Background: Klebsiella pneumoniae shows varying degrees of resistance to antibiotic treatment; this resistance arises from multiple mechanisms, including the increased expression of multidrug (MDR) efflux pumps. An efflux pump inhibitor (EPI) is required to overcome this challenge and restore the effectiveness of antibiotics against the present MDR K. pneumoniae. Objective: To investigate the synergistic effect of the EPI Phenylalanine-Arginine β-Naphthylamide (PaβN) and Ciprofloxacin (CIP) on the expression of efflux pump genes AcrAB-TolC, isolated from CIP-resistant K. pneumoniae. Methods: 50 isolates of K. pneumoniae were collected from five different hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were determined for the CIP and CIP and PaßN combination using the broth micro-dilution method conducted on ten isolates resistant to CIP. Moreover, the expression level of AcrA, AcrB, and TolC genes from four selected isolates of K. pneumoniae were measured using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: K. pneumoniae isolates showed that 40/50 (80%) were multidrug-resistant, and 54% of isolates were resistant to CIP. The MIC was reduced significantly from 2–8-fold in the isolates treated with PaβN and CIP compared to the CIP-treated group. The gene expression levels varied among the four selected isolates, with a slight decrease in AcrAB-TolC gene expression in some isolates treated with the CIP and PaβN combination compared to those treated with CIP alone. Conclusions: The promising finding is the effectiveness of synergistic combinations between the antibiotic and efflux pump inhibitors in eliminating resistance of MDR bacteria.
This study was focused on biotreatment of soil which polluted by petroleum compounds (Diesel) which caused serious environmental problems. One of the most effective and promising ways to treat diesel-contaminated soil is bioremediation. It is a choice that offers the potential to destroy harmful pollutants using biological activity. Four bacterial strains were isolated from diesel contaminated soil samples. The isolates were identified by the Vitek 2 system, as Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Pentoae species, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterobacter cloacae. The potential of biological surfactant production was tested using the Sigma 703D stand-alone tensiometer showed that these isolates are biological surfactant producers. The bet
... Show MoreThe importance of this study stems from the importance of preserving the environment and creating a clean sustainable environment from waste and emissions and all the operations of industrial companies in general and cement companies in particular by activating sustainability accounting standards. The research aims to identify and diagnose deviations in violation of sustainability standards by employing the non-renewable resources standard (NR0401) For the construction industries to create a sustainable audit environment, the deductive approach was followed in the theoretical side and the inductive and descriptive approach to the practical side. The most important results of the research were the possibility of applying sustainab
... Show MoreIonic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been found to be highly effective as electrolytes in TiO2 NTAs-graphite cells when combined with additives that enhance conductivity by reducing the viscosity of these liquids. The presence of CaCl2.6H2O: Acetamide DES with DI water as an additive resulted in a cell voltage of 1.31V and an internal resistance of 19 ohm. This can be attributed to the concentration and quality of the ionic species. The cells exhibited an interesting response to the AlCl3-chloroacetamide IL with dichloromethane DCM as an additive, with a cell voltage of 1.81V and an internal resistance of 5.0 ohm. Once again, this is influenced by the quality and concentration of the ionic species. Furthermore,
... Show MoreThe aim of this paper is to demonstrate the effect of Na2[Fe(CN)5.NO].2H2O impurity (0.1 M) concentration on the dielectrical properties of poly (P-Aminobenzaldehyde) terminated by pheneylenediamine in the frequency and temperature ranges (1-100)KHz and (283-348) K respectively.These properties include dissipation factor, series and parallel resistance, series and parallel capacitance, real and imaginary part of the dielectric constant, a.c conductivity and impedance (real and imaginary) part, that have been deduced from equivalent circuit. The investigation shows that adding Na2[Fe(CN)5.NO].2H2O as additive to the polymer lead to increase of the dielectric constant with increasing temperature and it is decreasing with increasing the freq
... Show MoreThe study investigates the possibility of utilizing public interactive sculptures to enhance physical activity in Saudi Arabia. The paper uses a descriptive-analytical methodology to identify the characteristics of interactive sculptures promoting physical activity in public areas as follows: The size and space of the work area are appropriate to the type of physical activity that is achieved, and the importance of the work site in the city and its relation to the surrounding space, identifying participants at the same time and their relationship to ensure safe interaction, as well as the relationship between the esthetic and intellectual concept of working in the community. The study concludes that three technical proposals were present
... Show MoreBackground: It's believed that HBD-3 is involved in the tissue remodeling process of articular cartilage. Also, HBD-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assay human beta-defensine-3 (HBD-3) in serum from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and investigate its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: In this case-control study, fifty-eight RA patients were aged 20–65 years, and 29 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) had no inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The disease activity score-28 joint erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) was used to measure RA activity. CRP, ACPA, HBD-3, TNF-α, and IL-1β were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA). Res
... Show MoreThe matter of handwritten text recognition is as yet a major challenge to mainstream researchers. A few ways deal with this challenge have been endeavored in the most recent years, for the most part concentrating on the English pre-printed or handwritten characters space. Consequently, the need to effort a research concerning to Arabic texts handwritten recognition. The Arabic handwriting presents unique technical difficulties because it is cursive, right to left in writing and the letters convert its shapes and structures when it is putted at initial, middle, isolation or at the end of words. In this study, the Arabic text recognition is developed and designed to recognize image of Arabic text/characters. The proposed model gets a single l
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