One hundred thirty seven Staphylococcus spp. isolates were isolated form one hundred fifty clinical specimens which were collected from several hospitals at Al-Sulaimaniya city. Seventy two Staphylococcus aureus isolates, 28 Staphylococcus epidermidis isolates and 37 isolates related to other coagulase negative staphylocci (S. chromogenes, S. lugdunensis, S. cohnii, S. saprophyticus, S. hominis, and S. haemolyticus constituted 3.60%, 2.20%, 2.90%, 2.90%, 6.60%, and 8.80%, respectively). Burn specimens represented the highest (P< 0.05) reservoir for S. aureus and S. epidermidis isolates. Staphylococci developed variable susceptibility to 4 antibiotics (cefoxitin; 30 μg, oxacillin; 1μg, methicillin; 5μg, and cefotaxime; 30 μg). Neve

Leishmaniasis is one of the important parasitic diseases, affecting mainly low social class people indeveloping countries, and is more prevalent and endemic in the tropical and subtropical regions of old worldand new world. Despite ofbroad distribution in Iraq,little known about the geneticcharacteristics of thecausative agents. So this study was aimed to evaluate the genetic varietyoftwo IraqiLeishmaniatropicaisolatesbased on heat shock protein gene sequence 70 (HSP70) in comparison with universal isolates recordedsequences data. After amplification and sequencing of HSP70 gene,the obtainedresults were alignment alongwith homologous Leishmania sequences retrieved from NCBI by using BLAST. The analysis results showedpresence of particular g

Leishmaniasis is one of the neglected parasitic diseases, which belongs to the family Trypanosomatidae. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic in Iraq and the available drugs are of side effect or resistant by the parasite. In this study, cytotoxicity of methotrexate was investigated on the promastigotes proliferation of the Iraqi strain ofL.tropica.The results showed a significant (p ≥ 0.05) difference in growth of treated groupsat all concentration (1000, 500, 250, 125.5, 62.5, 31.25, 15.6) μM, after 24 and 48 hours of follow up, while after 72 hours, significant difference was observed at concentration(1000, 125, 62.5) μM.The IC50 measured after 24and 48 hours and it was 40.366 and 44.452 μM, respectively.The present study showed

Leishmaniasis is a widespread parasitic disease caused by Leishmania parasite, this disease considers a major health problem among worldwide. Treatments available are expensive or with cytotoxic side effect. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of an herbal new compound, called artemisinin, derived from a Chinese plant called Artemisia annua. Various concentrations were studied in vitro against L. tropica amastigotes by chamber counting to investigate its effect on the proliferation of promastigotes. Three incubation periods were adopted (24, 48, 72) hours. The results showed a significant decrease in surviving promastigotes, in parallel with the normal parasite count of untreated promastigotes, along the periods studied. This stu

Leishmania parasites are the causative agent of leishmaniasis. Many studies are inspecting chemical drugs, including the use of miltefosine and amphotericin B, but curative values may be limited for these drugs with side effects due to the chemical origin, therefore, investigating less toxic therapies is essential. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of artemisinin on Iraqi strain of Leishmania tropica, by experimental macrophage ex vivo infection of amastigotes into mouse macrophage cell-line RAW264.7. Different concentrations (100, 200, 300, 400, 500)μM of artemisinin (ART) were screened to examine the susceptibility of L. tropica amastigotes to invade macrophage cell line along three times of follow up (24, 48 and

Leishmania parasites are the causative agent of leishmaniasis. Many studies are inspecting chemical drugs, including the use of miltefosine and amphotericin B, but curative values may be limited for these drugs with side effects due to the chemical origin, therefore, investigating less toxic therapies is essential. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of artemisinin on Iraqi strain of Leishmania tropica, by experimental macrophage ex vivo infection of amastigotes into mouse macrophage cell-line RAW264.7. Different concentrations (100, 200, 300, 400, 500)μM of artemisinin (ART) were screened to examine the susceptibility of L. tropica amastigotes to invade macrophage cell line along three times of follow up (24, 48 and

One hundred specimens from wounds, burns, and skin swabs were collected
from patients laying and attended to Balad general hospital. It was found that 50
isolates belong to Staphylococcus spp., 38 isolates were identified as S. aureus and
12 isolates were identified as S. epidermidis according to microscopic, cultural and
biochemical testing. The study of seven extracellular enzyme as virulence factors
including the enzymes: urease, lipase, DNase, haemolysin, coagulase, β-lactamase,and lecithinase. Reavealed that 100% of S.aureus had the ability to produce these
enzymes, while S. epidermidis isolates were unable to produce the enzymes DNase,
lipase, coagulase, but they were capable to produce haemolysin, urease, lec

Although several drugs are used against Leishmania infection but they are associated with several adverse complications. Therefore, a new effective treatment needed to be found. In this study, the effect of carbonnanotubes nanoparticles (CNTs NPs) on Leishmania donovani promastigotes was assessed. Viability of promastigotes after adding different concentrations of carbonnanotubes (CNTs) nanoparticles (0.05, 0.1, 5, 10, 20, 40, 60 and 80 μg/ml) to the parasite culture was evaluated by growth rate, viability rate assay and morphological changes. The results indicated that the effect of CNTs NPs on growth rate of promastigotes form. After exposed to 80 μg/ml of CNTs, the growth rate of promastigotes clearly decreased compared with promast

Background: evaluate the effects of three different intracoronal bleaching agents on the shear bond strengths (SBS) and failure site of stainless steel and monocrystalline (sapphire) orthodontic brackets bonded to endodontically treated teeth using light cured orthodontic adhesive in vitro. Materials and methods: Eighty extracted sound human upper first premolars were selected, endondontically treated and randomly divided equally (according to the type of the brackets used) into two main groups (n = 40 per group). Each main group were subdivided (according to the bleaching agent used) into four subgroups 10 teeth each; as following : control (un bleached) group, hydrogen peroxide group (Hp) 35%, carbamide peroxide group (CP) 37% group and s

In this research, non-thermal plasma system of argon gas is designed to work at normal atmospheric pressure and suitable for work in medical and biotechnological applications. This technique is applied in the treatment of the Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria and show the role of the flow rate of Argon gas on the killing rate of bacteria, and it obtained a 100 % killing rate during the time of 5 minutes at the flow Argon gas of 5 liters/ min.