Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2013 Issue 1

The expanding economy of Qatar in the last two decades has attracted immigrants, often from countries with poor socio-economic standards. Many arrive with patent intestinal parasitic infections, and recent analyses have indicated consistently rising trends in the prevalence of some infections. We have used several approaches for quantifying the prevalence of parasitic infections brought into the country by immigran Read More

Correlation between quality of life and disease severity in children with atopic dermatitis in the state of Qatar Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is an itchy, chronic or chronically relapsing, inflammatory skin condition which is most prevalent in childhood. It is known to affect 10-20% of children. The prevalence of AD has increased during the past 3 decades and is probably due to modification of lifestyles and environment. Atopic Read More

Malignant tumors metabolize glucose through glycolysis to lactic acid and produce ATP at an accelerated rate when compared to normal cells, a phenotype detected clinically using Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Out of the four available isoforms, Hexokinase 2 (HK2) is the major expressing isoform in cancers specially those that metastasize and kill their human host. In malignant cells, HK2 not only improves the c Read More

The foodborne and waterborne disease continues to pose significant health problems in the Middle East. This region specifically Arabic speaking countries, imports large amounts of food products from all over the world. At the same time, this region exports a variety of food commodities to many countries worldwide. The increased international food trade, changes in agriculture production, food processing, and consumer d Read More

Anti-allergic effects by arginase inhibitors: role of nitric oxide Herman Meurs¹, Ramadan Sopi¹´², Mirjam Simoons¹, Paul Jackson³, Harm Maarsingh¹´³ ¹Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Groningen Research Institute for Pharmacy and Groningen Research Institute for Asthma and COPD, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands, ²Faculty of Medicine, University of Prishtina, Prishtina, Kosovo, ³Department of Pha Read More

Abstract The aim of this study is to examine the bioactive compounds from secondary metabolites of the fungus Rhizoctonia solani against some selected strains of pathogenic bacteria. The fungus grown in a fermented culture and the filtrate was extracted in different chemical solvents. The fungal crude extract was used to examine the bioactivity against six strains of bacteria using disc diffusion method. The results showed t Read More

Osteopontin regulates hypoxic induction of NHE1 activity in H9C2 cells. Soumaya Bouchoucha, Fatima Mraiche Hypoxia, an important component of ischemia, is the result of an imbalance between oxygen supply and demand. Severe impairment of oxygen supply may result in a maladaptive cardiac phenotype. During myocardial ischemia, the Na+/H+ exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1), the main regulator of pHi, has been shown to Read More

Background: Most of available literature on atrial fibrillation (AF) is based on studies in the developed world and included mainly Caucasian patients. Data about AF in other ethnicities is very limited. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the effect of hypertension (HTN) in Middle-eastern Arab and South-Asian patients hospitalized with AF from a 20 year national registry in a Middle-Eastern country. Methods: Retrospective analy Read More

Blood doping still remains as a performance enhancement strategy misused by athletes . Blood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream by means of either blood transfusion of an individual or by administration of erythropoietin, in order to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. There is no direct method currently for the detection of autologous transfusion, leaving this a Read More