A major barrier to understanding the role of polymorphic DNA repair genes for environmental cancer is that the functions of variant genotypes are largely unknown. Using our cytogenetic challenge assays, we conducted an investigation to address the deficiency. Using X-rays or ultraviolet (UV) light, we irradiated blood lymphocytes from 80 nonsmoking donors to challenge the cells to repair the induced DNA damage, and we analyzed expression of chromosome aberrations (CA) specific to the inducing agents. We have genotyped polymorphic DNA repair genes preferentially involved with base excision repair (BER) and nucleotide excision repair (NER) activities (XRCC1, XRCC3, APE1, XPD) corresponding to the repair of X-ray-and UV light-induced DNA damage, respectively. We expected that defects in specific DNA repair pathways due to polymorphisms would cause corresponding increases of specific CA. From our data, XRCC1 399Gln and XRCC3 241Met were associated with significant increases in chromosome deletions compared with the corresponding homozygous wild types (18.27 ± 1.1 vs 14.79 ± 1.2 and 18.22 ± 0.99 vs 14.20 ± 1.39, respectively); XPD 312Asn and XPD 751Gln were associated with significant increases in chromatid breaks compared with wild types (16.09 ± 1.36 vs 11.41 ± 0.98 and 16.87 ± 1.27 vs 10.54 ± 0.87, respectively), p < 0.05. The data indicate that XRCC1 399Gln and XRCC3 241Met are significantly defective in BER, and the XPD 312Asn and XPD 751Gln are significantly defective in NER. In addition, the variant genotypes interact significantly, with limited overlap of the two different repair pathways.

No abstract

The commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microbial community which resides inside our body and on our skin (the human microbiome) can perturb host energy metabolism and immunity, and thus significantly influence development of a variety of human diseases. Therefore, the field has attracted unprecedented attention in the last decade. Although a large amount of data has been generated, there are still many unanswered questions and no universal agreements on how microbiome affects human health have been agreed upon. Consequently, this review was written to provide an updated overview of the rapidly expanding field, with a focus on revealing knowledge gaps and research opportunities. Specifically, the review covered animal physiology, optimal microbiome standard, health intervention by manipulating microbiome, knowledge base building by text mining, microbiota community structure and its implications in human diseases and health monitoring by analyzing microbiome in the blood. The review should enhance interest in conducting novel microbiota investigations that will further improve health and therapy.

No abstract

No abstract

Our observations indicated that the HBCTR program may be applied successfully in Chinese patients who had very little technical skills and its application may be highly cost-effective.

No abstract

Polymorphic changes in the GSTM1, CYP2E1 and the CYP2D6 genes have been reported to be individually associated with increased susceptibility to certain cancers. In the present study, the relationship between genetic polymorphism for these genes and development of urinary bladder cancer among Egyptian patients was investigated. Our results indicate that the frequency of bladder cancer patients with the GSTM1 null genotype is significantly higher than that of the normal controls (86.3 and 47.6%, respectively) with an odds ratio (OR) of 6.97 (95% CL -1.59-30.57, Fisher's exact P = 0.008). In contrast, our investigation failed to demonstrate any difference in the distribution of CYP2E1 polymorphism between bladder cancer patients and controls as detected by PstI restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. RFLP analysis of the CYP2D6 gene revealed a non-significant increase in the number of extensive metabolizers (EM) among the patients compared to the controls (68 versus 48%). However, the EM genotypes enhances the risk further for individuals harboring the GSTM1 null genotype as individuals harboring both the EM and the GSTM1 null genotypes have an odds ratio of 14.0 (95% CL = 1.3- 151.4, Fisher's exact P = 0.02) compared to individuals harboring the EM and the GSTM1 +/+ genotypes. In conclusion, our results indicate that genetic polymorphism, especially in GSTM1 and CYP2D6 could play an important role as host risk factors for development of urinary bladder cancer among Egyptians.