Evaluation of Apoptotic and Antileishmanial Activities of Artemisinin on Promastigotes and BALB/C Mice Infected with Leishmania major

Background:

In leishmaniasis, some drugs prescribed for treatment have toxic effects and there are reports about drug resistance in some countries. Due to this fact, using herbal drugs such as artemisinin with good efficacy and low toxic effect might be suitable.

Methods:

We evaluated the apoptotic effect of artemisinin on Leishmania major in vitro and the antileishmanial activities of artemisinin on leishmaniasis in BALB/c mice and at the end INF-γ and IL-4 cytokines levels were detected by ELISA in spleen cell culture supernatants. During treatment the lesion size and survival rate were measured each four and ten days, respectively.

Results:

Percentage of early and late apoptosis in promastigotes of control group and promastigotes treated with 10, 25, 50 and 100 μg/ml of artemisinin after 48 h were 0.13, 16.04, 41.23, 49.03 and 81.83, respectively. The IFN-γ in ointment treated group were higher than those of other groups (P<0.05). The in vivo results showed that ointment compounds healed the lesions more effectively rather than intraperitoneal injection method (P<0.05). The survival rate of mice 150 days after challenge in treated group with ointment of artemisinin was 66% while all mice in control groups were died.

Conclusion:

All of in vitro results represented that this drug had antileishmanial effects and these results were confirmed by evaluation effects in vivo condition of leishmaniasis. Interestingly, according to these results it can be concluded that this drug has antileishmanial effects in vitro and in vivo conditions. Artemisinin induces cytotoxic effect on L. major via apoptosis-related mechanism.     

Phylogenetic Study of Haemonchus Species from Iran Based On Morpho-Molecular Characterization

Background:

Haemonchosis has a negative effect on the farming industry throughout the world, especially in the tropic and sub-tropic countries. The present study was carried out to differentiate Haemonchus species from its main hosts in Iran, including sheep, goat and camel.

Methods:

The identification took place based on the morphometrics of the spicules and molecular characters. Two hundred seventy adult male nematodes were collected from the abomasums of different ruminants (90 samples from each animal) at the slaughterhouses from different localities in Iran. Samples were morphologically identified according to the spicules’ morphometric measurements. In the section on molecular study, 10 samples of each Haemonchus isolates were genetically examined. A simple PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay of the second internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA (ITS2-rDNA) were described to confirm the PCR results.

Results:

PCR-RFLP profile obtained from the restriction enzyme HPa1 in H. contortus and H. longistipes indicated 1 (278 bp) and 2 (113 and 135 bp) different fragments, respectively. The morphological parameters clearly distinguish H. contortus from H. longistipes. Moreover, regarding the ITS2-rDNA, sequences of 295 bp and 314 bp were obtained from H. contortus and H. longistipes, respectively.

Conclusion:

The genotypic results are in agreement with the phenotypic findings of both species.     

Decarboxylative cross-coupling reactions for P(O)–C bond formation

Phosphorus-containing compounds are one of the most important classes of organic compounds, which have wide applications in organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, agricultural chemistry, and materials chemistry. In particular, organophosphorus compounds bearing a P(O)–C bond have attracted significant attention in recent decades due to their widespread biological and pharmacological activities. In this review, we will highlight the most important developments in the construction of P(O)–C bonds through decarboxylative C–P cross-coupling reactions. The literature has been surveyed from 2011 to May 2018.

Phosphorus-containing compounds are one of the most important classes of organic compounds, which have wide applications in organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, agricultural chemistry, and materials chemistry.     

Health-related quality of life in Iranian women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a qualitative study

Background

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with a range of challenging symptoms which impact patient’s lives. Iranian women with PCOS are likely to face a number of unique difficulties given particular societal and cultural norms for women. Understanding health-related quality of life (HRQoL) from a patients’perspective is critical to developing the appropriate support interventions. The present study aimed to generate an in-depthunderstanding of HRQoL Iranian women with PCOS.

Methods

Twenty Iranian women were interviewed and data was subjected to thematic analysis.

Results

Women reported substantial effects of PCOS on their quality of life, Themes generated from the data related to sexual - physical problems (An unsexualised self: loss, change and pain; and Being pained and painful); exposure and nvasion: the rejecting and invading social world (Concealing and Avoiding and Public property: public scrutiny), diminished self and diminished life (Infertile as inferior and Exhausted mind andbody) respectively.

Conclusion

PCOS is a physical - sexual, psychological and social syndrome; therefore, it is necessary to taking a more holistic approach to patient care beyond treating physical symptoms.

     

HIV Prevalence and Related Behaviors Among People Who Inject Drugs in Iran from 2010 to 2020

AIDS and Behavior - Injection drug use has been the leading route of HIV transmission in Iran. We assessed HIV prevalence, risk behaviors, and uptake of prevention services among people who inject...     

Development of a mono‐specific anti‐VEGF bivalent nanobody with extended plasma half‐life for treatment of pathologic neovascularization

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a crucial role in angiogenesis within solid cancers. Thus, targeting VEGF might be part of a feasible therapy for treating pathological neovascularization, and nanobodies ? derived from heavy chain‐only antibodies occurring within Camelidae ? are a novel class of nanometer‐sized antibodies possessing unique properties that could be developed into a promising therapeutic. However, nanobodies have a very short half‐life in vivo due to their small size. Development of a bivalent nanobody is one way to remediate the half‐life problem of nanobodies. Two identical anti‐VEGF nanobodies were connected using the hinge region of llama IgG2c. The recombinant plasmid (pHEN6c‐bivalent nanobody) was transformed into E.coli WK6 cells and expression of the bivalent nanobody construct was induced with 1mM Isopropyl β‐D‐1‐thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). Recombinant bivalent nanobody was purified using nickel affinity chromatography and its activity on human endothelial cells was assessed using 3‐(4,5‐Dimethylthiazol‐2‐yr)‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), tube formation, and cell migration assays. The pharmacokinetic study was performed after intravenous (i.v.) injection of recombinant bivalent nanobody into six‐week‐old C57BL/6 mice. Recombinant bivalent nanobody performed significantly better than monovalent nanobody in inhibiting proliferation, tube formation, and migration of human endothelial cells. Pharmacokinetic results showed a 1.8‐fold longer half‐life of bivalent nanobody in comparison with the monovalent nanobody. These results underscore the potential of recombinant anti‐VEGF bivalent nanobody as a promising tool for development of a novel therapeutic with an extended plasma half‐life for VEGF‐related diseases.     

Multi-level basis selection of wavelet packet decomposition tree for heart sound classification

Wavelet packet transform decomposes a signal into a set of orthonormal bases (nodes) and provides opportunities to select an appropriate set of these bases for feature extraction. In this paper, multi-level basis selection (MLBS) is proposed to preserve the most informative bases of a wavelet packet decomposition tree through removing less informative bases by applying three exclusion criteria: frequency range, noise frequency, and energy threshold. MLBS achieved an accuracy of 97.56% for classifying normal heart sound, aortic stenosis, mitral regurgitation, and aortic regurgitation. MLBS is a promising basis selection to be suggested for signals with a small range of frequencies.     

Potential role of Nigella sativa supplementation with physical activity in prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19: a contemporary review

Sport Sciences for Health - The widespread prevalence and mortality of coronavirus diseases-2019 (COVID-19) lead many researchers to study the SARS-CoV-s2 infection to find a treatment for this...     

The Production and Characterization of Novel Heavy-Chain Antibodies Against the Tandem Repeat Region of MUC1 Mucin

Camelidae are known to produce immunoglobulins (Igs) devoid of light chains and constant heavy-chain domains (CH₁). Antigen-specific fragments of these heavy-chain IgGs (VHH) are of great interest in biotechnology applications. This paper describes the first example of successfully raised heavy-chain antibodies in Camelus dromedarius (single-humped camel) and Camelus bactrianus (two-humped camel) against a MUC1 related peptide that is found to be an important epitope expressed in cancerous tissue. Camels were immunized against a synthetic peptide corresponding to the tandem repeat region of MUC1 mucin and cancerous tissue preparation obtained from patients suffering from breast carcinoma. Three IgG subclasses with different binding properties to protein A and G were purified by affinity chromatography. Both conventional and heavy-chain IgG antibodies were produced in response to MUC1-related peptide. The elicited antibodies could react specifically with the tandem repeat region of MUC1 mucin in an enzyme linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). Anti-peptide antibodies were purified after passing antiserum over two affinity chromatography columns. Using ELISA, immunocytochemistry and Western blotting, the interaction of purified antibodies with different antigens was evaluated. The antibodies were observed to be selectively bound to antigens namely: MUC1 peptide (tandem repeat region), human milk fat globule membrane (HMFG), deglycosylated human milk fat globule membrane (D-HMFG), homogenized cancerous breast tissue and a native MUC1 purified from ascitic fluid. K_a values of specific polyclonal anti-peptide antibodies were estimated in C. dromedarius and C. bactrianus, as 7 × 10¹⁰ M^{? 1} and 1.4 × 10¹⁰ M^{? 1} respectively.