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.
Out of a total of fifty samples, thirty-five isolates were identified as Serratia marcescens. Thesediverse clinical samples were collected over a three-month period, from October 2023 to December 2023, fromseveral hospitals in Baghdad, including Fatima Al-Zahraa Hospital, Al-Sader Hospital, Ibn Al-Balady Hospital,and Al-Imam Ali Hospital. The clinical samples primarily included urine from patients with urinary tractinfections (UTIs). All isolates were cultured on nutrient agar, MacConkey agar, and blood agar, and theiridentities were confirmed through biochemical testing and the Vitek 2 compact system. Based on phenotypicvirulence factors, the S. marcescens isolates showed varying positive patterns: 32 out of 35 (91.42%) forprotease
... Show MoreWithin this work, to promote the efficiency of organic-based solar cells, a series of novel A-π-D type small molecules were scrutinised. The acceptors which we designed had a moiety of N, N-dimethylaniline as the donor and catechol moiety as the acceptor linked through various conjugated π-linkers. We performed DFT (B3LYP) as well as TD-DFT (CAM-B3LYP) computations using 6-31G (d,p) for scrutinising the impact of various π-linkers upon optoelectronic characteristics, stability, and rate of charge transport. In comparison with the reference molecule, various π-linkers led to a smaller HOMO–LUMO energy gap. Compared to the reference molecule, there was a considerable red shift in the molecules under study (A1–A4). Therefore, based on
... Show MoreFe3O4:Ce thin films were deposited on glass and Si substrates by Pulse Laser Deposition Technique (PLD). Polycrystalline nature of the cubic structure with the preferred orientation of (311) are proved by X-ray diffraction. The nano size of the prepared films are revealed by SEM measurement. Undoped Iron oxide and doped with different concentration of Ce films have direct allowed transition band gap with 2.15±0.1 eV which is confirmed by PL Photoluminescence measurements. The PL spectra consist of the emission band located at two sets of peaks, set (A) at 579±2 nm , and set (B) at 650 nm, respectively when it is excited at an excitation wavelength of 280 nm at room temperature. I-V characteristics have been studied in the dark and under v
... Show MoreIn this research, the results of x-ray diffraction method were used to determine the uniform stress deformation and microstructure parameters of CuO nanoparticles to determine the lattice strain obtained and crystallite size and then to compare the results obtained by two model Halder Wagner and Size Strain Plot with the results of these methods of the same powder using equations during which the calculation of the size of the crystallite size and lattice strain, It was found that the results obtained the values of the crystallite size (19.81nm) and the lattice strain (0.004065) of the Halder-wagner model respectively and for the ssp method were the results of the crystallite size (17.20nm) and lattice strain (0.000305) respectively. The sa
... Show MoreIn this work copper nanopowder was created at different liquid
medias like DDDW, ethylene glycol and Polyvinylpyrrolidone
(PVP). Copper nanopowder prepared using explosion wire process
and investigated the effects of the exploding energy, wire diameter,
the type of liquid on the particle size, and the particles size
distribution. The nanoparticles are characterized by x-ray diffraction,
UV-visible absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron
microscopy (TEM). The x-ray diffraction results reveal that the
nanoparticles continue to routine lattice periodicity at reduced
particle size. The UV-Visible absorption spectrum of liquid solution
for copper nanoparticles shows sharp and single surface Plasmon
r
Aqueous Two Phase System (ATPS) or liquid-liquid extraction is used in biotechnology to recover valuable compounds from raw sources. In Aqueous Two-Phase Systems, many factors influence the Partition coefficient, K, (which is the ratio of protein concentration in the top phase to that in the bottom phase) and the Recovery percentage (Rec%). In this research, two systems of ATPS were used: first, polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000/Sodium citrate (SC), and the second, PEG8000/ Sodium phosphate (SPH), for the extraction of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA). The behavior of Rec% and K of pure (BSA) in ATPS has been investigated throughout the study by the effects of five parameters: temperature, concentration of polyethylene glycol (P
... Show MorePulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) has become an increasingly important technique for metals production and metal oxides nanoparticles (NPs) and others. This technique has its many advantages compared with other conventional techniques (physical and chemical). This work was devoted for production of zirconia (ZrO2) nanoparticles via PLAL technique from a solid zirconium target immersed in a wet environment in order to study the effect of this environment on the optical properties and structure of ZrO2 nanoparticles. The solutions which used for this purpose is distilled water (D.W). The produces NPs were characterized by mean of many tests such as UV-visible (UV-Vis.), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Z-Potential. The UV-Vis.
... Show MoreSelenium is naturally present in the human body, animals, and plants, and is one of the important elements in their growth and maintenance. Recently, the nanoform of selenium has attracted attention due to its low toxicity and a high degree of adsorption compared to its organic and inorganic forms. The current study aimed to examine the effect of Cress leaves (Lepidium sativum L.) extract in combination with selenium nanoparticles in alleviating polycystic ovary syndrome in letrozole-induced PCOS in adult female rats. Nonthermal or cold plasma was used in the synthesis of selenium nanoparticles. Subsequently, the produced nanoparticles were identified, the 30 rats were divided into 6 equal groups, the first group was healthy (negative contr
... Show MoreIn this paper the effect of mixing TiO2 nanoparticles with epoxy resin is studied. The TiO2 nanoparticles would be synthesis and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), XRD FTIR, for two particle sizes of 50 and 25 nm. The thermal conductivity is measured with and without composite epoxy resin; the results showed that the thermal conductivity was increased as nanoparticle concentration increased too. The thermal conductivity was increased as particle size decreased.