Improvement effects of transplanting pancreatic islet that previously incubated with biomaterials on the diabetic nephropathy in STZ- diabetic rats.

BACKGROUND: Islet transplantation is an effective treatment for diabetes or even its complications. Aim of this study is to investigate efficacy of biomaterial treated islet transplantation on treating diabetic nephropathy. METHODS: Male rats were randomly divided into 6 groups; Control, diabetic control, diabetic transplanted with untreated islets, with platelet rich plasma treated islets, with pancreatic islets homogenate treated islets, or with these biomaterials combination treated islets. Islets cultured with biomaterials and transplanted to diabetic rats. After 60 days, biochemical, oxidative stress, and stereological parameters were assessed. RESULTS: Serum albumin and BUN concentration, decreased and increased respectively, Oxidative stress of kidney impaired, kidney weight, volume of kidney, cortex, medulla, glomerulus, proximal and distal tubules, collecting ducts, vessels, inflammatory, necrotic and fibrotic tissue in diabetic group increased compared to control group (p < 0.001). In treated groups, especially pancreatic islets homogenate treated islets transplanting animals, there was significant changes in kidney weight, and volume of kidney, proximal and distal tubules, Henle's loop and collecting ducts compared with diabetic group (p = 0.013 to p < 0.001). Combination treated islets animals showed significant increase in vessel volume compared to diabetic group (p < 0.001). Necrotic and fibrotic tissue significantly decreased in islets treated than untreated islet animals, it was higher in pancreatic islets homogenate, and combination treated islets groups (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Biomaterials treated islets transplanting could improve diabetic nephropathy. Improvement of oxidative stress followed by controlling glucose level, and effects of growth factors presenting in biomaterials can be considered as capable underlying mechanism of ameliorating inflammatory, necrotic and fibrotic tissue volume.

A systematic review of validity and reliability assessment of measuring balance and walking at the level of International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in people with spinal cord injury.

CONTEXT: A spinal cord injury (SCI) is associated with a wide range of impairments in functioning, many limitations in activity, and restrictions for patients. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to systematically review the psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of outcome measures used to assess walking and balance in people with spinal cord injury. METHODS: Databases such as PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Sciences were searched for relevant articles using various terms (title and abstract). Articles including the outcome measures of spinal cord injury patients and published in English from 2010 until 2021 were selected, and the quality of the selected studies was determined by applying the COSMIN checklist. Reliability and validity values were extracted, and conclusions were drawn about the psychometric quality of each measure. RESULTS: A total of 1253 records were retrieved, and among them 22 potentially eligible articles were identified, 15 of which were included in the present study. The COSMIN tool (Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement Instruments) was used to evaluate the quality level of imported articles based on the inclusion criteria. CONCLUSIONS: One consideration for testing people with disabilities is to observe the reliability and validity of the instrument, which was addressed in this study in various fields. In our study, seven tools for assessing SCI were evaluated, and it was found that the 10-meter walk (10MWT) tool performs better and more easily than other tools. The Mini-BESTest tool was suggested as a reliable tool for assessing standing balance in SCI subjects.

Catalysing global surgery: a meta-research study on factors affecting surgical research collaborations with Africa.

INTRODUCTION: In December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need for rapid collaboration, research, and interventions. International research collaborations foster more significant responses to rapid global changes by enabling international, multicentre research, decreasing biases, and increasing study validity while reducing overall research time and costs. However, there has been low uptake of collaborative research by African institutions and individuals. AIM: To systematically review facilitating factors and challenges to collaborative surgical research studies conducted in Africa. METHODOLOGY: A meta-research review using PubMed®/MEDLINE and Embase on surgical collaboration in Africa from 1st of January 2011 to 31st of September 2021 in accordance to PRISMA guidelines. Surgical studies by collaborative groups involving African authors and sites were included (55 papers). Data on the study period, geographical regions, and research scope, facilitating factors, and challenges were extracted from the studies retrieved from the search. RESULTS: Most of the collaborations in Africa occurred with European institutions (76%). Of the 54 African countries, 63% (34/54) participated in surgical collaborations. The highest collaboration frequency occurred in South Africa (11%) and Nigeria (8%). However, most publications originated from Eastern Africa (43%). Leveraging synergies between high- and low- to middle-income countries (LMICs), well-defined structures, and secure data platforms facilitated collaboration. However, the underrepresentation of collaborators from LMICs was a significant challenge. CONCLUSION: Available literature provides critical insights into the facilitating factors and challenges of research collaboration with Africa. However, there is a need for a detailed prospective study to explore the themes highlighted further. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO 2022 CRD42022352115 .

Impact of antipsychotics and antidepressants drugs on long QT syndrome induction related to hERG channel dysfunction: A systematic review.

PURPOSE: QT prolongation is one of the main unwanted cardiac effects caused by drugs, such as anti-psychotics and anti-depressants, inducing mainly via hERG channel dysfunction. The precise and underlying mechanism of adverse effects on hERG channel are still indecisive, but these effects limit their use in patients with cardiac risk factors. The aim of this review was studying mechanism of Long-term QT syndrome induction via hERG channel dysfunction by these Drugs. METHOD: Search was performed in PubMed, and Scopus. All human, animals, and cell lines studies, English and full text publications were included. Among 1280 papers, 23 studies were eligible for more assessments. Quality of studies cheeked by two researchers independently. KEY FINDING: most of studies were done on anti-psychotic drugs, especially typical class. Most used investigated method to long-term QT induction was patch clamp. SIGNIFICANCE: results suggests in susceptible cases with heart risk factors, these drugs should be taken with caution and monitored.

Dissemination Pattern of Multidrug Resistant Carbapenemase Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates Using Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis in Southwestern Iran.

BACKGROUND: Klebsiella pneumoniae is an important cause of healthcare-associated infection. Carbapenemases have increasingly been reported in Enterobacteriaceae, especially in K. pneumoniae. PROPOSE: The objective of this study was to determine antibiotic resistance patterns, and the molecular epidemiology of multidrug resistant K. pneumoniae isolates, obtained from hospitalized patients in Shiraz, Iran. METHODS: In this study, 60 K. pneumoniaeisolates were collected from Nemazee and Faghihi referral hospitals. Antibiotic susceptibility testing and MIC were performed by disk diffusion test and Epsilometer (E)-test strips, respectively. Carbapenemase genes were identified by polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. Then, clonal relationships were analyzed, using PFGE. RESULTS: Thirty-three out of 60 K. pneumoniae isolates were resistant to carbapenems. Among the isolates, 86.6% were multidrug resistant (MDR). Polymyxin B (18.3%) and tigecycline (23.3%) were shown to be the most active agents against K. pneumoniae isolates. In our study, the high prevalence of bla NDM (45%) and bla OXA-48 (10%) was detected. CONCLUSION: The results of this study revealed the widespread carbapenemase gene between different wards in hospitals as a risk factor for treatment options. PFGE analysis showed 11 clusters and 3 singletons based on an 80% similarity level. Also, PFGE analysis showed that there were similar genetic patterns among K. pneumoniae isolates and these patterns were responsible for the distribution of infection in hospitals.

Synthesis, cytotoxic assessment, and molecular docking studies of 2,6-diaryl-substituted pyridine and 3,4- dihydropyrimidine-2(1H)-one scaffolds.

Cancer is one of the main global health problems. In order to develop novel antitumor agents, we synthesized 3,4-dihydropyrimidine-2(1H)-one (DHPM) and 2,6-diaryl-substituted pyridine derivatives as potential antitumor structures and evaluated their cytotoxic effects against several cancer cell lines. An easy and convenient method is reported for the synthesis of these derivatives, employing cobalt ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 @SiO 2 -SO 3 H) magnetic nanoparticles under microwave irradiation and solvent-free conditions. The structural characteristics of the prepared nanocatalyst were investigated by FTIR, XRD, SEM, and TGA techniques. In vitro cytotoxic effects of the synthesized products were assessed against the human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7), gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS), and human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells via MTT assay. The results indicated that compound 4r (DHPM derivative) was the most toxic molecule against the MCF-7 cell line (IC 50 of 0.17 µg/mL). Moreover, compounds 4j and 4r (DHPM derivatives) showed excellent cytotoxic activities against the AGS cell line, with an IC 50 of 4.90 and 4.97 µg/mL, respectively. Although they are pyridine derivatives, compounds 5g and 5m were more active against the MCF-7 cell line. Results showed that the candidate compounds exhibited low cytotoxicity against HEK293 cells. The kinesin Eg5 inhibitory potential of the candidate compounds was evaluated by molecular docking. The docking results showed that, among the pyridine derivatives, compound 5m had the most free energy of binding (-9.52 kcal/mol) and lowest Ki (0.105 µM), and among the pyrimidine derivatives, compound 4r had the most free energy of binding (-7.67 kcal/mol) and lowest Ki (2.39 µM). Ligand-enzyme affinity maps showed that compounds 4r and 5m had the potential to interact with the Eg5 binding site via H-bond interactions to GLU116 and GLY117 residues. The results of our study strongly suggest that DHPM and pyridine derivatives inhibit important tumorigenic features of breast and gastric cancer cells. Our results may be helpful in the further design of DHPMs and pyridine derivatives as potential anticancer agents.

Emerge of blaNDM-1 and blaOXA-48-like harboring carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from hospitalized patients in southwestern Iran.

BACKGROUND: One of the most important emerging carbapenem-resistant bacteria is Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae). The present study aimed to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of K. pneumoniae isolates and detection of carbapenemase producing K. pneumoniae obtained from Iranian hospitalized patients. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on 211 K. pneumoniae isolates which were recovered from different clinical specimens from 2014 to 2015. Modified Hodge test (MHT) and double disk synergy test (DDST) were done for detection of carbapenemase and metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) producing K. pneumoniae. The presence of antibiotic resistance determinants was investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. RESULTS: The results of antibiotic susceptibility showed that all isolates were resistant to ampicillin, and then mostly resistant to piperacillin and ceftazidime with 76.3% and 66.8%, respectively. On the other hand, the highest sensitivity was toward polymyxin B, followed by carbapenems. Of 29 carbapenem-resistant isolates, all were high-level imipenem-resistant isolates (Minimum inhibitory concentration ≥4), except 4 isolates. The results of MHT and DDST showed that 93.1% (27/29) of carbapenem-resistant isolates were carbapenemase and MBL producing isolates, respectively. The presence of blaNDM-1 and blaOXA-48-like genes was detected in 27 (10.9%) and 2 (0.9%) isolates, respectively. CONCLUSION: This is the first identification of blaNDM-1 and blaOXA-48-like in K. pneumoniae in Southwestern Iran and the highest reported prevalence of blaNDM in this bacterium from Iran. Since carbapenem-resistant isolates containing New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) were almost resistant to all the tested antibiotics, the resistance due to this gene may be increased in the near future as a potential health threat.

Trigeminal neuralgia as the first clinical manifestation of anti-hu paraneoplastic syndrome induced by a borderline ovarian mucinous tumor.

Paraneoplastic neurologic syndrome (PNS) is an uncommon manifestation of cancer that is not caused by the tumor or metastasis. Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is an initial symptom of this disease, but it has rarely been reported in the literature. Here, we report the case of a 76-year-old woman who presented with classic TN, followed by limbic encephalitis due to an underlying ovarian intestinal-type mucinous borderline tumor, with the presence of anti-Hu antibodies. She recovered quickly after removal of the tumor and was essentially free of symptoms 2 weeks after surgery. Because PNS precedes the tumor in approximately 60% of cases, its rapid detection and treatment are crucial. Therefore, we propose that PNS be considered during the management of TN when brain imaging is normal, as it is followed by other central and/or peripheral neurological manifestations as well as the presence of systemic symptoms such as anemia, fatigability, loss of appetite, or weight loss.

Association between GSTM1 gene polymorphism in Iranian patients with endometriosis.

Endometriosis is defined as a condition in which tissue histologically similar to the endometrium is found outside the uterine cavity. It develops mostly in women of reproductive age. Endometriosis shows a drastically elevated frequency in industrial areas. GSTM1 gene encodes a major detoxification phase enzyme that helps detoxify various xenobiotics. Deficiency in GSTM1 activity is caused by homozygous deletion of GSTM1 and leads to various biological consequences. There are significant interethnic differences in GSTM1 allele frequencies. In this study, the relationship between GSTM1 genotypes and endometriosis in an Iranian population was investigated. The study included 120 patients and 200 healthy volunteers. Genomic DNA was prepared from peripheral blood leukocytes. Genotypes and allele frequencies were determined in patients and healthy controls using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The GSTM1 null genotype was significantly associated with the increased risk of endometriosis (OR=3.75, 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.42-6.45, P<0.0001). The prevalence of GSTM1-null genotype in the patient group was 72.5%, compared to 40% in the control group. The proportion of GSTM1A/B genotype was higher in controls as compared to cases (20% vs. 2.5%). This study suggests that GSTM1 null genotype is associated with higher risk of endometriosis; these observations, however, requiring further confirmation in a larger multi-ethnic study.