Background: Foodborne botulism (FBB) is a rare paralyzing disease caused by ingestion of foods contaminated with botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT). It is still a health concern in many countries. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology of FBB in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Methods: Botulism surveillance data of the Health Deputy of Urmia Medical Sciences University, northwestern Iran ...

A modified bioassay system was designed to demonstrate the diffusible nature of endothelium-derived contracting factor(s) released by acetylcholine in the aorta of spontaneously hypertensive rat. In "sandwich"-like layered preparation, isometric tension was recorded from a bioassay strip (without endothelium) in the presence of N(G)-nitro-L-arginine and tetrahydrobiopterin to selectively potent...

PubChem (http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) is a public repository for biological activity data of small molecules and RNAi reagents. The mission of PubChem is to deliver free and easy access to all deposited data, and to provide intuitive data analysis tools. The PubChem BioAssay database currently contains 500,000 descriptions of assay protocols, covering 5000 protein targets, 30,000 gene targe...

Sediments from two rivers in China, the Haihe and Dagu Rivers, were examined for estrogenic activity using an estrogen receptor (ER)-mediated in vitro bioassay system. ER-active compounds were isolated from sediments by Soxhlet extraction, and the crude extracts were fractionated using a florisil column into three fractions. The estrogenic activity of each extract was detected by measuring luci...

the european corn borer (ecb) is one of the most important insect pests of corn and some other crops such as rice in iran. this pest is one of the most important hosts of the entomopathogenic fungus beauveria bassiana, a well known fungal entomopathogen with high host range and considerable potential in insect pest control. in an isolate selection program of fungal isolates against ecb, ten iso...

entomopathogenic fungi produce secondary metabolites which may bioactively help fungus in its virulence toward insect hosts. beauveria bassiana produces several toxic low molecular compounds in vitro as well as in vivo, the most important of them is beauvericin. the beh isolate of the fungus was selected for beauvericin assay. beauvericin was obtained from surface and submerged cultures of the ...

b a ckground: the present study was designed to investigate the insecticidal efficacy of four different classes of in-secticides: pyrethroids, organophosphates, phenyl-pyrazoles and neo-nicotenoids. one representative chemical from each class was selected to compare the toxicity: deltamethrin from pyrethroids, dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate (ddvp) from organophosphates, fipronil from phenyl-p...

Toxoplasma gondii is obligate coccidian zoonotic parasite. Felidae family is definitive and wide ranges of warm-blooded vertebrates are intermediate hosts for the parasite. Rodents are measured as an important source of T. gondii infection for the definitive host. Thus, this study aimed to investigate Toxoplasm infection in rodents of Ahvaz district, southwest of Iran. A total of 100 rodents (7...