Objective: This study was employed to assess the effects of Ramadan fasting on anthropometric measures, blood pressure, and lipid profile among hypertensive patients. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among a representative sample, which was selected using a census survey of hypertensive patients (both gender, aged 25–50 years, on regular antihypertensive drugs (atenolol: 50 mg orally once a day)), during Ramadan month that was falling in April to May 2020. The patients were receiving care at Halabja hospital in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. All patients were assessed in two phase’s baseline (a week before Ramadan) and end stage (a week after Ramadan), using anthropometric indices, physical examination, biochemical tests, and a structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 21. Results: A total of 120 hypertensive patients were included in the study (50% females and 50% males), with a mean age of 37.5 ± 6.6 years. The major finding of our study was the significant decrease in blood pressure (P < 0.001). Furthermore, the body weight, body mass index, and waist circumference of the participants decreased after Ramadan fasting in a significant approach (P < 0.001 for all). However, for the lipid profile components, the total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol change persisted not statistically significant (P > 0.05), while only triglyceride decreased drastically after Ramadan fasting (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Ramadan fasting could contribute in the improvement of blood pressure and lowers triglyceride levels, body weight, body mass index, and waist circumference of adult hypertensive patients.
COVID-19 is an infectious pandemic disease which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Up to date, scientists are trying to identify a new specific antiviral drug to overcome this disease. Different methods are under study and evaluation in the entire world to control the virus, including blood plasma, blood purification, and antimicrobial and antiviral agents; however, there are no approved drugs yet. This review is focused on the conducted clinical trials worldwide, including the Iraq- Kurdistan region, China, USA, and Europe, to find relevant data on the agents with potential efficacy to treat the COVID-19 infection. The utmost commonly assessed therapies for this disease were chloroquine phosphate, hydroxyl-chloroquine, azithromycin, lopinavir/ritonavir, favipiravir, remdesivir, and alternatively, blood plasma, ivermectin in combination with doxycycline, and dexamethazone. This review suggests that blood plasma transfusion, the combination of hydroxyl-chloroquine with azithromycin, and remdesivir were the most abundant and efficient therapies. Thus, more light could be shed on these particular drugs on the road of drug investigation against COVID-19 pneumonia.
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.
Streptomyces species have been an important source of bioactive secondary metabolites and clinically useful for antibiotic production, including fosfomycin, daptomycin, oxytetracycline, streptomycin, and chloramphenicol. The main objective of this study was to isolate actinomycetes, especially Streptomyces from 8 soil samples that collected from two different places, which are districts in Sulaimani governorate, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Totally, 30 diagnostic tests were carried out for representative of isolated Streptomyces depending on the color groups. The 16Sr DNA gene was sequenced, for ten isolated test strains were amplified with 2 universal primers after extraction of genomic DNA, only 8 of them were successfully sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis of 8 test strains carried out using base sequences of 16Sr DNA genes in the core genome. Four of isolated test strains were identified as a Streptomyces fulvissimus, and others were nominated as a Streptomyces anulatus. The obtained sequence data were compared with the sequence data of the closest related species in the international databases using EzTaxon Server program and (%) similarities were determined. Finally, phylogenetic analysis indicated that isolated test strains were nominated as (H001, H002, H003, and H004), which recognized members of the S. anulatus and the similarity with their type strain is 99.93%. Whereas, other four isolated test strains, including D001, D002, D003, and D004 recognized as members of the S. fulvissimus and similarity with their type strain is 100%.
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