Leishmania species are the causative agent of a tropical disease known as leishmaniasis. Previous studies on the old world species Leishmania major, showed that the amastigotes form which resides inside the macrophage of the vertebrate host, utilize host’s sphingolipids for survival and proliferation. In this study, gene expression of serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT) subunit two (MmLCB2) of the mouse macrophage cell line (RAW264.7), which is the first enzyme in the de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis, was detected in both infected and non-infected macrophages. This was detected under condition where available sphingolipid was reduced, with the new world species Leishmania mexicana. Results of qPCR analysis showed that there was no difference in the expression of MmLCB2 in infected and non-infected macrophages, under normal and serum-reduced media, suggesting that host sphingolipid did not up-regulated during infection. This can be concluded as a difference between the Old and New world Leishmania on the level of host-parasite interaction.
For the period from February 2014 till May 2014, one hundred and nine lactose fermenter clinical isolates from different samples (urine, stool, wound swab, blood, and sputum) were collected from Alyarmok, Alkadimiya, and Baghdad teaching hospitals at Baghdad governorate. Identification of all Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were carried out depending on macroscopic, microscopic characterizations, conventional biochemical tests, and Api 20E system. Fifty-three (48.62%) isolates represented K. pneumoniae; however, 51.73% represented other bacteria. Susceptibility test was achieved to all fifty-three K. pneumoniae isolates using five antibiotic disks (Ceftazidime, Ceftriaxone, Cefotaxime, Imipenem, and Meropenem). Most of tested isolates (90
... Show MoreEvolutionary algorithms (EAs), as global search methods, are proved to be more robust than their counterpart local heuristics for detecting protein complexes in protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. Typically, the source of robustness of these EAs comes from their components and parameters. These components are solution representation, selection, crossover, and mutation. Unfortunately, almost all EA based complex detection methods suggested in the literature were designed with only canonical or traditional components. Further, topological structure of the protein network is the main information that is used in the design of almost all such components. The main contribution of this paper is to formulate a more robust E
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Swarming is one of the most important virulence factors used by bacteria to invade new sites. This study aimed to test the effects of gentamicin on swarming motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, both phenotypically and molecularly. The present results revealed that 11/25 isolates had gentamicin MIC of 1024 µg/ml. However, gentamicin at sub-minimal inhibitory concentration significantly (P< 0.05) reduced the diameter of swarming in all P. aeruginosa isolates. Noticeably the mean and median swarming diameter before treatment with gentamicin 5.557 and 5.816 cm respectively had significantly (P < 0.001) reduced to 0.871 and 0.766 cm respectively. At the molecular level, amrZ (a global regulator of multiple genes) and
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Introduction and Aim: Forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) are the key regulators controlling the activity of Treg cells, which are crucial for maintaining immune tolerance and reducing autoimmune reactions. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential utility of elevated levels of FOXP3 and IL-10 gene expression as a diagnostic indicator in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Materials and Methods: The study used quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to examine the expression levels of FOXP3 and IL-10 transcripts in whole blood samples from Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis. A group of healthy control subjects were also included in the study. Results: In blood samples taken fr
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Anastatica hierochuntica L. is distributed throughout Arabain Peninsula, and elsewhere it is locally called "Kuffe Maryam" .All parts of the plant are used in folk medicine. This study amid to investigate the effect of aqueous extract of anastatica hierochunctica L. on the cancer cell lines AMN-3. Anti cancer activity of aqueous extract of anastatica hierochunctica L. showed anticancer activity against AMN-3 cell line for twelve concentrations (0.04, 0.09, 0.195, 0.39, 0.78, 1.56, 3.125, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100) mg/mL in comparison with negative control.
Anastatica hierochuntica L. is distributed throughout Arabain Peninsula, and elsewhere it is locally called "Kuffe Maryam" .All parts of the plant are used in folk medicine. This study amid to investigate the effect of aqueous extract of anastatica hierochunctica L. on the cancer cell lines AMN-3. Anti cancer activity of aqueous extract of anastatica hierochunctica L. showed anticancer activity against AMN-3 cell line for twelve concentrations (0.04, 0.09, 0.195, 0.39, 0.78, 1.56, 3.125, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100) mg/mL in comparison with negative control.
It was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 fem
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Pseudomonas aeruginosa gram-negative, bacilli and facultative aerobic, P. aeruginosa cause cystic fibrosis patients, wounds, burns, and immunodeficienct patients, that have many virulence factors such as pyocyanin , cytotoxic ,biofilm formation and motility, Eighty-eight isolates belonging to P. aeruginosa were collected including the 66 clinical isolates obtained from different hospitals in Baghdad and were from different sources and 22 environmental isolates from previous studies of soil near oil fields. Microscopical and cultural characteristics were studied and diagnosed using biochemical tests, VITEC device, their ability to adhere to non-living (Polystyrene), living cell line (A549) and cytotoxicity of bacterial filtrate
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Leishmania is the causative agent of leishmaniasis, a widely distributed disease. Amastigote forms of Leishmania are intracellular and reside within the macrophage of the vertebrate host. Previous studies showed that certain Leishmania species may scavenge host factors for survival, specially sphingolipids, the key element of the eukaryotic membranes. In this study we have investigated the survival of new world L. mexicana amastigotes in murine macrophage cell-line in the presence and absence of foetal bovine serum (FBS). Results showed that there was no significance in the infectivity of amastigotes and also the number of parasite per cell; such findings suggest that L. mexicana amastigotes have its own pathway of sphingolipid intake and c
... Show MoreLiposome-mediated transfection of cancer cells provide a valuable experimental technique to study cellular gene expression and may also be adapted for gene therapy studies. However, the widely recognized advantage of liposome-mediated transfection is high efficiency. Therefore, this study were performed to optimize transfection techniques in human larynx carcinoma cell line Hep-2 using the commercial synthetic lipid TransFast™ Reagent and monitoring the expression efficiency by using the pSV-?-galactosidase Control Vector which encoded ?-galactosidase, maximum transfection efficiency were achieved with TransFast™ Reagent used at the Charge ratios of 2:1 and 0.5 µg DNA/ml, this is indicate that TransFast™ Reagent can be used as an eff
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