Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with polymorphic expression. B cells have an essential contribution in immune system activation via the production of different cytokines and functioning as potent antigen-presenting cells. Therefore, a drug that particularly targets B cells may represent an ideal therapeutic approach for SLE. Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody causing transient B-cell depletion, has been used to manage SLE. This study aims to assess Rituximab effects on lupus nephritis (LN) patients when added to conventional immunosuppressants. Twenty four patients, 15-32 years old, with class III/IV/V LN were involved in this study. All were on steroids before lupus nephritis occurrence. They were given rituximab induction therapy and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) maintenance therapy. RTX was indicated for refractory and relapsing SLE. Several investigations done before and after RTX treatment and in the last follow up (done one year after starting Rituximab). Those included protein in urine, serum creatinine, double stranded DNA, C3, C4, and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR). Proteinuria decreased significantly after RTX treatment and in the last measurement (P=0.01 and P=0.001, respectively). Serum creatinine significantly decreased only in the last measurement (P=0.02). Double stranded DNA decreased remarkably after treatment (P=0.01) with a further decrease in the last measurement (P=0.006). C3 and C4 increased after treatment but the increase was significant only for C3 (P=0.002) and this increase continues till the last measurement (P=0.0006). Active urine sediments found in fifteen patients and disappeared after RTX treatment. Rituximab can be promising in treating lupus nephritis when used along with traditional immunosuppressants. It can reduce disease activity and improve renal function in such patients.
Treatment of a high strength acidic industrial wastewater was attempted by activated carbon
adsorption to evaluate the feasibility of yielding effluents of reusable qualities. The experimental
methods which were employed in this investigation included batch and column studies. The
former was used to evaluate the rate and equilibrium of carbon adsorption, while the latter was
used to determine treatment efficiencies and performance characteristics. Fixed bed and expanded
bed adsorbers were constructed in the column studies. In this study, the adsorption behavior of acetic acid onto activated carbon was examined as a function of the concentration of the adsorbate, contact time and adsorbent dosage. The adsorption data was mo
Despite the multiple sources of polycyclic compounds in the agricultural environment, this study suggests that it is possible to adopt the events of plants and their associated microorganisms in the soil, such as mushrooms and bacteria in the decomposition of these compounds can also use harvested plants such as barley and alfalfa grown for animal feed
In this research some new nucleoside analogues were synthesized. Starting from α-D- glucose which was protected to glucose penta acetat α-D- glucose pyronside (1). Which was converted to active form 1-bromo protected sugar (2) as a sugar moiety. The base moiety 2-substituted imidazoline (3,4) was prepared from condensation of ethylene diamine with two kind of aromatic aldehydes, which were subjected to amino alkylation via Mannich reaction forming new nucleaobase derivatives (5-10). Condensation of nucleobase with bromo sugar through nucleophilic substitution of anomeric carbon with nitrogen forming new protected nucleoside analogues (11-16). De blocking of these nucleoside analogues with sodium methoxide in methanol afforded our targe
... Show MoreThere has been an increase in demand for nanocomposite, which has resulted in large-scale manufacturers employing high-energy processes and harmful solvents. Because of this, the need for environmentally benign "green" synthesis processes has grown. Other methods for making nanocomposite include using plants and plant products, bacteria, fungi, yeast, and algae. Green synthesis has minimal toxicity and is safe for human health and the environment compared to other processes, making it the ideal option for creating nanocomposite materials. This work reveals an environmentally friendly synthesis method for magnetic nanocomposites. In particular, they were using an aqueous extract of Artemisia to obtain ZnO/Fe3O4
... Show MoreAbstract
This research aims to study and improve the passivating specifications of rubber resistant to vibration. In this paper, seven different rubber recipes were prepared based on mixtures of natural rubber(NR) as an essential part in addition to the synthetic rubber (IIR, BRcis, SBR, CR)with different rates. Mechanical tests such as tensile strength, hardness, friction, resistance to compression, fatigue and creep testing in addition to the rheological test were performed. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)test was used to examine the structure morphology of rubber. After studying and analyzing the results, we found that, recipe containing (BRcis) of 40% from th
... Show MoreThirty five samples were collected from patients (1-30) years old, suffered from, infected skin , rushes, boils , oral thrush, anal & vaginal itches. Candida albicans 57.3% (20 isolates) and Candida tropicalis 22.5% (8 isolates) Aspergillus fumegatus 11.5% (4 isolates) Aspergillus nigar 8.7%(3 isolates) , were isolated & identified from these samples. Alcoholic & water hot extracts of the punica granatum (Pomegranate) peels as well as the dried powder were prepared. The anti-fungal activity of the extracts was evaluated by means of the agar-well diffusion assay. The extract exhibited potent activity against yeast. The Minimum inhibitory concentra
... Show MoreA specific, sensitive and simple method was used for the determination of: vitamin B9 (Folic acid) in pure and pharmaceutical formulations using continuous flow injection analysis. The method is based on formation of ion pair compound between folic acid and ammonium molybdate in an aqueous medium to obtain a gray precipitate complex, using homemade; Ayah-6SX1-ST-2D solar cell CFI Analyzer. Optimum parameters was studied to increase the sensitivity for developed method. The linear range for the calibration graph was 0.01-0.6 mMol.L-1 of vitamin B9 and LOD was 131.994 ng/sample with correlation coefficient ( r ) of 0.9810, RSD% was lower than 0.1%, (n=9) for the determination of vitamin B9 at concentration (0.07and 0.5) mMol.L-1 respectiv
... Show MoreBackground: IL-4 is an antibodies inflammatory cytokine which has an important role in protecting against the inflammatory reactions in most of diseases. Here, we try to highlights the role of this cytokine in chronic Rheumatic heart disease and its correlation with the extent of histopathological abnormalities.
Patients and Methods: Rheumatic mitral valve surgical fragments were taken from a total of 48 Iraqi patients with chronic rheumatic heart disease under mitral valve replacement surgery in Ibn Al- Bitar Hospital for Cardiac Surgery-Iraq-Baghdad. Paraffin embedded mitral valve tissue sections were prepared. IL-4-expressing cells were detected by using immunohistochemical staining technique and
In this research, anti-reflection coatings consisting of single and double layers were designed in the IR (8 – 14μm) region to reduce the unwanted reflections of germanium (Ge) substrate. The reflectance of Ge substrate was about 36% per surface. These values were reduced reasonably by using single and double layer anti-reflection. The used layers were promoted in their performance by changing their thickness and refractive indices. The results indicated that the suggested structures are very efficient in reducing the reflectance of the Ge substrates in the selected region. The performance of the double layer antireflection coatings of ZnSe, BaF2 and BiF3 on Ge substrates is presented.