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
Enterococci species (spp.) are naturally found in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), oral cavity of both human and animals causing several infections including bacteremia, meningitis, endocarditis, intra-abdominal infections, wound infections, urinary tract infections (UTI), atherosclerosis and play a critical role in the riskiness or development of periodontitis, particularly in a suitable mouth environment (Comerlato et al., 2020; Mendes et al., 2020; Xiong et al., 2021; H Elaywe, 2007). Recurrent and continues antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of opportunistic microorganisms is one of the serious public health risk, enterococci spp are often intrinsic resistant to antibiotics class routinly used in treatment such as Cephalosporins, Macrolids
... Show MoreThis research was aimed to the purification and characterization of cytosine deaminase as a medically important enzyme from locally isolated Escherichia coli; then studying its cytotoxic anticancer effects against colon cancer cell line. Cytosine deaminase was subjected to three purification steps including precipitation with 90% ammonium sulfate saturation, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose column, and gel filtration chromatography throughout Sephadex G-200 column. Specific activity of the purified enzyme was increased up to 9 U/mg with 12.85 folds of purification and 30.85% enzyme recovery. Characterization study of purified enzyme revealed that the molecular weight of cytosine deaminase produced by E. coli was about 48 KDa,
... Show More15 local isolates of Pseudomonas were obtained from 35 samples from several sources such as soil, water and some high-fat foods. The ability of isolates to produce lipase was measured by the size of the clarification zone formed around the colonies on the lipase production medium and by measuring the enzymatic activity and specific enzymatic activity, the isolate M3 was found to be the most efficient for production of the enzyme, This isolate was identified by microscopic, morphological, some biochemical tests and genetic diagnosis of 16S gene sequences by using the (PCR) technique, and then comparing the results obtained with the National Center for Biotechnology Inform
... Show MoreObjectives: To assess the qualifications and performance of newly graduated pharmacists and explore factors that affect their performance in public hospitals. Methods: This qualitative study included face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with hospital practitioner pharmacists. It was conducted between March and May 2023 in Kerbala province, Iraq. The participating pharmacists were selected purposefully because they had three or more years of work experience at governmental hospitals. The audio-recording interviews were transcribed. Thematic analyses were used to generate themes and subthemes from the interviews. Results: Twenty-seven hospital pharmacists participated in this study. The study found that there are several factors t
... Show MoreThe main aim of this study was to molecular identification and determine the antagonistic impact of rhizosphere Trichoderma spp. against some phytopathogenic fungi, including (Magnaporthe grisea) pyricularia oryzae, Rhizoctonia solani and Macrophomina phasolina. Four Trichoderma isolates were isolated from rhizosphere soils of the different host plants in different locations of Egyptian governorates. The morphological characterization of isolated Trichoderma as well as using of (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) ribosomal gene sequence acquisition and data analyses. By comparing the results of DNA sequences of ITS region, the fungi represented one isolate were positively identified as T. asperellum (1 isolate T1) and one as T. longibrachiatum (1 isolate T2)
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: HLA-B27 can effect clinical presentation and course of ankylosing spondylitis. Different detection techniques of HLA-B27 are available with variable sensitivities and specificities. OBJECTIVE: To compare serologic and molecular diagnostic techniques of detecting HLA-B27 status and to correlate it with some clinical variables among ankylosing spondylitis patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 83 Iraqi patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Clinical and laboratory evaluations were reported. HLA-B27 status was determined in all patients by real-time PCR using HLA-B27 RealFast™ kit; ELISA method was used as well to detect soluble serum HLA-B27 antigens using Human Leukocyte Antigen® kit. RESULTS:
... Show Moremixtures of cyclohexane + n-decane and cyclohexane + 1-pentanol have been measured at 298.15, 308.15, 318.15, and 328.15 K over the whole mole fraction range. From these results, excess molar volumes, VE , have been calculated and fitted to the Flory equations. The VE values are negative and positive over the whole mole fraction range and at all temperatures. The excess refractive indices nE and excess viscosities ?E have been calculated from experimental refractive indices and viscosity measurements at different temperature and fitted to the mixing rules equations and Heric – Coursey equation respectively to predict theoretical refractive indices, we found good agreement between them for binary mixtures in this study. The variation of th
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