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- 1. Doctoral of philosophy (Ph.D.)/Microbiology/ Molecular Virology, Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, A... more1. Doctoral of philosophy (Ph.D.)/Microbiology/ Molecular Virology, Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, 1999.Thesis title: Study of genetic variations of HIV-1 virus in HIV-1/AIDS patients.2. Master of Science (M.Sc.)/Biology with a specialization in Parasitology and Immunology, Yarmouk University, Jordan, 1990.Thesis title: Resistance to secondary Hydatidosis: Effect of dose and type of antigen.3. Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)/Medical Technology, Yarmouk University, Jordan, 1987.edit
Curcumin is classified as a chemotherapeutic medication because of its potential against numerous cancer cell lines and ability to inhibit cancer cell proliferation. Despite these findings, curcumin has yet to be commercialized as a drug... more
Curcumin is classified as a chemotherapeutic medication because of its potential against numerous cancer cell lines and ability to inhibit cancer cell proliferation. Despite these findings, curcumin has yet to be commercialized as a drug due to its low water solubility, low absorption, and restricted bioavailability. As a result, there is a demand for water-soluble curcumin with improved solubility, bioavailability, and thus bioactivity. In this study we report the synthesis and the anticancer activities of water-soluble curcumins derivatives with alkyl sulfonate moiety. The target water-soluble curcumin with alkyl sulfonate moieties was created utilizing a straightforward technique that involved reacting curcumin with various sultones. The cytotoxic (24 h) and cytostatic (72 h) anticancer effect on breast carcinoma (MCF-7), liver carcinoma (HepG2), skin melanoma (B16-F110), colon human cancer and HeLa cervical carcinoma cell lines viability % via MTT assay were determined for the prepared derivatives. Results showed that curcuminderived compounds have a pronounced cytostatic anticancer effect rather than cytotoxic one in relation to the compound type, cancer cell line type, and examined concentration compared to curcumin. The curcumin sulfonates outperformed curcumin activity against the tested cancer cells and showed to be powerful anticancer candidate drugs as supported by the theoretical calculations. This is evident by their high capacity to form H-bonding during docking with the amino acid side chains and the Vina docking score.
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To evaluate the effectiveness of hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination of household contacts of HBV carriers in Tulkarm district, Palestine, quantitative hepatitis B surface (anti-HBs) antibody response in 161 household contacts was... more
To evaluate the effectiveness of hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination of household contacts of HBV carriers in Tulkarm district, Palestine, quantitative hepatitis B surface (anti-HBs) antibody response in 161 household contacts was measured after vaccination. A seroprotective anti-HBs response (titre > or = 10 IU/L) was elicited in all vaccinated subjects. Of these 2.5% had titres of 10-99 IU/L, 61.5% 100-999 IU/L and 36.0% > or = 1000 IU/L. The number of vaccination doses had no effect on the achievement of seroprotection. HBV infection was demonstrated in 13 cases and their anti-HBV titres were in the range 25-350 IU/L.
Research Interests: Adolescent, Medicine, Hepatitis B, Humans, Child, and 15 moreFemale, Male, Endemic Diseases, Antibody, Adult, Eastern Mediterranean, Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis B Vaccines, Immunization Programs, Child preschool, Antibody Response, Family Characteristics, Carrier state, Contact Tracing, and Immunization Schedule
This study aimed to evaluate the relation between the phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility patterns and the antibiotic resistance genes and to investigate the prevalence of macrolide, lincosamides, streptogramin, aminoglycoside and... more
This study aimed to evaluate the relation between the phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility patterns and the antibiotic resistance genes and to investigate the prevalence of macrolide, lincosamides, streptogramin, aminoglycoside and tetracycline resistance genes among MRSA isolates. A total of 55 clinical MRSA isolates were included in this study, antibiotic resistance was conducted by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method, broth microdilution assay and multiplex PCR technique. Our results showed that there was no discordance between conventional susceptibility testing and gene detection by multiplex PCR assay. The prevalence of erm(A), erm(C), tetK, tetM, aacA-aphD, vat(A), vat(B) and vat(C) gene among MRSA isolates was 30.9%, 74.5%, 76.4%, 16.4%, 74.5%, 1.8%, 0% and 5.5%, respectively. These MRSA strains belonged to SCCmec types II, III, IVa and V. Rapid and reliable method for antibiotic susceptibility is important to determine the appropriate therapy decision. Multiplex PCR can be used for confirmation of the results obtained by disk diffusion method or could be used as an alternative diagnostic method in the routine diagnosis for rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of MRSA associated antibiotic resistance genes.
Research Interests: Microbiology, Biology, Adolescent, Medicine, Antibiotic Resistance, and 15 moreHumans, Child, Female, Male, Microbial genetic and drug resistance, Antibiotics, Aged, Middle Aged, Adult, Microbial Sensitivity Tests, Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, Lincosamides, Child preschool, multiplex polymerase chain reaction, and Broth Microdilution
Research Interests: Immunology, Medical Microbiology, Biology, Medicine, HIV, and 15 moreChemokines and chemokine receptors, Greece, Greeks, Humans, Mutation, Hiv Infection, Human immunodeficiency virus, Genotype, CCR, Allele, Allele Frequency, alleles, Gene frequency, Cardiovascular medicine and haematology, and HIV infections
ABSTRACT Objective: This study was conducted to update the prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates among human clinical S. aureus isolates recovered from Northern Palestine, to evaluate the possible presence of... more
ABSTRACT Objective: This study was conducted to update the prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates among human clinical S. aureus isolates recovered from Northern Palestine, to evaluate the possible presence of vancomycin-Resistant S. aureus (VRSA) and vancomycin- intermediate resistant S. aureus strains (VISA) and to determine the antimicrobial susceptibilities of these clinical isolates. Methods: The in-vitro activities of 11 antibiotics against 204 non-duplicate S. aureus isolates from clinical samples in North of Palestine were determined by the disk-diffusion method. These samples were isolated between June 2006 and December 2007. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of vancomycin for 115 methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains was carried out using the agar dilution method. Results: One hundred and fifteen (56.4%) of these isolates were MRSA and according to their antibiotic profile these are multidrug resistant (resistant to three or more non-β-lactam antibiotics). Ninety nine (43.6%) isolates were methicillin sensitive S. aureus (MSSA), forty four of MSSA isolates (44.4%) were multidrug resistant, while forty five (45.6%) were non multidrug resistant. Our results showed that the most common resistance (95.6%) was to penicillin. Two strains of MRSA have shown to be vancomycin- intermediate resistant, had MIC 4 and 8 μg/ml and these vancomycin- intermediate resistant S. aureus strains (VISA) are resistant to all antibiotics tested. Conclusion: According to our information this is the first study report about VISA in Palestine.
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Curcumin is a natural compound with numerous biological activities and a precursor for many drugs. Development of a convenient one pot synthetic method for synthesizing curcumin-based diazepines and diazoles having antibacterial... more
Curcumin is a natural compound with numerous biological activities and a precursor for many drugs. Development of a convenient one pot synthetic method for synthesizing curcumin-based diazepines and diazoles having antibacterial activities is focussed in this study. A one pot condensation process was developed for synthesizing a novel class of curcumin-based diazoles and diazepines by reacting curcumin with 2-diamino compounds and hydrazines in presence of sulfuric acid as catalyst. IR and 1H NMR were used to characterize the molecular composition of the synthesized curcumin derivatives. The synthesized derivatives were tested for their in vitro antibacterial efficacy against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The MIC concentrations ranged from 1.56 to 200 μg/mL. Ampicillin exhibited synergistic effects with compounds C1, C3, C4 and C8. In the genotoxicity test, compound C3 was found to have no effect on the DNA molecules of E. coli strains, suggesting that it is not mutagenic and/or genotoxic. Compound C2 had the strongest interaction with the investigated protein receptor sites when blind molecular docking was conducted on all compounds. Since both H-donating and H-accepting sites of this molecule interact efficiently during the docking. In addition, absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) study showed that compound C2 do not contradict the Lipinski’s rule of drug likeness and showed a low level of passive human gastrointestinal absorption. The results indicated that C2 could be most promising among the studied compounds.
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Developing a new effective anticancer agent becomes an urgent need to overcome of current drug-resistance. In this study we demonstrated that curcumin with heterocyclic moiety can function as an anticancer agent in a human. A new series... more
Developing a new effective anticancer agent becomes an urgent need to overcome of current drug-resistance. In this study we demonstrated that curcumin with heterocyclic moiety can function as an anticancer agent in a human. A new series of curcumin-based benzodiazepines, diazepines and diazoles were prepared using a simple one pot process. The process involved a condensation reaction of curcumin with various 1,2 diamino compounds and hydrazine. The structures of the prepared heterocycles were identified by the spectroscopic methods FT-IR, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR. The in vitro anticancer activities of the synthesized curcumin-based heterocycles against HeLa cancer cells were evaluated by the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The viability of HeLa cells was reduced in the range of 4.48- 14.57% within the studied concentrations. Curcumin-based diazepine 6 showed the highest cytotoxic effect on the HeLa cells at all concentrations. it reduced the via...
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Surgical site infections considered as a major problem in health care centers, resulting in extended length of stay, substantial associated morbidity and mortality, and high excess hospital cost. Thirty wound swabs were collected from... more
Surgical site infections considered as a major problem in health care centers, resulting in extended length of stay, substantial associated morbidity and mortality, and high excess hospital cost. Thirty wound swabs were collected from patients who had developed postoperative wound infections at Rafidia Hospital-Nablus, Palestine. Bacterial isolates were identified according to standard microbiological methods. Antibiotics susceptibility test was applied for all isolated bacterial species. ERIC-PCR was carried out to determine the identity between isolated clones. The results of this research showed that the prevalence of pathogens among surgical site infections was 56.7%, 30%, 6.7%, 3.3% and 3.3% for E. coli, S. aureus, Klebsiella sp., Enterobacter sp., and Acinatobacter sp., respectively. E. coli isolates showed high resistance against Nalidixic acid (88.2%), Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole (76.5%), Tetracycline (70.6%), Norfloxacin (64.7%) and Ciprofloxacin (58.5%). S. aureus showed...
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A total of twenty-three Echinococcus granulosus hydatid cysts were collected from infected sheep slaughtered in Nablus abattoir, Nablus - Palestine. Protoscoleces or germinal membranes were used for DNA extraction followed by PCR... more
A total of twenty-three Echinococcus granulosus hydatid cysts were collected from infected sheep slaughtered in Nablus abattoir, Nablus - Palestine. Protoscoleces or germinal membranes were used for DNA extraction followed by PCR amplification. Amplified products were analyzed the presence of a fragment of 444bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene followed by nucleotide sequencing. Overall, 21 hydatid cysts were positive compared to a negative control. The partial sequences of cox1 gene of E. granulosus strains indicated that the sheep in Palestine were infected with genotype 1 (G1), genotype 2 (G2) and genotype 3 (G3). The prevalence of these genotypes was (14/21) 66.7%, (4/21) 19.0% and (3/21) 14.3% for G1, G2 and G3, respectively. Our results showed that twelve strains of G1 belonged to the common haplotype EG01 which is the major haplotype in all the geographic populations. Phylogenetic analysis also showed that two sequences of G1 genotype which have GenBank accession No. KC109657 and KC109659 were corresponding to G1.4 micro-variants. Only the sequence of GenBank accession No. KC109652 identified in our study as G2 was found to have complete identity to the original sequence described for the cox1 gene (GenBank accession No. M84662). It is concluded that G1 genotype is the predominant genotype in sheep in Palestine. Therefore, these findings should be taken into consideration in developing prevention strategies and control programs for hydatidosis in Palestine.
Research Interests: Microbiology, Biology, Israel, Experimental parasitology, Phylogeny, and 15 moreSequence alignment, Sheep, Animals, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Genotype, GenBank, Echinococcosis, Abattoirs, SHEEP DISEASES, Phylogenetic Tree, Base Sequence, Pilot Projects, Haplotype, Echinococcus granulosus, and Molecular Sequence Data
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Research Interests: Microbiology, Biology, Industrial Biotechnology, Food Microbiology, Israel, and 15 moreAntibiotic Resistance, Virulence, Escherichia coli, Animals, Meat, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Cattle, Shiga Toxin, Microbial Sensitivity Tests, Food Contamination, Food Sciences, Seasons, STX, Serotype, and Antimicrobial agent
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Salmonella spp. are one of a major public health concerns worldwide, as well as it is the most frequently isolated foodborne pathogen. Human illness with Salmonella spp. is often due to the consumption of contaminated food of animal... more
Salmonella spp. are one of a major public health concerns worldwide, as well as it is the most frequently isolated foodborne pathogen. Human illness with Salmonella spp. is often due to the consumption of contaminated food of animal origin such as eggs or their products and poultry meat. The prevalence of this pathogen in egg-laying poultry farms and in broiler farms is an important public health risk factor. Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis has been the major cause of foodborne salmonellosis in humans. Data on the prevalence of Salmonella spp. in the Palestinian territories’ poultry flocks is lacking. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Salmonella spp. in local layer and broiler flocks, and to find out the rate of S. Enteritidis among the isolated samples. A total of 1180 cloacal swabs were collected from several layer and broiler farms from different locations in the West Bank, Palestine. Identification of Salmonella spp. was carried out using conventional and serological methods. Molecular methods using Polymerase Chain Reaction was used for confirmation of Salmonella spp., and to detect the presence of S. Enteritidis among the isolated Salmonella spp. Results of the current study showed that, the rate of Salmonella spp. in the sample tested from layer and broiler farms was 10.7% (65/608) and 4.7% (27/572), respectively. In addition, the prevalence rate of S. Enteritidis among other Salmonella spp. was 0.0% and 14.8% for layer and broiler farms, respectively. It is highly recommended that further studies should be conducted, including high number of samples with serotyping and molecular characterization of the positive samples.
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Research Interests: Microbiology, Palestine, Biology, Staphylococcus aureus, TYPING, and 3 moreToxin, Coagulase, and Enterotoxin
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Background: Huge efforts are being made to control the spread and impacts of the coronavirus pandemic using vaccines. However, willingness to be vaccinated depends on factors beyond the availability of vaccines. The aim of this study was... more
Background: Huge efforts are being made to control the spread and impacts of the coronavirus pandemic using vaccines. However, willingness to be vaccinated depends on factors beyond the availability of vaccines. The aim of this study was three-folded: to assess the prevalence of children’s vaccination against COVID-19, to explore parents’ attitudes towards children’s vaccination, and to discover the factors associated with parents’ hesitancy towards children’s vaccination in several countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). Methods: This study utilized a cross-sectional descriptive design. A sample of 3744 parents from eight countries, namely, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (KSA), and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was conveniently approached and surveyed using Google forms. The participants have responded to a 42-item questionnaire pertaining to socio-demographics, children vaccination status, knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines, and attitud...
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Curcumin is a natural compound with numerous biological activities and a precursor for many drugs. Development of a convenient one pot synthetic method for synthesizing curcumin-based diazepines and diazoles having antibacterial... more
Curcumin is a natural compound with numerous biological activities and a precursor for many drugs. Development of a convenient one pot synthetic method for synthesizing curcumin-based diazepines and diazoles having antibacterial activities is focussed in this study. A one pot condensation process was developed for synthesizing a novel class of curcumin-based diazoles and diazepines by reacting curcumin with 2-diamino compounds and hydrazines in presence of sulfuric acid as catalyst. IR and 1H NMR were used to characterize the molecular composition of the synthesized curcumin derivatives. The synthesized derivatives were tested for their in vitro antibacterial efficacy against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The MIC concentrations ranged from 1.56 to 200 μg/mL. Ampicillin exhibited synergistic effects with compounds C1, C3, C4 and C8. In the genotoxicity test, compound C3 was found to have no effect on the DNA molecules of E. coli strains, suggesting that it is not mutagenic and/or genotoxic. Compound C2 had the strongest interaction with the investigated protein receptor sites when blind molecular docking was conducted on all compounds. Since both H-donating and H-accepting sites of this molecule interact efficiently during the docking. In addition, absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) study showed that compound C2 do not contradict the Lipinski’s rule of drug likeness and showed a low level of passive human gastrointestinal absorption. The results indicated that C2 could be most promising among the studied compounds.
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Fluoroquinolones are important antimicrobial agents for the treatment of Pseudomonas infections. A total of 11 isolates of P. aeruginosa were collected from different clinical samples from different medical centers in the North West... more
Fluoroquinolones are important antimicrobial agents for the treatment of Pseudomonas infections. A total of 11 isolates of P. aeruginosa were collected from different clinical samples from different medical centers in the North West Bank-Palestine during 2017. In this study, resistance to fluoroquinolones and secretions of β-lactamases were detected by phenotypic methods, while presence of β-lactamase gene sequences and other virulence factors were detected by PCR technique. PCR product for gyrA, parC and parE genes were sequenced for further analyses. The phylogenetic analyses, population diversity indices and haplotypes determination were conducted using computer programs MEGA version 6, DnaSP 5.1001 and median-joining algorithm in the program Network 5, respectively. Results of this study showed that the MIC for ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin had a range of 32-256 µg/ml. In addition, all isolates carried either exoT or exoT and exoY genes, different β-lactamase genes and 82% of th...
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The antimicrobial resistance to 10 antibiotics was determined in 132 staphylococcal isolates. These representing Staphylococcus aureus (n=66) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (n=66). All isolates were from milk samples obtained from... more
The antimicrobial resistance to 10 antibiotics was determined in 132 staphylococcal isolates. These representing Staphylococcus aureus (n=66) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (n=66). All isolates were from milk samples obtained from subclinical mastitis from Awassi ewes, local goats and Fresian cows. Results indicated that among all the antimicrobial agents tested the highest resistance of staphylococcal isolates was to ampicillin. The frequency of resistance to ampicillin was 75.8 and 66.7% against S. aureus and S. epidermidis isolates, respectively. Resistance to amikacin, cefepime, vancomycin, tobramycin or chloramphenicol was rare. None of staphylococcal isolates was susceptible to all tested antibiotics. Resistance to at least 3 drugs was found in (35) 53% and (28) 42.4 % of S. aureus and S. epidermidis isolates, respectively.
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Infectious disease still represent an important cause of morbidity and mortality among humans, especially in developing countries. In recent years one of the more alarming trends in clinical microbiology has been the increasing incidence... more
Infectious disease still represent an important cause of morbidity and mortality among humans, especially in developing countries. In recent years one of the more alarming trends in clinical microbiology has been the increasing incidence of resistance to antimicrobial agents among pathogens causing nosocomial as well as community-acquired infections. Among the more important emerging resistance problem is methicillin resistance in Staphylococci, which has gained much attention in the last decades, because it has become a major hospital-acquired pathogen[1]. Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) (MRSA) infections are very difficult to cure because these strains are resistant against almost all clinically available antibiotics. For most MRSA strains, glycopeptidtype drugs are the only effective antimicrobial agents. This reason and other factors such as high cost of production and toxicity of synthetic compounds have prompted scientists to look for new effective anti...
Leguminosae or Fabaceae is the third largest flowering plant family. It is economically important for food production and soil fertility. The molecular phylogenetic analysis of closely related species of Leguminosae family: Lens... more
Leguminosae or Fabaceae is the third largest flowering plant family. It is economically important for food production and soil fertility. The molecular phylogenetic analysis of closely related species of Leguminosae family: Lens culinaris, Vicia sativa, V. palaestina, V. peregrina, V. faba, V. narbonensis, Lathyrus aphaca, Pisum fulvum and P. sativum aids in the discrimination among these closely related species. In this study, 18S and 28S as universal primers were used for amplifying and sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the studied species. This was conducted on around two-five plant individual samples of each one of the species under investigation. The phylogenetic tree construction was carried out using Unweighted Pair Group method. The phylogenetic analysis among the studied species revealed that V. peregrina, V. faba, V. narbonensis, V. palaestina, Lens culinaris, and V. sativa were grouped into one clade (clade І). However, V. sativa occupied the fart...