The College of Nursing family, represented by the Dean (Assistant Professor Ihsan Hassan Zainal), extends its sincere congratulations to lecturer Sarah Kassab Shindawi on obtaining her PhD in Medical Microbiology.
Her doctoral thesis, entitled “Immunological and Genetic Indicators of Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Active and Latent Infections,” was discussed on October 18, 2022, in the discussion hall of the Microbiology Department, College of Medicine, University of Babylon, under the supervision of Professor Jawad Kazim Tarad and Dr. Ahmed Asmar Mankhi.
The study aimed to identify some immune and genetic indicators at two stages during the development of tuberculosis and evaluate their role as prognostic markers in patients with active and latent tuberculosis. The research was designed as a case-control study and conducted from February to September 2021 at the National Tuberculosis Institute/Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory in Baghdad. Of the 140 suspected patients, 60 were confirmed to have active pulmonary TB based on positive results from at least one form of bacillary staining, bacterial culture, or Gene Xpert molecular testing. Participants with suspected latent TB were diagnosed using the QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT-Plus assay), which measures the amount of gamma interferon released from CD4 and CD8 cells. Serum levels of IL-17A and IL-18 in patients with pulmonary and latent TB were measured using ELISA. The molecular study included the identification of the rs1946518 C>A genetic variant of the IL-18 gene and the rs2275913 G>A genetic variant of the IL17A gene in the active and latent tuberculosis group by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. Molecular typing of the rs7580900, rs7580912, and rs9061 genetic variants of the Sp110 gene in the latent tuberculosis group was also performed by Sanger Sequencing method.