Evaluation of prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis G virus infection among hemodialysis patients referred to Iranian Army Hospitals in Tehran during 2012-2013

Background: GB virus C (GBV-C) or hepatitis G virus (HGV) is a newly discovered and enveloped RNA positive-stranded flavivirus-like particle, which has not yet been proven to have major negative effects on liver. Objectives: Increasing the risk of blood-borne infections in hemodialysis patients is a main health care concern in different countries. Therefore, it is important to estimate the prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis G virus infection in Iranian hemodialysis patients to design standard prevention and treatment plans. Patients and Methods: In this multicenter observational or epidemiologic study, 138 patients who underwent hemodialysis in Iranian Army hospitals in Tehran were included. Serum HIV antibody (Ab), HCV antibody and HBS antigen (Ag) were assessed. Demographic data such as gender, age, blood group, cause of renal failure, dialysis onset and duration were collected from medical files. GBV-C/HGV was evaluated by nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. Then, all data were analyzed by SPSS ver. 13. Results: In total, 81 males and 57 females were included. The mean age of patients was 62.16 ± 14.86 years. Six (4.3) had positive results for GBV-C/HGV by RT-PCR. Except gender (P = 0.045) and duration of dialysis in a week (P 0.05). All patients had negative results for HIV Ab, HCV Ab and HBS Ag. Conclusions: Overall, 4.3 of patients had positive results for GBV-C/HGV and all negative for HIV, HCV and HBV. Further studies are needed to elucidate real prevalence, risk factors and characteristics of HGV infection in Iranian hemodialysis patients. © 2015, Kowsar Corp

The role of a pseudocapsula in thymic epithelial tumors: outcome and correlation with established prognostic parameters. Results of a 20-year single centre retrospective analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Treatment of thymoma is often based on observation of only a few patients. Surgical resection is considered to be the most important step. Role of a pseudocapsula for surgery, its clinical significance and outcome compared with established prognostic parameters is discussed which has not been reported so far.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>84 patients with thymoma underwent resection and analysis was carried out for clinical features, prognostic factors and long-term survival.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Fifteen patients were classified in WHO subgroup A, 21 in AB, 29 in B and 19 patients in C. Forty two patients were classified in Masaoka stage I, 19 stage II, 9 stage III and 14 stage IV. Encapsulated thymoma was seen in 40, incomplete or missing capsula in 44 patients. In 71 complete resections, local recurrence was 5%. 5-year survival was 88.1%. Thymomas with pseudocapsula showed a significant better survival (94.9% vs. 61.1%, respectively) (p = 0.001) and was correlated with the absence of nodal or distant metastasis (p = 0.04 and 0.001, respectively). Presence of pseudocapsula as well as the Masaoka and WHO classification, and R-status were of prognostic significance. R-status and Masaoka stage appeared to be of independent prognostic significance in multivariate analysis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Intraoperative presence of an encapsulated tumor is a good technical marker for the surgeon to evaluate resectability and estimate prognosis. Although the presence of a capsula is of strong significance in the univariate analysis, it failed in the multivariate analysis due to its correlation with clinical Masaoka stage. Masaoka stage has a stronger relevance than WHO classification to determinate long-term outcome.</p

Smoking particles enhance endothelin A and endothelin B receptor-mediated contractions by enhancing translation in rat bronchi

BACKGROUND: Smoking is known to cause chronic inflammatory changes in the bronchi and to contribute to airway hyper-reactivity, such as in bronchial asthma. To study the effect of smoking on the endothelin system in rat airways, bronchial segments were exposed to DMSO-soluble smoking particles (DSP) from cigarette smoke, to nicotine and to DMSO, respectively. METHODS: Isolated rat bronchial segments were cultured for 24 hours in the presence or absence of DSP, nicotine or DMSO alone. Contractile responses to sarafotoxin 6c (a selective agonist for ET(B )receptors) and endothelin-1 (an ET(A )and ET(B )receptor agonist) were studied by use of a sensitive myograph. Before ET-1 was introduced, the ET(B )receptors were desensitized by use of S6c. The remaining contractility observed was considered to be the result of selective activation of the ET(A )receptors. ET(A )and ET(B )receptor mRNA expression was analyzed using real-time quantitative PCR. The location and concentration of ET(A )and ET(B )receptors were studied by means of immunohistochemistry together with confocal microscopy after overnight incubation with selective antibodies. RESULTS: After being cultured together with DSP for 24 hours the bronchial segments showed an increased contractility mediated by ET(A )and ET(B )receptors, whereas culturing them together with nicotine did not affect their contractility. The up-regulation of their contractility was blunted by cycloheximide treatment, a translational inhibitor. No significant change in the expression of ET(A )and ET(B )receptor mRNA through exposure to DMSO or to nicotine exposure alone occurred, although immunohistochemistry revealed a clear increase in ET(A )and ET(B )receptors in the smooth muscle after incubation in the presence of DSP. Taken as a whole, this is seen as the presence of a translation mechanism. CONCLUSION: The increased contractility of rat bronchi when exposed to DSP appears to be due to a translation mechanism

Epstein-Barr virus as a marker of biological aggressiveness in breast cancer

International audienceAlthough a potential role of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the pathogenesis of breast cancer (BC) has been underlined, results remain conflicting. Particularly, the impact of EBV infection on biological markers of BC has received little investigation

Epstein-Barr Virus Infection and Sporadic Breast Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: A large number of epidemiological studies have evaluated the association between Epstein-Barr virus infection and breast carcinoma risk but results have been inconsistent. METHODOLOGY: Research using the polymerase chain reaction technique for detecting the Epstein-Barr virus was selected; 24 studies and 1535 cases were reviewed. Information on the study populations, sample types, publication calendar period and histological types of breast carcinoma were collected. An unconditional logistic regression model was used to analyze potential parameters related to the Epstein-Barr virus prevalence. A Kappa test was used to evaluate the consistency in detecting different Epstein-Barr virus DNA regions. Nine studies that included control groups and 1045 breast cancer cases were adopted in this meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: We found that 29.32% of the patients with breast carcinoma were infected with the Epstein-Barr virus. The prevalence of Epstein-Barr was highest in Asia (35.25%) and lowest in the USA (18.27%). Statistical analysis revealed a trend that showed lobular breast carcinoma might have the strongest association with Epstein-Barr virus infection. This meta-analysis showed a significant increase in breast malignancy risk in patients testing positive for the Epstein-Barr virus (OR = 6.29, 95% CI = 2.13-18.59). This result suggests that an Epstein-Barr virus infection is statistically associated with increased breast carcinoma risk

Human papillomavirus and Epstein-Barr virus infections in breast cancer from chile

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human papillomavirus (HPV) and Epstein Barr virus (EBV) have been found in breast carcinomas (BCs) around the world. In this study, fifty-five BCs from Chile were analyzed for HPV and EBV presence. In addition, HPV-16 viral load/physical status and E6/E7 expressions were determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The amplification of a housekeeping gene showed that 46/55 samples (84%) had amplifiable DNA. HPV-16 was detected in 4/46 BCs (8.7%) and EBV was detected in 3/46 (6.5%) BCs. The analysis of HPV-16 physical status showed that this virus was integrated in all of the tumors with a relatively low viral load (range: 0.14 to 33.8 copies/cell). E6 and E7 transcripts, however, were not detected in any HPV-16 positive specimens. Using a Cox-regression model, we found a statistically significant association between EBV presence and poor survival (p = 0.013).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings in this study suggest that it is unlikely that HPV and/or EBV play a direct role in the etiology of BC.</p

Epstein-Barr virus: clinical and epidemiological revisits and genetic basis of oncogenesis

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is classified as a member in the order herpesvirales, family herpesviridae, subfamily gammaherpesvirinae and the genus lymphocytovirus. The virus is an exclusively human pathogen and thus also termed as human herpesvirus 4 (HHV4). It was the first oncogenic virus recognized and has been incriminated in the causation of tumors of both lymphatic and epithelial nature. It was reported in some previous studies that 95% of the population worldwide are serologically positive to the virus. Clinically, EBV primary infection is almost silent, persisting as a life-long asymptomatic latent infection in B cells although it may be responsible for a transient clinical syndrome called infectious mononucleosis. Following reactivation of the virus from latency due to immunocompromised status, EBV was found to be associated with several tumors. EBV linked to oncogenesis as detected in lymphoid tumors such as Burkitt's lymphoma (BL), Hodgkin's disease (HD), post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) and T-cell lymphomas (e.g. Peripheral T-cell lymphomas; PTCL and Anaplastic large cell lymphomas; ALCL). It is also linked to epithelial tumors such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), gastric carcinomas and oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL). In vitro, EBV many studies have demonstrated its ability to transform B cells into lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). Despite these malignancies showing different clinical and epidemiological patterns when studied, genetic studies have suggested that these EBV- associated transformations were characterized generally by low level of virus gene expression with only the latent virus proteins (LVPs) upregulated in both tumors and LCLs. In this review, we summarize some clinical and epidemiological features of EBV- associated tumors. We also discuss how EBV latent genes may lead to oncogenesis in the different clinical malignancie

Antitumor effects of HPV DNA vaccine adjuvanted with beclin-1 as an autophagy inducer in a mice model

Background: There is a growing interest in development of an effective adjuvant system for improving DNA vaccines. Recent findings have confirmed an important role for autophagy in both innate and adaptive immunity. The current study was undertaken to determine the efficacy of autophagy induction with Beclin-1, as a novel adjuvant system, in mice immunized with human papilloma virus (HPV) DNA vaccine. Methods: To determine whether autophagy induction with Beclin-1 enhances the efficacy of HPV DNA vaccine, female C57BL/6 mice were challenged with TC-1 tumor cells and were immunized three times at one-week intervals. Two weeks after the final immunization, the mice were sacrificed, and the antitumor effects were assessed by measurement of lymphocyte proliferation, cytotoxicity, cytokine production, and tumor regression. Results: Beclin-1 in combination with HPV-16 DNA vaccine encoding the E7 antigen induced a higher level of lymphocyte proliferation and cytotoxicity than the DNA vaccine alone. The novel combination increased the production of IFN-γ and highly inhibited tumor progression in comparison with DNA vaccine alone. Conclusion: Administration of Beclin-1, as an autophagy inducer, with HPV DNA vaccine produces antitumor effects, providing an effective adjuvant for the induction of a strong antitumor immune response. © 2019, Pasteur Institute of Iran. All rights reserved

Serum levels of subfatin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and its association with vascular adhesion molecules

Subfatin is a newly discovered adipokine with insulin-sensitizing properties. Studies reported conflicting data with regard to the circulating levels and expression of Subfatin in the context of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity. The present study was conducted on 52 patients with T2DM, 36 prediabetes subjects, and 50 controls. The serum levels of Subfatin, adhesion molecules were measured by the ELISA technique. The serum Subfatin was lower in the T2DM and prediabetes groups. The serum levels of adhesion molecules were higher in the T2DM group. In addition, Subfatin demonstrated lower levels in obese patients with T2DM in comparison to lean T2DM patients. Furthermore, Subfatin showed a negative association with vascular adhesion molecules in prediabetes subjects and the T2DM group. A decrease in the serum Subfatin in T2DM patients and prediabetes subjects, and its association with vascular adhesion molecules suggested the possible role of Subfatin in diabetes and endothelial dysfunctio