Given the paucity and toxicity of available drugs for leishmaniasis, coupled with the advent of drug resistance, the discovery of new therapies for this neglected tropical disease is recognised as being of the utmost urgency. As such antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been proposed as promising compounds against the causative Leishmania species, insect vector-borne protozoan parasites. Here the AMP temporins A, B and 1Sa have been synthesised and screened for activity against Leishmania mexicana insect stage promastigotes and mammalian stage amastigotes, a significant cause of human cutaneous disease. In contrast to previous studies with other species the activity of these AMPs against L. mexicana amastigotes was low. This suggests that amastigotes from different Leishmania species display varying susceptibility to peptides from the temporin family, perhaps indicating differences in their surface structure, the proposed target of these AMPs. In contrast, insect stage L. mexicana promastigotes were sensitive to two of the screened temporins which clearly demonstrates the importance of screening AMPs against both forms of the parasite. Copyright © 2011 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This paper reviews the studies on expansive soil with a main focus on failure mechanism, financial losses, mineralogy, determination of swelling parameters and others. Effect of hydrocarbon pollution on geotechnical properties of expansive soil was presented. The paper discussed the assessment of electrical response of contaminated swelling soils. Wide extend of expansive grounds around the world and the serious impact created on infrastructures requires to identify its influential aspects and the appropriate treatments. Also, it was found that petroleum product affect significantly on the basic properties of swelling soils such as gradation, consistency, compaction, swelling and othe
Background: One of the unique prosthesis for tooth or teeth replacement is the dental implant. Our attempt is using a biomaterial system that is easily obtained and applicable and has the ability to provoke osteoinductive growth factor to enhance bone formation at the site of application. One of these natural polymers is hyaluronic acid. Material and methods: Sixty machined surface implants from commercially pure titanium rod inserted in thirty NewZealand rabbits. Two implants placed in both tibia of each rabbit. The animals scarified at 1, 2 and 4 weeks after implantation (10 rabbits for each interval). For all of animals the right tibia’s implant was control (uncoated) and the left one was experimental (coated with 0.1ml Hyaluro
... Show MoreAbstract Candida albicans is a commensal fungal pathogen that grows in yeast and hyphal forms in the human gut. C. albicans causes mucosal and cutaneous diseases that can result in significant mortality following systematic infections and it also exhibits drug resistance. Zebrafish have been an excellent model to investigate C. albicans infections because of their transparency and the availability of many transgenic lines. However, there is a limitation in using zebrafish as a model because the fish embryos cannot survive at 37°C therefore it is not suitable for studying Candida infections at physiological relevant human body temperature. In this thesis, the normal embryonic development of Arabian killifish (A. dispar) is investigated, rev
... Show MoreRandom laser gain media is synthesized with different types of dye at the same concentration (1×10-3 M) as an active material and silicon dioxide NPs (silica SiO2) as scatter centers through the Sol-Gel technique. The prepared samples are tested with UV–Vis spectroscopy, Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray Diffraction (EDX). The end result demonstrates that doped dyes with silica nanoparticles at a concentration of 0.0016 mol/ml have lower absorbance and higher fluorescence spectra than pure dyes. FESEM scans revealed that the morphology of nanocrystalline silica is clusters of nano-sized spherical particles in the range (25-67) nm. It is con
... Show Morethe shear strength parameters of the treated and untreated gypsum soil under the effect of four soaking and drying cycles has studied in this paper, moreover examined the effect of wetting and drying cycles on the collapse potential of the soil and comparing between the behavior of the treated and untreated gypsum soil under the effect of the two conditions. Gypsum soil sample brought from Sawa lake in Al Muthana governorate with the content of gypsum 65.5%, the polyurethane polymer (PP) was used with different percentages 3, 6, and 10% to enhance the mechanical properties of gypsum soil, model was prepared to achieve four soaking and drying cycle to the samples before testing, this model consists of an Aluminum plate base with dimensions 7
... Show MoreMixed ligand metal complexes are synthesized from oxalic acid with Schiff base, and the Schiff base was obtained from trimethoprim and acetylacetone. The synthesized complexes were of the type [M(L1)(L2)], where the metal, M, is Ni(II), Cu(II), Cr(III), and Zn(II), L1 corresponds to the trimethoprim ((Z)-4-((4-amino-5-(3,4,5- trimethoxybenzyl)pyrimidine-2-yl)imino)pentane-2-one) as the first ligand and L2 represent the oxalate anion (𝐶𝑂 ) as a second ligand. Characterization of the prepared compounds was performed by elemental analysis, molar conductivity, magnetic measurements, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, FT-IR, and Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectral studies. The recorded infrared data is reinforced with density functional th
... Show MoreMixed ligand metal complexes are synthesized from oxalic acid with Schiff base, and the Schiff base was obtained from trimethoprim and acetylacetone. The synthesized complexes were of the type [M(L1)(L2)], where the metal, M, is Ni(II), Cu(II), Cr(III), and Zn(II), L1 corresponds to the trimethoprim ((Z)-4-((4-amino-5-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl)pyrimidine-2-yl)imino)pentane-2-one) as the first ligand and L2 represent the oxalate anion ( ) as a second ligand. Characterization of the prepared compounds was performed by elemental analysis, molar conductivity, magnetic measurements, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, FT-IR, and Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectral studies. The recorded infrared data is reinforced with density functional theory (DFT) calcul
... Show MoreNitinol (NiTi) is used in many medical applications, including hard tissue replacements, because of its suitable characteristics, including a close elastic modulus to that of bones. Due to the great importance of the mechanical properties of this material in tissue replacements, this work aims to study the hysteresis response in an attempt to explore the ability of the material to remember its previous mechanical state in addition to its ability to withstand stress and to obtain the optimal dimensions and specifications for the manufacturer of NiTi actuators. Stress-strain examination is done in a computational way using a mutable Lagoudas MATLAB code for various coil radii, environment temperatures, and coil lengths. The computational m
... Show MoreAleppo bentonite was investigated to remove ciprofloxacin hydrochloride from aqueous solution. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to study the several factors affecting the removal process, including contact time, pH of solution, bentonite dosage, ion strength, and temperature. The optimum contact time, pH of solution and bentonite dosage were determined to be 60 minutes, 6 and 0.15 g/50 ml, respectively. The bentonite efficiency in removing CIP decreased from 89.9% to 53.21% with increasing Ionic strength from 0 to 500mM, and it increased from 89% to 96.9% when the temperature increased from 298 to 318 K. Kinetic studies showed that the pseudo second-order model was the best in describing the adsorption sys
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