Background: Salivary biomarkers, a non-invasive alternative method to serum and tissue based biomarkers and it is consider as an effective modality for early diagnosis. Salivary microRNA 21, a nucleotide biomarker, was reported to increase in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. This study was conducted to measure the fold change of microRNA 21 in stimulated saliva and to study its association with smoking and occurrence of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Materials and methods: A 20 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma who used to be smokers was included in addition to 40 control subjects (20 smokers and 20 non- smokers health looking subjects). Stimulated saliva was collected under standardized condition. Salivary microRNA 21 wa

Aim: To determine the expression of tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP-2) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and the difference in its expression level between positive and negative HPV-16 (human papilloma virus- 16) OSCC patients. Methods: This study was conducted on 33 biopsies obtained from patients with OSCC and 10 normal oral mucosa as controls. In situ hybridization (ISH) was used to investigate the presence of HPV-16, while immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to estimate the expression level of TIMP-2. Results: The TIMP-2 was expressed in 27 (81.8%) of OSCC sections with no significant difference between its expression level in HPV-16 positive and HPV-16 negative OSCC cases (p=0.058). TIMP-2 was found to be hig

Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is caused of 85% of all lung cancers. Among the most important factors for lung tumor growth and proliferation are the tyrosine kinase receptors that coded by the epidermal growth factor recep-tor (EGFR) gene. Activation of EGFR ultimately leads to developing of lung cancer. The present study was undertaken with an objective to detect EGFR mutations in bronchial wash from Iraqi patients with NSCLC before treatment. Methods: DNA was extracted from bronchial wash samples collected from 50 patients with NSCLC by using a Qiamp DNA Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). Then, EGFR mutations were determined by using real-time RCR combined with two technologies, Amplification Refractory Mutation System (

Background: Acute leukemias (ALs) are a heterogeneous group of malignancies with various clinical, morphological, immunophenotypic, and molecular characteristics. Distinguishing between lymphoid and myeloid leukemia is often performed by flow cytometry. This study aimed to evaluate the immunophenotypic characterization and expression of immuno-markers in both acute myeloid leukemia (AML-M0) and acute T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL).

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the Pathology Department/Teaching Laboratories/Medical City/Iraq and included all patients newly diagnosed with AL from 5 January to 10 December 2018. Immunophenotypic analysis wa

The systemic and resistant nature of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancers (mCRPC) renders it largely incurable even after intensive multimodal therapy. Proliferation, survival, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) are three fundamental events that are deeply linked to carcinogenesis.  Hence, it is necessary to find a new combination of several therapies, targeting those vital mechanisms without causing side effects. Significant research works have shown differential low expression of the metabolic Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) in primary and metastatic prostate cancer suggesting their importance in prostate pathogenesis. Obticholic acid (INT 747), a potent FXR agonist is widely used in primary biliary chola

Nigella sativa has various pharmacological properties and has been used throughout history for a variety of reasons. However, there is limited data about the effects of N. sativa (NS) on human cancer cells. This study aimed at observing the roles of methanolic extract of N. sativa on apoptosis and autophagy pathway in the Human PC3 (prostate cancer) cell line. The cell viability was checked by MTT assay. Clonogenic assay was performed to demonstrate clonogenicity and Western blot was used to check caspase-3, TIGAR, p53, and LC3 protein expression. The results demonstrated that PC3 cell proliferation was inhibited, caspase-3 and p53 protein expression was induced, and LC3 protein expression was modulated. The clonogenic assay showed that PC3

Leishmania species are the causative agent of a tropical disease known as leishmaniasis. Previous studies on the old world species Leishmania major, showed that the amastigotes form which resides inside the macrophage of the vertebrate host, utilize host’s sphingolipids for survival and proliferation. In this study, gene expression of serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT) subunit two (MmLCB2) of the mouse macrophage cell line (RAW264.7), which is the first enzyme in the de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis, was detected in both infected and non-infected macrophages. This was detected under condition where available sphingolipid was reduced, with the new world species Leishmania mexicana. Results of qPCR analysis showed that there was no differen

   The aim of this study is to investigate the kinetics of copper removal from aqueous solutions using an electromembrane extraction (EME) system. To achieve this, a unique electrochemical cell design was adopted comprising two glass chambers, a supported liquid membrane (SLM), a graphite anode, and a stainless-steel cathode. The SLM consisted of a polypropylene flat membrane infused with 1-octanol as a solvent and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (DEHP) as a carrier. The impact of various factors on the kinetics constant rate was outlined, including the applied voltage, initial pH of the donor phase solution, and initial copper concentration. The results demonstrated a significant influence of the applied voltage on enhancing the rate of c

Background: Dysfunction of sinoatrial node is a set of abnormal rhythms which are resulted from the sinoatrial node malfunctionof the sinus node, the chief natural cardiac pacemaker. The common, and occasionally, the single method for treatment of heart arrhythmias wasimplantation of pacemaker, which reduce symptoms exactly occurs after implantation. Aim: To detect the association between red cell width diameter (RDW) and some cardiac electrophysiology parameters in sinus node dysfunction in Iraqi patients such as SNRT and AH. Methods: A cross sectional study, was conducted on 59 patient ranging between 20-50 years old and involving 35 female and 24 male patients, suffering from an unexplained symptoms of sinoatrial node dysfunction (SND).