The effect of Saliva officinalis extract on the menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women: An RCT

Background: The menopausal symptoms are the most common problems in postmenopausal women. Due to the side effects of hormone replacement therapy, the use of medicinal herbs has increased for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Saliva officinal is on the decreasing of the severity of the menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: The study was performed on 30 postmenopausal women aged 46–58 yr referred to the healthcare center of Darab who experienced various degrees of postmenopausal symptoms. The severity of menopausal symptoms is recorded by a Menopause Rating Scale. Participants received a 100 mg capsule of sage extract daily for 4 wk. The severity of postmenopausal symptoms was compared before and after four weeks of the consumption of sage extract. Results: The results showed the severity of hot flashes, night sweats, panic, fatigue, and concentration had significant differences before and after the consumption of sage extract. Conclusion: It was concluded that Saliva officinal is were effective to change the severity of some of the menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women

Bioinformatics Study of the Effect of Brain-derived Neurogenic Factor (BDNF) on Gene Expression in SH-SY5Y Cell Line

Introduction: Considering the importance of the evaluation and identification of BDNF protective pathways, this study was conducted to analyze the expression rate of genes registered in the NCBI database to identify the genes expressed in SH-SY5Y cell line due to BDNF protection and oxidative stress and also to identify the protective pathways of BDNF. Method: In this study, bioinformatics and NCBI databases and libraries including 48000 datasets were explored and data were collected using Illumina and Bid studio software. In the first phase, sampling was performed manually based on the P-value, and in the second phase, based on the relationship with compatibility of neurons, the Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman's correlation coefficient, and linear relationship were calculated by measuring fit or regression using SPSS version 20. Results: The Pearson correlation between CMP and CTR data was positive; and the linear regression between them was also positive. The frequency percentage of neuron adapter proteins obtained from CTR data was higher than that from CMP data; and a great number of protective proteins were related to the protection of cell shape and cellular skeleton, and neuron survival. Conclusion: Due to the contact of neurons with BDNF, some genes are specifically expressed, therefore, BDNF can increase the life and compatibility of neurons

Assessing the consequences of treatment with 131I on calcium, vitamin D3, parathormone, and cortisol in patients with thyroid abnormalities

Background & Objective: Consequences of radioisotope Iodine-131 therapy on tissues, organs, and blood parameters is a major concern in patients suffering from thyroid abnormalities that were treated with this classical treatment. Thus the aim of the present study is to assess the variations in the content of calcium, vitamin D3, parathyroid hormone, and cortisol in patients treated with radioiodine. Material & Methods: In two different stages, the first step before and then 48 hours after oral administration with radioactive iodine, venous blood from 132 cancerous thyroid female patients was analyzed. There was at least a two-month time gap between their thyroid surgery and the initiation of radioiodine therapy and it was the first time that patients were admitted for treatment with radioactive iodine. In this 48-hour period variations in calcium, vitamin D3, parathyroid hormone, and cortisol of the blood serum was measured. Each patient was compared to herself; however, the comparison of the entire community was also taken into considerations using statistical methods. Results: The results showed a significant decrease in levels of vitamin D3; after treatment with Iodine-131. Parathyroid hormone was also significantly reduced after 131I uptake; however, calcium levels remained almost unchanged. On the other hand, the cortisol level increased significantly. Conclusion: Increasing of cortisol levels; lowering the content of vitamin D3, and decreasing the amount of parathyroid hormone are consequences of treatment with 150 mCi Idine-131 in the understudied population

The Effect of Radioactive Iodine (Iodine 131) on the Parameters of Sperm in Adult Male Rats

Background and Objectives: Humans live in the world of the waves and energies; the waves that are emitted from various sources and are harmful. One of the possible side effects of radioactive substances on the body is its effect on the amount of sperm production and fertility. In the present study, the effect of iodine 131, was investigated on the motility and number of sperm in male rat.   Methods: In this experimental study, 40 adult male rats were divided into two groups: Treatment group treated with oral gavage of iodine 131 and control group. After 24 hours, the number and motility of sperms in both groups, were analyzed by T statistical test.   Results: In this study, there was a significant difference in motility and number of sperm between the iodine 131 treatment group and the control group. Moreover, the number of active progressive and dead immotile sperm in the group treated with iodine 131, respectively, showed significant decrease and increase compared to the control group, but, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the less motile and non-progressive sperms. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, considering iodine 131 is used in the treatment of various diseases, thus, treatment with this method can have harmful effects on male reproductive system, such as motility and sperm count

Radioprotective Effect of Selenium and Gamma Rays on Cyclosporine-Immunosuppressed Wistar Rats

Introduction: Cyclosporine is known as an immunosuppressive drug. Selenium has antioxidant characteristics. This study investigated the synergistic effects of radiation therapy emitted from Gamma rays with the protective effect of selenium after suppressing the immune system of rats with cyclosporine. Methods: 60 adult male mice, randomly divided into 6 groups (5 experimental groups, and one control group). Experimental group number 1: technetium + cyclosporine; group number 2: iodine 131 + cyclosporine; group number 3: selenium + cyclosporine; group number 4: cyclosporine + technetium + selenium; group number 5: cyclosporine + iodine131 + selenium. Experimental groups 1 and 4 treated with 75 mCi Technetium in a volume of 0.5 ml through intraperitoneal injection. Experimental groups 1 and 5 treated with 0.5 ml iodine 131 (30 mCi). Experimental groups 3, 4 and 5 received 0.1 mg of selenium per kg of their body weight through gavage method. Control group also treated with 0.5 ml normal saline containing 50 mg cyclosporine per kilograms of their body weight to minimize statistical errors. Six hours after treatment with cyclosporine, about 1 ml of heart blood for determining the content of lymphocytes taken and every 6 hours the population of rats has been counted. Results: Percentage of lymphocytes and survival rate was significantly decreased in the experimental group 2. Survival rate of rats in the experimental groups 3, 1, and 4, significantly increased compared to the control group. Conclusion: Treatment with cyclosporine and iodine-131 has a meaningful synergistic effect in the reduction of lymphocyte percentage and also survival time. Selenium and low doses of Technetium has the ability to neutralize the synergistic effect of cyclosporine and iodine-131

Bioinformatic Analysis of Deleterious Non-Synonymous Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (nsSNPs) in the Coding Regions of Human Prion Protein Gene (PRNP)

Background & Objective: Single nucleotide polymorphisms are the cause of genetic variation to living organisms. Single nucleotide polymorphisms alter residues in the protein sequence. In this investigation, the relationship between prion protein gene polymorphisms and its relevance to pathogenicity was studied. Material & Method: Amino acid sequence of the main isoform from the human prion protein gene (PRNP) was extracted from UniProt database and evaluated by FoldAmyloid and AmylPred servers. All non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) from SNP database (dbSNP) were further analyzed by bioinformatics servers including SIFT, PolyPhen-2, I-Mutant-3.0, PANTHER, SNPs & GO, PHD-SNP, Meta-SNP, and MutPred to determine the most damaging nsSNPs. Results: The results of the first structure analyses by FoldAmyloid and AmylPerd servers implied that regions including 5-15, 174-178, 180-184, 211-217, and 240-252 were the most sensitive parts of the protein sequence to amyloidosis. Screening all nsSNPs of the main protein isoform using bioinformatic servers revealed that substitution of Aspartic acid with Valine at position 178 (ID code: rs11538766) was the most deleterious nsSNP in the protein structure. Conclusion:  Substitution of the Aspartic acid with Valine at position 178 (D178V) was the most pathogenic mutation in the human prion protein gene. Analyses from the MutPred server also showed that beta-sheets’ increment in the secondary structure was the main reason behind the molecular mechanism of the prion protein aggregation

The effect of gold, silver and zinc oxide nanoparticles on oxidative stress parameters level in the liver, heart and lung of male mice

Background & Objective: Nowadays, the beneficial effects of nanomaterials are accepted in medicine and industry. Considering the increasing use of nanoparticles and their possible toxicity, the effect of nanoparticles on oxidative stress markers was investigated in this study. Material & Methods: In this experimental- interventional study, 32 Balb mice were divided into 4 groups of 8. The control group received saline, and other three groups received gold, silver, and zinc oxide nanoparticles at a concentration of 100 PPM with IP injection during 28 days. After anesthesia, the tissues of liver, heart and lung were removed, and the activity level of oxidative stress markers was evaluated. Results: MDA level was significantly increased in zinc oxide treatment group in all three tissues and in gold treatment group in liver tissue. This factor showed a significant decrease in silver nanoparticle treatment in these tissues. The activity of catalase and glutathione peroxidase enzymes in the treatment of silver nanoparticle showed a significant increase. While in the treatment group with zinc oxide and gold nanoparticles, the activity of these enzymes decreased, this decrease was significant only in zinc oxide nanoparticle. Conclusion: It is concluded that the silver nanoparticle acts as a useful nanoparticle by decreasing MDA and oxidative stress and inducing antioxidant enzymes, while the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticle shows its toxicity

Increased expression level of Dicer in placenta is associated with the early onset of preeclampsia

This is a Letter to the Editor and does not have an abstract

Effects of the pathological E200K mutation on human prion protein: A computational screening and molecular dynamics approach

The human prion protein gene (PRNP) is mapped to the short arm of chromosome 20 (20pter-12). Prion disease is associated with mutations in the prion protein-encoding gene sequence. Earlier studies found that the mutation G127V in the PRNP increases protein stability. In contrast, the mutation E200K, which has the highest mutation rate in the prion protein, causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans and induces protein aggregation. We aimed to identify the structural mechanisms of E200k and G127V mutations causing CJD. We used a variety of bioinformatic algorithms, including SIFT, PolyPhen, I-Mutant, PhD-SNP, and SNP; GO, to predict the association of the E200K mutation with prion disease. MD simulation is performed, and graphs for root mean square deviation, root mean square fluctuation, radius of gyration, DSSP, principal component analysis, porcupine, and free energy landscape are generated to confirm and prove the stability of the wild-type and mutant protein structures. The protein is analyzed for aggregation, and the results indicate more fluctuations in the protein structure during the simulation owing to the E200K mutation; however, the G127V mutation makes the protein structure stable against aggregation during the simulation