Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and systemic autoimmune disease that is characterized by severe synovial inflammation, cartilage erosion, bone loss, and generalized vasculopathy. Although the immunologic mechanism of RA is still unclear, it is now thought to be a primarily Th17-driven disease. Along with other factors, IL-23 stimulates the expansion of Th17 cells from naive CD4+ T cells.

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-23 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and determine the correlation between plasma/serum IL-23 levels and disease activity. So, we performed a systematic review with meta-analysis comparing

Abstract

The present study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and experience of off-label prescribing practice among physicians in Baghdad city hospitals. This cross-sectional study was performed through the period from November 1^st 2018 to March 2019 at 17 hospitals, a self-administered questionnaire was utilized to collect data from the physicians, and the targeted hospitals were randomly selected at different regions in Baghdad City area. Out of the 400 distributed questionnaires to the physicians, 383 of them were returned completed, 57.2% indicated that they were reasonably familiar with the term “off label drug”, 57.7% mentioned that the most common medical reasons for the prescribing o

Background: Occupational exposure to hazardous drugs occurs in all aspects of anticancer drug handling. Proper recommendations and guidelines should be applied to control and reduce exposure. Objective: To assess pharmacists' knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of anticancer drugs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at seven major hospitals in Baghdad City, Iraq, from December 2023 to February 2024. A pre-designed questionnaire was given to pharmacists who handled anticancer drugs in chemotherapy units. The questionnaire comprises sociodemographic data, knowledge of the safe handling of cytotoxic drugs and thoughts about exposure and risk, practices for safely handling cytotoxic drugs, and challenges for s

Genetic polymorphisms of genes whose products are responsible for activities, such as xenobiotic metabolism, mutagen detoxification and DNA-repair, have been predicted to be associated with the risk of developing lung cancer (LC). The association of LC with tobacco smoking has been extensively investigated, but no studies have focused on the Arab ethnic- ity. Previously, we examined the association between genetic polymorphisms among Phase I and Phase II metabolism genes and the risk of LC. Here, we extend the data by examining the correlation of OGG1 Ser326Cys combined with CYP1A1 (Ile462Val and MspI) and GSTP1 (Ile105Val and Ala103Val) polymorphisms with the risk of LC. Polymerase chain reaction- restriction fragment length polymorphism (

Situational regret and its relation to the vitality of conscience among university students The research seeks to identify situational regret and its relation to the vitality of conscience among university students, identify the significant differences in regard with students’ gender, and identify if there is a correlation between situational regret and the vitality of conscience. To do this, two scales were adopted; one to measure situational regret consisted of (31) items, which was designed by (Al-badrani, 2006), besides, costa and macrys’ (1992) scale that translated in Arabic language by (Al-qaisy, 2013). It composed of (35) items. Total of (120) male and female students were collected from three-different colleges (science, art

Background: This study aims to determine whether cigarette smoking and anxiety degrees are related among nurses. Methods: A correlation design study was conducted at Baquba Teaching Hospital in Diyala Governorate, and the study period extended from September 10th, 2023, to January 28th, 2024. A nonprobability purposive sample was used to include 200 nurses working at Baquba Teaching Hospital, Iraq. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from January 10th to February 7th, 2024. There were two components to the study instruments. Initially, the demographic sheet contained the individuals' sociodemographic data. The Taylor manifest anxiety scale is included in the second section. The collected data were analyzed us

BACKGROUND: Sickle cell nephropathy, a heterogeneous group of renal abnormalities resulting from complex interactions of sickle cell disease (SCD)-related factors and non-SCD phenotype characteristics, is associated with an increased risk for morbidity and mortality. AIMS: The aims of this study were to determine the frequency of microalbuminuria (MA) among pediatric patients with SCD and to determine risk factors for MA among those patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A case–control study was carried out on 120 patients with SCD, 2–18 years old, registered at Basrah Center for Hereditary Blood Diseases, and 132 age-and sex-matched healthy children were included as a control group. Investigations included complete blood panel, blood urea, se

        Environmental risk growing Become challenge "and a matter of controversy and concern to many of those concerned with environment, social, economic, and the same happens with the administrative rather than in isolation for this movement, as the issues of climate change Disturbed and troubled him, especially after what caused the risk of destruction, and irresponsibility , chaos, and the futility of resources, crops, fields,  nature and homes and reactors, and after what happened in Japan from the scourge of "Hurricane tsunami " and earthquakes successive accompanied him and what became of him by surprise catastrophic affected the economy and the univ

In the present study, five derivatives have been designed to be synthesized as possible mutual prodrugs for 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) and non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to selectively deliver the drugs into the cancer cells. The synthesis of the target compounds were accomplished following multistep reaction procedures, the chemical reaction followed up and the purity of the products were checked by TLC. The structure of the final compounds and their intermediates were confirmed by their melting points, infrared spectroscopy and elemental microanalysis, the hydrolysis of compound III was studied using HPLC technique. According to the results mentioned above, compounds (I−V) can be good candidates as possible mutual prod