Disease relevance of Middle East

• Cystic fibrosis (CF) is thought to be rare among the Arab populations from the Middle East and little data have been reported so far [1].
• The relatedness of 40 strains of Sindbis virus (SIN) from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa was investigated by limited sequencing within the gene encoding the E2 glycoprotein corresponding to amino acid residues 117 to 229 and encompassing one of the major neutralization epitopes [2].
• It has been eradicated successfully using a live, attenuated vaccine from most part of the world leaving a few foci of disease in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. We have developed transgenic peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) plants expressing hemagglutinin (H) protein of rinderpest virus (RPV), which is antigenically authentic [3].
• Two main types of hereditary iron overload are well recognized: (1) HLA-linked hemochromatosis in populations derived from Europe and (2) iron overload complicating thalassaemia major and intermedia syndromes in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean [4].
• Poliomyelitis control in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip: changing strategies with the goal of eradication in an endemic area [5].

Psychiatry related information on Middle East

• The mental health of 796 Palestinian children living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip was assessed in terms of reported psychological status and behavioral symptoms [6].

High impact information on Middle East

• In Jordan and the West Bank, fewer than one third live in camps, whereas in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, conditions are more crowded [7].
• State of 'Desert Shield' military medicine at deadline time in the Middle East crisis [8].
• Previous studies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in Europe and the Near East have suggested that, in contrast with classical markers and the Y chromosome, mtDNA does not exhibit significant geographical structuring [9].
• L.L. CavalliSforza [(1988) Munibe 6, 129-137] and C. Renfrew [(1991) Cambridge Archaeol. J. 1, 3-23] proposed that neolithic farmers from the Near East propagated a group of related ancestral languages, from which three or four linguistic families developed [10].
• Origin and spread of the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase variant (G6PD-Mediterranean) in the Middle East [11].

Chemical compound and disease context of Middle East

• n epidemiologic survey of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) occurring in Israel, Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip between the years 1976 and 1981, revealed 205 cases of ALL and 69 of NHL [12].
• Wethers treated with dexamethasone trimethylacetate on arrival at an assembly point for live export arrived in the Middle East 23 days later with a lower mean weight loss, partly because fewer sheep lost a significant amount of weight [13].
• There is an increased frequency of gestational diabetes in Oriental women and those from the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East Once diagnosed, careful monitoring of diabetes is essential during pregnancy to minimise complications to mother and baby Mothers should be taught to monitor their own blood glucose levels [14].
• Thalassemia remains a significant health problem in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In such patients, generally high iron levels make free oxygen radicals accessible, for example, through Fenton-type chemistry, and generate superoxide and hydroxyl radicals [15].

Biological context of Middle East

• Epidemiology of reproductive and hormonal factors in thyroid cancer: evidence from a case-control study in the Middle East [16].
• Genetics of congenital deafness in the Palestinian population: multiple connexin 26 alleles with shared origins in the Middle East [17].
• The remarkable high rate of EGFR gene amplifications could potentially facilitate studies on the predictive role of gene copy number changes for response to anti-EGFR therapies in Middle East patient sets [18].
• Gene frequencies of 14.6% and 20.2% for B21 and Aw19 antigens, respectively, are highest among Middle East populations [19].
• These patterns may result form either differential selection or long-range gene flow; however, the extensive clinal variation observed for glyoxalase, esterase D and 6-PGD cannot be entirely accounted for by the Neolithic radiation of early farmers in the Middle East and Europe [20].

Anatomical context of Middle East

• Increasing ciprofloxacin resistance among prevalent urinary tract bacterial isolates in the Gaza Strip [21].
• Erythrocyte transketolase activities indicated that many of the sheep that arrived in the Middle East without signs of clinical disease were also in a state of thiamine insufficiency [22].
• PURPOSE: To determine the morbidity of vernal, atopic and other disease mediated by eosinophils amongst the Palestinian Community of East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza Strip [23].

Associations of Middle East with chemical compounds

• In contrast, C subtypes were found predominantly in classic KS and in iatrogenic and AIDS KS in the Middle East and Asia, whereas U.S. AIDS KS samples were primarily A1, A4, and C3 variants [24].
• Distribution is world-wide with peak prevalence in the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and areas of Africa. Transmission occurs by direct parenteral inoculation and by non-parenteral routes linked to close body contacts [25].
• The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and animal husbandry in the Near East and Mediterranean Region began some 12,000 years ago [26].
• Because many Israeli areas and much of the West Bank area of the Palestinian National Authority sit on the same phosphate deposits, regional joint projects for surveillance and control may be indicated [27].
• Each of the clusters (north, south, and middle-east coast) was characterized by a high frequency of a particular lineage (C4, C2, and 9-bp deletion, respectively) [28].

Gene context of Middle East

• Seipin mutations were found in patients from families originating from Europe and the Middle East. AGPAT2 mutations were found predominantly in African ancestry [29].
• In XRCC1, hMSH3 exon 21 and hMLH1 Africa clusters either with Middle East and Europe or with Southeast Asia, which could be related to the demographic history of human populations, whereby human migrations and genetic drift rather than selection would account for the observed differences [30].
• A similar replacement pattern of G6PD Mediterranean is described from persons living in Mediterranean countries and Middle East countries [31].
• Patients having three or more active CYP2D6 alleles (up to 29% in North Africa and the Middle East), are called CYP2D6 ultra-rapid metabolizers (UMs) [32].
• CONCLUSIONS: The KIF21A gene mutation R954W was detected in the patients with CFEOM1 screened in this study, all of whom were Japanese, reflecting similar reports from Europe, America, the Middle East, and Japan. We suggest that mutations of the KIF21A gene contribute to the development of CFEOM1 regardless of ethnicity [33].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Middle East

• A nutrition survey was performed in 1990 among children 6 through 35 mo of age living in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Lebanon [34].
• We found a comparatively low seroprevalence rate of 2.1% for the Arab countries and the Middle East. Our results show that there definitely is a risk for long-term expatriates to acquire HEV infection; however, in most of our cases infection seems to have been non- or oligo-symptomatic [35].
• Here, we report the first case of a patient with both cutaneous and visceral KS who was successfully treated in the Middle East by conversion from a cyclosporine-based to a sirolimus-based immunosuppression regimen [36].

References