Comparative evaluation of Artaderm (herbal alcoholic extracts ointment) and cod liver oil ointment on healing process in burn of the second degree in Rat

Introduction: The treatment of skin burning is one of the most important problems in medical sciences. Burns are divided into 3 degrees and each degree has different damage and effects on skin and other related tissues. Many efforts have been applied by clinicians to manage wound healing through the use of genes, cytokines, chemokines and surgery. Some involved mechanisms in the process are local tissue hypo perfusion, edema, prolonged inflammation, hypercoagulability, free radical damage and accumulation of cytotoxic cytokines. Methods and Results: Twenty-six female laboratory Wistar rats weighing 200-250 grams obtained, and all the rats were kept in controlled temperature of 23-25 ºC and light period of 12-hours lightening and 12-hours darkness. Due to make burns after rats’ general anesthesia Ketamine (40 mg/kg) and Xylazine (5 mg/kg) by Intraperitoneal (IP) method was performed, after shaving of rats, a brass metal piece 1.4 cm × 3 mm thickness with 100 ºC was kept on back of rats for 15 seconds and it was made similar deep second-degree burns. No significant difference was found among four groups regarding the primary wound surface area. The rats randomly were separated into 4 groups each one consisting of 6 rats. In the control group the burn injury only was covered with sterile gauze, Artaderm ointment group, cod liver oil group, Eucerin group. The injury area was covered with sterile gauze bandage and this process continued for 21 days. On the 0, 7th, 14th and 21st day of the experiment, tissue samples were taken under anesthesia from predetermined areas from all subjects in all groups. Wounds were daily examined for any changes in appearance of wounds, the color, and smell of any discharge and time of scar separation. Conclusions: Statistical comparison of the burn area of study groups on days 7-14 and 21 post-burn, showed a significant difference (p< 0.05) between the control group and other groups. The best results obtained from the group treated by Artaderm. According to studies, pathology quickly restored with Artaderm. Cell repair in the treated group by Artaderm herbal ointment was significant compared to other groups after staining with H&E. Finally, Artaderm successfully demonstrated its therapeutic effect in terms of healing the wounds

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Global age-sex-specific fertility, mortality, healthy life expectancy (HALE), and population estimates in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2019 : a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Accurate and up-to-date assessment of demographic metrics is crucial for understanding a wide range of social, economic, and public health issues that affect populations worldwide. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 produced updated and comprehensive demographic assessments of the key indicators of fertility, mortality, migration, and population for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations from 1950 to 2019. Methods: 8078 country-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 938 surveys, 349 censuses, and 238 other sources were identified and used to estimate age-specific fertility. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used to generate age-specific fertility rates for 5-year age groups between ages 15 and 49 years. With extensions to age groups 10–14 and 50–54 years, the total fertility rate (TFR) was then aggregated using the estimated age-specific fertility between ages 10 and 54 years. 7417 sources were used for under-5 mortality estimation and 7355 for adult mortality. ST-GPR was used to synthesise data sources after correction for known biases. Adult mortality was measured as the probability of death between ages 15 and 60 years based on vital registration, sample registration, and sibling histories, and was also estimated using ST-GPR. HIV-free life tables were then estimated using estimates of under-5 and adult mortality rates using a relational model life table system created for GBD, which closely tracks observed age-specific mortality rates from complete vital registration when available. Independent estimates of HIV-specific mortality generated by an epidemiological analysis of HIV prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance and other sources were incorporated into the estimates in countries with large epidemics. Annual and single-year age estimates of net migration and population for each country and territory were generated using a Bayesian hierarchical cohort component model that analysed estimated age-specific fertility and mortality rates along with 1250 censuses and 747 population registry years. We classified location-years into seven categories on the basis of the natural rate of increase in population (calculated by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate) and the net migration rate. We computed healthy life expectancy (HALE) using years lived with disability (YLDs) per capita, life tables, and standard demographic methods. Uncertainty was propagated throughout the demographic estimation process, including fertility, mortality, and population, with 1000 draw-level estimates produced for each metric. Findings: The global TFR decreased from 2·72 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 2·66–2·79) in 2000 to 2·31 (2·17–2·46) in 2019. Global annual livebirths increased from 134·5 million (131·5–137·8) in 2000 to a peak of 139·6 million (133·0–146·9) in 2016. Global livebirths then declined to 135·3 million (127·2–144·1) in 2019. Of the 204 countries and territories included in this study, in 2019, 102 had a TFR lower than 2·1, which is considered a good approximation of replacement-level fertility. All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27·1% (95% UI 26·4–27·8) of global livebirths. Global life expectancy at birth increased from 67·2 years (95% UI 66·8–67·6) in 2000 to 73·5 years (72·8–74·3) in 2019. The total number of deaths increased from 50·7 million (49·5–51·9) in 2000 to 56·5 million (53·7–59·2) in 2019. Under-5 deaths declined from 9·6 million (9·1–10·3) in 2000 to 5·0 million (4·3–6·0) in 2019. Global population increased by 25·7%, from 6·2 billion (6·0–6·3) in 2000 to 7·7 billion (7·5–8·0) in 2019. In 2019, 34 countries had negative natural rates of increase; in 17 of these, the population declined because immigration was not sufficient to counteract the negative rate of decline. Globally, HALE increased from 58·6 years (56·1–60·8) in 2000 to 63·5 years (60·8–66·1) in 2019. HALE increased in 202 of 204 countries and territories between 2000 and 2019

A glance into the future cardiac stem cells: review article

It was assumed that the loss of cardiomyocytes is irreversible. The main goal is to develop widely available and clinically applicable treatments for heart diseases. The several studies have showed that the use of stem cells can improve complicacies such as cardiovascular diseases. Stem cells have a potential benefit of the self-renewal and cell differentiation into the cell types that can play an important role in the organogenesis and the embryonic development. In a lifetime, the heart muscle has a population of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) in which a dramatically increase after cardiovascular damages. So far, seven types of CSCs have been discovered with the different molecular phenotype and the cell differentiation potential. In this regard, the proliferation and the differentiation increase of CSCs in the cardiac ischemic areas can be a key factor to improve heart complicacies. Paracrine and/or autocrine factors, the extracellular matrix and the genetic mediators including microRNA can control the function of CSCs. It has clearly been understood that the factors mentioned previously have the ability to improve these complicacies. The differentiation, the survival and the self-renewal of CSCs are largely under the control of factors in the heart microenvironment. Several studies showed that the cytokines and the growth factors play the important role in the proliferation and the migration of CSCs. Taking advantage of these factors together CSCs to repair damaged heart can enhance this method efficiency. This review will discuss the different kinds of CSCs, their molecular phenotype and cardiac regeneration potential in order to improve cardiovascular diseases. It seems that CSCs-based therapy is emerging as a novel approach for myocardial repair over conventional cardiovascular therapies. Therefore, understanding the new aspects on the molecular mechanisms and the signaling pathways involving CSCs is critical for the development of the therapeutic strategies in cardiac patients that would be valuable for researchers in both fields of molecular and clinical cardiology

The Relationship between Information Literacy and Access to Facilities with Attitudes toward E-learning among students of Urmia University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: E-learning is considered as one of the most important elements of higher education in the information era. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between information literacy and access to facilities with attitudes toward e-learning among students of Urmia University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This descriptive study was performed on 190 senior students of Urmia University of Medical Sciences in 2013. The participants were selected through cluster sampling. The data were collected through two researcher-made questionnaires. One questionnaire measured information literacy, and the other measured attitudes toward e-learning. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and independent t-test. Results: The findings showed a significant correlation between information literacy and attitudes toward e-learning (r=0.38) and there was a significant correlation between knowledge of computer and attitudes toward e-learning (r=0.47). Furthermore students’ access to computers (t=3.89) and internet (t=4. 89) affected their attitudes toward e-learning. Conclusion: Features such as access to computers and the internet, as well as information literacy are related to students' attitudes toward e-learning. Therefore availability of such facilities and efforts to enhance information literacy, especially for students who newly entered higher education might contribute to positive attitudes toward e-learning and implementation of new educational methods. This also paves the way for designing and moving toward implementation of e-learning system in formal educations at Urmia University of Medical Sciences

Regulation of Long Non-Coding RNAs by Plant Secondary Metabolites: A Novel Anticancer Therapeutic Approach

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that play an essential role in various cellular activities, such as differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. Dysregulation of lncRNAs serves a fundamental role in the progression and initiation of various diseases, including cancer. Precision medicine is a suitable and optimal treatment method for cancer so that based on each patient’s genetic content, a specific treatment or drug is prescribed. The rapid advancement of science and technology in recent years has led to many successes in this particular treatment. Phytochemicals are a group of natural compounds extracted from fruits, vegetables, and plants. Through the downregulation of oncogenic lncRNAs or upregulation of tumor suppressor lncRNAs, these bioactive compounds can inhibit metastasis, proliferation, invasion, migration, and cancer cells. These natural products can be a novel and alternative strategy for cancer treatment and improve tumor cells’ sensitivity to standard adjuvant therapies. This review will discuss the antineoplastic effects of bioactive plant secondary metabolites (phytochemicals) via regulation of expression of lncRNAs in various human cancers and their potential for the treatment and prevention of human cancers

Stem cells-derived natural killer cells for cancer immunotherapy: current protocols, feasibility, and benefits of ex vivo generated natural killer cells in treatment of advanced solid tumors

Nowadays, natural killer (NK) cell-based immunotherapy provides a practical therapeutic strategy for patients with advanced solid tumors (STs). This approach is adaptively conducted by the autologous and identical NK cells after in vitro expansion and overnight activation. However, the NK cell-based cancer immunotherapy has been faced with some fundamental and technical limitations. Moreover, the desirable outcomes of the NK cell therapy may not be achieved due to the complex tumor microenvironment by inhibition of intra-tumoral polarization and cytotoxicity of implanted NK cells. Currently, stem cells (SCs) technology provides a powerful opportunity to generate more effective and universal sources of the NK cells. Till now, several strategies have been developed to differentiate types of the pluripotent and adult SCs into the mature NK cells, with both feeder layer-dependent and/or feeder laye-free strategies. Higher cytokine production and intra-tumoral polarization capabilities as well as stronger anti-tumor properties are the main features of these SCs-derived NK cells. The present review article focuses on the principal barriers through the conventional NK cell immunotherapies for patients with advanced STs. It also provides a comprehensive resource of protocols regarding the generation of SCs-derived NK cells in an ex vivo condition