SEM, and FTIR. The activity of AgNPs was tested alone and in combination with some antibiotics against MDR Gram-negative and Gram-positive planktonic bacterial cells and their biofilms. Finally, mammalian cell cytotoxicity and hemolytic activity were tested using VERO and human erythrocytes., Results: The findings of this study illustrate the success of the chemical reduction method in preparing AgNPs. Results showed that AgNPs have MIC values against planktonic organisms ranging from 0.0625 to 0.125 mg/mL, with the greatest potency against gram-negative bacteria. It also effectively destroyed biofilm-forming cells, with minimal biofilm eradication concentrations (MBEC) ranging from 0.125 to 0.25 mg/ml. AgNPs also had lower toxicity profiles for the MTT test when compared to hemolysis to erythrocytes. Synergistic effect was found between AgNPs and certain antibiotics, where the MIC was dramatically reduced, down to less than 0.00195 mg/ml in some cases., Conclusion: The present findings encourage the development of alternative therapies with high efficacy and low toxicity., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background: Antibiotics have led to significant advancements in medicine. Unfortunately, they were faced with the emergence of pathogen resistance. According to the World Health Organization, antimicrobial resistance has been declared one of humanity's top ten global public health threats. The risk of those bacteria is not only from their being resistant to multi-antibiotics but also from their ability to form biofilms, which can be 1,000 times more resistant than planktonic bacteria., Method: This study used rational design to hybridize two antimicrobial peptides, aiming to enhance their efficacy and stability with reduced toxicity., Results: The MY8 novel peptide was designed from the parent peptides BMAP-27 and CAMP 211-225. Some amino acid modifications were introduced to the hybrid peptide to improve its physicochemical properties guided by several software. Its antimicrobial activity has been studied against gram-negative and gram-positive strains, which showed broad-spectrum activity with MIC values against planktonic bacteria ranging from 0.125 to 25 μM. In contrast, 25-200 μM were needed to eradicate biofilms. Moreover, the MY8 peptide showed synergism with four conventional antibiotics., It also showed reduced toxicity against mammalian cells and a slight hemolysis tendency towards erythrocytes., Conclusion: The design of the MY8 peptide was successful, resulting in a novel, potent, broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptide with reduced toxicity and possible synergism with conventional antibiotics., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Objective: Cigarette tobacco smoking has been shown to cause cancer through different mechanisms that include epigenetic modulation of tumor-suppressor genes. In the present study, the association between global and MLH1 gene promoter methylation and waterpipe tobacco smoking was investigated. Materials and Methods: Blood lymphocytes and oral epithelium were sampled from 150 pure waterpipe smokers and 150 never-smokers from Jordan. Methylation assessment was performed using the methylation-specific PCR technique for MLH1 gene and ELISA for global DNA methylation. Results: Significant increases were shown in global DNA methylation as measured in blood lymphocytes ( p  < 0.01). In addition, increases in MLH1 gene promoter methylation among waterpipe smokers compared to nonsmokers ( p  < 0.001) in both oral epithelium and blood lymphocytes was also observed. In addition, strong correlation was found between LWDS-10J dependence score and magnitude of promoter specific methylation of MLH1 (r2 = 0.74-0.78, p  < 0.001). Moreover, the percentage of methylated MLH1 promoter was not affected by age or gender ( p  > 0.05). Discussion and Conclusion: Collectively, the results indicate that waterpipe tobacco use is associated with epigenetic changes that might predispose users to lung and blood cancers. The results highlight the need for actions to discourage waterpipe smoking and can be used in cessation interventions that target this type of smoking.

Infection with Helicobacter pylori ( H. pylori ) is very common and affecting about 50% of the worldwide population. Several genetic variations have been implicated in determining the clinical susceptibility to this infection. In the current study, we examined the association between C1236T (rs1045642) and C3435T (rs1045642) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the ABCB1 gene and the prevalence of H. pylori infection among Jordanians. A total of 412 subjects (257 H. pylori -positive cases and 155 H. pylori -negative controls) were recruited and participated in the study, and the genotyping of the ABCB1 gene was performed using RFLP-PCR techniques. A significant association was detected between C1236T and H. pylori infection ( p < 0.01). The frequency of CT genotype was significantly higher in the positive cases (40.1%) compared to the controls (21.3%). In addition, the C3435T SNP was weakly associated with H. pylori infection ( p = 0.077). Haplotype analysis of C1236T and C3435T SNPs showed that the TT haplotype was present in 22.7% of the positive cases compared to 30.7% of the negative controls ( p < 0.05, odds ratio = 0.663, 95% CI: (0.483-0.911)). Consequently, the TT haplotype seems to decrease the risk of H. pylori infection. In conclusion, the current results suggest an association between ABCB1 SNPs and H. pylori infection in the Jordanian population.