Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected disease in tropical countries, including Iraq. Several studies have sought to examine chemotherapies for leishmaniasis treatment but most of them are of toxic and/or undesirable side effect, therefore, the need for investigating new fewer toxic therapies is essential. Aim of study: In this study, the cytotoxic effect of Artemisinin (ART), a novel herbal compound, was screened against the two forms, promastigotes and amastigotes, of the Iraqi isolate of Leishmania tropica, the causative agent of Baghdad boil. Material and methods: Different concentrations (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.5, 31.25, 15.6 and 7.8) µM of Artemisinin were screened to investigate the leishmanicidal activity of the herbal compound against the two forms of the parasite along three times of follow up (24, 48, 72) hour using MTT cytotoxicity assay. Results: The results showed that growth rate and cell viability were significantly decreased at all studied concentrations. The IC50 was measured after 72 hours of follow up and was 2.625 µM and 2.636 µM for promastigotes and amastigotes, respectively. Conclusion: These findings approved the leishmanicidal efficacy of Artemisinin against the of L. tropica and can be further studied to screen its effectiveness in vivo for exploring a safer herbal drug for treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Blastocystis is a ubiquitous human and animal protozoa that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract. Metronidazole is considered the standard drug for the treatment of Blastocystis infection; however, there is growing evidence of treatment failure, hazardous side effects, and appearance of strains resistant to metronidazole. In the last era, many studies have been implicated in the quest for new treatments for Blastocystis infection, especially natural products. Attention has been focused on the effect of Amygdalin (B17) and pumpkin seed on eradicating parasitic infections. The current work was built up to explore the in vitro efficacy of two natural compounds, Amygdalin (B17) and pumpkin seeds against
... Show MoreThe studies on the antiviral compound chalcone in vitro in both tissue and organ culture systems against rubella virus glass that this compound relatively non toxic to the cell culture and organ culture of the concentration of 8 ug/ml or less, chalcone have significantly antiviral activity against rubella virus in tissue culture and organ culture. We find that a concentration of 0.03ug/ml or more inhibit the IOOTCID50 of rubella virus. The therapeutic index (TI) used in this study to evaluate the drug, the (TI) which is the ratio of the dose of drug which is just toxic (Maximum tolerated dose) to the dose which is just effective (Minimum effective dose). If this index is one or less it not possible to use the drug under the conditions outli
... Show More57 isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis were identified; they were isolated from different clinical sources which included sputum, bronchial wash, abscess, pleural fluid, gastric fluid, eye fluid, and CSF, also urine and ear swab. This investigation was carried out on 198 patient attended National Reference Laboratory for T.B during September 2009. Also the study declared that the ratio of separation of this bacterium from male was (67.6%) and it’s higher than the ratio of separation this bacterium from females which was (32.3%). The susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to melatonin was evaluated. Many concentrati
... Show MoreFlower samples of Calendula officinalis were collected from the gardens of the college of Pharmacy in Baghdad city to examine their antibacterial activity .The effect of ethanol crude extract of petals and reproductive parts of flowers in different concentrations were obtained and bioassayed in vitro for its bioactivity to inhibit the growth of eight types of bacteria .The extracts of petals part were clearly superior for all bacteria especially the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa (inhibition zone was 25mm in the concentration 100mg/ml) from gram negative bacteria, and Staphylococcus aureus (inhibition zone was 14mm in the concentration 50mg/ml) from gram positive bacteria, whi
... Show MoreIn vitro antifungal susceptibility test of itraconazole was carried out against 38 isolates from nails, skin, oral cavity, vagina and wounds, This study was done in Ramadi Teaching Hospital in period from January to August 2010. According to the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standard (NCCLS ) M 27- A by using the broth dilution method. Inoculum size was 1-5X103 CFU/ ml, while final concentrations of itraconazole ranged from 0.025 – 6.4 μg / ml by using RPMI – 1640 broth media and the fungus was incubated at 35 oC. No resistant stain was recorded. MIC ranged from 0.05 – 6.4 μg / ml and the Mean ± SEM was 0.89 ± 0.28. MIC for nail isolates was 0.05 –
... Show MoreThe clinical spectrum of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), an intracellular parasitic pathogen, ranges from a single sore healing to chronic crusty lesions with a manifestation of treatment resistance. The complicated interaction between Leishmania bodies and the early immune response, including innate and adaptive mechanisms, determines the evolution of nodules. This study examined the levels of the chemoattractant interleukin 8 (IL-8), pro-inflammatory nitric oxide (NO), and immunoregulatory macrophage inhibitory factor (MIF) in the serum of subjects recently diagnosed with cutaneous leishmaniasis, in parallel with patients being monitored during consecutive sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam) treatment. A total of 161 serum samples of newly di
... Show MoreSilver nanoparticles synthesized from aqueoes extract for mushroom pleurotus ostreatus. Silver nanoparticles were showing good antibacterial activity. The antibacterial activity conducted against different pathogenic bacteria such as Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Listeria, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MARSA), Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The maximum inhibition zone was observed against S. marcesance. However, the lowest inhibition zone was found against P. fluorescens.
This study is conducted to evaluate the therapeutic and antioxidant effect of lemon juice on some hematological and biochemical parameters. Thirty female mice used in this study were exposed to oxidative stress through giving them hydrogen peroxide in drinking water for 30 days. Animals randomly distributed over 3 groups, each group contained 10 animals and treated as follows: T1 control group (drinking distilled water only), T2 (0.75% hydrogen peroxide in drinking water) and T3 (0.75% hydrogen peroxide in drinking water with daily drenching with 1 mL lemon juice). At the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected from animals for evaluating the following hematological and biochemical parameters: Haemoglobin concentration (Hb),
... Show MoreEleven yoghurt samples were collected from local markets in Baghdad to isolate Lactobacillus buchneri. Only 3 isolates of L. buchneri were found and the isolate No. 3 was the most producer of bacteriocin. Bacteriocin was adsorbed 100% onto silicic acid at pH 6.0-7.0. Below or above these pH values, adsorption was decreased, ranging between 35 and 90%. Therefore, pH 6.0 was used for the purification procedure. The purification procedure including silicic acid adsorption/desorption and cation-exchange chromatography (CEC) resulted in a 11.11 fold increase in the final specific activity of pure bacteriocin (1176.47 Au/mg) compared to the culture supernatant which was 32.64 Au/mg. The molecular weight was determined to be about 3.4 kDa. The bac
... Show MoreIn order to screen antifungal activity of lactobacilli that produce bacteriocin against the yeast Candida, ninety-two food and clinical samples were collected. Also, several commercial brands of Lactobacillus probiotics and ready-made isolates of Lactobacillus were used. The isolated lactobacilli were subjected to microscopic, macroscopic, and biochemical tests. Moreover, molecular identification was performed for the best producer isolate. For Candida spp. isolation, seventy- two samples were collected from different clinical sources; in addition, nine of ready-made isolates were also used. All the isolated Candida spp. were subjected to microscopic and macroscopic ex
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