PDMS Well Platform for Culturing Millimeter-Size Tumor Spheroids

Multicellular tumor spheroids are widely used as in vitro models for testing of anticancer drugs. The advantage of this approach is that it can predict the outcome of a drug treatment on human cancer cells in their natural three-dimensional environment without putting actual patients at risk. Several methods were utilized in the past to grow submillimeter-size tumor spheroids. However, these small models are not very useful for preclinical studies of tumor ablation where the goal is the complete destruction of tumors that can reach several centimeters in diameter in the human body. Here, we propose a PDMS well method for large tumor spheroid culture. Our experiments with HepG2 hepatic cancer cells show that three-dimensional aggregates of tumor cells with a volume as large as 44 mm3 can be grown in cylindrical PDMS wells after the initial culture of tumor cells by the hanging drop method. This is a 350 times more than the maximum volume of tumor spheroids formed inside hanging drops (0.125 mm3 )

Nutrition and lung cancer: a case control study in Iran

Background: Despite many prospective and retrospective studies about the association of dietary habit and lung cancer, the topic still remains controversial. So, this study aims to investigate the association of lung cancer with dietary factors. Method: In this study 242 lung cancer patients and their 484 matched controls on age, sex, and place of residence were enrolled between October 2002 to 2005. Trained physicians interviewed all participants with standardized questionnaires. The middle and upper third consumer groups were compared to the lower third according to the distribution in controls unless the linear trend was significant across exposure groups. Result: Conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate the association with lung cancer. In a multivariate analysis fruit (Ptrend < 0.0001), vegetable (P = 0.001) and sunflower oil (P = 0.006) remained as protective factors and rice (P = 0.008), bread (Ptrend = 0.04), liver (P = 0.004), butter (Ptrend = 0.04), white cheese (Ptrend < 0.0001), beef (Ptrend = 0.005), vegetable ghee (P < 0.0001) and, animal ghee (P = 0.015) remained as risk factors of lung cancer. Generally, we found positive trend between consumption of beef (P = 0.002), bread (P < 0.0001), and dairy products (P < 0.0001) with lung cancer. In contrast, only fruits were inversely related to lung cancer (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: It seems that vegetables, fruits, and sunflower oil could be protective factors and bread, rice, beef, liver, dairy products, vegetable ghee, and animal ghee found to be possible risk factors for the development of lung cancer in Iran

HIV-1 Vpr mediates the depletion of the cellular repressor CTIP2 to counteract viral gene silencing

Mammals have evolved many antiviral factors impacting different steps of the viral life cycle. Associated with chromatin-modifying enzymes, the cellular cofactor CTIP2 contributes to HIV-1 gene silencing in latently infected reservoirs that constitute the major block toward an HIV cure. We report, for the first time, that the virus has developed a strategy to overcome this major transcriptional block. Productive HIV-1 infection results in a Vpr-mediated depletion of CTIP2 in microglial cells and CD4+ T cells, two of the major viral reservoirs. Associated to the Cul4A-DDB1-DCAF1 ubiquitin ligase complex, Vpr promotes CTIP2 degradation via the proteasome pathway in the nuclei of target cells and notably at the latent HIV-1 promoter. Importantly, Vpr targets CTIP2 associated with heterochromatin-promoting enzymes dedicated to HIV-1 gene silencing. Thereby, Vpr reactivates HIV-1 expression in a microglial model of HIV-1 latency. Altogether our results suggest that HIV-1 Vpr mediates the depletion of the cellular repressor CTIP2 to counteract viral gene silencing.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

As Far as the Eye Can See: Relationship between Psychopathic Traits and Pupil Response to Affective Stimuli

Psychopathic individuals show a range of affective processing deficits, typically associated with the interpersonal/affective component of psychopathy. However, previous research has been inconsistent as to whether psychopathy, within both offender and community populations, is associated with deficient autonomic responses to the simple presentation of affective stimuli. Changes in pupil diameter occur in response to emotionally arousing stimuli and can be used as an objective indicator of physiological reactivity to emotion. This study used pupillometry to explore whether psychopathic traits within a community sample were associated with hypo-responsivity to the affective content of stimuli. Pupil activity was recorded for 102 adult (52 female) community participants in response to affective (both negative and positive affect) and affectively neutral stimuli, that included images of scenes, static facial expressions, dynamic facial expressions and sound-clips. Psychopathic traits were measured using the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. Pupil diameter was larger in response to negative stimuli, but comparable pupil size was demonstrated across pleasant and neutral stimuli. A linear relationship between subjective arousal and pupil diameter was found in response to sound-clips, but was not evident in response to scenes. Contrary to predictions, psychopathy was unrelated to emotional modulation of pupil diameter across all stimuli. The findings were the same when participant gender was considered. This suggests that psychopathy within a community sample is not associated with autonomic hypo-responsivity to affective stimuli, and this effect is discussed in relation to later defensive/appetitive mobilisation deficits

Co-authorship network in cardiology research studies: Case study of Iranian output

The basic objective of the study is to determine the co-authorship network of cardiology research in Iran. Scientometric approach was used to conduct the study. In the study, in addition to drawing the co-authorship network of cardiovascular articles of Iran indexed in WoS database, the researcher analysed the main cores of co-authorship network. Data was analysed by descriptive and analytical method. The centrality index which reflects the status of specific nodes in the network has also been determined. There were 2631 Iranian authors who published 1071 articles in cardiology. Density of 0.002 represents the continuity of the network and clustering coefficient of 0.51 indicates the willingness of the authors for research cooperation. Co-authorship network of cardiovascular area has a very large core. Tehran University of Medical Sciences had the highest degree and closeness centralities followed by most prolific and influential authors and the highest betweenness centrality was of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. It is essential to note that people with more papers and citations, are not necessarily the central and influential members of the co-authorship network. Those with a small number of articles and citations can be a member of the key group of the co-authorship network and they control the flow and dissemination of information. © 2020, Indian Academy of Sciences

Risk Factors of Enacting Spouse Abuse in a Sample of Iranian Male Adults

Background:The aim of this study was to investigate the modelling of different processes that could account for the link between psychopathology,cognitive social and demographic risk factors and enacting assault by husband. Method: This article reports a test using data on 230 males who participated in a family violence survey study.The sample was selected by a multiclustral sampling method from 4 different randomized regions of Tehran. All participants completed Conflict Tactic Scales, Personal and Relationship Profile, Marital Attitude Survey Questionnaire, Symptoms Checklist Inventory, Social and Demographic Measure. Logistics regression was used to estimate spouse abuse model for men. Results: The findings were consistent with the theoretical model.The path from social- demographic,cognitive and psychopathological risk factors to enacting spouse abuse was demonstrated.Conclusion:The implications of the findings for understanding spouse assaults,cognitive, psychopathological,social and demographic differences in male population are discussed

Health Research Evaluation and Its Role on Knowledge Production

Background: Knowledge production and evaluation are two important functions of health research system (HRS). In this article, we aimed to reveal the correlation between evaluation of health research organizations and health knowledge production promotion.Methods: A comprehensive evaluation system was developed to evaluate the academic performance of national medical science universities on an annual basis. It assess following domains; stewardship, capacity building and knowledge production. Measurable indicators for each domain were assigned, a research profiles; for each department was provided. In this study, we compared the results of annually national Health Research System evaluation findings during 2005-2008.Results: The number of scientific articles has been increased from 4672 to 8816 during 2005 to 2008. It is mentionable that, the number of articles which has been published in indexed data bases has risen too. This fact could be related to directed policy for more international publication of scientific articles from Iran. The proportion of total articles to the number of academic members was 1.14 in 2008, comparing to 0.84 in 2005. It means that this proportion have increased about twice (0.7 Vs 0.45) during mentioned time. Moreover, other scientific products such as authored books based on domestic researches and cited articles in textbooks have increased according to special attention to knowledge production by policy makers.Conclusion: We conclude that Health System Research evaluation could be used as a mean for implementing policies and promoting knowledge production