Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a devious pathogen with the tendency to prompt many acute and serious chronic diseases. This study aims to detect novel genes (Toxins-Antitoxins II system), especially; higB and higA encoded from P. aeruginosa by PCR technique and the relation between these genes and antibiotic resistance of P. aeruginosa. Methods: This study detected 50 isolates of P. aeruginosa from distinct clinical sources. The most common origin of isolates was (44%) burn swabs, (22%) urine culture, (12%) wound swabs, (14%) sputum, and (8%) ear swabs. The bacteria were isolated using implantation MacConkey agar and blood agar, as well as biochemical tests including oxidase test, catalase test then VITEK-2 System of P. aerug

  Introduction and Aim: Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides that have bactericidal and/or bacteriostatic activity against other bacteria. The aim of this study was to assess the antibacterial efficiency of Klebocin a K. pneumoniae bacteriocin, against biofilm formation by clinical isolates of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus MRSA.   Materials and Methods: S. aureus isolated from clinical samples was identified according to vitek 2 system Antibiotic susceptibility test was performed according to disc diffusion method. Vitek 2 compact system was also used to detect MRSA strains. Agar well diffusion method was used to evaluate the antibacterial activity of klebocin from K. pneumoniae towards 11 strains of S. aureus by

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurodegenerative autoimmune disease mediated by autoreactive T cells against myelin-basic proteins. Cytokines are suggested to play a role in the etiopathogenesis of the disease. Among these cytokines is interleukin-2 (IL-2). Aim of the study: To investigate the association between IL2+166 G/T single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP: rs2069763) and MS in Iraqi patients. Serum level of IL-2 was also detected. Anti-rubella IgG antibody was further determined in the sera of patients. Patients and methods: Eighty MS patients (28 males and 52 females; age mean ± SD: 39.2 ± 16.1 years) and 80 healthy control matched patients for age (32.15 ± 16.13 years) and gender (28 males and 52 females) were en

Serine Palmitoyltransferase SPT is the key enzyme in the de novo sphingolipids biosynthesis pathway in eukaryotes, including the intracellular parasite Leishmania. Previous studies showed that this enzyme SPT is expressed only in divided promastigote forms and it is non-essential in the amastigotes form of Leishmania major, which is known as the old world leishmaniasis. In this study we have studied the viability of new world lesihamniasis, Leishmania mexicana. Cytotoxicity test used to determine the effect of the SPT inhibitor myriocin which did not significantly affect the viability of the two forms of the in vitro cultures of the parasite p<0.05, procyclic promastigotes and amastigotes, in which cell viability for miltefosine trea

Background: The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) relates to the torch virus family and is believed to have a substantial impact on mortality and perinatal events, as shown by epidemiological and viral studies. Moreover, there have been documented cases of EBV transmission occurring via the placenta. Nevertheless, the specific location of the EBV infection inside the placenta remains uncertain. Methods: The genomic sequences connected to the latent EBV gene and the levels of lytic EBV gene expression in placental chorionic villous cells are examined in this work. A total of 86 placentas from patients who had miscarriage and 54 placentas from individuals who had successful births were obtained for analysis. Results: The research employed QPCR to dete

In accordance with epidemic COVID-19, the elevated infection rates, disinfectant overuse and antibiotic misuse what led to immune suppression in most of the population in addition to genotypic and phenotypic alterations in the microorganisms, so a great need to reevaluate the genetic determinants that responsible for bacterial community (biofilm) has been raised. A total of 250 clinical specimens were obtained from patients in Baghdad hospitals and streaked on Mannitol salt agar medium. The results revealed that 156 isolates appeared as round yellow colonies, indicating that they were mostly identified as Staphylococcus aureus from 250 specimens. The antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates for methicillin 37.17% (n=58), Amoxic

Infertilityis oneuof the most problemsathatufacingaadvancedunations. In the general, about halfof allacasesaof the infertility are causedby factors thaturelated toathe male partner. Propos educausesvofumalev infertility include evgeneticuand environmental factors. Blood samples from 64 infertileumen allawere living in urban its al-Fallujah city (30 azospermeiauand 34 oligospermeia) and 32 fertile men (asuthe control group) were collected. Heavy metal concentrations inusera of infertile and fertile groupswereumeasured by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Y- chromosomemicrodeletions were detected by using PCR techniques. Significantdifferences (P?0.05)uin the concentration ofucopper (0.0267±0.0147 and 0.0278±0.0273, for inf

G. tuberculosa is a newly recorded species from the Caryophyllaceae family for Iraqi flora, collected from the Arbil district from May to August. Morphological descriptions with macro and micro features illustrated with plates and dimensions, the species is related to G. pallida and distinguished from calyx properties, especially the presence of large prominent druses crystals. Keywords: Caryophyllaceae, Gypsophila, Iraq, New record, pallida.

In this study, the ethanolic extracts of Moringa peregrinaseeds (MPSE) were evaluated for their antiparasitic, insecticidal, herbicidal, anti-leukemic, and anti-pancreatic lipase activities. The MPSE showed moderate antileishmanial activity against Leishmania major with an IC50 of 71.7±0.46 μg/mL, compared to 10±0.05 μg/mL and 4±0.05 μg/mL for pentamidine and amphotericin B, respectively. The extract demonstrated moderate insecticidal activity with 41% mortality in Rhyzopertha dominicaand 15.7% in Tribolium castaneum. MPSE exhibitedpotent herbicidal activity against Lemna minorat 1000 μg/mL. Additionally, MPSE inhibited the proliferation of leukemia K562 cells with an IC50 of 25 μg/mL and porcine pancrea

In this paper, a robust invisible watermarking system for digital video encoded by MPEG-4 is presented. The proposed scheme provides watermark hidden by embedding a secret message (watermark) in the sprite area allocated in reference frame (I-frame). The proposed system consists of two main units: (i) Embedding unit and (ii) Extraction unit. In the embedding unit, the system allocates the sprite blocks using motion compensation information. The allocated sprite area in each I–frame is used as hosting area for embedding watermark data. In the extraction unit, the system extracts the watermark data in order to check authentication and ownership of the video. The watermark data embedding method is Blocks average modulation applied on RGB dom

In this study, a fast block matching search algorithm based on blocks' descriptors and multilevel blocks filtering is introduced. The used descriptors are the mean and a set of centralized low order moments. Hierarchal filtering and MAE similarity measure were adopted to nominate the best similar blocks lay within the pool of neighbor blocks. As next step to blocks nomination the similarity of the mean and moments is used to classify the nominated blocks and put them in one of three sub-pools, each one represents certain nomination priority level (i.e., most, less & least level). The main reason of the introducing nomination and classification steps is a significant reduction in the number of matching instances of the pixels belong to the c

Ultrasonic Extraction method followed by gradient HPLC was carried out for the simultaneous determination of four insecticides are [imidacloprid (Imi), thiamethoxam (Thi), indoxacarb (Ind) and abamectin (Aba)] used to combat the major insect pests in Iraq, whitefly, Dubas Bug, worms fruits as well as to combat the spiders – dream respectively in eco-soil samples. The extraction recovery was in the range of 99.77 to 109.1 %. The dissipation kinetics and residual levels of these insecticides in soil sample was studied under field ecosystem. The half-life of the mix insecticides was determined. The half-life was in range of 0.38 to 4.06 days with the soil samples were brought from the Agricultural Land called Nahrawan located in th

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of different doses of Duprost in the liver and blood of albino mice. The current study included twenty one albino mice, obtained and grouped into 3 groups: control (3 mice), acute group (12 mice) and chronic group (6 mice). The acute group was subdivided into 4 groups and each group of 3mice, was given a lonely oral dose of (0.25ml, 0.15ml, 0.1 ml and 0.05ml respectively) for 24 hours. Whereas the third group was subdivided into 2 groups and each set was given a daily dose of (0.15ml and 0.05 ml respectively) for 30 days. After the mentioned periods, blood samples from each animal were taken for blood analysis. Then, the mice of all groups were sacrificed and the livers were removed, pro

A case–control study (80 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus [HBV] infection and 96 controls) was performed to evaluate the association of an IL12A gene variant (rs582537 A/C/G) with HBV infection. Allele G showed a signifcantly lower frequency in patients compared to controls (31.2 vs. 46.9%; probability [p]=0.009; corrected p [pc]=0.027) and was associated with a lower risk of HBV infection (odds ratio [OR]=0.49; 95% confdence interval [CI]=0.29–0.83). A similar lower risk was associated with genotypes CG (17.5 vs. 29.2; OR=0.25; 95% CI=0.08–0.81; p=0.02) and GG (10.0 vs. 16.7; OR=0.25; 95% CI=0.07–0.91; p=0.036), but the pc value was not signifcant (0.12 and 0.126, respec‑ tively). Serum IL35 levels showed signifcant difere

One hundred and six S. aureus were isolated from 250 Nasal swabs of
Healthcare workers and patients at Al- Kadhamia teaching Hospital and Al-
Numan hospital, Baghdad, Iraq. The study was undertaken over a period of
ten months between August 2011 and June 2012. S. aureus isolates were
diagnosed based on phenotypic traits and biochemical tests. Antibiotics
sensitivity to 11 antibiotics, revealed that S.aureus is totally resistant to
Pencillin G (100%), highly resistant to Cefoxitin (alternative to Methicillin)
(94.3%) While there are varied resistance percentage for the rest of
antibiotics: Erythromycin (37.7%), Tetracycline (34.9%), Gentamicin
(29.3%), Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (50%), Ciprofloxacin (29.2%),<

The Leishmania donovani parasite causes visceral leishmaniasis (VL), an acute and fatal form of leishmaniasis. Because traditional therapy alternatives, such as glucantime and other pentavalent medicines, are toxic and have side effects, new treatments with fewer negative effects are needed. Only a handful of drugs are clinically beneficial to treatments of the disease, but considerable limitations threaten their very usage. Novel, safe, and efficient drugs, including those against antimalaria and leishmaniasis co-infections, are so essential. Artemether (ATM) is an Artemisinin derivative that has been demonstrated to be useful in the treatment of malaria and, more recently, leishmaniasis. The current research was carried out to evaluate th

Methotrexate (MTX), a folate antagonist agent, is mainly used in treatment of malignant tumors and autoimmune diseases. The present study was undertaken to determine whether antioxidant vitamin (vitamin A) could ameliorate methotrexate induced oxidative stress in male rabbits. Twenty male rabbits were randomly assigned into four groups. Group 1: control group, Group 2: MTX-treated group (received 20 mg/kg MTX intraperitoneally), Group 3: Vit.A treated group received 5000 IU Vit.A orally) and Group 4: MTX+Vit.A treated group received MTX 20 mg/kg plus 5000 IU vit.A). After 4 weeks of treatment, blood samples were collected by cardiac puncture to determine the serum malondialdehyde (MDA), as a good indicator for lipid peroxidation and

Pseudoephedrine (PSE), often known as Sudafed, belongs to a class of medications known as sympathomimetic amines, which affect the digestive system, respiratory system, and cardiovascular system. This drug has a long history of medical use; it is helpful in treating symptoms of the common cold and flu, sinusitis, asthma, and bronchitis. Due to its central nervous system (CNS) stimulant properties and structural similarity to amphe­tamine, it is also used for non-medical purposes such as doping agent, to increase focus, and as a substance that gets rid of exhaustion and drowsiness. Nevertheless only a few studies, backed up its impact on solid abdominal organs. The aim of this task is to investigate the effect of some dosages of PSE

Background: Cardiomyopathy (CM) is a cardiac muscle disorder that can lead to heart failure (HF). It has several phenotypes, including dilated, hypertrophic, and restricted. Pro-inflammatory cytokines play a crucial part in the development and advancement of CM. Objective: This study aimed to measure the concentration of certain cytokines [Interleukin- 1β (IL-1β), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF-α)] in the serum of Iraqi patients with CM. Materials and Methods: Sixty CM patients and 30 healthy individuals with age ranged from 40 to 70 years old were enrolled in this study through their presence at Iraqi Center for Heart Diseases, Ghazy Al-Hariri Hospital for Surgical Specialties in the Medical City in Baghdad. The st

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is a common human pathogen that causes severe infections in newborns and immunocompromised patients. Conjunctivitis or corneal epithelial keratitis is caused by HSV type 1 all over the world and at all times of the year. The present study was aimed at detecting HSV in patients suffering from conjunctivitis. One hundred and ten (110) clinical samples (90 patients and 20 controls, both males and females) of eye conjunctiva swabs were collected from patients of different ages. The samples were analyzed using qPCR and ELISA techniques. The qPCR results revealed that HSV was present in 47 (52.2%) of the 90 patients who were infected. Of these patients, 25 (48.0%) were males and 22 (57.8%) were females, indicati

Background: Common and persistent isolate ina the teeth following failed therapy of the root canal is the gram-positive facultative bacterium Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli, which develop biofilm through a complicated process that results in the formation of a biofilm. Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli are significant factors that cause chronic periradicular lesions after root canal therapy. Aim: This study aimed to treat the root canal tooth infected with Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis Methods: In this study biofilm formation was done for Escherichia coli in growth phase cultured in a brain heart broth Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli cultured in Luria-Bertani (LB) infusion medium for 18 hrs. Then