Dopamine receptor gene (DRD1-DRD5) expression changes as stress factors associated with breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among females worldwide and a most prevalent malignancy in Iranian women. Chronic stress may make an important contribution to cancer, especially in the breast. Numerous studies showed roles of neurotransmitters in the occurrence and progression of cancers which are mediated by their various types of receptors. This study was conducted to evaluate alterations in the expression profile of dopamine receptor genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) as stress factors in breast cancer patients and the human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Peripheral blood samples were obtained from 30 patients and 30 healthy individuals. Total mRNA was extracted from PBMC and MCF-7 cells and RT-PCR was performed to confirm the presence of five dopamine receptors (DRD1-DRD5). Expression changes of dopamine receptor genes were evaluated by real time PCR. We observed that DRD2-DRD4 in PBMCs of breast cancer patients were increased compared to healthy individuals. In addition, all dopamine receptor subtypes but DRD1 were expressed in MCF-7 cells. Therefore, alterations of these receptors as stress factorsshould be assessed for selecting appropriate drugs such as D2-like agonists for treatment of breast cancer after performing complimentary tests. Determining the expression profile of dopamine receptor genes thus seems promising

Phenotypic and genotypic assay for detection of extended spectrum B-lactamases production by Klebsiella pnemoniae isolates in Emam Reza Hospital in Tabriz, Iran.

Objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of K. pneumoniae producing ESBLs, to evaluate the susceptibility of K. pneumoniae producing ESBLs towards non-beta-lactam antibiotics and to study the dominant ESBLs gene in Emam Reza hospital. K. pneumoniae producing ESBLs identified by phenotypic and genotypic methods. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) performed for detection of blaSHV, TEM and CTX-M. The findings showed that 43.69%, 13.59%, 7.77%, 11.65% and 23.3% were from UTI, ICUs, surgery ward, lesion infections and RTI, respectively. The results showed that 43.7% of isolates were ESBLs produces. The findings revealed that 26.7%, 6.7%, 20% and 0% of K.pneumoniae producing ESBLs were resistant to amikacin, ciprofloxacin, cotrimoxazol and imipenem, respectively. Thirty-nine blaSHV, seven blaTEM and seven blaCTX-M identified among K.pneumoniae producing ESBLs. The results reflected in cold month resistant to third generation cephalosporins were more than warm months. Generally, frequency of blaSHV was more than blaCTX-M and blaTEM

Evaluation of gene expression changes of serotonin receptors, 5-HT3AR and 5-HT2AR as main stress factors in breast cancer patients

Breast cancer is a serious and potentially lethal multi-factor disease among 40-50 aged women in both developed and developing countries. Also, various studies have pointed to roles of neurotransmitters like serotonin in development of cancers, through action on various types of receptors. This study was conducted to evaluate serotonin receptor (5HT2AR and 5HT3AR) genes expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of breast cancer patients in comparison with the healthy people and in the MCF7 cell line. Peripheral blood samples were obtained from 30 patients and 30 healthy individuals. Total RNA was extracted from PBMCs and MCF-7 cells. and 5HT2AR and 5HT3AR were detected by RT-PCR techniques. Finally, serotonin receptor gene expression variation in breast cancer patients and MCF-7 cells were determined by real time-PCR. This latter indicated significant promotion in expression of 5HT3AR and 5HT2AR in PBMCs in breast cancer patients but expression of 5HT2AR in the MCF-7 cell line was significantly decreased. In conclusion, after performing complimentary tests, determine of gene expression changes in serotonin receptors (5HT2AR and 5HT3AR) may be useful as a new approach in treatment of breast cancer based on use of antagonists

Overexpression of miR-490-5p/miR-490-3p Potentially Induces IL-17-Producing T Cells in Patients With Breast Cancer

Objective: Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent female cancer globally and this is also true in Iranian women. Alteration in circulating microRNAs affects the fate of immune cells, affecting immunological response to neoplasia. Materials and Methods: We investigated the expression of miR-490-5p and miR-490-3p in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and plasma of patients with BC. Moreover, the correlation of these microRNAs with the expression levels of CD3d, interleukin 2 (IL-2), IL-2 receptor chain alpha (IL-2RA), forkhead box O1 (FOXO1) and nuclear factor of activated T cells 5 (NFAT5) were investigated. Results: Two groups, including 42 patients with BC, aged 22-75 years with stage I, II, III disease without administration of immunosuppressive chemotherapy regimens/radiotherapy and 40 healthy controls aged 27-70 years, participated. Overexpression and higher circulation levels of miR-490-5p and miR-490-3p were found in the patients with consequent down-regulation of all targets investigated in PBMCs. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between the overexpression of these microRNAs and a reduction in levels of CD3d, IL-2, and IL-2RA in patients with BC. Conclusion: These results suggest that down-regulation of the target genes by miR-490 may predispose and facilitate the production of Th17 lymphocytes and IL-17-producing Tregs. The variation in miR-490-5p/-3p and the investigated targets in the PBMCs of BC patients may be used as non-invasive diagnostic markers

Topic familiarization and vocabulary introduction in second language reading / Mohsen Pornour

Although the field of second language teaching and learning has witnessed an enormous amount of research on reading skills, in general, and on topic familiarity and vocabulary teaching/learning, in particular, almost no attention has been paid to the teacher‟s role in topic familiarization and vocabulary introduction. In an attempt to fill this gap, and in an explanatory mixed methods design, the present study investigated the effects of the teacher‟s intervention in an L2 reading class by comparing the applicability of written topic familiarization with the effectiveness of teacher-directed topic familiarization in students‟ performance of comprehension tests. Furthermore, the adequacy of students‟ dictionary use was compared with the efficacy of teacher‟s instruction of vocabulary in enhancing students‟ performance of vocabulary tests. Finally, students‟ perceptions of teacher-directed versus written topic familiarization as well as their perceptions of dictionary use versus teacher‟s vocabulary instruction were investigated. For this purpose, 73 undergraduate students studying English as an L2 in an Iranian university were homogenized into two groups of A (No Teacher) and B (Teacher) based on their proficiency results of the Oxford Quick Placement Test. The participants experienced four treatments, Group B with the presence and Group A without the presence of a teacher. Both groups were provided with pre-reading tasks. For Group A, the activities were in the form of scripts of explanations, including brainstorming questions, an introductory paragraph intended to familiarize the participants with the reading topics, and a list of the key words. Group A students were asked to use dictionaries for vocabulary meaning. However, the pre-reading activities in Group B were teacher-directed. The participants in this group were provided with the same information as that of Group A to ensure consistency, but through the teacher, and were not allowed dictionaries as the teacher taught them the key words. Each time the participants read a passage of unfamiliar topic, after which they were tested on comprehension recalls and multiple-choice questions, and vocabulary MCQs. The participants also completed a Likert-scale perception questionnaire at the end of the study, and 23 students were interviewed. Results of independent-samples t-tests did not indicate any significant difference between teacher-directed and written topic familiarization although paired t-tests showed that both of the approaches by themselves were effective on students‟ comprehension tests results. However, teacher‟s vocabulary instruction was confirmed to be significantly more effective than students‟ dictionary use, and paired t-tests once again showed that each method per se caused significant results in students‟ vocabulary tests performance. Results of the perception questionnaire triangulated with interview responses confirmed that the students thought teacher-directed topic familiarization and written background knowledge activities were equally effective, which agreed with their comprehension tests results. However, most of the participants thought that there was no significant difference between students‟ dictionary use and teacher‟s instruction of vocabulary, which contradicted their vocabulary tests results. Only some students perceived teacher‟s instruction as more effective than dictionary usage. This might imply that students‟ perceptions are not always very reliable for decision-making in L2 reading. Furthermore, the study is believed to have useful implications for students, teachers and educators as well as authors and publishers

Computational Studies of DNA Fragmentation Process During and After Radiation Therapy

reservedCancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Delivering high-energy photons, or other particles to the tumor is one of the common cancer treatment methods. In a microscopic perspective, the radiation damages the genomic contents (DNA) of the tumor cell. Every DNA damage is categorized into a few different groups among which the Double Strand Breaks (DSB) are more lethal for the target cells and are the main focus of this study. DSBs are subject to both repair and misrepair with different probabilities depending on the type of damage, tumor cell line, and the biophysiological conditions in the surrounding irradiated area. The "UNIfied and VERSatile bio-response Engine" (UNIVERSE) is a mechanistic modeling framework that has been developed by BioPT group at Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center(HIT) with the goal of enabling the description of clinically relevant modifying factors of radiation action for both conventional and ion beam irradiations. In this thesis work, the model "UNIVERSE" has been extended in order to simulate the DNA Fragmentation process considering the DNA damage and repair kinetics in the presence of different oxygen concentration levels in cellular environment taking various dose levels and dose rates of conventional radiations into account. After simulating the number of DSBs induced by the radiation, the DSBs are distributed over the DNA locally related to various Giant Loops (GL) considering the physical properties of the photon-matter interaction and its relevant statistical behaviour. Thereafter, the positions of all unrepaired DSBs located inside every single GL are determined, which leads to the calculation of the length of DNA Fragments detached from the sugar-phosphate backbone of the DNA. The influence of different radiation dose levels on DNA fragmentation process has been studied and the results have been compared to the experimental data taken from some relevant literature. Since the benchmarking process has succeeded and shown a good correspondence between the results of simulation and experimental data, the further steps with the goal of analyzing the effect of different dose rates and oxygen concentrations at surrounding irradiated area on DNA fragmentation process for a given dose level have been conducted. The study also encompasses an investigation into the potential manifestation of the Sparing and FLASH effects when subjecting normal and tumor cell lines to irradiation at Ultra High Dose Rates (uHDR) under hypoxic conditions

A new Expert Finding model based on Term Correlation Matrix

Due to the enormous volume of unstructured information available on the Web and inside organization, finding an answer to the knowledge need in a short time is difficult. For this reason, beside Search Engines which don’t consider users individual characteristics, Recommender systems were created which use user’s previous activities and other individual characteristics to help users find needed knowledge. Recommender systems usage is increasing every day. Expert finder systems also by introducing expert people instead of recommending information to users have provided this facility for users to ask their questions form experts. Having relation with experts not only causes information transition, but also with transferring experiences and inception causes knowledge transition. In this paper we used university professors academic resume as expert people profile and then proposed a new expert finding model that recommends experts to users query. We used Term Correlation Matrix, Vector Space Model and PageRank algorithm and proposed a new hybrid model which outperforms conventional methods. This model can be used in internet environment, organizations and universities that experts have resume dataset

Investigation of combined photodynamic and radiotherapy effects of gallium phthalocyanine chloride on MCF-7 breast cancer cells

In this study, we evaluated the effect of gallium phthalocyanine chloride (GaPcCl) as a radio- and photosensitizer on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. We incubated cells with GaPcCl in different concentrations (from 3.125 to 100 μg/ml). Then cells in separate groups were exposed to different light doses (1.8 and 2.8 J/cm2) at wavelength of 660 nm and 2-Gy X-ray ionizing radiation, alone and in combination. Finally, cell survival and apoptosis were determined by MTT assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The results showed that the deactivated GaPcCl at concentration of 100 µg/ml reduces the cell viability up to 15. While, photoactivated GaPcCl (100 µg/ml) at light dose of 2.8 J/cm2 significantly decreases cell viability up to 55.3. Although MTT assay demonstrated that GaPcCl is not act as a radiosensitizer, flow cytometry showed significant increase in cell apoptosis when GaPcCl was exposed to 2 Gy X-ray. Using of GaPcCl-PDT (photodynamic therapy) integration with X-ray substantially increased cell death in comparison to the absence of X-ray. Furthermore, flow cytometry displayed a significant increase in apoptosis cells (especially late apoptosis) in this combination therapy. Our result proved that GaPcCl is an effective photosensitizer in MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line. The combination of GaPcCl-PDT and radiotherapy can be an efficient treatment against cancer. This approach needs further investigations on animal models for human purposes. Graphic abstractFigure not available: see fulltext. © 2019, Society for Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SBIC)

Association of the gene expression variation of tumor necrosis factor-α and expressions changes of dopamine receptor genes in progression of diabetic severe foot ulcers

Objective(s):Regulation of pro-inflammatory factors such as TNF-, which are secreted by the immune cells through induction of their several receptors including dopamine receptors (especially DRD2 and DRD3) is one of the noticeable problems in diabetic severe foot ulcer healing. This study was conducted to evaluate the alteration of TNF- in plasma as well as DRD2 and DRD3 changes in PBMCs of diabetics with severe foot ulcers. Materials and Methods: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 31 subjects with ulcers, 29 without ulcers, and 25 healthy individuals. Total mRNA was extracted from PBMCs for the study of DRD2, DRD3, and TNF- gene expression variations. Expression patterns of these genes were evaluated by real-time PCR. Consequently, concentration of TNF- was investigated in plasma. Results: Significant decrease in gene expression and plasma concentration of TNF- in PBMCs was observed in both patient groups at P Conclusion: We concluded that DRD2 and DRD3 expression alteration and presence of new DRD3 transcripts can be effective in reduction of TNF-α expression as a pro-inflammatory factor. Performing complementary studies, may explain that variations in DRD2 and DRD3 are prognostic and effective markers attributed to the development of diabetes severe foot ulcers