Background Methotrexate (MTX) is a classical folic acid antagonist widely used in the treatment of malignant and non-malignant disorders. However, its clinical application is often restricted by concomitant adverse effects, including renal damage. Numerous studies have highlighted the role of oxidative stress and inflammation in mediating MTX-related nephrotoxicity. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore the possible renoprotective action of Citronellol (CT), a natural compound with prominent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, against nephrotoxicity induced by MTX. Methods To fulfill our objective, 24 adult male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into four groups: control, MTX, 100 mg/kg CT plus MTX and 200 mg/kg CT plus MTX. At the end of the study, the experimental rats were anesthetized, blood samples were collected for biochemical assays, and the kidneys were surgically removed for biochemical and gene expression analyses, after which all rats were sacrificed by exsanguination. Results Compared to the MTX-treated group, our results revealed that pre-supplementation with 100 or 200 mg/kg CT remarkably ameliorated renal damage biomarkers, including serum urea, serum creatinine, and kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1). In addition, pre-treatment with 100 or 200 mg/kg CT enhanced the activity of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), diminished renal malondialdehyde (MDA) contents, and attenuated inflammation by suppressing renal nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling and diminishing tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) gene expression. Moreover, pre-treatment with 200 mg/kg CT markedly reduced interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) gene expression. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate, for the first time, that CT can serve as a new promising agent for mitigating nephrotoxicity induced by MTX through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
The atmospheric air cold plasma has been used to manufacture gold nanomaterials for treating parasitic leishmaniasis. This study experimentally assessed the treatment of Leishmania parasites (L. donovani and L. tropica) by gold nanoparticles. Specifically, atmospheric pressure nonthermal plasma was generated using different diameters (1.0, 2.8, 3.8 and 4.3 mm) of high voltage electrode. Aqueous gold tetrachloride salts (HAuCl4·4H2O) were used as precursor to produce gold nanoparticles. UV-vis spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction were conducted for characterization of the nanoparticles. The optimum condition (a diameter of 1 mm) was chosen to prepare gold nanoparticles, where the grain size was found to be 17 nm. Accordingly, the nanoparticle
... Show MoreThe experiment was carried out in the green house of botanical garden belong to Department of Biology/College of Education for Pure Science Ibn AL-Haitham, University of Baghdad for growing season 2017-2018 to evaluate effect of lead stress with concentrations (0, 50, 100, 150) mg.L -1 and Selenium concentrations (0, 15, 30) mg.L-1 on growth of dill plant using pots. The experiment was designed according to completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. Result indicated that dill plants subjected to lead stress with height concentrations caused decrease in plant parameters (plant height, no. of branches. plant-1, root length, shoot dry weight, the content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, protein concentration, no. of umbe
... Show MoreObjectives: the study aims to assess nurses' practices toward chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) for children at the hematology center, and to determine the effectiveness of the health education program on nurses' practices toward CIPN, and to find out the relationships between the effectiveness of Health education program and demographic characteristics of nurses.
Methodology: Use quasi-experimental design in the study (a design that divides the sample into two groups, a study group and a control group, with data collection in three stages). This study was conducted at a hematology center in Baghdad city for the period (from December 16th, 2019 to 8th May 202
... Show MoreBackground: Oral squamous cell carcinoma represents the vast majority of oral cancer it is a common malignant tumor with an increasing incidence. Around the world, the 5 year mortality rate of oral cancer is about 50%. Thus novel biomarkers for early detection oral squamous cell carcinoma are needed. The level of three salivary microRNAs namely hsa-miR-200a, hsa-miR-125a and hsa- miR-93 were measured in saliva of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma and compared their levels in saliva of healthy control subjects to determine their potential as oral cancer biomarker. Materials and methods: The level of these three microRNAs was measured by using revers transcription, preamplification and quantitative PCR. Results: Only miR-200a presen
... Show MoreEco-friendly concrete is produced using the waste of many industries. It reduces the fears concerning energy utilization, raw materials, and mass-produced cost of common concrete. Several stress-strain models documented in the literature can be utilized to estimate the ultimate strength of concrete components reinforced with fibers. Unfortunately, there is a lack of data on how non-metallic fibers, such as polypropylene (PP), affect the properties of concrete, especially eco-friendly concrete. This study presents a novel approach to modeling the stress-strain behavior of eco-friendly polypropylene fiber-reinforced concrete (PFRC) using meta-heuristic particle swarm optimization (PSO) employing 26 PFRC various mixtures. The cement was partia
... Show MoreIn this study, the stress-strength model R = P(Y < X < Z) is discussed as an important parts of reliability system by assuming that the random variables follow Invers Rayleigh Distribution. Some traditional estimation methods are used to estimate the parameters namely; Maximum Likelihood, Moment method, and Uniformly Minimum Variance Unbiased estimator and Shrinkage estimator using three types of shrinkage weight factors. As well as, Monte Carlo simulation are used to compare the estimation methods based on mean squared error criteria.
The aims of this study are to measure the defect rate and analyze the problems of production of ready concrete mixture plant by using Six Sigma methodology which is a business strategy for operations improvement depending basically on the application of its sub-methodology DMAIC improvement cycle and the basic statistical tools where the process sigma level of concrete production in the case study was 2.41 σ.
Piperine, a crystalline alkaloid compound isolated from Piper nigrum, piper longum, and other types of piper, has had many fabulous pharmacological advantages for preventing and treating some specific diseases, such as analgesic, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, antimetastatic, antithyroid, immunomodulatory, antitumor, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's, and improving the bioavailability of other drugs. However, its potential for clinical use through oral usage is hindered by water solubility and poor bioavailability. The low level of oral bioavailability is caused by low solubility in water and is photosensitive, susceptible to isomerization by UV light, which causes piperine concentration to decrease. Many different
... Show MoreIn this paper, silicon carbonitried thin films were prepared by the method of photolysis of the silane (SiH4) and ethylene (C2H4) gases, with and without ammonia gas (NH3), which is represented by the ratio between the (PNH3) and (PSiH4 + PC2H4 + PNH3), (which assign by the letter X), X has the values (0, 0.13, 0.33). This method carried out by using TEA-CO2 laser, on glass substrate at (375 oC), deposition rate (0.416-0.833) nm/pulse thin film thickness of (500-1000) nm. The optical properties of the films were studied by using Absorbance and Transmittance spectrums in wavelength range of (400-1100) nm, the results showed that the electronic transitions is indirect and the energy gap for the SiCN films increase with increasing of nitrog
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