Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii ) is considered a critical healthcare problem for patients in intensive care units due to its high ability to be multidrug-resistant to most commercially available antibiotics. The aim of this study is to develop a colorimetric assay to quantitatively detect the target DNA of A. baumannii based on unmodified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) from different clinical samples (burns, surgical wounds, sputum, blood and urine). A total of thirty-six A. baumannii clinical isolates were collected from five Iraqi hospitals in Erbil and Mosul provinces within the period from September 2020 to January 2021. Bacterial isolation and biochemical identification of isolates were carried out followed by DNA extraction from 36 isolates and six negative ATCC strains (Salmonalle typhi, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aures) and only one positive control ATCC A. baumannii using Phenol/Chloroform method. AuNPs were synthesized using the citrate reduction method and examined by XDR, FTIR, UV-VIS, FE-SEM, and TEM. The optimized colorimetric assay was employed based on unmodified spherical AuNPs and PCR amplification of 16S rRNA intergenic spacer sequences (ITS) with species-specific DNA oligo-targeters. Detection and optimization of A. baumannii amplicons using unmodified AuNPs were performed based on species-specific DNA oligonucleotide. The AuNPs assay was able to colorimetrically detect and distinguish A. baumannii from other ATCC bacterial isolates. The turnaround time of this assay was about 3 hours, including sample preparation and amplification, to show (0.025-6 ngµl-1) as a detection limit of DNA concentration. The efficacy of colorimetric detection was proved to effectively diagnose A. baumannii isolates with high sensitivity, simplicity, and robustness to rapidly diagnose A. baumannii isolates from different clinical samples.
Ten isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae, seven isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and nine isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, were obtained from 100 urine samples collected from Baghdad hospitals. All isolates were identified biochemically and confirmed by using VITEK 2 and were then tested for their susceptibility towards 6 antibiotics and for phenolic extracts of Thymus vulgaris and Cinnamomum cassia. All bacteria were greatly affected by T. vulgaris, especially K. pneumoniae. Viable count was performed, it was noted that the number of bacterial cells reduced from 1×108 CFU to 1.2× 103, 2×105 and 1.8×106CFU of K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus respectively. While C. cassiahad a slight effect on them. K. pneumoniae isola
... Show MoreThe current study included the separation of three alkaloid compounds from Anastatica Hierochuntica and studied the effect of the these compounds on cancerous cells , specifically liver cancer it was found that compound number one is the most influential or inhibiting at 50 percent followed by compound number three when using concentration of 400 μg/mL.
Titanium oxide nanoparticles-modified smectite (SMC-nTiO2) as a low-cost adsorbent was investigated for the removal of Rhodamine B (RhB) from aqueous solutions. The adsorbents (SMC and SMC-nTiO2) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The effects of various parameters like contact time, adsorbent weight, pH, and temperatures were examined. Three kinetic equations (pseudo-first-order (PFO), pseudo-second-order (PSO), and intra-particle diffusion) were used to evaluate the experimental kinetic of the data and the results showed that the adsorption process is in line with the PSO kinetic model. Adsorption equilibrium isotherms were modeled using La
... Show MoreYeasts are distributed in all environments and have been reported as potential biocontrol agents against various phytopathogenic fungi. To investigate their enzymatic and biological activities, 32 yeasts were isolated from 15 date vinegar samples. Evaluation of the antagonistic activities of isolated yeasts against the plant pathogens Fusarium oxysporium, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, and Macrophomina phaseolina indicated that there are two yeasts had the highest inhibitory effect against plant pathogens, these yeasts identified as Kluyveromyces marxianus and Torulaspora delbrueckii using traditional and molecular methods. These yeast isolates were tested for fungal cell wall degrading enzymes (in vitro), and results indicated that the
... Show MoreThe present study deals with the synthesis of four different azo-azomethine derivatives; this is done by two steps; the first step is diazotization of sulfonamides (sulfanilamide, sulfacetamide, sulfamethoxazole, and sulfadiazine) separately, followed by the second step; the coupling reaction of diazotized compounds with isatin bis-Schiff base named 3-((4-nitrobenzylidene) hydrazono)indolin-2-one. The later one (bis-Schiff base) was synthesized by the reaction of 3-hydrazono-indolin-2-one with p-nitrobenzaldehyde. The chemical structures of newly synthesized compounds were approved on the basis of their FTIR, 1H-NMR, and CHNS elemental analysis data results. The synthesized azo compounds were tested in vitro for their antimicrobial potentia
... Show MoreThe Schiff base (E)-2-(((2-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl) phenyl) imino) methyl)-4-methylphenol (Lb) ligand with some metals(II) ion such as; Co, Cu, Cd, and Hg, were synthesis and characterized by the mass and 1 HNMR spectrometry for ligand Schiff base, the fourier-transform infrared spectroscop (FTIR), UV- visible and the flame atomic absorption (AA) spectrum, the CHN analysis, and the chlorine content, in addition to measuring the magnetic sensitivity of the complexes. All the complexes had octahedral geometry. The bioactivity activity for compounds against; Rhizopodium, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli showed different efficacy towards these microorganisms