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

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

The effect of IGF-1 plasma concentration on COVID-19 severity

Background The severity and fatality of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection are not the same in the infected population. The host immune response and Immune-stimulating factors appear to play a role in COVID-19 infection outcome. insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) affects the immune system by controlling the endocrine system. Recently, the effect of IGF-1 levels on COVID-19 prognosis has been considered. Objective To investigate the difference between circulating IGF-1 and inflammatory cytokines concentration among COVID-19 patients, infected patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (n = 40; 35 ± 5 y) and patients with mild cases of COVID-19 (n = 40; 35 ± 5 y) were screened prior to participation in the study. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of gender and preexisting inflammatory state. Collected samples were evaluated by ELISA for IGF-1 and IL-6. Results The study outcomes included a significant decrease in IGF-1 and an increase in IL-6 serum concentration, as an inflammatory marker, for infected patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (P ≤ 0.001). Finally, there was a significant increase in the IGF-1 and a decrease in the IL-6 serum concentration of hospitalized patients. Discussion it appears that inflammatory cytokines (IL-6) serum concentration in the severe form of corona virus-based infections causes reduced defenses because of suppressed IGF-1. Conclusions Our findings show that lower IGF-1 concentrations are associated with a Severe form of COVID-19 disease. It seems, IGF-1 supplementation or anti-inflammatory treatment rescued the severe form of COVID-19 infection. Further studies are required to determine how to design COVID-19 therapeutic strategies targeting the IGF-1 pathway

Apolipoproteins A1, B, and other prognostic biochemical cardiovascular risk factors in patients with beta-thalassemia major

OBJECTIVES: The occurrence of cardiac iron deposition is one of the late effect of iron over load which causes cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients who are affected by beta-thalassemia major. Evaluation of some cardiovascular risk factors plays a crucial role in prediction and prevention of CVD. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This study consisted of 70 young adult subjects with beta-thalassemia major (beta-TM) (aged <30 years) and 71 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects as control group in the range of 20-30 years. Hematological and biochemical laboratory parameters including apolipoprotein (Apo)A1 and ApoB, oxidative stress biomarker pro-oxidant-antioxidant balance (PAB), homocysteine, serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and lipid profile were evaluated. RESULTS: ApoA1, ApoB, lipid profiles, and homocysteine were significantly decreased in patients group (P  0.05) were different. Some elements included ferritin (P  0.05) was not significantly different in study groups. Exception of high-density lipoprotein (P > 0.05), other lipid profiles, and apoB had a negative meaningful correlation with PAB (P < 0.05). Likewise, apoA1, apoB, apoB/A1 ratio with apoB and homocysteine showed a strong correlation (P < 0.05). We did not find a slight correlation between apoB/A1 ratio in the company of oxidative stress marker PAB (r = -0.366; P = 0.086). We found a statistical correlation between apoB/A1 and homocysteine (P < 0.05). DISCUSSION: Higher level of some risk factors like PAB values, apoB/A1 ratio concentration, and lipid profiles is able to involve in the prognostic pathological consequences in patients with beta-thalassemia major. Even so, they contribute toward the gradual development of CVD

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 dysfunction. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

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

HIV-1 drug resistance mutations detection and HIV-1 subtype G report by using next-generation sequencing platform

Background: Based on world health organization (WHO) recommend, drug resistance assay should be performed in initial of treatment and after treatment for administering and monitoring of anti-retroviral regime in HIV-1 infected patients. Material and method: NGS analyses were performed on forty-one plasma samples from HIV-1 affected patients using the Sentosa SQ HIV genotyping assay (Vela-Diagnostics, Germany). This system comprises a semi-automated Ion torrent based platform and the sequencing results were analyzed based on ANRS, REGA and Stanford drug resistance algorithms. Phylogenetic analysis was analyzed based on https://comet.lih.lu database as well as MEGA5 Software. Results: Drug resistances were identified in thirty-three samples (80) out of forty-one samples. The Phylogenetic analysis results showed that CRF-35AD (94) and subtypes B (2.4) and G (2.4) were dominant subtypes in this study. NRTI and NNRTI associated dominant mutations were M184I/V and K103 N.High-level resistance to lamivudine (3 TC) and Emtricitabine (FTC) were detected in 34.3 of patients while 53.1 were resistant to Efavirenz (EFV) and Nevirapine (NVP). The Protease inhibitor (PI) minor and major mutations were not reported but more than 95 of samples had polymorphisms mutation in K20R, M36I, H69K, L89 M positions. These mutations are subtype dependent and completely are absent in subtype B virus. The secondary mutations were reported in positions of E157Q, S230 N, and T97A of integrase gene and four samples represent low-level resistance to integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI). Conclusions: This is the first preliminary evaluation of HIV-1 drug resistance mutation (DRM) by using the Sentosa SQ HIV Genotyping Assay in Iran. The NGS represent a promising tool for the accurate detection of DRMs of CRF-35AD that is dominant subtype in Iranian HIV-1 infected population and for the first time revealed HIV-1 subtype G in Iranian population. In the present study polymorphic mutation in the position of K20R, M36I, H69K, L89 M were properly reported in CRF35AD that is dominant in Iranian HIV patients. © 202