Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder that involves autoantibodies attacking and weakening joints. RA is characterized by leukocyte (Monocyte, Lymphocyte mast cell .etc) infiltrations into the synovial compartment leading to inflammation in the synovial membrane. Synovitis leads to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, matrix metalloproteinases, chemokines, complement proteins, and growth factors. Objective: The current study pointed to verify the diagnostic values of interleukin -17 A and interleukin -18 in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and the effect of treatment thereon. Study subjects and methods: A total of 88 samples with RA were selected from the health clinics of AL-Yarmouk teaching hospital/rheumatology clinic in Baghdad, with female rheumatoid arthritis patients as the patient group (50) and (38) healthy females as the control group. All patients were exposed to clinical, laboratory, and ultrasound assessments, besides measuring the serum level of both (IL-17A and IL-18) by the method of Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The results show that there is a significant difference (p≤0.05) in IL-17A levels between patients and controls. The concentration of IL-17A in premenopausal patients is higher when compared to control groups (18.06 ± 3.85 vs 15.71 ± 1.82 pg/ml), so, the concentration in postmenopausal studied groups (17.19 ± 2.91 vs 14.13 ± 1.06 pg/ml). Also, there are significant differences (p≤0.05) in the level of IL-18 between the patients and the control; it is found that the level of IL-18 within the premenopausal patients was higher compared to the control (16.09 ± 9.69 vs 12.52 ± 8.30 pg/ml). Conclusion: A High level of IL-17A in RA patients contributes to the pathogenesis of RA as an inflammatory disease. As well as, the elevated levels of IL-18 suggest its physiological role to induce inflammatory disorder Treatment with (MTX and Etanercept) causes a decrease in the inflammatory markers of this disease RF in patient groups.
Flexible molecular docking is a computational method of structure-based drug design to evaluate binding interactions between receptor and ligand and identify the ligand conformation within the receptor pocket. Currently, various molecular docking programs are extensively applied; therefore, realizing accuracy and performance of the various docking programs could have a significant value. In this comparative study, the performance and accuracy of three widely used non-commercial docking software (AutoDock Vina, 1-Click Docking, and UCSF DOCK) was evaluated through investigations of the predicted binding affinity and binding conformation of the same set of small molecules (HIV-1 protease inhibitors) and a protein target HIV-1 protease enzy
... Show MoreThe accurate extracting, studying, and analyzing of drainage basin morphometric aspects is important for the accurate determination of environmental factors that formed them, such as climate, tectonic activity, region lithology, and land covering vegetation.
This work was divided into three stages; the 1st stage was delineation of the Al-Abiadh basin borders using a new approach that depends on three-dimensional modeling of the studied region and a drainage network pattern extraction using (Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission) data, the 2nd was the classification of the Al-Abiadh basin streams according to their shape and widenings, and the 3rd was ex
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Shear and compressional wave velocities, coupled with other petrophysical data, are vital in determining the dynamic modules magnitude in geomechanical studies and hydrocarbon reservoir characterization. But, due to field practices and high running cost, shear wave velocity may not available in all wells. In this paper, a statistical multivariate regression method is presented to predict the shear wave velocity for Khasib formation - Amara oil fields located in South- East of Iraq using well log compressional wave velocity, neutron porosity and density. The accuracy of the proposed correlation have been compared to other correlations. The results show that, the presented model provides accurate
... Show MoreIn this work silicon solar cell has been used with semicircular grooves to improve its efficiency by reducing reflection of rays and increasing optical path through the cell. Software program for optical design (zemax) has been used by ray tracing mode to evaluate prototype efficiency when using detector beneath the cell. The prototype has aspect ratio (A.R=0.2) which is the best efficiency at incident angle (ϴ=0ͦ) and the best acceptance angle (ϴ=50ͦ).
We aimed to obtain magnesium/iron (Mg/Fe)-layered double hydroxides (LDHs) nanoparticles-immobilized on waste foundry sand-a byproduct of the metal casting industry. XRD and FT-IR tests were applied to characterize the prepared sorbent. The results revealed that a new peak reflected LDHs nanoparticles. In addition, SEM-EDS mapping confirmed that the coating process was appropriate. Sorption tests for the interaction of this sorbent with an aqueous solution contaminated with Congo red dye revealed the efficacy of this material where the maximum adsorption capacity reached approximately 9127.08 mg/g. The pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models helped to describe the sorption measure
Background: Marginal adaptation is critical for long – term success of crown and bridge restoration. Computer aided design / computer aided manufacture (CAD/ CAM) system is gaining more importance in the fabrication of dental restoration. Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of crystallization firing on the vertical marginal gap of IPS. emax CAD crowns which fabricated with two different CAD/CAM systems .Materials and Methods: Twenty IPS e.max CAD crowns were fabricated. We had two major groups (A, B) (10 crowns for each group) according to the CAD/CAM system being used: Group A: fabricated with Imes - Icore CAD/CAM system; Group B: fabricated with In Lab Sirona CAD/CAM system. Each group was subdivided into two s
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