mohammad asgharzadeh

The severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) varies significantly among individuals, which indicates the impact of individual differences on disease. Emerging evidence suggests that genetic factors play a crucial role in determining the severity of the disease. For instance, variants in the interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) gene, such as the +874 T/A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), have been linked to altered immune responses and may influence the severity of COVID-19. We aim to determine the influence of the IFN‐γ +874T/A SNP on the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients. We investigated the SNP at position +874 in the promoter region of the IFN-γ gene in 416 individuals (206 critically ill COVID-19 patients and 210 healthy controls) in northwestern of Iran. Genomic DNA was extracted from the blood leukocytes of the patients, and the SNP was analyzed using the amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR) method. The AA genotype was significantly more frequent in critically ill COVID-19 patients than in healthy controls. Conversely, the AT and TT genotypes were more common in healthy controls. Furthermore, the A allele was more frequent in critically ill patients than in healthy controls, while the T allele was more frequent in healthy controls compared to critically ill patients. Our study identified the IFN-γ +874T/A SNP as a significant genetic factor influencing COVID-19 severity. This finding underscores the critical role of genetic factors in disease severity and highlights the importance of personalized medicine in managing COVID-19.

Dengue infection is an emerging public health issue in Iran, with about 149 confirmed newly infected cases. It can be transmitted by the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes and even nosocomial routes. Due to the rapid replication and geographical spread of the mosquito, there is a potential risk of increased infected individuals. Given the possibility of the transmission of dengue infection through transfusion, it is important to implement policies to improve blood safety. Proper donor selection by utilizing appropriate blood donor questionnaires and performing general physical examinations, along with performing sensitive diagnostic tests on blood donor samples, utilizing pathogen reduction techniques, and implementing lookback programs, can be effective in reducing the risk of transfusion-transmitted dengue virus (TT-DENV).

The structure of bacteria consists of various macromolecules such as proteins, polysaccharides, phospholipids and nucleic acids, which, in addition to their role in forming their structure, play an essential role in maintaining their viability and pathogenicity. This study aimed to investigate the application of proteomics in the analysis of proteomic profiles of bacteria and their derived postbiotics.

In this review study, relevant data were collected by searching for the keywords "probiotics, postbiotics, proteome, proteomics, biofilm, antibiotic resistance" in the Web of Science, PubMed, Medline, and Scopus databases. All articles related to experimental studies were included in the study and articles that did not contain the full text were excluded.

To study microbial macromolecules, in addition to genomic methods, there are also proteomic methods that provide information about the structural and functional proteins of bacteria. In the scope of bacterial proteomics studies, in addition to pathogenic bacteria, probiotic bacteria are also mentioned, which are part of the structure of this Microorganisms, as well as due to their metabolic activity, produce compounds known as postbiotics, which are responsible for their beneficial effects and have various properties, including antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and immune system modulating effects.

Utilizing applied proteomics in the field of proteomic profile analysis of bacteria, particularly probiotics can be considered a new approach towards the comprehensive knowledge of postbiotic metabolites, which is the basis for the enrichment of the food matrices for the development of functional foods for health-promoting objectives.

Human intestine microbiota are known to be directly and indirectly altered during some diseases such as kidney complications. Bacteroides is considered as the main and the most abundant phylum among human gut microbiota, which has been classified as enterotype 1. This study aimed to assess the abundance of Bacteroides spp. in fecal flora of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients and compare it with the Bacteroides composition among fecal flora of healthy individual.

Fresh fecal samples were collected from 20 CKD/ESRD patients and 20 healthy individual without any kidney complications. The pure microbial DNA was extracted by QIAamp Stool Mini Kit from stool samples. MiSeq system was used to analyze the intestinal composition by next generation sequencing method.

A number of 651 bacterial strains were isolated and identified from 40 fecal samples of both patients and healthy groups. Bioinformatics analysis defined 18 different types of Bacteroides species which included 2.76% of all strains. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference between study groups (P>0.05). In both healthy and patient groups three species including B. dorei, B. uniformis, and B. ovatus have allocated the most abundance to themselves. The lowest abundance was related to B. eggerthii, A. furcosa and B. barnesiae among CKD/ESRD patients and A. furcosa, B. barnesiae, and B. coprocola had the lowest abundance among healthy people.

This study indicates despite all previous evidence of Bacteroides role in gut microbiota, it had no different distribution between healthy persons and CKD/ESRD patients.

Following the discovery of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in China, it has been transmitted to travelers through respiratory droplets and distributed worldwide. Viral, environmental, and host factors all play a role in getting infected with the virus and having severe forms of the disease named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Diabetes is one of the most important host risk factors in the progression and severity of COVID-19. In diabetes, hyperglycemia and protein glycosylation increase pro-inflammatory cytokines levels and suppress innate and adaptive immune system by impairing the function of neutrophils, macrophages, and lymphocytes, especially regulatory T lymphocytes. The compromised immune system in diabetic patients makes them vulnerable to infectious diseases like COVID-19. Correspondingly, people with diabetes are usually treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II Type-I receptor blockers (ARBs), which increase ACE2 expression as a receptor for SARS-CoV-2. Thus, diabetic patients are more likely to develop severe forms of COVID-19 and die due to chronic inflammation and impaired immune function.

One of the duties of Shias during the absence is to wait. In addition to the effect of waiting on belief and behavior, psychologically it also strengthens the hope of change in humans. Hoping for change, in fact, is a requirement to get friends in the path of waiting. This requirement is derived from the special framework drawn in the tradition of Imams for waiting.
This research, which has a narrative approach, has addressed this issue with a library method, whether there is a relationship between the waiting and the revival of the Prophet's family? The most important finding of this research is the development of establishing a close relationship between the waiting and the revival of the Prophet's family. This puts an additional responsibility on the followers of this family to pay special attention to the revival of their object, which is the waiting.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a significant health and financial issue in the current century. Despite significant attempts to manage the illness, the transmission routes of the virus and its widespread genomic mutations have led to an increasing number of new infections and mortality rates. In the absence of specific treatment for this new virus, identifying and managing factors affecting the prognosis of the disease is one of the critical strategies to reduce disease mortality. Patients with iron deficiency anemia (IDA), who account for an estimated half a billion people globally, are more prone to infections due to immune system disorders. Since they visit hospitals more frequently for follow-up care and diagnosis, they are more susceptible to becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2. Once infected with SARS-CoV-2, low hemoglobin (Hb) levels and compromised immune systems disrupt the restriction of infection in these individuals, ultimately leading to severe complications of COVID-19.

In traditional Iranian medicine as well as the hadiths of the Imams about nutrition, there are important points that are needed to be considered. Dietary recommendations for the consumption of Black Corinth Raisin (Vitis vinifera L.) in Islamic religious books and the low probability of distortion in such hadiths on the other hand, can have high scientific support to ensure the physiological health of individuals. Emphasis has been undertaken on continuous eating of the fruits/nuts in these books to prevent the forgetfulness, enhance the memory and happiness, and improve physical health. This review has investigated the published studies in details on properties of red/black grape regarding the mentionedissues.

Opportunistic infections, such as mucormycosis, in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients has become a new health challenge. Since opportunistic infections can exacerbate COVID-19 patients' status, it is vital to identify the risk factors to prevent, diagnose, and treat them as soon as possible. Viral, fungal, environmental, and host factors may be responsible for this situation. Long hospital stays, impaired host immune system function due to viral infection, and excessive consumption of glucocorticoids in managing COVID-19 patients are the main risk factors for the increased risk of mucormycosis in COVID-19 patients. Educating health care workers and considering the association between mucormycosis of the paranasal sinuses and different strains of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as the cause of COVID-19 can help prevent invasive fungal sinusitis in COVID-19 patients.

Changes in the expression of cytokines as the result of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), can affect the occurrence of multiple sclerosis (MS).

To investigate the frequency of interleukin-10 (IL-10)-1082 A/G (rs1800896) and the CCR5-delta32 genotypes on susceptibility to MS in the Iranian Azari population.

IL-10-1082 A/G SNP and the CCR5-delta32 in 152 patients suffering from MS and 242 healthy non-relatives were genotyped by allele specific-PCR and simple PCR methods, respectively.

The frequencies of AA (37.6%) and AG (55.9%) genotypes of IL-10-1082 were significantly high in the control (p = 0.021) and MS patients (p = 0.015), respectively, with no statistical difference. There was no significant difference in the CCR5 gene based on the possession of wild/wild and wild/del32 genotypes between MS patients and the control group. The del32/del32 genotype was not seen in any of the investigated groups. Tobacco (cigarettes and hookahs) consumption was higher among the MS patients (p=0.004), and this has the potential to raise the risk of MS in both the individuals and their families. It had no significant relation with the frequency of different genotypes of the IL-10-1082 and the CCR5. MS disease was more prevalent among people with low-income. (p=0.0001).

Our finding concludes on possible role of AA genotype of IL-10 -1082 as a protective factor in studied patients.

Cinema is a modern art which has combined former arts and knowledge and has presented this to the audience with abundant attraction. Reflected thoughts in the past of eastern countries and especially classical literature of our country enjoy a spiritual theme. Reflection of mystical themes of classical literature in cinema works can be a means for linking thought with national art. In this research, in addition to presenting a historical-conceptual division, there is an abridged survey on mystical and spiritual thoughts of directors in our country and presented proposals for strengthening the relationship between cinema and classic literature. This study shows that there is no complementary and extraterrestrial linkage between spiritual thoughts of our past mystical literature and the art of cinema. Various factors influence this issue. The most important points are: suspicious look at politics to Sufism in iran،existence of different and controversial attitudes towards the thoughts and lives of mystics, attitudes of mystical concepts towards the mentality and their evasion from evidence, instrumental weakness of Iranian cinema for the plausible making of fantastic works and the opposition of classical and intellectual spectrums of the critics of Iranian cinema by making mystical works.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was transported from China to Iran via passengers. The virus is transmitted through droplets from coughing, sneezing, talking and contact with infected surfaces. Due to high transmissibility in places such as clinics, medical offices, buses and offices where there are large crowds, it spread rapidly in Iran and caused the mortality of a significant number of people, especially the elderly with underlying disease. Preventing travel and gatherings, as well as applying house quarantine in Apr 2020, reduced COVID-19 somewhat but then due to lack of attention to social distancing, reducing the use of masks by the people and inappropriate decisions by the national committee on combating coronavirus (NCCC), including reducing the working hours of public offices and shops, reducing the staff of government offices, monopoly on the distribution of essential materials and supplies, the presence of overcrowding in clinics of medical centers, hospitals, and private clinics caused the decline of the disease in the country to decrease. Measures can be taken to prevent the spread of the virus as much as possible, including: rapid detection of infected people, their isolation, contact tracing, quarantine of people over 65 and under 15, protection of the elderly, prevention of gatherings, forcing the use of protective equipment in possible gatherings, and electronicizing public services.

Bovine leukemiavirus (BLV) is one of the most important carcinogenic viruses genetically related to the human T-cell lymphotropic viruses (HTLV-1 and HTLV-2). The virus infects type B lymphocytes and creates lymph glands tumors. Recently, the association between the presence of this virus and breast cancer has been addressed in humans. Here, we studied the prevalence of BLV in the samples of raw milk of native Iranian and Iranian-foreign cows in traditional, semi-industrial and industrial dairy farms in rural and urban areas of Zanjan province. Raw milk samples of cows were collected manually in sterile tubes. The samples were tested by nested-PCR method. Forty samples (9.93%) out of 403 samples showed BLV contamination. In this study, nested-PCR was successfully applied to determine the level of contamination in raw milk samples from cows infected with BLV. Furthermore, a relatively high rate of BLV infection was found in dairy cows in Zanjan province, northwestern of Iran.

Recentlly, resistance to antibiotics has increased and antibiotic-resistant strains producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) have emerged among Enterobacteriaceae, mainly in Escherichia coli (E. coli). In this study we aimed to determine phenotypic and genotypic ESBL production in isolated E. coli from women with urinary tract infection (UTI).

In total, 92 E. coli isolates were collected from patients with UTI. The antimicrobial susceptibility of all E. coli isolates were investigated. Morover, Mast D68C test and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were used for phenotypic and genotypic investigation of ESBLs in the studied isolates.

Totally, 92 isolates of E. coli were investigated, among which 51 (55.4%) isolates were resistant to cefotaxime/ceftazidime. Theise resistante isolates were included in the study. Among the resistant isolates, 40 (78.4%) cases were ESBL producers. Moreover, all the 40 isolates were observed with both CTX-M-15 and CTX-M-14 resistance genes.

In general, high increasing prevalence of ESBL producer E. coil isolates of E. coil is a serious problem in the investigated region. Therefore, development of a rapid and simple method is essential to for the identification of various ESBL producer isolates.

To end the COVID-19 pandemic, a large part of the world must be immune to the virus by vaccination. Therefore, this study aimed to gauge intent to be vaccinated against COVID-19 among ordinary people and to identify attitudes towards vaccines and barriers for vaccine acceptance.

The study population comprises 1880 people residing in different countries that answer a prepared questionnaire. The questionnaire topics are demographics, historical issues, participants’ attitudes and beliefs regarding vaccines, concerns, and vaccine hesitancy.

Attitudes and beliefs relating to vaccines in general, and the COVID-19 vaccine, were ascertained. Overall, 66.81% of the contributors would like to be vaccinated against COVID-19, while %33.19 did not intend to be vaccinated. Reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy included concern regarding vaccine side effects, fear of getting sick from the uptake of the vaccine, and the absence of accurate vaccine promotion news. Individuals with higher education believe that India (68.6%) produces the best vaccine (P<0.001), while healthcare workers think the Chinese vaccine (44.2%) is the best (P=0.020). Individuals with higher education have not been vaccinated, not be healthcare workers, and females were the most contributors to effective of the vaccine in reducing mortality from COVID-19 disease.

Given the degree of hesitancy against COVID-19 vaccination, a multifaceted approach to facilitate vaccine uptake that includes vaccine education, behavioral change strategies, and health promotion, is paramount.

Today, because of increasing immigration and the prevalence of drug‑resistant tuberculosis in Iran, identifying intra‑community cases is necessary in the country. It will be possible through the use of molecular epidemiologic methods. In this inquiry, in order to determine the role of immigrants in the transmission of specific strains to Iran, the studies have been examined which had been conducted based on molecular epidemiologic methods among Iranians and non‑Iranians people.

All studies from 1997 to the end of March 2017 were examined in three databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar and finally, 16 studies were selected.

The common clustering rate between Iranians and non‑Iranians was determined to be 19.8, and the intra‑community recent transmission rate was from 0% to 49% with average of 18.1%. The rate of multidrug‑resistant tuberculosis (MDR‑TB) was 12.5%, which was higher among immigrants, especially Afghans, and a significant number of the strains were Beijing.

The studies have shown that migrants, especially Afghans, are more effective in transmitting specific strains of tuberculosis to migratory areas. To control tuberculosis, it is necessary to register of immigrant’s health information, while enter to the country, so that, by doing appropriate diagnostic tests, the curing the patients, the transmission of tuberculosis to the country would be prevented.

 In recent years, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance has steadily increased and also the antibiotic-resistant strains producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) and AmpC beta-lactamases have emerged among the Enterobacteriaceae, predominantly in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae species.

 This prospective study aimed at determining the production of ESBL or AmpC, phenotypically and also at the molecular level, in E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates collected from various clinical specimens.

 In total, 78 K. pneumoniae and 92 E. coli isolates were collected from various clinical infectious sources available in different wards of the Imam Reza Hospital, Tabriz, Iran, from July 2017 to December 2018. All isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing. MAST 4-disc test and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were applied for phenotypic and genotypic detection of ESBLs and plasmid-encoded AmpCs (pAmpCs) among isolates, respectively.

 Overall, 78 K. pneumoniae and 92 E. coli isolates were evaluated, of which 46 K. pneumoniae (58.9%) and 51 E. coli (55.4%) isolates were resistant to cefotaxime/ceftazidime and included in the study. Among the K. pneumoniae and E. coli isolates resistant to cefotaxime/ceftazidime, 40 (86.9%) and 40 (78.4%) isolates were ESBL producers and 8 (17.3%) and 2 (3.9%) isolates were pAmpC producers, respectively. In addition, 40 E. coli (78.4%) isolates were positive for both CTX-M-14 and CTX-M-15 genes. Regarding K. pneumoniae isolates, 40 isolates (86.9%) were positive for CTX-M-15 gene and 18 isolates (39.1%) for CTX-M-14 gene. Among 51 ceftazidime/cefotaxime-resistant E. coli isolates, 32 isolates (62.7%) were positive for DHA-1 gene and 33 isolates (64.7%) isolates for CMY-2 gene. Also, among 46 ceftazidime/cefotaxime-resistant K. pneumoniae isolates, 15 isolates (32.6%) had DHA-1 gene and 27 isolates (58.7%) had CMY-2 gene in the genome.

 The high prevalence of ESBL and AmpC production among E. coil and K. pneumoniae isolates was a serious concern in the studied region. Therefore, a simple and rapid PCR-based technique is essential to detect and distinguish various pAmpC and ESBL genes to discriminate other resistance determinants.
 

 Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the biggest health challenges all over the world. The Caucasian region is one of the places with a high prevalence of drug-resistant M. tuberculosis.

 In this study, we aimed to investigate the trends in M. tuberculosis transmission during a 10-year period in the northwest of Iran.

 We collected 166 M. tuberculosis isolates from 2005 to 2006 and 119 M. tuberculosis isolates from 2015 to 2016 and subjected them to MIRU-VNTR and ETR-VNTR typing by a polymerase chain reaction and compared them by phylogenic tools.

 In the 2006 isolates, 104 different patterns were observed including 75 unique patterns and 91 isolates were clustered in 29 different clusters. In the 2016 isolates, 98 different patterns were observed with 86 unique patterns and 33 isolates were clustered in 12 different clusters. One cluster had a shared member from the 2006 and 2016 isolates, indicating the transmission of a single isolate during these years. The minimum estimate for the tuberculosis proportion, which is due to the recent transmission of tuberculosis, was 36.7% for the 2006 isolates and 17.6% for the 2016 isolates.

 In spite of the reduced number of tuberculosis patients, the isolates were more resistant and had a close relationship with worldwide strains. Cross-border immigration for treatment from Republic of Azerbaijan had significant participation in the recent transmission of tuberculosis in this region. In conclusion, the strict control of patients commuting and developing new tuberculosis clinics inside Republic of Azerbaijan can play a key role in the control of tuberculosis transmission in the northwest of Iran.

The classic Persian literature enjoys plenty of story enrichment. In some authors’ works, these prose and poetry texts provide beyond the pure storytelling, somehow dramatic tale. However, with regard to lack of play in early centuries of Persian poems in Iran, the works do not hare play from appearance and are written only for reading. After the arrival of play from the West to Iran in the late century, play writers referred less to old literature treasure. While the reading of these works from the perspective of the play demonstrates their capacity for theatrical adaptations. Among the works of poets, Shahnameh Ferdousi and Nezami Middle poetry, and among prose books, Beyhaghi’s History are the best samples for evaluating the mentioned dramatic works. We attempt in this paper that after describing dramatic theater elements (Aristotle) and epic theater, pay to adjust their measurements with Beyhaghi’s dramatic stories and offer play (dramatic) capacity for the works.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a public health problem in developing countries and yet the numbers of people with the disease are abundant. Early detection of transmission sources and effective treatment of the cases is essential to control the disease which will be possible by application of molecular epidemiology approaches. Studies conducted based on Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Units-Variable Number of Tandem Repeats (MIRU-VNTR) method in Muslim Middle East countries were evaluated to determine their role in TB control. All studies from January 2005 to April 2016 were systematically reviewed in four electronic databases and finally 16 articles were found eligible to be included in this study. The mean clustering rate was determined as 44% and the recent transmission rate was 12.3 to 78.8% with average of 33%. The results showed that both reactivation and recent transmission were important in developing new cases of TB in Middle East countries; but, reactivation plays a more critical role. Regarding to ongoing war and immigration in the region along with the increasing of drug-resistant TB, in the case of improper supervision in the future, the disease, especially drug- resistant TB, will be problematic.

animation is an art based on the combination of images and animating them that has been associated with it since the early years of the formation of the cinema. In spite of the high popularity of our children and adolescents from Hollywood animations, most of Iranian's animation films are not at the attention of the audience because of production technology problems and screenplays, and there is no widespread exposur.An examination of the world's animation produces an impressive amount of animation cinema from epic, didactic, lyrci and folk stories. Different types of Persian classical literature have the purporst and themes of the story and have the visual effects suitable for writing animated scripts.This occurs ina conditions that keeping the relationship of our children and adolescents with the roots of ancient Iranian culture is necessary. In the first step of this article, the animation capacities of different types of our country's literature are expressed briefly.Then, in a case study, the various features of Nafasat-Al-Masdoor, which are made suitable for animation adaptation are examined and while providingthe evidence,the examples from the text of the book is mentioned as a comparison of a sample of animation films and series. The results of this research show that Nafasat- Al-Masdoor, in addition to general dramatic capacities, has some visual, content, and narrative features for animation adaptation. The storytellerlikenarration, black and white personality-making, and endoplasms, and exaggerated romantic and expressionist imagery are among these features.

Microscopic smear examination is the most common test in tuberculosis (TB) detection. It is, however, not strong enough to identify TB in the majority of afflicted individuals; thus, a significant number of TB patients are smear negative and capable of transmitting the infection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the rate of smear-negative TB in northwest Iran.
In this cross-sectional study, 329 TB-confirmed patients were evaluated through culture up to March 1, 2015, in northwest Iran. The demographic and clinical features of the smear-negative and smear-positive TB patients were compared. The χ2 test was used to compare the frequency of the variables. All the statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS, version 16 (Chicago, IL, USA).
Seventy-five cases were smear negative and 254 were smear positive. Smokers, asthmatics, and extra-pulmonary TB patients were primarily among the smear-negative cases. The rate of mortality was also relatively higher among the smear-negative TB patients.
Totally, 22.8% of the TB cases in northwest Iran were smear negative, with a relatively higher rate of mortality than those with positive smears. A delay in these patients’ return to TB diagnosis and treatment centers increases the chance of transmission to others. This is a very sensitive issue in centers where there is no equipment for TB cultivation. Thus, it is essential to equip centers without TB cultivation facilities and to use appropriate diagnostic techniques in centers with those facilities to help rapidly detect smear-negative cases.