Glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) play a role in the detoxification of environmental chemicals and mutagens, such as those inhaled during tobacco smoking. There have been conflicting reports concerning GST polymorphisms as risk factors in the development of lung cancer. No studies focused on Arab populations exposed to Waterpipe (WP) tobacco smoke have been undertaken. Here Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and gene sequenc- ing were applied to analyze allelic variations in GSTP1-rs1695 and -rs1138272 amongst 123 lung cancer patients and 129 controls. The data suggest that WP smoking raised the risk of lung cancer more than three-fold (OR 3.6; 95% CI 2.1–6.0; p < 0.0001). However, there was no significant association between individual GSTP1 polymorphisms and the risk of lung cancer. In contrast, analysis of the rs1695 and rs1138272 combination suggested that the risk of lung cancer was raised more than two-fold for carriers of the GSTP1-rs1695 (G) allele (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.0–6.4; p < 0.05), however, the presence of the GSTP1-rs1138272 (T) allele, in addition to GSTP1-rs1695, did not significantly change the risk ratio (OR2.8; 95% CI 1.4–5.7; p < 0.004). WP tobacco smokers who carried the GSTP1-rs1695, but not GSTP1-rs1138272, allele were similarly susceptible to lung cancer (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.1–5.3; p < 0.03). Hence, the results suggest that smoking WP tobacco and carrying GSTP1-rs1695 polymorphisms are risk factors for lung cancer in Arab Iraqi males.
Purpose: To evaluate the effect of intravitreal Aflibercept injection on wet AMD both functionally and anatomically after loading doses. The secondary aim is to evaluate the effect of risk factors including (gender, age, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes meatus) on the patient’s response. Study Design: Interventional case series. Place and Duration of Study: Al-Haitham Eyes Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, from November 2021 and September 2022. Methods: Fifty eyes of 47 patients with treatment naïve wet AMD were selected through convenient sampling. Data were collected for age, gender, smoking, and chronic disease. Clinical examination, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), optical coherence tomography angiography
... Show MoreThe effect of chronic exposure to two different levels of cadmium chloride (CdCl2) 30 ppb and 40 ppb in drinking water for 12 weeks on thyroid function of mature male rabbits was studied. Eighteen mature male rabbits were randomly divided into three groups (each of six ) , control group (group I ): were offered ordinary tap water , and treated groups (II and III ) were offered tap water containing 30ppb and 40 ppb respectively for 12 weeks .Serum concentration of thyroxin (T4 ) and triiodothyronine (T3) were measured every six weeks ,as an index of thyroid function , further more , section of thyroid gland were prepared for histological studies. The results showed that chronic exposure of male rabbits
... Show MoreThe current study included the separation of three alkaloid compounds from Anastatica Hierochuntica and studied the effect of the these compounds on cancerous cells , specifically liver cancer it was found that compound number one is the most influential or inhibiting at 50 percent followed by compound number three when using concentration of 400 μg/mL.
This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study evaluated the knowledge, attitude and practice towards breast cancer and breast self-examination [BSE] among 387 [302 females and 85 males] educated Iraqis affiliated to 2 Iraqi universities. The participants were categorized into 3 occupations: student [71.3%], teaching staff [10.3%] and administrative staff [18.3%]. About half of the participants had a low knowledge score [< 50%]; only 14.3% were graded as [Good] and above. Almost 75% of the participants believed that the best way to control breast cancer was through early detection and other possible preventive measures. Most participants [90.9%] had heard of BSE, the main source of informatio
... Show MoreBackground: Visfatin is a novel adipokine that mainly secreted by visceral adipose tissue, had an important role in inflammation and immune system. Creatine Kinase (CK) which is an enzyme that is involved in energy metabolism, found in large amounts in myocardium, brain and skeletal tissues. This study is carried out To evaluate the periodontal health status of the study groups (chronic periodontitis and chronic periodontitis with coronary atherosclerosis) and control groups, to measure the salivary levels of visfatin and Creatine Kinase in these groups and compare between them, and to determine the correlations between salivary visfatin and Creatine Kinase levels with the periodontal parameters in the three groups. Materials and Methods: e
... Show MoreThe present research deals with the spatial variance analysis in Jwartadistrict and conducting a comparison on the spatial and seasonal changes of the vegetation cover between (2007-2013) in order to deduce the relationship between the vegetation density and the areas which are exposed to the risk of water erosion by using Plant Variation Index NDVI) C (coefficient and by using Satellite images of Landsat satellite which are taken in 2/7/2007 and Satellite images of Landsat satellite taken in 11/1/ 2013, the programs of remote sensitivity and the Geographic Information Systems.
The study reveals that there is a variance in the density of vegetation cover of the area under study betwee 2007 and 2013. Howev
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic cigarette smoking is one of the major risk factors for coronary artery disease. However, it has additional cardiac adverse effects independent of coronary atherosclerosis. Patient and Methods: After informed consent and perm- ission from the review board of the hospital, 80 healthy subjects who were classified as smokers or non-smokers were included in the study. They were examined by standard echocardiography protocol which was followed by two-dimensional speckle tracking to assess the functions of the right ventricle. Results: The tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was significantly reduced in smokers as compared to non-smokers (P < 0.05). The tricuspid flow peak late diastolic velocity (A wave) was sig
... Show MorePluripotent stem cells (PSC) possess unlimited proliferation, self-renewal, and a differentiation capacity spanning all germ layers. Appropriate culture conditions are important for the maintenance of self-renewal, pluripotency, proliferation, differentiation, and epigenetic states. Oxygen concentrations vary across different human tissues depending on precise cell location and proximity to vascularisation. The bulk of PSC culture-based research is performed in a physiologically hyperoxic, air oxygen (21% O2) environment, with numerous reports now detailing the impact of a physiologic normoxia (physoxia), low oxygen culture in the maintenance of stemness, survival, morphology, proliferation, differentiation potential, and epigenetic
... Show MoreDetecting protein complexes in protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks is a challenging problem in computational biology. To uncover a PPI network into a complex structure, different meta-heuristic algorithms have been proposed in the literature. Unfortunately, many of such methods, including evolutionary algorithms (EAs), are based solely on the topological information of the network rather than on biological information. Despite the effectiveness of EAs over heuristic methods, more inherent biological properties of proteins are rarely investigated and exploited in these approaches. In this paper, we proposed an EA with a new mutation operator for complex detection problems. The proposed mutation operator is formulate
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