Books by Hanaa Ahmed

Parkinson's disease is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement, muscle control, and balance as well as numerous other functions. It is currently believed that Parkinson¿s disease is caused not only by genetic, but also, to a large extent, by environmental factors of which pesticides may play an important role. One of the pesticides which may be involved in the development of Parkinson¿s disease is rotenone. where rotenone is a potent inhibitor of mitochondrial complex I and caused oxidative damage which is strongly implied in the neurodegeneration of dopaminergic neurons. The principal goal of this book is to evaluate the ameliorative effect of some medicinal plants as pumpkin seed oil, grape seed extract and ginkgo extract against rotenone induced neurotoxicity in adult male albino rats. This book clearly demonstrated that the selected medicinal plant extracts could play a potent role in management of Parkinson's disease. The protective effect of the different studied plants was in the following order : Ginkgo ¿ Grape seed > Pumpkin seed.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia in the elderly. Clinically, the disease is characterized by a progressive memory loss and cognitive decline, pathologically AD is characterized by senile plaques (SP), neurofibillary tangles (NFT), and synapse loss. AD is characterized by the presence of proteinaceous deposits in the extracellular and intracellular compartments of the brain. The intracellular deposits containing polymerized and hyperphosphorylated tau protein. While the extracellular deposits consist of ¿-amyloid protein (A¿), which is composed of 40-42 amino acid polypeptide. The present study focuses on evaluating the role of treatment with different nutraceuticals including essential fatty acid, coenzyme, enzyme inhibitors, amino acids, antioxidant and vitamins against Al-induced neurodegenerative damage characteristic of Alzheimer's disease in aged rats. The present study demonstrated that the treatment with the selected nutraceuticals significantly ameliorates the neurodegeneration characteristic of Alzheimer's disease as indicated by the tangible improvement in the specific biochemical markers and histological features of the brain.

Reproduction is a physiologically costly process that consumes significant amounts of energy. The primary metabolic cue that modulates reproduction is the availability of oxidizable fuel. The organism''s metabolic status is transmitted to the brain through metabolic fuel detectors. There are many of these detectors and one of the most important fuel detectors is ghrelin. Ghrelin, a peptide hormone primarily secreted from the stomach and hypothalamus, has emerged as an orexigenic food intake controlling signal acting upon hypothalamic centers. Recently the potential reproductive role of ghrelin has received great attention. This work investigates the influence of food restriction on the secretion and gene expression of ghrelin and explores the effect of this hormone on the levels as well as gene expression of the reproductive hormones in adult male and female rats. So prolonged food restriction with a consequent excessive ghrelin could be one of the factors responsible for the suppression of reproductive axis in males and females. Thus ghrelin provides a link between energy homeostasis and reproductive capacity in adults.