Monthly Archives: May 2023

The ketogenic diet (KD) shifts body metabolism away from carbohydrates toward fat and ketone bodies. Many overweight individuals suffer from insulin resistance and other symptoms of prediabetes in the world. Thus, this study aims to investigate the safety of KD and its adverse actions on prediabetic overweight and obese individuals. In this case-control study, fifty-eight overweight and obese individuals were divided into prediabetes and control groups based on their Homeostasis Model Assessment-estimated Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) values. Both groups performed KD for 3 months. During this period, blood ketone bodies were monitored weekly, and Fasting blood Sugar (FBS), lipid profile, Creatinine, urea, uric acid, Blood nitrogen urea (BUN), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), C peptide level, oxidative stress, and interleukin 10 (IL10) were analysed before and after the intervention. BMI and FBS reduced significantly after the KD for both groups. However, both groups increased significantly triglyceride (TG), Creatinine, urea, uric acid, and BUN (Blood nitrogen urea). While the cholesterol and interleukin 10 (IL10) were elevated in the control group.  In the other hand HDL (High density lipoprotein), NO (nitric oxide) and MDA (Malondialdehyde) were significantly rised but LDL (Lower density lipoprotein) was reduced in prediabetes group after KD.as well C peptide increased significantly in prediabetes group. Also, KD has a significant effect on HOMA-IR and HOMA-S% on both groups but HOMA-B% shows a significant effect only  in prediabetes group.

The study reveals that KD is helpful for weight reduction, but also it has a positive effect on reducing insulin resistance in prediabetic individuals.

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the deadliest tumor’s due to its competence to invade and metastasize. Multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations are implicated in gastric carcinogenesis. In addition, this disease is mostly diagnosed at a late stage. The DNA repair gene x-ray repair cross-complementing protein (XRCC1), Cytokine Interleukin-8 (IL-8) gene, and anti-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma (Bcl-2) gene perform a crucial role in the development and progression of GC. This study aimed to evaluate the expression of these target genes in GC patients in the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRG). Gastric cancer tissues were taken from 29 patients that were diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma that underwent gastric resection and 21 tissue samples were taken from healthy patients that underwent
gastroscopy. The gastric tissues were collected in different hospitals in Erbil- and Sulaymaniyah city in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and stored at -80 ֯C for molecular purposes. Data regarding the Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, age, and gender of the gastric patients with their stage of the disease were recorded and analyzed using GraphPad Prism. The gene expression levels of XRCC1, IL8, and Bcl-2 from gastric tissue were studied by quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR). The result showed that H. pylori infection was equally distributed among males and females in the tissues of gastric patients, while most of the H.pylori-negative patients were females. It is also found that gastric patients between 30-60 years old were more commonly positive tested for the H. pylori test. Furthermore, in this study patients diagnosed with gastric inflammation were more often tested positive for H. pylori, while patients diagnosed with gastric cancer were all negative tested for this infection. Additionally, it was found that the target genes (XRCC1, IL-8, and Bcl-2) were significantly upregulated in GC patients compared to the healthy group. Taking together, our result revealed that XRCC1, IL-8, and Bcl-2 were upregulated in gastric cancer patients compared to the healthy control group. This may indicate that these target genes could play role in gastric carcinogenesis and therefore, targeting XRCC1, IL-8, and Bcl-2 genes might be an interesting field and promising strategy for cancer treatment.