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Egypt has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the world. It has been suggested that not only the virus but also the interaction between the virus and the host immune system is important in determining the course of the infection and the response to interferon (IFN)-based therapy. While the adaptive immune system plays a critical role in HCV infection, the innate immune system has only been recognized recently. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) form the cornerstone of the innate immune response. Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is one of the upstream regulators of TLR4. A possible interplay between TLR4 and IL-10 has been suggested. The present study aimed to investigate the role of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TLR4 and IL-10-1082 and the expression levels of these proteins in predicting the response to treatment in chronic HCV patients. A total of 83 chronic HCV-infected Egyptian patients treated with peg-IFN-a2b-ribavirin combination therapy and 40 healthy subjects were included in this study. SNPs in the TLR4 rs2149356 and IL-10-1082 genes and their serum levels were assessed. Within the responders group, T/T and A/A genotypes were the significantly most frequent genotypes of TLR4 and IL-10-1082, respectively. Moreover, a higher frequency of T/T and A/A was found to be associated with lower serum TLR4 and IL-10 levels in our responder patients. In addition, subjects with the T/T genotype in the healthy control group had a lower serum TLR4 level than those with other genotypes. We conclude that the SNPs

Microbial fermentation of plant material alters the composition of volatile and non-volatile plant natural products. We investigated the antioxidant, anticancer, and antiviral properties of extracts of defatted soybean meal fermented with Aspergillus fumigatus F-993 or A. awamori FB-133 using in vitro methods. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of soybean meal fermented with A. awamori FB-133 and A. fumigatus F-993 identified 26 compounds with 11,14-octadecadienoic acid and methyl ester (63.63%) and 31 compounds with butylated hydroxytoluene (66.83%) and δ-myrcene (11.43%) as main constituents, respectively. The antioxidant activities of DSM extract were 3.362 ± 0.05 and 2.11 ± 0.02 mmol TE/mL, FDSM treated with A. awamori FB-133 were 4.763 ± 0.05 and 3.795 ± 0.03 mmol TE/mL and FDSM treated with A. fumigatus F-993 were 4.331 ± 0.04 and 3.971 ± 0.02 mmol TE/mL as determined by ABTS and FRAP assays, respectively. Both fermented extracts had better antioxidant activity than the unfermented extract as shown by multiple antioxidant activity assays. The concentration of fermented extracts required for 50% inhibition of cell viability was significantly lower than that of the unfermented extract when tested against the human liver cancer cell line HepG2 as shown by cell viability assays, indicating strong anticancer activity. The IC 50 values for DSM, FDSM with A. fumigatusF-993 and FDSM with A. awamori FB-133 were27, 16.88 and 8.60 μg/mL, respectively. The extract of FDSM with A. awamori FB-133 showed the strongest anticancer activity, compared to DSM and FDSM with A. FumigatusF-993 extracts. fermented extracts also reduced hepatitis A virus titres to a greater extent than unfermented extracts, thus showing strong antiviral property. Hepatitis A virus titres were reduced by 2.66 and 3 log 10 /0.1 mL by FDSM with A. fumigatusF-993 and FDSM by A.awamori FB-133, respectively, compared to DSM (5.50 log 10 /0.1 mL). Thus, the fermentation of soybean meal with A. fumigatusF-993 or A. awamori FB-133 improves the therapeutic effect of soybean extracts, which can be used in traditional medicine. Fermentation of plant materials causes a significant change in bioactive volatile and non-volatile components 1. Moreover, the concentrations of both flavonoids and the unsaturated fatty acid esters, as well, increase due to the fermentation of soybean. Extracts of fermented soybean have shown strong antioxidant, anti-breast cancer and antiviral activities 2. A growing major objective interest is to develop special catalytic systems (one-pot tandem), that integrate both the reactivity of a chemical catalyst and a selected active site of an enzyme 3. Fungi (as yeasts,

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