seyed mahdi hassanian

Intestinal colitis, also known as ulcerative colitis, is an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by long-term inflammation and ulcers in the gastrointestinal tract. It has been suggested that the mucosal expression of angiotensin II (AT-II) is increased in colitis. This study aimed to examine the potential therapeutic effects of combination therapy with Enalapril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, and sulfasalazine (SSZ) in a murine colitis model.

Male C57BL/6 mice were divided into five groups: control group (distilled water), dextran sulphate sodium (DSS) group (colitis group) (1% DSS), SSZ group (positive control group) with 100 mg/kg/day, Enalapril alone group with 4 mg/kg/day, and Enalapril (4 mg/kg/day) + SSZ (100 mg/kg/day) group.

There was a significant reduction in the disease activity index among the mice receiving the combination of Enalapril and SSZ compared to the colitis group. Enalapril and SSZ treatment was associated with a lower reduction in colon length, decreased colon weight, spleen weight, and spleen-to-body weight in mice with colitis. Following DSS administration, Enalapril and SSZ also significantly decreased MDA levels, an oxidant marker, and increased total thiol, SOD, and CAT levels, as antioxidants. Additionally, mucosal damage, crypt loss, pathological changes, and inflammation scores decreased after treatment with Enalapril and SSZ in comparison with the colitis group. The combination of Enalapril and SSZ reduced colon collagen content and caused a decrease in fibrosis compared to the colitis group.

The results of this study indicated that Enalapril alone and in combination with SSZ decreased inflammation and clinical symptoms of colitis induced by DSS.

Radiodermatitis (RD) is a frequent adverse event of radiotherapy (RT).  Currently, there is no consensus and approved protocol for the treatment of RD. Curcumin (CUR) is a natural polyphenol obtained from turmeric and it has low intrinsic toxicity in humans. The aim of this systematic review was to explore the efficacy of CUR for prevention and treatment of RD.

A systematic literature review was performed in the following online databases: Cochrane library, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE, and EMBASE. Among the 5 selected records, 3 had a randomized clinical trial (RCT)-design and the other had a pilot and controlled study designed. The included studies were performed on breast cancer (N=3), head and neck cancers (N=1) and different types of cancer (N=1).

Four of the studies reported that the application of curcumin in cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy is associated with decreased intensity of radiodermatitis. However, one study did not report any significant effect of CUR on radiodermatitis. This review provides substantial evidence which confirm the clinical value of CUR in cancer supportive care.

Further prospective clinical trials in larger scales are warranted in order to determine the " supplemental form and dose of CUR" for RD prevention and treatment in patients receiving radiotherapy.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common human cancers. Currently, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is used as the main standard biomarker of CRC, though this biomarker is not specifically made for CRC and, in a minority of cases, shows inadequate sensitivity. Therefore, searching for novel accessory biomarkers may fill these gaps in clinical management. miRNAs physiologically regulate various metabolic processes and are misregulated in various cancers. Therefore, the present investigation was conducted to evaluate miR-1 levels in CRC samples.

The CRC and adjacent tissue samples were obtained from 24 patients. In addition, sera were collected from the patient group and 24 healthy controls. Total RNA was extracted from tissue samples, and cDNA was synthesized. Real-time PCR determined the expression of miR-1. Serum levels of CEA were also measured using a Monobind ELISA assay kit.

The level of miR-1 in CRC tumors was significantly down-regulated. Moreover, patients with metastasis showed lower expression of miR-1 compared to cases without metastasis; however, this difference was not statistically significant. The ROC curve for miR-1 showed an AUC of 0.69. In addition, ROC analysis revealed a sensitivity of 70.27% and a specificity of 62.96% for miR-1.

There is still a need for new upcoming markers in addition to the main CRC biomarker, CEA. The levels of miR-1 in colorectal cancer tissue samples may provide additional information for the management and follow-up of CRC patients; though, the clinical application needs further studies.

Breast cancer is among the leading causes of cancer death in women. Despite extensive efforts to identify novel prognostic and predictive clinical biomarkers, a very small number of markers have been reported as risk stratification biomarkers (e.g., BRCA1/2 and HER2). The substitution of arginine with lysine in codon 497 of HER1 497 has been suggested as a potential marker in breast cancer. This study attempted to explore the association between HER1 497 gene polymorphisms with pathological and clinical information of breast cancer patients.

110 breast cancer patients were recruited followed by genomic DNA extraction and genotyping using Taqman-PCR and sequencing. The associations of this genetic variant were evaluated with breast cancer risk and pathological information of patients.

Our data showed that 9.43% of cases had AA genotype, while these frequencies in AC and CC genotypes were 77.35% and 13.20%, respectively. Moreover, we found that 78.4% of breast cancer patients with M0 had AA+AC genotypes, while 21.6% of CC cases had M0 status. Furthermore, 22.7% of these cases with CC genotype had N0/1. Interestingly, we observed that most of the patients with CC genotype had lower HER2 expression.

Our finding showed the potential association of CC genotype of HER1 497 with the prognosis of patients with breast cancer. Further studies are warranted to explore the prognostic value of this marker in a larger and multi-center setting in breast cancer.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is among the most aggressive tumors with a poor prognosis, indicating the need for the identification of a novel prognostic biomarker for risk stratifications. Recent genome-wide association studies have demonstrated common genetic variants in a region on chromosome 9p21 associated with an increased risk of different malignancies.

In the present study, we explore the possible relationship between genetic variant, rs10811661, and gene expression of CDKN2B in 75 pancreatic cancer patients, and 188 healthy individuals. DNAs were extracted and genotyping and gene expression were performed by TaqMan real-time PCR and RT-PCR, respectively. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between risk and genotypes, while the significant prognostic variables in the univariate analysis were included in multivariate analyses.

The patients with PDAC had a higher frequency of a TT genotype for rs10811661 than the control group. Also, PDAC patients with dominant genetic model, (TT + TC), was associated with increased risk of developing PDAC (OR= 14.71, 95% CI [1.96-110.35], p= 0.009). Moreover, patients with CC genotype had a higher expression of CDKN2B, in comparison with TT genotype.

Our findings demonstrated that CDKN2A/B was associated with the risk of developing PDAC, supporting further investigations in the larger and multicenter setting to validate the potential value of this gene as an emerging marker for PDAC.

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death in the world and breast cancer is known as the second leading cause of death in women worldwide. Breast cancer is a heterogeneous tumor; various studies have shown that angiogenesis plays an important role in progression and development of cancer. Clinical studies have been performed on the relationship between anti-angiogenic drugs along with chemotherapy in improvement of breast cancer treatment. This review article was performed with aim to evaluate the effect of anti-angiogenic drugs along with chemotherapy in breast cancer treatment. In this review study, the related articles were searched in databases of Scopus, PubMed, ISI and Google scholar by the key words including “Breast cancer”, “Anti-angiogenic drug”, ” Chemotherapy” and “Angiogenesis” in Mesh between 2000-2018. No time limitation was considered in selection of the articles. Selection of the articles was based on use of anti-angiogenic drugs along with chemotherapy or as part of chemotherapy drugs in breast cancer treatment. At the end of study, data were analyzed qualitatively. According to the studies’ results, it was determined that use of anti-angiogenic drugs in improving breast cancer treatment could be more investigated. VEGF and VEGFR inhibitors have shown different clinical effects that could be due to differences in dosage, method of consumption or drug interactions. Although anti-angiogenic drugs have positive role in improving breast cancer treatment, since different results in doses and method of consumption of these drugs were observed in clinical trials, performing more studies in this regard is required. In general, it seems that these drugs in combination with standard chemotherapy agents could be a good candidate for treatment and increasing survival rate in breast cancer patients.

Hypertriglyceridemia is a common form of dyslipidemia and is associated with several comorbidities, such as increased risk of pancreatitis and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The white blood cell (WBC) count is a non-specific inflammatory marker associated with a wide variety of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The objective of this study was to perform a gender-stratified examination of the association between hypertriglyceridemia and hematological parameters in a large sample of Iranian population. The triglyceride (TG) levels and hematological parameters were measured in 9,780 participants (40% males and 60% females) aged 35-65 years, enrolled in a population-based cohort (MASHAD) study in northeastern Iran. Participants were stratified into three groups based on the definition of hypertriglyceridemia: TG<150 mg/dl (n=6521), TG=150-199 mg/dl (n=1597), and TG≥200 mg/dl (n=1662). A complete blood count (CBC) was obtained for all the subjects. The mean WBC count increased with increasing severity of hypertriglyceridemia among both men and women. Participants with high and very high TG levels had significantly higher WBC count, RBC count, platelet count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration and significantly lower RDW. After performing multivariate logistic regression, WBC count and RDW were independently related to hypertriglyceridemia. In conclusion, hypertriglyceridemia is associated with elevated WBC count which may partly explain the observed association between hypertriglyceridemia and CVD.

Changing the approach form professional education to interprofessional education is one of the new methods in health science education. The aim of this study was to evaluate improvement of learning and professional competency among postgraduate students through designing and implementation of interprofessional education (IPE). This method was started from 1st semester of educational year of 2016-2017. First, the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) questionnaire was completed by 80 postgraduate students. Then, IPE method was implemented through lecture/group discussion and practical/laboratory workshops with attendance of students/staffs from different disciplines. For evaluation of implementation, we used Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IPES). Findings: Score of RIPLS questionnaire in four domains including team work and collaboration, negative professional identity, positive professional identity, and roles and responsibilities were more than average. In IEPS questionnaire, before and after implementation, the score improved in four fields of competency and autonomy (33.55 ± 0.5 vs. 38.84 ± 4.5), perceived needs for cooperation (7.50 ± 1.97 vs. 9.07 ± 2.32), perception of actual cooperation (18.20 ± 5.39 vs. 24.53 ± 2.60), and understanding others value (11.20 ± 3.11 vs. 14.84 ± 1.67); and the most improvement was observed in field of perception of actual cooperation. Using education strategy based on IPE can improve health, as well as the responsibility in health system in our country.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of death worldwide. Despite improved treatment procedures, the disease rarely can be cured completely mainly because of recurrence. It is well evident that cancer recurrence is caused by cancer stem cells (CSCs), rare and immortal cells that can initiate and develop tumors and protect them against anticancer agents. CSCs are generated as a result of failures in intracellular signaling pathways of which Wnt/β-catenin has a key role in CRC. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is thought to be the major signaling in the maintenance of homeostasis of intestinal stem cells. Proliferation, upward migration of the colony crypt daughter cells, and differentiation into all epithelial cell types at least in part is regulated by Wnt/β-catenin signaling, suggesting its essential role during intestinal development and homeostasis. However, continuous activation of this signaling pathway in intestinal stem cells due to somatic mutations is a hallmark of most CRCs. Hence targeting Wnt/β-catenin signaling in CSCs can be a focus of new treatment strategies. Curcumin, the effective compound of plant Curcuma longa, has been studied as an anticancer agent. Recently, it has been shown that curcumin and its analogues decrease the risk of tumor recurrence by targeting CSCs via various cell signaling, in particular, Wnt/β-catenin pathway. In this review, we describe a relationship between Wnt-regulated CSCs and progression of CRC and the efficacy of curcumin and its analogues in targeting colorectal CSCs and also the Wnt/β-catenin molecular pathway involved.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy and the second leading cause of death due to cancer in women following lung cancer. Ample evidence has shown the antitumor activities of curcumin in breast cancer in preclinical and clinical trials. The anticancer effects of curcumin include the inhibition of cancer cell formation, angiogenesis, and tumor growth. Due to the low absorption of curcumin in the gastrointestinal tract, as well as its low water solubility, rapid metabolism, and high excretion, curcumin has low bioavailability. Therefore, using formulated curcumin could increase its bioavailability. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of curcumin and its nano-formulated compositions in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.
In this review, data were collected via searching in databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Magiran to identify the related English and Persian articles published until 2016 using keywords such as nano-forms, clinical study, cancer, breast, and curcumin. In total, 40 studies were identified and reviewed.
Using formulated curcumin could increase its absorption and bioavailability, while it also enhances its effects on cancer cells, including breast cancer cells. Therefore, nano-formulated curcumin was observed to be effective in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.
Considering the higher bioavailability of the formulated compounds of curcumin compared to its free form and the low toxicity of this herbal medicine, curcumin could be used in combination with other anticancer medications in the treatment of breast cancer.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is among the leading causes of cancer related deaths within gastrointestinal tumors. There is a growing body of evidence that shows an association between Epstein Barr virus infection and the development of malignancies such as B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and Burkett’s lymphoma. However its potential association with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is controversial. Therefore, in the present study, we have explored the association of Epstein Barr virus with pathological information and clinical outcomes of 108 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients.
There were 48% female and 52% male patients with a mean age of 59.2±11.1 years who enrolled in this study. Patients had the following tumor stages: T1 (5.6%), T2 (21.3%), and T3 (71.3%). A total of 32.4% had lymph node metastases. In order to explore whether patient characteristics might influence clinical outcome, we analyzed data on progression-free survival and overall survival according to patients’ clinicopathologic features.
An association existed between tumor size, node and metastasis status, and stage with shorter overall and progression-free survival. We observed that 6.5% of patients had Epstein Barr virus. All patients infected with Epstein Barr virus had T2 and T3 disease.
Our findings demonstrated the presence of Epstein Barr virus in 6.5% of Iranian patients and its potential link with tumor size. Additional studies in multicenter settings should be conducted to determine the association of Epstein Ba.

Breast cancer is among the most common types of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Therefore, finding treatments with the highest effectiveness and least side effects is of great importance. Curcuma langa, commonly known as curcumin, has many advantages, including antioxidant, antiinflammatory, anticancer, and wound-healing properties. The anticancer mechanisms include prevention of malignant cell formation, as well as reduction of angiogenesis and tumor growth, as documented in some malignancies, including pancreatic, ovarian, gastric, and colorectal cancers. Recent research has also documented curcumin activities against breast cancer, in particular molecular pathways involved in cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis, and suppression of inflammation. Therefore, the aim of the current review was to study the effects of curcumin on breast cancer.