Inhalation of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B (SEB) is known to induce acute lung injury (ALI) and studies from our laboratory have shown that THC, a psychoactive ingredient found in Cannabis sativa, can attenuate the ALI. In the current study, we investigated the role played by lung microbiota in ALI with or without THC treatment. A dual-dose of SEB was given to C3H/HeJ mice, which were then treated either with vehicle or THC. SEB-administration caused ALI and 100% mortality while all THC-treated mice survived and suppressed the inflammation in the lungs. Furthermore, lung microbiota was collected and 16S rRNA sequencing was performed. The data were analyzed to determine the alpha and beta diversity. The major phylum was Proteobacteria, class Alphaproteobacteria and orders were Caulobacterles and Rhodobacteralesin in the lungs of vehicle-treated SEB group. Moreover, THC treatment led to elevated Firmicutes phylum due to significant increase in the beneficial genus, Lactobacillus. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), gram negative bacterial endotoxin was found at significantly higher concentration in the BALF of vehicle-treated group in comparison with THC-treated mice. Beneficial metabolome levels were significantly higher in the colonic flush of THC-treated mice when compared to vehicle-treated SEB group, specifically butyric, propionic and acetic acids. Together, our data suggest that THC attenuates SEB-induced mortality and ALI by altering the microbiota in the lungs (Supported by NIH grants P01AT003961, R01AT006888, R01ES019313, R01MH094755, P20GM103641, R01AI129788 to PN and MN and MoHESR fellowship for AKM).
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that involves the narrowing of the lung airways and excessive mucus production. Resveratrol (RES), a polyphenolic stilbene, is known to control asthmatic attacks via different molecular mechanisms. However, no studies have examined the effect of resveratrol on the microbiome in the ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma mouse model. In this study, we induced asthma in BALB/c mice by injecting OVA followed by 7 days treatment with RES. Plethysmography showed that the expiratory resistance in the lung tissue was significantly reduced in the RES treated group, while mean volume, peak expiratory flow, and frequency of respiration was increased. Histopathol
Liver is considered as the first target for the toxic effects of toxins and other xenobiotics, and this can be attributed to its role as a site which receive all absorbed xenobiotics from the gastrointestinal tract and its role as a major site for biotransformation of xenobiotics. The present study was designed to evaluate the possible hepatoprotective effect of benfotiamine against CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. The study was conducted on 48 male albino rats; the animals were allocated into 8 groups (6 rats in each group) and treated as follow: 4 groups treated with oral doses of either normal saline, benfotiamine (100 mg/kg), thiamine (100 mg/kg), N-acetylcystein (400 mg/kg) only without induction of hepatic damage. Th
... Show MoreCiprofloxacin, which is a second generation of fluoroquinolone and one of the most effective and widely used drugs within fluoroquinolone. Unfamiliar adverse effects of ciprofloxacin such as bone marrow (BM) suppression, thrombocytopenia, anemia, agranulocytosis, renal failure, and others observed. Lutein, is a xanthophyll (an oxygenated carotenoid), was focused by most studies as it has a strong antioxidant activity in vitro; and also, it has been associated with reducing the risk of the age-related disorders. The current study was designed to describe the role of apoptosis through the measurement of Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax) marker, as mechanisms of bone marrow toxicity induced by ciprofloxacin and to find whether lutei
... Show MoreThe study included the collection of 75 bronchial wash samples from patients suspected to have lung cancer. These samples were subjected to a diagnostic cytological study to detect the dominant type of lung cancer. It was noticed that 33 patients proved to have a lung cancer out of 75 (44%) of these, 19 cases (57.6%)were diagnosed having Squamus cell carcinoma,7cases (21.21%) showed Adenocarcinoma ,6 cases (18.18%) were having small cell carcinoma while only one case (3.03%)was large cell carcinoma .Nearly 70% of cases were correlated with smokers .Bacteria were isolated from 53 patients in which 33 isolates were associated with the cancer cases while 20 of them from non infected patients. By using different morphological ,biochemical test
... Show MoreBackground: Lung cancer is responsible for the most
cancer deaths in both men and women throughout the
world. Deaths from lung cancer (160,440 in 2004,
according to the National Cancer Institute) exceed the
number of deaths from four other major cancers combined
(breast, colon, pancreatic and prostate).
Objective: To assess the behavior and the approaches of
lung cancer in a sample of Iraqi patients.
Methods: This descriptive retrospective study was
performed using the records of 390 patients proved to have
lung cancer that had attending the Thoracic Surgery
Department of Surgical Specialties Hospital-Medical City
\Baghdad for the period from January, 1st
, 2001 to
December, 31st
,2002.
Res
Spinach, Spinacia oleracea L is a popular vegetable belonging to the family Chenopodiaceae. This study was concerned with extraction of compounds in Iraqi spinach leaves, preliminary phytochemical evaluation, identification of two biological important flavonols, quercetin and kaempferol in spinach leaves and evaluation of the protective effect of aqueous spinach extract on methotrexate (MTX) induced hepatotoxicity in rats. The percentage yield of extraction procedure, identification of spinach by chemical tests and identification of flavonols by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were fully described in this study. The results indicate that the percentage of quarce
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