Background:SARS-CoV-2 infection has caused a global pandemic that continues to negatively impact human health. A large group of microbial domains including bacteria co-evolved and interacted in complex molecular pathogenesis along with SARS-CoV-2. Evidence suggests that periodontal disease bacteria are involved in COVID-19, and are associated with chronic inflammatory systemic diseases. This study was performed to investigate the association between bacterial loads of Porphyromonas gingivalis and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fifty patients with confirmed COVID-19 by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, their age ranges between 20-76 years, and 35 healthy volunteers (matched accordingly with age and sex to the patients) participated in this case control study. Oral hygiene status was determined by the simplified oral hygiene index. Blood and saliva samples were obtained from patients and controls, Porphyromonas gingivalis quantification from extracted DNA of blood and saliva samples performed by means of real-time polymerase chain reaction. The present result revealed that the quantity of salivary Porphyromonas gingivalis was significantly higher (p=0.003) in the patients’ group than in the controls group, while there was no significant difference in the number of bacteria in the blood samples between the two groups. Moreover, the number of bacteria in severe cases was higher than that in moderate and mild with no significant differences, and there was a significant increase in the number of bacteria among patients with poor oral hygiene compared to patients with good oral hygiene. This study demonstrated that the high level of salivary Porphyromonas gingivalis in patients increases in number with disease severity, which may indicate that bacterial infections contribute to the spread of the disease.
Interleukins (IL-2 and IL-4) are increased in asthmatics and were reported to induce resistance to steroid therapy in some patients who fail to get benefit from glucocorticoids when used in full dose and for long period of time. In this context, the present study was conducted on Iraqi patients to provide additional laboratory mean, beside the clinical diagnosis, for the decision whether the asthma is steroid sensitive or resistant by monitoring the level of immunoglobulins, complement proteins and interleukins among asthmatic patients (steroid sensitive or resistant) and the possible contribution of other factors like age, sex and environments in the development of steroid resistance. A total number of 55 asthmatics and 28 normal subjec
... Show MoreThis study was conducted in Diyala province for renal failure patients during the periods August 2015 - April 2016. Hundred renal failure patients were enrolled in the study after diagnosis by the consultant physician at Ibn-Sina Center for Dialysis in Baquba Teaching Hospital according to criteria adopted by the World Health Organization for diagnosis of renal failure disease. The number of males in patient’s sample was 61 (61%) and females was 39 (39%) with an age range of 10 – 88 year (44.7 ± 22.1 year). In addition, the study included 50 apparently healthy individuals and considered as a group control, in which the number of males and females was similar (25 individual), with an age range of 18 – 88 year (51.7 ± 17.3 year). The
... Show MoreA robust and sensitive analytical method is presented for the extraction and determination of six pharmaceuticals in freshwater sediments.
Elevated Interleukin-13 (IL-13) may play an important role in the pathophysiology of COVID-19, yet, the attenuated response did not notice across all severe cases. Susceptibility to asthma in specific populations is associated with several SNPs of multifunctional cytokines, such as IL-13, IL-31 and IL-33. This prospective case-control study is designed to investigate the extent of genetic susceptibility in subsets of Iraqi patients with COVID-19 by targeting the variants of interleukin IL-13rs20541 polymorphism in relation to disease susceptibility and severity of clinical presentation. One hundred samples were obtained from the throat, nasopharyngeal and nasal swabs enrolled in this study. Eighty samples of the throat, nasopharyngeal and
... Show MoreThis study was done at Al-Balad City Hospital on 60 diabetic patients (25 male and 35 female). The study included Fasting Blood Sugar and fungal diagnosis (systemic and superficial fungus). The results showed that the high concentration of blood sugar belonged to the group > 70 years among the diabetic patients with high significant differences in comparison with other groups P<0.001 . The result showed that percentage of female systemic fungus infection was higher than male systemic fungus infection ( female 63% and male 24%) and vice versa about superficial fungus infection (female 37% and male 76%) . Data showed that the percentage of nail fungus infection among female diabetic patients was higher than the percentage of male diabetic p
... Show MoreThe study aimed to evaluate the benefits of transferrin saturation percentage (TSAT) and serum ferritin in assessing body iron status, which can influence erythropoietin treatment in patients with ESRD. Forty end-stage renal disease patients on regular hemodialysis participated in this study. Clinical data were obtained. Serum iron, total iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation, ferritin, albumin, creatinine, and C-reactive protein were investigated. Thirty healthy people were enrolled as a control group. ESRD patients had a mean age of 45.1±13.9 years, with 60% being males. They exhibited significantly lower hematocrit (25.3±6.5%), and higher platelet (285.7±148.1x10^9/L) and WBC (9.4±3.1x10^9/L) counts compared to healthy contro
... Show MoreRheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease its etiology is unknown. The classical autoimmune diseases, have adaptive immune genetic associations with autoantibodies and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), diabetes mellitus type two (DM II). Serum of99 males suffering from RA without DMII as group (G1), 45 males suffering from RA with DM II as group (G2) and 40 healthy males as group (G3) were enrolled in this study to estimation of alkaline phosphates (ALP), C-reactive protein (CRP) and Pentraxin-3(PTX). Results showed a highly significant increase in PTX3 levels in G1 and G2 compared to G3 and a significant decrease in G1comparing to G2. Results also revealed a significa
... Show MoreRenal transplantation is a principal treatment option for end-stage kidney failure. Bone loss and fracture are serious complication of kidney transplantation, associated with morbidity and mortality. The pathogenesis of post transplantation bone loss is multifactorial and complex
Background: Colorectal cancer, the most common gastrointestinal cancer, is a significant health issue globally. Mucin 16 plays a critical role in cancer signal transduction pathways and is a potential glycoprotein target for cancer therapy. The miRNA-200 family also regulates the expression of numerous genes that play vital roles in cancer cells. This study aimed to investigate the changes in mucin 16 and miRNA-200a in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Subjects and Methods: Fifty-six patients with CRC, including 26 in stage 3 and 30 in stage 4, were included in this study, along with 38 healthy volunteers as a control group. Parameters such as mucin 16, miRNA-200a, total protein, albumin, globulin, and the albumin/globulin rati
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