Journal of Applied Biotechnology Reports
Volume:5 Issue: 2, Spring 2018

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most severe types of disabilities that has a limited capacity to repair; therefore, medical interventions are essential to the treatment of injuries. Cell transplantation is one of the remarkable strategies for the treatment of spinal cord injury. Transplantation of Schwann cells (SCs) has shown a great promising result for SCI but harvesting SC is limited due to donor complications and limited cell collection capacity. However, the use of stem cells to differentiate into SCs can reduce the risks associated with the use of mature cells in the grafting process. Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate to various type cells. They are as easily accessed source with high growth rate and low immunogenicity; therefore, these properties make them an interesting source for cell therapy. These cells can be transdifferentiated into SC-like cells in neuronal induction media. Accordingly, many studies demonstrated that mesenchymal cells are well suited for cell therapy of SCI. This article briefly discusses the treatment of SCI by cell transplantation and the benefits of using Mesenchymal stem cells as an alternative for SCs.

The use of probiotics has rapidly grown in recent years, enhancing the performance of broilers and leading to the production of products free of any probiotic trace. Recent evidence suggests that the use of microbial probiotics can play a significant role in the future of the poultry industry. Although this method is not complete yet, it can be employed by human societies as a useful tool to maximize poultry products, enhance the health, and ensure the safety of food sources. Some reports show that the application of probiotics in the feed of broilers can lead to positive outcomes such as increased weight and improved feed conversion ratio (FCR).

Calamintha officinalis Moench (COM) is an aromatic herb from Lamiaceae family with high similarities to the common mints not only in its appearance but also in terms of aroma. The aim of this research was to evaluate antioxidant activity of plant extract and to identify constituents of its essential oil. The plant samples were collected from North of Iran (Guilan, Lahijan) and its identity was certified by a systematic botanist in University of Guilan. The dried leaves of COM were subjected to hydro-distillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus and the composition of the essential oil was analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). It was found that major constituents of oil were trans-caryophyllene (8.55%), isomenthol (2.98%), tetrahydrolinalyl acetate (2.96%), and pinene (2. 24%). In other part of the research, the biological activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were assayed by in extracts of the leaves spectrophotometric method. It was found the extract contained a considerable superoxide anion radical scavenging power. On the other hand, the biological activity of CAT in extract of COM leaves showed gradual increase during time with a gentle slope indicating an increase in oxidative stress. The result of our study on Calamintha revealed the existence of a specific component of the essential oil (trans-caryophyllene) that has not been reported by other researchers. In addition to the antioxidant property that was confirmed in this study, the major component of its essential oil was found to be an antimicrobial agent.

Vitamin C is a major antioxidant in plants and plays an important role in reducing the activity of reactive oxygen species. In humans, the main role of this molecule is the elimination of activity of active oxygen species along with being cofactor for many enzymes. Human is one of the few mammalian species that can not synthesize this vitamin and needs to get it through food sources. The GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase (GGP) gene is one of the most important genes in the biosynthetic pathway of vitamin C, which codes for the GDPL-galactose phosphorylase enzyme. Isolation of GGP gene is an important step in transferring it to elevate vitamin C biosynthesis in plants. In current study, the isolation of this gene from kiwi plant was carried out and then was cloned in the pTG19-T plasmid via T/A cloning and subsequently sequenced to confirm it. Sequencing analysis of the GGP gene showed that this fragment contains 1383 bp and the start and stop codons were ATG and TGA, respectively. The bioinformatics analysis of this gene can provide important information on gene and protein structure. The alignment of cloned sequence was done with other Actinidia DNA sequences. The results based on neighbor-joining alignment showed that some of the mutations in nucleotides were related to the third nucleotide in a specific codon. Also, the minimum distance of protein sequences was observed between isolated GGP and Actinidia chinensis. Based on analyses, isolated gene (GGP) can be used for increase vitamin C content in other plants such as cucumber and for resistance to environmental stresses in different plants.

As part of national program of innovation and a part of the science-oriented development plan, “science and technology” parks have an effective role in accelerating the process of turning ideas into real products and thus, the development of technology by providing necessary conditions for market-oriented research and merchandising the outcome of research. The purpose of the present research is to recognize, specify and prioritize vital elements in the success of development centers by concentrating on the case study of the development center of Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences (BMSU). Primarily, In this regard, comprehensive literature review of more than 400 critical success indicators of parks and incubators were identified. Then, by integrating the overlays and the use of expert’s opinion, initial screening was conducted. The numbers were classified which were limited to 43 indicators in 5 clusters (5 elements). In this study, the Friedman test was used to rank the following factors and also the critical success subfactors of business incubator of BMSU. Findings indicate that factor of “human resources” with value of 4.19 among other factors and index of “supporting the commercialization of research results” as a part of “support and services of incubators” with value of 7.94 among other indexes, allocated the first ranks. The outcome of this research, with the leading role of the Science and Technology Center of BMSU, was done in order to be used in strategic management and macro-policy making of the University.

Shigellosis is a major health problem, especially in developing countries and in children under 5 years of age. The prevalence of Shigella species in a region can be considered as an indicator for hygiene level of that region. Due to the lack of an efficient vaccine, antibiotic therapy is the main strategy to combat the disease. In this study, the prevalence of the Shigella species and their antibiotic resistant pattern has been investigated. A total of 300 diarrheal stool samples were collected from 4 different hospitals in Tehran during a period of 6 months June to November 2016. Bacterial identification and species discrimination was performed using biochemical and serotyping tests. Antibiotic resistance patterns of isolates were obtained using Bauer-Kirby method. 8.7% of all diarrheal cases were caused by Shigella species (5% by Shigella sonnei and 3.7% by Shigella flexneri). Antibiogram test revealed that the isolates were more sensitive or intermediate to ciprofloxacin (92.3%), while most of the isolates were resistant to tetracycline. The prevalence of Shigella species has changed in Tehran. Since antibiotics are the treatment of choice to combat these pathogens, also, because of the emergence of the antibiotic resistance Shigella strains, there is a need for regularly updated regional antibiotic sensitivity patterns of the pathogen to guide therapy.

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligatory intracellular protozoan parasite, which infects human beings. Since the current antigens used for diagnosis or vaccination are contaminated with non -parasitic material in which the parasite is grown, it is tried to produce recombinant antigens to design vaccines against toxoplasmosis, or make diagnostic kits. Choosing the type of antigen to produce recombinant vaccine or diagnostic kits is considerably important. The dense granule protein 14 (GRA14) gene is one of the excretory-secretary antigens of Toxoplasma which seems to be an appropriate candidate in production of recombinant vaccines and diagnostic kits. The current study aimed to clone GRA14 gene of T. gondii (RH) in a cloning vector for further production of dense granular proteins. Genomic DNA was isolated from tachyzoite of parasite by phenol chloroform method and gene fragment was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR products were ligated into restriction enzymes sites of pTG19-T cloning vector. Then transformed into Escherichia coli Top10 strain and screened by IPTG and X-Gal. Then recombinant plasmid confirmed by the colony-PCR and restriction enzyme digestion using SacI and NotI was done followed by sequencing .After isolation of this gene from pTG19-T, it was subcloned into a prokaryotic expression plasmid (pET32a). The pET32a - GRA14 constructs were analyzed by PCR, restriction analysis and sequencing. Evaluation of PCR products by agarose gel electrophoresis and analysis of nucleotide sequencing of 1227 bp gene encoding the protein GRA14, revealed the complete homology with the recorded sequences in the gene bank. After enzyme restriction and electrophoresis a fragment about 1227 bp was separated from pET32a. The result of this study showed that recombinant GRA14 Toxoplasma was constructed successfully and ready for future study which seems like the antigen is a suitable candidate to produce recombinant vaccine and diagnostic kit.