Novelty in Biomedicine

Background: The novelty of the study is to measure self-perceived social health of Iranians as one of the main dimensions of health.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in all provinces of Iran in September 2014 with 10500 participants to measure self-perceived social health on a scale from 33 to 165 arranged in three areas; family, friends and relatives, and community. Area of "family" was measure in a range from 6 to 30; area of "friends and relatives" was from 9 to 45; and area of "community" was from 19 to 95. The psychometrics of scale was examined in separate previous study.

Results: From a total of 10500 participants, 10244 fulfilled questionnaire (Response rate= 97.6%). 49.2% of participants were male. Mean of the total social health score was 99.91; area of "family" was 22; area of "friends and relatives" was 27.6; and area of "community" was 51.2. The main factors negatively influences on social health were low house size, unemployment, being divorced or widow and being at the age of 18-30. There was no significant relationship between social health score and educational level.

Conclusion: It is magnificently attained that standardized social health rate in the present study was 3.9% lower than the rate has been estimated in comparison to similar previously conducted study in three big cities of Iran, two years earlier. Area of "community" is also the main accountant for this drop. To continue monitoring the social health of Iranians, we recommend conducting the next rounds every 3-5 years.

Background: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease characterized by differential responses to targeted and chemotherapeutic agents. Antibody-drug conjugates are one of the promising strategies for the treatment of breast cancer. Monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) is a highly potent microtubule inhibitor and a common payload used for development of antibody-drug conjugates. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cytotoxic effects of MMAE on breast cancer cell lines.

Materials and Methods: MDA-MB-468 and MDA-MB-453 cells were treated with MMAE at various concentrations (1, 10, 100, and 1000 ng/ml), and cytotoxicity was measured after 48 and 72 hours using an MTT assay.

Results: Our findings indicated that MMAE possesses dose- and time-dependent cytotoxic activities against human breast cancer cells. The morphological features of the treated cells were supportive of the cytotoxic activity of MMAE. The results of the MTT assay showed that MMAE has a significant cytotoxicity against MDA-MB-468 and, to a lesser degree, MDA-MB-453 cells.

Conclusion: MMAE can be used as a highly cytotoxic payload for development of antibody-drug conjugates against breast cancer.

Background: Cancer, a major cause of mortality worldwide, is a group of diseases distinguished by uncontrolled growth and expansion of abnormal cells. According to American Cancer Society, melanoma, a kind of skin cancer, is one of the most prevalent cancers. The side effects of chemical treatment developed more demands on natural products. Flavonoids, polyphenol compounds, with anticancer and antioxidant activity attracted more attention to themselves.

Materials and Methods: Through this investigation the effect of myricetin on cell proliferation was determined by MTT (Methylthiazolyl diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide) assay. A375 cell lines were seeded in a 96 wells plate and were exposed to different concentrations of myricetin (10, 15, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100µΜ). After considered times, the MTT solution was added, then the viability of cells was detected by measuring the absorbance on 570 and 630 nm.

Results: Our finding showed that low concentration of myricetin (up to 25µM) has no toxicity effect. Also the result confirmed the IC₅₀ of myricetin on melanoma cells for three ordered period (24, 48, 72 hours) as following: 50, 40, 35µΜ, respectively.

Conclusion: According to this research, myricetin has anti-proliferative effect on melanoma cells, which can be used as a therapeutic agent. We hope that this study could be used as a mile stone in future researches to acquire confirmative results.

Background: Surface antigens (SAGs) of Toxoplasma gondii are known candidates for diagnostic tests and vaccines. The present study argues about the main necessary properties for determination and prediction of T-cell agretopes and B-cell epitopes of surface antigens of Toxoplasma gondii.

Materials and Methods: Primary, secondary and tertiary structures of the proteins were analyzed by different methods. The three-dimensional structures were determined by use of ab initio method for prediction of discontinues epitopes. The agretopes and epitopes were predicted via several various web servers with different methods employed.

Results: The results of in silico analyses showed that the regions 129-GAPAGRNNDGSSAPT-143 for protein p22, 234-SENPWQGNASSD-245 for protein p30 and 348-PGTEGESQAGT-358 for protein p43, have the highest immunogenic potential.

Conclusion: We reached to three antigenic epitopes for cloning and protein expression. In following the purified polypeptide will be applied for diagnosis of Toxoplasma gondii.

Background:intestinal parasitic infection is one of the most prevalent health problems in developing countries. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection and its correlation with socio-demographic parameters in Haji-abad, 2015.

MaterialsandMethods:This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 635 samples. After completing questionnaires, stool samples were assessed macroscopically, and microscopically using direct slide smear with saline and lugol, formalin-ether concentration, Ziehl-Neelsen staining to track Cryptosporidium species and Trichrome staining for the samples suspected to amoeba and other indeterminate cases. PCR using specific primers was conducted for Entamoebahistolytica/E. dispar suspected samples. The results were analyzed using SPSS_ver.16 software.

Results:Of total 635 samples, 198 cases (31.2%) were infected by at least one intestinal parasite. The most common parasites in this area were: Blastocystis sp. (105, 16.5%), Endolimax nana (43, 6.8%), Entamoeba coli (32, 5.0%), Giardia lamblia (31, 4.9%), and Iodamoeba butschlii (11, 1.7%). Enterobius vermicularis (1, 0.2%) was the only detected helminthic infection. Regarding socio-demographic variables, age, residence, sampling month, and job showed a significant correlation with IPIs (p-value=0.031, 0.019, 0.014, 0.012; respectively). None of nine microscopically suspected E. histolytica/E. dispar cases were confirmed by molecular investigations (PCR method) and were considered as E. coli.

Conclusion:In agreement with previous studies, helminthes infections show a dramatic decline compare to protozoa in this study. The relatively high incidence of intestinal protozoan infections in studies performed in Iran supports strategies for pre­venting the transmission and expansion of these parasites as a priority.

Background: The negative consequence of methamphetamine abuse is due to neuropathologic changes in the brain, which reduces dopaminergic neurons and result in damage to different brain areas. Neurotoxicity induced by methamphetamine increases the oxidative stress and associated with neuronal apoptosis. The role of the antioxidant coenzyme Q10 probably produces its neuroprotective effects. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the protective effect of coenzyme Q10 on methamphetamine-induced apoptosis in adult male rats.

Materials and Methods: Fifty Wistar eight-week adult rats randomly divided into 5 groups: Healthy control, methamphetamine injection (Meth), methamphetamine injection and CoQ10 5mg/kg treatment (Meth+Post CoQ10 5mg/kg), methamphetamine injection and CoQ10 10mg/kg treatment (Meth+Post CoQ10 10mg/kg), methamphetamine injection and CoQ10 20mg/kg treatment (Meth+Post CoQ10 20mg/kg). Methamphetamine with a purity of 96% with a dosage of 20 mg/kg was injected Intraperitoneal. Coenzyme Q10 for three treatment groups was injected intraperitoneally for 14 days in a dosage of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg/day. The protein expressions of Baxand Bcl2 were evaluated by western blotting technique.

Results: Bax protein expression was significantly lower in Meth+Post CoQ10 5mg/kg (p=0.010) and so Meth+Post CoQ10 10mg/kg (p=0.004) comparing to Meth group. In addition, Bcl2 protein expression was significantly higher in Meth+Post CoQ10 5mg/kg comparing to Meth group (p=0.018). However, there were no significant differences between control and CoQ10 treatment groups. Bax/Bcl2 ratio was significantly lower in Meth+Post CoQ10 5mg/kg (p=0.005), Meth+Post CoQ10 10mg/kg (p=0.008) and Meth+Post CoQ10 20mg/kg (p=0.044) comparing to Meth group.

Conclusion: We suggest that CoQ10 reduces the methamphetamine-induced apoptosis in the striatum of the rats through the reduction of apoptotic factors and increase of anti-apoptotic pathways.

Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease that is endemic in 88 countries. Most of the patients after recovery from the infection develop a long-lived natural immunity against re-infection. Reactivation of leishmaniasis subsequent to suppression of the immune system due to HIV infection or administration of systemic immunosuppressive drugs, underscores the importance of developing new drugs and effective vaccine. Despite the many efforts that have been done, there is still no effective vaccine. Up to now, many candidate vaccines from three generations of the vaccine, including Live/killed vaccines, subunit vaccines, and DNA vaccines have been developed and studied. However the sophisticated vaccines, such as prime-boost DNA vaccines are introduced, the best results are obtained from live vaccines. As safety is the most important obstacle to the use of live vaccines, many different approaches have been used to enhance the safety of live vaccine candidates. In this short review, these approaches are summarized.

Metformin-associated lactic acidosis (M-ALA) is considered to be one of the complications caused by intravascular contrast media (CM) administration in diabetics especially those with coexisting renal or cardiac impairment. We focused on the necessity and duration of metformin suspension in diabetics with normal or impaired renal function scheduled for CT scan with IV contrast. Searching PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, we reviewed the latest relevant guidelines as well as articles published from 1994 to 2015. There is no global consensus among different guidelines on the duration of the Metformin suspension before CT scan with IV contrast. Also, lack of substantial evidence supporting M-ALA encourages specialists to take a less conservative approach.

It is safe to continue Metformin in patients with normal renal function who have no co-morbidities. In cases of equivocal renal function (30<GFR<60 mL/min/1.73 m²) and also in patients with normal renal function and other co-morbidities, the decision should be made based on the patient’s clinical status. In case of severe renal failure, the use of metformin should be reassessed. Due to the probability of contrast associated nephropathy, laboratory follow up seems to be necessary for all patients.