Scrophularia. striata from Scrophulariacea family has been used in Iranian folk medicine for the treatment of infectious diseases. In this study we evaluated the synergistic effect of S. striata hydroalcoholic extract (SSE) and commercially available antibiotics against P. aeroginosa and Methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The resazurin-based microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of plan extract and standard antibiotics. The interaction between standard antibiotics and SSE was evaluated by using checkerboard method. The results of this study revealed that SSE enhance the antibacterial activity of antibiotics. The combination of SSE and Vancomycin had synergistic to additive effects against MRSA. SSE in combination with Gentamicin had synergistic to additive effects against P. aeruginosa. The interaction between Ceftazidime and SSE was additive against P. aeruginosa. The best result was the synergistic effect between SSE and Piperacillin-Tazobactam against P. aeruginosa. In conclusion the results of this research indicated that S. striata has the potential to enhance the antibacterial activity of antibiotics and could be a source to the designing new compounds with synergistic effect in combination with standard antibiotics.
Petroleum is one of the most important substances consumed by man at present times, a major energy source in this century, petroleum oils can cause environmental pollution during various stages of production, transportation, refining and use, petroleum hydrocarbons pollutions ranging from soil, ground water to marine environment, become an inevitable problem in the modern life, current study focused on bioremediation process of hydrocarbons contaminants that remaining in the bottom of gas cylinders and discharged to the soil. Twenty-four bacterial isolates were isolated from contaminated soils all of them gram negative bacteria, bacterial isolates screening to investigate the ability of biodegradation of hydrocarbons, these isolates inocula
... Show MoreThe protective effect of ginger extract against cisplatin-induced hepatotoxicity and cardiotoxicity was evaluated in 30 albino white rats(weighing 200-300 gm ) classified into 5groups (6 rats per each group). The rats were treated with 0.5g/kg/day or 1g/kg/day ginger extract orally 5 successive days before and 5 successive days after induction of toxicity with intraperitoneal (IP) injection of (10mg/kg ) cisplatin, resulted in a significant reduction in the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) , total serum billirubin(TSB) , lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase(CK) enzymes in comparison with the cisplatin treated animals; ginger extract
... Show MoreBackground: Staphylococcus spp. are widely distributed in nature and can cause nosocomial, skin infections, and foodborne illness, and it may lead to severe financial losses in birds by causing systemic infection in numerous organs. Aim: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus spp. in humans and birds in Baghdad city. Methods: Seventy-six oral cavity swabs were collected, including 41 from birds and 35 from breeders. All samples were examined by bacteriological methods and identified by using the VITEK technique, the samples were then further studied to test the ability of biofilm formation, and MDR factors and MAR index were tested with the use of seven antibiotics. Results: Among the 76 oral swa
... Show MorePseudomonas aeruginosa, a ubiquitous environmental organism, is a difficult-to-treat opportunistic pathogen due to its broad-spectrum antibiotic resistance and its ability to form biofilms. In this study, we investigate the link between resistance to a clinically important antibiotic, imipenem, and biofilm formation. First, we observed that the laboratory strain P. aeruginosa PAO1 carrying a mutation in the oprD gene, which confers resistance to imipenem, showed a modest reduction in biofilm formation.We also observed an inverse relationship between imipenem resistance and biofilm formation for imipenem-resistant strains selected in vitro, as well as for clinical isolates.We identified two clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa from the sputum
... Show MoreThe current study was designed to explore the association between the pigments production and biofilm construction in local Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. Out of 143 patients suffering from burns, urinary tract infections (UTI), respiratory tract infections and cystic fibrosis obtained from previous study by Mahmood (2015), twenty two isolates (15.38%) were identified from (11) hospitals in Iraq, splitted into three provinces, Baghdad, Al-Anbar and Karbala for the duration of June 2017 to April 2018. Characterization was carried out by using microscopical, morphological and biochemical methods which showed that all these isolates belong to P. aeruginosa. Screening of biofilm production isolates was carried out by usi
... Show MoreThe bacterial isolates were obtained from Al-Kindi Hospital were diagnosed by the Vitek-2 system and re confirm by 16srRNA gene as S. aurous, the results were shown 20 isolates (66.7%) out of 30 isolates were positive to protease production. All bacterial isolates (100%) were sensitive to Gentamicin and Levofloxacin. but resistant (100%) to aztreonam. The best temperature for enzyme production from bacteria was 37 °C, and the best pH for enzyme production was 7. Partial purification of the bacterial enzyme (protease) was carried out using short steps included ammonium sulfate 65% saturation, ion exchange using DEAE- cellulose column and then applied on gel filtration chromatography using Sephadex G-200 column. The enzymatic activit
... Show MoreAccording to the prevalence of multidrug resistance bacteria, especially Pseudomonas aeruginosa, in which the essential mechanism of drug resistance is the ability to possess an efflux pump by which extrusion of antimicrobial agents usually occurs, this study aims to detect the presence of mexB multidrug efflux gene in some local isolates of this bacteria that show resistance towards three antibiotics, out of five. Sensitivity test to antibiotics was performed on all isolates by using meropenem (10μg/disc), imipenem (10μg/disc), amikacin (30 μg/disc), ciprofloxacin (5μg/disc) and ceftazidime (30 μg/disc). Conventional PCR results showed the presence of mexB gene (244bp) in four isolates out of ten (40%). In addition,25, 50μg/ml of cur
... Show MoreSwarming is one of the most important virulence factors used by bacteria to invade new sites. This study aimed to test the effects of gentamicin on swarming motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, both phenotypically and molecularly. The present results revealed that 11/25 isolates had gentamicin MIC of 1024 µg/ml. However, gentamicin at sub-minimal inhibitory concentration significantly (P< 0.05) reduced the diameter of swarming in all P. aeruginosa isolates. Noticeably the mean and median swarming diameter before treatment with gentamicin 5.557 and 5.816 cm respectively had significantly (P < 0.001) reduced to 0.871 and 0.766 cm respectively. At the molecular level, amrZ (a global regulator of multiple genes) and
... Show More