Novelty in Biomedicine

Background: Although lipid lowering agents as statins are used frequently in hyperlipidemic patients as well as patients with cardiac disease, they could have major hepatic side effects, the aim of this study is to evaluate the safety of statins mainly atorvastatin on liver as estimated by liver aminotransferase assay.

Materials and Methods: Patients with indication of atorvastatin were included the study. As a before and after study all the patients underwent serum level measurement of aminotransferases at the beginning and after three month of taking the drug.

Results and Conclusion: HMG-COA reductase as atorvastatin should be safe in different doses 20,40 and 80 mg in patient with hyperlipidemia with and without cardiac disease without significant hepatotoxicity.

Background: Nowadays, nosocomial infection with multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter is an important problem in the world, which is facing wide spectrum antibiotics and hence has become resistant.

Materials and Methods: In this study, positive cultures of Acinetobacter from one hundred clinical samples in seven hospitals from Tehran during 2012-2013 were collected for checking antibiotic susceptibility. Samples test with Ceftazidim, Cefepime, Amikacine and Imipenem by E-test and for Tazocin, Colistin and Tigecycline was performed with disk diffusion method.

Results: For Colistin 10 samples, and for Tazocin, 40 samples were performed by E-test method. Then boumannii species of bacteria and non-baumannii Acinetobacter were separated by PCR and antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed on them. 89% of Acinetobacter samples were boumannii species, which was isolated from respiratory secretions at ICU.

Conclusion: Boumannii and non-boumannii species of bacteria with a high percentage were resistant to Ceftazidim, Amikacine, Cefepime, Tazocin and Imipenem. All baumannii and non-boumannii Acinetobacter were sensitive to Colistin, were only 75% sensitive to Tigecycline, which is a new glycylcycline. Colistin and Tazocin results in samples limited to the E-test method were similar with disk diffusion.

Background: Vision Therapy/Orthoptics(VT/O) is a package of treatments that enables patients to achieve the maximum level of visual performance.The aim was to determine the effect of three months vision therapy/orthoptics on best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), fusion, stereopsis and ocular alignment in 3-7 year old children.

Materials and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial study, 80 children with amblyopia and/or non-paralytic horizontal deviations were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. Intervention group was treated by vision therapy/orthoptics for three months. These modalities included patch, red filter, sector patch, over minus lens, prism and synoptophore exercises. Controls were treated by only patching for the same period. Pre and post-treatment BCVA, fusion, stereopsis and alignment were compared. Visual performance was classified as excellent (BCVA≥20/30, deviation≤10pd and stereopsis≤70sec/are), acceptable (BCVA≥20/30, deviation ≤10pd and stereopsis 70 to 3000sec/are) and unsatisfactory (BCVA<20/30, deviation>10pd and no stereopsis).

Results: A total of 80 cases (56 girls and 24 boys) with the mean age of 5.6±1.4 years entered the study. Although more improvement of fusion and stereopsis was seen in the intervention group (P<0.001 for both groups), there was no significant differences in BCVA and alignment between two groups. Also the difference of visual performance was not statistically significant between two groups, whereas the improvement was significant in each group (P<0.001, for both groups).

Conclusion: Vision therapy/orthoptics treatment can be effective for improving sensory status in 3 to 7 year old children with amblyopia and/or strabismus. Further studies with larger sample sizes and focusing on accommodation and fusional amplitude are warranted.

Background: Extraction of blood genomicDNAis one of the main approaches for clinical and molecular biology studies. Although several methods have been developed for extraction of blood genomic DNA, most of these methods consume long time and use expensive chemicals such as proteinase K and toxic organic solvent such as phenol and chloroform. The objective of this study was to developed easy and safe method forDNAextraction from clotted and frozen whole blood. This method has many advantages: time reducing, using inexpensive materials, without phenol and chloroform, achieving of high molecular weight and good quality genomicDNA.

Materials and Methods: DNA extraction was performed by two methods (new and phenol-chloroform method). Then quantity and quality parameters were evaluated by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis, Nano drop analysis and efficiency of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).

Results: Extracted DNA from 500μL of blood samples were 457.7ng/μl and 212ng/μL and their purity (OD260/OD280) were 1.8 and 1.81 for new recommended and phenol–chloroform methods respectively. The PCR results indicated that D16S539 and CSF1PO loci were amplified.

Conclusion: These results shown that this method is simple, fast, safe and most economical.

Background: Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) cause serious public health problem in the world, especially those located in tropical and subtropical areas. This study was conducted with the aim of obtaining frequency of intestinal parasites in referred people to the Nahavand city laboratories, Hamadan province, western Iran.

Materials and Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among checkup individuals and patients referred to laboratories of Nahavand County. A total of 371 stool samples (150 from checkup individuals and 221 from patients) were selected by using systematic random sampling during summer 2014.  The stool specimens were examined macroscopically, and microscopically by using direct slide smear (saline wet mount and lugol staining), formaldehyde - diethyl ether concentration, trichrome staining and modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining techniques. The results were analyzed using SPSS version 16 and Chi-square test.

Results: Ninety two patients (24.8%) were infected with single or multiple intestinal parasites. The overall prevalence of IPIs in checkup individuals and patients was 21.3% and 27.1%, respectively. The frequency of the observed intestinal parasites was: Blastocystis spp. 72 (19.4%), Entamoeba coli 7 (1/9%), Endolimax nana 7 (1/9%), Giardia lamblia 5 (1/3%), Cryptosporidium spp. 3 (0.8%), Entamoeba hartmanni 3 (0.8%), Entamoeba histolitica/E. dispar 1 (0.3%), Trichomonas hominies 1 (0.3%), Chilomastix mesnili 1 (0.3%), Iodamoeba butschlii 1 (0.3% ) and Enterobius vermicularis egg l (0.3%).

Conclusion: The proportion of observed protozoan parasites 91 (24.5%) is higher than helminthes infection 1 (0.3%). The worm infections in Nahavand city was dramatically decreased over the past decades, induced increases in public health at the community level.  Blastocystis spp. was the predominant intestinal parasite in people referred to the Nahavand city laboratories.  Proportion of pathogenic IPIs among patients 4.07% (9 of 221) was higher in compare to the checkup individuals in which only one out of 150 (0.66%) Giardia lamblia was observed.

Background:Regular aerobic exercise improves the

Materials and Methods: 12 adult male Wistar rats were divided to 2 groups: A: control (n=6), B: aerobic exercise (five times per week for 4 week; n=6). The gene expression of NF-κB and TNF-α were analyzed in lung tissue by Real time–PCR. In order to determine the significant differences between groups independent t-test were used.

Results: Aerobic exercise inhibited the gene expression of NF-κB and TNF-α. But there was no significant difference between A and B groups for TNF-α and NF-κB.

Conclusion: We conclude that four week aerobic exercise decrease inflammatory status in lung tissue. Our results indicate a need for human studies that evaluate the lung responses to aerobic exercise.

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) represents a global health problem, affecting 5-50% of the population worldwide and numerous classes of pharmacological agents are available for its treatment. Two more popular of these drugs are Loratadine and Cetirizine. There are few direct comparator studies between these two drugs with inconsistent results.

Materials and Methods: A randomized, double-blind study for comparison the therapeutic effects of Loratadine and Cetirizine was conducted in an otolaryngologic clinic of a general hospital. Eighty patients with perennial allergic rhinitis were divided into two equal groups. One group received Loratadine 10 mg daily for two weeks and the other group Cetirizine 10 mg daily also for two weeks. Alterations of the allergic rhinitis symptoms including rhinorrhea, sneezing, nasal itching and nasal obstruction were compared between the two groups.

Results: Severity of all four studied symptoms was reduced by both drugs. Although Cetirizine had a little more efficacy, their difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). These two medications were most effective in reducing the sneezing and least effective on the nasal obstruction.

Conclusion: Loratadine and Cetirizine can reduce symptoms of the perennialallergic rhinitis but their difference is not statistically significant.

Background: Interleukin-27 is a heterodimeric cytokine belonging to IL-12 and IL-23 families, secreted  by Antigen Presenting Cells(APCs) .The IL-27 is composed of 2 subunits: Epstein-Barr virus induced gene 3 (EBI3) and p28. IL-27 is an anti-inflammatory cytokine which has an inhibitory effect on Th17 population and suppress the IL-17 expression. It is suggested that IL-27 could be a potent drug candidate for treating auto immune diseases.

Methods: The IL-27 subunit genes were constructed into plasmid vectors, they sub-cloned into pETDeut-1an expression vector in restriction sites of BamHI, SacI and NotI. Subsequently the induction was done by IPTG and the recombinant proteins were confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western Blot analysis using anti His-tag antibody.

Results: The 28kDa and 25kDa protein bands were observed on SDS-PAGE and finally confirmed by Western blot technique.

Background: Introduction: Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is the most important bacterial cause of watery  travelers' diarrhea  in  developing countries. Watery diarrhea is can cause serious life-threatening dehydration. ETEC was caused diarrhea by the secretion of two heat-labile enterotoxins (LTs) and the heat-stable enterotoxins (STs) which increase intestinal secretion. Routine laboratory methods are not appropriate to detect ETEC and other diarrheagenic E. coli pathotypes. The molecular techniques such as PCR are rapid and accurate methods that have been developed for detection of ETEC. We were recognized ETEC by PCR on lt and st genes from E. coli isolates from patients with diarrhea collected from selected Tehran educational hospitals.

Materials and Methods: The E. coli isolates were collected from total 140 patients with diarrhea and 110 patients without diarrhea using culture and IMViC test. DNA was extracted by boiling method and the presence of the uidA, lt and st genes was detected by PCR.

Results: Among 140 E. coli isolates from diarrheal stools 5 (3.6%) isolates were positive for, just lt gene, 3 (2.1%) co-amplified for both lt/st and 1 (0.7%) was positive for just the st gene which were considered as ETEC. In the E. coli isolates from non-diarrheal control samples just one (0.9%) isolate was positive for both lt and st genes.

Conclusion: The results showed that the ETEC as a significant cause of diarrhea, usually ignored by laboratories using traditional methods. Sometimes the ETEC causes severe diarrhea and can threaten for patient's life. Thus a rapid diagnostic test such as PCR can be very helpful in the treatment of patients.

In the latest articles which were published during 2013-2014, Trichomonas vaginalis (T. vaginalis) was mentioned as a neglected sexual transmission disease (STD), while the exact mechanism of its pathogenesis has not been cleared yet. Although trichomonasiasis is easy curable, there is concern that resistance to drug are increasing. This common infection as concerning the important public health implications needs more research to be done for understanding the diagnosis, treatment, immunology and pathogenesis. In this review we searched all valuable and relevant information considering the pathogenesis of T. vaginalis. We referred to the information databases of Medline, PubMed, Scopus and Google scholar. The used keywords were the combinations of T. vaginalis and words associated with pathogenicity. This review discusses the host-parasite interaction and pathogenicity of this parasite.

Cocaine is used by more than 14 million people worldwide, about 0.3 percent of the global population age is 15 to 64 years. After alcohol, cocaine is the most common cause of acute drug-related emergency department visits in the United States. Cocaine consumption is more frequently associated with acute cardiovascular illness.  Cocaine stimulates α₁, α₂, β₁ and β₂ adrenergic receptors through increased levels of norepinephrine and a lesser extent epinephrine. The cardiovascular effects of cocaine are thought to be similar and regardless to the route of consumption. An acute coronary syndrome is the most common cardiac problem including myocardial ischemia and infarction even in young persons without atherosclerosis, aortic dissection and rupture, arrhythmias, ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation, asystole and finally sudden death. Other cardiovascular effects that caused by cocaine include coronary artery aneurysm, palpitation, sinus tachycardia, increased systemic vascular resistance and hypertension crisis, left ventricular hypertrophy, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, myocardial fibrosis, bundle branch block, heart block, supraventricular arrhythmia, accelerated atherosclerosis, hypotension, bradycardia and infective endocarditis  among intravenous users.