Current Advances in Wound Healing and Regenerative Medicine.

Treating chronic wounds is a common and costly challenge worldwide. More advanced treatments are needed to improve wound healing and prevent severe complications such as infection and amputation. Like other medical fields, there have been advances in new technologies promoting wound healing potential. Regenerative medicine as a new method has aroused hope in treating chronic wounds. The technology improving wound healing includes using customizable matrices based on synthetic and natural polymers, different types of autologous and allogeneic cells at different differentiation phases, small molecules, peptides, and proteins as a growth factor, RNA interference, and gene therapy. In the last decade, various types of wound dressings have been designed. Emerging dressings include a variety of interactive/ bioactive dressings and tissue-engineering skin options. However, there is still no suitable and effective dressing to treat all chronic wounds. This article reviews different wounds and common treatments, advanced technologies and wound dressings, the advanced wound care market, and some interactive/bioactive wound dressings in the market.

Articular Cartilage Injury; Current Status and Future Direction.

Today, treatments of cartilage and osteochondral lesions are routine clinical procedures. The avascular and hard-to-self-repair nature of cartilage tissue has posed a clinical challenge for the replacement and reconstruction of damaged cartilage. Treatment of large articular cartilage defects is technically difficult and complex, often accompanied by failure. Articular cartilage cannot repair itself after injury due to a lack of blood vessels, lymph, and nerves. Various treatments for cartilage regeneration have shown encouraging results, but unfortunately, none have been the perfect solution. New minimally invasive and effective techniques are being developed. The development of tissue engineering technology has created hope for articular cartilage reconstruction. This technology mainly supplies stem cells with various sources of pluripotent and mesenchymal stem cells. This article describes the treatments in detail, including types, grades of cartilage lesions, and immune mechanisms in cartilage injuries.

Challenges in osteoarthritis treatment.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and a degenerative joint cartilage disease that is the most common cause of disability in the world among the elderly. It leads to social, psychological, and economic costs with financial consequences. The principles of OA treatment are to reduce pain and stiffness as well as maintain function. In recent years, due to a better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of OA, a number of potential therapeutic advances have been made, which include tissue engineering, immune system manipulation, surgical technique, pharmacological, and non-pharmacological treatments. Despite this, there is still no certain cure for OA, and different OA treatments are usually considered in relation to the stage of the disease. The purpose of the present review is to summarize and discuss the latest results of new treatments for OA and potential targets for future research.

Controversial role of γδ T cells in pancreatic cancer.

γδ T cells are rare lymphocytes with cogent impact on immune responses. These cells are one of the earliest cells to be recruited in the sites of infection or tumors and play a critical role in coordinating innate and adaptive immune responses. The anti-tumor activity of γδ T cells have been numerously reported; nonetheless, there is controversy among published studies regarding their anti-tumor vs pro-tumor effect- especially in pancreatic cancer. A myriad of studies has confirmed that activated γδ T cells can potently lyse a broad variety of solid tumors and leukemia/lymphoma cells and produce an array of cytokines; however, early γδ T cell-based clinical trials did not lead to optimal efficacy, despite acceptable safety. Depending on the local micromilieu, γδ T cells can differentiate into tumor promoting or suppressing cells such as Th1-, Th2-, or Th17-like cells and produce prototypical cytokines such as interferon-γ (IFNγ) and interleukin (IL)-4/-10, IL-9, or IL-17. In an abstruse tumor such as pancreatic cancer- also known as immunologically cold tumor- γδ T cells are more likely to switch to their immunosuppressive phenotype. In this review we will adduce the accumulated knowledge on these two controversial aspects of γδ T cells in cancers- with a focus on solid tumors and pancreatic cancer. In addition, we propose strategies for enhancing the anti-tumor function of γδ T cells in cancers and discuss the potential future directions.

Biomarker based biosensors: An opportunity for diagnosis of COVID-19.

Early diagnosis and treatment of diseases are crucial research areas of human health. For early diagnosis, one method that has proven efficient is the detection of biomarkers which can provide real-time and accurate biological information. Most biomarker detection is currently carried out at localised dedicated laboratories using large and automated analysers, increasing waiting time and costs. Smaller, faster, and cheaper devices could potentially replace these time-consuming laboratory analyses and make analytical results available as point-of-care diagnostics. Innovative biosensor-based strategies could allow biomarkers to be tested reliably in a decentralised setting. Early diagnosis of COVID-19 patients has a key role in order to use quarantine and treatment strategies in a timely manner. Raised levels of several biomarkers in COVID-19 patients are associated with respiratory infections or dysfunction of various organs. Through clinical studies of COVID-19 patient biomarkers such as ferritin, Interleukins, albumin and …are found to reveals significant differences in their excretion ranges from healthy patients and patients with SARS-CoV-2, in addition to the development of biomarkers based biosensor such as stated biomarkers can be used and to investigate more specific biomarkers further proteomic analysis can be performed. This review presents several biomarker alterations in COVID-19 patients such as salivary, circulatory, coagulation, cardiovascular, renal, liver, C-reactive protein (CRP), immunological and inflammatory biomarkers. Also, biomarker sensors based on electrochemical, optical, and lateral flow characteristics which have potential applications for SARS-COV-2 in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, will be discussed.

Protective and pathological roles of regulatory immune cells in human cytomegalovirus infection following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is ubiquitously prevalent. Immune system in healthy individuals is capable of controlling HCMV infection; however, HCMV can be life-threatening for immunocompromised individuals, such as transplant recipients. Both innate and adaptive immune systems are critically involved in the HCMV infection. Recent studies have indicated that regulatory immune cells which play essential roles in maintaining a healthy immune environment are closely related to immune response in HCMV infection. However, the exact role of regulatory immune cells in immune regulation and homoeostasis during the battle between HCMV and host still requires further research. In this review, we highlight the protective and pathological roles of regulatory immune cells in HCMV infection following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).

Preparation of Immunotoxin Herceptin-Botulinum and Killing Effects on Two Breast Cancer Cell Lines.

BACKGROUND: Worldwide, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women and a leading cause of cancer deaths. The age of onset in Iran has become reduced by a decade for unknown reasons. Herceptin, a humanized monoclonal antibody, is a target therapy for breast cancer cells with over expression of HER2- neu receptors, but it is an expensive drug with only 20% beneficial rate of survival. This study introduces a novel approach to enhance the efficacy of this drug through immunoconjugation of the antibody to botulinum toxin. Decreasing the cost and adverse effects of the antibody were secondary goals of this study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Botulinum toxin was conjugated with Herceptin using heterobifunctional cross linkers, succinimidyl acetylthiopropionate (SATP) and sulfo-succinimidyl-4-(N-maleimidomethyl) cyclohexane-1-carboxylate (SMCC) according to the supplier's guidelines and tested on two breast cancer cell lines: SK-BR-3 and BT-474. Toxin and Herceptin were also used separately as controls. The cytotoxicity assay was also performed using the new bioconjugate on cultured cells with Alamar blue and a fluorescence plate reader. RESULTS: Herceptin-Toxin bioconjugation significantly improved Herceptin efficacy on both breast cancer cell lines when compared to the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Toxin-Herceptin bioconjugation can be a potential candidate with increased efficiency for treating breast cancer patients with over expression of the HER2 receptor.