The Antimicrobial Effects of Ciprofloxacin Combined with Green Synthesized Glutathione-coated Silver Nanoparticles on Biofilm Formation of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

Introdaction:Nowadays, antibiotic resistance is rising at an alarming rate. Essentially, one of the important ways for bacteria such as P. aeruginosa to survive in the presence of antibiotics is biofilm formation. In the current report, we have focused on inhibiting the microbial biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa through combining glutathione (GSH) coated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and Ciprofloxacin (Cip).Materials and Methods: AgNPs were biosynthesized using Eucalyptus Camaldulensis leaf extracts and surface modification of AgNPs was done, using glutathione.  Synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by FTIR, XRD, DLS, SEM, and CHN tests. Then, 50 isolates of P. aeruginosa were originated from different samples of hospitalized patients from Sina hospital and 24 isolates were selected as a strong biofilm producer using microtiter plate method for further studies. Finally, the synergistic effect of GSH-coated AgNPs and Cip was investigated on biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa. Result:The images of SEM represent the spherical structure of silver nanoparticles with a smooth surface. Also, the results of FTIR, XRD, DLS, SEM, and CHN of AgNPs before and after surface coating confirmed the formation of GSH-coated AgNPs. GSH-coated AgNPs and Cip at a concentration of 1/2 and 1/4 MIC had an inhibitory activity on biofilm formation of 87.5% and 83.4% of P. aeruginosa isolates respectively. Conclusion:This study illustrated that the combination of GSH-coated AgNPs and Cip has a synergistic inhibitory activity on P. aeruginosa biofilm formation

The altered expression of long non-coding RNAs: GHET1, BACE1-AS, PANDA, UCA1 associated with non-small cell lung cancer

Objective: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are characterized as non-coding transcripts greater than 200 nucleotides. lncRNAs have extensive molecular connections with proteins and microRNAs, which are important in the regulation of gene expression in physiologic and pathologic states including cancer. About 18% of human LncRNAs were recently found to be associated with tumours. Many studies indicated that aberrant expression of LncRNAs play key roles in the progression and metastasis of NSCLC. In this study we evaluated the expression of long non-coding RNAs: GHET1, BACE1-AS, PANDA, UCA1 in non-small cell lung cancer. Material & Methods: In this study, RNA was extracted from tumor tissues of NSCLC and paired adjacent normal lung tissues. After cDNA synthesis, the relative expression level of lncRNA GHET1, BACE1-AS, PANDA, and UCA1 genes was studied by TaqMan Real-Time PCR, and the data were analyzed by 2-∆∆CT. The t-test was used to compare the values and P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The data of qRT-PCR analysis revealed that the expression level of GHET1 gene in patients with NSCLC is increased (P= 0.0032) and BACE1-AS showed down-regulation (P= 0.0093). There was no significant change in the expression of PANDA and UCA1 genes. Conclusion: Our study sheds lights on the expression signature of several crucial lncRNAs in human lung cancer. This data not only could be further be utilized for different therapeutic approaches but also reveal the changes in biological processes of human lung tumors. &nbsp

Numerical Simulation of the Cervical Spine in a Normal Subject and a Patient with Intervertebral Cage under Various Loadings and in Various Positions

Background: Cervical spine sustains most of thevertebral column injuries, among other injuries, the disc degeneration and damage that lead to replacement of the damaged disc with cage or artificial disc.Methods: The C4 to C6 vertebrae of a normal subject and a person with interbody fusion cage were 3d modelled and then analyzed using Finite element method. The results of maximum stress and strain in cervical spine of the normal subject and patient were compared in three positions: standing, lying with axial rotation of neck and standing with axial rotation of neck.Results: The maximum principal strain and stress in the patient are respectively 10.5% and 14.5% greater than those in normal subject in standing position, howeverin lying position when the head has axial rotation, the maximum principal strain and stress are in the normal subject 6.2% and 16.3% greater than those in patient, respectively. The difference between these results and the results of strain and stress in standing position when the head has axial rotation is very small. This outcome is due to smallness of the stress exerted on cervical spine as a result of the head weight (131-150 Pa).Conclusion: In contrary to the constraint between disc and vertebrae, there is no friction between cage and vertebrae and this leads to maximum stress transfer to the first vertebra above the cage in patient. However, the maximum stress is ultimately less in the patient with fusion cage than the normal subject. Generally, only the neck rotations are the cause of cervical spine injury in normal neck movements

Study of SOX2, OCT4 and NANOG Genes Expression in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

Introduction: lung cancer is a disease that is characterized by an uncontrolled growth of the cell in the lung tissue. This cancer is the most common cause of cancer death worldwide. The SOX2, OCT4 and NANOG transcription factor are the main regulators of maintaining vitality state and self-renewal in embryonic stem cells. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genes expression of SOX2 in peripheral blood of patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Material and Methods: in this research, the expression of SOX2, OCT4 and NANOG transcription factors were investigated in peripheral blood of 30 patients with NSCLC. For this purpose, after RNA extraction from patients' blood by TRIzol then cDNA synthesis, the expression of the genes was analyzed by Real Time PCR technique and using specific primers for the genes. Results: after reviewing the results by Graph Pad software and t-test, SOX2, OCT4 and NANOG expression in patient samples was significantly higher than normal samples. Discussion: the expression of the genes studied in this research in the patients with lung cancer was significantly higher than normal. Regarding the gene expression profile, it seems that the gene is a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of lung cancer

Biomechanical Assessment of Cervical Spine with Artificial Disc during Axial Rotation, Flexion and Extension

Background: The cervical spine is the most vulnerable part of the vertebral column and the rotational movements are the most dangerous movements which may cause damages to cervical spine. A good treatment option for the cervical disc disease is the replacement of a damaged disc with an artificial disc that has shown satisfactory clinical results.Methods: The C4 to C6 vertebrae of a normal subject and a person with an artificial disc between the vertebrae C5 and C6 were 3d modelled and then analyzed using FEM. The results of stress and deformationin both subjects were calculated and compared for three rotational head movements: axial rotation, flexion and extension. A distributed load of 73.6 N was used to simulate the head weight and a moment of 1.8 N.m was used to create all three rotational movements.Results: The maximum Von Mises stress in the normal subject during the axial rotation was respectively 2.2 and 1.8 times greater than the maximum stress during flexion and extension. These numbers were 2.6 and 2.3 in the subject with artificial disc.Following the artificial disc replacement, the cervical spine strength against the extension improved about 2.7%, however, the strength in axial rotation and flexion decreased 6.9% and 24.3%, respectively. The maximum values of deformation in the normal subject during flexion, extension and axial rotation were 2.8, 2.8 and 2 times of the values in the subject with artificial disc during the similar movements.Conclusion: The flexion and extension involve risks of hurting the cervical spine, however, the axial rotation is much more dangerous regarding the damages it may cause especially to the C5/6 intervertebral disc. Numerically, there is a much greater possibility of cervical spine injury during axial rotation

Phenylketonuria in Portugal: Genotype-Phenotype Correlations Using Molecular, Biochemical, and Haplotypic Analyses

The impairment of the hepatic enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) causes elevation of phenylalanine levels in blood and other body fluids resulting in the most common inborn error of amino acid metabolism (phenylketonuria). Persistently high levels of phenylalanine lead to irreversible damage to the nervous system. Therefore, early diagnosis of the affected individuals is important, as it can prevent clinical manifestations of the disease.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Study of chemical composition and characteristics of Centurea cyanus extract on colon cancer cell line and analysis of apoptosis gene expression

Background: Centaurea cyanus is an endemic and well-known herbal medicine in Iran, is an annual flowering plant in the family of Asteraceae. The flowers are the part used in modern herbal medicine and are considered to have tonic, stimulant and emmenagogue properties, with action similar to that of blessed thistle. The aim this study was to investigate the phytochemical constituents of C. cyanus extract, its antioxidant, anti-tumor and anti-bacterial activities. Methods: This experimental study was conducted from June to January of 2015 in Islamic Azad University of Varamin, Iran. At first, the phytochemical components of C. cyanus extract was analyzed using gas chromatography&ndash;mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. Subsequently, the antibacterial potential of the extract was evaluated against 4 pathogenic bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Psedomonas aeroginosa and Klebsiella pnemoniae via minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) mathod. Moreover, the anti-oxidant and anti-tumor activities of extract on colon cancer cell line (HT29) were investigate using DPPH and MTT colorimetric methods, respectively. Finally, the Bax and Bcl2 apoptosis gene expression level was analyzed by quantitative Real-time PCR technique. Results: GC-MS analysis of C. cyanus extract was shown 19 major components and the most frequent component was belonged to n-Hexadecanoic acid (36.4%) and Linoleic acid (19.3%). The maximum antibacterial activity of extract was observed on S. aureus and P. aeroginosa isolates. The antioxidant activity of the extract was 0.109&plusmn;0.07 mg/ml. Moreover, the MTT results show that extract had IC50= 26.04&plusmn;0.45 on HT29 cell line. The Real-time PCR results showed the expression level of Bax and Bcl2 was significantly increased and decreased respectively in colon cancer cell line (2.63&plusmn;0.54 (P< 0.05), 0.38&plusmn;0.72 (P< 0.05)). Conclusion: The results of this study show that the extract had significant anti-bacterial and anti-cancer effects and it appear that the extract has potential uses for pharmaceutical industries

Investigation of the association between polymorphisms of factor V (G1691A) and factor II (G20210A) with recurrent miscarriage in Iranian patients

Abstract Background: The pathogenesis of recurrent pregnancy loss includes complex interaction of several genetic and environmental factors. Changes in blood coagulation factors during pregnancy may play an important role in the occurrence of recurrent abortions (RA). Recently, inherited thrombophilia has been considered as a possible cause. Therefore, in this study we have investigated association of factor V (G1691A) and factor II (G20210A) polymorphisms in Iranian patients with recurrent abortions. Materials and Methods: A total of 203 women participated in this study: 105 women with two or more consecutive unexplained miscarriage as cases and 98 women with at least two healthy children as control group. Total genomic DNA was isolated from Peripheral blood leukocytes. The presence or absence of mutation in the FV (G1691A) and FII (G20210A) polymorphisms were assessed by PCR-RFLP, using Mnl1 and HindIII digestion enzymes, respectively. Finally, data was analyzed using Chi-Square(χ2) test. Results: The results showed no statistical significant differences in the prevalence of FV (G1691A) and FII (G20210A) polymorphisms between patients and control group. Conclusion: considering the results of this study, these polymorphisms Seem to have no role in etiology of recurrent pregnancy loss in the studied population

Association of kinase insert domain-containing receptor (KDR) gene polymorphism/ haplotypes with recurrent spontaneous abortion and genetic structure

Background: Recurrent spontaneous abortion is one of the diseases that can lead to physical, psychological, and, economical problems for both individuals and society. Recently a few numbers of genetic polymorphisms in kinase insert domain-containing receptor (KDR) gene are examined that can endanger the life of the fetus in pregnant women. Objective: The risk of KDR gene polymorphisms was investigated in Iranian women with idiopathic recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA). Materials and Methods: A case controlled study was performed. One hundred idiopathic recurrent spontaneous abortion patients with at least two consecutive pregnancy losses before 20 weeks of gestational age with normal karyotypes were included in the study. Also, 100 healthy women with at least one natural pregnancy were studied as control group. Two functional SNPs located in KDR gene; rs1870377 (Q472H), and rs2305948 (V297I) as well as one tag SNP in the intron region (rs6838752) were genotyped by using PCR based restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. Haplotype frequency was determined for these three SNPs’ genotypes. Analysis of genetic STRUCTURE and K means clustering were performed to study genetic variation. Results: Functional SNP (rs1870377) was highly linked to tag SNP (rs6838752) (D´ value=0. 214; χ2 = 16.44, p<0. 001). K means clustering showed that k = 8 as the best fit for the optimal number of genetic subgroups in our studied materials. This result was in agreement with Neighbor Joining cluster analysis. Conclusion: In our study, the allele and genotype frequencies were not associated with RSA between patient and control individuals. Inconsistent results in different populations with different allele frequencies among RSA patients and controls may be due to ethnic variation and used sample size

Profiling the miRNAs for Early Cancer Detection using DNA-based Logic Gates

Abstract Background: DNA-based computing is an emerging research aspect that enables the in-vivo computation and decision making with significant correctness. Recent papers show that the expression level of miRNAs are related to the progress status of some diseases such as cancers and DNA computing is introduced as a low cost and concise technique for detection of these biomarkers. In this paper, DNA-based logic gates are implemented in the laboratory to detect the level of miR-21 as the biomarker of cancer. Materials and Methods: At the first, required strands for designing DNA gates are synthesized. Then, double stranded gate is generated in laboratory using a temperature gradient that followed by electrophoresis process. This double strand is the computation engine for detecting the miR-21 biomarker. miR-21 is as input in designed gate. At the end, the expression level of miR-21 is identified by measuring the generated fluorescent. Results: at the first stage, the proposed DNA-based logic gate is evaluated by using the synthesized input strands and then it is experimented on a tumor tissue. Experimental results on synthesized strands show that its detection quality/correctness is 2.5x better than conventional methods. Conclusion: Experimental results on the tumor tissues are successful and are matched with those are extracted from real time PCR results. Also, the results show that this method is significantly more suitable than real time PCR in view of time and cost