Survey and classification of functional characteristics in neural network technique for the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease: A systematic review

Background: Nowadays, the prevalence of ischemic heart diseases (IHDs) leads to destructive effects such as patient death. Late diagnosis of such diseases as well as their invasive diagnostic approaches made researchers provide a decision support system based on neural network techniques, while using minimum data set for timely diagnosis. In this regard, selecting minimum useful features is significant for designing neural network structure and it paves the way to attain maximum accuracy in obtaining the results. Methods: In this systematic review, valid databases using sensitive keywords were initially searched out to find articles related to "diagnosing the ischemic heart disease using artificial neural networks" and afterwards, scientific methods were used to analyze and classify the content. Findings: Researchers applied various extractable features from demographic data, medical history, signs and symptoms, and paraclinical examinations, to design the neural network structure. Among them, the features obtained from electrocardiographic test, embedded in paraclinical examinations, had led to a remarkable increase of efficiency in neural network. Conclusion: Utilizing such diagnostic decision support systems in practical environments depends on their high confidence coefficient and physicians� acceptability. Therefore, it can be useful to improve maturity in the design of the neural network structure depending on the choice of the minimum optimal features, and to create required infrastructures to input patients� real, accurate, and flowing data in these systems. © 2018, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All rights reserved

Survey and classification of functional characteristics in neural network technique for the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease: A systematic review

Background: Nowadays, the prevalence of ischemic heart diseases (IHDs) leads to destructive effects such as patient death. Late diagnosis of such diseases as well as their invasive diagnostic approaches made researchers provide a decision support system based on neural network techniques, while using minimum data set for timely diagnosis. In this regard, selecting minimum useful features is significant for designing neural network structure and it paves the way to attain maximum accuracy in obtaining the results. Methods: In this systematic review, valid databases using sensitive keywords were initially searched out to find articles related to "diagnosing the ischemic heart disease using artificial neural networks" and afterwards, scientific methods were used to analyze and classify the content. Findings: Researchers applied various extractable features from demographic data, medical history, signs and symptoms, and paraclinical examinations, to design the neural network structure. Among them, the features obtained from electrocardiographic test, embedded in paraclinical examinations, had led to a remarkable increase of efficiency in neural network. Conclusion: Utilizing such diagnostic decision support systems in practical environments depends on their high confidence coefficient and physicians� acceptability. Therefore, it can be useful to improve maturity in the design of the neural network structure depending on the choice of the minimum optimal features, and to create required infrastructures to input patients� real, accurate, and flowing data in these systems. © 2018, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All rights reserved

Griffithsin tandemers: flexible and potent lectin inhibitors of the human immunodeficiency virus

The lectin griffithsin (GRFT) is a potent antiviral agent capable of prevention and treatment of infections caused by a number of enveloped viruses and is currently under development as an anti-HIV microbicide. In addition to its broad antiviral activity, GRFT is stable at high temperature and at a broad pH range, displays little toxicity and immunogenicity, and is amenable to large-scale manufacturing. Native GRFT is a domain-swapped homodimer that binds to viral envelope glycoproteins and has displayed mid-picomolar activity in cell-based anti-HIV assays. Previously, we have engineered and analyzed several monomeric forms of this lectin (mGRFT) with anti-HIV EC50 values ranging up to 323 nM. Based on our previous analysis of mGRFT, we hypothesized that the orientation and spacing of the carbohydrate binding domains GRFT were key to its antiviral activity. Here we present data on engineered tandem repeats of mGRFT (mGRFT tandemers) with antiviral activity at concentrations as low as one picomolar in whole-cell anti-HIV assays. mGRFT tandemers were analyzed thermodynamically, both individually and in complex with HIV-1 gp120. We also demonstrate by dynamic light scattering and cryo-electron microscopy that mGRFT tandemers do not aggregate HIV virions. This establishes that, although the intra-virion crosslinking of HIV envelope glycoproteins is likely integral to their activity, the antiviral activity of these lectins is not due to virus aggregation caused by inter-virion crosslinking. The engineered tandemer constructs of mGRFT may provide novel and powerful agents for prevention of infection by HIV and other enveloped viruses.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12977-014-0127-

Structural and functional analyses of minimal phosphopeptides targeting the polo-box domain of polo-like kinase 1

Polo-like kinase-1 (Plk1) has a pivotal role in cell proliferation and is considered a potential target for anticancer therapy. The noncatalytic polo-box domain (PBD) of Plk1 forms a phosphoepitope binding module for protein-protein interaction. Here, we report the identification of minimal phosphopeptides that specifically interact with the PBD of human PLK1, but not those of the closely related PLK2 and PLK3. Comparative binding studies and analyses of crystal structures of the PLK1 PBD in complex with the minimal phosphopeptides revealed that the C-terminal SpT dipeptide functions as a high-affinity anchor, whereas the N-terminal residues are crucial for providing specificity and affinity to the interaction. Inhibition of the PLK1 PBD by phosphothreonine mimetic peptides was sufficient to induce mitotic arrest and apoptotic cell death. The mode of interaction between the minimal peptide and PBD may provide a template for designing therapeutic agents that target PLK1.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01 GM60594)National Cancer Institute (U.S.)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Contract N01-CO-12400)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (HHSN261200800001E

Investigation of Griffithsin's Interactions with Human Cells Confirms Its Outstanding Safety and Efficacy Profile as a Microbicide Candidate

Many natural product-derived lectins such as the red algal lectin griffithsin (GRFT) have potent in vitro activity against viruses that display dense clusters of oligomannose N-linked glycans (NLG) on their surface envelope glycoproteins. However, since oligomannose NLG are also found on some host proteins it is possible that treatment with antiviral lectins may trigger undesirable side effects. For other antiviral lectins such as concanavalin A, banana lectin and cyanovirin-N (CV-N), interactions between the lectin and as yet undescribed cellular moieties have been reported to induce undesirable side effects including secretion of inflammatory cytokines and activation of host T-cells. We show that GRFT, unlike CV-N, binds the surface of human epithelial and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) through an exclusively oligosaccharide-dependent interaction. In contrast to several other antiviral lectins however, GRFT treatment induces only minimal changes in secretion of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines by epithelial cells or human PBMC, has no measureable effect on cell viability and does not significantly upregulate markers of T-cell activation. In addition, GRFT appears to retain antiviral activity once bound to the surface of PBMC. Finally, RNA microarray studies show that, while CV-N and ConA regulate expression of a multitude of cellular genes, GRFT treatment effects only minimal alterations in the gene expression profile of a human ectocervical cell line. These studies indicate that GRFT has an outstanding safety profile with little evidence of induced toxicity, T-cell activation or deleterious immunological consequence, unique attributes for a natural product-derived lectin

Simulation-optimization Model for Design of Water Distribution System using Ant Based Algorithms

In this paper, the Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm (ACOA) is applied to solve Water Distribution System design optimization problem proposing two different methods. Considering pipe diameters as decision variables of the problem, Ant System and Max-Min Ant System, referred to ACOA1 and ACOA2 respectively, are applied to determine pipe diameters. In proposed methods, the ant-based models are interfaced with EPANET as simulator for the hydraulic analysis. Three benchmark test examples are solved with proposed methods and the results are presented and compared with those obtained with other existing methods. The results show the capability of the proposed methods to optimally solve the design optimization problem in which best results are obtained with ACOA2 in comparison with other available results. Furthermore, the results show the superiority of the proposed ACOA2 over than the ACOA1 in which the trade-off between the two contradictory search characteristic of exploration and exploitation is managed better by using Max-Min Ant System

Protective effects of pretreatment or concomitant treatment with Hypericum extract on renal function and renal toxicity in cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity

Introduction: Cisplatin is a strong anticancer medicine, but its use is limited due to the potential nephrotoxicity induction. Objectives: The present study seeks to determine the impact of Hypericum hydroalcoholic extract on cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two male rats were assigned to groups 1 to 4. Group 1, control (Cont); treated by saline (IP). Group 2, Cis; cisplatin intraperitoneal (IP), 7.5 mg/kg. Group 3, CisH; cisplatin + Hypericum (70 mg/kg, IP, for one week). Group 4, HCis; first treated with Hypericum for a week, followed by cisplatin. Renal tissue and blood samples were obtained a week after cisplatin injection for tissue assay and biochemical analysis. Kidney tissue damage score (KTDS), plasma creatinine (Cr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) were measured. Results: Kidney weight showed significant differences between the treated groups and the Cont group (P < 0.001). Serum BUN, Cr, SGOT, and SGPT increased significantly in Cont (P < 0.01). BUN decreased in CisH and HCis groups compared to Cis group, although there was no significant difference. Serum Cr, SGOT, and SGPT decreased significantly in CisH and HCis groups compared to the Cis group (P < 0.05). MDA and KTDS increased in the Cis group and decreased significantly in the CisH and HCis groups compared to the Cis group (P < 0.05). Serum SOD and CAT decreased significantly in Cis compared to Cont (P < 0.05) and increased in CisH and HCis groups compared to Cis. There was no significant difference between the CisH and HCis groups in any of the measured parameters. Conclusion: This study reveals that pretreatment with Hypericum extract or its concomitant administration with cisplatin can moderate the side-effects of cisplatin, improve renal function and decrease lipid peroxidation, renal toxicity and the KTDS. © 2023 The Author(s); Published by Nickan Research Institute