Journal of Epigenetics
Volume:1 Issue: 2, Spring 2019

Pterygium is a benign legion and is observed as aggressive growth ofconjunctiva fibro-vascular tissue on the cornea. The alkylating agents are observed asconsiderable threats for human health because alkylated lesions lead to cytotoxic,teratogenic and cancerizing effects. MGMT is one of the repair proteins of DNA whichrepairs the alkylated lesions. Expression and activity of MGMT is controlled byepigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation in the promoter regions liketranscription factors which are connected to MGMT promoter and lead to positive ornegative induction of that activity, protein-protein interactions, and negative regulation.

In order to study methylation, DNA samples of 43 patientsand 40 healthy individuals were extracted, bisulfited and then were studied. Also inorder to study the expression, RNA was extracted from 15 other patients and 15 otherhealthy individuals; and then, the technique of Real-time PCR was used. 

analysis of promoter methylation of MGTM gene showed that there is no significantrelationship in the situation of promoter methylation between the patients and controlindividuals (P value = 0.43; 95%Cl = 0.66-2.40; OR = 1.52). However, analysis ofMGMT gene expression showed significant difference between the patients and controlindividuals (Mean ± SD: 1.25 ± 0.10 and 1.52 ± 2.91, respectively; P value = 0.009). 

since there are no significant changes of promoter methylation of MGMTgene, there seems to be other unknown procedures that regulate this gene’s expressionlevels. In this respect, expression of MGMT gene in the pterygium increases throughunknown procedures. In order to approve this data, further studies are suggested in morepopulations with bigger sample sizes by the use of advanced molecular techniques.

Circadian clock refers to a biological cycle that fluctuates in a period of ~24 hours.These cycles are supported by a molecular clock and provide a temporal timerelatedmatrix that ensures the collocation of homeostasis processes with the courseof environmental changes. Here in this mini-review, we are going to summarize allrecent finding from the last five years till date in the field of circadian andevolutionary clock research in approach to rheumatoid arthritis as the world’s mostprevalence autoimmune disease with rate of over 76 million in world populationand prevalence of near 0.6% of US which is almost 1.29 million people in theyear 2015. Rheumatoid arthritis shows a verity of symptoms besides morningstiffness and increased joint pain in the early morning. This morning joint andstiffness aca correlate to an elevated level of pro-inflammatory cytokines includeinterleukin-6. The  circadian clock has a regulatory role in activity and expressionof proteins and their gene which comes under cycle which takes part in autoimmunedisease expression and progression, such as fat-derived adipokines and few nuclearreceptors. Based on current knowledge which expanding each and every momentwe know the pathways that how inflammatory responses regulated base on thatworking in a new age in the treatment of autoimmune disease especially rheumatoidarthritis.

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy that its incidence hascontinuously increased in recent decades all over the world. Thyroid cancer in Iranis the seventh most common cancer in women and the 14th in men and the 11th mostcommon cancer in both genders. The study on the methylation status of RASSF1Agene promoter has shown that this gene is methylated in 35% of benign andmalignant thyroid tumors. Hypermethylation of the RASSF1A gene use for thedifferentiation of benign tumors from malignant of thyroid gland. The aim of thisstudy was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of DNA methylation ofRASSF1A gene in the differential diagnosis of benign tumors from papillary thyroidcarcinoma.160 samples of patients with malignant thyroid tumors (80 samples) andbenign thyroid (80 samples) were entered into this study from all patients referringto Ahwaz medical centers. The Hypermethylation of the gene after DNA extractionwas done by COBRA method. Finally, for calculating sensitivity and specificity ofthe two tests were done by epidemiological calculations.The sensitivity andspecificity of Hypermethylation of the RASSF1A gene test were 91.25% and 15%respectively.Hypermethylation of the promoter of the RASSF1A gene as a diagnosistest is more sensitive to differential diagnosis of benign tumors from papillarythyroid carcinoma.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is offered as a treatment for infertility in women.. The Cell free DNA in plasma/follicles were suggested as a biomarker for embryo quality inIVF. Higher the levels of Cell-free DNA indicate poorer embryo quality in the follicular fluidduring IVF. Therefore, this study was designed to examine the cell-free DNA (cfDNA) inplasma and Fluid-follicle of women undergoing IVF-embryo transfer. 

The studyexamined 100 women undergoing IVF treatment in an IVF unit in Yas Hospital of TehranUniversity of Medical Sciences in Tehran-Iran. Cell-free DNA was extracted from plasmaand follicular fluid of patients using the NucleoSpin® Extraction Kit. The total cfDNA wasexamined by qPCR for ALBUMIN and GAPDH genes. 

we did not find astatistically significant association among the variables such as CT-plasma, CT-follicularfluid, delta-CT and average of these data between two groups (including patients who had asuccessful IVF cycle and those who had a failed IVF cycle). 

Plasma andfollicular fluid cfDNA may reflect the presence of factors which interfere with embryoimplantation. Further research is required to determine the usefulness of cfDNA as abiomarker of IVF outcome and to examine the underlying pathologies as potential sourcesfor increased plasma/follicular fluid cfDNA concentrations.

Recognition and prediction of biological function of proteins based on amino acid sequencesis a simple method employed in so many software and operators. However, the sequence similarity does not always imply to similarity of biological function. The aim of this study was to determine the semantic similarity of gene ontology (GO) of six pluripotency factors, Oct4, Sox2, C-Myc, Klf-4, Lin28 and Nanog in six species and evaluate their conformity with their protein sequence similarity and phylogenetic distance. C-myc factor exhibited a significant correlation between phylogenetic distance and protein similarity. The other factors like Sox2, Klf-4 and Lin-28 showed the correct changes of phylogenetic distance and protein similarity, but Nanog and Oct4 factors did not display a correct correlation between two indices because, the increase of protein similarity was not followed with the decrease of phylogenetic distance. Following the study, the protein or nucleotide similarity was assumed as dependent variable and GO similarity in three categories of biological process (BP), molecular function (MF) and, cell component (CC) were expected as the independent variables. With this assumption, regression analysis was accomplished to determine the best model for protein and nucleotide similarity estimation. The protein or nucleotide similarity also displayed a significant regression with GO similarity for C-myc factor and category of BP and CC were selected to estimate protein or nucleotide similarity by model, but a significant regression was not observed for other pluripotency factors for estimation of protein or nucleotide similarity. It means that except of C-myc, GO similarity of other studied pluripotency factors didn’t reflect the protein or nucleotide similarity. It is suggested that related data for five pluripotency factors, including Oct-4, Sox2, Klf4, Lin28 and Nanog in the six studied species should be reviewed.

Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) is responsible for 70-90% of urinary tractinfections. On the other hand, E. coli producing Shiga toxin (STEC), the so-called Verotoxinproducing E. coli (VTEC), has two stx1 and stx2 genes (Producing Stx1 and Stx2 toxins). Since these genes are plasmidal and can be transmitted between E. coli strains, it is likely that stx1 and stx2 genes are also found in the Uropathogenic E. coli. Studies in different parts of the world indicate some cases of dangerous syndromes such as Haemolytic-Uraemic Syndrome (HUS)following urinary tract infections. Also, the incidence of urinary tract infections caused by Verotoxigenic E. coli strains is increasing. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the presence of verotoxin genes in Uropathogenic E. coli.

A total of 180 clinical specimens were collected during five months. After diagnostic tests and differential biochemistry tests, 100 samples were confirmed as E. coli and the presence of stx2 and stx1 genes was investigated by Muliplex-PCR;

The results showed that the prevalence rates of stx1 and stx2 genes were 15% and 13%, respectively, in UPEC samples examined in this study, which is in agreement with the results of few similar studies in Iran; 

It seems that the frequency of verotoxin genes in E. coli causing urinary tract infections in Kermanshah is more than the other parts of Iran. Therefore, the potential risks of these bacteria could not be ignored.