Cytokine storms are an excessive immune response triggered by severe viral infections, such as SARS-CoV2. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) is a key player in these storms. Secondary and co-infections can exacerbate the immune response, leading to amplified cytokine release and potentially severe disease outcomes. This review aims to evaluate the expression of TLR-4 in fungal and bacterial infections that are associated with and secondary to SARS-CoV2. The study collected specimens from 70 patients admitted to a Baghdad hospital’s ICUs and 35 healthy controls, aged 15-80 years, from June 2022 to April 2023. Re¬al-time RT-PCR was used for infection detection, while conventional methods were used to isolate patho¬genic microorganisms and the Vitec 2 system. The findings of this study suggest that TLR-4 may play a crucial role in secondary and co-infections in individuals with severe SARS-CoV2. The study implies that increased TLR-4 expression might contribute to the development of bacterial secondary and co-infections. When TLR-4 detects bacterial components, it triggers immune responses aimed at eliminating the bacte¬ria. However, an overactive TLR-4 response may lead to an excessive release of cytokines, resulting in a cytokine storm. This excessive immune response can cause tissue damage and exacerbate the severity of SARS-CoV2. Furthermore, the TLR-4 expression may not significantly contribute to the immune response against co-fungal infections with SARS-CoV-2, despite its role in antiviral responses and bacterial defense.
Leishmania parasites reproduce wherever there are cells of the mononuclear phagocyte system, almost in macrophages. These are most copious in the liver and spleen;therefore, infection leads to an expansion of both of them. This study determined the burden of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) infection on liver and spleen. A total of 20 mice were infected peritoneally with 2x107promastigotes of Leishmania donovani / ml and other 12 mice left without infection as a healthy control. The weight of whole body, liver and spleen were measured and the histological development using hematoxylin and eosin stains were determined after 15, 30, 45-and 60-days post infection. The results represent that the mean weights of liver and spleen were increased in inf
... Show MoreThe ABO blood group system is highly polymorphic, with more than 20 distinct sub-groups; study findings are usually related to ABO phenotype, but rarely to the ABO genotype and animal models are unsatisfactory because their antigen glycosylation structure is different from humans. Both the ABO and Rh blood group systems have been associated with a number of diseases, but this is more likely related to the presence or absence of these tissue antigens throughout the body and not directly or primarily related to their presence on RBCs. A total of fifty-two 52 patients without complication of DMII, two hundred sixteen 216 patients with complication of DMII and seventy-one 71 person as healthy control were included in the study. The resu
... Show MoreSince the COVID-19 pandemic alarm was made by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-coronavirus (CoV) 2, several institutions and agencies have pursued to clarify the viral virulence and infectivity. The fast propagation of this virus leads to an unprecedented rise in the number of cases worldwide. COVID-19 virus is exceptionally contagious that spreads through droplets, respiratory secretions, and direct contact. The enveloped, single-stranded RNA virus has a specific envelop region called (S) region encoding (S protein) that specifically binds to the host cell receptor. Viral infection requires receptors' participation on the host cell membrane's surface, a key- step for the viral invasion of susceptible cells.
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... Show MoreEarly and accurate detection of COVID-19 from chest computed tomography (CT) scans are becoming essential for effective clinical decision-making and disease control. This study is proposing a robust deep learning framework that integrates a convolutional self-attention network (CSAN), gamma correction for image enhancement, and a voting-based ensemble classifier to improving diagnostic performance. The model is being evaluated on a dataset of 2,271 CT images and is achieving an accuracy of 95.12%, sensitivity of 97.25%, specificity of 98.11%, F1-score of 96.46%, and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.977. Experimental results are demonstrating that the proposed method significantly surpasses baseline models, including standalone CSAN,
... Show MoreThe Growth Differentiation Factor -15 (GDF-15) is a member of the transforming growth factor β superfamily. İt represents an example of the stress response cytokines. It's mostly found in cardiac myocytes, adipocytes, macrophages, endothelial cells, and vascular endothelial cells, whether they're generated normally or not. GDF-15 levels have increased and are associated with cardiovascular risk. Aim of the study: To investigate the correlation between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) with the level of plasma GDF-15 in a group of hypertensive patients. Materials and methods: A case-control study involved 90 individuals, 60 hypertensive patients (36 on ACE inhibitors and 24 on ARBs)
... Show MoreDoxycycline and levofloxacin are heterocyclic organic compounds that are now popularly used to treat some bacterial infections. In this study which was conducted on patients from a private clinic, we compared the use of two commonly used antibiotics for the treatment of diagnosed cases with vaginal chlamydial infection: levofloxacin and doxycycline. Vaginal chlamydial infection is considered to be a very common sexually transmitted infection. It may have minimal symptoms which can lead to neglect by the patient until it leads to some important complications among which is the inability to become pregnant. This indicates early diagnosis and treatment of this infection. By comparing the results of treatment we concluded that there is no much
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