Faris Alenzi | King Saud University (original) (raw)

Papers by Faris Alenzi

The Yale journal of biology and medicine, 2005

CD34+ cells and colony forming unit-granulocyte and macrophage (CFU-GM) from human bone marrow we... more CD34+ cells and colony forming unit-granulocyte and macrophage (CFU-GM) from human bone marrow were used to investigate the role of Fas/FasL system in the regulation of myelopoiesis. Fas and FasL expression in CD34+ cells and in day 14 CFU-GM were measured by RT-PCR and immunofluorescence respectively. The functional assays for the CFU-GM were measured by a standard colony assay and the proliferative capacity of CFU-GM was measured by replating the primary colony and observing the secondary colony formation. Human marrow cells were treated with IETD (caspase-8 inhibitor) or anti-Fas CH-11 Mab. Treatment with the CFU-GM with IETD significantly increased, the proliferative capacity, while anti-Fas CH-11 Mab markedly reduced it. Fas and FasL expression were demonstrated using RT-PCR and immunofluorescence respectively. Fas, FasL, and caspase activation are likely to play an important role in the regulation of myelopoiesis.

Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 2015

Posterior dislocation of the shoulder is a rare injury that occurs secondary to trauma and seizur... more Posterior dislocation of the shoulder is a rare injury that occurs secondary to trauma and seizures. Diagnosis is often missed and treatment is challenging. Neglected posterior dislocation is associated with Hill-Sachs lesion which leads to locking of dislocation. Correct diagnosis is achieved by history taking, a physical examination and appropriate imaging. In neglected shoulder dislocation with uncontrolled seizure and humeral head defects of up to 45% the McLaughlin procedure shows excellent results at follow-up.

Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, 2004

Apoptosis, an active mechanism of cell death, is an important process in many biological systems.... more Apoptosis, an active mechanism of cell death, is an important process in many biological systems. Apoptosis is thought to contribute to many disease processes. This notion has raised expectations that therapeutic opportunities will naturally follow once a better understanding of these processes has been achieved. The regulation of apoptosis in normal and malignant haematological diseases represents an important therapeutic approach in the treatment of leukaemia and lymphoma. This review summarises recent developments in the clinical manipulation of apoptosis pathways in haematological therapy.

Bcl-2 family members can be functionally divided into anti-apoptotic and proapoptotic groups. The... more Bcl-2 family members can be functionally divided into anti-apoptotic and proapoptotic groups. The balance between these two groups may determine the fate of tumor cells. In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), this balance is often tilted towards the anti-apoptotic members in tumor cells, leading to resistance to cell death and rapid proliferation.

Caspases are key intracellular molecules in the control of apoptosis, but little is known concern... more Caspases are key intracellular molecules in the control of apoptosis, but little is known concerning their relative contribution to the cascade of events leading to eosinophil apoptosis. We examined caspase-3, -8, and -9 activities in receptor ligation dependent apoptosis induction in the cultured eosinophils (CE). CE cultured alone for 48 hours exhibited constitutive apoptosis (12% ± 1.2). Significant (P < 0.05) enhancement of eosinophil apoptosis was observed following monoclonal antibody (Mab) treatment with CD45 (40% ± 0.7), CD95 (36% ± 1.6), or CD69 (34% ± 0.2). Caspase activity was analysed using the novel CaspaTagTM technique and flow cytometry. CE ligated with CD45 (Bra55), CD95 (Fas) and CD69 Mab resulted in caspase-3 and -9 activation after 16 hours post-ligation. This trend in caspase-3 and -9 activation continued to increase significantly through to the 20 and 24 hours time points when compared to isotype control. Activated up-stream caspase-8 was detected 16 and 20 hours after treatment with CD45, CD95 and

Self renewal and apoptosis of haemopoietic stem cells (HSC † ) represent major factors that deter... more Self renewal and apoptosis of haemopoietic stem cells (HSC † ) represent major factors that determine the size of the haemopoietic cell mass. Changes in self renewal above or below the steady state value of 0.5 will result in either bone marrow expansion or aplasia, respectively. Despite the growing body of research that describes the potential role of HSC, there is still very little information on the mechanisms that govern HSC self renewal and apoptosis. Considerable insight into the role of HSC in many diseases has been gained in recent years. In light of their crucial importance, this article reviews recent developments in the understanding of the molecular, biological, and physiological characteristics of haemopoietic stem cells.

Roumanian archives of microbiology and immunology

Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons--Pakistan: JCPSP

The aim of this descriptive study was to determine the prevalence of Klebsiella pneumoniae from d... more The aim of this descriptive study was to determine the prevalence of Klebsiella pneumoniae from different clinical specimens, their antibiotic susceptibility pattern and the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) production among such isolates at Armed Forces Hospital, Al-Kharaj, Saudi Arabia, from November, 2004 to October, 2007. A total of 328 isolates of K. pneumoniae recovered from 8152 different specimens were studied for ESBL production and antimicrobial susceptibility. The prevalence of K. pneumoniae was 4% (328/8152). We observed a high percentage of K. pneumoniae resistant to ampicillin (100%) and tetracycline (92%). The prevalence of ESBL-producing K. pneumoniae was found to be 10.4% (34/328). The ESBL-producing strains were mostly from aspirates (25%) followed by sputum (20%) and blood (18.2%). These ESBLproducing isolates were highly resistant to gentamicin and ciprofloxacin. All isolates were susceptible to imipenem. Our findings demonstrate a high percentage of ESBL-p...

British journal of biomedical science

Constituents of the Nigella sativa seed are reported to possess potent antioxidant effects. Treat... more Constituents of the Nigella sativa seed are reported to possess potent antioxidant effects. Treatment with anticancer drugs such as cyclophosphamide (CTX) is associated with significant toxicity due to over-production of reactive oxygen species, resulting in increased levels of oxidative stress. The aim of this study is to test whether or not N. sativa L oil (NSO) or its active ingredient, thymoquinone (TQ), can reduce CTX-induced toxicity. Male albino rats were treated with intraperitoneal administration of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) or 200 mg/Kg CTX followed by intragastric administration of NSO or TQ on alternate days for 12 days. Administration of NSO and TQ was initiated 6 h before or after CTX injection. Twenty-four hours after the last NSO and TQ treatment, blood and liver were harvested to analyse toxicity-related parameters. Treatment with CTX induced significant toxicity as shown by decrease in haemoglobin concentration and increases in blood sugar levels, activities ...

Abstract: This review evaluates the various aspects of the academic career with respect to how an... more Abstract: This review evaluates the various aspects of the academic career with respect to how and why components of entering academic career. The expectations, the short- and long-term benefits, the move from main stream research to commercialization, and other key issues for academics and aspiring academics to consider are covered in this review. Basically, academics are expected to devote their time to perform three tasks: teaching, research, and community service, where teaching and research are the main tasks. Whereas, some ‘not research-intensive’ institutions consider teaching effectiveness as the main job, others i.e. ‘research-intensive’ institutions evaluate the tenure and/or promotion of faculty on their research productivity. The balance in the teaching/research/service relationship is an eternal dilemma that faces faculty in higher institutions and controls the career progression of such individuals. This dilemma is likely to disturb the faculty, in particular junior on...

Journal of Biomedical Science

Brucellosis is a typical zoonosis that is endemic in large areas of the Middle East, 1 and, despi... more Brucellosis is a typical zoonosis that is endemic in large areas of the Middle East, 1 and, despite improved medical care, it remains a major cause of morbidity in the area. In Saudi Arabia, Brucella sp. is one of the most common isolates from blood culture samples, and 75 examples were isolated from a total of 1903 positive blood culture specimens (4%) at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital during 2000.

The Open Aids Journal, 2009

More than 25 million lives have been claimed by AIDS and 33.2 million people are estimated to hav... more More than 25 million lives have been claimed by AIDS and 33.2 million people are estimated to have HIV, the majority of which are living in the underdeveloped countries. Failed tests on vaccines, virucides and complete virus eradication have caused scientists to refocus on the basic questions of what makes an effective HIV immune response. The "gloom" over disappointing research results on vaccine development and virucides "threatens to overshadow more positive" HIV/AIDS-related news, such as findings that male circumcision might reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission and that giving antiretroviral drugs to "high-risk" HIV-negative people (pre-exposure prophylaxis) could help protect them from infection. Something like pre-exposure prophylaxis has a good chance of becoming available before we have a 100% efficacious vaccine. The future in the field of HIV/AIDS will be much brighter if global research is appropriately coordinated and sufficient funds are available.

Saudi medical journal, 2006

To investigate the performance of the commercial Roche COBAS AmpliScreen assay, and demonstrate w... more To investigate the performance of the commercial Roche COBAS AmpliScreen assay, and demonstrate whether the COBAS AmpliScreen human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) test, v1.5, and COBAS AmpliScreen hepatitis C virus (HCV) v 2.0 for screening for HIV-1 and HCV RNA in the donated blood units from which plasma mini pools were collected, by nucleic acid amplification technology (NAT), could detect the positive pools and reduce the risk of transmission of infections for those routinely tested by serological assays. The study was performed on 3288 plasma samples collected from blood donors in a period of 13 months, from August 2004 to August 2005, at Al-Hada Armed Forces Hospital, Molecular Pathology Laboratory, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The samples were tested by the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) after RNA extraction (this represents the major method in NAT assays), in parallel with the routine serological testing to detect qualitatively for HIV-1 and HCV...

Saudi medical journal

One of the major functions of academic journals is to contribute to the evaluation of research ac... more One of the major functions of academic journals is to contribute to the evaluation of research activities and scientists. Invented more than 40 years ago, the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) impact factor (IF) became the most significant indicator of the quality of journals,1 despite well-known problems and critics such as the over-representation of English-language journals. Since 2007, the new SCImago Journal Rank Indicator (SJR) offers an alternative to the IF. The SJR applies the Google algorithm (PageRank) to the journals of the SCOPUS bibliographic database that indexes more journals than ISI Web of Science.

Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad : JAMC

There is a dire need in the Arab world and Middle Eastern countries to reform the higher educatio... more There is a dire need in the Arab world and Middle Eastern countries to reform the higher education, research policy and planning for improving the quality to meet the needs of modern society. The impact factor (IF) was developed in the 1960s by Eugene Garfield of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in the USA. It has been extensively used for more than 40 years. The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator belongs to this new family of indicators based on eigenvector centrality was introduced since 2007. The SJR indicator is a size-independent metric aimed at measuring the current 'average prest (se text) per paper' of journals for use in research evaluation processes. We present the status o the biomedical scientific research in the Middle Eastern countries through the newly developed SJR indicator showing some of the proposed ways that clearly can be applied for enhancing and development of that field in the Middle Eastern countries. During the period from 1996 to 2...

Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP, 2010

Apoptosis represents a crucial process in modulating organ development in the embryo, in organ ho... more Apoptosis represents a crucial process in modulating organ development in the embryo, in organ homeostasis in the adult, and in fostering appropriate immunological function. Caspases represent two central classes of molecules that are either involved with the stimulation of the apoptotic cascade (initiator caspases), or the various sequential biological pathways required for its execution (effector caspases). With an eye towards therapeutic opportunities, this review discusses in detail the lineage of initiator and effector caspases, how they are each activated, their substrates, their regulation, and maps out how they interact throughout the process from initiation of the first apoptotic signal to the final consequential breakdown of cellular integrity.

The Egyptian journal of immunology / Egyptian Association of Immunologists, 2009

Lymphocytes and granulocytes from healthy donors and SLE patients were used to investigate the ro... more Lymphocytes and granulocytes from healthy donors and SLE patients were used to investigate the role of Fas/FasL system in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Determination of lymphocyte subpopulations was carried out by flowcytometry. Fas and FasL expression in lymphocytes and granulocytes were measured by immunofluorescence. Apoptotic cells were measured by TUNEL assay. sFas in the plasma was measured by ELISA. Thirty five normal blood donors and 45 SLE patients were selected for this study. This study was carried out between 2005 and 2007. The number of peripheral leukocytes undergoing apoptosis in SLE patients was greater than those of healthy donors. The degree of DNA damage in lymphocytes and granulocytes of SLE patients was much higher than those of healthy donors (P < 0.05 & P < 0.5, respectively). Additionally, a positive relationship was seen between the level of apoptotic lymphocytes'and the dosage of prednisolone used for treatment of SLE (r ...

Saudi medical journal, 2010

There is worldwide concern on the spreading pandemic wave of the new swine influenza virus (S-OIV... more There is worldwide concern on the spreading pandemic wave of the new swine influenza virus (S-OIV). The WHO has placed the pandemic threat alert to level 6. World leaders and scientists importantly stress that regulations and pandemic preparedness may lower the morbidity and mortality. This review describes the background, origin, epidemiology, signs and symptoms, methods of detecting H1N1, the risk of H1N1 pandemic control plans, immunity to H1N1, vaccination against H1N1, hospital management, patient management, and treatment of symptoms. It also describes in considerable detail the responsibilities of health professionals in navigating the complex areas of laboratory diagnosis, patient isolation procedures, and how to minimize and manage any accompanying staff infections, all of which are vital processes to help mitigate and minimize the seriousness of local and national de-novo outbreaks of emerging H1N1 infection.