Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative aging disease, with idiopathic PD being most common. Gastrointestinal tract disorders (GITD) and microbiota changes may trigger idiopathic PD. Neurotoxins from microbiota can travel from the gut to the brain via the brain-gut axis (BGA), leading to α-syn protein misfolding and dopaminergic neuron death. Methods: The aim of the current study was to investigate the link between PD and GITD by measuring several biochemical and immunological markers in 142 patients. The biochemical markers measured were vitamins B6, B12, and D, calcium, serotonin, ghrelin, dopamine, and α-syn protein. The immunological markers included transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). All markers were measured using the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique. Results: PD patients were significantly older (63.76±12.29 years) compared to GITD and control groups (41.00±15.54 and 41.25±18.30 years, respectively). Males predominated in the PD group (74.5%), while females were more common in the GITD and control groups. PD and GITD patients showed significantly lower levels of vitamins and neurotransmitters but higher calcium and α synuclein compared to controls. Immunological markers were elevated in PD and GITD groups, with significant differences between them (P-value < 0.001). Conclusion: The study concluded that certain biochemical and immunological markers provide strong evidence of the brain-gut axis's involvement in the initiation of idiopathic Parkinson's disease.
Ethinylestradiol is widely used in oral contraceptive formulations and also for the treatment of various sexual and metabolic disorders. It is not only a genotoxic agent but also a tumor initiating agent. In the present study, the modulatory effect of aqueous extract of date pits was evaluated against the genotoxic effect induced by ethinylestradiol on human lymphocytes using chromosomal aberrations (CA), blast index (BI), mitotic index (MI), sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) and replication index (RI) as parameters. The date pits extract was evaluated at 1.075x10-4, 2.125x10-4, 3.15x10-4 and 4.17x10-4 g/ml along with 10 μM of ethinylestradiol in culture medium. The results showed a significant dose-dependent decrease in the frequency of
... Show MoreThe (CTLA-4) encodes of the T cell receptor involved in the control of T cell
proliferation and mediates T cell apoptosis. The contribution of CTLA-4 gene
variants to type 1 diabetes has been analyzed in several ethnic groups. In this study,
the association of CTLA-4 +49 A/G polymorphism with type 1 diabetes was
investigated in Egyptian patients. Sixty type 1 diabetic patients (25 males and 35
females) and 60 healthy individuals (33 males and 27 females) subjects formed the
studied populations. CTLA-4 A/G polymorphism at position 49 in exon 1 was
identified using allele specific methods. Patient numbers with A/G, A/A and G/G
genotypes were 45 (75.0 %), 6 (10.0 %) and 9 (15.0%) while in healthy controls,
these w
Mushrooms have bioactive compounds that have antimicrobial, anti-cancer and antioxidant activities among other medicinal benefits. In the present study, we examined the anti-cell proliferation activities of mushrooms from eight genera obtained from the wild in Nigeria. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as a model organism to screen mushroom extracts for anti-cell proliferation activity. Polyphenols, high molecular weight polysaccharides and low molecular weight compounds from aqueous extracts were obtained from the test mushrooms using methanol and water respectively. The extracts were screened in vitro at different concentrations of extracts with the CyQuant cell proliferation assay. The high molecular
... Show MoreThe electrical resistivity method is one of the geophysical methods for detecting weak subsurface zone. The 2D resistivity data were used to compare three electrode configurations, Wenner, Dipole-dipole, and Schlumberger, to detect weak subsurface zones along a profile south of Baghdad near the Bismayah pumping station. The results show many zones of low resistivity that may be weak zones. A dipole-dipole array is a large number of measurements and is more sensitive than others. The Wenner-Schlumberger array has a depth also higher than other arrays. Wenner array has higher signal strength than other arrays. Because it is more sensitive to horizontal and vertical structures, the dipole-dipole array is the optimum for mapping sub
... Show MoreIn this article the peristaltic transport of viscoelastic fluid through irregular microchannel under the effect of Hall current, varying viscosity and porous medium is investigated. The mathematical expressions for the basic flow equations of motion are formulated and transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations by utilizing appropriate non dimensional quantities. The exact solution for the temperature distribution is obtained, while perturbation series solution for the stream function in terms of tiny viscosity parameter is used. Graphical illustrations are presented to capture the physical impact of embedded parameters in the fluid flow i.e. the fluid velocity field, temperature distribution, pressure rise, and
... Show MoreThe effects of T-shaped fins on the improvement of phase change materials (PCM) melting are numerically investigated in vertical triple-tube storage containment. The PCM is held in the middle pipe of a triple-pipe heat exchanger while the heat transfer fluid flows through the internal and external pipes. The dimension effects of the T-shaped fins on the melting process of the PCM are investigated to determine the optimum case. Results indicate that while using T-shaped fins improves the melting performance of the PCM, the improvement potential is mainly governed by the fin’s body rather than the head. Hence, the proposed T-shaped fin did not noticeably improve melting at the bottom of the PCM domain; additionally, a flat fin is ad
... Show MoreThe intelligent buildings provided various incentives to get highly inefficient energy-saving caused by the non-stationary building environments. In the presence of such dynamic excitation with higher levels of nonlinearity and coupling effect of temperature and humidity, the HVAC system transitions from underdamped to overdamped indoor conditions. This led to the promotion of highly inefficient energy use and fluctuating indoor thermal comfort. To address these concerns, this study develops a novel framework based on deep clustering of lagrangian trajectories for multi-task learning (DCLTML) and adding a pre-cooling coil in the air handling unit (AHU) to alleviate a coupling issue. The proposed DCLTML exhibits great overall control and is
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