Antimutagenic effects of vitamin E on oncology and non oncology hospital nurses by comet assay.

Vitamin E is a natural antioxidant and its most common biologically active form is α-tocopherol. The antiproliferative effects of α-tocopherol have been previously demonstrated. In this study the antimutagenic effects of vitamin E on oncology and non oncology hospital nurses was investigated. A total of 138 female nurses from oncology and non oncology hospitals participated in the study. They received 200 mg/day vitamin E for 2 weeks. The urine samples before and after intake of vitamin E were collected and the nucleus of urothelial cells were evaluated with comet assay. The length of epithelial cells nuclei correlated with increased fracture rate of DNA. Nucleolus length of urine epithelial cells of all nursing staff before and after vitamin E treatment were measured and the data were evaluated by student t-test and SPSS. Our study showed that 20% of nursing staff have apoptosis and DNA fracture in the nucleolus of their urine epithelial cells and DNA damage in the urothelial cells of exposed nurses was significantly higher than the control group (P<0.05).The antimutagenic activity of vitamin E had significant effects on oncology hospital nurses effectively in repairing DNA damage and decreasing their nucleus length in urine epithelial cells.We propose that the higher therapeutic doses of vitamin E and increasing the length of treatment period will be effective against DNA strand breakage and may have more effect on oncology nurses.

Human papilloma virus in head and neck squamous cell cancer.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic and molecular evidences have established a strong link between high risk types of Human Papilloma Virus and a subgroup of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas (HNSCC). We evaluated the frequency of HPV positivity in HNSCC and its relationship to demographic and some risk factor variables in an open case- control study. METHODS: Fourteen recently diagnosed patients with squamous cell cancer of oropharynx, hypopharynx and larynx aged 18-50 years were examined from 2008-2010 in Tabriz, Iran. HPV DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded blocks of each patient's sample for PCR evaluation. Saliva samples of 94 control cancer-free subjects were collected for DNA analysis. Multivariable logistic regression method was used to calculate odds ratio for case-control comparisons. RESULTS: High risk HPV was detected in 6(42.8%) patients, and 6(5.3%) control subjects which was statistically significant (p<0.0001). HPV-18 was the most frequent type both in the cases and controls. HPV-16 DNA was detected in two patients of the case group, but it was not detected in any of the controls. The relation between demographic and risk factor variables was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: HPV infection has a significant impact on HNSCC. Despite HPV-16 stronger impact, HPV-18 is more likely to cause malignant degeneration in such cancers amongst some communities. It is vital to introduce and conduct immunization schedules in health care systems to protect communities to some extent.

Carbenoxolone induces apoptosis and inhibits survivin and survivin-ΔEx3 genes expression in human leukemia K562 cells.

BACKGROUND AND THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: Leukemia is a malignant disorder of the blood progenitor/stem cells which is characterized by abnormal proliferation of white blood cells. Although anti-cancer drugs induce apoptosis in cancerous cells, drug resistance is the significant problem mainly due to over-expression of inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) such as survivin. In this content, it has been reported that an anti-inflammatory drug, Carbenoxolone (CBX), could induce apoptosis and growth inhibition in several types of cancerous cells. In the present study, effects of CBX on apoptosis and level of the expression of survivin gene and its ΔEx3 splicing variant have were evaluated in K562 cells. METHODS: K562 cells were cultured and treated with different concentrations of CBX (50-300 µM) at different time intervals (12-48 hrs). Trypan blue exclusion test was used to evaluate cell viability. Fluorescent microscopy (Acridine Orange/Ethidium Bromide double staining) and DNA fragmentation assay were used to study apoptosis. The expression level of survivin and its ΔEx3 splice variant were studied by RT-PCR. RESULTS AND MAJOR CONCLUSION: It was found that both growth inhibition and apoptosis occurred in K562 cells. In addition, down-regulation of survivin and survin-ΔEx3 were observed, after 2-4 hrs treatment with 150 µM of CBX. However, the expression level of survivin and its ΔEx3 splice variant increased in subsequent time (6-12 hrs) nearly to the level of control cells. From the results of this study, it may be concluded that CBX can be considered as a candidate for further studies in CML treatment, especially in the case of drug-resistant leukemia cells.

A comparison between zinc sulfate and chlorhexidine gluconate mouthwashes in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis.

BACKGROUND AND THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: Patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy for hematological malignancies are susceptible to development of oral mucositis, and no effective modality has been reported for its prophylaxis and treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of zinc mouthwash on chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis lesions. METHODS: In this double-blind randomized trial, patients under chemotherapy for acute leukemia were divided into two test and control groups of 15 patients each. The groups were homogeneous with respect to medical history, tumor characteristics, and therapeutic details. The test group received 10ml 0.2% zinc sulfate mouthwash, and the control group received 10ml 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate mouthwash, twice a day for a period of two weeks. Spijkervet scale was used to grade the severity of mucositis at every other week during eight weeks. The severity scores were analyzed with repeated measure ANOVA using SPSS 13.0 computer software. RESULTS: Mean severity scores were generally lower in the test group compared to the controls at all four time intervals evaluated; but only, the differences in weeks of 2 and 3 were statistically significant (P=0.025). CONCLUSION: Zinc mouthwash used in conjunction with chemotherapy may reduce the severity of oral mucositis lesions in patients with leukaemia.