Dr. Amani Al-Adsani – Science

Title
Activation of Insulin Signaling and Secretion Pathways Using Garlic extract Attenuate Symptoms of Diabetes In STZ-Induced Diabetic Rats.

Abstract
Insulin signaling absence is a main hallmark of diabetes, as is a requirement for the 1) maintenance of glucose homeostasis and is also 2) involved in the regulation of pancreatic?-cell mass and function. Certain natural extracts have been found to enhance diabetic symptoms such as garlic. In our study, the mechanism by which garlic ameliorates diabetic hyperglycemia was investigated in STZ-induced diabetic rats using microarray and qRT-PCR. STZ-induced diabetic rats were treated with garlic for 8 weeks, then the total pancreatic RNA was extracted and analyzed using GeneChip array. The analysis of microarray data using TAC and IPA softwares revealed the differential expression of genes that are part of the insulin signaling and secretion pathways including Ins1, Ins2, and Snap25, which were all upregulated after 8 weeks of garlic administration compared to the untreated diabetic group. qRT-PCR results showed similar expression pattern for the same genes, verifying the microarray results. Altogether, our results indicate that garlic may activate insulin secretion pathway by upregulating the expression of its corresponding genes, which participates in the induction of pancreatic?-cell proliferation and expansion to eventually produce an effective insulin dose to overcome the diabetic condition.

Dr. Nasmah  Bastaki – Science

Title
Garlic Extract Protects the Retina from Degeneration in Diabetic Retinopathy Rat Model

Abstract
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a severe complication of diabetes mellitus (DM). Despite numerous studies exploring the anti-diabetic properties of garlic in managing DM symptoms, its impact on DR remains limited. This study aimed to test the effectiveness of garlic in managing DR in a streptozotocin-induced DR rat model. Rats were divided into three groups: normal control (NC), diabetic control (DC), and diabetic group (DG) treated with aqueous garlic extract (GE). Histological examination revealed a significant reduction in retinal thickness in DC rats compared to that in DG rats, which showed restored retinal thickness similar to the NC group. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed significant improvements in retinal vascular density, main artery diameter, and blood vessel numbers in DG rats compared to DC rats. The findings suggest that GE protects against DR. Furthermore, garlic could be recommended as a beneficial dietary supplement for diabetic patients to manage and delay the progression of DR.

Dr. Fatma Al-Awadhi – Pharmacy

Title
The Discovery of Moorenaside, a New Anti-Inflammatory Analogue of Aurisides from the Floridian Marine Cyanobacterium Moorena sp.

Abstract
A new 14-membered ring brominated macrolide glycoside (1) was discovered from a marine cyanobacterial sample collected from Shands Key in Florida. The gross structure of moorenaside (1) was elucidated using a combination of 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, while the stereochemistry was deduced from coupling constants and NOE correlations. The characteristic structural feature of 1, compared to other cyanobacterial macrolide glycosides, is an ?,?-unsaturated carbonyl system, also found in aurisides. The presence of this motif in 1 prompted us to evaluate its Keap1/Nrf2?ARE activity, a cytoprotective pathway involved in the activation of antioxidant genes. The compound exhibited moderate ARE luciferase activity at 32 µM. Due to the established crosstalk between Nrf2 and Nf-?B pathways, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of 1 in LPS-induced mouse macrophages (RAW264.7 cells), a commonly used model for inflammation. The compound significantly upregulated Nqo1 (Nrf2 target gene) and downregulated iNos (Nf-?B target gene) at 32 µM by 5.0- and 2.5-fold, respectively, resulting in a significant reduction of nitric oxide (NO) levels. Furthermore, we performed RNA-sequencing and demonstrated the transcriptional activity of 1 on a global level and identified canonical pathways and upstream regulators involved in inflammation, immune response, and certain oxidative stress-underlying diseases such as multiple sclerosis and chronic kidney disease.

Taiba Al-Barjas – Science

Title
Effects of Chronic and Acute Heat Stress on A the Cardiac Expression of Antioxidative and Anti-Inflammatory Genes in Chicks.

Abstract
The increased temperatures in Kuwait during the summer is presenting a health hazard worth investigating. Heat stress can affect several biological pathways. This study aimed to compare the effects of chronic and acute heat stress on the oxidative status and inflammatory responses of chicks’ hearts. Chronic and acute heat stress were induced in chicks, RNA was extracted from heart tissues, and gene expression was analyzed. Our results emphasizes that heat stress induces oxidative stress and inflammation in the hearts of chicks, and this is evidenced by changes in the expression of NRF2 and CAT as antioxidant factors, NFkB and LITAF as anti-inflammatory factors. Our study also showed that the induction of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant genes was greater upon exposure to chronic heat stress than acute heat stress. These findings confirm that chickens generally tolerate chronic heat stress better than they do acute heat stress.

Mohammad AlSayegh – KISR

Title
Smart Alarm System Notification for Greenhouse Control System Using IoT.

Abstract
Monitoring and maintaining temperature, humidity, light intensity, and soil moisture in a greenhouse are the critical factors that ensure the ideal growing conditions for healthy crops growth. However, a sudden change in these parameters due to climate fluctuations can also impact the crops growth, especially in the farmers absence. This study presents an alarm system design and inhouse software solution that detects any environmental change that might occur while monitoring several greenhouses simultaneously with the use of Internet of Things (IoT) for greenhouse control system. The proposed design solution consists of a Raspberry Pi acting as a control system, server-side application for database administration, and an alarm monitoring system that notifies users for any environmental fluctuations outside the environmental threshold range specified by users.

Tahani AlShammari - KISR

Title
Preparation of Activated Carbons From Date Palm Seeds Using Tubular Furnace.

Abstract
Activated carbons derived from date palm seeds are one of the low-cost materials that have the potential to be used in applications such as water treatment, air purification and related applications. Three major elements required for commercial water treatment materials are low cost and high porosity. Activated carbons were prepared from waste date seeds that are readily available in KUWAIT as agricultural waste. The impact of different preparation conditions, such as temperature on the final elemental composition was studied. The collected TGA results clearly showed that. The best thermal stability upon activation at 800 OC. The porous structure of the carbons was clearly seen in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images.

Walid Al-Hussein – Science

Title
Triazole Derivatives: Synthesis, Characterization, -1,2,4 In-silico Investigation, Anti-cancer, and Anti-microbial Activities

Abstract
Triazole nucleus is an important heterocyclic compound and has a lot of pharmaceutical activities such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-analgesic, antiepileptic, antiviral, antineoplastic, antihypertensive, antimalarial, and anticancer. Extensive research efforts have been established to explore many triazole derivatives with better biological activities. Based on that, we successfully synthesized new 1,2,4-triazole derivatives and fully characterized them by mass spectroscopy, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FTIR, measurements of particles' sizes and morphologies. Agent 4f structure was confirmed by x-ray single crystal. For better agent's delivery into the middle of cancer cells, the agents were encapsulated into nano-LDL particles, to benefit from the lipid metabolic pathway. The data showed the agents are in nano size and showed a size increase after encapsulation with LDL particles. The biological results revealed that 1,2,4- triazole derivatives have anticancer activity toward both breast (MDA468) and prostate (DU145) cancer cell lines. Biological evaluation and in-silico investigation results were parallel and showed that agent 4f was the most toxic triazole agent that possesses the activity toward both cell lines in the range of 1.23±0.18 µM and 1.20±0.78 µM, respectively before and after LDL encapsulation. While all other agents showed strong benefits from the LDL drug delivery strategy. In DU145, cancer cell death was through targeting both HER2 receptor and β-tubulin proteins, while in MDA468 the inhibition was through targeting only β-tubulin as proved by western blot. The in-silico results revealed that the eight agents targeting β-tubulin, specifically agent 4f has an outstanding score of -5.9 kcal/mol compared with doxorubicin (calc. -6.8 kcal/mol). Furthermore, the agents were tested against gram-positive, gram-negative bacterial, and fungal strains at 1 μg/ml. The results showed that agents 4g and 4h were proved to be antibacterial agent against candida albicans. Also, this result was supported by the docking computations that demonstrated competing binding scores for compound 4h and the co-crystallized 4C7 ligand with values of −5.5 and −5.3 kcal/mol, respectively. In sum, 1,2,4- triazole derivatives proved their potency as anticancer and antibacterial agents.

Hana Drobiova – Medicine

Title
ADAM9 Genetic Variants and their Role in Modulating Enzyme Activity in Diabetes and Metabolic Traits.

Abstract
A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase Domain 9 (ADAM9) is a zinc-dependent proteinase involved in various biological processes. However, its role in the pathophysiology of metabolic syndrome remains unclear, and studies exploring the association between ADAM9 polymorphisms and metabolic traits are limited. In this study, we investigated the potential link between ADAM9 variants and metabolic syndrome traits in a cohort of adult participants from Kuwait. Using a genome-wide association study (GWAS), followed by a replication study, we identified two ADAM9 variants - ADAM9-E76K (rs61753672) and ADAM9-P750L (rs144750648) - that were associated with various metabolic traits. The replication phase confirmed the association of ADAM9-P750L with HbA1c levels and revealed new associations with systolic blood pressure, waist-to-hip ratio, fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol levels. Functional analysis showed that both variants exhibited reduced proteolytic activity, potentially contributing to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. These findings suggest that ADAM9 variants may play a significant role in metabolic health and diabetes risk.

Asmaa Al-Saeed – Engineering & Petroleum

Title
An Experimental Study of Enhanced Oil Recovery in Wara Formation – Burgan Field.

Abstract
A significant amount of oil is trapped after primary and secondary oil recovery by waterflooding. This residual oil is the target for enhanced oil recovery. Recently, Kuwait Oil Company has initiated enhanced oil recovery studies in fields where primary mechanisms or secondary recovery techniques cannot maintain pressure. This work describes experimental studies of chemical enhanced oil recovery experimental studies conducted on four actual core samples from the Wara formation, particularly in the Burgan field, to support Kuwait's 2040 vision of increasing oil production capacity to 4.75 million barrels per day. The core samples comprised of two with high permeability and two with low permeability, collected from the same well but at depths differing by approximately 100 feet and one ideal core. The locations of these cores span between the middle (WM1-WM3) and lower (WL) sections of Wara. The Wara reservoir has been ongoing since 2014 to maintain pressure and improve oil recovery from the flank areas. The surfactant and polymer used in this study have been screened and evaluated to make sure that is compatible with formation water, oil, and reservoir rock. A total of five experiments were conducted: initially, water flooding followed by surfactant- polymer (SP) or polymer flooding (P), repeated for both high and low permeable cores. The results of our experimental investigation showed that water flooding achieved almost 60% of the initial oil in place. An additional 30% of oil was recovered by surfactant polymer flooding for both high and low permeable cores. Furthermore, polymer flooding alone led to varying additional recoveries of 40% for the low permeability core and 10% for the high permeability core. These findings contribute to the existing literature on the understanding of rock lithology, characteristics of surfactant and polymer and their effectiveness in oil recovery processes in the Wara Formation of the Burgan Field.