Tordylium persicum Boiss. & Hausskn extract: A possible alternative for treatment of pediatric infectious diseases.

Antimicrobial herbal compounds are one of the important medical resources, and in order to help alleviate the spread of the pediatric infectious diseases, identification of additional bioactive phytochemicals and herbal extracts will be practical in treating illnesses. In the present work, antimicrobial activities various extracts of Tordylium persicum Boiss. & Hausskn aerial parts were determined against five Gram-positive bacteria, five Gram-negative bacteria, two fungi, and Echinococcus granulosus. Antimicrobial activities were assayed using both disk diffusion and microbroth dilution methods. Scolicidal activity was assayed by the Smyth and Barrett method. Also total phenol and total flavonoid contents for plant extracts were assayed. Results showed that the methanolic extract was more effective on all microbes. The results showed that Streptococcus pyogenes was the most susceptible to the methanolic extract (MIC = 25.9 ± 0.0 µg/mL), while Proteus vulgaris was the most resistant strain (MIC = 295.3 ± 0.0 µg/mL) among all bacteria evaluated. The extracts showed significant activity versus E. granulosus (P < 0.5) with dose-dependent inhibitions of the protoscolices. The high concentration of total polyphenolics (294.5 ± 0.1 GAE/g DW) and flavonoids (105.7 ± 0.3 mg CE/g DW) may be responsible for these activities. Our study is first evaluation on antimicrobial and scolicidal activities of T. persicum. Due to the appearance of antibiotic-resistance, ourstudy suggested that methanol extracts of this plant are appropriate candidate for traditional curative uses and it can be utilized in the pediatric infectious disease therapy, especially pediatric infectious disease.

Association of P53 codon 72 polymorphism and lung cancer in an ethnic Iranian population.

Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer death worldwide. Molecular genetic studies indicated that activation of dominant oncogenes or inactivation of tumor suppressor genes and the presence of polymorphism in these genes correlated with prevalence of new lung cancers. P53 as a tumor suppressor gene located at 17p13 chromosome and it is one of the most well-known mutant genes in all cancer types. Mutation in P53 can disturb the transcriptional function and suppression of cell cycle control and increase in cell division and amplification. We can predict the susceptibility of people inside a society to lung cancer with evaluation of P53 gene polymorphism. A total of 200 patients with lung cancer and 200 healthy controls participated in this case-control study. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples and PCR-RFLP analyses were used to genotype the P53 gene polymorphism in codon 72 of exon 4, chromosome 17. Among 200 lung cancer patients and 200 controls, there was no significant correlation between sexuality and cigarette smoking status. We did not find any relationship between cigarette smoking status and genotypes or pack-years but there was a significant correlation between cigarette smoking status and adenocarcinoma patients (P=0.03). The results of the present study revealed that there is no association between P53 codon 72 polymorphism and increased risk of lung cancer in patients and controls but according to results of adenocarcinoma in never-smoker patients, it seems that environmental factors may have more important role than genetic susceptibility in our ethnic Iranian population.