Q fever is an infectious disease of animals and humans, caused by globally distributed C. burnetii. In Iraq, there are no previous studies associated with the detection of the organism in cattle. An overall of 130 lactating cows were submitted to direct collection of milk samples. Initially, the samples of milk were tested using the molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay targeting three genes (16S rRNA, IS1111a transposase, and htpB). However, positive results (18.46%; 24/130) were detected only with the 16s rRNA gene. Concerning risk factors, the highest prevalence of C. burnetii was showed in the district of Badra (42.86%), whereas the lowest - in Al-Numaniyah and Al-Suwaira districts (P=0.025). There was no significant variation in positivity between the months of sampling period (P=0.082) and between age groups (P=0.076). Crossbred cows (20.69%) showed a higher positivity than local and pure breeds (P=0.043). Milk of positive samples (n=24) was used for cultivation of C. burnetii into specific pathogen free-embryonated chicken eggs (SPF-ECEs). After three passages into SPF-ECEs, contents of yolk sac were collected, subjected for DNA extraction, and re-tested by PCR assay using the primer of 16s rRNA gene only. Of 24 cultivated milk samples, 12.5% (3/24) were positive for C. burnetii. Finally, the positive local isolates were analysed phylogenetically and reported in NCBI-Genbank under the accession numbers of MN121700.1, MN121701.1, and MN121702.1. In conclusion, this is a unique study as it detected C. burnetii in Iraqi lactating cows, and confirmed that organism was shed actively through milk, suggesting that these animals can play a role as a reservoir for organism with potential risk for transmission of infection from these animals to humans as well as to other animal species.
Pregnancy and delivery are physiological conditions that are marked by abrupt alterations to hormones, immunological and molecular characters. The current study aimed to evaluate oxytocin (OT), prolactin (PRL), cortisol and insulin growth factor-2 (IGF-2) levels as physiological biomarkers; programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1), programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1),interleukin-6 (IL-6) as immunological biomarkers, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; rs53576 and rs2254298) of oxytocin receptor gene OXTR as molecular factors in samples of Iraqi women undergoing caesarean section (CS) and normal delivery (ND). Blood samples were collected from 96 pregnant women at term with ages ranging between 16-43 years. Regarding
... Show More The present study is an attempt for detection of A. baumannii by conventional and PCR methods using species-specific primers for these A. baumannii. A total of 87 samples were collected from hospitals in Baghdad (Al-Rasafa and Al-Karkh Hospitals) during the period from 2019 to 2020.The samples included: 40 specimens, from wounds, respiratory infections (sputum), burns, CSF and 47 samples from the hospital environment (swabs), while samples collected from intensive care unit including patient beds, surgical instruments and appliances, emergency lobby and baby incubators. A. baumannii isolate identification depending on the morphologic characteristics on the culture media including, blood agar, MacConkey agar, as well as t
... Show MoreAngiogenesis is important for tissue during normal physiological processes as well as in a number of diseases, including cancer. Drug resistance is one of the largest difficulties to antiangiogenesis therapy. Due to their lower cytotoxicity and stronger pharmacological advantage, phytochemical anticancer medications have a number of advantages over chemical chemotherapeutic drugs. In the current study, the effectiveness of AuNPs, AuNPs-GAL, and free galangin as an antiangiogenesis agent was evaluated. Different physicochemical and molecular approaches have been used including the characterization, cytotoxicity, scratch wound healing assay, and gene expression of VEGF and ERKI in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell line. Re
... Show MoreThe present study aimed to identify teaching problems which facing the teachers for first three grades classes, and if these problems different according to some variables teacher qualification, experience period, class grade). The study sample consist of (137 )
female teachers who teach the first three grades in Braimy city in Oman, teachers spread in five government schools. Both researchers developed questionnaire to measure problems faced by the mentioned teachers, consist of 50 questions distributed into 4 dimensions (teacher, students, the curriculum, the evaluations), Also researchers checked questionnaire validity and stability. The results indicate to: The most common probl
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The aerial part of Ephedra foliata Family Ephedraceae have long been used in traditional medicine and now Ephedra species have medicinal, ecological, and commercial value. The variety of pharmacological actions of this plant is due to its chemical constituents. Ephedrine and
related alkaloids; are the newly potential medicinal value of Ephedra supplements for weight loss or performance improvement. Other pharmacological actions like antibacterial and antifungal effects of the phenolic acid compounds, the immunosuppressive action of the polysaccharides, and the antitumor action of flavonoids. The genus of this plant wildly distributed t
Afield experiment was conducted in the college of Agriculture labs Sulaimanya University in 2014 to estimate the genetic variance between 12 genotypes of maize. (SSR) technology was used depending on (PCR) technology. Twenty primers were used for the genetic variance analysis between the studied genotypes and 15 primers showed polymorphic results in repeated experiment caused to experinse 52 alleles which gave 307 bands of range 3.1 by different molecular sizes ranged between 80-1000 pair base the value of PIC reached to phi069 gave high value (0.8785), the range of genetic diversity for studied genotypes reached to (0.625) gave primers pairs phi069 hig value for genetic diversity (0.888). The value of total allele replication ranged at pri
... Show MoreIn the present study, chalcone derivatives were synthesized via the Claisen-Schmidt condensation of 2-methyl acetanilide or 4-nitro acetanilide with p-dimethyl amino benzaldehyde in an ethanolic sodium hydroxide solution. The resulting chalcone reacted with urea or thiourea to produce several novel pyrimidine derivatives. All the synthesized compounds were characterized by FTIR, 1HNMR and 13CNMR spectroscopy. Before the synthesis process, molecular docking studies were performed to evaluate the potential of the synthesized molecules as drug candidates. Thus, molecular docking studies were performed using the CCDC GOLD suite (version 2025). The molecular docking results showed that the synthesized molecules had a noticeable affinity towards
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