Evaluation of Oxidative Stress and some Biochemical Parameters in Normal Pregnant Women

Pregnancy is associated with many metabolic changes in normal pregnant woman, this leads to change in physiological, biochemical, and hematological parameters drastically. The test subjects were selected among those attending to Maternity Teaching Hospital in Erbil Governorate between March 2017 and August 2017. Four groups of individuals were included in this study, 230 pregnant women divided into three groups (Group 1 first trimester, Group 2 second trimester, and Group 3 third trimester) and Group 4 contained 90 nonpregnant women as control. Full automatic chemical analyzer (Cobas C311, Germany) was used to determine the biochemical parameters. The EL ×800 Absorbance Microplate Reader from BioTek (USA) instruments is used to measure the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum. The results of this study showed a significant increase in serum albumin, glucose, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine, urea, cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and MDA in pregnant women as compared to the control group, also show significant decrease in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) level, SOD activity, and CAT activity in pregnant women as compared to nonpregnant women, and nonsignificant difference in uric acid, and HDL

Analyzing Colorectal Cancer at the Molecular Level through Next-generation Sequencing in Erbil City

Colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks as the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally. It is characterized as a genomic disorder marked by diverse genomic anomalies, including point mutations, genomic rearrangements, gene fusions, and alterations in chromosomal copy numbers. This research aims to identify previously undisclosed genetic variants associated with an increased risk of CRC by employing next-generation sequencing technology. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood specimens of five CRC patients. The sequencing data of the samples are utilized for variant identification. In addition, the Integrative Genomic Viewer software (IGV) is used to visualize the identified variants. Furthermore, various in silico tools, including Mutation Taster and Align GVGD, are used to predict the potential impact of mutations on structural features and protein function. Based on the findings of this research, 12 different genetic variations are detected among individuals with CRC. Inherited variations are located within the following genes: MSH6, MSH2, PTPRJ, PMS2, TP53, BRAF, APC, and PIK3CA