Dapagliflozin improves cardiovascular risk factors in Emirati patients with T2DM.

Background: Dapagliflozin is a sodium-glucose co transporter-2 inhibitor that proved efficacy in reduction of blood glucose level through extrusion of glucose in urine. It is used in treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). It also has reported cardiovascular and renal benefits in patients with T2DM.

Vitamin C at high concentrations induces cytotoxicity in malignant melanoma but promotes tumor growth at low concentrations.

Vitamin C has been used in complementary and alternative medicine for cancers regardless of its ineffectiveness in clinical trials and the paradoxical effects antioxidants have on cancer. Vitamin C was found to induce cytotoxicity against cancers. However, the mechanisms of action have not been fully elucidated, and the effects of vitamin C on human malignant melanoma have not been examined.

Autoantibodies against mono- and tri-methylated lysine display similar but also distinctive characteristics.

Autoantibodies can be either harmful or beneficial to the body. The beneficial autoantibodies play important roles in immunosurveillance, clearance of body waste and maintenance of immune homeostasis. Despite their importance, however, people's knowledge on the protective autoantibodies is still very limited.

Impact of IL-10 (-1082) promoter-single nucleotide polymorphism on the outcome of hepatitis C virus genotype 4 infection.

Unlabelled: Immunoregulatory cytokines may influence the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection outcome. This study aimed to determine the genotypic and allelic frequencies of the interleukin (IL)-10 (-1082) G/A polymorphism, and its association with chronicity or resolution of HCV genotype 4 infection in Egypt. The frequencies of different dimorphic polymorphisms based on single nucleotide substitution in chronic HCV patients (50) and resolved HCV patients (50) were: IL-10 (-1082) G/G 22 (44%) and 18 (36%), G/A 19 (38%) and 24 (48%), and A/A 9 (18%), and 8 (16%), respectively.

Systemic lupus erythematosus patients contain significantly less igm against mono-methylated lysine than healthy subjects.

Post-translational modifications on proteins are important in biological processes but may create neo-epitopes that induce autoimmune responses. In this study, we measured the serum IgG and IgM response to a set of non-modified or acetyl- and methyl-modified peptides corresponding to residues 1-19 of the histone 3 N-terminal tail in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients and healthy subjects. Our results indicated that the SLE patients and healthy subjects produced antibodies (Abs) to the peptides, but the two groups had different Ab isotype and epitope preferences.

Device-associated nosocomial infection rates in intensive care units at Cairo University hospitals: first step toward initiating surveillance programs in a resource-limited country.

Background: Device associated infections (DAIs) have major impact on patient morbidity and mortality.

Methods: This study involved active prospective surveillance to measure the incidence of DAIs, evaluate microbiological profiles, and investigate excessive mortality in intensive care units (ICUs) in 3 hospitals of Cairo University applying the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Healthcare Safety Network case definitions for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), and central-line associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI). Data were collected between March 2009 and May 2010.