mehdi haghi

Breast and ovarian cancers are prevalent among women, prompting researchers to focus on developing new pharmaceutical agents and innovative drug delivery systems aimed at enhancing treatment efficacy while minimizing side effects. Steviol glycosides offer a promising approach to cancer treatment due to their broad anticancer activity, low toxicity, selective targeting of cancer cells, and potential to enhance chemotherapy efficacy.

This study explores the potential of steviol glycoside, a natural compound derived from the Stevia rebaudiana plant, as an anticancer agent targeting breast (MCF-7) and ovarian (A2780) cancer cell lines.

MCF-7 and A2780 cells were cultured under standard conditions and treated with varying concentrations of steviol glycoside (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 µM) over different time points (24, 48, and 72 hours). Cell viability was assessed using the MTT assay, and the expression of apoptotic and anti-apoptotic genes was evaluated. Statistical analyses were performed using a t-test, with P-values calculated based on a significance threshold of 0.05. Graphs were generated using GraphPad Prism software.

The inhibitory concentration 50% (IC50) values for MCF-7 cells were 30 μM, 24 μM, and 22 μM at 24, 48, and 72 hours, respectively. For A2780 cells, the corresponding IC50 values were 24 μM, 20 μM, and 19 μM at the same time points. The fold change in Bax and Bad gene expression increased with rising concentrations of steviol glycoside. At concentrations above 20 μM, this increase became statistically significant (P < 0.001). Conversely, Bcl-2 gene expression exhibited a statistically significant decrease (P < 0.001) at these concentrations.

The findings highlight the therapeutic potential of steviol glycoside in treating breast and ovarian cancers, emphasizing the need for deeper investigation into its molecular pathways to fully understand its mechanisms. Despite its promise, significant challenges exist in translating laboratory results into clinical applications. Key obstacles include establishing appropriate dosing, assessing interactions with other medications, and conducting comprehensive trials to ensure safety and efficacy. Acknowledging these limitations enhances transparency and underscores the necessity for additional research to progress toward human trials.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease. The programmed cell death 1 (PDCD1) gene, which encodes the PD1 protein, is one of the many genes involved in susceptibility to SLE. The PD1 protein is an inhibitory immunoreceptor that plays a key role in maintaining immunological tolerance to self-antigens. The PD1.5 C/T polymorphism (rs2227981, c.804 T > C) alters the expression and function of the PD‐1 receptor.

This case-control study aimed to determine the association between the rs2227981 polymorphism of the PDCD1 gene and susceptibility to SLE in the northwestern population of Iran.

The rs2227981 genotype was determined in 52 SLE patients and 53 controls using the PCR-RFLP method with the Pvu II restriction enzyme.

The study found a significant association between the rs2227981 polymorphism and susceptibility to SLE in the study population.

The rs2227981 polymorphism appears to be a risk factor for SLE in northwestern Iran.

According to the available statistics in 2020, breast cancer was the most common cancer in women. The protein encoded by the MLH1 gene is part of the mismatch repair (MMR) system. In this study, the association of rs63749820 C>T polymorphism of MLH1 gene with susceptibility to breast cancer in northwest Iran was investigated.

This case-control study was conducted on 100 women with breast cancer and 100 healthy women with no history of cancer in 1st and 2nd degree relatives. Single nucleotide polymorphism was investigated by Tetra-ARMS PCR technique. The analysis of the resulting data was done using the online statistical program java stat and SPSS version 26 software.

The genotypic distribution of sick and healthy people was 23.91% and 28.57% respectively for CC genotype, 11.95% and 5.10% for TT genotype and 64.13% and 66.32% respectively for CT genotype. The frequency of C allele was 55.98% and 61.73% and the frequency of T allele was 44.04% and 38.27% in patients and control subjects, respectively.

The findings of this research showed that there is no significant relationship between the genotypic and allelic distribution of MLH1 gene rs63749820 polymorphism with increased risk of breast cancer risk. Also, the relationship between the clinical characteristics of people with breast cancer including age, tumor grade, lymph involvement, involved side, tumor size, tumor type with the genotypic distribution of this SNP was not significant.

People with autism frequently exhibit poor social skills, communication difficulties, and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are potential and promised targets in developing of new treatment strategies for autism.This study aimed to assess the relative expression of miR-124a, miR-34a-3p, miR-545-3p, miR-153, and BDNF in the blood samples of autistic children.

The children autism rating scale (CARS) was used to determine the severity of autism and to confirm the diagnosis. Blood samples were obtained from 50 patients and 40 age-/sex-matched healthy controls. Expressions of miR-545-3p, miR-34a-3p, miR-124a, and BDNF were evaluated using qRT-PCR. Pearson's correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to check correlations between relative expressions of the miRNAs and BDNF. Biomarker potencies were assessed by ROC curve analysis.

 qRT-PCR analysis showed that the relative expressions of miR-545-3p, miR-34a-3p, miR-124a, and BDNF were significantly higher in the patients' group than the healthy controls. However, the relative expression of miR-153 was significantly lower in the case group than the control group. The relative expression of miR-124a was positively correlated with those of miR-545-3p and BDNF among the patients group. Also, the relative expressions of miR-545-3p and BDNF were positively correlated with each other. The ROC curve data also indicated that miR-124a, miR-34a-3p, miR-545-3p, miR-153, and BDNF could be possible diagnostic biomarker for CARS diagnosis (AUC=0.8328, AUC=0.8354, AUC=0.6727, AUC=0.8518 and AUC=0.8214, respectively).

Deregulation of miR-124a, miR-454-3p and BDNF might be considered as potential biomarkers for severity of autism.

Large intestine cancer, also known as colon cancer or rectal cancer, is a type of cancer that affects the colon or rectum. It is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and in Iran, it ranks as the fourth most common cancer among men and the second most common cancer among women. Some of the common symptoms of this disease include intestinal rupture and obstruction, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, the presence of blood in the stool, and constant fatigue. Common methods of cancer treatment include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. New methods of cancer treatment include gene therapy, hormone therapy, and nanotechnology. Nanoparticles (NPs), which contain particles in the size range of 1 to 100 nanometers, are used in nanotechnology. These NPs can originate from natural or human sources and have shown unprecedented growth in the field of research and applications of nanotechnology, especially in the treatment of cancer.

The objective of this study was to investigate the potential anticancer effect of a combination of iron oxide NPs loaded with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) on the cell survival of the LS174T colon cancer cell line. 5-fluorouracil is a commonly used chemotherapy drug for treating various types of cancer, including colon cancer, and iron oxide NPs are known to be useful drug carriers for targeted drug delivery.

Nanoparticles were synthesized using the precipitation method, and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis were conducted. Cells were cultivated in RPMI 1640 medium, and the MTT assay was carried out to assess cell viability after treatment with multiple components, including NP+drug. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was carried out to assess the expression of apoptotic genes, including BAX, BAD, and BCL-2.

The MTT results showed that all components, especially NP+drug, had acceptable cytotoxic effects on cancer cells. The expression of pro-apoptotic genes was elevated, and the expression of the anti-apoptotic gene was decreased after treatment with the same components, especially NP+drug.

The results showed that all the studied components, especially drug-loaded NPs, have great cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic effects on colon cancer cells and can be considered colon cancer therapy.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the critical diseases due to its adverse clinical, social, and economic consequences for affected people. This study aims to assess the quality of life (QoL) of patients with MS in East Azerbaijan, Iran. 

This cross-sectional study was conducted using the multiple sclerosis quality of life-54 (MSQoL-54) questionnaires to interview 300 randomly selected MS patients in East Azarbaijan Province, Iran. The independent t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Tukey post hoc test were used to examine the relationship between demographic variables, and QoL, and all analyses were performed using SPSS software, version 19. 

The QoL score in MS patients is 48.22±22.48. The “life satisfaction” is the best and “physical role limitation” is the worst QoL aspect. Significant relationships were observed between marital status, education level, employment status, age of symptoms onset, and years of illness with QoL (P<0.05). 

The QoL of the MS patients in East Azarbaijan Province is lower than in other parts of Iran and much lower than in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

Diet adjustment is an important factor in the management of all types of diabetes. One of the factors that influences diet adherence is food literacy. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationships among food literacy, following a healthy diet, and consumption of a variety of food groups in people with type 2 diabetes. The present research was a descriptive-analytical study that was conducted on 288 people with type 2 diabetes referred to comprehensive health service centers in Khorramabad from May 2021 to April 2022. The simple random sampling method was used to select the participants. The data collection instruments included the food literacy questionnaire, diet adherence behavior survey, and a three-day food record. The data were analyzed using the independent t-test, the Pearson correlation coefficient, one-way anova, and univariate and multivariate linear regression models. The mean healthy diet and food literacy scores were 28.55 ± 6.03 and 16.21 ± 5.73, respectively. The mean consumption of food groups during the three recorded days was less than the recommended levels in the food pyramid. Education (β:0.30) and food literacy (β:0.23) had the highest predictive power for adherence to a healthy diet. The relationships among food literacy, with the consumption of the meat group (r=0.346, p<0.001), fruits (r = 0.178, p = 0.002), vegetables (r = 0.225, p < 0.001), and fats and oils (r = -0.157, p = 0.008) were significant. The mean healthy diet adherence and food literacy scores were low in the participants. Significant relationships among food literacy, the consumption of a variety of food groups, and following a healthy diet demonstrate the key role of promoting food literacy in the adherence to a healthy diet. Therefore, it is crucial to implement educational interventions to improve food literacy in diabetic patients.

Financial protection of populations against healthcare costs is one of the fundamental responsibilities of governments. This study aimed to investigate the incidence of catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) and it’s affecting factors in hospitalized patients with delta variant of COVID-19.

In this cross-sectional study, we included 400 hospitalized COVID-19 patients at Kosar Hospital of Semnan in 2022, using a researcher-made checklist. Based on qualitative nature of the variables, chi-square test was used to investigate the statistical associations between the demographic/background characteristics and the incidence of CHE.

On average, COVID-19 imposed 1833.43 USD direct medical costs per one hospitalized patient. The ratio of direct-medical costs to household’s non-food expenses was 2.35, and 61% (CI:±4.78%) of the patients were subject to CHE. Besides, residence place, basic insurance type, benefitting from supplementary insurance, suffering from underlying diseases, hospitalization in ICU, falling into a coma, facing pulmonary failure, and performing hemoperfusion had significant associations with CHE (P<0.05).

The incidence of CHE in hospitalized COVID-19 patients was undesirable, which may be due to geographical, economical, and occupational inequalities apart from the factors related to the severity of the disease. So, health policymakers should pay attention to the provision of proper financial risk protection policies to make the health insurance system more efficient and appropriate.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is known as a prevalent, long-term condition of the digestive system, which affect a significant proportion of societies.

In the current study, we have reviewed and investigated on the conducted researches covering IBS pathophysiology and the genes associated  with the manifestation of the syndrome.

Throughout the published literature about IBS, various environmental factors as well as the influence of particular genes have been introduced as the underlying causes of raising IBS. This study is an effort to review, assess and collect data on multiple causes which leads to IBS manifestation.

Although no certain and definite cause of IBS was found throughout searched and reviewed articles, factors such as stresses, childhood events, previous bowel infection, neurotransmitter changes in brain and genetic alterations have been described and explained through articles. Diagnosing IBS should be done precautiously and primary examinations on inspecting organic diseases in the digestive system should take place prior to diagnosis of the syndrome

Identifying the factors affecting the severity of a disease can lead to the adoption of purposeful preventive and therapeutic actions, and subsequently improve health outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the related demographic and underlying factors with the severity of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized at Kowsar Hospital of Semnan, Iran. The study tool was a researcher-made questionnaire whose content validity was confirmed by a committee of ten experts with content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) scores equal to 0.92 and 0.89, respectively. The systematic random sampling method was used in this study, and the required data were collected by reviewing medical records and conducting interviews with patients. All analyses were performed using SPSS19, and P<0.05 was considered significant.

The mean age of patients was 56.20 (±59.77) years, and women (53%) and men (47%) had a relatively similar share. Among the patients, 24% were hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 7% experienced coma. Also, 99% of patients suffered from serious COVID-19 complications. The rates of pulmonary, cardiovascular, and renal complications were 96%, 68%, and 6%, respectively. There was a significant relationship between the severity of disease with such variables as age, education level, employment status, being native, place of receiving care, previous heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, immunodeficiency, obesity, and physical activity or a job requiring physical activity (P<0.05).

The study results showed that a wide range of demographic factors, access to health care, health-seeking behaviors, having an underlying disease, and having a healthy lifestyle are related to the severity of COVID-19.

Calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) such as tacrolimus are a major immunosuppressive therapy after renal transplantation, which inhibit cytokine expression. The pharmacokinetics of such drugs is influenced by cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, multi-drug resistance-1 (MDR-1), and C25385T pregnane X receptor (PXR). This study aimed to investigate the impact of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in these genes on the ratio of tacrolimus level per drug dosage (C/D ratio), acute graft rejection, and viral infections.

Kidney transplantation recipients (n = 65) under similar immunosuppressive treatment were included. Amplification refractory mutation systempolymerase chain reaction (ARMSPCR) method was applied to amplify the loci containing the SNPs of interest.

Overall, 65 patients with a male/female ratio of 37/28 were included. The mean age was 38 ± 1.75 years. The variant allele frequencies of CYP3A5*3, MDR-1 C3435T, and PXR C25385T were 95.38, 20.77, and 26.92%, respectively. No significant correlations were found between the studied SNPs and the tacrolimus C/D ratios. However, there was a significant difference in the C/D ratios at 2 and 8 weeks in homozygote CYP3A5 *3/*3 carriers (P = 0.015). No significant association was found between the studied polymorphisms and viral infections and acute graft rejection (P > 0.05).

Homozygote CYP3A5 *3/*3 genotype could influence the tacrolimus metabolism rate (C/D ratio).

 Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate adenocarcinoma (PCa) are 2 prostatic lesions affecting most men over 60 years old. It was shown that there is a significant relationship between BPH and PCa. BPH could lead to escalating risks of PCa. Functional androgen signaling is involved in the maintenance and development of the normal prostate. Defects in this signaling pathway are also involved in the development of prostate cancer and BPH. Due to the importance of the HSD3B gene family in steroid hormone biosynthesis, it plays an important role in hormone-dependent tumors such as prostate cancer.

 In this study, we evaluated the expression of HSD3B1 and HSD3B2 genes in BPH and PCa by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

 A total of 40 BPH and 40 PCa samples were evaluated. After RNA extraction and complementary DNA (cDNA) synthesis, real-time PCR was performed with specific primers, and the results were compared with age, pathology stage, Gleason score, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) range parameters.

 The results showed that both genes were downregulated in PCa compared to BPH. This reduction was more noticeable in the HSD3B1 gene than in the HSD3B2 gene, but it was not statistically significant. No significant relationship was observed between age, disease stage, Gleason score, and PSA level with changes in the expression of these 2 genes in the 2 groups.

 Increased expression of these 2 genes does not play a significant role in PCa but can play a role in the development of BPH.

The objective of this research was focused on the development of new organoclay based composite that serves as both antibacterial and dye removing agent for the treatment of microbial and dyes contaminated water from the source.

The cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the kaolinite was improved through acid treatment. Chlorhexidine- loaded zinc- kaolinite was prepared via adsorption of chlorhexidine acetate (0.5 mmol/L) on zinc-kaolinite. The composites were characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX). The antibacterial assays of the composites were conducted against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Salmonella typhi (S. typhi) using disc diffusion technique (DDT), minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC).

The CEC value of the acid treated kaolinite (Kaot2) was improved from 9.26 + 0.82 to 13.43+1.61 meq/100g, the morphology of the composite remains intact and indicate the presence of Zinc (Zn) after formulation. The target composite (Chx-Zn-Kaot2) shows its effectiveness against S. aureus and S. typhi showing the inhibition zones of 26 mm and 1.5 mm respectively. Similarly, MIC, with 120 mg/mL inhibit both organisms while MBC revealed that the target composite, 60 mg/mL kills S. aureus and 120 mg/mL kills S. typhi respectively.

The formulated target composite is a good candidate for the treatment of drinking water contaminated with such microorganisms and can be able to remove substantial content of dyes.

Context:

 Iranian community health workers (known as behvarzes) have played an undeniable role in improving the health status of the rural community in recent decades. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the performance challenges faced by behvarzes using a literature review.

 This systematic review searched the Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, Springer, PubMed, ProQuest, SID, and Magiran databases/search engines in January 2020. There were 2 inclusion criteria, namely articles published in English or Persian languages and those published in or after 2000. The search strategy resulted in the retrieval of 1,472 primary articles, 16 of which were finally included in the study, and their related contents were entered into extraction tables. Then, the identified challenges were categorized based on the context, input, process, and product (CIPP) model.

 The study results recognized the major challenges in 5 dimensions, including context (i.e., changes in societal, cultural, demographical, and epidemiological characteristics of rural communities), input (i.e., inadequate number of behvarzes, their insufficient competencies, and limited resources), process (i.e., increase in healthcare process complexity and the number of bahvarzes’ tasks and managerial problems), output (i.e., decrease in the quality, efficiency, accessibility, continuity, utilization, and effectiveness of services provided by behvarzes, poor health literacy of rural population and their weak involvement in health affairs, and emerging mental health problems in behvarzes), and outcome (i.e., low equity, urban-rural disparity in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and dissatisfaction of behvarzes and caregivers).

 This study revealed numerous important challenges faced by behvarzes, which need effective intervention by policymakers.

Falling is one of the most common and serious health problems, especially at home among the elderly. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of education in reducing environmental hazards at home for the elderly.

In this quasi-experimental study, 200 elderly people were equally divided into intervention and control groups in 2018. The educational intervention was performed in 4 sessions of 45 mins. Data were collected through a standardized home safety checklist during interviews and home visits before and after six months of the training intervention. SPSS software (v19) analyzed the collected data. Chi-squared, Mann Whitney, Wilcoxon, and Exact Tests were used in this study.

The results showed that the mean score of all dimensions of home safety increased in the intervention group compared to the control group after the intervention. Except for the safety dimensions of external stairs and kitchen, this difference was statistically significant (P <0.05). The findings also showed a significant decrease in the percentage of falls in the intervention group compared to the control group after educational interventions (P <0.05).

Educational intervention is useful in reducing home environmental hazards in the elderly and makes the elderly less likely to fall during their daily activities.

 Colon cancer has been a rising health concern in the modern world for quite some time. Considering the harmful side effects of chemotherapy, the most common treatment for this cancer, new treatment methods are required to lessen the side effects of treatment on patients. Traditional and herbal medicine can help in this effort.

 Our study investigated the antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of Linum usitatissimum seed aqueous extract on colon cancer and the expression of apoptotic genes compared to normal cell lines to reduce chemotherapy's harmful and irreversible side effects on colon cancer patients.

 MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity of our extract on LS174T and COLO205 cells. Cancer and normal cell lines were treated with 2, 4, 6, and 8 mg/mL of LU extract for 24 and 48 hours. RNA extraction was performed, and mRNAs were reverse transcribed to cDNAs using RT-PCR. qPCR was then performed to assess the expression of BAX and BAD genes.

 MTT assay concluded that this extract has a good cytotoxic effect on LS174t and COLO205 cell lines and can decrease cell viability, while no significant decrease in cell viability was observed in normal cells. For qPCR assay, the cells were treated with 0.5, 1, and 2 mg/mL of LU extract for two days. The qPCR analysis revealed that the expression of pro-apoptotic BAX and BAD was significantly decreased following treatment with our extract, while the expression of these genes showed no significant changes in normal cell lines after the same treatment.

 These results show that the components within L. usitatissimum seed aqueous extract have antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic properties. This extract can successfully decrease the population of LS174t and COLO205 cells while increasing the expression of pro-apoptotic BAX and BAD in these cell lines. The results also demonstrate that normal non-cancerous cells are unharmed by this extract. These results hint at some potential anti-cancer properties of L. usitatissimum seed aqueous extract.

Colon cancer is one of the most diagnosed cancers in the modern world. Chemotherapy is one of the most relevant treatments for colon cancer, but this method of treatment has severe and sometimes irreversible side effects. Therefore, alternative treatments with fewer side effects are highly considered. Natural and herbal medicine has been proven to be a great source for these alternative treatment methods.

This study aimed to investigate the anti-proliferative and cytotoxic effects of Ocimum basillicum (OB) leaf aqueous extract on human colon cancer cell lines LS174T and COLO205 and the expression of apoptotic genes.

Methyl thiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assay was performed to assess the cytotoxic effects of our extract on the aforementioned cell lines. The changes in the expression of BAX and BAD were analyzed by qPCR following the treatment of cells with our extract.

The results of the MTT assay indicated that the extract had a cytotoxic effect and could reduce the population of live cancer cells, especially LS174T cells. The expression of BAX and BAD genes showed a significant increase in qPCR analysis in both cell lines, especially in the LS174T cells.

Our results showed that the extract had cytotoxic, anti-proliferative, and pro-apoptotic characteristics on previously mentioned cell lines, especially on the LS 174T cells.

Relationship incompatibility is one of the potential risk factors for marital problems. General studies have demonstrated a decrease in couples' marital adjustment regarding infertility. The present study aimed to assess the effect of life skills training on marital adjustment in infertile women referred to the infertility center of Kurdistan province.

In this interventional study, 90 infertile women who were referred to the infertility clinic located in the center of the province for follow-up, diagnosis and treatment were selected through continuous sampling. The data collection tool was the Spanier questionnaire. Data were entered into SPSS  software (version 20) and analyzed using statistical tests.

There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups before the intervention in the scores of marital satisfaction, solidarity, agreement, expression of love, and adjustment. After the educational intervention, the score of marital satisfaction, solidarity, expression of love, and total adjustment in infertile women in the intervention group was significantly higher than those in the control group (P>0.05). Nonetheless, there was no significant difference in mutual agreement between the two groups (P= 0.29).

As evidenced by the obtained results, the necessary training can be designed and implemented to increase the level of marital satisfaction in infertile couples.

Adolescents are the most frequent fast food consumers. This unhealthy behavior lead to overweight that is associated with diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and heart diseases. The present study aimed to determine factors associated with behavior of fast food consumption (FFC) of female high school students based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in the city of Tonekanon, north of Iran. The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 197 female students studying at high school. The constructs of the theory of planned behavior including attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, as well as intention and behavior of fast food consumption were assessed using a pre-tested psychometric questionnaire. Spearman correlation coefficient and linear regression method were used to test the study hypotheses. The constructs of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were accounted for 37.8% in variation of fast food consumption intention. The construct of subjective norms and perceived behavior control was significantly associated with intention of FFC. Intention of FFC was significantly associated with behavior (B coefficient = 0.76,
P-value = 0.001) and predicted 63.8 % of the variance of fast food consumption behavior. The present study showed that the TPB is a powerful theory in predicting FFC behavior. Subjective norms followed by perceived behavioral control were the strongest predictors of FFC intention

BackgroundThe world-wide prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents has reached an alarming level and become a major health problem in today’s world. The aim of this study was to identify the stages and processes of change as well as their relationship with weight controlbased on a Trans- theoretical Model (TTM) in overweight and obese Iranian adolescents.
Materials and MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted with participation of 250 overweight and obese adolescents selected through cluster sampling method fromMarch to April, 2016. In order tocollect data, a researcher-made questionnaire based on TTM ¿The obtained data were entered into SPSS version19.0 software.
The majority of participants (80%) were in inactive stages (pre-contemplation, contemplation, and preparation) of change for weight control, while only 20% of them were in active stages (action and maintenance). Also, results showed that a significant differencebetween stages and processes of change so that individual's progress across stages of change frompre-contemplation to maintenance increased cognitive and behavioral processes’ scores (p The majority of participants (80%) were in inactive stages (pre-contemplation, contemplation, and preparation) of change for weight control, while only 20% of them were in active stages (action and maintenance). Also, results showed that a significant differencebetween stages and processes of change so that individual's progress across stages of change frompre-contemplation to maintenance increased cognitive and behavioral processes’ scores (p

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) is a polymorphic enzyme which has an important role in the modulation of insulin bioactivity. The ADA gene polymorphism seems to contribute to the degree of obesity. The aim of this study is to examine the role of ADA gene polymorphism in randomly selected obese subjects from Ardabil Province, Iran.
This case-control study included 170 obese subjects (BMI ≥30) and 200 healthy (BMI ≤30) subjects recruited from Ardabil province's cities. Before the study, these individuals provided approximately 5 ml of blood for molecular tests. We extracted DNA from the blood samples using a standard phenol chloroform procedure. The region that contained the ADA, 4223A/C polymorphism was genotyped by PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism PCR-RFLP, and the collected data were analyzed using the X2 test.
The obese group had significantly increased allele A frequency compared with the control (p=0.034).
Our findings suggest a role for the ADA gene in the obesity. Larger studies of other populations are required to confirm these findings.

Over recent decades, the topic of spatial justice is important n terms of determining the extent of urban poverty and informal settlements among geographers and urban planners. Injustice in the distribution of funds and facilities can have irreversible effects on the structure and nature of cities that leaded to imbalance of urban spatial, growth of urban poverty and informal settlements formation..One of the problems of urbanization and urbanism is ignoring the effects of spatial justice in countries.Poor urban areas have factors in terms of socio - economic and physical features that make these areas inactivite and isolate in compare with other urban areas with their informal settlements. This article discuss urban poverty and informal settlements of Nsim Shahr from the perspective of spatial justice. This descriptive-analytical study was used hierarchical analysis of AHP method and GIS program has been used to analyze the distribution and dispersion of poverty from the perspective of spatial justice.The collected data were obtained via the library and field studies, questionnaires and interviews. The results show that Hesarak paeen, Vajih abad, south of Ahmadabad and Kolmeh in terms of various indicators of social, economic and spatial are vulnerable areas of the Nasim shar because of informal settlements and the high growth rate of urban poverty. Ismael Abad discit and downtown core are placed in a better situation.