Eruca sativa, commonly known as rocket salad, is a popular vegetable to which a wide range of health benefits are attributed. This study aimed to examine the effects of the aqueous extract of E. sativa leaves on lipid profile and some minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, in blood of male albino mice under normal physiological condition. Two experiments were separately conducted, each with eighteen male albino mice divided into 3 equal groups, which included control, treated group (1), and treated group (2) which were orally administrated with 0, 0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg body weight, respectively, of the leaves extract for 28 days. In the first experiment, serum lipid profile, including cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL, LDL and VLDL, were estimated. In the second experiment, serum calcium and magnesium were estimated. The results showed that E. sativa have effects on lipid profile by decreasing cholesterol, triglyceride, and LDL levels, but increasing that of HDL. In addition, E. sativa increased the levels of both calcium and magnesium. This study concludes that E. sativa leaves exerts possibly beneficial effect on lipid profile and calcium and magnesium levels in albino male mice under normal conditions.

Hydatid disease (echinococcosis) is a parasitic infection caused by the larval stage ofEchinococcus granulosus with the global distribution. This disease is endemic in Iraq and Kurdistan Region with no strategy and long-term control plan. The strain identification of this parasite is essential to improve both monitoring and prevention of the disease. For this reason, the present on the morphological characterization of the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus isolated from sheep, cattle, and human beings, was carried out in Sulaimani as an atempt to determine the polymorphism among echinococcus hooks isolated from diferent hosts. The morphometric of hooks were evaluated by (computerized morphometric) software. A significant difference was found in the blade length and width (guard) of the hook isolated from a different intermediate host of Echinococcus. This finding suggested that different strains of E. granulosus are responsible for animal and human infection in Kurdistan-Iraq.

Balanced nutrition is vital for peak performance of immune function, especially when a global pandemic is emerging, and there is major lack in approved treatments for it. Many nutrients and their abundance in cells induce immune function. We performed a narrative review to describe existing literature with regard to role of nutrients in supporting the immune system against viral infection including coronavirus (SARS-COV-2). PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were searched for relevant articles. This review represents a picture of the current state of the art. In particular, we classified the nutrients by means of their types, abundance, importance and possible antiviral effects in immune system. The macronutrients such as carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins are essential for cells to generate energy and participate in immune function as well. However, unbalanced diet with high levels of macromolecules could lead to chronic diseases that impair the body’s immune abilities. The micronutrients including vitamins and minerals participate in immune system on a bigger scale that almost all body’s immune mechanism depends on the expressions of micronutrients. Vitamins improve immune responses. Some vitamins include A, D, K, B, and C enroll in antiviral mechanism of the immune cells. A group of trace elements including zinc, copper, selenium, magnesium, manganese, and iron are heavily contributed in maintaining body’s immunity. The susceptibility toward the infectious diseases is highly elevated in cases of their deficiencies. Besides their antiviral roles, vitamins such as E and C with minerals in the cells adopt antioxidant properties that help immune cells to fight oxidative stress in the cells. Nevertheless, the high levels of minerals such as iron could threat the immune system by growing the oxidative stress. So, maintaining rich and balanced nutrition could improve body’s immune function, and possibly prevent viral infections including COVID-19.

ÖZET: TP53 kaynaklı glikoliz ve apoptozis düzenleyici (TIGAR) protein, glikoz metabolizması sırasında Fru-2, 6-P2 seviyelerini glukoz metabolizması sırasında kontrol eder ve nikotinamid adenin dinükleotit fosfat (NADPH) düzeyini devam ettirerek hücre içi anahtar bir antioksidan olan glutatyonun (GSH) geri dönüştürmesine yardımcı olur. Bu çalışma, A549 hücre hattında TIGAR'ın susturulmasının altında yatan, reaktif oksijen türleri (ROS) aracılı apoptotik ve otofajik mekanizmaları araştırmak için tasarlanmıştır. siRNA-TIGAR'ın A549 akciğer kanseri hücreleri üzerindeki etkisini saptamak için hücre canlılığı, koloni oluşumu, ROS ve NADPH analizlerini gerçekleştirdik. Ek olarak, protein ve mRNA ekspresyon seviyeleri sırası ile Western blot ve Real-time PCR yöntemleri ile belirlendi. TIGAR'ın A549 hücre hattında susturulmasının ardından, çeşitli parametreler analiz edildi ve TIGAR'ın down regülasyonunun hücre canlılığını inhibe ettiği ve koloni oluşumunu azalttığı gösterildi. TIGAR'ın susturulmasının apoptozis ve otofajiyi tetiklediğini ve bunu Nükleer faktör-kappa B (NF-κB) ve Hem oksijenaz-1 (HO-1)'in indüksiyonun izlediği belirledik. Dahası, artmış ROS düzeyi ve azalmış NADPH seviyeleri gözlemlendik. Bu çalışma, akciğer kanseri hücrelerinde, NF-κB ve HO-1 ekspresyonları ile apoptozis ve otofajiyi arttırmak için TIGAR susturulmasının kullanılmasını desteklemekte ve akciğer kanserinin tedavisi için potansiyel bir hedef olarak TIGAR önermektedir.

Soil is play an important role for reserve abundant groups of microorganisms, especially Streptomyces. Streptomyces are recognized as prokaryotes, aerobic and Gram-positive bacteria with high Guanine + Cytosine contents in their DNA. These groups of bacteria show filamentous growth from a single spore and they are normally found in all kinds of ecosystems, including water, soil, and plants. A total of three Streptomyces strains were isolated from soil of the sides of Darband Ranya in Sulaimani governorate. Different approaches were followed for the identification of the isolated stains. Morphological and cultural properties of these isolates have shown that the isolates are belonging to the genus Streptomyces. Desired colonies of the isolates were distinguished and separated from other bacteria on the basis of colony morphology, pigmentation, ability to produce a different color of aerial hyphae, and bottom mycelium on raffinose-histidine agar and starch-casein agar media. In addition, analysis of phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, the strains related the genus. KS010 isolates had the highest identity (99.32%) with the type strain of Streptomyces atrovirens, while KS005 and KS007 isolates were most closely related to Streptomyces lateritius by identity 99.32%. The isolated test strains were also active against Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria following co-cultivation technique. However, further study should be done to identify the types of these antibacterial compounds.