Abstract Candida albicans is a commensal fungal pathogen that grows in yeast and hyphal forms in the human gut. C. albicans causes mucosal and cutaneous diseases that can result in significant mortality following systematic infections and it also exhibits drug resistance. Zebrafish have been an excellent model to investigate C. albicans infections because of their transparency and the availability of many transgenic lines. However, there is a limitation in using zebrafish as a model because the fish embryos cannot survive at 37°C therefore it is not suitable for studying Candida infections at physiological relevant human body temperature. In this thesis, the normal embryonic development of Arabian killifish (A. dispar) is investigated, revealing that embryogenesis was divided into 32 stages based on diagnostic patterns of development. A. dispar can also found to tolerate a wide range of temperatures and salinities. This suggests that A. dispar could be developed as a novel model to investigate host-pathogen interactions. The tolerance of A. dispar to high temperatures may in part be attributable to brown pigment cells with a highly fluorescent character that may have developed to allow the fish to adapt to live within extreme environmental conditions with strong sunlight and a wide range of temperatures (Chapter 3). In terms of Candida infections, this study examined A. dispar as a model to test C. albicans pathogenicity. The survival of A. dispar embryos following Candida infection showed a dose dependent relationship. We also found that A. dispar can survive longer than zebrafish after infection. Furthermore, C. albicans cells were observed to undergo a transition from yeast to hyphae at 37°C. An investigation of the ability of mutant strains of C. albicans with defects in cell wall mannosylation revealed a significant impact on virulence, host mortality, and the fishes’ immune response. The present study found that although the deletion of O- and N-mannan from the cell wall of C. albicans, affected fungal burden (attenuation), and the survival of the infected embryos per se was significantly decreased in the infections of the mutant strains compared to the WT. This data confirms the importance of the mannosylation state of the cell wall in triggering an immune recognition event (Chapter 4). A. dispar is also shown to be suitable for studying the effectiveness of 3 | P a g e antifungals. Fluconazole treatment of infected embryos and eggs promoted greater rates of survival at high doses, alongside a significant reduction of C. albicans CFUs (Chapter 4). When looking at the Candida-host interaction, we directly observed phagocytosed yeast cells within macrophages. Various detection methods were used to follow macrophages and neutrophils including Western blotting, immunostaining and histological staining (Sudan black and FITC-tyramide) allowing the monitoring of the time course of the immune cells. A biphasic response of macrophages was detected by L-plastin Western blotting, suggesting activation of two different type of macrophage: activated macrophage (M1) and alternative macrophage (M2). We also assayed reactive oxygen species (ROS) within infected embryos using a fluorescent probe (H2DCFDA), revealing the accumulation of the fluorescent probe at the sites of infection. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the oxidative and immune response using the H2DCFDA and qPCR were also accomplished within A. dispar embryos after infection with both the WT and mutant strains of Candida albicans (WT, pmr1∆, mnt1-mnt2∆, and och1∆). The results confirmed that the mutant strains did not activate a host oxidative stress response nor immune cell accumulation when compared to WT, suggesting that the immune response is less activated against these mutants. Finally, a new transgenic line of A. dispar fish was developed using Betaactin-DsR-LoxP-GFP. The new transgenic A. dispar is suggested to be an ideal model for real time observation of host-pathogen interactions and for investigation of molecular functions of the immune response. Overall these results improve our understanding of the use of a new transparent fish model to study fungal pathogenesis and demonstrates the potential advantages of using this species in future studies of bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens at a physiologically relevant temperature for human infection. Such a model could lead us to investigate in more depth the key interactions between pathogens and their host and permit the screening and development of new antifungal therapies (that might target the pathogens directly or target the host immune system). View full metadata
The present study discusses the semantic characteristics of the Russian newspapers journalistic headlines (The Russian newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" as Example"). The study traces the characteristics of the Russian newspaper headlines, its relevance to grammar, syntax, lexical items and style. These characteristics in Russian will be investigated and compared to their Arabic correspondents in the process of translation. The study also specifies the meanings and the functions of the newspaper headlines in the light of modern linguistics stressing the grammatical, lexical and stylistic aspects of headlines translation from Russian into Arabic.
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... Show MoreWere arranged this study on two sections, which included first section comparison between markets proposed through the use of transport models and the use of the program QSB for less costs , dependant the optimal solution to chose the suggested market to locate new market that achieve lower costs in the transport of goods from factories (ALRasheed ,ALAmeen , AlMaamun ) to points of sale, but the second part has included comparison of all methods of transport (The least cost method ,Vogels method , Results Approximations method , Total method) depending on the agenda of transport, which includes the market proposed selected from the first section and choose the way in which check the solution first best suited in terms
... Show MoreThe corrosion protection of low carbon steel in 2.5 M HCl solution by kiwi juice was studied at different temperatures and immersion times by weight loss technique. To study the determination of the optimum conditions from statistical design in evaluation of a corrosion inhibitor, three variables, were considered as the most dominant variables. These variables are: temperature, inhibitor concentration (extracted kiwi juice) and immersion time at static conditions.
These three variables are manipulated through the experimental work using central composite rotatable Box – Wilson Experimental Design (BWED) where second order polynomial model was proposed to correlate the studied variables with the corrosion rate o
... Show MoreSimple, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method was proposed for the analysis of metoclopramide hydrochloride (MPH) in pure form as well as in pharmaceutical tablets. The method is based on the diazotization reaction of MPH with sodium nitrite in hydrochloric acid medium to form diazonium salt, which is coupled with 1-naphthol in sodium hydroxide medium to form azo dye, showing absorption maxima at 550 nm. Beer’s law is obeyed in the concentration range of 0.4 – 18 µg mL-1 of MPH with detection limit 0.5448 µg mL-1. The molar absorptivity and Sandell’s sensitivity are 3.4969 × 104 L mol-1 cm-1 and 0.0101 µg cm-2, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the determination of MPH in pharmaceutical tablets with
... Show MoreA pure posteriorly posterior communicating artery (PCoA) aneurysm represents a surgical challenge. This is mainly when there is a need for good exposure of the aneurysmal neck, sac, PCoA, and anterior choroidal arteries. Ruptured pure posteriorly directed PCoA aneurysm imposes significantly extra challenge as the surgeon undergoes dissection through a tight brain. Even with measures commonly used to attain brain relaxation like the lumbar drain and cisternal fenestration. Here, we describe a technique for posterior temporal pole mobilization (TPM) as an integrated part of microsurgical clipping of ruptured pure posteriorly directed PCoA aneurysms. This technique is implicated in twenty-three successive cases of ruptured PCoA aneurys
... Show MoreEvaluation of the Antibacterial Efficacy of Electrolyzed Oxidizing Water as an Irrigant against Enterococcus faecalis (An In vitro Study), Noor A Khait*, Muna Saleem Kalaf
Background: Breast lump is one of the most common prevalent complaint of patients attending breast clinics.
Objective: To determine if there is any change in the pattern of common breast, diseases presenting as breast lumps between pregnant and non-pregnant women among patients attending Al-Elwiya Breast Clinic.
Methods: This is a cross – sectional study, with convent's patient sampling setting in AL-Elwiya Breast Cancer Early Detection Clinic from 1st Feb. to 1st May 2018, we collected data from patients with breast lumps including the age groups, pregnancy status, parity status, previous breast diseases, hormonal drugs, menstrual cycle, breast fe
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