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...     

Wound healing by topical application of antioxidant iron chelators: kojic acid and deferiprone

Kojic acid and deferiprone are iron chelators used for skin lightening and iron‐overload treatment, respectively. As iron chelation and free radical scavenging are principal factors for wound healing, it was hypothesised that the local application of these compounds might accelerate wound healing in rats. Ointments of 3%, 6% and 9% of deferiprone and kojic acid were prepared and topical treatment was performed on in vivo wound models for 12 days twice in day for test and control groups. Topical treatment with 3%, 6% and 9% showed significant improvement in wound healing after 4 days (P < 0·001). Topical application of 3% and 6% deferiprone enhanced wound healing after 8 days (P < 0·026 and P < 0·001, respectively). Accelerated wound healing was seen using 3% and 6% deferiprone after 12 days (P = 0·003 and P < 0·001, respectively). DPPH scavenging assay was also performed to compare the antioxidant potencies of kojic acid and deferiprone. Deferiprone had more free radical scavenging power than kojic acid. Generally, deferiprone topical treatment, accelerated wound healing more than kojic acid because of its higher antioxidant and iron chelation abilities.     

N-acetyl cysteine in prevention of amphotericin- induced electrolytes imbalances: a randomized,double-blinded,placebo-controlled,clinical trial

Purpose

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of oral n-acetyl cysteine, as a potential nephroprotective agent, in preventing and/or attenuating amphotericin B-induced electrolytes imbalances.

Methods

During a one year period, patients were to receive conventional amphotericin b for any indication for at least one week and were randomly allocated to receive either placebo or 600 mg oral n-acetyl cysteine twice daily during the treatment course of amphotericin b. Demographic and clinical data of the study population were gathered. Different aspects of amphotericin b nephrotoxicity including decrease of glomerular filtration rate, hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, renal magnesium and potassium wasting were assessed. Each patient was monitored for any adverse reaction to n-acetyl cysteine. Sixteen and 14 patients in the n-acetyl cysteine and placebo groups completed the study, 3incidences of hypokalemia (75 % versus 70 %; P?=?0.724) and hypomagnesemia (30 % versus 20 %; P?=?0.468) did not differ significantly between placebo and NAC groups, respectively. Although the rate of AmB nephrotoxicity was higher in the placebo than in the NAC group (60 % versus 40 %), this difference was not statistically significant (P?=?0.209) even after adjusting for probable associated factors of amphotericin b nephrotoxicity (P?=?0.206). The incidence as well as time of onset of electrolyte abnormalities also did not differ significantly between placebo and n-acetyl cysteine groups. About 44 % of n-acetyl cysteine recipients experienced new onset nausea and a mild unpleasant taste during the study.

Conclusion

Oral n-acetyl cysteine during the amphotericin B treatment course was not significantly effective in preventing or mitigating different features of its nephrotoxicity including decrease of glomerular filtration rate, hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, and renal potassium as well as magnesium wasting.     

The effects simultaneous inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 and P2X7 purinoceptors in an in vivo Parkinson’s disease model

Metabolic Brain Disease - Loss of dopaminergic neurons following Parkinson’s disease (PD) diminishes quality of life in patients. The present study was carried out to investigate the...     

Efficient Diagnosis and Treatment Follow-Up of Human Brucellosis by a Novel Quantitative TaqMan Real-Time PCR Assay: a Human Clinical Survey

Rapid and effective diagnosis of brucellosis is a challenge for clinicians. Even when diagnosis is on time and therapy is initiated, meticulous follow-up appointments are crucial for ensuring the efficacy of the treatment. Due to shortcomings of serological methods, molecular diagnosis, especially real-time PCR, is becoming a main approach in laboratory diagnostics. Thus, the development of efficient procedures and standardization of the PCR tests will have a great impact on the precise detection and quantification of bacterial DNA loads, which is valuable for the medical management of brucellosis patients. We developed a new TaqMan real-time PCR directed to bcsp31, a shared gene of the brucellae. The bcsp31 gene fragment was cloned into pJET1.2. Recombinant pJET1.2-bcsp31 was linearized by HindIII digestion, and the product was used for the preparation of a standard curve. A panel of Brucella spp. and non-Brucella pathogens was tested. No bacterial genomes other than those of the brucellae were detected. According to the results, specificity of the method was 100%. In a clinical assessment, the positive-control group comprised 37 patients with microbiologically confirmed brucellosis, and 25 healthy individuals served as the negative-control group. By the end of the treatment period, there was a significant decrease in the DNA load of the 37 brucellosis patients, which persisted for the 4 weeks of monitoring after treatment, suggesting that our proposed method is an efficient monitoring tool. Serum samples prior to any treatment were collected from the 25 serologically suspicious patients and assessed by our method; 72% of these patients tested positive for brucellosis.