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
Ursolic acid (UA, 3 ?-hydroxy-urs-12-en-28-oic acid) are isomeric triterpenic acids. The high quantities of pentacyclic triterpenoids in Scabiosa species seems to be obvious and there is an evidence that most of pentacyclic triterpenoids that have been isolated are saponins. This is one of the most important characteristic of the genus Scabiosa, the main aglycones are ursolic acid and oleanolic acid. In the current study, isolation from the aerial part and roots of Scabiosa palaestina L. was performed using Preparative HPLC. Furthermore, detection and quantitation of ursolic acid was performed by high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). The identification of isolated triterpenoid involves two methods including FT-IR coupl
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Diversity has become one of the required phenomena to be available within public organizations, in light of the changes taking place in the global and international environment and in various fields. Therefore, it was imperative to study the impact of this phenomenon in various institutions, especially public ones, in most developing countries, including Iraq. The current research aims to analyze the relationship between The demographic diversity and institutional effectiveness of a sample of workers in public institutions included (500) respondents. The questionnaires were distributed to them randomly. Diversity is considered an independent variable and institutional effectiveness a dependent variable. The researcher used interview tools a
... Show MoreThe present expermint was designed to determine the effect of Sodium Selenite (0.5 mg/kg) and Vitamin A (10 mg/kg) in FSH and LH level in Albino Male Mice treated with Hexavalent Chromium (1000 ppm). `This study included 48 mice divided into six groups (1st group treated with distilled water and the 2nd group treated with Sesame Oil were considered as control group, 3th group exposed to Hexavalent chromium , 4th group treated with Sodium Selenite and exposed to Hexavalent Chromium , 5th group treated with Vitamin A and exposed to Hexavalent Chromium and 6th group treated with Sodium Selenite and Vitamin A and exposed to Hexavalent Chromium ) . The treatment lasted for 35 days. The results showed a significant (P ? 0.05) decrease in FSH an
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This study investigates the phonotactics of English obstruent clusters in the word-final position from a markedness theory perspective among Iraqi EFL College Students whose native language, Arabic, prefers only two-member word-final obstruent cluster as a maximum. The markedness of clusters is measured depending on Iraqi EFL College Students’ utilization of the simplification strategies. This study tries to answer whether or not word-final obstruent clusters are marked or unmarked for Iraqi EFL College Students, and whether or not the markedness of the obstruent cluster increases as to its length. In order to answer these questions, a test has been distributed among 60 Iraqi EFL Fourth-Year College students, Department of English, Colleg
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Business organizations are using the technological innovations like cloud computing (CC) as a developmental platform in order to improve the performance of their information systems. In that context, our paper discusses know-how in employing the public and private CC to serve as platforms to develop the evaluation system of annual employees' performance (ESAEP) at Iraqi universities. Therefore, we ask the paper question which is “Is it possible to adopt the innovative solutions of ICTs (Like: public and private CC) for finding the developmental vision about management information systems at business organizations?”. In addition, the paper aim
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Abstract This study explores the extent to which public relations (PR) departments within Traqj governmental institutions are integrating artificial intelligence (AI) applications into their communication activities. The research adresses the growing importanc of AI in enhancing administrative efficieney, communication transparency, and stakeholder engagement. Adopting a descriptive research design, the study relied on an electtonic questionnaire distributed to PR profesionals across various ministries and government bodies, collecting 100 valid responses. The indings reveal that while younger PR practitioners are actively embracing AI, older employees show limited engagement. Most participants acquired AI-related skills through self- learn
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This work is the first study of the Curculionoidea fauna from Kurdistan region of Iraq, based on the intensive survey in different localities of Kurdistan from March 2016 to November 2017. In total, 41 species belonging to 28 genera, 21 tribes and 3 families were collected and identified, including 25 species newly recorded for the Iraqi fauna.
General distribution, collecting localities and methods, with plant association data for each species are given.
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