TY  - JOUR
A1  - Nazzal, Yousef
A1  - Howari, Fares M.
A1  - Yaslam, Aya
A1  - Iqbal, Jibran
A1  - Maloukh, Lina
A1  - Ambika, Lakshmi Kesari
A1  - Al-Taani, Ahmed A.
A1  - Ali, Ijaz
A1  - Othman, Eman M.
A1  - Jamal, Arshad
A1  - Naseem, Muhammad
T1  - A methodological review of tools that assess dust microbiomes, metatranscriptomes and the particulate chemistry of indoor dust
JF  - Atmosphere
N2  - Indoor house dust is a blend of organic and inorganic materials, upon which diverse microbial communities such as viruses, bacteria and fungi reside. Adequate moisture in the indoor environment helps microbial communities multiply fast. The outdoor air and materials that are brought into the buildings by airflow, sandstorms, animals pets and house occupants endow the indoor dust particles with extra features that impact human health. Assessment of the health effects of indoor dust particles, the type of indoor microbial inoculants and the secreted enzymes by indoor insects as allergens merit detailed investigation. Here, we discuss the applications of next generation sequencing (NGS) technology which is used to assess microbial diversity and abundance of the indoor dust environments. Likewise, the applications of NGS are discussed to monitor the gene expression profiles of indoor human occupants or their surrogate cellular models when exposed to aqueous solution of collected indoor dust samples. We also highlight the detection methods of dust allergens and analytical procedures that quantify the chemical nature of indoor particulate matter with a potential impact on human health. Our review is thus unique in advocating the applications of interdisciplinary approaches that comprehensively assess the health effects due to bad air quality in built environments.
KW  - indoor dust
KW  - allergens
KW  - metagenomics
KW  - particulate matter
KW  - microbiomes
KW  - transcriptomes
KW  - health effects
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-285957
SN  - 2073-4433
VL  - 13
IS  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Othman, Eman M.
A1  - Fathy, Moustafa
A1  - Bekhit, Amany Abdlrehim
A1  - Abdel-Razik, Abdel-Razik H.
A1  - Jamal, Arshad
A1  - Nazzal, Yousef
A1  - Shams, Shabana
A1  - Dandekar, Thomas
A1  - Naseem, Muhammad
T1  - Modulatory and toxicological perspectives on the effects of the small molecule kinetin
JF  - Molecules
N2  - Plant hormones are small regulatory molecules that exert pharmacological actions in mammalian cells such as anti-oxidative and pro-metabolic effects. Kinetin belongs to the group of plant hormones cytokinin and has been associated with modulatory functions in mammalian cells. The mammalian adenosine receptor (A2a-R) is known to modulate multiple physiological responses in animal cells. Here, we describe that kinetin binds to the adenosine receptor (A2a-R) through the Asn253 residue in an adenosine dependent manner. To harness the beneficial effects of kinetin for future human use, we assess its acute toxicity by analyzing different biochemical and histological markers in rats. Kinetin at a dose below 1 mg/kg had no adverse effects on the serum level of glucose or on the activity of serum alanine transaminase (ALT) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) enzymes in the kinetin treated rats. Whereas, creatinine levels increased after a kinetin treatment at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg. Furthermore, 5 mg/kg treated kinetin rats showed normal renal corpuscles, but a mild degeneration was observed in the renal glomeruli and renal tubules, as well as few degenerated hepatocytes were also observed in the liver. Kinetin doses below 5 mg/kg did not show any localized toxicity in the liver and kidney tissues. In addition to unraveling the binding interaction between kinetin and A2a-R, our findings suggest safe dose limits for the future use of kinetin as a therapeutic and modulatory agent against various pathophysiological conditions.
KW  - cytokinin kinetin
KW  - modulatory effects
KW  - in vivo toxicity
KW  - A2a-R receptor
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-223064
SN  - 1420-3049
VL  - 26
IS  - 3
ER  -