Cytokines are signaling molecules between inflammatory cells that play a significant role in the pathogenesis of a disease. Among these cytokines are interleukins (ILs) 17A and 33, and accordingly, the current case-control study sought to investigate the role of each of the two cytokines in the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). Sixty-eight relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) Iraqi patients and twenty healthy individuals (control group) were enrolled. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits were used to determine serum levels of IL-17A and IL-33. Results revealed that IL-17A and IL-33 levels were significantly higher in MS patients than in controls (14.1 ± 4.5 vs. 7.5 ± 3.8 pg/mL; p < 0.001 and 65.3 ± 16.3 vs. 49.3 ± 20.0 pg/mL; p < 0.001, respectively). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis demonstrated that IL-17A was a very good predictor of MS (area under curve [AUC] = 0.869; 95% CI = 0.779 - 0.960; p < 0.001; cut-off value = 10.2 pg/mL; sensitivity = 80.8%; specificity = 75.0%). A similar prediction was presented by IL-33, but the AUC value was lower (AUC = 0.762; 95% CI = 0.63 - 0.89; p < 0.001; cut-off value = 56.4 pg/mL; sensitivity = 70.6%; specificity = 70.0%). Multinomial logistic regression analysis confirmed the significance of IL-17A and IL-33 in MS risk, and under three models of analysis, the estimated odds ratios for IL-17A (1.50, 1.49 and 1.50, respectively) and IL-33 (1.05, 1.05 and 1.06) were above 1.0. Patients stratified by gender (male and female), expanded disability status scale (EDSS: < 3 and ≥ 3) or medication (pre- and post-medication) showed no significant differences in serum levels of IL-17A and IL-33 for each stratum. However, with regard to response to medication, it was found that responding patients showed significantly higher levels of IL-33 than non-responders (70.9 ± 12.2 vs. 57.2 ± 18.2 pg/mL; p = 0.018). This difference was not observed when considering IL-17A. Pearson correlation analysis between IL-17A and IL-33 revealed that both cytokines were not significantly correlated. In conclusion, the study indicated that IL-17A and IL-33 were up-regulated in serum of MS patients, and this up-regulation was not influenced by age, gender, EDSS or medication status, but the elevated level of IL-33 was more pronounced in patients who responded to medication.
Cholelithiasis is one of the commonest surgical problems and one of the most common gastrointestinal diseases throughout the world but its pathogenesis remains unclear. Many theories have been proposed forward to explain the mechanism of stone formation. It is not fully clear if symptomatic gallstone disease is associated with a specific pattern of some biochemical abnormalities, as lipid profile and fasting blood sugar in serum of patients.
This study was designed to estimate lipid profile and fasting blood sugar in the sera of patients with cholelithiasis in comparison with normal individuals (control).
In this study, 104(male=16, female=88) were symptomatic gallstone patients (aged 42.79± 12.18 years), and 38(male=6
... Show MoreThe rehabilitation of deteriorated pavements using Asphalt Concrete (AC) overlays consistently confronts the reflection cracking challenge, where inherent cracks and joints from an existing pavement layer are mirrored in the new overlay. To address this issue, the current study evaluates the effectiveness of Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) and geotextile fabric as mitigation strategies. ECC, characterized by its tensile ductility, fracture resistance, and high deformation capacity, was examined in interlayer thicknesses of 7, 12, and 17 mm. Additionally, the impact of geotextile fabric positioning at the base and at 1/3 depth of the AC specimen was explored. Utilizing the Overlay Testing Machine (OTM) for evaluations, the research d
... Show MoreOne of the prominent goals of Metrical Phonology Theory is providing stress of poetry on the syllable-, the foot-, and the phonological word- levels. Analysing poetry is one of the most prominent and controversial issues for the involved number and types of syllables, feet, and meters are stable in poetry compared to other literary texts. The prosodic seeds of the theory have been planted by Firth (1948) in English, while in Arabic يديهارفلا in the second half of the eighth century (A.D.) has done so. Investigating the metrical structure of poetry has been conducted in various languages, whereas scrutinising the metrical structure of English and Arabic poetry has received little attention. This study aims at capturing the
... Show MoreHepatitis-B (HBV) is a viral disease cause liver damage, cirrhosis, fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Present study attempted to elucidate the biochemical and haematological markers other than Australia antigen, of hepatitis,B,vairusV (HBsAg) for better assessment of HBV infection. The present study was conducted on 76 men, 50 of them were found to be HBeAg positive and 26 were negative, mean age was53±5.7years. Haematological parameters such as Absolute Erythrocyte( Abs Eryt), Absolute Leukocyte(Abs Leuk) , Haemoglobin(Hb), Packed Cell Volume(PCV),Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Red Cell Distribution Width (RDW), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (MCH),MCH Concentration(MCHC) ,Neutrophi
... Show MoreAbstract The research investigates in detail the fascinating story of its title character, which may work as an allegory for Africa itself in its past. Ama Ata Aidoo is miscellaneous writers who wrote in different literary genre like drama , short stories novel and , poetry and criticism . She is also an active feminist. Aidoo is against the colonial practice and its influence on African minds. Aidoo's play Anowa confronts painful issues in Africa's past, mostly those of the slave trade. She goes further to tackle issues of patriarchal domination and African feminism, like the relationships between individuals and society, women and motherhood, men and women, husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, and above all the future invasion
... Show MoreBackground: Lymphomas are group of diseases caused by malignant lymphocytes that accumulate in lymph nodes and caused the characteristics lymphadenopathy. Occasionally, they may spill over into blood or infiltrate organs outside the lymphoid tissue. The major subdivision of lymphomas is into Hodgkin lymphoma and non–Hodgkin lymphoma and this is based on the histologic presence of Reed-Sternberg cells in Hodgkin lymphoma. Salivary immunoglobulin A is the prominent immunoglobulin and is considered to be the main specific defense mechanism in oral cavity. The aim of this study was to determine the level of salivary immunoglobulin A in lymphoma patients before and after chemotherapy treatment. Subjects, materials and methods: The study i
... Show MoreMost cultivars of sorghum have low field emergence as common problem. Three experiments were carried out at Agriculture College, Baghdad University. First experiment was conducted in laboratory according to Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with four replicates. Second and third experiments were conducted at field according to Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) during the spring and the fall seasons of 2015, respectively, with four replicates for each one. Same two factors were studied at each experiment. First factor was seed priming by seed soaking for 10 hours in distilled water, solvents of GA3, KCl and thiamine (300, 40 and 30 mg*L-1, respectively) and non-primed seed. Second factor was three cultivars of sorghum (Inqath, Kafier an
... Show MoreRouting is the process of delivering a packet from a source to a destination in the network using a routing algorithm that tries to create an efficient path. The path should be created with minimum overhead and bandwidth consumption. In literature, routing protocols in VANET were categorized in many ways, according to different aspects. In the present study, we prefer the classification based on the number of hops to reach the destination node. In literature, these are single-hop and multi-hops protocols. We first discuss the two types and then compare the MDDV (multi-hops protocol) with VADD (single-hop protocol). The comparison is theoretically and experimentally implemented by providing a network environment consisting of SUMO, VIENS and
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