A comparative study on anti-hyperalgesia effect of MTA and Ketoprofen in inflammatory pain

INTRODUCTION: Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) is an endodontic material with different clinical applications e.g. root-end filling, pulp capping and perforation repair.  It has been reported to possess antimicrobial and antifungal activities. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of White MTA on formalin-induced hyperalgesia in a rat with inflammatory pain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Inflammatory pain was induced by subcutaneous (SC) injection of formalin (40 µL, 2.5%) into the rat upper lip. The nociceptive behavioral responses i.e. shaking of the lower jaw and face rubbing were quantified. 40 µL of eugenol (50 mg/kg), WMTA (20 mg/0.2 mL) or ketoprofen were injected solely or in combination with formalin 2.5% and the behavioral responses were compared with those observed after formalin treatment alone. One-way ANOVA, Tukey were used for analysis of data. RESULTS: Formalin 2.5% provoked a biphasic nociceptive response, with an early and short lasting first tonic phase followed by a second phase. Solely SC injection of either WMTA or ketoprofen (a non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) did not stimulate any significant nociceptive behaviour. However, injection of eugenol (a pain relieving agent) induced the early phase not the tonic phase of nociceptive response. WMTA, eugenol or ketoprofen injection 20 min before formalin injection attenuated the first phase but somehow prevented the induction of the second phase of nociceptive responses which were produced by formalin. Behavioural nociceptive responses including shaking of the lower jaw and face rubbing were significantly reduced when the subject was pretreated with either WMTA or ketoprofen (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: In this study, WMTA induced pain reduction by suppression of the formalin-induced nociceptive response

Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017

Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2—to end preventable child deaths by 2030—we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000–2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations

Impaired IL-23-dependent induction of IFN-gamma underlies mycobacterial disease in patients with inherited TYK2 deficiency

Human cells homozygous for rare loss-of-expression (LOE) TYK2 alleles have impaired, but not abolished, cellular responses to IFN-alpha/beta (underlying viral diseases in the patients) and to IL-12 and IL-23 (underlying mycobacterial diseases). Cells homozygous for the common P1104A TYK2 allele have selectively impaired responses to IL-23 (underlying isolated mycobacterial disease). We report three new forms of TYK2 deficiency in six patients from five families homozygous for rare TYK2 alleles (R864C, G996R, G634E, or G1010D) or compound heterozygous for P1104A and a rare allele (A928V). All these missense alleles encode detectable proteins. The R864C and G1010D alleles are hypomorphic and loss-of-function (LOF), respectively, across signaling pathways. By contrast, hypomorphic G996R, G634E, and A928V mutations selectively impair responses to IL-23, like P1104A. Impairment of the IL-23-dependent induction of IFN-gamma is the only mechanism of mycobacterial disease common to patients with complete TYK2 deficiency with or without TYK2 expression, partial TYK2 deficiency across signaling pathways, or rare or common partial TYK2 deficiency specific for IL-23 signaling.ANRS Nord-Sud ; CIBSS ; CODI ; Comité para el Desarrollo de la Investigación ; Fulbright Future Scholarshi

Assessing performance of the Healthcare Access and Quality Index, overall and by select age groups, for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Health-care needs change throughout the life course. It is thus crucial to assess whether health systems provide access to quality health care for all ages. Drawing from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019 (GBD 2019), we measured the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index overall and for select age groups in 204 locations from 1990 to 2019. Methods: We distinguished the overall HAQ Index (ages 0–74 years) from scores for select age groups: the young (ages 0–14 years), working (ages 15–64 years), and post-working (ages 65–74 years) groups. For GBD 2019, HAQ Index construction methods were updated to use the arithmetic mean of scaled mortality-to-incidence ratios (MIRs) and risk-standardised death rates (RSDRs) for 32 causes of death that should not occur in the presence of timely, quality health care. Across locations and years, MIRs and RSDRs were scaled from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) separately, putting the HAQ Index on a different relative scale for each age group. We estimated absolute convergence for each group on the basis of whether the HAQ Index grew faster in absolute terms between 1990 and 2019 in countries with lower 1990 HAQ Index scores than countries with higher 1990 HAQ Index scores and by Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile. SDI is a summary metric of overall development. Findings: Between 1990 and 2019, the HAQ Index increased overall (by 19·6 points, 95% uncertainty interval 17·9–21·3), as well as among the young (22·5, 19·9–24·7), working (17·2, 15·2–19·1), and post-working (15·1, 13·2–17·0) age groups. Large differences in HAQ Index scores were present across SDI levels in 2019, with the overall index ranging from 30·7 (28·6–33·0) on average in low-SDI countries to 83·4 (82·4–84·3) on average in high-SDI countries. Similarly large ranges between low-SDI and high-SDI countries, respectively, were estimated in the HAQ Index for the young (40·4–89·0), working (33·8–82·8), and post-working (30·4–79·1) groups. Absolute convergence in HAQ Index was estimated in the young group only. In contrast, divergence was estimated among the working and post-working groups, driven by slow progress in low-SDI countries. Interpretation: Although major gaps remain across levels of social and economic development, convergence in the young group is an encouraging sign of reduced disparities in health-care access and quality. However, divergence in the working and post-working groups indicates that health-care access and quality is lagging at lower levels of social and economic development. To meet the needs of ageing populations, health systems need to improve health-care access and quality for working-age adults and older populations while continuing to realise gains among the young. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Understanding lexical and orthographic processing of Persian : the role of age of acquisition

The primary aim of this thesis is to understand the mechanism of word processing in an Indo-European language (i.e. Persian) with a borrowed Semitic script (i.e. Arabic) using a psycholinguistic approach. This research reports fresh psycholinguistic norms for the psycholinguistic properties of object (picture) names and written word stimuli for Persian for the first time and investigates the effect of these properties on lexical retrieval and more specifically oral reading for both normal and impaired Persian speakers. The main hypothesis studied is whether there is an independent effect of the age of acquisition (AoA) of a word on lexical retrieval in Persian and the locus of this effect on adult lexical processing using behavioural, event related potential (ERP) and neuro-linguistic experiments. The predictions tested are that (a) words learnt earlier in life have a processing advantage i.e. faster processing time and fewer errors in lexical retrieval (b) AoA leaves a neural signature on lexical processing and (c) and that AoA preserves lexical retrieval in Persian speakers who have brain damage. The results of the study broadly confirmed these predictions. The key finding is that although AoA has an effect on lexical retrieval in Persian (Z =9.25, p < .00001), the effect of this variable is more pronounced when the mapping between input and output is more arbitrary such as for oral reading of written words with relatively opaque spellings (Z =-2.00, p < .05). Normal and aphasic speakers of Persian both read opaque words less efficiently than transparent words (Z =3.93, p < .0001), especially when these words are acquired later in life (Z =2.48, p < .05). Crucially, the evidence from patients with aphasia revealed that oral reading in Persian requires both semantic and nonsemantic routes due to varying degrees of orthography to phonology transparency in Persian. The theoretical implications of the thesis are (1) AoA has an independent and durable effect on lexical retrieval during both spoken and written word processing tasks for Persian speakers (2) AoA clusters with psycholinguistic properties that have a semantic quality rather than simply reflecting token frequency of exposure and (3) a semantic locus for the effect of AoA was confirmed using ERPs suggesting a neural signature of the AoA effect located in the (semantic) N400 F(1,22) = 9.35, p < .01 and LPC components F(1,22) = 21.18, p <.0001. The primary conclusion is that AoA has an effect on spoken and written word processing in Persian a prototypical example of an Indo-European language with a Semitic script.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph

Mehdi Bakhtiar's Quick Files

The Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity

Mehdi Bakhtiar's Quick Files

The Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity