Background and objectives Uropathogenic E.coli (UPEC) are major causative agents of urinary tract infection (UTIs), they often possess strong biofilm-forming abilities, and capable of resisting many antibiotics, making catheter associated UTIs (CAUTIs) difficult to treat. Essential oils such as tea tree oil (TTO) have emerged as natural alternatives to antibiotics. This study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial, adhesion, and biofilm-forming efficacy of TTO against UPEC, while analyzing its effect on the gene expression of csgA gene and determining its cytotoxicity. Methods Four UPEC isolates collected from different UTIs patients from Baghdad Province. The Antibacterial activity of TTO evaluated using agar wells diffusion assay and micro dilution using resazurin. Anti-adhesion and anti-biofilm were assessed using silicon Foley catheters. The csgA encode to curli fibers determined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gene expression measured using qPCR. Cytotoxicity of TTO measured against renal carcinoma (A498) and normal fibroblast (HdFn) cell lines via MTT assay. Results TTO inhibited UPEC with inhibition zone diameter of 12–25 mm (p < 0.0001) and MIC value was 0.25%. In Foley catheter model, the concentrated TTO reduced adhesion and biofilm formation (p < 0.0001). csgA harbored within all subjected isolates. Real time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) revealed significant (p < 0.0001) upregulation within susceptible isolates (2.2) fold change. Cytotoxicity via MTT assay reveled selective activity of TTO on (A498, IC50= 265.8 µg/mL) over (HdFn, IC50 = 852.5 µg/mL; p < 0.0001). Conclusion TTO demonstrated potential antibacterial, anti-adhesion and anti-biofilm activity against UPEC along with modulations of csgA gene expression and selective cytotoxicity
Stress is an inevitable part of life. Stress occurs when stressful events of self, environmental, or social origin affect the individual's resilience and threaten to collapse his psychological and physical systems. The stress represents difficulties and obstacles that may exceed the individual's ability to bear them and deal with them, which causes him stress and causes negative effects on his psychological and physical health. Therefore, the current research aimed to identify the negative effects of psychological stress on the psychological and physical health of the individual through the literature that dealt with this topic. It was among the results of the research that one of the negative effects of stresses on mental health is the
... Show MoreAdversity and psychosocial stress are involved in aging through the following pathways. psychological stress enhances the nerve system to secrete endocrine mediators (hormones). Mitochondrial respiration mediates energy production stimulated by binding to these hormones to their receptors. Energy produced by mitochondria accelerates metabolism and, in its turn, leads to increases in reactive oxygen species (ROS) of free radicals. Cellular stress and accumulation of damage can result from an excess of ROS. Accumulation of damage comprises damages in telomeric and nontelomeric DNA, in addition to mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA damage plays an important role in increasing the pathway of p53/p21. The expression of the PGC-1α gene is inhi
... Show MoreFree radicals are small extremely reactive species that have unpaired electrons. Free radicals include subgroups of reactive species, which are all a product of regular cellular metabolism. Oxidative stress happens when the free radicals production exceeds the capacity of the antioxidant system in the body’s cells.
The current review clarifies the prospective role of antioxidants in the inhibition and healing of diseases.
Information on oxidative stress, free radicals, reactive oxidant species, and natural and synthetic antioxidants was obta
In this study, the induced splined shaft teeth contact and bending stresses have been investigated numerically using finite element method(Ansys package version 11.0) with changing the most effecting design parameter,(pressure angle, teeth number, fillet radius and normal module), for internal and external splined shaft. Experimental work has been achieved using two dimensional photoelastic techniques to get the contact and bending stresses; the used material is Bakelite sheet type “PSM-4”.
The results of numerical stress analysis indicate that, the increasing of the pressure angle and fillet radius decrease the bending stress and increase the contact stress for both internal and external spline shaft teeth while the increasing of
Background: EBV infection in tissue micro-environment is challenged by the precisely regulated survivaland apoptosis mechanisms. Abnormal bcl-2 proto-oncogene expression in colonic carcinomas allowsaccumulation and propagation of these genetically altered cells.Objective: To analyze the relevant concordance of BCL-2 gene , EBNA1 s and LMP-1-EBV expression inissues from a group of Iraqi patients with colonic adenocarcinomas.Patients and Methods: One hundred (100) tissue biopsies, belonged to (40) patients with colorectalcancers, (40) patients with benign colon tumors, and (20) apparently normal colorectal control tissues,were enrolled in this study. The detection of EBNA1 s and LMP-1-EBV as well as BCL-2 was done byimmunohistochemist
... Show MoreThe phytoremediation technique has become very efficient for treating soil contaminated with heavy metals. In this study, a pot experiment was conducted where the Dodonaea plant (known as hops) was grown, and soil previously contaminated with metals (Zn, Ni, Cd) was added at concentrations 100, 50, 0 mg·kg-1 for Ni and Zn, and at concentrations of 0, 5, 10 mg·kg-1 for cadmium. Irrigation was done within the limits of the field capacity of the soil. Cadmium, nickel and zinc was estimated in the soil to find out the capacity of plants to the absorption of heavy and contaminated metals by using bioconcentration factors (BCFs), bioaccumulation coefficient (BAC) and translocation factor (TF). Additionally, BCF values of both Ni and Zn were l
... Show MoreWater scarcity is one of the most important problems facing humanity in various fields such as economics, industry, agriculture, and tourism. This may push people to use low-quality water like industrial-wastewater. The application of some chemical compounds to get rid of heavy metals such as cadmium is an environmentally harmful approach. It is well-known that heavy metals as cadmium may induce harmful problems when present in water and invade to soil, plants and food chain of a human being. In this case, man will be forced to use the low quality water in irrigation. Application of natural materials instead of chemicals to remove cadmium from polluted water is an environmental friendly approach. Attention was drawn in this research wor
... Show MoreEnhancing quality image fusion was proposed using new algorithms in auto-focus image fusion. The first algorithm is based on determining the standard deviation to combine two images. The second algorithm concentrates on the contrast at edge points and correlation method as the criteria parameter for the resulted image quality. This algorithm considers three blocks with different sizes at the homogenous region and moves it 10 pixels within the same homogenous region. These blocks examine the statistical properties of the block and decide automatically the next step. The resulted combined image is better in the contras
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