Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a disease caused by Leishmania tropica parasite. Current treatments for this parasite are undesirable because of their toxicity, resistance, and high cost. Macrophages are key players against pathogens. Nitric oxide (NO), a molecule produce by immune cells, controls intracellular killing of pathogens during infection. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) demonstrated broad-spectrum activity against various types of infectious diseases. It has the ability to stimulate oxygen species production. This study aims to analyze the macrophages activation through NO production and estimate the cytotoxicity based on the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release upon exposure to L. tropica and Ag NPs. Serially concentrations of Ag NPs were used under two conditions during and following macrophages exposure to L. tropica. MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity of Ag NPs on L. tropica amastigotes during infection of macrophages in vitro. The results showed that by increasing the Ag NPs concentrations, the viability percentage of L. tropica amastigotes decreased and reached to 21.7 ± 0.64 % during infection compared with the control. The 50% inhibitory concentration of Ag NPs on amastigotes was 2.048µg/ml during infection. Moreover, post-phagocytosis study involved the assessment of NO and LDH release by macrophages upon exposure to L. tropica. It have shown that untreated macrophages released low levels of NO while in the presence of Ag NPs, macrophages were activated to produce higher levels of NO under all experimental conditions. On the other hand, macrophages were capable of controlling cytotoxicity and decreasing LDH levels during phagocytosis of L. tropica amastiogotes. Taking together, these findings suggest that Ag NPs can enhance macrophages NO production which provides a method for the identification of Ag NPs ligands with microbicidal and anti-cytotoxic properties against L. tropica pathogens.
BACKGROUND: Tribulus terrestris has been commonly used in folk medicine to energize, vitalize and improve sexual function and physical performance in men and laboratory rats. OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of Tribulus terrestris on the number of Leydig cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tribulus terrestris was given to mature male rats as an oral single herbal suspension in a dose of 2.0mg /1000gbody weight for 14 days to stimulate spermatogenesis. Formalin fixed paraffinembedded tissue sections were performed for histological, immunohistochemical and morphometrical studies. RESULTS: Histological study revealed wider seminiferous tubules and increased spermatocytes population with an increased sperm density inside the lumen of the tubul
... Show MoreCompressing the speech reduces the data storage requirements, leading to reducing the time of transmitting the digitized speech over long-haul links like internet. To obtain best performance in speech compression, wavelet transforms require filters that combine a number of desirable properties, such as orthogonality and symmetry.The MCT bases functions are derived from GHM bases function using 2D linear convolution .The fast computation algorithm methods introduced here added desirable features to the current transform. We further assess the performance of the MCT in speech compression application. This paper discusses the effect of using DWT and MCT (one and two dimension) on speech compression. DWT and MCT performances in terms of comp
... Show MoreThis study illustrates in vitro effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on the treatment of Leishmania. In addition, the study evaluated the effect of drug treatment (pentostam) and the combination treatment of pentostan and CAP at different doses and incubation time 24 h in order to assess the most effective treatment. The duration of the cold plasma doses was 1 min, 2 min and 3 min, while the pentostam doses were 2.5 µg/ml and 5 µg/ml. The combinations therapies included combining the three cold plasma doses with the pentostam doses to test 6 combinations of treated in vitro. The maximum growth inhibition was given by combination treated 46% and 44% for donovani and tropica leishamnia respectively; these results give an indi
... Show MoreThe present study was conducted to estimate the incidence, clinical findings, cytological and histopathological characteristics of spontaneously occurring skin neoplasms in dogs. A total of 40 grossly suspected cases of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors were gathered during the period from July 2016 to August 2018 from male and female dogs in Baghdad city. Dogs with skin neoplasia revealed various clinical signs, and their ages were older than 5 years to 15 years. German shepherd 30% followed by Terrier dogs 25% were more influenced than other breeds. Concerning tumor features, the majority of neoplasms had solitary lesion 70%, regular shapes 65% with black color 55%. The tumors frequently occurred on fore-limbs and abdomen, and 80% of them
... Show MoreIn the present study, the effects of brake pad particles of lung and liver histological sections were evaluated for (60) adult male mice. The animals were divided into three groups ( A,B,C) according to the periods of exposure (4, 8, and 12) weeks respectively exposed to brake pad particles in addition to the control groups (F) exposed to fresh air only. A special inhalation chamber designed locally has been used to expose the animals. The exposure to brake pad particles was (2.228) µg/m³ for 30 min/day, 5 days/week for (4,8and12) weeks respectively.
The examination in group (A) of the histological sections of the lung showed the thickness of interalveolar septa. Also, a congestion of alveolar capillary was marked indicat
... Show MoreThis study relates to synthesis of bentonite-supported iron/copper nanoparticles through the biosynthesis method using eucalyptus plant leaf extract, which were then named E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs. The synthesised E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs were examined by a set of experiments involving a heterogeneous Fenton-like process that removed direct blue 15 (DB15) dye from wastewater. The resultant E-Fe/Cu@B-NPs were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmet–Teller analysis, zeta potential analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The operating parameters in batch experiments were optimised using Box–Behnken design. These parameters were pH, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2
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