Iraqi Journal of Cancer and Medical Genetics

Both epidemiological studies and in vitro experiments suggested a potential activity of breast milk as anti-cancer biological fluid, which provides a promising area that needs more research. In this study, the effects of human whole milk samples (M1, M2, and M3) taken from three donors on the cell growth of REF and Hep-2 cell lines are tested. The cells were exposed to concentrations of 50, 67 and 75% of each milk sample for 72h. The results demonstrated that only treatment with M1 50%, M1 67% and M2 75% caused a significant decrease in cell growth of REF cells compared to the control. Hep-2 cells showed no significant growth response to the concentrations of the human milk samples used. When the results were analyzed concentration-wise regardless of the donor from whom the sample was taken, 50% milk caused significant growth inhibiting activity for REF cells only, while 75% milk exerted such activity on both REF and Hep-2 cell lines compared to control. When a comparison was made between the responses of the two cell lines to milk treatment, REF cells showed significantly decreased growth percentage compared to Hep-2 cells, but only with concentration of 50% milk. This study suggests that the cell growth inhibiting activity of whole breast milk is both sample- and concentration-dependent. However, milk samples in the present study might have lost some highmolecular weight biologically active constituents during their preparation to the cell growth assay. The use of paired transformed/non-transformed cell lines derived from the same cell type is recommended since such model provides more comparable results for the effects of human milk on cancer cells.

Mushroom is widely used as a traditional medicinal fungus, and it has been known to exhibit immune-stimulatory and anti-cancer activity. However, the exact immune response in tumor-bearing mice after exposure to mushroom extract was unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not crude preparations extracted from Agaricus bisporus can promote type 1 immune response in tumor-bearing mice. Watery and ethanolic extracts of mushroom were intraperitoneally administered into tumor-bearing mice for 28 alternative days, tumor volume was measured twice weekly, also IL-2 level was determined in the sera of mice one day before the beginning of treatment and after 2 and 4 weeks of treatment. The results showed that both extracts significantly inhibit the growth of tumor up to 72.2% at the end of experiment, while only the ethanolic extract significantly increased the level of IL-2 production from 11.2 and 16.9 pg/ml up to 26.4 and 42.5 pg/ml after 2 and 4 weeks of treatment respectively. To confirm these results, further studies are required to investigate the ability of these extracts to promote the production of IL-12 & IFN-γ which are the major cytokines involved in immune response type 1 activation.

The study included 40 Iraqi women diagnosed as breast cancer patients who attended the Nuclear Medicine Hospital in Baghdad and 60 apparently healthy women as control. Genomic DNA extraction was performed using proteinase K / SDS method. Multiplex PCR techniques were followed to amplify the genes using specific primers for detection of gstm1, gstt1 and albumin gene as a control. Genetic analysis showed that the percentage of deletions in breast cancer patients was 75% (gstm1 27.5%, null genotype 32.5 % and 15% for gstt1) versus 10 % were in the control samples (5 % gstt1, 3.33% gstm1 and 1.67% null genotype). Data were subjected to statistical analysis using Chi square ( X2 test ) to evaluate the association between etiological risk factors and having a risk for breast cancer . A significant association was considered at level ( P < 0.05 ) . Blood group O and A showed an interesting association with breast cancer risk. The percentage of deletion was 90.9% and 86.6% in O and A blood group, respectively. Age and family history had no significant risk association with breast cancer (P > 0.05) in this study.

Present study was designed to evaluate anticancer effect of Apium graveolens seed extracts (aqueous, ethanolic and hexane extracts) in vitro on two cell lines (RD and L20B) using different concentrations of A. graveolens seed extracts (6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100 and 200 μg/ml) for an incubation period of 48 hours. The results revealed a clear cytotoxic activity of those extracts on growth of RD cancer cell line, and the effect was concentration-dependent. The results also, suggested that the hexane extract of A. graveolens showed the best cytotoxic activity on RD cell line, especially at the concentrations 100 and 200 μg/ml. In contrast, there was no significant cytotoxic effect of the extracts on the L20B transformed cells, with the exception of hexane extract at the concentration 200 μg/ml, in which a significant growth inhibitory effects were observed.

Objective: To detect the association between human leukocyte antigen) HLA) class II and Iraqi patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma (hl).
Subject and methods: Study groups include 80 newly diagnosed Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients and two control group patients control which include 50 patients who were newly diagnosed to be affected by non Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and healthy individuals. Antibody mediated complement dependent cytotoxicity assay was done by treating sample of patients lymphocytes with a panel of anti-HLA antisera and complement.
Results: The frequency expression of hla-dr3 and DQ1 was significantly greater in Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients than healthy control group with (p<0.001) for HLA-DR3 and (p<0.005) for DQ1.
Conclusion: Hla-dr3 and dq1 are more related with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Iraqi Arab population that reflect HLA alleles have immunogenetic factors of predisposition to Hodgkin lymphoma.

The role of metabolic genes for glutathione S-transferase (gstm1, gstt1) and P53 exon-7 and 8 as risk factors for bladder cancer in Iraqi patients was studied. Thirty five samples from patients attended the Nuclear Medicine Hospital in Baghdad plus fifty samples from apparently healthy individuals were included in the study. DNA extraction was performed using proteinase K/ SDS method PCR techniques were followed to amplify the gene using specific primers for detection of gstm1, gstt1 and albumin as internal control. Single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP techniques) for detection of point mutation in P53 exon-7 and 8 were used. Genetic analysis showed that gstm1 null genotype was statistically associated with bladder cancer (14.29%), this association was strengthened when both gstm1 and gstt1 alleles were absent (28.5%). For detection of the point mutations in P53 exon-7 and 8 Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP ) have revealed that there was high association between exon-7 mutations and incidence of bladder cancer (42.86%), while the association between exon-8 mutations and bladder cancer was low (14.28%). In case of combination between exon-7 and 8 mutations, the association was also low (11.42%). Mutations in gstm1 and exon-7 being associated together are more than with exon-8 mutations. The number of mutations in P53 gene was more in patients with combined genotype of gstm1 deletion and null genotypes.

A method of testing the cytotoxicity by in vitro exposing different cells to vitamin C, intracellular metabolizing and then detecting cell damage in these cells as an indication of the cytotoxicity. From this data there was a great variation between the two cell lines, in which vitamin C effect on vero cell line was much better than Hep-2 cell line, this was due to the type of the cell, in which Hep-2 cell are encompassed of squamous cells and the vero cell line are encompassed of the Monkey kidney cells, which means different respond to cancer and transformed cell to vitamin C.

Polycythaemia vera (PV) is a myeloproliferative disease that arises in a clonal haematopoietic stem cell and is characterized by increased red blood cell production that is independent of the mechanisms that normally regulate erythropoiesis. Evaluation of the role of JAK2 mutation had been carried out in polycythaemia vera in some Iraqi patients, from beginning June 2008 up to the 30 of November 2009, attending national center of hematology for research and treatment . Thirty two patients have been included with age range of 30-66 years and ten apparently healthy control group with age range of 32-55 years. Results revealed that polycythemic patients had mean age of (50.41 ±1.71). The molecular study using amplification refractory mutation, has clarified that (90.6%) of patients with polycythaemia vera had JAK2 mutation. According to the above results to introduce JAK2 mutation test as part of routine work in suspected patients with Polycythaemia vera.

The aim of the present study was to assess the cytotoxic activity of aqueous extracts of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) by using (MTT) (colorimetric assay) to measure the cytotoxic activity on two malignant tumor cell lines (AMN3) Ahmed Mohamed Nahi 2003 and (GB) Glioblastoma cell line ,and one type of normal cell line (MEF) Mouse Embryo Fibroblast cell line, through different exposure time (24, 48 ,and 72hrs) and different concentration of aqueous extract; (1000,500,250,125 ,and 62.5, mg/ml), the study was carried out in the Iraqi Center for Cancer and Medical Genetics Research ,The result showed that the aqueous extracts from alfalfa have significant effects P value ≤ 0.05 on the growth of AMN3 cell lines and GB malignant cell line in culture in dose and time- dependant manner, Viability of cell lines decreased with time and concentration reaching its lowest value after 72 hrs of treatment with the highest concentration used (1000 mg/ml ). The results also indicated that GB cell lines were more sensitive to the Alfalfa aqueous extracts as compared with the growth of AMN3 cell lines . From the other side the result showed that there is no significant effect P value ≥ 0.05 of these aqueous extracts on the viability of normal cell line (MEF3 cell line). Only the treatment with higher concentration (1000μg/ml) after 72 hrs caused significant reduction P value ≤ 0.05 in the (MEF) cell line growth.

This study aims at collecting umbilical cord blood from infants in Al-Ramadi city. It estimates some of the cellular and biochemical blood criteria and achieves immunological tests to find specific antibodies for some pathogenic cases in addition to the study of chromosomal form for the lymphocytes.
The results showed the following:
• Immunological tests: The positive results for C-reactive protein were 33.9%.Positive results for in direct coombs test were 81.1%.Positive results for TORCH as follows : CMV=50.9% , HSV=45.3%, Toxoplasma=47.3% and Rubella=66.0%.
• Chromosomal study results: There were no any chromosomal, numerical and structural abberations in the cord blood under taken in the study.

This stady was amied to detection the ability of azurin, produced from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Ps21, as inhibitor two types of cancer cell lines, human laryux epidermoid carcinoma (Hep – 2) and Mouse Mammary adenocarcinoma (AMN–3) by using cytotoxicity assay. The Results showed the effect of partial purified of azurin depended on the concentration, type of cell and the exposure time. The extract at high concentrations (125, 250) μg/ml. were exhibited apotent inhibiory at all exposure time against cancer cell lines. While The inhibitory activity was gradually reduced with decreasing of concentration of azurin, the low concentrations were activated for the cells proliferation in comparison with the control (100 %). The viability of Hep–2 cells was increased only during the first 24 hr from exposure while the AMN–3 cells were proliferated at all exposture times (24, 48, 72) hr.

The ABO and MNS were typed in a sample consisted of 381 individuals, a one hundred of them present the control whereas the remaining 281 individuals were affected by β-thalassemia. The latter sample was divided into three types; 158 person affected with major thalassemia, 67 persons affected with intermediate thalassemia and 56 persons affected with minor thalassemia (carriers). The present study aims to explore for any relation in frequency of the two blood group patterns and the ability to be affected by β-thalassemia and each of its three clinical sub-types by comparison with the control sample. The various comparisons lead to: There is significant difference (P<0.05) in frequency of ABO group for β-thalassemia patients, especially major-thalassemia (P<0.01). The reasen for this difference is an increase in group A in the patients and a decrease in group O. There are highly significant differences system in MN (P<0.001) for β thalassemia and other subtypes, except the minor. The M+N+ phenotype was highly expressed, while the M+N- phenotype was depressed. There is also highly significant difference for Ss in major thalassemia only. The S+s+ phenotype was increased, while the S-S+ was decreased.