microRNA-184 in the landscape of human malignancies: a review to roles and clinical significance.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) with a short length of 19-22 nucleotides. miRNAs are posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression involved in various biological processes like cell growth, apoptosis, and angiogenesis. miR-184 is a well-studied miRNA, for which most studies report its downregulation in cancer cells and tissues and experiments support its role as a tumor suppressor inhibiting malignant biological behaviors of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. To exert its functions, miR-184 affects some signaling pathways involved in tumorigenesis like Wnt and ß-catenin, and AKT/mTORC1 pathway, oncogenic factors (e.g., c-Myc) or apoptotic proteins, such as Bcl-2. Interestingly, clinical investigations have shown miR-184 with good performance as a prognostic/diagnostic biomarker for various cancers. Additionally, exogenous miR-184 in cell and xenograft animal studies suggest it as a therapeutic anticancer target. In this review, we outline the studies that evaluated the roles of miR-184 in tumorigenesis as well as its clinical significance.

The role of microRNAs in the pathophysiology of human central nervous system: A focus on neurodegenerative diseases.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are suggested to play substantial roles in regulating the development and various physiologic functions of the central nervous system (CNS). These include neurogenesis, cell fate and differentiation, morphogenesis, formation of dendrites, and targeting non-neural mRNAs. Notably, deregulation of an increasing number of miRNAs is associated with several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and CNS tumors. They are particularly known to affect the amyloid ß (Aß) cleavage and accumulation, tau protein homeostasis, and expression of alpha-synuclein (α-syn), Parkin, PINK1, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that play pivotal roles in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. These include miR-16, miR-17-5p, miR-20a, miR-106a, miR-106b, miR-15a, miR-15b, miR-103, miR-107, miR-298, miR-328, miR-195, miR-485, and miR-29. In CNS tumors, several miRNAs, including miR-31, miR-16, and miR-21 have been identified to modulate tumorigenesis through impacting tumor invasion and apoptosis. In this review article, we have a look at the recent advances on our knowledge about the role of miRNAs in human brain development and functions, neurodegenerative diseases, and their clinical potentials.

Modeling and comparing minimum miscibility pressure using multiple mixing cells for injection of enriched gases with Naphta, LPG, and NGL.

The increase in oil production from hydrocarbon reservoirs has always been of interest due to the increase in global oil consumption. One of the effective and useful methods for enhancing oil recovery from hydrocarbon reservoirs is gas injection. Injectable gas can be injected into two modes, miscible and immiscible. However, to inject more efficiently, different factors, including Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP) in the gas near-miscible injection mode, should be investigated and determined. In order to investigate the minimum miscible pressure, different laboratory and simulation methods have been prepared and developed. This method uses the theory of multiple mixing cells to simulate, calculate and compare the minimum miscible pressure in gas injection enriched with Naptha, LPG, and NGL. Also vaporizing and condensing process is also considered in the simulation. The constructed model is presented with a new algorithm. This modeling has been validated and compared with laboratory results. The results showed that dry gas enriched by Naphta due to having more intermediate compounds at lower pressure (16 MPa) is miscible. In addition, dry gas, due to very light compounds, needs higher pressures (20 MPa) than all enriched gases for miscibility. Therefore, Naptha can be a good option for injecting rich gas into oil reservoirs to enrich gas.

The association between blood, urine, respiratory, neurobehavioral parameters and occupational exposure to organophosphorus pesticides: a cross-sectional study among formulators.

Background: Organophosphate (OP) pesticides are one of the most extensively used chemical compounds all over the world. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine whether occupational exposure of the formulators to the OP pesticides, under normal working conditions, is associated with any hematotoxic, hepatotoxic, nephrotoxic, neurotoxic, and respirotoxic responses among them. Methods: 28 OP formulation plant workers and 17 office workers participated in this cross-sectional study as the exposed and control groups, respectively. Blood and urine samples were collected to measure hematological, biochemical, and urinalysis parameters. American thoracic society questionnaire and spirometry tests were employed to assess the function of their respiratory system. Q16 questionnaire was also used to investigate the prevalence of neurobehavioral symptoms. The data were analyzed by SPSS v.22 software using Kolmogorov-Smirnov, T-test, Mann-Whitney U, Chi-square, Fisher, Pearson, and Spearman tests. Results: No statistically significant difference was found in hematological, biochemical, urinalysis (except in specific gravity), spirometry parameters, as well as respiratory and neurobehavioral symptoms between the exposed and the control groups. For the exposed group, however, the means of spirometry parameters were significantly lower among the smokers. Conclusions: In this study, the expected adverse health effects due to exposure to OP pesticides were not observed among the formulators; however, the risk of developing respiratory dysfunction was found to be more considerable among smoker subjects than the non-smoker ones. Further investigations are required to determine whether formulators' occupational exposures to OP pesticides result in certain adverse health effects.