Ammi visnaga a herbal plant is rich with important active constituents that make the plant to be described in traditional medicine and among them is the volatile oil. The oil extracted by distillation and then study it's cytotoxic effect on two cell line: The human pelvic rhanbdomyosarcoma (RD) and The mouse cell line( L20B) which expresses the genes for human cellular receptor for Polio viruses. Results showed that there were potent toxic effects on both cell lines RD&L20B specially at the concentration (100,50 and 25)µl/ml of the essential oil ,then decreased as the oil concentrations decreased.

Glyphosate herbicide used to control unwanted annual and perennial plants. Roundup, one of the most widely used products containing glyphosate, is classified as hazardous to the environment.  Therefore, this study aim to assess the effect of (25mg/kg) and (50mg/kg) of glyphosate, given to mice by "gavage" and "feeding", by exposure of Cyprinus carpio (Common carp) to the herbicide with the same concentration and then given to mice, and noticeable cytogenetic effects (DNA damage) on mice bone marrow cells (in vivo) by using Comet assay. The statistical analysis shows that glyphosate cause significant increase (P≤0.01) of DNA damage of bone marrow cells in mice in comparing with the negative controls.

Background: The human CD19 (Cluster Differentiation) antigen is a 95 kd transmembrane glycoprotein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily. CD19 gene located on the short arm of chromosome 16p11.2 (P: petit). CD19 is a member of the Ig immunoglobulin superfamily expressed on the surface of B lymphocytes, and may play a pivotal role in B-cell differentiation and activation. Research suggests that mutations in a gene CD19 leads to a lack of expression of CD19 membrane and result in an antibody deficiency syndrome.Objective: The aim of this work is to study the mutations in Exon 2 CD19gene in leukemia patients in Baghdad/Iraq.Patients and Methods: This cross sectional study was performed in the National Center of Hematological Diseases/Al Mustanisyria University. Blood samples were collected from 50 leukemia patients including (25 acute lymphocyte leukemia ALL and 25 chronic lymphocyte leukemia CLL) and 50 samples of apparently healthy individuals. DNA was isolated and the CD19 gene was amplified by using specific primers for exon2 of this gene. The nucleotide sequences of CD19 gene was according to Macro gene company, USA. Analysis was done using BLAST program which is available online at (http:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) and BioEdit program.Results: The DNA sequencing results of flank sense of CD19 gene from healthy individual was found to be compatible 100% with wild type of Homo sapiens from the Gene Bank, while 99% compatibility was found for that gene of all ALL and CLL patients with wild type of gene. The difference was attributed to insertion of 1900 C nucleotide in position +48 of exon 2 of CD19 gene resulted in the replacement of a serine (TCC) residue into isoluseine (ATC), and deletion 1904 C in position + 49 of exon 2. This mutation resulted in change of codon from GCA to GCC but there was no changes in the amino acid (Alanine to Alanine). The second mutation (Deletion nucleotide) amended the first mutation effect (Insertion nucleotide) and did notlead to a change of all the amino acid sequence (framshift). The results showed that the incidence of insertion and deletion mutation at position +48 and +49 in exon 2 of CD19 gene and leukemia was highly significant (X2 = 15.75, P<0.01).Conclusion: This study suggests that the ploymrphism in exon 2 of the CD19 gene is strongly associated with leukemia patient of Baghdad population.

This work aimed to study the cytotoxic effect of L-asparaginase isolated from local Withania somnifera plant on lymphocyte leukemia cells. To achieve this goal, L-asparaginase was purified from W. somnifera fruits by two purification steps, ion-exchange chromatography using DEAE-cellulose and gel filtration chromatography using Sephadex G-150, and the study utilized an in vitro evaluation for the cytotoxic effect of the partially purified L-asparaginase with concentrations ranging (12.5 to 100 μg/ml) in a two fold serial dilutions on some cell suspension culture including, acute lymphocyte leukemia and chronic lymphocyte leukemia culture at different concentrations (12.5 to 100 μg/ml) and different exposure time of treatment (24, 48 and 72 h). This two purification steps raised the specific activity from 1.73 U/mg in crude extract to 2.29 U/mg after ion-exchange and 10.5 U/mg after gel filtration; the purification fold was 1.32 after ion-exchange and 6.06 after gel filtration, the enzyme recovery was 56% after two purification steps and the results, pointed that acute lymphocyte leukemia culture showed highest sensitivity toward the cytotoxic effect (62.3±0.9%) of the partial purified L-asparaginase (100 μg/ml) than other culture after 48 h in a dose dependent manner, and highest cytotoxic inhibitory effect (73.2±1.6%) after 48 h of exposure on chronic lymphocyte leukemia culture, while healthy lymphocyte culture showed novel behavior. The lowest concentration of cell treatment gave the most significant (P< 0.01) inhibitory effect. The conclusion is that there is enough evidence to support the claim that Lasparaginase from W. somnifera may be considered chemotherapeutic agent against cancer, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphosarcoma.