Search

The present study aimed to explore the Cryptosporidium in 90 patients (human stool) selected from a private laboratory in Baghdad/Iraq during the period of study in (2019), by using the modified acidfast Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) stain to identify the oocyst of parasite in all samples, evaluate the prevalence of the parasite between males and females and for evaluate the relationship of the parasite and age of patients in this study. This study showed that the total number of infected patients is 40 from 90 taken samples. The result of this study showed no significant differences (p<0.01) appeared between the males and females of the study, the number of infected patients is (17 females out of 40 and 23 males out of 50). And there were significant differences (p<0.01) between the younger ages that was more affected than the older patients (33.33% and 6.66%) Respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the start of the pandemic of COVID-19, it was clear that vaccination was the best way to combat it. A few vaccines were produced and approved in the last year. Many questions about the vaccinations' efficacy and safety arose due to this unprecedented vaccine development effort. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term side effects after receiving the available COVID-19 vaccines by the students of the Kut university college. This research was conducted as a cross-sectional, retrospective study using an online questionnaire distributed among COVID-19 vaccine recipients. The number of students who are enrolled in this study is 804, nearly (81%) of our study subjects were symptomatic after receiving the vaccination. Participants with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection, comorbid diseases, females, non-smokers, and AstraZeneca vaccine receivers showed significantly (p<0.05) more severe side effects. In conclusion, the side effects described by our undergraduate students after receiving vaccinations from Pfizer BioNTech, Oxford AstraZeneca, and Sinopharm are similar to those reported in clinical trials, showing that these vaccines have safe profiles. More research is needed to assess the efficiency of current vaccinations in preventing SARS-CoV-2 reinfections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autologous T cells genetically engineered to express chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) have shown promising outcomes and emerged as a new curative option for hematological malignancy, especially malignant neoplasm of B cells. Notably, when T cells are transduced with CAR constructs, composed of the antigen recognition domain of monoclonal antibodies, they retain their cytotoxic properties in a major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-independent manner. Despite its beneficial effect, the current CAR T cell therapy approach faces myriad challenges in solid tumors, including immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), tumor antigen heterogeneity, stromal impediment, and tumor accessibility, as well as tribulations such as on-target/off-tumor toxicity and cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Herein, we highlight the complications that hamper the effectiveness of CAR T cells in solid tumors and the strategies that have been recommended to overcome these hurdles and improve infused T cell performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]