Ali Sawan

Detection and Genotyping of Helicobacter pylori among Gastric ulcer and Cancer Patients from Saudi Arabia

Background and Objectives: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is cause of several gastrointestinal diseases in humans. Virulence genes of H. pylori are associated with severity of disease and vary geographically. The aim of present study was to detect H. pylori in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues and further investigate prevalence of babA2, cagA, iceA1, iceA2, vacA s1/s2 and vacA m1/m2 genotypes in H. pylori from gastric cancer (GC) and gastric ulcer (GU) patients’ biopsy samples. Methods: We used FFPE tissues of 35 GC and 10 GU patients’ biopsy samples. Using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), detection of H. pylori strain was performed by using specific primers targeting 16S rRNA and ureC encodes for phosphoglucosamine mutase genes. We have identified different virulence genes of H. pylori by PCR. Results: Of all the 45 samples tested, 20 GC and all 10 GU samples were positive for identification of H. pylori using specific genes (16S rRNA and ureC). The prevalence of babA2(100%) was significantly higher in GC as compared to GU (40%) samples. The rate of virulence genes vacAs1 was higher in both GU 8 (80%) and GC (100%). Conclusions: Our study finds that vacAs1am1 and babA2 are most prominent genotypes and may play role in development of Gastric cancer.

microRNA analysis of gastric cancer patients from Saudi Arabian population

BackgroundThe role of small non-coding microRNAs (miRNAs) in several types of cancer has been evident. However, its expression studies have never been performed in gastric cancer (GC) patients from Saudi population. First time this study was conducted to identify miRNAs that are differentially expressed in GC patients compared with normal controls.MethodsWe investigated the role of miRNAs in GC patients using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues of 34 samples from GC patients (early stage = 7 and late-stage = 26) and 15 from normal control. We have used miRNA microarray analysis and validated the results by Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR).ResultsWe obtained data of 1082 expressed genes, from cancer tissues and noncancerous tissues (49 samples in total). Where 129 genes were up-regulated (P > 0.05) and 953 genes (P > 0.05) were down-regulated in 49 FFPE tissue samples. Only 33 miRNAs had significant expression in early and late-stage cancer tissues. After candidate miRNAs were selected, RT-qPCR further confirmed that four miRNAs (hsa-miR-200c-3p, hsa-miR-3613, hsa-miR-27b-3p, hsa-miR-4668-5p) were significantly aberrant in GC tissues compared to the normal gastric tissues.ConclusionsIn this study we provide miRNAs profile of GC where many miRNAs showed aberrant expression from normal tissues, suggesting their involvement in the development and progression of gastric cancer. In early and late-stage miR-200c-3p showed significant down regulation as compare to control samples. Many of miRNAs reported in our study showing up-regulation are new and not reported before may be due to population difference. In conclusion, our results suggest that miR-200c-3p had potential to use as diagnostic biomarker for distinguishing GC patients from normal individuals and can be used for diagnosis of cancer at early stage.

Detection of genetic alterations in gastric cancer patients from Saudi Arabia using comparative genomic hybridization (CGH)

Background The present study was conducted to discover genetic imbalances such as DNA copy number variations (CNVs) associated with gastric cancer (GC) and to examine their association with different genes involved in the process of gastric carcinogenesis in Saudi population. Methods Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues samples from 33 gastric cancer patients and 15 normal gastric samples were collected. Early and late stages GC samples were genotyped and CNVs were assessed by using Illumina HumanOmni1-Quad v.1.0 BeadChip. Results Copy number gains were more frequent than losses throughout all GC samples compared to normal tissue samples. The mean number of the altered chromosome per case was 64 for gains and 40 for losses, and the median aberration length was 679115bp for gains and 375889bp for losses. We identified 7 high copy gain, 52 gains, 14 losses, 32 homozygous losses, and 10 copy neutral LOHs (loss of heterozygosities). Copy number gains were frequently detected at 1p36.32, 1q12, 1q22, 2p11.1, 4q23-q25, 5p12-p11, 6p21.33, 9q12-q21.11, 12q11-q12, 14q32.33, 16p13.3, 17p13.1, 17q25.3, 19q13.32, and losses at 1p36.23, 1p36.32, 1p32.1, 1q44, 3q25.2, 6p22.1, 6p21.33, 8p11.22, 10q22.1, 12p11.22, 14q32.12 and 16q24.2. We also identified 2 monosomy at chromosome 14 and 22, 52 partially trisomy and 22 whole chromosome 4 neutral loss of heterozygosities at 13q14.2-q21.33, 5p15.2-p15.1, 5q11.2-q13.2, 5q33.1-q34 and 3p14.2-q13.12. Furthermore, 11 gains and 2 losses at 1p36.32 were detected for 11 different GC samples and this region has not been reported before in other populations. Statistical analysis confirms significant association of H. pylori infection with T4 stage of GC as compare to control and other stages. Conclusions We found that high frequency of copy number gains and losses at 1p36.23, 1p32.1, 1p36.32, 3q25.2, 6p21.33 and 16q24.2 may be common events in gastric cancer. While novel CNVs at 1p36.32 harbouring PRDM16, TP73 and TP73-AS1 genes showed 11 gains and 2 losses for 11 different GC cases and this region is not reported yet in Database of Genomic Variants may be specific to Saudi population.

Comparative Study between Breast Cytology and Histology in Saudi Females@@@مقارنة بين تقنية الخزع بالإبرة، والفحص النسيجي في الثدي للمرأة السعودية

The objective of this study is to outline the pattern of breast lesions in Saudi Arabian females who are diagnosed by Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology for a clinically palpable breast mass, and to determine the level of diagnostic accuracy in cytology with subsequent histological comparison whenever possible. A retrospective clinical study targeting 312 Saudi female patients being evaluated for clinically palpable breast mass that were performed and reported at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah from 2000 to 2009. This result indicated that while fibroadenoma is the most frequent benign tumor, infiltrating duct carcinoma is the most common malignant tumor in Saudi Arabian females on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology and histological examination. Based on this, the overall distribution of breast diseases was as follows: inflammatory lesions were 8.65%, benign lesions were 45.83%, highly suspicious/atypical lesions were 8.33%, malignant lesions were 30.76% and unsatisfactory smears were 6.41%. Analysis of histological correlation in patients revealed a sensitivity of 91.58% and a specificity of 97.75%. False negative fraction was of 4.59% which on histology turned out to be infiltrating duct carcinomas. Causes of cytohistological discrepancy were outlined in order to increase awareness of such conditions.

Clinico-Pathological Study of Hodgkin's Disease in King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah

Abstract Hodgkins disease (HD) has unique epidemiological features with diversified pathologies. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological pattern of HD at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH), Jeddah. Our results will be compared to those in the literatures. In addition, the relationship between peripheral blood lymphopenia on presentation, and clinical and laboratory variables among HD patients will also be addressed. A total of 81 HD patients were included in this study. The records were analyzed retrospectively from January 1998 through December 2004 and recorded in a structured form. In order to determine the importance of lymphopenia on presentation as a diagnostic marker in HD a comparison was made to a similar number of patients with non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) after standardization for age, sex and clinical presentation. Moreover, the association between lymphopenia and clinical and laboratory variables were also studied. There were 54 (66.7%) non-Saudi and 27 (33.3%) Saudi patients with a male to female ratio of 1.3:1. The mean age of the patients was 40.4 years, ranging from (12–82) years with a SD of ±18.95. Cervical lymph nodes were the most common finding at the time of presentation. Mixed cellularity was the most frequent pathology followed by nodular sclerosis with prevalence of advanced stages of the disease in 48 (59.2%) and B symptoms 67 (82.7%). Lymphopenia was seen in 33 patients, 24 (72.7%) of them were above the age of 30. A comparison between Hodgkins disease and non-Hodgkins lymphoma regarding lymphopenia, using the same number of patients after standardization for age, sex and presentation did not turn out to be significant (P > 0.05). Relationship between lymphopenia and other clinical and laboratory variables also did not turn out to be significant with the exception of anemia where the P-value was