Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging zoonotic disease caused by the new respiratory virus SARS-CoV2. It has a tropism in the lung tissues where excess target receptors exist. Periostin plays a role in subepithelial fibrosis associated with bronchial asthma. Since the Coronavirus's target is the human respiratory system, Periostin has been recently described as a valuable new biomarker in the diagnosis and evaluation of disease in patients with COVID-19 lung involvement. Objectives: To assess the level of Periostin in the serum of COVID-19 patients and to correlate its role in disease severity and prognosis. Subjects and Methods: Periostin serum levels were measured for 63 patients attending three main COVID-19 Control Centers in Baghdad, compared to 25 healthy subjects, using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) from January 2021 to April 2022. Results: Serum levels of Periostin among studied groups with (mild - moderate, severe - critical, post-COVID, and controls) were (17.3, 664, 597, and 48) ng/dl respectively. The serum concentration of Periostin was highly significant in (severe- critical and post-COVID) than in other groups. Conclusions: The elevated level of serum Periostin in COVID-19 patients correlated with disease severity and post-COVID lung complications. The high Periostin level is consistent with high inflammatory markers, which might be used as an indicator of COVID-19 severity and predict a bad prognosis.
Several toxigenic cyanobacteria produce the cyanotoxin (microcystin). Being a health and environmental hazard, screening of water sources for the presence of microcystin is increasingly becoming a recommended environmental procedure in many countries of the world. This study was conducted to assess the ability of freshwater cyanobacterial species Westiellopsis prolifica to produce microcystins in Iraqi freshwaters via using molecular and immunological tools. The toxigenicity of W. prolifica was compared via laboratory experiments with other dominant bloom-forming cyanobacteria isolated from the Tigris River: Microcystis aeruginosa, Chroococcus turigidus, Nostoc carneum, and Lyngbya sp. signifi
... Show MorePeriodontitis is a dysbiosis-driven inflammatory disease in which a pathogenic subgingival biofilm disrupts the host–microbe equilibrium and promotes progressive loss of tooth-supporting tissues. While periodontal destruction has traditionally been explained mainly through the host immune response, increasing experimental and clinical evidence suggests that epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT)-like changes in the gingival epithelium may contribute to barrier failure and tissue remodeling during disease progression. EMT is characterized by reduced epithelial adhesion and polarity, alongside a shift toward a mesenchymal-like phenotype with enhanced motility and impaired epithelial barrier function. This narrative review focuses
... Show MoreSome genetic factors are not only involved in some autoimmune diseases but also interfere with their treatment, Such as Crohn's disease (CD), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and psoriasis (PS). Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) is a most important pro-inflammatory cytokine, which has been recognized as a main factor that participates in the pathogenesis and development of autoimmune disorders. Therefore, TNF could be a prospective target for treating these disorders, and many anti-TNF were developed to treat these disorders. Although the high efficacy of many anti-TNF biologic medications, the Patients' clinical responses to the autoimmune treatment showed significant heterogeneity. Two types of TNF receptor (TNFR); 1 an
... Show MorePharmaceuticals have been widely remaining contaminants in wastewater, and diclofenac is the most common pharmaceutical pollutant. Therefore, the removal of diclofenac from aqueous solutions using activated carbon produced by pyrocarbonic acid and microwaves was investigated in this research. Apricot seed powder and pyrophosphoric acid (45 wt%) were selected as raw material and activator respectively, and microwave irradiation technique was used to prepare the activated carbon. The raw material was impregnated in pyrophosphoric acid at 80◦C with an impregnation ratio of 1: 3 (apricot seeds to phosphoric acid), the impregnation time was 4 h, whereas the power of the microwave was 700 watts with a radiation time of 20 min. A series o
... Show MoreSpectrophotometric method was developed for the determination of copper(II) ion. Synthesized (2,2[O-Tolidine-4,4-bis azo]bis[4,5-diphenyl imidazole]) (MBBAI) was used as chromogenic reagent at pH=5. Various factors affecting complex formation, such as, pH effect, reagent concentration, time effect and temperature effect, have been considered and studied. Under optimum conditions concentration ranged from (5.00-80.00) µg/mL of copper(II) obeyed Beer`s Low. Maximum absorption of the complex was 409nm with molar absorpitivity 0.127x104 L mol-1 cm-1. Limit of detection(LOD) and Limit of quantification were 1.924 and 6.42 μg/mL, respectively.
... Show MoreAlpha shape theory for 3D visualization and volumetric measurement of brain tumor progression using magnetic resonance images
In this work, a vertical pulsating heat pipe heat exchanger (PHPHE) was designed for waste heat recovery, exchanging thermal energy between two air streams in a counterflow configuration. The heat exchanger consists of six rows, each row consists of one pulsating heat pipe (PHP), and each PHP has six turns. The working fluid used in the heat pipe was acetone with fill ratios of 50%, 60%, and 70%. The effect of evaporator inlet temperature at 40, 45, and 50°C and air velocity at 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 m/s on the pulsating heat pipes consisting of three sections- evaporator, condenser, and adiabatic, whose dimensions were 25 x 25 x 10 cm, was studied. At the same time, the condenser temperature was maintained at 26°C. The system’s th
... Show MoreCorrosion of steel reinforcement is one of the biggest problems facing all countries in the world like bridges in the beach area and marine constructions which lead to study these problems and apply some economical solutions. According to the high cost of repair for these constructions, were studied the effect of using kind of chemical compounds sodium nitrite(NaNO2) and sodium silicate(Na2SiO3) as corrosion inhibitors admixture for steel bars that immersed partially in electrolyte solution (water + sodium chloride in 3% conc.) (Approximately similar to the concentration of salt in sea water). The two inhibitors above added each one to the electrolyte solution at concentrations (0.5%, 1% and 2%) for both
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