Inflammasome is a multiprotein oligomer complex which is the precursor procaspase-1 and is a component of the innate immune system so that this study aimed to determine the serum levels of interleukin-1? and 18 in patients with T2D and simple obesity in an attempt to clarify the role of inflammasome in these disorders.Twenty five known cases of T2D, twenty four patients with simple obesity and twenty healthy subjects were randomly recruited from AL-Kindy Teaching Hospital in Baghdad to enroll in this study. All the data about the demographic characteristics and anthropometric measurements were determined in all patients, also the C-reactive protein and serum interleukin (IL)-1? and IL-18 levels were obtained from each patient. The results s

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and debilitating autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation with subsequent cartilage and bone destruction. Cytokines are  key mediators of inflammation and can be found in abundance both in the joint and blood of patients. This study was designed to evaluate the role of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in pathogenesis of RA, as well as study the correlation among these cytokines.
Patients and methods: Forty patients with RA and thirty age-matched healthy controls were included in this study. Serum cytokines were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Results: The serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1α, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8

This research, involved a series of some new compounds containing different hetero cyclic new pentagonal and hexagonal rings, through the reaction of 2-mercapto-3-phenyl-4(3H)quinazolinone (1) with chloroacetylchloride in the presence of potassium hydroxide, and dry dimethylformamide (DMF) as a solvent to obtain the intermediate compound (2). This compound is reacted with different reagents to give four routes, the first route include direct reaction with substituted-2-aminobenzothiazole under certain conditions to give new compounds (3-9). The second route involved condensation compound (2) with 5-substituted-2-amino-1,3,4-oxadiazole in the presence of potassium carbonate anhydrous to give new compounds (10-13).while the third route inv

  Seven [35%] and five [25%] Serratia marcescens  isolates were obtained out of 20 samples of lettuce and 20 samples of spinach, respectively, taken from different locations in a farm in Baghdad city. The isolate that produced chitinase in higher level was chosen to purify chitinase through several stages of purification including: ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE- sephadex ion exchange chromatograpgy and sephadex G-200 gel filtration with 89.5- fold purification and 30% recovery.       The purified chitinase was characterized and the molecular weight of enzyme was 59000 daltons by using gel filtration chromatography. The optimum pH and temperature of the purified chitinase were 6.0 and 50°

This 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,

A novel series of chitosan derivatives were synthesized via reaction of chitosan with carbonyl compounds and grafted it’s by with different amine compounds substituted hydrogen. The produced polymers were characterized by different analyses FTIR, 1HCNMR, XRD, DSC and TGA. Solubility in water as well as many solvent was investigated, antibacterial activity of chitosan and its derivatives against two types of bacteria E. coli and S. aureus was also investigated. The results showed that derivatives sort of have antibacterial activities against Esherichia coli (Gram negative) better than chitosan whilst compound IX has better antibacterial against Staphylococcus aureus (Gram positive). SEM analysis showed that increase of surface roughness wi

The microbial production of substances that have the ability to inhibit the growth of other microorganisms is possibly the most common defense strategy developed in nature. Microorganisms produce a variable collection of microbial defense systems, which include antibiotics, metabolic by-products, lytic agents, bacteriocins and others. The aim of the present study was to isolate and identify Enterococcus spp. and  its most prevalent species from food samples and determine its antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus isolates. A total of 50 food samples from different sources (dairy products (20 samples) and vegetables and fish (15 samples each)) were collected from different local markets in Baghdad and

     Polyacetal was synthesized from the reaction of Polyethylene glycol with4- dimethylaminobenzaldehyde.Polymer metal complex was synthesized by the reaction with Ag⁺; polymer blend with polyvinyl alcohol was synthesized solution casting technique. All synthesized compounds were characterized by FT-IR in addition to the antimicrobial activity. The FT-IR spectra indicate the formation of the polyacetal. The DSC resultsindicatethe thermal stability regarding the synthesized polymer blends. The synthesized polyacetal, its metal complex and PA blend against four types of bacteria (gram+ve) Staphylococcus aureas, Bacillus subtilis and (gram –ve)Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia Coli w

This study is an attempt to find whether arginine metabolism dysregulation by arginase activity is related to hyperglycemia, followed by changes in nitric oxide (NO) generation in type 2 diabetic patients. This study includes 42 control subjects (Group I), and 92 Iraqi patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The patient group was subdivided into two groups: Group II (54) with T2DM only and Group III (38) with T2DM and dyslipidemia (who were treating with atorvastatin along with diabetes treatment). The samples were obtained to measure arginase activity and NO levels. Serum arginase activity increased significantly in patients(groupII and groupIII) compared to control group. While serum NO level was significantly lower in diabetic pa

The present study was conducted to estimate the antimicrobial activity and the potential biological control of the killer toxin produced byD. hanseniiDSMZ70238 against several pathogenic microorganisms. In this study, the effects of NaCl, pH, and temperature, killer toxin production, and antimicrobial activity were studied. The results showed that the optimum inhibitory effect of killer toxin was at 8% NaCl, and the diameters of clear zones were 20, 22, 22, 21, 14, and 13 mm forStaphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Candida albicans,andCandida neoformans, respectively. The largest inhibition zones were