Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) causes up to 40% mortality in humans and is difficult to treat. ARDS is also one of the major triggers of mortality associated with coronavirus-induced disease (COVID-19). We used a mouse model of ARDS induced by Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), which triggers 100% mortality, to investigate the mechanisms through which Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) attenuates ARDS. SEB was used to trigger ARDS in C3H mice. These mice were treated with THC and analyzed for survival, ARDS, cytokine storm, and metabolome. Additionally, cells isolated from the lungs were used to perform single-cell RNA sequencing and transcriptome analysis. A database analysis of human COVID-19 patients was also performed to compare the signaling pathways with SEB-mediated ARDS. The treatment of SEB-mediated ARDS mice with THC led to a 100% survival, decreased lung inflammation, and the suppression of cytokine storm. This was associated with immune cell apoptosis involving the mitochondrial pathway, as suggested by single-cell RNA sequencing. A transcriptomic analysis of immune cells from the lungs revealed an increase in mitochondrial respiratory chain enzymes following THC treatment. In addition, metabolomic analysis revealed elevated serum concentrations of amino acids, lysine, n-acetyl methionine, carnitine, and propionyl L-carnitine in THC-treated mice. THC caused the downregulation of miR-185, which correlated with an increase in the pro-apoptotic gene targets. Interestingly, the gene expression datasets from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of human COVID-19 patients showed some similarities between cytokine and apoptotic genes with SEB-induced ARDS. Collectively, this study suggests that the activation of cannabinoid receptors may serve as a therapeutic modality to treat ARDS associated with COVID-19.
Low bearing capacity of weak soil under shallow footings represents one of construction problems.
Kaolin with water content converges to liquid limit used to represent the weak soil under shallow
footing prototype. On the other hand, fly ash, which can be defined as undesirable industrial waste
material, was used to improve the bearing capacity of the soft soil considered in this research. The soft
soil was prepared in steel box (36×36×25) cm and shallow square footing prototype (6×6) cm were
used .Group of physical and chemical tests were conducted on kaolin and fly ash. The soft soil was
improved by a bed of compacted fly ash placed under the footing with dimensions equal to that of
footing but with different de
Sphingolipids (SLs) are major structural constituents of eukaryotes, including the kinetoplastid parasite Leishmania. SLs are important for cellular trafficking and signaling and participate in different cell functions, such as, differentiation and cell death (apoptosis). In this study we have investigated the viability of Leishmania major wild type (W.T) and L. major knockout LmLCB2, one of two subunits of serine palmitoyl transferase (SPT) after treatment with myriocin (potent inhibitor of SPT) in order to detect the survival and proliferation of the parasites in vitro. This is to focus on the de novo sphingolipids biosynthesis pathway in both Leishmania wild type which can synthesize SPT and knockout Leishmania which genetically ablated
... Show MoreThis study aims to simulate and assess the hydraulic characteristics and residual chlorine in the water supply network of a selected area in Al-Najaf City using WaterGEMS software. Field and laboratory work were conducted to measure the pressure heads and velocities, and water was sampled from different sites in the network and then tested to estimate chlorine residual. Records and field measurements were utilized to validate WaterGEMS software. Good agreement was obtained between the observed and predicted values of pressure with RMSE range between 0.09–0.17 and 0.08–0.09 for chlorine residual. The results of the analysis of water distribution systems (WDS) during maximum demand
In this paper, an estimate has been made for parameters and the reliability function for Transmuted power function (TPF) distribution through using some estimation methods as proposed new technique for white, percentile, least square, weighted least square and modification moment methods. A simulation was used to generate random data that follow the (TPF) distribution on three experiments (E1 , E2 , E3) of the real values of the parameters, and with sample size (n=10,25,50 and 100) and iteration samples (N=1000), and taking reliability times (0< t < 0) . Comparisons have been made between the obtained results from the estimators using mean square error (MSE). The results showed the
... Show MoreAbstract
Lightweight materials is used in the sheet metal hydroforming process, because it can be adapted to the manufacturing of complex structural components into a single body with high structural stiffness. Sheet hydroforming has been successfully developed in industry such as in the manufacturing of the components of automotive.The aim of this study is to simulate the experimental results ( such as the amount of pressure required to hydroforming process, stresses, and strains distribution) with results of finite element analyses (FEA) (ANSYS 11) for aluminum alloy (AA5652) sheets with thickness (1.2mm) before heat treatm
... Show MoreIn this study, two active galaxies (NGC4725, NGC4639) have been chosen to study their morphological and photometric properties, by using the IRAF ISOPHOTE ELLIPS task with griz-filters. Observations are obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) which reaches now to the DATA Release (DR14). The data reduction of all images (bias and flat field) has been done by SDSS Pipeline. The surface photometric investigation was performed like the magnitude. Together with isophotal contour maps, surface brightness profiles and a bulge/disk decomposition of the images of the galaxies, although the disk position angle, ellipticity, and inclination of the galaxies have been done. Also, the color of galaxies was studied, where chromatic distribution
... Show MoreThe work includes fabrication of undoped and silver-doped nanostructured nickel oxide in form thin films, which use for applications such as gas sensors. Pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) technique was used to fabricate the films on a glass substrate. The structure of films is studied by using techniques of x-ray diffraction, SEM, and EDX. Thermal annealing was performed on these films at 450°C to introduce its effect on the characteristics of these films. The films were doped with a silver element at different doping levels and both electrical and gas sensing characteristics were studied and compared to those of the undoped films. Reasonable enhancements in these characteristics were observed and attributed to the effects of thermal annealing
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