Journal of Advances in Medical and Biomedical Research
Volume:29 Issue: 134, May-June 2021

 Irisin is considered as a candidate to treat obesity and metabolic diseases. Therefore, the aim of this study was a systematic review and meta-analysis to define the effective modes of exercise on irisin concentration in adults.

 Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Science Direct, and references lists of articles were searched until April 25, 2020. To study the impact of exercise duration (short-term and long-term) on the pre-test and post-test concentration of irisin, 21 studies with 384 subjects were evaluated.

 In the present study, a significant increase was found in irisin level in long-term resistance training (LTRT) intervention groups (MD:-0.61 ng/ml, 95% CI [-1.12, 0.09], P=0.02). However, no significant changes were reported in the groups of long- term aerobic training, short-term aerobic training, and short + long term aerobic training.

 The analysis showed that only LTRT among the types of exercise can elevate irisin concentration. Therefore, LTRT seems to have more beneficial influences, compared to other modes of exercise in inclusive irisin responses.

 Acetaminophen is known as the most common agent which causes hepatic and renal toxicity in human and experimental animals at supra-therapeutic doses. The current study investigated the protective effects of Descurainia sophia seed extract on the acetaminophen-induced nephrotoxicity markers in male mice.

 Experimental male mice (n=60, Swiss albino mice) were divided into six groups as follows: Group A (control group), Group B (acetaminophen group), and treatment groups including T1, T2, T3, and T4 (D. sophia seed extract groups). Toxicity was induced by acetaminophen (500 mg/kg). The mice administered D. sophia seed extract for 7 days in doses of 50, 100, 200, and 300 mg/kg. In the next step, animals were euthanized 24 hours after acetaminophen administration. Blood samples were collected. Serum levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, and uric acid were analysed. Furthermore, kidney tissues were removed for histopathological examination via haematoxylin and eosin staining.

 Our data revealed that acetaminophen increased the levels of BUN, creatinine and uric acid (P<0.05). Pre-treatment of D. sophia seed extract decreased the serum BUN, creatinine and uric acid significantly compared to the acetaminophen group (P<0.05). Additionally, in histopathological examination, D. sophia extract had restored acetaminophen-induced nephrotoxicity, particularly in the dose of 300 mg/kg. 

  The present findings suggested that oral administration of D. sophia seed extract has protective effect against acetaminophen nephrotoxicity in mice.

Hypothyroidism is a prevalent condition in various regions all over the world, including Iran. This study aimed to identify the factors associated with thyroid dysfunctions in Ravansar area, Kermanshah province. Due to hypo and hyperthyroidism diversity and pathogeneses complexity, machine learning was also integrated; it is as an accurate and potent method for the dimensionality reduction to realize the study objective.

In this study, 10069 individuals participated from Ravansar area. Data were taken from the Ravansar Non-Communicable Diseases (RaNCD) cohort study, which is a part of national PERSIAN cohort. Feature selection was done using random forests machine learning tool. The two thyroid diseases correlation was explored through conventional statistical procedures.

 Female sex was the most significant risk factor for hypothyroidism (OR=6.24, CI: 4.13-9.63; P<0.001). Depression (OR=2.07, CI: 1.34-3.09; P<0.001), age group of 45-55 years (OR=1.56, CI: 1.18-2.07; P<0.01), daily salt consumption of >10 gr (OR=1.87, CI: 1.15-2.90; P<0.01), kidney stone (OR=1.35, CI: 1.02-1.78; P<0.05) and unsaturated fats intake (OR=1.01, CI: 1.00-1.02; P<0.05) were significantly associated with underactive thyroid condition. No significant associated factor was found for hyperthyroidism.

 Female sex is a global well-established hypothyroidism-associated factor. The results of the present study suggest taking some measures to reduce hypothyroidism, by addressing the intervening factors.

The combination of two or more therapeutic agents and their synergetic impacts can be therapeutically effective against multifactorial diseases, such as diabetic foot ulcers. This study demonstrates the application of a nanofiber-based drug delivery system with a controlled release of the growth factor. Various studies have shown that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) stimulates angiogenesis via the VEGF signaling pathway and graphene oxide (GO) has been reported to possess antibacterial property. Therefore, VEGF and GO are hypothesized to have wound-healing effects when used synergistically.

 In this study, VEGF was purified and verified by western blotting. GO and polycaprolactone (PCL) were prepared by electrospinning and were characterized by scanning electron microscope. Next, VEGF was immobilized by EDC/NHS linker in PCL-GO. Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were used to evaluate the antibacterial property of GO. Biodegradation and other release properties of the nanofibers were assessed. Moreover, the nanofibers were studied for cell viability and gene expression using human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

 The re-analysis of the protein-protein interaction network from the GO database confirmed the centrality of the nitric oxide synthase 3 (eNOS) showing its effects on the expression of other proteins. In addition, the PCL-GO nanofiber loaded with VEGF was studied for the expression of the eNOS gene in the VEGF signaling pathway. It was observed that PCL-GO-VEGF led to an increased expression of the eNOS gene in two weeks.

  Based on the observed antibacterial property and angiogenesis influence, PCL-GO-VEGF can be considered as a candidate to promote diabetic wound healing.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in most countries. By identifying the population attributable risk (PAR) of the main risk factors of CVDs, the overall effect of various exposures on a population can be determined; the findings could be used in CVD prevention. The present study aimed to explore the PAR of some factors, including physical exercise, hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol level, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglyceride (TG), cigarette, hookah smoking, and drug and alcohol abuse, for CVDs.

 This study was done in Yazd Province, Iran. The PAR of the above-mentioned factors were assessed. The used data were obtained from the first stage of the Shahedieh Cohort Study, conducted on over 10 000 residents (aged 35-70 years) of Shahedieh and annexed cities. PAR and the related Bayesian credible interval were calculated using R 3.4.3 software.

 Of 9967 studied subjects, 7.95% had CVD. The most usual risk factors for CVDs were inadequate physical exercise and abdominal obesity (waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]). Age was the strongest determinant of CVD. PAR for inadequate physical exercise was 25.48% in women and 14.14 % in men; WHR PAR was 46.93% in women and 31.42 in men.

 Age cannot be controlled, so that CVDs are mainly attributed to high blood pressure. Therefore, blood pressure control should be considered as a primary strategy to reduce CVD incidence.

 Peroxisome biogenesis disorders (PBDs) are a group of diseases with peroxisomal dysfunction. Wide range of symptoms are associated with the disease which are due to mutations in the PEX genes. The PEX1 mutation occurs in Zellweger syndrome (ZS), a severe autosomal recessive condition with hypotonia, intellectual disability, and hepatic enlargement. The present study determined the molecular aspects of ZS in a family in South Khorasan Province, Iran.

 Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed, clinical history was taken, and the family pedigree was drawn. Subsequently, Sanger sequencing was performed for unique primers. Afterwards, in terms of ZS phenotype, in silico studies were done to examine the changes that occurred in the protein structure.

 The PEX1 (NC_000007.14) mutation was detected at location Chr7q21.2. This chromosomal location was anticipated as the disorder-causing variant. GGT (Glycine) changes to GAT (Aspartate) in codon 843 were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Examination results of the mentioned family revealed a missense mutation in the PEX1.

 In conclusion, our study indicated a mutation in the PEX1 in the affected family. This mutation is a missense variant at codon 843 in ZS patients. It has an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern. This mutation may be widespread among Iranian population with ZS and can be used for a more desirable personalized medicine.

Since the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not well known yet, investigating its origin, etiology, diagnostic criteria, clinical manifestations, risk factors, treatments, and other related aspects is extremely important. In this situation, clinical experts face many uncertainties to make decision about COVID-19 prognosis based on their judgment. Accordingly, this study aimed to determine the diagnostic criteria for COVID-19 as a prerequisite to develop clinical diagnostic models.

 In this retrospective study, the Enter method of the binary logistic regression (BLR) and the Forward Wald method were used to measure the odds ratio (OR) and the strength of each criterion, respectively. P-value<0.05 was considered as statistically significant for bivariate correlation coefficient.

 Phi-Crammer’s examination test showed that 12 diagnostic criteria were statistically important; measuring OR revealed that six criteria had the best diagnostic power. Finally, true classification rate and the area under receiver operative characteristics curve (AUC) were calculated as 90.25% and 0.835, respectively.

 Identification of diagnostic criteria has become the standard approach for disease modeling; it helps to design decision support tools. After analyzing and comparing six diagnostic performance measures, we observed that these variables have a high diagnostic power for COVID-19 detection.

This study aimed to report histopathological features and serological outputs of the lung, heart and liver in a patient suffered from Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). A woman was admitted to the Razi Hospital, Rasht city, Iran with the symptoms of cough, dyspnea, fever and myalgia. She had also Parkinson’s disease (PD); she had no history of respiratory, cardiovascular, renal and gastrointestinal diseases and alcohol consumption. COVID-19 infection was proved by the Real time-PCR (RT–qPCR) test. The required specimen was obtained from nasopharyngeal swab; however, lung radiologic findings revealed atypical signs of COVID-19. The patient expired after 8 days of admission. After death, needle biopsy was performed for histopathologic evaluation of the heart, lung and liver tissues. The RT–qPCR was performed to evaluate the presence of Coronavirus in the tissues. The pathological biopsies showed advanced alveolar damages in the lung, periportal inflammation in the liver, spread steatosis in the hepatocytes and moderate myocarditis in the heart. However, the RT-qPCR test was negative for these tissues, but alterations in the above-mentioned areas may be due to the secondary side effects of COVID-19 infection or pharmacological treatments.