The diagnosis of patients with cystic echinococcosis (CE) by means of serology has a limited support in clinical practice due to cross-reactivity with other helminthes leading to overestimation of the parasite's true prevalence. A wealth of reports on the diagnostic performance of antigen B (AgB) has been produced. This study was designed to comparatively assess the diagnostic efficacy of crude sheep hydatid cyst fluid (HCF), AgB and its subunit (12 KDa) to detect IgG or IgG4 antibodies in CE patients' sera using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).The best diagnostic performance was obtained with anti-HCF IgG ELISA which gave 92.4% sensitivity and 92.6% specificity. Despite the low sensitivity of anti AgB IgG ELISA (84%), it gave the best specificity (94.4%) with less cross-reaction with sera of subjects infected with other parasites. In conclusion, it is recommended to use anti-HCF IgG ELISA for initial screening in large seroprevalence studies. Further analysis of positive serum samples with anti AgB IgG ELISA would allow the confirmation of true positives. Specific IgG4 ELISA may represent a complementary assay, useful as secondary confirmatory tests for patients with suspected CE and negative for total IgG ELISA.

The present research was aiming to study In-Silico the effect of Glycyrrhizic Acid ammonium salt (GAS) and Salicylic acid (SA) on the coat protein of potato leafroll virus (PLRV). In addition, in-vitro studying the effect of (GAS NPs) and Salicylic acid (SA NPs) nanoparticles at concentrations 0.15, 0.30, 1.25 and 2.5 mM, respectively, to control, decline or reduce the presence of PLRV in potato plants Solanum tuberosum L. selena. (GAS NPs) and (SA NPs) were applied in the MS medium at concentrations 0.15, 0.30, 1.25 and 2.5 mM, respectively. Results revealed that, enhancement or decline the PLRV according to the initiation of specific pathways. The expression level of Kinase 3 gene increased significantly due to the two used concentrations of GAS NPs. While the expression of callose gene was upregulated significantly in response to treatment of PLRV infected plant with (GAS NPs) with concentration (0.30 mM). Treatment with (SA NPs) caused upregulation significance only of callose gene at (2.5 mM) concentration. The molecular modeling results of used compounds (glycyrrhizic acid ammonium salt and salicylic acid) showed highest score of binding and the best rms define value with a very good binding mode and perfect interactions with amino acids of the three subunits (A, B and C) forming the protein coat of leaf roll virus. Glycyrrhizic acid ammonium salt and salicylic acid nanoparticles could be perfect solution to produce potato plant free virus in-vitro. Further larger studies are needed to investigate the role of the studied compounds in vivo.

There is a huge demand for novel anticancer agents with fewer side effects compared to current therapies. Pitaya, or dragon fruit, is a reservoir of potent anticancer compounds. This research aimed to analyze the phytochemical components of Hylocereus undatus pulp and peel extracts using LC-MS and GC-MS, and to investigate the in vitro effects of both extracts against cancer (breast, MCF-7, and colon, Caco-2) and normal (lung; WI-38 and breast; MCF-10A) cell proliferation using the MTT assay. The apoptosis potential of the anticancer effects was also evaluated using flow cytometry, RT-PCR, and Western blot. The total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the peel extract were significantly higher than those in the pulp extract. Compared to the flavonoid and phenolic acid standards, the LC-MS analysis revealed the presence of nine compounds, which were represented as 84.32 and 5.29 µg/g of the flavonoids and 686.11 and 148.72 µg/g of the phenolic acids in the peel and pulp extracts, respectively. Among the identified compounds, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, and rutin were found at the highest concentration in both plant extracts. Both extracts displayed cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 and Caco-2 cancer cells after 48 h of treatment at IC50 values ranging from 14 to 53 μg/mL with high selective indices against normal WI-38 and MCF-10A cell lines. The increase in apoptosis was revealed by the overexpression of p53, BAX, and caspase-9 and the downregulation of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 mRNA and protein expressions. The results indicate that H. undatus extracts can be a plant source for cancer therapy.