Thioacetamide (TAA) is a thiono-sulfur containing compound with a wide manufacturing application. Humans and animals exposure to TAA may occur in different ways and may cause nephrotoxicity. So, in this study serum creatinine concentration and urea, in addition to renal pathological changes, were examined in mice treated with TAA/P (100 mg/kg B.W). One hundred twenty male albino (BALB/c) mice were used. They were randomly divided into 2 main groups. In the control group 30 mice were fed water only and normal mice pellet.The other TAA-treated group of mice were divided into 3 subgroups as follow: 1st group (G1) was injectsed with TAA for 2 months (injected twice a month), while the 2nd(G2) and 3rd(G3) groups were injected with TAA for 4 and 6 months respectively (single injection monthly). Subsequently, serum urea and creatinine were measured in the control and the treated mice. The pathological changes in renal tissue were studied by examiningstained Hematoxylin and eosin (H and E). The results showed a significant increase (P<0.05) in blood urea and creatinine levels of all studied groups with diverse pathological changes in kidney, including degeneration, necrosis, hemorrhage, nephritis, abscess and granulomatous lesions due to TAA toxicity.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is an endemic parasitic disease found in many provinces of Iraq. The immune system plays a crucial role in the development or healing of lesions through chemotactic cytokine activity. This study was aimed to detect the levels of two chemokine ligands (CCL2 and CCL5) in Iraqi patients suffering from dermal ulcers, caused by cutaneous leishmaniasis. It was measured in pre and post-treatment state of Pentostam (Pentavalent Antimony 100 mg). Blood serum concentrations of CCL2, CCL5 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay among newly infected patients, two-trial treatment patients and three-trial treatment patients, in comparison with the control group. The result indicated a significant difference in CCL5 level for the three groups of CL patients. Whereas the control (p˂0.5), CCL2 level counterparts showed a significant difference only in newly infected and the thee-trial treatment groups. Moreover, there was a significant difference between all CCL5 patient groups, while no observed difference was detected within patient groups of CCL2.Thus altering the chemokine levels before and after treatment gives insights for parasite role in chemokine expression which may help in new therapeutic approaches for dry or wet CL.

Leishmaniasis is a group of parasitic diseases caused by Leishmania spp., an endemic infectious agent in developing countries, including Iraq. Diagnosis of cutaneous lesion by stained smears, serology or histopathology are inaccurate and unable to detect the species of Leishmania. Here, two molecular typing methods were examined to identify the promastigotes of suspected cutaneous leishmaniasis samples, on a species level. The first was species-specific B6-PCR and the second was ITS1-PCR followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) using restriction enzyme HaeIII. DNA was extracted from in vitro promastigote culture followed by amplification of kDNA by B6 or amplification and digestion of LITSR/L5.8S. PCR produced bands of ~359 bp and ~450 bp for B6 and ITS1, respectively. Digestion of ITS1 by RFLP revealed two distinct bands of ~150 bp and ~300 bp size. The results reviled that the two isolates belong to cutaneous Leishmaniasis, specifically Leishmania tropica. In conclusion, the confirmation of the studied methods will improve rapid and accurate diagnosis of Leishmania species of the most prevalent Iraqi strain of cutaneous leishmaniasis, L. tropica.