Modern Medical Laboratory Journal
Volume:1 Issue: 2, Summer-Fall 2017

Acrylamide (ACR) is a known carcinogenic chemical agent found in some foods at considerably high concentration. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of vitamin C as an antioxidant on kidney tissue in rats treated with ACR.

Twenty female Wistar rats (200-220 grams) were divided into 4 groups (n=5) of control group, ACR group, vitamin C group and ACR+vitamin C group. Pregnant rats were orally administered 10 mg/kg ACR and/or 200 mg/kg vitamin C. Six infants at day 21 after birth were randomly selected and weighted and placed under deep anesthesia. Their right kidneys were processed and stained with hematoxylin and eosine and periodic acid staining and studied using stereological methods. Data was analyzed using one way ANOVA and LSD test and means difference were considered significant at P<0.05.

Mean body weight, kidney weight, kidney volume, the volume of cortex and medulla, number of glomeruli and thickness of medulla significantly decreased in ACR group compared to the controls (P<0.001). The thickness of cortex also decreased in ACR group compared to the control group (P<0.05). In vitamin C group, body weight, kidney volume and number of glomeruli increased compared to the control group (P<0.001). In vitamin C group, increased kidney weight, thickness of medulla, volume of cortex and glomeruli were observed compared to the control (P<0.05). In ACR+vitamin C group, this reduction was less significant compared to the ACR group.

Vitamin C as an antioxidant can protect the kidneys from ACR induced tissue damage.

Backround:

 The present study investigated the correlation between p53 gene codon 72 polymorphism and 6 other genetic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in patients with cervical cancer infected by HPV.

450 patients with cervical cancer (280 Squamous cell carcinoma and 170 Adenocarcinoma) were followed at hospitals in Iran from Dec. 2014 to Apr. 2015. Moreover, 100 age/sex-matched were used as the control group. HPV was detected by LINEAR ARRAY® HPV Genotyping Test. Allelic frequency of 6 gene polymorphisms was detected by the amplification-refractory mutation system (ARMS).

From 450 patients, 408 cases (90.66%) were positive for HPV. Four genotypes were observed as single infections (16, 18, 31, and 45). The most common genotypes were HPV-16 (73.52%), HPV-18 (23.28%), HPV-31 and 45 (3.17%), respectively. 306 samples were arginine-arginine homozygous (70.6% and 71.4% of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, respectively), 70 cases were arginine-proline heterozygous (17.6% of adenocarcinoma and 23.8% of squamous cell carcinoma), and 20 cases were as proline-proline homozygous (11.8% and 4.8% of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, respectively).

The prevalence of HPV was 84% and that was the estimation of the Global Burden among Iranian patients with cervical cancer (85% - 99%). There was no correlation between mutations in the p53 allele and the size/type of tumors, while we found a correlation between mutations in p53 alleles and age. Therefore, XRCC1 G399A SNP and TP53 G72C SNP were significantly correlated with the cervical cancer.

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) enterococci cause many problems for physicians and infection control specialists in the recent years. Hence, by the identification of antibiotic resistance patterns of enterococci in different geographical regions an appropriate strategy can be developed to prevent bacterial antibiotic resistance and provide effective treatment. The current study aimed at identifying enterococci via molecular methods and evaluating multi-drug resistance patterns in Enterococcus species isolated from nosocomial samples of some hospitals in Tehran, Iran.

The current study was conducted on 300 nosocomial samples from different hospitals in Tehran, Iran. The identified Enterococcus species of E. faecalis and E. faecium were isolated via biochemical testing and confirmed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The antibiotic resistance pattern was determined using the disc diffusion method according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines.

The highest antibiotic resistance was observed against quinupristin-dalfopristin, tetracycline, and erythromycin. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of vancomycin against the isolated antibiotic resistant Enterococcus spp. was ≥256 µg/mL. According to the results of the current study, 69.6% of E. faecalis and 80% of E. faecium isolations showed multi-drug resistance.

Increase of antibiotic resistant bacteria, especially MDR species, is a severe health threatening problem worldwide. The increase of MDR bacteria limited therapeutic solutions to the patients with enterococcal infection, increased treatment costs, and led to transmission of resistant genes among bacteria. It is highly important to find antibiotic resistant patterns to compile guidelines for infectious diseases.

In recent years, three new aminoglycoside resistance genes such as aph (3ʹ)-IIIa and ant (4ʹ)-Ia, that encode for the APH (3ʹ) and ANT (4ʹ) have also been identified. The aim of this study was to come up with a multiplex-PCR procedure for detection of aac(6ʹ)-Ie–aph(2ʹʹ)-Ia, aph(3ʹ)-IIIa, ant(4ʹ)-Ia genes in the Enterococcus spp. clinical isolates.

100 samples were isolated from various specimens, from various hospitals in Tehran, Iran. The grown colonies were identified by standard biochemical and disc diffusion tests. Multiplex-PCR for aac (6’)-Ie -aph(2’’)-Ia , aph(3ʹ)-IIIa, ant(4ʹ)-Ia genes amplification were performed in order to confirm bacterial colonies as Enterococcus spp.

Eighty four (84%) Enterococcus spp. isolates were collected from the 100 specimens. The highest and lowest isolates were related to urine (48%) and sputum (2%). Antibiotic susceptibility test results showed that the highest and lowest resistance was related to tetracycline and nitrofurantoin, respectively. Multiplex PCR results revealed that aac (6ʹ)-Ie-aph (2ʹʹ)-Ia, ant (4ʹ)-Ia and aph (3ʹ)-IIIa genes were present in 6% of the isolated bacteria from the urine, 2% from the wound and 1% from the pleural samples. the aac (6ʹ)-Ie-aph (2ʹʹ)-Ia and aph (3ʹ)-IIIa genes were present in 25% of the isolated strains from the urine, 3% from the wound and 2% from the plural specimens. Nine percent of the strains were isolated from the urine, 3% from the wound and 1% from the plural were positive for aac (6ʹ)-Ie-aph (2ʹʹ)-Ia and ant (4ʹ)-Ia genes.

we had observed enterococci isolates with phenotypic resistance to HLAR and demonstrated aac(6′)-Ie-aph(2′′)-Ia and aph(3′)-IIIa genes more frequently occurring than other genes. A collection of AMEs are accountable for HLAR status among Enterococcus species. The aac (6ʹ)-Ie-aph (2ʹʹ)-Ia gene was detected more frequently than the other genes.

Gastric cancer is the fourth common and the second deadliest cancer worldwide, which the major causes of its prevalence are genetic factors and the lifestyle, such as eating fast foods, physical inactivity, environmental pollution, and other natural factors.

This research was performed in human and animal cell bank of Iranian Biological Resource Center, and cytotoxic effects of the eggplant peel extract was investigated on human gastric cancer cells and normal cells. During this experiment, all quality control procedures were performed on cell lines, including bacteria, fungi, yeasts, molds, mycoplasma, as well as HIV-I, HBV, HCV, EBV viruses, and the results of negative tests were reported. MTT test was used to determine the cytotoxicity of this substance and the IC50 value.

Resutls: 

The results indicated that the toxic effect of eggplant extract was more on the cancer cells compared to the normal cells and it is notable that, the death rate of the cancer cells in three concentrations showed a significant difference compared to the normal cells. 

From the results of this study, it is recommended that further investigations be conducted on eggplant extract as an anticancer nutrient.

Use of elastin-like proteins (ELPs) provides high-performance protein purification without need for chromatography. In line with cost reduction and facilitation of recombinant proteins purification, which represent a high percentage of production costs, in this project, we eliminated the need for proteases in the process of separation of recombinant proteins from ELP by designing a cassette using ELPs properties as well as insertion of autocatalytic intein protein between the recombinant protein and ELP.

In this study, at first Mxe GyrA intein gene was amplified from pTXB1 vector by PCR method and cloned into pUC57-hEGF vector. Then, 8xELP repetitive sequences were first cloned in pUC57 vector and then into pUC57-intein-hEGF vector in the upstream of Intein-hEGF.

The design and construction stages of pUC57-8xELP-Intein-hEGF cassette was successful and the accuracy of 8xELP-Intein-hEGF was confirmed by sequencing.

The use of ELP-intein cassette provides recombinant protein purification only with steps consisting of temperature, salt, and centrifugation, without need for proteolytic enzymes, and access to this technology provides the possibility of production and purification of recombinant proteins with minimum cost and facilities.