Overview of hydatid disease in Iranian children

Background: Hydatid disease (HD) is still an important health hazard in the world. This disease is a parasitic infestation endemic in many sheep- and cattle-raising areas such as Iran. Objectives: This study aimed to review the clinical manifestations, laboratory aspects, imaging findings, and management of HD. Patients and Methods: Data were collected from the medical records of patients diagnosed with HD in eight referral hospitals in different provinces of Iran from 2001 to 2014. Results: Overall, 161 children at a mean age of 9.25 ± 3.37 years (age range = 1 - 15 years old) hospitalized with a definite diagnosis of the hydatid cyst between 2001 and 2014 were studied. The male-to-female ratio was 1.6:1. The most commonly involved organ was the lung (67.1), followed by the liver (44.1) and a combined liver and lung involvement was found in 15.5 of the patients. The cysts were found more frequently in the right lobe of the liver and lung than in the left lobe. The most frequent complaints were fever (35.4) and abdominal pain (31.7), and the most frequent sign was an abdominal mass in the liver involvement and cough in the lung involvement. There was a high eosinophil count (> 500/micL) in 41 of our cases. A high erythrocyte sedimentation rate (> 30) or positive C-reactive protein (based on the qualitative method) was found in 18.6 of the patients and leukocytosis > 15000/micL in 29.2 of the children. Ultrasonography was the main imaging test, with an accuracy rate of 96, and chest X-ray was helpful in 88.6 of the cases. Surgery was performed in 89 of the patients, and selective patients underwent percutaneous aspiration-injection-reaspiration drainage or medical treatment. Conclusions: The lung was the most commonly involved organ in the children recruited in the present study. Given the high probability of multiple organ involvement, we recommend that patients with HD be assessed via ultrasonography and chest X-ray. In endemic regions, unexplained eosinophilia should be considered as a parasitic disease like HD and its complications. © 2015 Pediartric Infections Research Center

Polarization of the Effects of Autoimmune and Neurodegenerative Risk Alleles in Leukocytes

To extend our understanding of the genetic basis of human immune function and dysfunction, we performed an expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) study of purified CD4[superscript +] T cells and monocytes, representing adaptive and innate immunity, in a multi-ethnic cohort of 461 healthy individuals. Context-specific cis- and trans-eQTLs were identified, and cross-population mapping allowed, in some cases, putative functional assignment of candidate causal regulatory variants for disease-associated loci. We note an over-representation of T cell–specific eQTLs among susceptibility alleles for autoimmune diseases and of monocyte-specific eQTLs among Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease variants. This polarization implicates specific immune cell types in these diseases and points to the need to identify the cell-autonomous effects of disease susceptibility variants

Perturbation of metabolic pathways mediates the association of air pollutants with asthma and cardiovascular diseases

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic evidence indicates common risk factors, including air pollution exposure, for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, suggesting the involvement of common altered molecular pathways. OBJECTIVES: The goal was to find intermediate metabolites or metabolic pathways that could be associated with both air pollutants and health outcomes ("meeting-in-the-middle"), thus shedding light on mechanisms and reinforcing causality. METHODS: We applied a statistical approach named 'meet-in-the-middle' to untargeted metabolomics in two independent case-control studies nested in cohorts on adult-onset asthma (AOA) and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (CCVD). We compared the results to identify both common and disease-specific altered metabolic pathways. RESULTS: A novel finding was a strong association of AOA with ultrafine particles (UFP; odds ratio 1.80 [1.26, 2.55] per increase by 5000 particles/cm3). Further, we have identified several metabolic pathways that potentially mediate the effect of air pollution on health outcomes. Among those, perturbation of Linoleate metabolism pathway was associated with air pollution exposure, AOA and CCVD. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest common pathway perturbations may occur as a consequence of chronic exposure to air pollution leading to increased risk for both AOA and CCVD

Role of dendrimers in advanced drug delivery and biomedical applications: a review

Aim: Dendrimers dendritic structural design holds vast promises, predominantly for drug delivery, owing to their unique properties. Dendritic architecture is widespread topology found in nature and offers development of specific properties of chemical substances. Dendrimers are an ideal delivery vehicle candidate for open study of the effects of polymer size, charge, and composition on biologically relevant properties such as lipid bilayer interactions, cytotoxicity, bio-distribution, internalization, blood plasma retention time, and filtration. This article reviews role of dendrimers in advanced drug delivery and biomedical applications. Key Words: dendrimers, drug delivery vehicle, lipid bilayer interactions, dendritic architecture

Development and characterization of a novel conductive polyaniline-g-polystyrene/Fe 3 O 4 nanocomposite for the treatment of cancer

The goal of this study is to synthesize, characterize and investigate some physicochemical properties of conductive polyaniline-g-polystyrene/Fe 3 O 4 (Fe 3 O 4 /PSt-g-PANi) nanocomposites. For this purpose, initially, Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles were synthesized by a co-precipitation method. Then, the desired nanocomposite was synthesized in two steps. First, the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of styrene was performed using an ATRP initiator attached to the surface of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles, followed by functionalization of the Fe 3 O 4 -PSt with amine groups (�NH 2 ). Second, surface oxidative graft copolymerization of aniline was accomplished using the �NH 2 moieties on the Fe 3 O 4 /PSt-NH 2 as the anchoring sites. The prepared materials were characterized by various instruments, including TEM, SEM, TGA, EDX, FT-IR, XRD and conductivity measurements. The results indicated that the synthesized conductive polymer/Fe 3 O 4 nanocomposites had higher electrical conductivity and thermal resistance than those of the corresponding homopolymers. © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

COVID-19-associated glomerulopathy and high-risk apol1 genotype; basis for a two-hit mechanism of injury? A narrative review on recent findings

Kidney is one of the most common organs affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after the respiratory and immune systems. Among the renal parenchymal components, the tubulointerstitial compartment is presumed to be the prime target of injury in COVID-19. The main mechanism of renal tubular damage by COVID-19 is considered to be indirect, i.e., cytokine-mediated injury. A proportion of infected individuals mount a strong inflammatory response to the virus by an exaggerated immune response of the body, namely cytokine storm. Sudden and massive release of cytokines may lead to serious systemic hyper-inflammation and renal tubular injury and inflammation resulting in acute renal failure. In addition, a number of cases of glomerulopathies, particularly collapsing glomerulopathy (CG) have been reported, predominantly in people of African ancestry, as a rare form of kidney involvement by SARS-CoV-2 that may originate from the background genetic susceptibility in this population complicated by the second hit of SARS-CoV-2 infection, either directly or indirectly. It is noteworthy that renal injury in COVID-19 could be severe in individuals of African origin due to the aforementioned genetic susceptibility, especially the presence of high-risk apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) genotypes. Although the exact mechanism of kidney injury by SARS-CoV-2 is as yet unknown, multiple mechanisms are likely involved in renal damage caused by this virus. This review was aimed to summarize the salient points of pathogenesis of kidney injury, particularly glomerular injury in COVID-19 disease in the light of published data. A clear understanding of these is imperative for the proper management of these cases. For this review, a search was made of Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCO and PubMed for finding English language articles related to COVID-19, kidney injury and glomerulopathy. From the information given in finally selected papers, the key aspects regarding glomerular involvement in COVID-19 were drawn out and are presented in this descriptive review

Insomnia and restless leg syndrome in patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis in Rafsanjan ali ibn abitaleb hospital

Background: Sleep is one of the most fundamental human needs; without any doubt sleep is even more essential for sick patients, especially for patients with chronic illnesses. Sleep disturbance may lead to anxiety and reduced quality of life. Restless leg syndrome (RLS) is a sensory-motor disorder accompanied by a strong desire to move the legs or other parts of the body, which can cause sleep disturbance. Its etiology is unknown, but increased urea and creatinine levels before dialysis, iron deficiency due to kidney failure and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are mentioned as causes. Objectives: This study is designed to examine the prevalence of insomnia and restless leg syndrome in patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis in Rafsanjan Ali Ibn Abitaleb Hospital. Patients and Methods: In this study we used two questionnaires to evaluate the presence of RLS and insomnia in ESRD patients who were undergoing hemodialysis treatment as kidney replacement therapy. Results: According to our results, 54.5 of patients were diagnosed with RLS, and of those 65.2 and 42.9 were women and men, respectively. RLS is seen more often among patients with blood group type A, but this result was not statistically significant. There was a statistically significant correlation between RLS and a positive family history of RLS, between RLS and the number of hemodialysis treatments per week and also between RLS and the Insomnia Severity Index. Unlike previous studies, in this study we did not find any statistically significant correlation between RLS and biochemical factors such as serum iron, TIBC, BUN, creatinine, potassium, calcium and phosphorous levels. Conclusions: The frequency of RLS among our patients was remarkable and we conclude that all patients who are undergoing hemodialysis should be screened for RLS, which can assist in providing proper attention and treatment. © 2016, Nephrology and Urology Research Center