Background: The SARS-CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19, a respiratory syndrome. It causes inflammation and damages several organs in the body. miRNAs play a role in regulating the infection resulting from SARS-CoV-2. MicroRNA-155, a kind of microRNA linked to viral defences, can affect the immune responses during COVID-19. Objectives: Examination of the involvement of microRNA-155 in the development and severity of COVID-19, as well as finding the correlation between microRNA-155 and viral load (copies/mL) in severe cases of the disease. Materials and Method: A case-control research study was performed between October 2022 and June 2023. It included a cohort of 120 hospitalised individuals with severe cases of COVID-19, together with 115 individuals with mild cases of COVID-19 and apparently healthy individuals. A real-time PCR procedure was applied to determine microRNA-155 expression in the studied groups and the viral load (copies/mL) in severe cases of the disease. Results: MicroRNA-155 was expressed in severe cases threefold more than its expression in mild cases of COVID-19 and healthy individuals. Also, a strong association was demonstrated between microRNA-155 and viral load (copies/mL) in severe COVID-19. Conclusion: MicroRNA-155 could be used as a biomarker for severe COVID-19 conditions and could have a role in disease severity and infectious particles of the virus. Since it is positively correlated with viral load (copies/mL) in severe cases of the disease
Background: Recently with improvement of dental implantology science, osseointegrated implants show a considerable durability, however; failures are not completely avoidable. Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) expression is disturbed in many pathological conditions such as peri-implantitis and periodontitis. This study was carried out to investigate the tissue expression of MMP-2 in the extracellular matrix of osseointegrated and diseased implants. Subjects and methods: Gingival biopsies were collected from six patients having osseointegrated or working implants and twenty with diseased or non osseointegrated implants and (6) controls having no implants. In situ hybridization technique was used to analyze the changes in immunoreactivity of
... Show MoreBackground: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is the sixth most common cancer world wide. Despite greater emphasis on multi-modality therapy including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, advanced stage head and neck squamous cell carcinoma continues to have poor 5-year survival rates (0-40%) that have not significantly improved in the last (30) years. To improve outcomes for this deadly disease , It is required a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumor growth, metastasis, and treatment resistance. This study evaluates the Immunohistochemical expression of E-cadherin and CD44 adhesion molecules in OSCC and to correlate the expression of either marker with each other, with lymph node
... Show MoreSwarming is one of the most important virulence factors used by bacteria to invade new sites. This study aimed to test the effects of gentamicin on swarming motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, both phenotypically and molecularly. The present results revealed that 11/25 isolates had gentamicin MIC of 1024 µg/ml. However, gentamicin at sub-minimal inhibitory concentration significantly (P< 0.05) reduced the diameter of swarming in all P. aeruginosa isolates. Noticeably the mean and median swarming diameter before treatment with gentamicin 5.557 and 5.816 cm respectively had significantly (P < 0.001) reduced to 0.871 and 0.766 cm respectively. At the molecular level, amrZ (a global regulator of multiple genes) and
... Show MoreBackground: The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of fibroblast growth factor-2 and Heparanase in salivary pleomorphic adenoma, and to correlate the two studied markers with each other and with clinicopathological parameters including: age, sex, tumor site and histopathological presentation. Methods: Sections of twenty five formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks specimens of salivary pleomorphic adenoma were immunostained using monoclonal antibodies (Fibroblast growth factor-2 and Heparanase) to assess their expression in this tumor. Results: The expression of fibroblast growth factor-2 and Heparanase were positive in all pleomorphic adenoma cases (100%). The positive expression of fibroblast growth factor-2 was signi
... Show MoreA load-shedding controller suitable for small to medium size loads is designed and implemented based on preprogrammed priorities and power consumption for individual loads. The main controller decides if a particular load can be switched ON or not according to the amount of available power generation, load consumption and loads priorities. When themaximum allowed power consumption is reached and the user want to deliver power to additional load, the controller will decide if this particular load should be denied receiving power if its priority is low. Otherwise, it can be granted to receive power if its priority is high and in this case lower priority loads are automatically switched OFF in order not to overload the power generation. The
... Show MoreThis study included an analysis of three stations (Al Dora, Al Za'franiya, and Arab Ejbur) chosen to study the Physiochemical and microorganism (Fungi and Bacteria) loud of the Tigris River in the southern section of Baghdad city. The result of this research shows that the highest temperature recorded in summer in Al Za'franiya was 37Co, while the lowest temperature recorded in winter in Al Dora was 9Co. and the value of pH recorded the highest in summer it was 7.9 in Arab Ejbur, and the lowest value was in winter 7.1 in Al Dora regions, While Total Organic Carbon (TOC) shows the highest values found in the summer was 6.7 Mg L-1in Al Za'franiya Samples, and the lowest values were 2.0 Mg L-1in Arab Ejbur during the winter. The more f
... Show MoreCarpal tunnel syndrome is a neurological disease that presented with paresthesias, pain, and numbness in the hand's median nerve compression. Vitamin D was assumed to affect both electrophysiological &clinical gradings, the study aims to assess the correlation between the deficiency of vitamin D and both electrophysiological and clinical gradings. This study was conducted in Ghazi Alhariri Hospital during the period from the first of November/2020 to the twenty-eighth of February/2021, fifty five individuals were referred to as Carpal tunnel syndrome patients, and compared to (55) control individuals, blood samples were withdrawn from the patients (3ml), centrifuged and kept in the freezer (-20°C) until the time of analysis of
... Show MoreToxoplasmosis is regarded as one of the most important global life-threatening diseases in immune-compromised people. The intracellular protozoon Toxoplasma gondii is the causative pathogen of toxoplasmosis. Aim of this study is to investigate the possible association between T. gondii infection and breast cancer (BC) in Iraqi women, also to assess the effect of T. gondiion interleukin 10 (IL-10) of the immune response. By ELISA method, blood samples from 81 women with breast cancer and 60 apparently healthy women have been examined for presence of anti-toxoplasmaantibodies, also the levels of serum IL-10 were estimated in these subjects. Results showed that women with BC had the highest prevalence rate of toxoplasmosis. The anti- T.gondii
... Show MoreThis work involves the calculation of the cooling load in Iraqi building constructions taking in account the effect of the convective heat transfer inside the buildings. ASHRAE assumptions are compared with the Fisher and Pedersen model of estimation of internal convective heat transfer coefficient when the high rate of ventilation from ceiling inlet configuration is used. Theoretical calculation of cooling load using the Radiant Time Series Method (RTSM) is implemented on the actual tested spaces. Also the theoretical calculated cooling loads are experimentally compared by measuring the cooling load in these tested spaces. The comparison appears that using the modified Fisher and Pedersen model when large ventilation ra
... Show MoreHeat shock protein 70 (HSP70) is a crucial protein with vital biological tasks in cell continuation of life. The variation of HSP70 activation occurs as a consequence of stress that includes temperature states, toxicity, poisoning with heavy metals, and tumor-related conditions. One of the master jobs of the HSP family is the suppression of caspase-mediated apoptosis signals. A high level of the expression of HSP70 is accountable for tumorigenesis and resistance against chemotherapeutic drugs. For this reason, the detection of HSP70 may help to diagnose cancerous diseases. From the other side, targeting this chaperone might help in treatment by maintaining late caspase-dependent events. This study was conducted to detect the presenc
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