Leishmania parasites are the causative agent of leishmaniasis. Many studies are inspecting chemical drugs, including the use of miltefosine and amphotericin B, but curative values may be limited for these drugs with side effects due to the chemical origin, therefore, investigating less toxic therapies is essential. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of artemisinin on Iraqi strain of Leishmania tropica, by experimental macrophage ex vivo infection of amastigotes into mouse macrophage cell-line RAW264.7. Different concentrations (100, 200, 300, 400, 500)μM of artemisinin (ART) were screened to examine the susceptibility of L. tropica amastigotes to invade macrophage cell line along three times of follow up (24, 48 and 72) hours. Results showed that artemisinin had a cytotoxic effect on the parasite in which a significance difference (P < 0.05) in cell viability was observed and IC50 was calculated as 182.6 μM after 48 hours treatment. In addition, percentage of infectivity of intracellular amastigotes was significantly decreased. These findings revealed the potential efficacy of artemisinin against the infectious amastigotes and can be further studied to screen its effectiveness in vivo for exploring a safer herbal compound to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Biological Activity of Complexes of Some Amino Acid
Antibiotic resistance is the major growing threat facing the pharmacological treatment of bacterial infections. Therefore, bioprospecting the medicinal plants could provide potential sources for antimicrobial agents. Mimusops, the biggest and widely distributed plant genus of family Sapotaceae, is used in traditional medicines due to its promising pharmacological activities. This study was conducted to elucidate the antimicrobial effect of three unexplored Mimusops spp. (M. kummel, M. laurifolia and M. zeyheri). Furthermore, the mechanisms underlying such antibacterial activity were studied. The Mimusops leaf extracts revealed significant antibacterial activities against the five tested bacter
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Abstract
The Holy Quran is the greatest motivator for the mind to keep pace with life. The doctrine of faith is a requirement of logic and wisdom, and it cannot be reached by the hand of superstition. The Qur’an destroyed the principle of superstition in the verses of the creation of the universe. The principle of inactivity of the Qur’an is a false accusation that collision with the texts of the Qur’an. The secret of scientific development is to harness the laws of nature, benefit from them, and walk according to its requirements, on which the manifestations of civilization and the Qur’an are based
... Show MoreThe study included the extraction of volatile oil from Mentha piperita which was 1.3 % in the leaves and flowers . Volatile oil of the Mentha piperita leaves had special aromatic odour, pale yellow color, slightly pungent taste . The specific gravity and refractive index were (0.9794) and ( 1.464) respectively. The inhibition activity of the Mentha piperita Volatile oil extracts were studied on some pathogenic microorganisms like Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Proteus sp, and Klebsiella pneumoniae . The result showed that the volatile oil had an inhibition effect on the growth of all microorganisms, and it gave the higher inhibition effect on the growth of S. aureus in which the inhibition zone reached to 2
... Show MoreThe sunflower plants are attacked by serious seed and soil-borne pathogens including charcoal rot disease that caused by
Morphological and molecular identification was done, using universal primers for molecular identification. Finally, a greenhouse experiment was conducted, and
The prostaglandins inside inflamed tissues are produced by cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), making it an important target for improving anti-inflammatory medications over a long period. Adverse effects have been related to the traditional usage of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for the treatment of inflammation, mainly centered around gastrointestinal (GI) complications. The current research involves the creation of a virtual library of innovative molecules showing similar drug properties via a structure-based drug design. A library that includes five novel derivatives of Diclofenac was designed. Subsequently, molecular docking through the Glide module and determining the binding free energy implementing the P
... Show MoreThree complexes of copper(II) and iron(II) with mixed ligands acetylacetonebis(thio-semicarbazone)- ABTSH2 and benzaldazine- BA have been prepared and characterized using different physico-chemical techniques including the determination of metal contents, mole-cular weight, measurement of molar conductivity, magnetic moment, molar refraction, infrared and electronic spectra. Accordingly, octahedral complexes having general formulaes [Cu2(ABTSH2)2(BA)2Cl2]Cl2 and [M2(ABTSH2)2(BA)2(SO4)2] {M= Cu(II) or (Fe(II)} have been proposed. The resulted complexes screened for antifungal activity in vitro against the citrus pathogen Aspergillus niger and Fusarium sp. which caused root rot of sugar and the beans pathogen Alternaria sp. All the complex
... Show More4-chloro and 4- nitro substituted phenol and aniline incorporated to a carboxylic group of naproxen a well-known non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) to increase bulkiness were synthesized for evaluation as a potential anti-inflammatory agents with expected COX-2 selectivity. In vivo acute anti-inflammatory activity of these compounds (I-IV) was evaluated in rats using egg-white induced edema model of inflammation in a dose equivalent to (2.5 mg/Kg) of naproxen. All tested compounds produced a significant reduction in paw edema with respect to the effect of propylene glycol 50% v/v (control group). Moreover, compounds I and IV might show higher effect comparable to that of naproxen and to that of compounds II & III whic
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