Monitoring of cyanobacteria and their associated toxins has intensified in raw water sources of drinking water treatment plants (WTPs) in most countries of the world. However, it is not explored yet for Egyptian WTPs. Therefore, this study was undertaken to investigate the occurrence of cyanobacteria and their microcystin (MC) toxins in the Nile River source water of Damietta WTP during warm months (April-September 2013) and to evaluate the removal efficiency of both cyanobacterial cells and MCs by conventional methods used in this plant as a representative of Egyptian drinking WTPs. The results showed that the source water at the intake of Damietta WTP contained dense cyanobacterial population (1.1-6.6 × 107 cells L(-1)) dominated by Microcystis aeruginosa. This bloom was found to produce MC-RR and MC-LR. Both cyanobacterial cell density and intracellular MCs in the intake source water increased with the increase in temperature and nutrients during the study period, with maximum values obtained in August. During treatment processes, cyanobacterial cells were incompletely removed by coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation (C/F/S; 91-96.8%) or sand filtration (93.3-98.9%). Coagulation/flocculation induced the release of MCs into the ambient water, and the toxins were not completely removed or degraded during further treatment stages (filtration and chlorination). MCs in outflow tank water were detected in high concentrations (1.1-3.6 μg L - 1), exceeding WHO provisional guideline value of 1 μg L - 1 for MC-LR in drinking water. Based on this study, regular monitoring of cyanobacteria and their cyanotoxins in the intake source water and at different stages at all WTPs is necessary to provide safe drinking water to consumers or to prevent exposure of consumers to hazardous cyanobacterial metabolites.
Algal supplements can improve crop productivity and afford protection against abiotic stress by virtue of their rich content of plant nutrients and bioactive compounds. The present work investigates the relative efficiency of the biomass and extract of the brown alga Dictyota dichotoma in protection of rice against salinity and water stress. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) cv. Sakha 101 was grown on a silty clay soil amended with the aqueous extract and powder of D. dichotoma under NaCl and PEG 6000 stress at water potential of -0.492 MPa. Abiotic stress, particularly water stress, reduced rice growth and concentrations of K ? and protein but increased soluble sugars, starch, proline and Na ? concentrations of plant tissues, with counterbalancing effect of algal amendment. The benefit of algal amendment was greater for algal extract than algal powder and under water stress than salt stress. Algal amendment and abiotic stress promoted catalase and peroxidase activities in rice leaves with variable effect on polyphenol oxidase. The benefit of D. dichotoma to rice can be related to macro-and micro-nutrients, growth hormones, phenolics, flavonoids, sterols, vitamins and fucoidan. The production of toxic intermediates as a result of fermentation of the algal biomass in the paddy soil might reduce the benefit of algal amendment. Although rice is salt-sensitive, it is more resistant to salt stress than to drought stress. The ability of rice to retain Na ? in the root is pivotal for stress resistance, but the role of K ? partitioning is less evident.
Microbial infections cause complicated health influences along with bad economic impacts. In the present investigation, three dominant seaweeds namely, Amphiroa anceps, Corallina officinalis and Sargassum filipendula were collected from different Egyptian sites at the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea during autumn 2019. Organic extracts of the three algae were screened for their antibacterial activity against three pathogenic bacteria Salmonella typhiimurium, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, in addition to in vitro antiviral activity against Rotavirus (RV), and Coxsackie virus B3 (CVB3) that cause severe diseases in human. Organic extract of A. anceps, C. officinalis and S. filipendula inhibit E. coli cells by 57.1%, 85.7%, and 91.4%, respectively. The highest level of concentration of the C. officinalis extract (100 µg/mL) inhibits 100% of Staphylococcus aureus cells followed by S. filipendula and A. anceps extract which inhibit 82.5% and 75% of S. aureus. Similarly, the highest concentration of C. officinalis extract inhibits S. typhiimurium by 80%. The extract of A. anceps exhibited a high antiviral effect against RV infection with TI = 22 and virus titers lessened by 2.75 log TCID 50 followed by extractions of C. officinalis with TI = 18.3 and virus titers reduced by 2.5 log TCID 50 . Against CVB3 infection, the extract of A. anceps causes the highest antiviral activity with TI = 15 and reduce the viral titers by 2.5 log TCID 50 , followed by extractions of C. officinalis with TI = 8.8 and inhibition of virus titers by 1.75 log TCID 50 . Extract of S. filipendula displayed the lowest antiviral effects against RV and CVB3 infection with TI = 2.4 and 1.4, respectively. The obtained results clarified that the extract of three marine seaweeds maintains a potent antimicrobial activity, making them a future promising source of new antimicrobial drugs.
Numerous risk factors for breast cancer (BC) have been identified. High-risk human papilloma virus (HR-HPV) is the etiological agent of cervical cancer and in some cases of head and neck cancer, specifically oropharyngeal cancer, but the role of HR-HPV in evoking neoplasia in BC is still unclear. In this study, all women above the age of 18 visiting the oncology clinic at Al-Azhar university hospital and Ain Shams specialized hospital between the period of February 2017 and March 2018 were invited to participate. We determined the prevalence of HR-HPV genotypes 16, 18, and 31 in breast tissue samples from 72 women with treatment-naïve BC and 15 women with benign breast lesions (BBL) by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and primer sets targeting the E6 and E7 regions. High-risk human papilloma virus DNA was detected in 16 of 72 (22.2%) BC cases (viral load range = 0.3-237.8 copies/uL) and 0 of 15 women with BBL. High-risk human papilloma virus was detected in 14 of 16 (87.5%), 2 of 16 (12.5%), and 0 of 16 (0%) for genotypes 16, 18, and 31, respectively. Forty-three age-matched healthy Egyptian women were enrolled as controls for assessment of local risk factors that can be used to initiate a strategy of BC prevention in Egypt. Assessment of the risk factors demonstrated that low education level, passive smoking, lack of physical activity, family history of cancer, and use of oral contraception were significant risk factors for BC. In conclusion, our results lead us to postulate that HR-HPV infection may be implicated in the development of some types of BC in Egyptian women. In addition, identification of local risk factors can support practical prevention strategies for BC in Egypt.
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