Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with polymorphic expression. B cells have an essential contribution in immune system activation via the production of different cytokines and functioning as potent antigen-presenting cells. Therefore, a drug that particularly targets B cells may represent an ideal therapeutic approach for SLE. Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody causing transient B-cell depletion, has been used to manage SLE. This study aims to assess Rituximab effects on lupus nephritis (LN) patients when added to conventional immunosuppressants. Twenty four patients, 15-32 years old, with class III/IV/V LN were involved in this study. All were on steroids before lupus nephritis occurrence. They were given rituximab induction therapy and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) maintenance therapy. RTX was indicated for refractory and relapsing SLE. Several investigations done before and after RTX treatment and in the last follow up (done one year after starting Rituximab). Those included protein in urine, serum creatinine, double stranded DNA, C3, C4, and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR). Proteinuria decreased significantly after RTX treatment and in the last measurement (P=0.01 and P=0.001, respectively). Serum creatinine significantly decreased only in the last measurement (P=0.02). Double stranded DNA decreased remarkably after treatment (P=0.01) with a further decrease in the last measurement (P=0.006). C3 and C4 increased after treatment but the increase was significant only for C3 (P=0.002) and this increase continues till the last measurement (P=0.0006). Active urine sediments found in fifteen patients and disappeared after RTX treatment. Rituximab can be promising in treating lupus nephritis when used along with traditional immunosuppressants. It can reduce disease activity and improve renal function in such patients.
The chemical, physical and toxicological effects on health of synthetic dyes that used as tracking dye in the electrophoresis requires seriously search about alternative tracking dye. The present study is aimed to find an alternative dye from safe food dyes which commonly used in food coloring. Five dyes were selected depending on their chemical properties and the availability in local market: Brilliant Blue FCF, Tartrazine, Sunset Yellow FCF, Carmoisine, and green traditional, three dyes were chosen to be mixed as loading buffer: Brilliant Blue FCF, Sunset Yellow FCF as a basic because it give the whole range size of most traditional loading buffers that available in market, and adding the Carmoisine as a new indicator for the bands less t
... Show MoreMCM-48 zeolites have unique properties from the surfaces and structure point of view as it’s shown in the results ,and unique and very sensitive to be prepared, have been experimentally prepared and utilized as a second-generation/ acid - catalyst for esterification reactions of oleic acid as a model oil for a free fatty acid source with Ethanol. The characterization of the catalyst used in the reaction has been identified by various methods indicating the prepared MCM-48 is highly matching the profile of common commercial MCM-48 zeolite. The XRF results show domination of SiO2 on the chemical structure with 99.1% and agreeable with the expected from MCM-48 for it's of silica-based, and the SEM results show the cubic c
... Show MoreNumerous blood biomarkers are altered in COVID-19 patients; however, no early biochemical markers are currently being used in clinical practice to predict COVID-19 severity. COVID-19, the most recent pandemic, is caused by the SRS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The study was aimed to identify patient groups with a high and low risk of developing COVID-19 using a cluster analysis of several biomarkers. 137 women with confirmed SARS CoV-2 RNA testing were collected and analyzed for biochemical profiles. Two-dimensional automated hierarchy clustering of all biomarkers was applied, and patients were sorted into classes. Biochemistry marker variations (Ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase LDH, D-dimer, and C- reactive protein CRP) have split COVID-19 patien
... Show MoreProduction of fatty acid esters (biodiesel) from oleic acid and 2-ethylhexanol using sulfated zirconia as solid catalyst for the production of biodiesel was investigated in this work.
The parameters studied were temperature of reaction (100 to 130°C), molar ratio of alcohol to free fatty acid (1:1 to 3:1), concentration of catalyst (0.5 to 3%wt), mixing speed (500 to 900 rpm) and types of sulfated zirconia (i.e modified, commercial, prepared catalyst according to literature and reused catalyst). The results show the best conversion to biodiesel was 97.74% at conditions of 130°C, 3:1, 2wt% and 650 rpm using modified catalyst respectively. Also, modified c
... Show MoreBriefly the term of cyber security is a bunch of operations and procedures working on insurance and protecting the network, computer devices, the programs and data from attack and from damaging penetration, also from breaking, abstraction and disturbing in spite of the fact that the concept of cyber conflict is got widening. So, the needs arise in the state to secure cyberspace and protect it by several methods to confront the electronic intrusions and threats which is known as cyber security. Countries seek to preserve its national security in particular the United States of America after the events of September 11 ,2001. In addition, the United States follow all ways to take over cyber threats.
A rapid, sensitive and selective spectrophotometric method was developed for determination of sulfathiazole (STHZ) in aqueous solution. The method is based on the oxidative coupling reaction with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (2,4-DNPH) in a basic medium (pH 10.9) in the presence of potassium periodate to produce an intense orange colour, soluble in water , stable product and absorbs at 492 nm. Beer's law was in the linear range 2.0-28.0 μg/ml of sulfathiazole, the molar absorptivity, Sandellʼs sensitivity index and detection limit were 1.1437 ×104 liter. mol-1.cm-1,0.0223 μg.cm-2 and 0.1274 μg/ml respectively. The RSD value was 0.75 - 1.12 % depending on the concentration. This method was applied successfu
... Show MoreThe influence of Cr3+ doping on the ground state properties of SrTiO3 perovskite was evaluated using GGA-PBE approximation. Computational modeling results infered an agreement with the previously published literature. The modification of electronic structure and optical properties due to Cr3+ introducing into SrTiO3 were investigated. Structural parameters assumed that Cr3+ doping alters the electronic structures of SrTiO3 by shifting the conduction band through lower energies for the Sr and Ti sites. Besides, results showed that the band gap was reduced by approximately 50% when presenting one Cr3+ atom into the SrTiO3 system and particularly positioned at Sr sites. Interestingly, substituting Ti site by Cr3+ led to eliminating the band ga
... Show MoreIn this work preparation of antireflection coating with single layer of MgO using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method which deposit on glass substrate with different thicknesses (90 and 100) nm annealed at temperature 500 K was done.
The optical and structural properties (X-ray diffraction) have been determined. The optical reflectance was computed with the aid of MATLAB over the visible and near infrared region. Results shows that the best result obtained for optical performance of AR'Cs at 700 shots with thickness 90 nm nanostructure single layer AR'Cs and low reflection at wavelength 550 nm.
In the present study, a low cost adsorbent is developed from the naturally available sawdust
which is biodegradable. The removal capacity of chromium(VI) from the synthetically prepared
industrial effluent of electroplating and tannery industrial is obtained.
Two modes of operation are used, batch mode and fixed bed mode. In batch experiment the
effect of Sawdust dose (4- 24g/L) with constant initial chromium(VI) concentration of 50 mg/L and
constant particle size less than1.8 mm were studied.
Batch kinetics experiments showed that the adsorption rate of chromium(VI) ion by Sawdust
was rapid and reached equilibrium within 120 min. The three models (Freundlich, Langmuir and
Freundlich-Langmuir) were fitted to exper