Nano-curcumin therapy, a promising method in modulating inflammatory cytokines in COVID-19 patients.

BACKGROUND: As an ongoing worldwide health issue, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been causing serious complications, including pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and multi-organ failure. However, there is no decisive treatment approach available for this disorder, which is primarily attributed to the large amount of inflammatory cytokine production. We aimed to identify the effects of Nano-curcumin on the modulation of inflammatory cytokines in COVID-19 patients. METHOD: Forty COVID-19 patients and 40 healthy controls were recruited and evaluated for inflammatory cytokine expression and secretion. Subsequently, COVID-19 patients were divided into two groups: 20 patients receiving Nano-curcumin and 20 patients as the placebo group. The mRNA expression and cytokine secretion levels of IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α and IL-18 were assessed by Real-time PCR and ELISA, respectively. RESULT: Our primary results indicated that the mRNA expression and cytokine secretion of IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-18 were increased significantly in COVID-19 patients compared with healthy control group. After treatment with Nano-curcumin, a significant decrease in IL-6 expression and secretion in serum and in supernatant (P = 0.0003, 0.0038, and 0.0001, respectively) and IL-1ß gene expression and secretion level in serum and supernatant (P = 0.0017, 0.0082, and 0.0041, respectively) was observed. However, IL-18 mRNA expression and TNF-α concentration were not influenced by Nano-curcumin. CONCLUSION: Nano-curcumin, as an anti-inflammatory herbal based agent, may be able to modulate the increased rate of inflammatory cytokines especially IL-1ß and IL-6 mRNA expression and cytokine secretion in COVID-19 patients, which may cause an improvement in clinical manifestation and overall recovery.

Efficacy of intrauterine administration of autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells on the pregnancy outcomes in patients with recurrent implantation failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

One in every nine couples suffers from implantation defects and pregnancy failures. In spite of many contributions that ART has given to infertility treatment, there are many reports of the failure of ART. Therefore, scientists suggested many complementary therapies for use besides ART to improve the quality of infertility treatments. Intrauterine PBMC-therapy is one of these complementary therapies that were used before IVF. Studies that examined PBMC treatment in women with at least three IVF/ET failure were included in this review. These studies involved RCT and quasi-experimental (non-randomized experimental) studies. A three-step search strategy was used for published and unpublished clinical trials written in English and Persian. No time limitation was set for studies. Study selection according to the inclusion criteria and methodological quality assessment and data extraction were done by two independent reviewers, which result in five studies being included (two RCTs and three quasi-experimental studies). Finally, all of these article extracted data were pooled in a statistical meta-analysis. Findings demonstrated that implantation, pregnancy and live birth rate were statistically increased and the miscarriage rate was significantly decreased in the PBMC-treated group than that non-treated group. In conclusion, based on the evidence, PBMCs can be an effective therapeutic approach in women with at least three IVF/ET failure and lacking initial inflammation that is essential for implantation.