One hundred isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were obtained from patients admitted to Baghdad hospitals, Iraq during the period between May 2018 until July 2018. These isolates were distributed as 15 isolates from blood, 25 isolates from urinary tract infections, 10 isolates from sputum, 12 isolates from wounds, 15 isolates from ear infections, 15 isolates from bronchial wash of patients suffering from respiratory tract infections in addition to 8 isolates from cystic fibrosis patients. The isolates were initially identified by culturing on MacConkey agar, blood agar and P. aeruginosa agar then diagnosed by performing some morphological and biochemical tests. The second diagnosis was done by API 20E system followed by Vitek 2 compact system. Antibiotic sensitivity test was carried out towards 15 antibiotics using disc diffusion method (Kirby–Bauer method). The results of sensitivity test showed that P. aeruginosa isolates possessed high resistance towards most antibiotics under study, the most antibiotic resistance was towards Gentamicin 87 (87%), whereas the lowest resistance was towards Imipenem 10 (10%). In this study, two types of methods were used in the detection of biofilm formation: the first one was Congo red agar method and the second one was microtiter plate method. In the first method, results showed that biofilm formed by 57/100 (57%) according to black color production on media, whereas in the second method was 69/100 (69%) produce strong adherence according to OD in ELISA reader. Genotypic detection of many virulence factors related to P. aeruginosa was performed using conventional PCR. These included: gene coded for exoenzyme S (exoS), exoenzyme U (exoU), exotoxin A (toxA), two phospholipases C encoded by (plcH) and (plcN), alginate (algD), (lasB), rpsl, proteaseIV, and Neuraminidase (nan1). The results revealed that the most frequent gene was exoS as it was detected in 87/100 (87%) isolates, whereas the least frequent gene was nan1 as it was detected in only 9/100 (9%). The frequency of detection of other genes were as follows: toxAi in 55/100 (55%); plcH in 45/100 (45%); exoU in 42/100 (42%); plcN in 33/100 (33%); proteaseIV in 31/100 (31%), algD in 29/100 (29%); lasB in 28/100 (28%), and rpsl in 25/100 (25%). Phylogenetic analysis by Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC-PCR), ERIC-DNA Fingerprinting revealed the diversity of all isolates in Baghdad by using Dice coefficient and the unweighted pair group method with arthmetic average (group method) of phylogenetic analysis. The percentage level of similarity clearly showed that the isolates examined by species were divided into two distinct cluster numbers, in addition to three single isolates (clone), that clustered at a similarity level of (93%). According to the statistical analysis, it was found that the correlation coefficient of ERIC genotyping method with virulence genes in this study and antibiotics sensitivity test was significant at P < 0.05 (two-tailed), whereas correlation with biofilm was not significant
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
... Show MoreBackground: The majorities of statin-treated patients, in whom low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) targets have been achieved, have had recurrent cardiovascular events (CVE) with an absolute rate remain even higher among patients with disorders of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome (MetS) and type2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) as compared to patients devoid of these conditions.Objectives: Provide updated key messages of lipid and lipoprotein abnormalities as indicator for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in patients with T2DM and obesity, as well as the current evidence-based treatment targets and interventions to reduce this risk.Key messages: The Residual Risk Reduction Initiative (R3I) emphasized atherogenic dyslipidemia (AD)
... Show MoreDiacerein (DCN) is a semi-synthetic anthraquinone derivative of Rhein that is indicated for the management of osteoarthritis. Diacerein exhibits poor dissolution in the GIT fluids and suffers from low bioavailability upon oral administration in addition to the laxative effect of Rhein metabolites. The aim of the present study was to develop novasomal vesicles with optimized entrapment efficiency and size to serve as a carrier for transdermal delivery of diacerein. Novasomal vesicles were prepared by thin film hydration method thin film hydration. The prepared vesicles were optimized utilizing different surfactant to cholesterol molar ration, sonication type, different sonication times and varying fatty acid level. The prepared vesicles were
... Show MoreIn this paper, the computational method (CM) based on the standard polynomials has been implemented to solve some nonlinear differential equations arising in engineering and applied sciences. Moreover, novel computational methods have been developed in this study by orthogonal base functions, namely Hermite, Legendre, and Bernstein polynomials. The nonlinear problem is successfully converted into a nonlinear algebraic system of equations, which are then solved by Mathematica®12. The developed computational methods (D-CMs) have been applied to solve three applications involving well-known nonlinear problems: the Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer equation, the Blasius equation, and the Falkner-Skan equation, and a comparison between t
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