Sedative and hypnotic effects of Iranian traditional medicinal herbs used for treatment of insomnia

For tens of centuries, plants have been highly valued and regularly used as medicine amongst the masses. Insomnia, a loss of sleep, is mostly treated by synthetic sleeping tablets these days. However, questions have been raised about the safety of prolonged use of artificial sedatives due to their deleterious side effects such as physical dependence. In recent years, there has been an increasing propensity to preclude insomnia by herbal medicines throughout the world. Many herbs have a lengthy background in terms of insomnia treatment in Iran. This paper gives an account of previously published research on sedative and hypnotic effects of medicinal herbs used for treatment of insomnia in Iranian traditional medicine

Different effects of metformin and insulin on primary and secondary chemoprevention of colorectal adenoma in diabetes type 2

Metformin and insulin differently affect the risk of colon cancer in type 2 diabetic patients, however their effects on colon adenoma is not clear. PubMed, ISI, Scopus and Cochrane databases were searched for studies reporting. The outcomes were total adenoma; advanced adenoma and recurrent adenoma. Traditional and Bayesian metaanalysis were conducted via random-effects models. Odds ratios (OR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) / or credible intervals (CrI) were used to describe the ratio of different events. A random-effects model described by DerSimonian and Laird was performed, when significant between-study heterogeneity existed. Alternatively, an inverse variance fixed effects model was used, when there was no significant heterogeneity across studies. The potential publication bias was assessed with funnel plot, Egger and Begg's regression asymmetry tests. Moreover, “trim and fill” procedure was used to assess the possible effect of publication bias. For metformin intake, 11 studies (51991 patients) were included. The results showed that metformin significantly decreased the risk of advance adenoma (OR= 0.51, p< 0.001). The risk of total adenoma was not associated with metformin use (OR= 0.86, p=0.274), and metformin did not affect the risk of adenoma recurrence (OR= 0.89, p=0.137). Five studies (2678 patients) were included in the analysis to determine the effect of insulin therapy. Insulin significantly increased the risk of colorectal adenoma (OR= 1.43, p=0.002). These findings indicate that metformin has no protective effect on total and recurrent adenoma, whilst it significantly reduces the risk of advanced adenoma, but insulin increases the risk of total adenoma

Neuroprotective, antimicrobial, antioxidant, chemotherapeutic, and antidiabetic properties of Salvia Reuterana: A mini review

Objectives: Herbal medicine is known as a valid alternative treatment. Salvia Reuterana, which has been used in the Iranian traditional medicine, is mostly distributed in the central highlands of Iran. Salvia Reuterana is a medicinal herb with various therapeutic usages. The aim of the present review is to take account of pharmacological properties of Salvia Reuterana. Materials and Methods: The present review summarizes the literature with respect to various pharmacological properties of Salvia Reuterana. Results: Salvia Reuterana possesses neurological, antimicrobial, antioxidant, chemotherapeutic, and antidiabetic properties. Conclusions: Salvia Reuterana can be used as an alternative for treatment of several disorders

Evaluation of Lipid Profile and PCSK9 Serum Levels in Parkinson’s Patients in Comparison with Healthy Subjects

Introduction Up to now, limited and contradictory results have been published on the role of prognostic values of lipid profile molecules including: HDL (High Density Lipoprotein), LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein), TG (Triglyceride), Total Cholesterol and PCSK9 (Proprotein Convertase SubtilisinKexin type 9) molecule in occurrence and development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The aim of this study was to investigate the role of lipid profile and PCSK9 in patients with PD and to compar it with healthy individuals. Methods and Results In the present case-evidence study, 32 individuals diagnosed with PD were compared with 32 healthy individuals. After receiving the &nbsp;participant's consent forms, 5 ml blood was taken from vein and the level of HDL(High -Density Lipoprotein), LDL (Low-Density Lipoprotein), TG (Triglyceride),Total Cholesterol and PCSK9 in the blood samples were measured. The Elisa method was used for measuring PCSK9 level in blood serum. Data were analyzed using SPSS17 software. The P values smaller than 0.05 were considered significant. The mean age of participants in the PD and control group was 56.9±8.8 and 53.7±10.1 years respectively (P&gt;0.05). Twenty seven individuals (87.1%) and 13 individuals (41.9%) in the PD group and control group were men, respectively. The remaining participants were women (P=0.000). LDL level (84.2±24.9 ml/dl vs. 105.5±16.8, P=0.000), HDL (45.5±8.7 ml/dl vs. 51.1±9.5 ml/dl, P=0.000), total cholesterol (155.3±31.2 ml/dl vs. 192.8±32.5 ml/dl P=0.000) were lower and TG level was higher in the PD group (133.3±79.3 ml/dl vs. 131.2±58.6 ml/dl, P=0.9) compared with the control group. PCSK9 level was higher in the PDgroup, but no significant difference was found (141.6±70 vs. 129.7±51 ng/ml, P=0.5). ConclusionsOur findings showed that individuals with PD have lower level of HDL, LDL and total cholesterol compared with the control group, but PCSK9 levels were same in both groups

Crosstalk between Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors andToll-Like Receptors: A Systematic Review

As one of the four major families of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), toll like receptors (TLRs)are crucial and important components of the innate immune system. Peroxisome proliferatoractivatedreceptors (PPARs) with three isoforms are transcription factors classified as a subfamilyof nuclear receptor proteins, and are of significant regulatory activity in cellular differentiation,development, metabolism, and tumorigenesis. It is well established that PPARs agonists displayanti-inflammatory effects through inhibition of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway, akey regulator of immune and inflammatory responses, in a sense that TLRs signaling pathwaysare mainly toward activation of NF-κB. Through a systematic review of previous studies, weaimed to address and clarify the reciprocal interaction between TLRs and PPARs in hope to findalternative therapeutic approaches for inflammatory diseases. Among the available scientificdatabase, 31 articles were selected for this review. A comprehensive review of this databaseconfirms the presence of a cross-talk between PPARs and TLRs, indicating that not onlyPPARs stimulation may affect the expression level of TLRs via several mechanisms leading tomodulating TLRs activities, but also TLRs have the potential to moderate the expression of PPARs.We, therefore, conclude that, as a key regulator of the innate immune system, the interactionbetween PPARs and TLRs is a potential therapeutic target in disease treatment

The Role of N-Acetylcysteine in Platelet Aggregation and Reperfusion Injury in Recent Years

Introduction: N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is an amino acid that contains a cysteine group and is currently used widely in various fields of medical research especially in cardiology. In this review, potential benefits of NAC in the aggregation of platelet and reperfusion injury are evaluated. Methods and Results: The available evidence was collected by searching Scopus, Pub-Med, Medline, Cochrane central register of controlled trials, and Cochrane database systematic reviews. Our searching was performed without time limitation and only English language articles were included in this review. Key words used as search terms included “N-acetylcysteine”, “platelet aggregation”, “reperfusion injury”. Over the past decade, several investigations were carried out to ascertain reperfusion injury and antiplatelet properties of NAC, and in this article the results of investigations in both models (human and animal) were addressed in details. The results revealed that NAC has an important antiplatelet property in animal models while this effect is not very significant in human models and needs more investigations. However, its reperfusion injury in both models is worth noticing. Conclusions: Due to the limited data about effectiveness of NAC in both human and animal as antiplatelet agent, more investigation is needed to evaluate NAC efficacy in platelet aggregation and reperfusion injury especially in human studies in the future

Model prediction for in-hospital mortality in patients with covid-19: a case-control study in Isfahan, Iran

The COVID-19 pandemic has now imposed an enormous global burden as well as a large mortality in a short time period. Although there is no promising treatment, identification of early predictors of in-hospital mortality would be critically important in reducing its worldwide mortality. We aimed to suggest a prediction model for in-hospital mortality of COVID-19. In this case–control study, we recruited 513 confirmed patients with COVID-19 from February 18 to March 26, 2020 from Isfahan COVID-19 registry. Based on extracted laboratory, clinical, and demographic data, we created an in-hospital mortality predictive model using gradient boosting. We also determined the diagnostic performance of the proposed model including sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) as well as their 95% CIs. Of 513 patients, there were 60 (11.7%) in-hospital deaths during the study period. The diagnostic values of the suggested model based on the gradient boosting method with oversampling techniques using all of the original data were specificity of 98.5% (95% CI: 96.8–99.4), sensitivity of 100% (95% CI: 94–100), negative predictive value of 100% (95% CI: 99.2–100), positive predictive value of 89.6% (95% CI: 79.7–95.7), and an AUC of 98.6%. The suggested model may be useful in making decision to patient’s hospitalization where the probability of mortality may be more obvious based on the final variable. However, moderate gaps in our knowledge of the predictors of in-hospital mortality suggest further studies aiming at predicting models for in-hospital mortality in patients with COVID-19

A comprehensive review on novel targeted therapy methods and nanotechnology-based gene delivery systems in melanoma.

Melanoma, a malignant form of skin cancer, has been swiftly increasing in recent years. Although there have been significant advancements in clinical treatment underlying a well-understanding of melanoma-susceptible genes and the molecular basis of melanoma pathogenesis, the permanency of response to therapy is frequently constrained by the emergence of acquired resistance and systemic toxicity. Conventional therapies, including surgical resection, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, have already been used to treat melanoma and are dependent on the cancer stage. Nevertheless, ineffective side effects and the heterogeneity of tumors pose major obstacles to the therapeutic treatment of malignant melanoma through such strategies. In light of this, advanced therapies including nucleic acid therapies (ncRNA, aptamers), suicide gene therapies, and gene therapy using tumor suppressor genes, have lately gained immense attention in the field of cancer treatment. Furthermore, nanomedicine and targeted therapy based on gene editing tools have been applied to the treatment of melanoma as potential cancer treatment approaches nowadays. Indeed, nanovectors enable delivery of the therapeutic agents into the tumor sites by passive or active targeting, improving therapeutic efficiency and minimizing adverse effects. Accordingly, in this review, we summarized the recent findings related to novel targeted therapy methods as well as nanotechnology-based gene systems in melanoma. We also discussed current issues along with potential directions for future research, paving the way for the next-generation of melanoma treatments.Sección Deptal. de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (Biológicas)Fac. de Ciencias BiológicasTRUEEuropean UnionNextGeneration (EU/PRTR)Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)/Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)Ministerio de UniversidadesUniversidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)pu

Predictors of ICU Length of Stay in Patients with COVID-19: A Retrospective Study

Background. The available evidence has made the long-term accompaniment of COVID-19 and its other variants with human life predictable. Different studies have proposed different and, in some cases, contradictory findings as factors determining the duration of hospitalization of patients with COVID-19. The present study aimed to identify the factors related to the duration of ICU length in patients with COVID-19. Methods. The present study retrospectively analyzed the data related to patients aged 1 to 97 years with COVID-19 registered in Isfahan's COVID-19 registration system. The data of those patients with COVID-19 who were alive at the time of discharge (n=453) were analyzed in the present study. Information related to laboratory findings, clinical data, and co-morbidities were collected. T-test, correlation, and analysis of variance tests were used in crude analysis. The linear regression model was used to determine the factors related to the ICU length and their importance. Results. The mean (SD) of intensive care unit days was 0.64 (2.39). Higher than normal values of INR, hemoglobin, and creatinine increased the average length of stay in ICU by 2.45 (p=0.001), 3.82 , and 0.72 days, respectively. Among underlying co-morbidities, the presence of other respiratory diseases significantly increased the average length of stay in the ICU by 1.5 days (p=0.024). Standardized regression coefficients also showed that higher-than-normal hemoglobin and increased WBC values were the most important variables predicting ICU hospitalization length. Conclusion. The higher-than-normal values of hemoglobin and increased WBC values are the most important predictors of the length of hospitalization in the ICU. The findings of the present study can be helpful in the decision-making of specialists to reduce the duration of hospitalization in the ICU and to help diagnose more critical cases