بحوث سكوبس — د.حسنين كامل حسن عوض

This study explores public awareness of healthy lifestyle practices in the Babylon Governorate (Iraq), with a particular focus on Hillah city and its surrounding districts. The research investigates perceptions and engagement in behaviours that promote well-being and mitigate the risk of chronic disease. Data were collected from 391 participants between December 23, 2022, and February 9, 2023. Socio-demo-graphic variation was minimal, except in relation to marital status, age, body mass index (BMI), family size, and occupation. Notably, fe-male participants demonstrated significantly greater familiarity with the concept of the food pyramid compared to their male counterparts (p<0.05). While many respondents reported adherence to healthy habits – such as adequate sleep, stress management, hydration, and general nutritional awareness – only a small proportion engaged in regular physical activity or consistently applied food pyramid prin-ciples to their dietary choices. This discrepancy suggests a gap between nutritional knowledge and actual dietary behavior. Overall, awareness of healthy living did not differ significantly between urban and rural populations within the Babylon Governorate. © 2025, ZITA Medical Management. All rights reserved.

Introduction: Over-the-counter (OTC) medications play a vital role in global healthcare systems by offering accessible treatment options for minor ailments. However, the growing use of OTC drugs in Iraq raises concerns regarding pharmacists’ knowledge, safety perceptions, and dispensing practices. Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted among 529 licensed pharmacists from January to March 2025 across all major Iraqi regions. The questionnaire assessed demographics, familiarity with OTC drugs, safety attitudes, and dispensing behaviors. Results: Most participants (95.4%) reported familiarity with OTC medications and frequent encounters with self-medicating patients, particularly in the Central and Southern regions. NSAIDs were the most commonly recommended OTC category (71.8%). Significant regional differences were observed in familiarity, frequency of self-medication, and safety perceptions (p = 0.0071, 0.00088, and 0.045, respectively). Pharmacists with less than 5 years of experience were more likely to report adverse drug reactions (p = 0.0332) and to inquire about patients’ OTC use (p = 0.1035). Overall, younger pharmacists and those practicing in the Kurdistan region demonstrated greater familiarity with OTC medicines, while neutral safety perceptions and practice in Southern Iraq were associated with lower familiarity. Conclusion: Iraqi pharmacists demonstrate generally strong awareness and proactive attitudes toward OTC medication use. Nonetheless, gaps remain in adverse reaction reporting and drug interaction recognition. Implementing standardized continuing education and structured OTC safety training could enhance practice consistency and promote safer self-medication behaviors nationwide. Copyright © 2025 AbdElrahman, D. Al-Rekabi, Ali Al-Oudah, M. Fayed and Kamil Owadh.

Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory dermatosis characterized by thickened, reddened, and scaly skin lesions. Norfloxacin is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic with enhanced antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory bioactivities. The aim of this study was to figure out the possible impact of topical norfloxacin on an imiquimod-induced model of psoriasis in mice. Thirty albino-type mice were split into five distinct groups of six animals each. The control group included healthy mice that had not received any treatment. The induction group was given the vehicle 2 h after the topical imiquimod, once daily for 8 days. Two hours after receiving topical imiquimod, the treatment groups including calcipotriol, norfloxacin 2.5%, and norfloxacin 5% were given topical ointments containing calcipotriol 0.005%, norfloxacin 2.5%, and norfloxacin 5%, for 8 days. Topical norfloxacin ointment significantly reduced the severity of imiquimod-exacerbated psoriatic lesions including erythema, shiny-white scaling, and acanthosis and fixed histological abnormalities. Furthermore, imiquimod-subjected mice treated with a higher concentration of norfloxacin ointment exhibited dramatically lower skin levels of inflammation-related biomarkers like IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-17A, IL-23, and TGF-β but higher levels of IL-10. They also demonstrated a notable decrease in angiogenesis parameters such as VEGF and IL-8, a substantial reduction in oxidative indicators like MDA and MPO, and a considerable rise in antioxidant enzymes like SOD and CAT. This study offers novel evidence that norfloxacin may assist in controlling inflammatory dermatoses like psoriasis by minimizing the severity of psoriatic plaques, correcting histological alterations, and diminishing the production of inflammatory, oxidative, and angiogenetic parameters. © 2024 American Chemical Society.

The antimicrobial activity of the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Myrtus communis, Ammi visnaga, and Equisetum arvense was investigated against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans by using the agar well diffusion method. Serial concentrations (15%, 30%, and 50%) of the extracts of each plant were tested and compared with gentamicin (10 μg) and fluconazole (25 μg). Most of the extract concentrations showed a relatively high antimicrobial activity against all the tested microbes, and the ethanolic extract was more effective than the aqueous extract. The activity of plant extracts increased with the increasing extract concentration of Myrtus communis, which appeared to possess a more antimicrobial activity than the other plants assessed; in fact, its ethanolic extract exhibited the highest inhibition zone against S. aureus (32 mm). The ethanolic plant extracts at a concentration of 50% displayed the maximum activity against the herein assessed isolates. Moreover, E. coli showed a higher sensitivity to most extracts, while the lowest effect being noticed on C. albicans. © 2024 by the authors. Licensee PHARMAKON-Press, Athens, Greece.

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of the ithmid kohl/zinc-oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs), ithmid kohl/Aloe vera, and ZnONPs/Aloe vera in the treatment of bacterial endophthalmitis. The endophthalmitis model was prepared by contaminating both eyes of 24 healthy adult male albino rabbits with a clinical isolate of Klebsiella pneumoniae. The animals were randomly divided into eight groups (A-H) according to the treatment. Group A received 1 ml of ithmid kohl/ZnONPs ointment, group B received 1 ml of ithmid kohl/Aloe vera gel ointment, group C received 1 ml of ZnONPs/Aloe vera gel ointment, and groups D, E, and F were treated with 1 ml of ithmid kohl solution (0.5 g/ml in distilled water), 1 ml of ZnONPs (0.5 g/ml) colloidal dispersion, and 1 ml of Aloe vera gel, respectively. Group G received 100 μl of a tetracycline antibiotic solution (final concentration: 16 µg/ml), and group H received sterile distilled water (no treatment). In vitro antibacterial activity was evaluated against K. pneumoniae using the agar well diffusion. The combination of ithmid kohl/ZnONPs was the most effective formulation for treating endophthalmitis model in infected rabbits within 2 days. In vitro antibacterial assay confirmed the potential of the ithmid kohl/ZnONPs formulation, which had the largest zone of inhibition (31 mm) among the compounds tested. The preparation of the ithmid kohl/ZnONPs formulation and its in vivo experiment in albino rabbits for the treatment of bacterial endophthalmitis was an innovative approach that has shown promise and may potentially serve as a viable alternative in clinical practice. © The Author(s) 2024.

Background: Students’ lifestyles and eating habits can be disturbed due to their busy work schedule. Objectives: This study is aimed to assess the prevalence of healthy habits among students from the private colleges of pharmacy and Physical Education Sport Sciences in Iraq. Materials and Methods: A total of 358 students of Al-Mustaqbal University in Babylon province, Iraq were participated in this cross-sectional study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a predesigned questionnaire, which includes questions on the student’s sociodemographic information, weight status, meal habits, smoking status, alcohol use, fried food consumption, and overall fruits and vegetables intake. The Statistical Program for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to determine descriptive statistics. Results: Students’ body mass index (BMI) revealed that 2.9% of male students were underweight, 51.2% were normal, and 37.3% were overweight, whereas 6.4% of female students were underweight, 64% were normal, and 26.4% were overweight. Eating irregularly was highly reported between females and males (P < 0.001). More students in sports science eat breakfast daily compared with students in pharmacy. Of the total sample, 37.1% and 44.4% of students reported regularly snacking and consuming fried food, respectively. Female student smoking was reported (P < 0.001). Students reported rarely drinking alcohol. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicated that students attending private college had lifestyle behaviors that range from healthy to unhealthy. These behaviors were potentially affected by gender and college type. © 2024 Medical Journal of Babylon | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow.

Background: Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) to the liver causes inflammatory and oxidative stress events, as well as hepatocyte apoptosis and liver injury. In this study, we investigated whether infliximab, DMF, and their combination reduced ROS production in rat livers and played a protective role in the pathogenesis of I/R-induced liver injury in rats. Aim: study the role of infliximab, DMF, and their combination in hepatic I/R injury. Methods: 5 groups of 40 male rats were randomized in the following groups: G1; sham: G2 control; ischemia-reperfusion (I/R): Rats were subjected 60-minute ischemia then 90-minute reperfusion., G3: I/R+IFX (I/R+IFX peritoneally administration of 7 mg/kg body weight 72 hrs. before I/R), G4; I/R+DMF (I/R+DMF peritoneally at a dose of 30 mg/kg body weight on 72 hrs. before I/R), and G5; I/R + Comb (IFX peritoneally 7 mg/kg +DMF 30 mg/kg body weight). Results: Infliximab, DMF pre-treatment (7 g/kg, 30 mg/kg body weight, respectively), and their combination for 3 days before ischemia lowered ALT, AST, and TNF-α in the rat liver, while elevated GSH-Px level, and reduced liver injury. Pretreatment with the same combination dramatically lowered ALT, AST, and TNF-α and increased the level of GSH-Px. Conclusion: Infliximab is a powerful TNF-α blocker and DMF is a master oxidative stress regulator. Both drugs limit ROS release and cell death signaling which protects the hepatocytes from injury during liver ischemia reperfusion. © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

Autophagy processes are essential biological mechanisms control human cell survival and induction of cell death. Many researches indicate that cancer cells growth is affected by inhibition or induction of autophagy processes and laryngeal cancer "the most common type of head and neck cancer" is one of various types of tumors which effected by autophagy process. Numerous articles studied impact of adding autophagy inhibiter to cancer treatment protocol, and the current work study the in-vitro anticancer effect of doxorubicin alone and in combination with an autophagy inhibitor agent hydroxychloroquine against HEp-2 (laryngeal cancer) cell line. The present study suggested valuable effect of doxorubicin anticancer activity against HEp-2 cell line when used after hydroxychloroquine pretreatment, which may play promising role in treatment of laryngeal cancer. © 2022 Marmara University Press.

The rapid spread of the SARS-Cov-2 virus, the increase in the number of patients with severe COVID-19, and the high mortality rate created the basis for the production of safe and effective vaccines. Studies have confirmed the increased risk of severe Covid-19 disease and mortality in cancer patients. It is logical that cancer patients should be the first to receive the primary vaccination and the booster vaccine for Covid-19. Since studies related to cancer patients and the effectiveness of existing Covid-19 vaccines have not been widely conducted, there are significant uncertainties about the effectiveness of the vaccine and the level of humoral and cellular immune responses in these patients. As a result, the possible risks and side effects of existing vaccines are not clear for patients with different cancers who are undergoing special treatments. In this study, we will discuss the effectiveness and safety of existing vaccines on cancer patients. In addition, we highlight factors that could affect the effectiveness of vaccines in these patients and finally discuss opportunities and challenges related to vaccination in cancer patients. Copyright © 2022 Al-qaim, Owadh, Ali, Hussein, Ameen, Kolemen, Washi and Jalil.