Raw meat can harbor pathogenic bacteria, potentially harmful to humans such as Escherichia coli O157:H7 causing diarrhea and hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HS). Therefore, the current study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence and the molecular detection characterization of E. coli serotype O157:H7 recovered from raw meat and meat products collected from Saudi Arabia. During the period of 25th January 2013 to 25th March 2014, 370 meat samples were collected from abattoirs and markets located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia "200 raw meat samples and 170 meat products". Bacteriological analysis of the meat samples and serotyping of the isolated E. coli revealed the isolation of 11 (2.97%) strains of E. coli O157:H7. Isolation of E. coli O157:H7 in raw beef, chicken and mutton were 2%, 2.5%, and 2.5%, respectively, however, there was no occurrence in raw turkey. The incidences of E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef, beef burgers, beef sausage, ground chicken and chicken burgers were 5%, 10%, 0.0%, 5% and 0.0%, respectively. The multiplex PCR assay revealed that 3 (27.27%) out of 11 E. coli O157:H7 isolates from raw beef, chicken and mutton had stx1, stx2, and eae while 5 (45.45%) E. coli O157:H7 isolates from ground beef, ground chicken, and raw beef had both stx1 and stx2. However, from beef burgers, only one E. coli O157:H7 isolate had stx1 while two were positive for hlyA gene. These results call for urgent attention toward appropriate controls and good hygienic practices in dealing with raw meat.

The regular monitoring of water environments is essential for preventing waterborne virus-mediated contamination and mitigating health concerns. We aimed to detect human adenovirus (HAdV) in the Wadi Hanifah (WH) and Wadi Namar (WN) lakes, King Saud University wastewater treatment plant (KSU-WWTP), Manfouha-WWTP, irrigation water (IW), and AnNazim landfill (ANLF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. HAdV hexon sequences were analyzed against 71 HAdV prototypes and investigated for seasonal influence. ANLF had the highest HAdV prevalence (83.3%). Remarkably, the F species of HAdV, especially serotype 41, predominated. Daily temperature ranges (22–45 °C and 10–33 °C) influenced the significance of the differences between the locations. The most significant relationship of ANLF and IW to WH and KSU-WWTP was found at the high-temperature range (p = 0.001). Meanwhile, WN was most correlated to ANLF at the low-temperature range (p < 0.0001). Seasonal influences on HAdV prevalence were insignificant despite HAdV’s high prevalence in autumn and winter months, favoring low temperatures (high: 22–25 °C, low: 14–17 °C) at five out of six locations. Our study provides insightful information on HAdV prevalence and the circulating strains that can address the knowledge gap in the environmental impacts of viruses and help control viral diseases in public health management.

A segregating F₄ population from the cross between drought sensitive (Yecora Rojo) and drought tolerant (Pavon 76) genotypes was made to identify molecular markers linked to a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) abscisic acid (ABA) content at two water regimes. The parents and 150 F₄ lines were evaluated phenotypically for drought tolerance using two irrigation treatments [0.25 and 0.75 m³(H₂O) m^-2(soil)]. Forty different target region amplification polymorphism (TRAP) primer combinations, 98 different sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) primer combinations, and 400 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers were tested for polymorphism among the parental genotypes and the F₄ lines. Seven loci in the F₄ lines treated with the drought stress were identified. Single quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were located on chromosomes 1B, 2A, 3A, 5D, and 7B and each of them explained from 15 to 31 % of phenotypic variance with a LOD value of 7.2 to 15.7. Five QTLs were located on chromosome 4A and six QTLs on chromosome 5A. In control (well-watered) F4 lines, two QTLs were mapped on chromosome 3B and one QTL on each chromosome 5B and 5D. Statistically the most significant groups of QTLs for the ABA content were identified in the regions of chromosomes 3B, 4A, and 5A mostly near to Barc164, Wmc96, and Trap9 markers. Therefore, these markers linked to QTLs for the drought-induced ABA content can be further used in breeding for drought tolerance in wheat.

This study was conducted to compare the effects of acute hyperthermia (45 °C for 4 h) on the viability, proliferation, and migratory activity through wound-healing assays of cow and sheep fibroblasts. The study examined the effects on primary cultures and first passage skin-derived fibroblasts. Relative quantification of HSP70, HSP90, P53, BAX, BCL2, and BECN1 was investigated after normalization to housekeeping genes GAPDH and beta-actin. The results revealed that cultured cow primary fibroblasts exhibited increased viability and reinitiated cell migration to close the cell monolayer scratch earlier than sheep cells. Similar patterns were observed in the first passage fibroblasts, with severe effects on sheep cells. Both cow and sheep cells exhibited decreased cell viability and failed to regain migratory activity after re-exposure of recovered heat-shocked cells. Effects of hyperthermia on sheep cells were potentiated by cell cryopreservation. The qPCR results showed that cow cells significantly increased HSP70 and HSP90 expression, which decreased the elevation of P53, and ameliorated the effects of the increased BAX/BCL2 ratio. The results provide a paradigm to compare thermotolerance among different animal species and revealed that trypsin could be an additional stress, which potentiates the effects of heat shock in in vitro experiments.

Interleukin (IL)-19, a designated IL-20 subfamily cytokine, has been implicated in inflammatory disorders including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and, lately, asthma. Here, through the analysis of transcriptomic datasets of lung tissue of large asthma cohorts, we report that IL-19 expression is upregulated in asthma and correlates with disease severity. The gene expression of IL-19 was significantly higher in lung tissue from patients with severe and mild/moderate asthma compared to healthy controls. IL-19 protein level, however, was significantly higher in the blood and saliva of patients with severe asthma compared to mild/moderate subgroups as measured by ELISA assay. IL-19 protein level was not affected by corticosteroid treatment in plasma. Our data provide insights into the potential use of IL-19 as a saliva marker for asthma severity and a potential therapeutic target.

Routine wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) effluents monitoring is essential because of enteric viruses' low infectious dose beyond molecular detectability. In current study methods for concentration and extraction, inter-method compatibility and recovery efficiency of spiked human adenovirus (HAdV) and human rotavirus A (RVA) were evaluated. For virus concentration, polyethylene glycol precipitation (PEG), charged membrane-based adsorption/elution (CMAE), and glass wool-based concentration (GW) methods were used. Nucleic acid was extracted by PowerViral™ Environmental RNA/DNA Isolation (POW), ZymoBIOMICS™ RNA extraction (ZYMO) and Wizard® Genomic DNA Purification (WGDP) and samples were analyzed by Real-Time PCR. CMAE method yielded significantly higher concentrations for both ARQ (Armored-RNA Quant) and RVA compared to PEG (P = 0.001 and 0.003) and GW (P < 0.0001). Highest HAdV concentration was obtained by PEG (P = 0.001 and < 0.0001) in relation to CMAE and GW. ZYMO yielded a significantly higher ARQ and RVA concentrations (P = 0.03 and 0.0057), whereas significantly higher concentration was obtained by POW for HAdV (P = 0.032). CMAE × ZYMO achieved the highest recovery efficiencies for ARQ (69.77 %) and RVA (64.25, respectively, while PEG × POW present efficiency of 9.7 % for HAdV. These findings provide guidance for understanding of method-related biases for viral recovery efficiency.