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
Solid dispersion (SD) formulation has attracted much attention due to its potential in enhancing dissolution performances of poorly soluble active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). Recently, a review on dissolution performances of SDs classifies the improvement into 3 categories, where 82 % of the studies showed improved bioavailability, 8 % showed reduced bioavailability and 10 % revealed similar bioavailability as compared to pure APIs. This indicates the inconsistent degrees of dissolution improvement of poorly soluble APIs in SD. Although a few factors related to the choice of carriers have been suggested to contribute to the dissolution improvement, however, the underlying factor determining the discrepancy in the degree of dissolution
... Show MoreThe purpose of this paper is to identifying the level of analytical thinking and its relationship to the skills of response and simple response to the foil weapon for students of the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, University of Basra. Achieving the objectives of the research requires the use of a research method, and accordingly, the researchers used the descriptive method using the survey method .The two researchers identified the research community with the students of the third stage - College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences / University of Basra / for the academic year (2021-2022). Their number is (45) students and the two researchers chose the entire research community to represent th
... Show MoreThe vision and philosophy of the economic system in Iraq after 2003 were not clear-cut because of overlapping internal factors was the novelty of the political system and the lack of political and economic decision makers to understanding and conviction full need shaping a new administration for the Iraqi economy is able to succeed economic development programs, and external factors was determinedly organizations international application of shock reforming style and contrary to the social reality and the security which reflected negatively on the work and consistency Lisseeash financial balance between stability and growth and raise the level of consumer spending and the importance of research lies in the ability of fiscal policy to achie
... Show MoreThe research has tackled about an important transformation within the whole region of middle east, especially there were more challenges which revealed under the huge pivotal interests of global powers that ruled the new world order by United states of America ; being very affected over the international and regional relations than any situations appeared previously within political realities. So that, many of variables inside the international scene which happened during of this period of contradicting strategic policies by the process of reforming and restructuring of difficult equations that imposed by international and regional allies and blocs . This article had concentrated over various strategic and political studies which reflect
... Show MoreIn this research thin films from SnO2 semiconductor have been prepared by using chemical pyrolysis spray method from solution SnCl2.2H2O at 0.125M concentration on glass at substrate temperature (723K ).Annealing was preformed for prepared thin film at (823K) temperature. The structural and sensing properties of SnO2 thin films for CO2 gas was studied before and after annealing ,as well as we studied the effect temperature annealing on grain size for prepared thin films .
The dose rate for bremsstrahlung radiation from beta particles with energy (1.710) MeV and (2.28) MeV which comes from (32P and 90Y) beta source respectively have been calculated through six materials (polyethylene, wood, aluminum, iron, tungsten and lead) for first shielding material with thickness (x=1) mm which are putting between beta sources and second shield (polyethylene, aluminum and lead) with thickness (1, 2 &4) mm have been calculated. The distance between beta source and second shield is constant (D=1) cm. This dose rate was found by program called Rad Pro Calculator (version 3.26). The results of dose rate of beta particles were plotted as a function to the atomic number (Z) for first shield materials for each
... Show MoreThe present study aims at knowing the effect of instrumental enrichment in the acquisition of geographical concepts for first grade student in intermediate school. The study is restricted in the students of first grade student in intermediate school\ The EducationalDirectorate of Rusafa for academic (2013/2014),for the purpose of achieving the objective, the following hypotheses:
There is no statistical significant different at the level of (0.5) between the scores of the experimental group who study geography according to the instrumental enrichment and the scores of the control group who learned geographical according to the traditional methods.
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... Show MoreThe present paper attempts to find out the role of developmental loans in promoting strategic crops especially the basis stemming from the problem of non - defining economic feasibility study and the negative or positive revenues of developmental loans, directed to Iraqi Agricultural sector in general and Basic strategic crops in particular which resulted in the difficulty of planning and future prediction to grant loans agriculturally directed in terms of quality and quantity and the arbitrary of distributing these loans .the strategic crops have been selected as sample of population where the sample of Basic strategic crops include wheat and barley .The paper has come to several of conclusions mainly are as follows :- the increase in n
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