Progress of Iran in Medical Research

  The indexed Iranian journals in ISI and PubMed at the end of 2012 with known impact factor (IF) were evaluated with regard to the number of articles published in 2010-2012, the number of citations by authors from inside and outside Iran, their IF as well as their ranking order among all other journals in their specialized categories. There were among 130 English journals, 21 indexed with known IF. The mean IF of these journals increased from 0.4 in 2010 to 0.68 in 2012. The number of citations per article by authors from outside Iran increased from 0.19 to 0.49 during the same time period. The rank of the majority of the indexed journals was in the lowest 20% of their category. Although some improvement has been observed in the quality and the number of citations of Iranian journals indexed in ISI during these two years, the quality of the manuscripts remains low. A reduction in the number of journals, a change of their structure as well as more financial resources for research is necessary for the improvement of the quality and better rank and status of Iranian science among an international audience

Antibacterial Activity of Twenty Iranian Plant Extracts Against Clinical Isolates of Helicobacter pylori

Objective(s)Due to increasing emergence of drug-resistance in Helicobacter pylori isolates, traditional plants arepotentially valuable sources of novel anti-H. pylori agents. In this research, anti-H. pylori activity of theorganic extracts of twenty native Iranian plants was determined against ten clinical isolates of H. pylori.Materials and MethodsDisc diffusion was used to determine the biological activity of 20 plant extracts as well as 8 antibioticscommonly used to treat H. pylori infections. Minimum inhibitory concentrations were also measured by tubeand agar dilution methods for the biologically active plant extracts.ResultsOf the twenty plant extracts analyzed, sixteen exhibited good anti-H. pylori activity, using disc diffusion.The ten most active extracts were Carum bulbocastanum, Carum carvi, Mentha longifolia, Saliva limbata,Saliva sclarea, Ziziphora clinopodioides, Thymus caramanicus, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Xanthium brasilicumand Trachyspermum copticum. Minimum inhibitory concentrations measured for the 10 biologically activeplant extracts were within the range of 31.25 to 500 μg/ml.ConclusionAmong the ten plant extracts effective against H. pylori clinical isolates, Carum carvi, Xanthium brasilicumand Trachyspermum copticum showed the highest activity.Keywords: Anti-Helicobacter pylori, Iranian plants, Organic extract

Pepsinogen II Can Be a Potential Surrogate Marker of Morphological Changes in Corpus before and after H. pylori Eradication

Background. The aim of this investigation is to study the relationship between gastric morphology and serum biomarkers before and after Helicobacter pylori eradication. Methods. First-degree relatives of gastric cancer patients underwent gastroscopy before and 2.5 years after H. pylori eradication. The morphological changes in two categories (normal to mild and moderate to severe) were compared with level of pepsinogens I and II before eradication (n=369), after eradication (n=115), and in those with persistent infection (n=250). Results: After eradication, pepsinogen I decreased to 70% and pepsinogen II to 45% of the previous values. Unlike pepsinogen II and pepsinogen I to II ratio that were affected by the severity of inflammation and atrophy in corpus in all groups, pepsinogen I generally did not change. After eradication, subjects with high mononuclear infiltration in corpus had lower pepsinogen I (54 versus 77.1 μ/mL), higher pepsinogen II (9.4 versus 6.9 μ/mL), and lower ratio (7.9 versus 11.6) than those without (P<0.05). Conclusion. Pepsinogen II is a good marker of corpus morphological changes before and after H. pylori eradication

Ethnic and geographic differentiation of Helicobacter pylori within Iran.

The bacterium Helicobacter pylori colonizes the human stomach, with individual infections persisting for decades. The spread of the bacterium has been shown to reflect both ancient and recent human migrations. We have sequenced housekeeping genes from H. pylori isolated from 147 Iranians with well-characterized geographical and ethnic origins sampled throughout Iran and compared them with sequences from strains from other locations. H. pylori from Iran are similar to others isolated from Western Eurasia and can be placed in the previously described HpEurope population. Despite the location of Iran at the crossroads of Eurasia, we found no evidence that the region been a major source of ancestry for strains across the continent. On a smaller scale, we found genetic affinities between the H. pylori isolated from particular Iranian populations and strains from Turks, Uzbeks, Palestinians and Israelis, reflecting documented historical contacts over the past two thousand years