Crop diseases are usually caused by inoculum of pathogens which might exist on alternate hosts or weeds as endophytes. These endophytes, cum pathogens, usually confer some beneficial attributes to these weeds or alternate hosts from protection against herbivores, disease resistance, stress tolerance to secondary metabolites production. This study was therefore carried out to isolate potential crop pathogens which exist as endophytes on weed species in the University of Ilorin plantations. Green asymptomatic leaves were collected from 10 weed species across the plantations, and processed for their endophytic fungi isolation. Isolates were purified into pure cultures and used for molecular identification using the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal DNA. Phylogenetic analysis of the fungal sequences using MEGA software revealed 9 fungal genera belonging to 13 species, with species in the genera Curvularia, Epicoccum and Daldinia occurring in more than one weed species, while other genera such as Alternaria, Fusarium, Chaetomium, Macrophomina, Arthrinium and Phomopsis occurred in just one weed species each. Daldinia eschscholtzii was isolated in this study as an endophyte from Loudetia arundinacea for the first time. This plant is very abundant in Nigeria and Africa where it is used majorly for thatching and feeding livestocks. This also represents the first endophytic fungi from the genus Loudetia. Potential relationship between the occurrences of these fungi as endophytes and as pathogens are discussed. These discoveries represent the first large-scale molecular identification and several first reports of endophytes from these weed species. These results also represent the first records of some of these fungi in Nigeria.
5-Fluorouracil is one of the commonly used chemotherapy drugs in anticancer therapy; unfortunately treatment with 5-FU by solely has many drawbacks low lipophilicity, low permeability, low molecular weight, and its relatively poor plasma protein binding; also a brief half-life therefore frequent administration is required to maintain the optimal therapeutic plasma level which in addition to its poor selectivity, drug resistance and limited penetration to cancer cells; leads to increased incidence of side-effects to healthy cells/tissues and low response rates. In order to minimize these drawbacks; 5-FU was chemically conjugated with pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) in a mutual prodrug moiety (S-(9H-purin-6-yl) 3-(
... Show MoreTechnological advances have yielded new molecular biology-based methods for the diagnosis of infectious diseases. The newest and most powerful molecular diagnostic tests are available at regional and national reference laboratories, as well as at specialized centers that are certified to conduct metagenomic testing. Metagenomic assays utilize advances in DNA extraction technology, DNA sequence library construction, high throughput DNA sequencing and automated data analysis to identify millions of individual strands of DNA extracted from clinical samples. At present, metagenomic assays are only possible at a small number of special research, academic and commercial laboratories. Continued research in human and path
... Show MorePolycystic syndrome (PCOS) is a considerable infertility disorder in adolescents and adult women in reproductive age. Obesity is a vigorous risk factor related to POCS. This study aims to evaluate the association of obesity and PCOS by investigating several parameters including: anthropological, biochemical (lipid profile, fasting blood sugar, glucose tolerance test, and hormone levels (LH, FSH, LH/FSH ratio, Estradiol2 and Testosterone),and genetic parameters (Fat mass and Obesity associated gene (FTO) polymorphism at rs17817449) in 63 obese and non-obese PCOS women. The biochemical tests were investigated by colorimetric methods while FTO gene polymorp
... Show MoreNanosponges (NS) of etodolac(ETO) was prepared using the emulsion solvent diffusion method ; the effects of drug: polymer ratio, the effect of level concentration of internal phase and stirring time and other variables that effect on the physical characteristics of NS were investigated and characterized, The selected formula was lyophilized then incorporated into hydrogel ; which also evaluated .The results show that the formulation that contain Drug: PVA:EC in ratio 1:3:2 is the best with smallest particle size 40.2±0.098 with polydispersibility0.005 and in vitro release 97.6±0.11%, , ETO NS Carbopol hydrogel produced a significant(p<0.05) improvement of the in vitro release than pure ETO hydrogel.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 cause almost 70% of cervical cancer cases worldwide. Recently, testing for high-risk HPV types have been adopted by clinical practices for the early detection of cervical cancer in conjunction with cytology tests.
Cervical swab samples were collected at the Outpatient Gynecology department of Baghdad Teaching Hospital. These samples consisted of a patient group of 50 samples, and a healthy control group of 10 samples. A papanicolaou test (abbreviated as a Pap test) was also performed for each woman to examine the epithelial cells of both the endocervix and the upper vaginal region. Total DNA (genomic, mitochondrial, and viral) was extracted from cervical swab samples for molecular studie
... Show MoreIn this paper, the adsorption behavior of Methylene blue dye by orange peels, which was chemically modified with sodium hydroxide, has been investigated. Physical and chemical properties of both sorbents under study were determined using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) specific surface-area measurement techniques. Effect of the solution‒pH, adsorbent dose, adsorption time, temperature and initial methylene blue concentration were studied in batch experiments. The experimental data were fitted into the following kinetic models: pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and the intraparticle diffusion model. It was
... Show MoreThe present study aims to investigate the seroprevalence rate of Toxoplasma gondii infection and its relation to some demographic factors among males in Duhok province/Iraq. A total of 424 random blood samples were collected from the male population of different ages (18-60) years and different social-economic classes. Out of 424 samples examined, 108 (25.47%) were seropositive to the anti- T. gondii antibodies; 88 (20.75%) were found seropositive for IgG, while 20 (4.72%) samples were seropositive for IgM. Regarding occupation, the highest percentage for chronic toxoplasmosis was reported in workers followed by policemen and pensioners at rates of 23.96%, 23.6%, and 23.07%, respectively. The age group 18-30 y
... Show MoreBackground: The purpose of the study is to determine whether the pre-treatment clinical systemic variables and optical coherence tomographic (OCT) findings are associated with the subsequent response to the intravitreal Bevacisumab (IVB) in eyes with diabetic macular edema (DME).
Patients and Methods: 38 patients (45 eyes) with refractory diabetic macular edema. ; 16 females, 22 males and mean age was 57.5 year. All patients had DME not responded to other treatments. Complete eye examination; BCVA* (represented as LOGMAR for adequate statistical analysis), slitlamp exam, intraocular pressure measurement, stereoscopic biomicroscopy of the macula, and morphologic patterns of diabetic macular edema demonstra