Archives of Advances in Biosciences
Volume:10 Issue: 3, Summer 2019

In patients with renal disorders, a sudden decrease in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) would not result in rapid rise concentrations of Creatinine. The present study aimed to assess diagnostic accuracy of serum Cystatin C as an appropriate alternative to serum Creatinine for early detection of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).

In this study, 72 patients, 48 female and 24 male were selected. Serum Cystatin C and serum Creatinine were assayed, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and routine methods, respectively. Glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was estimated by Cockcroft and Gault formula. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis was adopted to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of serum Cystatin C and serum Creatinine.

Using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient analysis among Creatinine, Cystatin C and eGFR showed Serum Cystatin C was better than Creatinine. The sensitivity, specificity and AUC for Serum Cystatin C were 0.88, 0.70 and 0.85, and for Serum Creatinine, they  were 0.60, 0.80 and 0.68 respectively.

Our results showed that in early stages of CKD, Cystatin C is a more accurate biomarker for kidney function than Creatinine

Protein-based memory is a novel technology that employs proteins ability to participate in electronic processes. Bacteriorhodopsin (BR) is a membranous proton pump that it’s applications in bio-molecular electronic devices has been widely studied. The results of this research show that BR bounded to modified polycarbonate surface has higher activity for spin coating method.

In an in-vitro study, BR-containing polymer matrix of polyvinyl alcohol and gelatin with different w/v ratios was prepared. Spectroscopic and enzyme activity analysis was performed and the optimized concentration for BR-containing films was determined to be 3.2 mg/ml. BR-polymer was then immobilized on the polycarbonate surface with spin coating method and AFM microscopy was used to characterize BR-coated polycarbonate.

Based on the obtained results we conclude that polymer concentrations below 1% significantly reduced BR activity levels. A280/A570 of 3.64 for 3.2 mg/ml BR solution and 4.97 for BR in 1% polymer confirmed the quality prepared film. AFM study of BR-coated polycarbonate surface revealed the overall thickness of 25nm, indicating that we were able to prepare a surface with suitable thickness for nano electronic devices

The results of this research show that BR bounded to modified polycarbonate surface has higher activity for spin coating method.

Brain insulin receptors (IRs) have been suggested as an important regulatory factor for cognitive functions but the involvement of IR signaling in memory deficit associated with neurodegenerative conditions is not yet explored.  Among the diverse signaling pathways of IR, PI-3 kinase and (MAP) kinase pathways in brain have been suggested for learning and memory functions. The phosphoinositide3-kinase (PI3K) complex plays important roles in virtually all cells of the body. The enzymatic activity of PI3Kto phosphorylate phosphoinositides in the membrane is mediated by a group of catalytic and regulatory subunits. Among those, the class I catalytic subunits, p110α, p110β,p110γ,and p110δ have recently drawn attention in the neuroscience field due to their specific dysregulation in diverse brain disorders. The present study was planned to investigate the effect of PI3K on memory.

The animals were injected bilaterally with ICV water (control group), ICV PI3k (1,10 and 100 ng/rat) on days 1 and 3 after surgery.  The learning and memory performance was assessed two weeks after the first dose of drugs by using step-through passive avoidance paradigm (0.3 mA, 3seconds) and open field test. The results revealed that The ICV administration   of PI3K (P<0.05) altered inhibitory avoidance acquisition. PI3K at dose 1 ng/rat decreased the step- through latency during the retention test.

data showed that PI3K at dose of 1 ng/rat decreased the step- through latency during the retention test. In addition, the results showed that PI3K at dose 10 ng/rat increased locomotor activity.

Finally, our data indicated that PI3K has critical role in memory consolidation and locomotor activity.

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers with high mortality rate because of the late diagnosis. The present study aimed to quantitatively measure the C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 5 (CXCL5) gene expression level in tissue samples of lung cancer patients to investigate its value as a biomarker during lung cancer diagnosis and screening.

Tissue samples were collected from 30 patients. Total RNA was extracted from tumor and normal tissues of patients. The rate of CXCL5 gene expression was initially measured in A549 cell line and next, the expression level of this gene in tumor tissue samples of patients suffering from Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer was compared to the normal lung tissue of the same patients.

The results demonstrated significant increase of CXCL5 gene expression in cancer samples compared to normal tissues of the same samples. The increase was 5.8 fold for cancerous tissues in comparison with normal tissues (P=0.03). There was no difference between the tumor type (adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma) and average CXCL5 gene expression rate (P=0.09). In cancerous samples, the expression level of CXCL5 was higher in men compared with those of women (P=0.04). There was no relationship between the change of gene expression and the age of the patients (p=0.08).

Based on the results, it can be concluded that the quantitative expression level of CXCL5 in lung cancer patients could be used as a biomarker to screen lung cancer samples, regardless of age of patients and tumor type. However, it can discriminate the stage of tumor.

Alloimmunization to red blood cell antigens is one of the main complications of transfusion therapy. The appropriate pre-transfusion tests are necessary in order to minimize hemolytic reactions related to RBC alloantibodies. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and specificity of RBC alloantibodies detected during pre-transfusion tests in addition to risk factors of alloimmunization in the hospitalized population in Tehran, Iran.  

In this retrospective study, the characteristics and type of alloantibodies in 31 alloimminized patients among 6029 hospitalized patients of Imam Khomeini general hospital were examined during September 2016 to January 2017.

The RBC alloantibody prevalence was 0.5% with the male: female ratio of 1:5.2. The most frequent antibodies were anti-D (30%), anti-E (24%) and anti-K (12%). Female sex, age, history of transfusion and pregnancy or abortion history were associated with alloimmunization.

The alloimmunization rate were relatively low in hospitalized patients in this study. Female sex, age, history of transfusion and pregnancy sound to be the risk factors of alloimmnization.

Nowadays, versatile and useful features of nanoparticles, especially gold nanoparticles in medicine and healthcare have brought them immense popularity. The ability to transfer towards the special cells, distinguish the different cells and their electrical resonance feature make them as a proper candidate for treatment of cancer. Antibodies which are generated against death receptor, DR5, are powerful tools in the programmed death of cancer cells during induction process. Its association with nanoparticles could efficiently deliver such biological apoptosis inducing drug to the cancer cells 

 In this study, at the first step, gold nanoparticles were produced by chemical methods in the presence of aspartic acid (amino acid). Then, nano-sized ones were selected and subsequently conjugated by mouse antibodies which were produced against a small 21 amino acid peptide from extracellular domain of death receptor, DR5.  

The conjugated antibodies by gold nanoparticles could efficiently kill the MCF7 breast cancer cells through inducing cell death. The combination of antibodies which were generated against a small fragment of the death receptor, 

DR, with gold nanoparticles not only minimized the required amount for the purpose of inducing cell death.but also maximizing their efficiency and quality.

Context: Over the past several years, biomarkers have emerged as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool for cancer therapy. CD73 (ecto-5'-nucleotidase) which is a cell surface ectonucleotidase, mediates the conversion of extracellular Adenosine monophosphate (AMP) into adenosine through the purinergic signaling pathway. In this study the role of CD73 in different human cancers was investigated.Evidence Acquisition: The present study reviewed the articles related to the importance of CD73 as a therapeutic tool in human cancers which were published from 1990 to 2019. The publications were found by searching the valid databases for instance PubMed, Google Scholar, ProQuest, Scopus and Science Direct using keywords CD73, ectonucleotidase, therapy, cancer, etc. During the review process 90 articles were selected.

Different studies about the effect of CD73 on human malignancies show that CD73 is overexpressed in various types of cancer. Recent findings demonstrate that the extracellular adenosine can promote tumor growth and invasion. The significant regulatory role of CD73 has made it a suitable biomarker for cancer treatment.

This study outlines the impact of CD73 on tumor growth, metastasis and angiogenesis. The findings are promising and can highlight the efficacy of this protein as a therapeutic tool in the context of anti-CD73 cancer therapy.

Thimerosal is used as a preservative in Rabies vaccine. This study aimed at comparing potency and stability of inactivated animal rabies vaccine with and without thimerosal. Therefore, two groups of rabies vaccine were produced. The results indicated that thimerosal has no deleterious effect on the vaccine; furthermore, its elimination did not influence the potency and stability of the vaccine.