مجله دانشگاه علوم پزشکی شهرکرد
سال بیست و سوم شماره 4 (پیاپی 113، Autumn 2021)

Azathioprine (AZA) is an immunosuppressant medication that has toxicity to kidneys and liver. This study aimed to investigate the protective activity of carvacrol (CAR) against hepatorenal toxic activity of AZA in male Wistar rats.

All study rats were divided into five groups: control (saline, ip); azathioprine-only (AZA 50 mg/kg, ip), Sily+AZA (Silymarin 50 mg/kg, gavage), CAR+AZA (CAR 10 mg/kg, gavage), and CAR+AZA (CAR 20 mg/kg, gavage) groups. Silymarin was used as the standard hepatoprotective drug. The drugs were administered once daily for 21 days in III-V groups, and a single dose of AZA was injected on the seventh day of the experiment.

AZA-intoxicated rats exhibited an elevation in aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in serum, as well as an increase in extent of lipid peroxidation. Activities of enzymatic antioxidants (superoxide dismutase – SOD, catalase - CAT) in the serum, liver, and kidney were decreased as for the AZA group (P < 0.05). Co-treatment of CAR (both doses of 10 and 20 mg/kg) lowered the serum transaminases and ALP level, the elevation of endogenous enzymes levels, and the malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum and both tissues (P < 0.05). This protective effect was greater in CAR 10 compared to 20 mg/kg doses, which was comparable to silymarin.

This study demonstrated that the renal and nephrotoxic activities of AZA could be attributed to the generated increased oxidative stress, as well as to the CAR with antioxidant effect similar to that in silymarin, which protected these tissues against AZA-induced nephrotoxicity hepatotoxicity.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of psychological capital training on psychological burden and emotional self-regulation styles of mothers having children with cerebral palsy.

This quasi-experimental study was performed in 2019 on mothers of children with cerebral palsy who had files in rehabilitation centers under the supervision of Shahrekord Welfare (n= 270). Samples were selected through convenience sampling methodsuch that 30 people were selected from among eligible people and volunteers to cooperate, and then they were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. As for the intervention group, the psychological capital training program was implemented once a week for 10 sessions; but the control group was not given any intervention. Data were collected using the Psychological Burden Questionnaire designed by Zarit et al and the Emotional Self-Regulatory Questionnaire developed by Hoffman and Kashdan in three measurement steps. The collected data were analyzed by multivariate and repeated measure analysis of variance using SPSS-18 software.

The results showed that the mean scores of burden, secrecy, adaptability, and tolerance were significantly different in the post-test compared to the pre-test (P < 0.05), as well as in the follow-up stage compared to the pre-test (P < 0.001). Furthermore, the mean scores of post-test and follow-up for the experimental group increased in comparison with those for the control group in three styles of emotional regulation, and psychological burden decreased (P < 0.001).

The educational intervention of psychological capital could be adopted to increase using adaptive styles of emotional self- regulation, and to reduce psychological burden of mothers having children with cerebral palsy.

Regarding the increasing numbers of clinical antimonial-resistant Leishmaniasis, understanding the reasons for drug resistance is helpful. This study aimed to find the expression level of the genes related to resistance, P-glycoprotein A (PgpA), G-glutamylcysteine synthetase 1 (Gsh1), and aquaglyceroporin 1 (Aqp1) in antimonial-resistant clinical isolates.

Samples were isolated from leishmaniasis ulcers of 10 non-healing patients and the species were identified by the nested- polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. In vitro experiments were performed using the amastigote-macrophage model by J774 cell line, and in vivo studies were conducted by animal model, the Balb/c mice. Finally, the values of genes expression were determined by quantitative-reverse transcription (q-RT) real-time PCR method and then compared with non-resistantLeishmania major (MRHO/IR/75/ER).

Molecular identification showed that all isolated protozoa were L. major. The isolated samples from clinical resistant patients represented no increase in expression in the tested resistance genes ( P > 0.05). Finally, it was found that the lack of improvements in patients was not associated with the increased expression of resistance genes.

In general, no inherent resistance was observed in the tested samples neither a correlation between the healing of lesions and the level of genes expression.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a newly discovered coronavirus which causes an infectious disease. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) broke out in 2003 and 2012, respectively. These viruses have some structural proteins, including spike (S), membrane (M), envelope (E), and nucleocapsid (N) proteins. These proteins assist the virus in infecting cells through interaction with cell receptors, penetration into the cell, and proliferation. These coronavirus proteins are modified by post-translational modifications (PTMs) which activate various functional and interactional activities of proteins. This study aimed to investigate the PTMs in SARS-CoV/CoV-2, as well as to examine the effect of these PTMs on the pathogenicity of these two viruses.

In this study, PTMs sites were detected by different bioinformatics tools. Evaluation and comparison of PTMs were performed and their roles in structural proteins activities of SARS-CoV/CoV-2 coronaviruses were examined in order to gain a richer understanding of these modifications’ relationships with the protein activities.

The PTMs sum and percentages of four structural proteins of SARS-CoV/CoV-2 were evaluated, with a focus on their effects on viral replication and pathogenesis in order to develop a method for treating these diseases. According to our study results, some of the PTMs in SARS-CoV/CoV-2 were different from each other.

It was concluded that SARS-CoV-2 had more pathogenicity than SARS-CoV.

Surgery is an important and life-saving health service that can treat many of the congenital anomalies. This study aimed to investigate the possible causes and outcomes of non-cardiac surgeries in newborns admitted to the neonatal invasive care unit (NICU) department of Be’sat Hospital in Hamadan during the period 2011 to 2017.

This study included all neonates (482 newborns) who were admitted to the NICU department of Be’sat hospital during the period 2011-2017 due to non-cardiac surgery, and had hospital records. The required information was extracted from their hospital records and the surgical outcomes and complications were analyzed with respect to other variables such as the gender, type of delivery, gestational age, birth weight, and disease.

According to our study results, 80.5% of the newborns had the gastrointestinal disease which was the most common cause of surgery found in this study. Moreover, imperforated anus (20.8%) and esophageal atresia (17.1%) were among the most common disorders. Esophageal atresia (33.9%) was detected to be the most common disease among the newborns who died during the course of the study. The results from the study showed that the outcome of surgery had statistically significant relationship with gender (P=0.011), type of breastfeeding/feeding (P<0.001), gestational age (P<0.001), and birth weight (P<0.001).

Fetal examinations during pregnancy and neonatal care immediately after birth were recommended for early diagnosis of esophageal atresia, diaphragmatic hernia, and imperforated anus. Since gender (male), breastfeeding, normal gestational age, and normal birth weight had a significantly positive effect on surgery outcome, higher quality care was also recommended for infants lacking these characteristics.

One of the main potential problems of radiotherapy (RT) in breast cancer is the increase in treatment-related inflammation. This study aimed to investigate the effect of eight weeks of moderate-intensity aerobic training (AT) on serum levels of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in rats undergoing RT.

In this experimental study, 32 male rats were randomly divided into four groups of eight members including (1) healthy control (C), (2) AT, (3) RT, and (4) AT + RT groups. Rats were first anesthetized with ketamine-xylazine solution (K, 60-90 kg/mg; Z, 6-10 kg/mg) and then located on a Plexiglas plate with a thickness of 1 cm. Photon beam RT was performed using X-rays with a dose of 11 Gy from an Elekta compact linear accelerator (Elekta Compact 6-MV China). AT program was performed for eight weeks, five days a week, and one session a day for 60 minutes (70-75% of VO2max). Afterwards, one-way ANOVA was run to examine the research variables.

According to the results, TNF-α was significantly higher in the RT group compared to the C group (P=0.003), whereas IL-6 levels were significantly lower in the AT + RT group compared to the RT group (P=0.001) and the C group (P=0.027). Further, the levels of this cytokine were significantly lower in the AT group compared to the RT group (P=0.006) and similarly in the RT group compared to the C group (P=0.03).

RT led to an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines; however, performing AT could only significantly reduce the IL-6 levels.

The objective of the present study was to collect the spectroscopic results obtained from previous studies to determine how exogenous toxic ligands can alter the structural and functional properties of human hemoglobin (HHb).

Using spectroscopic techniques, English published articles (from January 2009 to June 2020) on HHb were systematical reviewed by searching several databases such as PubMed, ScienceDirect databases, and Google Scholar. In this regard, some keywords were searched, including (human hemoglobin) AND (spectroscopy) OR (spectroscopic analysis) OR (spectroscopic studies) AND (environmental pollutants) OR (food additives) OR (dyes) OR (fuel additives) OR (radioactive metal ions) OR (insecticides) OR (food colorants). After screening full text articles, we extracted relevant data according to our subject from included articles.

Finally, 17 studies were found to be related to the subject of this study. Analysis of investigations suggested that after exposure of HHb to each exogenous ligand, we could observe heme hydrophobic pocket alteration, fluorescence quenching, and polarity alteration around aromatic residues of protein, indicating that the structural properties of HHb were changing. Lack of some spectroscopic techniques in some articles could place some minor limitations on the obtained evidence.

Considering the impacts of the exogenous ligands on characteristics of HHb, in the first step, it is the responsibility of governments to exercise strict control over the manufacturing sectors and then industry owners to investigate the effects of chemical products on the living organisms before commercializing them.

Renal cysts are diagnosed by ultrasonography, computerized tomography (CT), or urography. A 36-year-old pregnant woman (G2, Ab1, within the gestational age of 38 weeks) with upper abdominal pain starting from two hours ago, vomiting, and nausea was referred to the emergency department. Although abdominal examinations revealed costovertebral angle tenderness, there were no signs of peritoneal irritation, and all vital signs of the patient were in a normal range. Initial investigation results including blood count (Hb: 11.4), BUN/Cr, Na/K, and UA were normal. She underwent a cesarean section (c/s) due to reduced fetal heart rate (FHR). After C/S,the CT scan showed a large left retroperitoneal hematoma with an anterosuperior displacement of the kidney and active bleeding in the cystic lesion of the upper pole of the kidney. Pathological examinations also confirmed a simple cyst. Overall, simple renal cysts should be considered as a rare cause of spontaneous perinatal hemorrhage (SPH) in pregnancy. The diagnosis and treatment of SPH in pregnancy are also critical challenges.