Association between fear of falling and self-care behaviours of older people with hypertension.

AIM: This study investigated the association between fear of falling and self-care behaviours of older people with hypertension. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. METHODS: This study was conducted in 2019 on 301 older people with hypertension above the age of 60 years in Tehran, Iran. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Persian Falls Efficacy Scale-International, and a hypertension-related self-care behaviour questionnaire. RESULTS: Analyses revealed that gender, educational level and history of falling were significant factors associated with fear of falling; and marital status, educational level and income source were significant factors associated with self-care behaviours (p < 0.05). Partial correlations controlling for education revealed a significant positive correlation showing that high fear of falling is associated with worse health promotion self-care behaviours and significant inverse correlations with psycho-emotional, social and daily self-care behaviours (p < 0.05), meaning that high fear of falling is associated with better self-care for these dimensions. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: This study involved patients in order to evaluate the validity and reliability of the questionnaires. The study was conducted on older people with hypertension referred to hypertension clinics in hospitals.

Hsa-miR-186-5p regulates TGFß signaling pathway through expression suppression of SMAD6 and SMAD7 genes in colorectal cancer.

TGFß signaling is a known pathway to be involved in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression and miRNAs play crucial roles by regulating different components of this pathway. Hence, finding the link between miRNAs and the pathway could be beneficial for CRC therapy. Array data indicated that miR-186-5p is a differentially expressed miRNA in colorectal Tumor/Normal tissues and bioinformatics tools predicted SMAD6/7 (inhibitory SMADs) as bona fide targets of this miRNA. Here, we intended to investigate the regulatory effect of the miR-186-5p expression on TGFß signaling in CRC. Firstly, the miR-186-5p overexpression in HCT116 cells resulted in a significant reduction of SMAD6/7 expression, measured through RT-qPCR. Then, the direct interactions of miR-186-5p with SMAD6/7 3'UTRs were supported through dual luciferase assay. Furthermore, miR-186-5p overexpression suppressed proliferation, cell viability, and migration while, it increased apoptosis in CRC cells, assessed by cell cycle, MTT, scratch and Annexin V/PI apoptosis assays. Consistently, miR-186-5p overexpression resulted in reduced CyclinD1 protein using western blot, and also resulted in increased P21 and decreased c-Myc expression. Overall, these results introduced miR-186-5p as a cell cycle suppressor through downregulation of SMAD6/7 expression. Thus, miR-186-5p might be served as a novel tumor suppressive biomarker and therapeutic target in CRC treatment.

HPV16-E7 Protein T Cell Epitope Prediction and Global Therapeutic Peptide Vaccine Design Based on Human Leukocyte Antigen Frequency: An In-Silico Study.

Cervical cancer is the second most common leading cause of women's death due to cancer worldwide, about 528,000 patients' cases and 266,000 deaths per year, related to human papillomavirus (HPV). Peptide-based vaccines being safe, stable, and easy to produce have demonstrated great potential to develop therapeutic HPV vaccine. In this study, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I, class II T cell epitopes of HPV16-E7 were predicted. Therefore, we designed a plan to find the most effective peptides to prompt appropriate immune responses. For this purpose, retrieving protein sequences, conserved region identification, phylogenic tree construction, T cell epitope prediction, epitope-predicted population coverage calculation, and molecular docking were performed consecutively and most effective immune response prompting peptides were selected. Based on different tools index, six CD8+ T cells and six CD4+ epitopes were chosen. This combination of 12 epitopes created a putative global vaccine with a 95.06% population coverage. These identified peptides can be employed further for peptide analysis and can be used as a peptide or poly-epitope candidates for therapeutic vaccine studies to treat HPV-associated cancers.

Cloning, Expression and Purification of Pseudomonas putida ATCC12633 Creatinase.

BACKGROUND: Pseudomonas putida (P. putida) ATCC12633 can produce creatinase. It is a microbial enzyme which degrades creatinine in bacteria and provides source of carbon and nitrogen. Also, this enzyme is used in the enzymatic measurement of creatinine concentration for diagnosis of renal and muscles functions and diseases. Our purpose was recombinant production of creatinase for using in clinical measurement of serum or urine creatinine. METHODS: A 1209bp of open reading frame of creatinase was amplified by PCR from P. putida ATCC12633 genome and cloned into pET28a expression vector which was digested using NheI and XhoI restriction enzymes. Cloning was confirmed by colony PCR, double digestion analysis and sequencing. Recombinant pET28a vector was transformed to Escherichia coli (E. coli) BL21 (DE3). Creatinase expression was induced in E.coli BL21 (DE3) using IPTG and confirmed by SDS-PAGE and western blotting. Purification of creatinase was performed using Ni-NTA column. The specific activity of this enzyme was also investigated. RESULTS: The creatinase gene cloning was confirmed by DNA sequencing. Successful expression of creatinase was performed in E. coli (57.4% of total protein). SDS-PAGE and western blot analysis showed a 45 kDa creatinase protein. Purification of creatinase was done with high purity. The specific activity of recombinant enzyme is 26.54 unit/mg that is much higher than other creatinase used in the commercial kits (9 unit/mg). CONCLUSION: The P. putida ATCC12633 recombinant creatinase was expressed efficiently in E. coli BL21 and 57% of total protein was the recombinant creatinase. Also, expressed creatinase has high solubility and also the enzyme has good activity compared to enzymes used in commercial kits, so a new source of creatinase was produced for creatinine assay kit in this study.

Overexpression of Recombinant Human Teriparatide, rhPTH (1-34) in Escherichia coli : An Innovative Gene Fusion Approach.

BACKGROUND: Parathyroid hormone is an 84-amino acid peptide secreted by the parathyroid glands. Its physiological role is maintenance of normal serum calcium level and bone remodeling. Biological activity of this hormone is related to N-terminal 1-34 amino acids. The recombinant form of hormone (1-34) has been approved for treatment of osteoporosis from 2002. In this study, a novel fusion partner has been developed for preparation of high yield recombinant 1-34 amino acids of hPTH. METHODS: Novel nucleotide cassette designed encoding a chimeric fusion protein comprising of a fusion partner consisting of a His-tag in N-terminal, 53 amino acids belong to Escherichia coli (E. coli) ß-galactosidase (LacZ) gene, a linker sequence for increasing of expression and protection of target peptide structure from fusion tag effect, an Enteropeptidase cleavage site, rhPTH (1-34) gene fragment. Optimized fusion gene was synthesized and ligated into pET-28a vector under control of T7 promoter, and then transformed in E. coli (DH5α) cells. Positive clones containing this gene were double digested with NcoI and-BamHI and also approved by sequencing. Gene overexpression was observed in SDS-PAGE after induction with 0.2 mM IPTG. Confirmation of gene expression was performed by western blotting using anti-His-tag antibody conjugated with peroxidase. RESULTS: By this fusion gene design approach, we achieved a high level expression of the rhPTH, where it represented at least 43.7% of the total protein as determined by SDS-PAGE and confirmed by western blotting. CONCLUSION: In addition to high level expression of the designed gene in this work, specific amino acid sequence of bacterial ß-galactosidase was selected as major part of carrier tag for protection of this hormone as important step of recombinant rhPTH with relevant isoelectronic point (pI). This innovation resulted in recombinant production of hPTH very well and the gene construct could be applied as a pattern for similar recombinant peptides where recombinant protein degradation is a critical issue.

Comparative assessment of humoral immune responses of aluminum hydroxide and oil-emulsion adjuvants in Influenza (H9N2) and Newcastle inactive vaccines to chickens.

Context Adjuvants are compounds used in the preparation of inactive vaccines to enhance the immune response. Aluminum hydroxide (alum) is one of the first compounds approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which is used as adjuvants in vaccine products for humans. Montanide ISA 70 is an oil-emulsion adjuvant and is used in poultry inactive vaccines. Objective In this study, the effects of alum adjuvant on the efficiency and induction of immune response in inactive vaccines of Influenza and Newcastle are compared with those of ISA 70. Materials and methods Six groups of 7-d-old specific-pathogen-free chickens were inoculated with 0.3 ml of the prepared vaccines via the subcutaneous route in the neck. Immune response in each group after 7, 14, 21, 31, 41, and 45 d was evaluated using the technique of hemagglutination inhibition. Results The results were compared using SPSS software. Results showed that vaccines containing adjuvant ISA 70 depicted a higher increase in the immune response and adjuvant of 20% alum is similar to adjuvant of ISA 70 in boosting the immune system. There was no statistically significant difference between 10% and 20% alum, but these adjuvants are visibly different from ISA 70. Conclusion In conclusion, alum can be used as an easily accessible, harmless, and effective adjuvant; however, to increase the immune period using the inactive vaccines for poultry, more research would be necessary.

Correlation between health literacy and health-related quality of life in patients with hypertension, in Tehran, Iran, 2015-2016.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Hypertension is considered an important public health problem in developed and developing countries. This disease is closely associated with the quality of life of patients, and it seems that health literacy plays a role in this regard. Due to lack of information on the role of health literacy on the quality of life in patients with hypertension, this study has aimed to determine the correlation between health literacy and health-related quality of life in patients with hypertension. METHODS: This study is cross-sectional. The sample consisted of 400 patients with hypertension who were enrolled if available. To collect data, a demographic questionnaire (SF-36), Short Form Health Survey, and Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) Inventory were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 21 for descriptive and inferential statistics (e.g., mean, standard deviation, t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient). RESULTS: The mean and standard deviation scores of health literacy and health-related quality of life were, respectively, 68.66 (±13.56) and 52.94 (±15.20). There was positive and significant correlation between health literacy and health-related quality of life (p<0.01, r=0.30). CONCLUSION: According to research findings, there was a significant positive correlation between health literacy and health-related quality of life. Given the importance of health literacy in the quality of life in patients with hypertension, it seems essential that nursing officials and policymakers take steps to promote patients' health and quality of life by using training programs appropriate for the patients' health literacy level.

Soluble Expression of Recombinant Nerve Growth Factor in Cytoplasm of Escherichia coli.

BACKGROUND: Pivotal roles of Nerve growth factor (NGF) in the development and survival of both neuronal and non-neuronal cells indicate its potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. However, investigation of NGF deficits in different diseases requires the availability of properly folded human ß-NGF. In previous studies bacterial expression of hNGF demonstrated the feasibility of its overproduction. However, known limitations in the use of E. coli as an expression host for a protein with three intra-chain disulfide bonds were evident. OBJECTIVES: Here an optimized system was developed to overexpress the soluble NGF in E. coli. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The gene encoding the ß subunit of mature hNGF was optimized based on E. coli codon preference and cloned into pET-32a expression vector providing His- and Trx- tags for detection and increasing the solubility of recombinant protein, respectively. The recombinant DNA was expressed in E. coli Origami (DE3), which enhances the correct formation of disulfide bonds in the cytoplasm of E. coli. Different culture conditions were evaluated to increase soluble expression of the target protein. RESULTS: The highest soluble expression level was achieved when E. coli Origami (DE3) cells expressing NGF were grown at 30ºC in TB medium with 0.2 mM IPTG induction at OD600nm = 1 for 4 h. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that the recombinant NGF was successfully expressed as a soluble form.

Correlation between compliance regimens with health locus of control in patients with hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological changes leading to chronic diseases are becoming more important day by day. Hypertension is also known as a chronic disease. Worldwide prevalence of hypertension have caused serious complications. The disease has become a health problem in all communities. This research aims at analyze the correlation between compliance with the treatment regimen and health locus of control in hypertension patients. METHODS: In this study, 130 patients diagnosed with high blood pressure have been included using convenience sampling. Information has been gathered including demographic data, compliance with the treatment regimen and health locus of control. The patient's blood pressure was measured twice and the mean was compared with the first blood pressure recorded in medical records. Data were analyzed using SPSS 17. RESULTS: The results showed that there is a direct correlation between the adherence to the treatment regimen with internal health locus of control. In patients with internal health locus of control, better compliance with treatment regimen was detected. CONCLUSION: Health locus of control is associated with treatment regimen. Considering health locus control can help nurses and managers in their health programs and also can motivate patients to participate in their self-care and improve patients care quality.

Structural and functional effects of circular permutation on firefly luciferase: in vitro assay of caspase 3/7.

Bioluminescence reaction, which uses luciferin, Mg(2+)-ATP and molecular oxygen to yield an electronically excited oxyluciferin, is carried out by the luciferase and emit visible light. One of the most promising applications of firefly luciferase is biosensors. In order to develop an apoptosis biosensor based on caspase 3/7, we have generated 3 forms of circularly permuted variants of Photinus pyralis firefly luciferase and a relatively good tolerance toward disruption of the polypeptide chain by introduction of new termini were found. Two forms of circular permuted luciferases showed significant activity enhancement in comparison with control after exposure to caspase 3. Moreover, the effect of circular permutation and also the length of inserted peptide (caspase 3/7 recognition sites) in structure of firefly luciferase were analyzed using circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy.

Relationship between stability and flexibility in the most flexible region of Photinus pyralis luciferase.

Firefly luciferase is a protein with a large N-terminal and a small C-terminal domain. B-factor analysis shows that its C-terminal is much more flexible than its N-terminal. Studies on hyperthermophile proteins have been shown that the increased thermal stability of hyperthermophile proteins is due to their enhanced conformational rigidity and the relationship between flexibility, stability and function in most of proteins is on debate. Two mutations (D474K and D476N) in the most flexible region of firefly luciferase were designed. Thermostability analysis shows that D476N mutation doesn't have any significant effect but D474K mutation destabilized protein. On the other hand, flexibility analysis using dynamic quenching and limited proteolysis demonstrates that D474K mutation became much more flexible than wild type although D476N doesn't have any significant difference. Intrinsic and ANS fluorescence studies demonstrate that D476N mutation is brought about by structural changes without significant effect on thermostability and flexibility. Molecular modeling reveals that disruption of a salt bridge between D(474) and K(445) accompanying with some H-bond deletion may be involved in destabilization of D474K mutant.

Clinical violence in nursing students.

BACKGROUND: One of the significant issues in health studies is violence. Although violence against nurses has been recognized as a major occupational problem, its magnitude and extent is not clearly defined. The aim of this study was to determine the extent and types of violence during clinical training of nursing students. METHODS: In this descriptive and cross-sectional study, 180 sophomores, juniors and seniors of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran and Iran Medical Universities were selected by quota sampling method. A questionnaire was used for collecting data regarding violence over the past year. Content and test-retest methods were used for evaluating its validity and reliability, respectively. RESULTS: Findings showed that 6.7%, 8.3% and 39.4% of the students experienced physical assault, physical menace and insult, respectively, over the past year. Most cases of the assaults (66.7%) were done by patients, most menaces by staff as well as patients' attendants (18.1%) and most insults by staff (33.7%) and patients (31%). No significant relation was found between the sex as well as the educational year of the students and the experience of insult. 41.6% of the assaults were due to the effects of disease in assailants. However, no specific reason was found for physical menace and insult in most cases. 66.65%, 26.6% and 39.4% of the students reported physical assault, menace and insult to their tutors, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing students are subject to more violence because of young age and inadequate experience. Therefore, devising educational programs regarding occupational violence as well as its prevention and providing necessary support and consultation following violence are essential.