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Introduction: COVID-19 is a new type of coronavirus that infects humans and causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Isolated in Wuhan City, China, in December 2019. Similar to discoveries relating to the coronaviruses that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Levels of cytokines (Interleukin-6, Interleukin-1 β ), iron and hemoglobin changed during COVID-19 disease. Hepcidin is an iron regulatory protein that is encoded by the HAMP gene .  Material and Methods : Serum IL-6, IL-1 β , Hepcidin are measured by an ELISA kit and Iron ,UIBC , TIBC are measured by colorimetric methods. The genotyping was done by the ARM-PCR technique with a specific set of primers. Results : The difference in Hb and serum iron levels, UIBC, TIBC, IL-1, IL-6, and Hepcidin conc. between the patient and recovery groups is statistically significant at P≤ 0.05 . No significant difference between the two groups in hepcidin gene polymorphism because of Polymorphisms of the hepcidin gene appeared in the two groups (in most samples). Conclusions: The persons  involved in this study are (most of them) heterozygous, and this indicates the presence of the mutation allele in the two groups , and it may be one of the reasons for the deficiency in hepcidin that appeared in this study.

A bench-scale bioreactor with a five-liter working volume was used to carry out a simultaneous biological nitrification-denitrification (SBND) of an aqueous solution simulating refinery wastewater. The bioreactor was also used to perform a similar scheme of experiments on real refinery wastewater (RRW). Despite the higher salinity of the RRW, the obtained results of the two cases demonstrated a fair trend agreement, but a lower nitrogen removal efficiency for the RRW. Anaerobic bacteria (Phenobacter) was successfully adapted to perform nitrification (aerobic) and denitrification (anaerobic) processes. Dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved salts (TDS), and nitrate (NO3 −) ions were periodically measured (each 1 hour) to determine the time for the nitrification and denitrification. The time for nitrification was around 4 hours and the time for denitrification was approximately 3 hours (75% of the nitrification time). The minimum and maximum values of the pH, COD, TDS, and NO3 − ions at the start and the end of the nitrification-denitrification processes were 7.3-8.5, 318-585, 779.88-7710, and 2.4-56 respectively for the aqueous solution, while their range was 7.3-8.3, 310-660, 4736.9-8086, and 5.6-78 respectively for the RRW. The nitrogen removal efficiencies of the aqueous solution and the RRW were 95% and 87% respectively. The results prove the successful adaptation of an aerobic bacteria (Phenobacter) for nitrifying and denitrifying a refinery wastewater and reducing the investment and operational costs of the wastewater treatment plant.

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