ABO blood group was first discovered by Landsteiner in 1901. Currently, there are more than 30 blood group systems, but ABO system remains the most clinically important of all blood groups in transfusion practice. The ABO blood group system antibodies are naturally occurring without any exposure to RBCs through transfusion or pregnancy, unlike the other blood group systems. Method The study was performed on a total of 40,591 healthy blood donors in Egypt. ABO and Rh (D) groupings were performed on all donors’ samples. Data on the frequency of ABO and Rh(D) blood groups were reported in numbers and percentages. Results The study showed that type A is the most common blood group (35.12%) in Egypt followed by O at 31.94%, followed by B at 23.12%, while AB had the least prevalence at 9.74%; A > O > B > AB. Our study showed that 91.78% of the donor population were Rh positive and 8.22% were Rh negative. The frequencies of the IA, IB, and IO alleles were calculated using the Hardy-Weinberg law of equilibrium. The calculated gene frequencies are 0.2537 for IA (p), 0.1812 for IB (q), and 0.5651 for IO (r). In the Egyptian population, O (r) records the highest value, followed by B (q) and A (p); O > B > A. The homozygous types were as follows: OO, 31.94%; AA, 6.43%; and BB, 3.28%. The heterozygous types were AO, 28.67%; BO, 20.47%; and AB, 9.78%. Conclusions The study provides the first accurate ABO gene frequency data as well as information on the distribution of ABO blood group Rh groups of various alleles in the Egyptian population. This information is very helpful in the effective management of the blood bank inventory. It will help transfusion services planning for future health challenge and improve blood transfusion practice.

Introduction: β-Thalassemia is an inherited abnormal condition that results in hemolytic anemia. It is the most common monogenic disorder in the world. The Mediterranean countries have the highest prevalence of β-thalassemia (2%-18%), and in Egypt, it is 9% to 10%. Regular multiblood transfusion and iron chelation are the major line of therapy for thalassemic patients. There are relatively low blood transfusion safety standards in the Third World countries. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has the highest risk of transfusion transmitted diseases and Egypt has the highest HCV prevalence worldwide. Method: Our study is aimed to assess the risk of HCV transmitted to thalassemic patients that receive regular blood transfusions by focusing on the statistics of this population. The study covered most Egyptian governorates from Nile Delta and Upper Egypt by collecting patients’ data between 2015 and 2018. Results: Consecutive studies were done on 946 β-thalassemic patients as demonstrated from the following: Cairo (205), Mansoura (36), Tanta (120), Damanhur (125), Alexandria (119), Zagazig (73), AlFayoum (121), and Sohag and Minia (147). Studies showed that the HCV-transmitted infection in thalassemia patients in Upper Egypt were detected at 37%, while some Nile Delta studies illustrated that 20% were infected with HCV from transfused thalassemia patients due to multiple blood transfusions. Conclusion: Blood transfusion–transmitted hepatitis C virus has a very high rate among Egyptian thalassemic patients compared to the worldwide rate. Common anti-HCV antibody screening assay has a low sensitivity and specificity compared to nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT). Therefore, our study recommends following the American Association of Blood Bank (AABB) guidelines for blood donation screenings and implementation of viral NAT testing to reduce the risk of viral transmission during the “window period.” This will reduce the time for effective detection from 70 to 10 days for HCV.

Frankincense essential oil has been known in traditional medicine of many countries as wealth of health for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal activities, and might possess anti-cancer activities, based on their anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities, but its anticancer role against cancer stem cells (CSC) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines and the underlying molecular mechanisms remain uninvestigated. Doxorubicin is one of the efficient factors for HCC treatment, but the resistance to it is presenting a major obstacle for HCC treatment. The main aim of this study, isolated CD133+/CD90+ subpopulation from HCC cell line by flow cytometry, and evaluated the effects of Frankincense essential oil and Doxorubicin treatment on cell viability, colony formation, cellular proliferation, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis induction through DNA fragmentation of HCC cells and its isolated CD133+/CD90+ CSCs. Cell viability was monitored using an MTT assay. In addition, apoptosis induction was labeled by Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide and measured using flow cytometry. Western blotting was used to examine the protein expression of p53, Bcl-2, cyclin D1, and cleaved-caspases-3 and -9. Our results demonstrated that Frankincense essential oil or Doxorubicin suppressed the cell viability of CD133+/CD90+cells in a concentration-dependent manner after 24hrs of treatment. In addition, Frankincense essential oil or Doxorubicin induced a significant apoptosis induction in CD133+/CD90+ subpopulation cells through DNA fragmentation, caspase-9 and caspase-3 activation, increased the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins, including p53, decreased the protein level of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, and regulated the expression of cell cycle regulators as cyclin D1. Levels of cyclin D1 expression were gradually suppressed by Frankincense essential oil in tested cells. Our data revealed that Frankincense essential oil has been shown to arrest cancer cells at the G1-phase of cell cycle, suppresses cyclin D1, and E, cdk 2, as well as increases expression of p21 through a p53-independent pathway. Furthermore, the Frankincense essential oil treatment strongly inhibited stemness characteristics of CSC subpopulation, colony formation and dramatically inhibited CD133+/CD90+ tumor growth in vitro. In conclusion, our results suggested that Frankincense essential oil and Doxorubicin may be a potential treatment for apoptosis induction in CSC and may provide an attractive therapeutic strategy against HCC. Citation Format: Amira S. Fyala, Ahmed S. Sultan. Frankincense essential oil and doxorubicin treatment inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in CD133+ and CD90+ subpopulation hepatocellular carcinoma cancer stem cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 159.

Escherichia coli (E coli) is one of the most commonly found pathogens in hospitals. Infections such as gastroenteritis, cystitis, urinary tract infections (UTI), meningitis, septicemia, and peritonitis were previously treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics. However, the emergence of infectious diseases involving multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens is still a major threat to human health. This study aimed to investigate the SulI (sulfonamide), TetA (tetracycline), and TetB resistance genes in E coli isolated from urine specimens from hospitalized patients. In the present cross-sectional study, a total of 55 strains of E coli were isolated from urine cultures of patients who had UTIs in ElKasr ElEiny and ELShorta hospitals. Samples were analyzed for bacteriological, biochemical examination, and agar disc-diffusion to evaluate their antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method also was used to detect SulI, TetA/B genes by specific primers. The results suggested that E coli isolates were resistant to all multiple drugs used. Ampicillin showed the highest resistance of all the isolates followed by sulfonamide and tetracycline at 70%, 62%, and 53%, respectively. The lowest resistance detected with levofloxacin was 12%; however, there is no difference in the resistance pattern of gentamycin and aztreonam. The genotypes’ amplification revealed a positive correlation between SulI (sulfonamide) and TetA/B (tetracycline) resistance encoding genes and was shown in all the tested isolates as 100%. In our study, we found a mutation for sulfonamide and tetracycline genes in E coli that was isolated from UTI patients. The mutation is responsible for a multidrug-resistant strain due to the overuse of antibiotics. However, the World Health Organization recommends the use of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and ampicillin as the first choice for UTI treatment. Our study recommends regulating and limiting the use of those antibiotics in order to minimize the dissemination of multidrug resistance for E coli.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide and is the second most common cancer in Egypt. Poor diagnosis of HCC is correlated with vascular invasion and metastasis. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is the main step in the tumor invasion process whereby epithelial cells lose cell polarity with each other and then undergo a dramatic remodeling of the cytoskeleton. Also, EMT plays a pivotal role in metastasis when epithelial cell layers lose cell-cell contacts in tumor progression due to the loss of E-cadherin and increasing the ability of the spread into surrounding tissues. Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) play a different cellular function as signal transducers in the cytoplasm and transcription activators in the nucleus. STAT3 gene plays a crucial role to affect EMT in cancer progression by promoting cell proliferation and survival through its function as a transcription factor of the tumor. The aim of our study is to investigate the gene expression of STAT3 in HCC (HepG-2) cell lines and the expression of cell differentiation and proliferation markers. Western blotting was used to examine the protein expression of STAT3, E-cadherin, and β-catenin signaling. Our results showed that STAT3 expression levels were detected, as well as a significant increase in the expression of proliferation marker as β-catenin and a significant decrease of differentiation marker as E-cadherin protein expression levels in HepG-2 cell lines. Conclusion Our finding provides novel evidence for using a molecular gene therapy as STAT3, which showed an effect on EMT that plays a pivotal role in the prognosis of HCC. The loss of E-cadherin expression is a hallmark of EMT, because β-catenin is associated with the cytoplasmic domain of E-cadherin. We have emphasized the significant role of EMT and STAT3 in HCC progression, which could be a potential application as a novel therapeutic strategy for HCC treatment.