The effect of radiotherapy and chemotherapy on osmotic fragility of red blood cells and plasma levels of malondialdehyde in patients with breast cancer

Background: Gamma radiation effects on the erythrocyte membrane from three different functional parts, lipid bilayer, cytoskeleton and protein components. When the red cell membrane is exposed to radiation, it loses its integrity and hemoglobin leaks out. In addition, irradiation leads to lipid peroxidation and the products of this process, leading to hemolysis. The aim of the present study was to measure osmotic fragility (OF) of red blood cells and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels as a marker of oxidative injury in breast cancer patients treated with radiation and chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: The OF test was performed using different concentrations of a salt solution. The measurement of MDA was done with chemical methods.11 The sampling was taken during three stages of treatment: first sample was taken before starting chemotherapy, the second sample was taken before radiation therapy and the third sample was taken after radiotherapy. Results: No statistically significant differences between levels of MDA in these three stages of treatment were observed. However, the comparison of mean levels of MDA showed an increase after radiotherapy. The OF rate did not show significant difference (P > 0.05) during the stages of treatment. Conclusion: In a standard treatment program of radiotherapy and chemotherapy lipid peroxidation level and OF do not significantly increase. © 2014 Greater Poland Cancer Centre

Pembingkaian Berita Media Online : Kasus Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan sebagai Tenaga Kerja Wanita (TKW)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana suatu realitas kejadian dikonstruksi oleh media online khususnya pemberitaan tentang kasus Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan sebagai Tenaga Kerja Wanita (TKW). Penelitian ini menggunakan paradigma konstruksionis. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah penelitian kualitatif deskriptif, dengan analisis framing untuk melihat bagaimana media online seperti Tempo.co dan Republika online dalam membingkai pemberitaan kasus kekerasan terhadap perempuan. Penelitian ini menggunakan teori yang diberikan oleh Zhongdang Pan dan Gerald M Kosicki. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pemberitaan yang dilakukan Republika online cenderung bersikap netral dalam menyikapi kasus kekerasan TKW yang menimpa Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, sedangkan media Tempo.co memiliki kecenderungan kontra terhadap pemerintah. Media Tempo.co mengkonstruksikan dan mengarahkan pembaca untuk menilai Pemerintah sebagai pihak yang bersalah. Ketika pembaca melihat isi pemberitaan Tempo.co, yang terlintas dan diingat pembaca adalah pihak pemerintah seperti BNP2TKI merupakan pihak yang tidak bertanggung jawab atas penyebab berulangnya kasus penyiksaan TKI, baik dalam hal pengawasan TKW maupun membantu penyelesaian administrasi rumah sakit dimana Erwiana di rawat. Media Tempo.co menunjukkan kecenderungannya untuk mendukung Erwiana sebagai korban. Selain itu layaknya media online umumnya, headline menjadi salah satu senjata utama dalam menarik perhatian masyarakat untuk membacanya begitu juga dengan Tempo maupun Republika. Ini berarti, media online seperti Tempo dan Republika lebih menjual headline dalam tiap pemberitaan disajikan dan kadang mengesampingkan konten berita itu sendir

GAD1 mRNA Expression and DNA Methylation in Prefrontal Cortex of Subjects with Schizophrenia

Dysfunction of prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia includes changes in GABAergic mRNAs, including decreased expression of GAD1, encoding the 67 kDa glutamate decarboxylase (GAD67) GABA synthesis enzyme. The underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Alterations in DNA methylation as an epigenetic regulator of gene expression are thought to play a role but this hypothesis is difficult to test because no techniques are available to extract DNA from GAD1 expressing neurons efficiently from human postmortem brain. Here, we present an alternative approach that is based on immunoprecipitation of mononucleosomes with anti-methyl-histone antibodies differentiating between sites of potential gene expression as opposed to repressive or silenced chromatin. Methylation patterns of CpG dinucleotides at the GAD1 proximal promoter and intron 2 were determined for each of the two chromatin fractions separately, using a case-control design for 14 schizophrenia subjects affected by a decrease in prefrontal GAD1 mRNA levels. In controls, the methylation frequencies at CpG dinucleotides, while overall higher in repressive as compared to open chromatin, did not exceed 5% at the proximal GAD1 promoter and 30% within intron 2. Subjects with schizophrenia showed a significant, on average 8-fold deficit in repressive chromatin-associated DNA methylation at the promoter. These results suggest that chromatin remodeling mechanisms are involved in dysregulated GABAergic gene expression in schizophrenia

Replacing Sugar by Date Syrup in Gaz and Investigation of Texture Properties

Date Syrup is a natural sweetener that is suitable replacement for sugar in food stuffs formulation. In this Research Amounts of 25-100 percent of sugar in Gaz formulation were replaced with date syrup and to study effect of its use in product formulation, characteristics of texture, color and sensory analyse of treatments were investigated. Statistical analyse of data was also done by SPSS software and Dankan test. The results of this research showed that amount of used date syrup in formulation had a significant effect on color parameters (L*,a*,b*), texture characteristics and sensory analyse of samples. By increase of date syrup in Gaz formulation, samples texture became softer than control sample and yellowness and redness index of samples were increasedDoi: DOI: 10.12777/ijse.6.1.11-15 [How to cite this article: Shafiei, Z., Hojjatoleslami, M., Soha, S., and Shariati, M.A. 2014. The Influence of Malt Extraction Adding to UF Fresh Low Fat Cheese on Its Textural Properties. International Journal of Science and Engineering, 6(1):57-60. Doi: 10.12777/ijse.6.1.11-1

Designing an artificial neural network for prediction of pregnancy outcomes in women with systemic lupus erythematosus in Iran

Background: Pregnancy in women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is still introduced as a major challenge. Consulting before pregnancy in these patients is essential in order to estimating the risk of undesirable maternal and fetal outcomes by using appropriate information. The purpose of this study was to develop an artificial neural network for prediction of pregnancy outcomes including spontaneous abortion and live birth in SLE. Methods: In a retrospective study, forty-five variables were identified as effective factors for prediction of pregnancy outcomes in systemic lupus erythematosus. Data of 104 pregnancies in women with systemic lupus erythematosus in Shariati Hospital and 45 pregnancies in a private specialized center in Tehran from 1982 to 2014 in August and September, 2014 were collected and analyzed. For feature selection, information of the 149 pregnancies was analyzed with a binary logistic regression model in SPSS software, version 20 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). These selected variables were used for inputs of neural networks in MATLAB software, version R2013b (MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA, USA). A Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) network with scaled conjugate gradient (trainscg) back propagation learning algorithm has been designed and evaluated for this purpose. We used confusion matrix for evaluation. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity were calculated from the confusion matrix. Results: Twelve features with P<0.05 and four features with P<0.1 were identified by using binary logistic regression as effective features. These sixteen features were used as input variables in artificial neural networks. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the test data for the MLP network were 90.9, 80.0, and 94.1 respectively and for the total data were 97.3, 93.5, and 99.0 respectively. Conclusion: According to the results, we concluded that feed-forward Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network with scaled conjugate gradient (trainscg) back propagation learning algorithm can help physicians to predict the pregnancy outcomes (spontaneous abortion and live birth) among pregnant women with lupus by using identified effective variables. © 2015, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Rupture of Splenic Artery Aneurysm With Portal Hypertension During Pregnancy: A Case Report

Background: Spontaneous rupture of a splenic artery aneurysm (SAA) during pregnancy is a rare event with catastrophic consequences. This report presents a case of SAA associated with portal hypertension that ruptured during pregnancy with maternal survival. Case: A 27-year-old primigravid woman at 31 weeks of gestation presented to the Emergency Department at Pars Hospital in Tehran, Iran with sudden onset of severe abdominal pain. She was in obvious distress with blood pressure of 90/50 mm Hg and a pulse rate of 110 beats per minute. Abdominal ultrasound confirmed free fluid in the peritoneal cavity. The patient was immediately transferred to the operating room. An infant delivered by Caesarean section died shortly thereafter. There was no evidence of placental abruption, but about 2 L of blood was noted in the abdominal cavity. A ruptured SAA was found. Proximal ligation of the splenic artery was performed followed by splenectomy. The patient did well and was discharged on the eighth postoperative day. Conclusion: This case illustrates the need to consider ruptured SAA as part of differential diagnosis of hemoperitoneum in pregnant women. Immediate surgical intervention is needed to ensure survival of mother and fetus. © 2006 Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada

Epigenetics in the nervous system

It is becoming increasingly clear that epigenetic modifications are critical factors in the regulation of gene expression. With regard to the nervous system, epigenetic alterations play a role in a diverse set of processes and have been implicated in a variety of disorders. Gaining a more complete understanding of the essential components and underlying mechanisms involved in epigenetic regulation could lead to novel treatments for a number of neurological and psychiatric conditions

Disease- and age-related changes in histone acetylation at gene promoters in psychiatric disorders

Increasing evidence suggests that epigenetic factors have critical roles in gene regulation in neuropsychiatric disorders and in aging, both of which are typically associated with a wide range of gene expression abnormalities. Here, we have used chromatin immunoprecipitation-qPCR to measure levels of acetylated histone H3 at lysines 9/14 (ac-H3K9K14), two epigenetic marks associated with transcriptionally active chromatin, at the promoter regions of eight schizophrenia-related genes in n=82 postmortem prefrontal cortical samples from normal subjects and those with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We find that promoter-associated ac-H3K9K14 levels are correlated with gene expression levels, as measured by real-time qPCR for several genes, including, glutamic acid decarboxylase 1 (GAD1), 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 2C (HTR2C), translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane 70 homolog A (TOMM70A) and protein phosphatase 1E (PPM1E). Ac-H3K9K14 levels of several of the genes tested were significantly negatively associated with age in normal subjects and those with bipolar disorder, but not in subjects with schizophrenia, whereby low levels of histone acetylation were observed in early age and throughout aging. Consistent with this observation, significant hypoacetylation of H3K9K14 was detected in young subjects with schizophrenia when compared with age-matched controls. Our results demonstrate that gene expression changes associated with psychiatric disease and aging result from epigenetic mechanisms involving histone acetylation. We further find that treatment with a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor alters the expression of several candidate genes for schizophrenia in mouse brain. These findings may have therapeutic implications for the clinical use of HDAC inhibitors in psychiatric disorders

Chromatin architecture in addiction circuitry identifies risk genes and potential biological mechanisms underlying cigarette smoking and alcohol use traits

Cigarette smoking and alcohol use are among the most prevalent substances used worldwide and account for a substantial proportion of preventable morbidity and mortality, underscoring the public health significance of understanding their etiology. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified genetic variants associated with cigarette smoking and alcohol use traits. However, the vast majority of risk variants reside in non-coding regions of the genome, and their target genes and neurobiological mechanisms are unknown. Chromosomal conformation mappings can address this knowledge gap by charting the interaction profiles of risk-associated regulatory variants with target genes. To investigate the functional impact of common variants associated with cigarette smoking and alcohol use traits, we applied Hi-C coupled MAGMA (H-MAGMA) built upon cortical and newly generated midbrain dopaminergic neuronal Hi-C datasets to GWAS summary statistics of nicotine dependence, cigarettes per day, problematic alcohol use, and drinks per week. The identified risk genes mapped to key pathways associated with cigarette smoking and alcohol use traits, including drug metabolic processes and neuronal apoptosis. Risk genes were highly expressed in cortical glutamatergic, midbrain dopaminergic, GABAergic, and serotonergic neurons, suggesting them as relevant cell types in understanding the mechanisms by which genetic risk factors influence cigarette smoking and alcohol use. Lastly, we identified pleiotropic genes between cigarette smoking and alcohol use traits under the assumption that they may reveal substance-agnostic, shared neurobiological mechanisms of addiction. The number of pleiotropic genes was ~26-fold higher in dopaminergic neurons than in cortical neurons, emphasizing the critical role of ascending dopaminergic pathways in mediating general addiction phenotypes. Collectively, brain region- and neuronal subtype-specific 3D genome architecture helps refine neurobiological hypotheses for smoking, alcohol, and general addiction phenotypes by linking genetic risk factors to their target genes

RNA methyltransferase NSun2 deficiency promotes neurodegeneration through epitranscriptomic regulation of tau phosphorylation.

Epitranscriptomic regulation adds a layer of post-transcriptional control to brain function during development and adulthood. The identification of RNA-modifying enzymes has opened the possibility of investigating the role epitranscriptomic changes play in the disease process. NOP2/Sun RNA methyltransferase 2 (NSun2) is one of the few known brain-enriched methyltransferases able to methylate mammalian non-coding RNAs. NSun2 loss of function due to autosomal-recessive mutations has been associated with neurological abnormalities in humans. Here, we show NSun2 is expressed in adult human neurons in the hippocampal formation and prefrontal cortex. Strikingly, we unravel decreased NSun2 protein expression and an increased ratio of pTau/NSun2 in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as demonstrated by Western blotting and immunostaining, respectively. In a well-established Drosophila melanogaster model of tau-induced toxicity, reduction of NSun2 exacerbated tau toxicity, while overexpression of NSun2 partially abrogated the toxic effects. Conditional ablation of NSun2 in the mouse brain promoted a decrease in the miR-125b m6A levels and tau hyperphosphorylation. Utilizing human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neuronal cultures, we confirmed NSun2 deficiency results in tau hyperphosphorylation. We also found that neuronal NSun2 levels decrease in response to amyloid-beta oligomers (AβO). Notably, AβO-induced tau phosphorylation and cell toxicity in human neurons could be rescued by overexpression of NSun2. Altogether, these results indicate that neuronal NSun2 deficiency promotes dysregulation of miR-125b and tau phosphorylation in AD and highlights a novel avenue for therapeutic targeting.post-print10112 K