فصلنامه کومش
سال بیست و پنجم شماره 4 (پیاپی 96، امرداد و شهریور 1402)

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains has become a global crisis for public health. There are many concerns about the increase of multi-drug resistant bacteria so that some diseases cannot be effectively treated. There is an urgent need to develop alternatives to conventional antibiotics for human and animal treatment. As an alternative to antibiotics, endolysins are interesting due to their high antibacterial activity and properties against numerous bacterial pathogens and in various fields of application, including medicine, food safety, and agriculture. Most phage endolysins show a wide spectrum of activity. Several features of these enzymes, including their high activity, are the presence of two catalytic domains in their structure, which further reduces the possibility of resistance formation, also, the mechanism of action and their type of lytic activity support their further exploitation as valuable and strong antibacterial agents for the treatment of infections. In this review, the structure and mechanism of endolysin, as well as its benefits as an alternative to antibiotics, and the problems in this field are stated. Moreover, the applications and advances of endolysin have been reviewed, and the newly engineered endolysins as potential candidates have been introduced.

Introduction Hyperhidrosis is a condition characterized by excessive sweating, which may have a primary or secondary cause. The first step in managing hyperhidrosis is to determine the type of hyperhidrosis as primary or secondary. The therapeutic options depend on the type of hyperhidrosis and are divided into topical, systemic, and procedural modalities. Importantly, the first line in the treatment of secondary hyperhidrosis is to remove the underlying cause. Hyperhidrosis can be treated in different ways, but the best option varies depending on the person's specific condition. To decide on the most suitable treatment, a thorough history and clinical examination are necessary, as well as taking into account the patient's personal and social circumstances. To provide comprehensive and up-to-date information about the diagnosis, etiologies, and treatment methods of hyperhidrosis, this article aims to address the significant prevalence of the condition and its impact on various dimensions of the patient's life.

Visual impairment affects the quality of life of a person and endangers his mental and social health and reduces his social activities and independence. Therefore, clinical assessment of health-related quality of life in ocular patients is considered and the effects of the disease on their quality of life are investigated.

The research method used in this research is descriptive of the "Futuristic cohort study" type. Two groups of patients were followed up for 6 months. The study population is all patients referred to Farabi Hospital in a two-month period who suffer from myopia more than 10 and keratoconus. Their quality of life was checked before surgery, and then during two periods of three months and six months after surgery. The quality of life was evaluated with the American National Ophthalmology Research Institute questionnaire.

The results of this study indicate a significant difference in the variable score of quality of life and its dimensions before and after surgery in myopia patients, but there is no significant difference in the variable score of quality of life and its dimensions before and after the operation in patients with keratoconus.

Although the score and average quality of life of keratoconus patients increased slightly after the operation compared to before the operation, this increase in the quality of life score is not enough to significantly increase their satisfaction and quality of life.

Basketball shooting is the most important technical movement among the physical skills of this sport. To achieve this goal, it is suggested to use complementary methods along with continuous sports training. Therefore, in this clinical trial study, a comparative study of the effect of mental imagery training and non-invasive technique of direct brain stimulation (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)) on shooting skills in non-professional basketball players was done.

36 non-elite basketball players (18-25) according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and results of the MIQ-3 questionnaire, were randomly divided into three groups with the same average age and gender: 1) mental imagery; 2) anodal tDCS over motor cortex area and 3) control with routine exercise. This way, the interventions were applied for six weeks, two weekly sessions, each lasting 20 minutes. Participants' shooting skills were measured by a modified AAHPERD basketball shooting test, before, after 12 treatment sessions, and one month after the last session, to check the durability of the effect.

Statistical findings showed that there is no statistically significant difference among the effects of routine exercises, mental imagery, and tDCS on improving shooting skills (P=0.757). The effect of all three interventions on shooting skills was permanent (P=0.001). By examining the effect size, it was determined that the effect size of the tDCS intervention on improving shooting skills is greater than the other two interventions.

According to the results of this study, mental imagery or the use of tDCS was as effective as routine sports exercises in improving basketball players' shooting skills. So, during non-training periods or for injured athletes who are unable to perform physical exercises for some time, it can be helpful to perform imagery exercises or use tDCS. It is useful in maintaining acquired skills and preventing athletes from losing their performance and is a suitable alternative to performing physical exercises.

Thyroid hormone deficiency during development can have detrimental effects on the structure and function of the nervous system. This study aimed to examine the effects of developmental thyroid hormone deficiency on neuronal survival and gene expression of pro-apoptotic Bax and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 in the prefrontal cortex of congenital hypothyroid rats. The possible protective role of treadmill exercise was also investigated.

A congenital hypothyroid model was made by treatment of pregnant Wistar rats with propylthiouracil (PTU) in drinking water from the sixth day of gestation until the end of the lactation period. Control mothers received water during this period. The male offspring were then divided into two groups with/without four weeks of treadmill exercise. Next, the animals were sacrificed and prefrontal cortices were isolated to examine neuronal survival and expression of apoptosis-related genes (Bax and Bcl-2) using cresyl violet staining and real-time polymerase chain reaction, respectively.

Our results demonstrated that decreased neuronal survival was associated with a significant increase in Bax and a significant decrease in Bcl-2 gene expression in congenital hypothyroid rats. Treadmill exercise was able to increase the number of surviving neurons by decreasing Bax and increasing Bcl-2 levels; however, significant differences still remained compared to the control group.

Developmental thyroid hormone deficiency leads to neuronal damage by activating the apoptosis mechanism. Exercise can improve neuronal survival by inhibiting apoptosis in the prefrontal cortex of congenital hypothyroid rats.

Osteopontin (OPN) is a glycosylated phosphoprotein found in the extracellular matrix that is expressed in a variety of body tissues and is involved in a variety of pathobiological processes such as cancer and metastasis. Several studies have reported increased OPN gene expression in advanced stages of breast cancer, but no studies have been conducted to investigate the relationship between OPN and metastasis in breast cancer.

After the development of an animal model of breast cancer using the 4T1 cell line, primary and metastatic tumor cells were isolated from the tumor mass, lung, and brain of cancerous mice, multiplied, and named 4T1T, 4T1L, and 4T1B, respectively. The expression of OPN in these cells has been analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction.

According to our findings, metastatic tumor cells significantly increase their OPN expression. OPN expression was increased 2.3-fold and 3.25-fold in 4T1L and 4T1B cells, respectively, when compared to primary tumor cells.

These findings provided important insights into OPN expression in the metastatic cascade of breast cancer for the first time. In this account, the analysis of the molecular properties of metastatic tumor cells can help researchers better understand the molecular and genetic aspects of chemoresistance, as well as design targeted therapeutic strategies to combat breast cancer metastasis.

Although participating in sports activities has positive effects on people, it can lead to various injuries in athletes. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of neuromuscular exercises on pain, proprioception, and balance in female runners with shin splints.

In this semi-experimental study, 24 female runners with shin splints with an age range of 17 to 23 years were randomly divided into two control and experimental groups. In the pre-test, pain level, static and dynamic balance, and ankle proprioception were measured using a visual analog scale, stork balance test, Y balance test, and angle repositioning error test. Then, the subjects of the experimental group performed the exercises for 6 weeks. After completing the exercises, the post-test was performed similar to the pre-test.

The research results showed that after six weeks of neuromuscular exercises, there is a significant difference between the control and experimental groups in the post-test of pain, static and dynamic balance, and proprioception (P<0.05). Also, the results of the correlated t-test showed that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test of pain, static and dynamic balance and proprioception after six weeks of neuromuscular exercises (P<0.05).

According to the results obtained from the research, it is possible to suggest the use of neuromuscular exercises to reduce pain and improve balance and proprioception in female runners with shin splints.

Microalgae have been approved as a good source of UV radiation protective compounds, such as mycosporin-like amino acids (MAAs), carotenoids and polyphenols. Spirulina (Arthrospira) and Chlorella gain much attraction in the skin care market as natural sources of available products.

In this study, different extracts were prepared from the dry powder of Chlorella vulgaris and Arthrospira platensis. Partial purification of MAA compounds was performed. The extracted compounds were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry and the sample's Ultraviolet (UV) absorption in the range of UV-A (400-315 nm) and UV-B (315-280 nm) was measured by spectrophotometric method. The total protein content of the extracts and their antioxidant effect were also analyzed.

The samples extracted with methanol showed a higher percentage of compounds with similar characteristics to mycosporine-like amino acids, and had notable antioxidant activity. In mass spectrometry, two major peaks with a molecular mass equivalent to m/z 344 and 887 were identified. The samples extracted from both microalgae had more compounds with maximum absorption at the UV-A and UV-B range, with 50% and 100% methanol. In general, the methanol extraction of UV-absorbing compounds from both C. vulgaris and A. platensis led to an increase in the extraction yield.

According to the different features of samples, using a combination of them as natural sources for the preparation of sunscreens may be beneficial to make an efficient product.

Agricultural pesticides are widely used all over the world. Relatively, Deltamethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide used in agriculture. Oxidative stress induction is one of its toxicity mechanisms. It has been found that natural compounds with antioxidant properties play an essential role in maintaining people's health against the dangers of chemicals such as pesticides. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the role of acacetin; a natural secondary metabolite, in deltamethrin-induced liver damage in rats.

Thirty-two male Balb/C mice were randomly divided into four groups (8 mice in each group) containing control, acacetin (50 mg/kg), deltamethrin (5 mg/kg/day), and deltamethrin+acacetin. The mice for 2 weeks received 0.01% Dimethyl sulfoxide or deltamethrin (5 mg/kg/day) by gavage and acacetin (50 mg/kg) intraperitoneally. The histopathological changes in liver tissue, serum levels of liver-related enzymes, tissue values of total antioxidant capacity, malondialdehyde, number of apoptotic cells, and inflammatory cytokines were evaluated.

The total antioxidant capacity of liver tissue in the deltamethrin group was significantly lower than the control group. In contrast, other parameters in the deltamethrin group were considerably higher than the control group (P<0.01). A significant increase in the total antioxidant capacity of liver tissue was seen in the deltamethrin+acacetin group compared to the deltamethrin group (P<0.01). At the same time, other studied parameters showed a significant decrease in this comparison (P<0.01).

Acacetin with its antioxidant, anti-apoptotic, and anti-inflammatory properties improves liver tissue damage caused by deltamethrin.

Despite observing the high accuracy of evaluation with a numerical scale in the previous studies, students at Semnan University of Medical Sciences should evaluate the professors' education performance with the Likert scale in each item of the questionnaire. This issue can reduce the accuracy of professors' evaluations in the university and professors do not have proper feedback from the evaluation of their courses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the evaluation scores of professors by students using a Likert scale and a numerical scale in the Faculty members of Rehabilitation in Semnan University of Medical Sciences.

In this study, 130 students were allocated to two groups of qualitative and quantitative assessment ways (n=65 in each group). The methods of evaluation included current methods (scoring based on the Likert scale) and the new numerical scoring method. Then, the obtained data from the students' evaluation was entered into SPSS software to conduct statistical analysis.

The findings indicated that the mean score of all evaluation questions using the numerical method was higher as compared to the qualitative method using the Likert scale. These differences between the two methods were statistically significant in the six questions and also higher in the quantitative assessment group (p < 0.05). These six questions include the adequacy of the sessions allocated to the course, the simplicity and comprehensibility of the content presented, attention to the previous knowledge of the student in preparing the content, the appropriateness of the sequence of the content presented to achieve the educational goals, the power of conveying the concept in the content presented and providing the content file of the materials presented in the class.

The results of the present study showed that the current method of evaluating the professors of Semnan University of Medical Sciences, which is done qualitatively and through the Likert scale, can have problems. Therefore, decision-makers and educational administrators of Semnan University of Medical Sciences and other universities can use the results of this study to make positive changes to improve the process of evaluating professors by students.

Comfort and attention to the physiological indicators in patients are integral elements in providing comprehensive care to patients undergoing ESWL. This study was performed to specify the impact of patient awareness-raising before extracorporeal lithotripsy on the comfort and physiological indicators in patients.

The study was a clinical trial involving 122 patients admitted to Baharlu Hospital. They were selected using the convenient sampling method and randomly divided into two groups, i.e. intervention and control (each comprising 61 patients). Patients' demographic characteristics scale and Kolcaba's General Comfort Questionnaire (GCQ) were delivered to both groups before the intervention. Correspondingly, the Blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration were also measured by the researcher. Afterward, the necessary information was provided to the intervention group before the surgery by the researcher, along with a face-to-face lecture and a video broadcast. Meanwhile, the control group received the information routinely presented by the hospital department. It should be noted that patients' physiological indicators were measured and they were asked to fill in the GCQ scale before entering the extracorporeal lithotripsy room for both groups. The data were analyzed via SPSS version 20 and statistical procedures.

There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of demographic characteristics (P>0.05), however, the mean scores for the physiological and comfort indices in the two groups had a statistically significant difference after the intervention (P<0.001)

Patient awareness-raising through videos and speech could contribute to reducing physiological indicators and increasing comfort levels in patients.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of the most important endemic diseases in Iran and the second most frequently transmitted arthropod-borne parasitic disease after malaria, which is seen in two kinds of urban and rural areas. Importantly, there are various focal points of cutaneous leishmaniasis disease in Iran. One of the most important focal points is Damghan. The study was conducted to determine the incidence and trend of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Damghan town during 2011–2021 and its forecast up to 2026.

In this cross-sectional study, 3222 definite cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis recorded from 2011 to 2021 by the vice-chancellor for health at Semnan University of Medical Sciences were entered. All statistical analyses were done using Minitab software version 14. SARIMA (1, 0, 0) (0, 1, 1)12 was used to predict the number of cutaneous leishmaniasis cases in the next 5 years.

By investigating the incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis from 2010 to 2021, an epidemic occurred in 2019. 3222 definite cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis, 1938 cases (60%) were men. 57% of the cases said that the place where they were bitten was the village. Interestingly, the most frequent age group was 15 years and older (86%). Hands and feet were the most common sites of ulcers. The highest disease prevalence was observed in September, October, and November. The number of predicted cases in the next five years was 2265.

By investigating the eleven-year trend of this disease, and predicting the number of 2,265 people suffering from this disease in the next five years in the most optimistic state (do not have an epidemic like in 2019), it indicates that the policymakers of the health system should take control measures in prevention, Diagnosis, and treatment should pay attention to reduce the burden of the disease imposed on the individual and the health system and society.

Developmental dyslexia is a Neuro-developmental disorder characterized by reading and phonological awareness problems. Considering the relationship between working memory and reading skills and other high-level cognitive skills, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of working memory training, on the improvement of reading skills in children with dyslexia.

In this study, 30 children aged 7-9 years old with dyslexia in the second and third grade of elementary school were selected and randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group, (n=15; 7 girls and 8 boys in each group). To evaluate the cognitive and language skills of the participants, the Intelligence test (WISC-4), Sina software digits span and Corsi blocks tests, phonological awareness test, and the reading and dyslexia test (NOMA) were used. Working memory enhancement sessions (10 sessions) were held using the Sina working memory training software and pen-paper tasks (working memory span tasks) for the experimental group.

The findings of this research showed a significant difference between experimental and control groups in the mean scores of digits span and Corsi blocks at post-test (P<0.05). Also, the increase in the mean scores of the phonological awareness test and non-word reading test after the intervention showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups (P<0.001).

The results indicated after working memory training the ability to store verbal and visual-spatial information in working memory increased, and through the near transfer of the effects of training, it increased phonological awareness and improved the reading ability in children with dyslexia.

flat foot is a disorder that reduces performance in people with different age groups. One of the new treatments is whole-body vibration. The main question is whether there is a significant difference according to the isokinetic muscle strength after whole body vibration intervention in different ages of growth and adults.

64 people with flexible flat feet were included in the study. People were divided into 4 intervention and control groups based on the age groups of growth and post-growth age. Then, in the intervention groups, 10 sessions of whole body vibration were applied 3 sessions per week in a standing position. In all participants, the isokinetic torque of the invertor and evertor muscles at angular velocities of 30 and 120 degrees/s were evaluated before and after the vibration intervention in two stages before and after applying general fatigue.

The results showed that before applying the whole-body vibration intervention, there was no significant difference between the control and intervention groups according to the maximum isokinetic torque parameter (P>0.05). The effect of fatigue parameter and angular velocity of isokinetic torque on the inverter and inverter muscle torque was significant (P<0.05). The isokinetic torque of the invertor and evertor muscles at both angles of 30 and 120 degrees after applying 10 sessions of whole-body vibration showed a significant improvement compared with before the intervention in both with and without fatigue (P<0.05).

This study showed that whole-body vibration can be effective as a relatively new modality in reducing the effects of fatigue during running and increasing the strength of ankle muscles in two age groups during growth and adulthood.

The Koomesh Journal, a pioneering and influential medical research publication in Iran, has been active since 2006. This study aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the journal's publication structure from 2006 to 2022 using bibliometric analysis.

This study was conducted with a bibliometric approach. The study population consists of 1238 documents published in the Koomesh Journal. The bibliographic data of these documents were extracted from the Scopus database, and various bibliometric techniques and tools, such as Excel 365, SPSS 26, VOS Viewer, CorTex, and Biblioshiny, were extracted to examine trends and significant topics such as the journal's publication and citation structure, highly cited articles, authors, institutions, and countries.

Koomesh experienced fluctuations in productivity and impact before declining. Semnan University of Medical Sciences and Iran were the institutions and countries with the highest participation rates, respectively. Raheb Ghorbani emerged as the most influential and prolific author. The article "Estimation of natural age of menopause in Iranian women: A meta-analysis study" received the most citations. A considerable degree of co-authorship existed among the journal's top authors, with the most collaboration occurring between Iran and Sweden and, in terms of cities, Tehran and Semnan. The terms Iran, sports, and anxiety were the most prevalent and significant. The most discussion was on precision medicine and COVID-19.

This study has provided an overview of the publication structure of Koomesh Journal during the years 2006 to 2022. This study may be useful for the editorial board of the journal, because it provides numerous and useful information for the progress and continuation of the work.