Colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world, and it is the major cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. The present study aimed at treating colon cancer cell line (HCT116) with different chemotherapeutic drug/drug combinations (procaine, vorinostat “SAHA,” sodium phenylbutyrate, erlotinib, and carboplatin). Two different final concentrations were applied: 3 μM and 5 μM. Trypan blue test was performed to assess the viability of the cell before and after being treated with the drugs. The data obtained showed that there was a significant decrease in the viability of cells after applying the chemotherapeutic drugs/drug combinations. Also, DNA fragmentation assay was carried out to study the effect of these drugs on the activation of apoptosis-mediated DNA degradation process. The results indicated that all the drugs/drug combinations had a severe effect on inducing DNA fragmentation. Global DNA methylation quantification was performed to identify the role of these drugs individually or in combination in hypo- or hypermethylating the CpG dinucleotide all over the genome of the HCT116 colon cancer cell line. Data obtained indicated that different combinations had different effects in reducing or increasing the level of methylation, which might indicate the effectiveness of combining drugs in treating colon cancer cells.

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Red palm weevil (RPW) is the most aggressive date palm parasite in the Middle East, and especially in the Gulf region. Originated in Southeast Asia, this pest has been detected in the entire Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Italy, Latin America, and other territories. It is important to local from obtrusive species, which help augmenting the pest control strategies. In the present study we collected 21 RPW samples from 21 different locations in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia to genetically characterize them using RAPD- and ISSR-based clustering. Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) for RAPD data categorized the 21 accessions into seven distinct groups, with Al-Oyonn and Juaymah each categorized in solitary group, meanwhile, UPGMA for ISSR indicated six different groups, with Battaliyah, Al-Oyoon, and Juaymah each assigned to a separate group. Combining RAPD and ISSR data revealed two accession; Al-Oyoon and Juaymah that might be considered obtrusive species. Based on distance calculations, we proposed that the potential origins of RPW collected from these locations are Iran and the United Arab Emirates. However, this assumption needs further studies for confirmation.

Cellular respiration is an important process performed by mitochondria. Nad complex is the major complex involved in this process and one of the main subunits in this complex is the nad7 (nad dehydrogenase subunit 7). In Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum, four nad7 cDNAs are described at 500 mM salinity, 0 h, or control (GenBank accession no. MW433884), after 2 h (GenBank accession no. MW433885), after 12 h (GenBank accession no. MW433886) and after 24 h (GenBank accession no. MW433887). Twenty six RNA editing sites were revealed in positions: C44,

Being the most common cause of female deaths worldwide, breast cancer (BC) is intensively studied over the last two decades. In the present investigation, we evaluated the promoter methylation of three cancer-related genes; PARP-1, p21, and Rb in 10 bi-matched BC samples (ductal carcinoma and lobular carcinoma) included the core tumor and the adjacent normal tissue. H&E-stained histopathological sectioning revealed grade 2 and grade 3 tumor cells. Methylation-specific PCR (MSP) was performed using methylated (M) and unmethylated (U) primers for the three genes understudy. Histone acetyltransferase was measured in tumor and healthy tissues. A variation in the methylation state of the promoter region of the three genes were observed in core tumor and healthy tissue. PARP and Rb were hypermethylated in tumor tissues while p21 was partially methylated. HAT activities were positively correlated with the methylation pattern observed in healthy tissues, as HAT was highly expressed in healthy vs. tumor tissues. The obtained data might indicate that patients might be at risk of BC recurrence after being subjected to mastectomy. These data could be employed as a core in epigenetic-based data mining to establish a model for predicting the breast cancer-predisposed patients. However, further investigations are needed to fulfill this goal.