Of the factors predisposing to gastric cancer is Helicobacter pylori infection affecting more than 50% of the general population. Genetic variation is an established player in certain diseases susceptibility. TAS2R38 gene polymorphisms have been found to influence bitter taste ability to chemicals with malicious characteristics and consequently affect metabolism and disease development. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between TAS2R38 gene polymorphisms and H. pylori seropositivity. The study involved 105 apparently healthy individuals. They were grouped into four groups according to their age and gender; young male, young female, middle-aged male and middle-aged female. All groups were tested for H. pylori serum antibody using screening rapid test. Participants were also tested for tasting PTC for TAS2R38 gene detection by using Bartovation PTC test paper and grouped accordingly into: homozygote (highly bitter taste), heterozygote (slight to moderate bitter taste), or negative gene carrier (no taste at all). ABO and Rhesus- blood grouping was determined by standard serological analysis. Of the 105 patients, 22.85% were tested homozygotes for TAS2R38 gene, 40.95% were heterozygotes and 36.19% were nontasters, no significant difference (p > 0.9). H. pylori seropositivity was encountered in 16.19% of the whole participants, 11.5% of the male participants and 20.75% of the female participants (p > 0.9). No significant difference in seropositivity was monitored among the four age groups (p > 0.3) and the ABO/Rh blood groups (p > 0.9). A lack of significant correlation (r = 0.046) between H. pylori antibody test positivity and tasting PTC (TAS2R38 gene) was reported. Similarly, no association was found between PTC tasting and participants’ ABO blood grouping, age or gender (r = 0.086, 0.083 and 0.029, respectively). Yet, weak negative (reverse) relationship (r = -0.29, p-value = 0.002) was gained between PTC and Rh grouping. No correlation was revealed between TAS2R38 polymorphism and the studied variable; age, gender and blood group indicating the absence of an apparent role of the gene in vulnerability to H. pylori infection. Further studies involving a larger sample size is required to confirm the obtained result.

Background: Rubella or German measles is a viral disease transmitted via aerosol droplets affecting mainly children, Mostly, rubella is a simple and self-limiting disease with no chronic consequences, except in infected pregnant women which may result in devastating outcomes depending on the trimester of pregnancy. Materials and methods: the study enrolled 1004 women suffering from spontaneous miscarriage tested for rubella IgM antibodies using ELISA. The sampling was conducted in two different seasons, summer and winter. Results: Test reading showed that 15.23% of all tested women were positive for rubella IgM antibodies i.e. 153 out of 1004 women. Seasonal change showed no significant variation in the percentage of the infection, where 15.8% of all participants were positive in summer versus 14.35% seropositive in the winter season (p˃ 0.05). Conclusion: Rubella infection is affecting a relatively high number of women suffering from a spontaneous miscarriage in Mosul city, and there was no seasonal variation in the rate of infection.

The causative virus of COVID-19 “SARS-COV2” is an upper respiratory tract pathogen and a member of corona virus family, causes about 15 % of influenza and common cold infections annually. There are several types of viruses that causes influenza to human like orthomyxovirus type A, B, and C. some may cause sever and endemic flu like orthomyxovirus-A, some may be simple and do not spread like endemics.

Abstract   Background and Objective: The present study aimed to identify a connection between common viral infections and women who had repeatedly miscarriages. Material and Methods: This study is a retrospective study which has been carried out on 2010 records in Mosul city/Iraq, and the patients were all women of child-bearing age (20-35 years old). All of the women had suffered from an abortion at least once before. The target viruses in charge for this study include; Toxoplasma gundi, Cytomegalovirus, Rubella virus, and Herpes virus. Results and Conclusion: The analysis is based on the detection of the anti-bodies which confirmed a negative correlation between antibodies level and active viral infection, together with no clear association between the presence of active infectious status and miscarriage. Additionally, only few positive cases for each individual patient were positive for viral infection.  Hence, the outcome confirmed no clear association between presence of infectious agent and repeated miscarriage. Nonetheless, rubella and cytomegalovirus have shown the highest contribution in this regard.

INTRODUCTION: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide health problem which becomes a substantial emerging cause of morbidity. The inflammation can be resulted via different mechanisms in different kidney diseases including the imbalance of proinflammatory/anti-inflammatory biomarkers levels. This study aimed to measure the level of physiological bioactive substances as inflammation-related biomarkers in different CKD and to investigate whether gender or aging is critical in these measurements. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 84 persons (19 healthy, 29 chronic glomerulonephritis, 26 diabetic nephropathy, 6 benign nephrosclerosis, 4 lupus nephritis) were enrolled in this study. The inflammation progression degree in CKD was estimated by measuring the plasma level of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP1), and clusterin (CLU) using ELISA. Serum total protein, urea and creatinine were measured using an automatic analyzer. RESULTS: Plasma level of urea and creatinine was increased while total protein level was decreased in all the patients compared to control participants. The level of NGAL, MCP1 and CLU was significantly increased in all the kidney diseases compared to controls. In addition, there were no differences in the level of inflammation-related markers between women and men. Moreover, the levels of inflammatory markers were increased in the kidney diseases regardless of the age difference. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the physiological bioactive substances NGAL, MCP1 and CLU can be increased in renal pathologies and considered as good indicators of progression of inflammation in chronic kidney diseases, with no role of gender and age in their increment plasma levels.