Immunotherapy Using Autoclaved L. major Antigens and M. vaccae with Meglumine Antimoniate, for the Treatment of Experimental Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis

Background: To evaluate immunotherapy against canine visceral leishmaniasis, Leishmania ma­jor antigen and heat-killed Mycobacterium vaccae (SRL172) were used as stimulators of immune de­fense mechanisms and the results were compared with standard chemotherapy meglumine antimoni­ate.Methods: Nineteen mongrel dogs aging 1-3 years old were used in this experiment. Infection was carried out in 15 out of 19 dogs using L. infantum, isolated from a naturally infected poly-symptomatic dog.Results: All the cases showed positive serologic results by direct agglutination test during 30-60 days following inoculation. In the first group, which was under chemotherapy (GlucantimeR), one of the members showed recurrence of the disease despite rapid effect of the therapeutic protocol. Im­munotherapy using SRL172 caused complete cleaning of the parasite in group 2, but the speed was less than Glucantime. Immunotherapy using L. major antigen combined with M. vaccae in group 3 and combine administration of immunotherapy and chemotherapy in group 4 both were with relapsing of one case in each group. Group 5 and 6 were consisted of positive and negative con­trol dogs, respectively.Conclusion: Immunotherapy seems to be an adjuvant in treatment of canine leishmaniasis but it needs more investigation for final confirmation

Evaluation of Benzimidazole Resistance in Haemonchus contortus Using Comparative PCR-RFLP Methods

Background: In order to deworm the ruminants especially of sheep in Iran, consumption of benzimi­dazoles has more than 2 decades history and today farmers are using imidazothiazoles, macrocyclic lactones and mostly benzimidazole compounds (BZs) to treat infected farm animals. It has been demonstrated that the most common molecular mechanism leading to BZsresistance in Haemonchus contortus is a single mutation at amino acid 200 (phenylalanine to tyrosine) of the isotype 1 of beta tubulin gene. According to the report of such mutations in Iranian Telador­sagia circumcincta isolates with Restriction Site Created PCR-RFLP, we decided to evaluate the frequency of such mutations in H. contortus in three different geographical areas of Iran.Methodes: A total of 102 collected adult male H. contortus were evaluated with PCR-RFLP (us­ing PSP1406I as restriction enzyme). By means of a second step to compare function of different methods and to increase sensitivity of detection mechanism, a third of samples were examined by another PCR-RFLP method (using TaaI as restriction enzyme) and finally beta tubulin gene of two samples was sequenced.Results: All of samples were detected as BZss homozygote. Finally, beta tubulin gene sequenc­ing of two samples showed no point mutation at codon 200.Conclusion: It seems that BZresistance of H. contortus in Iran is not a serious problem as antici­pated before

Attitude and knowledge of Iranian female nurses about Human Papilomavirus infection and cervical cancer: a cross sectional survey

Background and aim. Human Papilomavirus (HPV) is one of the most widespread sexually transmitted diseases is highly related to cervical cancer in women. Cervical cancer?s crude incidence rate in Iran is 6-8 per 100,000. The HPV vaccine provides a chance to considerably decrease the transmission of most types of HPV. The aim of this study was to evaluate awareness and knowledge of HPV infection and vaccines and to assess the attitude and approach toward these vaccines among female nurses at Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Materials and methods. This cross-sectional, descriptive study was performed among 380 female nurses. Data were collected using a questionnaire was consisted in demographic variables and questions on knowledge of participants about HPV infection, HPV vaccine and cervical cancer and also questions on attitude of nurses towards HPV vaccination. The validity and internal consistency of questionnaire was confirmed during experts consents and pilot testing (? = 0.79). Data analysis was performed using SPSS15 using ?2-test or Fisher?s exact test. Results. Three hundred and eighty questionnaires were dis- tributed and 357 female nurses completed and returned their questionnaires: Only one hundred and thirty-one of the nurses (36.7%) knew about HPV infection and how it can cause abnor- mal pap Smear results. about 147 (41.2%) of the nurses stated they would want to be vaccinated. About 146 (40.9%) of respond- ents supported vaccination of preadolescent girls. Conclusion. The results of this study confirm the lack of knowledge about HPV vaccine and its relation to cervical cancer and also the ways of this cancer prevention. Our study shows an urgent need to design similar studies in other regions of Iran and draw a broad esti- mation on knowledge of different target groups to make a national program to increase the knowledge of women on this matter and help to decrease the rate of cervical cancer in Iranian population

Chitosan-based nanoscale systems for doxorubicin delivery:Exploring biomedical application in cancer therapy

Abstract Green chemistry has been a growing multidisciplinary field in recent years showing great promise in biomedical applications, especially for cancer therapy. Chitosan (CS) is an abundant biopolymer derived from chitin and is present in insects and fungi. This polysaccharide has favorable characteristics, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, and ease of modification by enzymes and chemicals. CS‐based nanoparticles (CS‐NPs) have shown potential in the treatment of cancer and other diseases, affording targeted delivery and overcoming drug resistance. The current review emphasizes on the application of CS‐NPs for the delivery of a chemotherapeutic agent, doxorubicin (DOX), in cancer therapy as they promote internalization of DOX in cancer cells and prevent the activity of P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp) to reverse drug resistance. These nanoarchitectures can provide co‐delivery of DOX with antitumor agents such as curcumin and cisplatin to induce synergistic cancer therapy. Furthermore, co‐loading of DOX with siRNA, shRNA, and miRNA can suppress tumor progression and provide chemosensitivity. Various nanostructures, including lipid‐, carbon‐, polymeric‐ and metal‐based nanoparticles, are modifiable with CS for DOX delivery, while functionalization of CS‐NPs with ligands such as hyaluronic acid promotes selectivity toward tumor cells and prevents DOX resistance. The CS‐NPs demonstrate high encapsulation efficiency and due to protonation of amine groups of CS, pH‐sensitive release of DOX can occur. Furthermore, redox‐ and light‐responsive CS‐NPs have been prepared for DOX delivery in cancer treatment. Leveraging these characteristics and in view of the biocompatibility of CS‐NPs, we expect to soon see significant progress towards clinical translation

Design, Development, Implementation, and On-orbit Performance of the Dynamic Ionosphere CubeSat Experiment Mission

Funded by the NSF CubeSat and NASA ELaNa programs, the Dynamic Ionosphere CubeSat Experiment (DICE) mission consists of two 1.5U CubeSats which were launched into an eccentric low Earth orbit on October 28, 2011. Each identical spacecraft carries two Langmuir probes to measure ionospheric in-situ plasma densities, electric field probes to measure in-situ DC and AC electric fields, and a science grade magnetometer to measure in-situ DC and AC magnetic fields. Given the tight integration of these multiple sensors with the CubeSat platforms, each of the DICE spacecraft is effectively a “sensorsat” capable of comprehensive ionospheric diagnostics. The use of two identical sensor-sats at slightly different orbiting velocities in nearly identical orbits permits the de-convolution of spatial and temporal ambiguities in the observations of the ionosphere from a moving platform. In addition to demonstrating nanosat-based constellation science, the DICE mission is advancing a number of groundbreaking CubeSat technologies including miniaturized mechanisms and high-speed downlink communications

Predicting cutaneous leishmaniasis using SARIMA and Markov switching models in Isfahan, Iran: A time-series study

Objective: To determine the potential effect of environment variables on cutaneous leishmaniasis occurrence using time-series models and compare the predictive ability of seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models and Markov switching model (MSM). Methods: This descriptive study employed yearly and monthly data of 49 364 parasitologically-confirmed cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Isfahan province, located in the center of Iran from January 2000 to December 2019. The data were provided by the leishmaniasis national surveillance system, the meteorological organization of Isfahan province, and Iranian Space Agency for vegetation information. The SARIMA and MSM models were implemented to examine the environmental factors of cutaneous leishmaniasis epidemics. Results: The minimum relative humidity, maximum relative humidity, minimum wind speed, and maximum wind speed were significantly associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis epidemics in different lags (P<0.05). Comparing SARIMA and MSM, Akaikes information criterion (AIC), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) in MSM were much smaller than SARIMA models (MSM: AIC=0.95, MAPE=3.5; SARIMA: AIC=158.93, MAPE:11.45). Conclusions: SARIMA and MSM can be a useful tool for predicting cutaneous leishmaniasis in Isfahan province. Since cutaneous leishmaniasis falls into one of two states of epidemic and non-epidemic, the use of MSM (dynamic) is recommended, which can provide more information compared to models that use a single distribution for all observations (Box-Jenkins SARIMA model). © 2021 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved