Biolmpacts
Volume:5 Issue: 2, Jun 2015

A large number of researchers worldwide have conducted various investigations to advance the cell-based immunotherapies and to examine their clinical benefits as an ultimate prevention and/or treatment modalities against life-threatening malignancies. This dominion needs integration of science and technology to change the face of treatment of diseases towards much more personalized medicines. It is now plausible to reprogram the human cells for the prevention and treatment of diseases through various mechanisms such as modulation of immune system, nonetheless we should understand the complexity of biological functions of the cells in a holistic way to be able to manipulate the central dogma of the life to prevent any inadvertent mistake. We should, if not must, comprehend the interrelations of the cellular components (e.g., transport machineries) in the developmental processes of diseases. Still, we do not have a complete image of life, perhaps as expressive barcodes, and many pieces are missing. While completing this puzzle to picture the whole image and examine new treatment modalities, we should take extra caution upon unknown/little-known biological phenomena because trifling modulation/alteration in the complex systems of the life may result in tremendous impacts. In short, it seems we need to consider malignancies as complex systems and treat them in a holistic manner by targeting its hallmarks. Taken all, the immune system reinforcement would be one of the main foundations in combating detrimental malignancy uprising.

Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by the by spiral-shaped bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. We investigated the presence and prevalence of Borrelia species in ticks from southern England. One hundred fifty-five ticks (103 adult ticks and 52 nymphal ticks) were collected from animal carcases. The midguts were removed and cultured in Barbour/Stoenner/Kelly II (BSK-II) and Barbour/Stoenner/Kelly F (BSK-F) media, examined by IF, dark-field microscopy, and nested PCR. From a total 155 cultured ticks, two showed evidence of spirochetes and denoted as SO-1 and SO-2 strains. The availability of these two isolates enabled their antigenic characterization with SDS-PAGE and western blotting and comparison with two standard isolates. These studies identified six protein antigens with molecular weights of 18, 30, 39, 47, 60 and 88 kDa with particular promise for detecting specific immune responses to B. burgdorferi infection including Lyme disease. We also investigated the effect of repeated subculture on the antigenic pattern of UK isolate of B. burgdorferi. As a result of this study, antigenic differences have been seen between the UK isolates and the foreign isolates used as laboratory standards.

Fruits of oleaster (Elaeagnus angustifolia L.) were used in traditional medicine to treat various diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the phenol and flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity of methanol extracts from the fruit peel, flesh and seed of seven genotypes of oleaster. The phenol and flavonoid contents were determined using spectrophotometric methods. Antioxidant and antiradical activities were determined using reducing power, ferric-reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) and ability to scavenge DPPH radical assays. Significant differences (P 0.05) were found in phenol and flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity among components of fruit and within various genotypes. Results indicated that oleaster has good fruit quality varying among different genotypes. Seeds of fruits have excellent antioxidant activity and phenolic contents in comparison to flesh and peel.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) plays an important role in causing many serious nosocomial infections. In this study, the antimicrobial susceptibility and the frequency of aminoglycoside modifying enzyme encoding genes among clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was investigated from two university hospitals of Zanjan province of Iran. In this study, the antimicrobial susceptibility of MRSA isolates to various antibiotics was investigated by the disk diffusion method. Multiplex PCR assays were used for the determination of aminoglycoside modifying enzyme (AME) genes and staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) types in MRSA strains. All 58 MRSA isolates were sensitive to vancomycin. Resistance to penicillin G, oxacilin, gentamicin, erythromycin, clindamycin, kanamycin, and tobramycin was found in 96.4%, 98.3%, 51.7%, 53.4%, 55.2%, 62% and 58.6% of the isolates, respectively. The most prevalent AME genes were aac(6′)/aph(2′′) (48.3 %) followed by ant(4)-Ia (24%). The aph(3′)-Ia gene was the least frequent AME gene among MRSA isolates (19%). Of the 58 tested MRSA isolates, 5 (8.6%) were harboured SCCmec type I, 11 (19%) SCCmec type II, 20 (34.5%) SCCmec type III, 17 (29.3%) SCCmec type IVa, 1 (1.7%) SCCmec type IVb, 2 (3.4%) SCCmec type IVc, 11 (19%) SCCmec type IVd, and, 18 (31%) SCCmec type V. Nineteen isolates were not typeable. In conclusion, the aac (6′)/aph (2′′) was the most common aminoglycoside modifying enzyme gene and SCCmec type II and V were the most frequent types detected in hospital isolates, respectively.

This is very rare case report regarding late ventricular septal defect (VSD) following blunt trauma.Case Report: A 23-year-old motorcycle rider lost control and crashed to another motorcycle. He was transferred to emergency department by emergency medical services. Initial evaluation revealed some minor trauma which was managed, and he was discharged. There was a lately developed large apical VSD with delayed cardiopulmonary deterioration. The defect was recognized more than 10 days after accident, and repaired the day after. Most VSD patients with blunt trauma remain asymptomatic following trauma while those with no primary findings experience gradual decompensation.

The embryonic development of the vertebrate Central Nervous System (CNS) requires the induction of transcription factors regulating the expression of specific subsets of genes in restricted CNS regions. Among these transcription factors, homeobox-containing proteins play a crucial role, and altered expression of these factors can impact embryonic as well as adult CNS functions. Importantly, the homeobox-containing genes Otx2, Engrailed-1 (En1), and Engrailed-2 (En2) have been described to crucially regulate differentiation of dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons during vertebrate CNS development. Dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons, located in midbrain and hindbrain regions respectively, diffusely innervate several forebrain areas including limbic system, contributing in regulating several physiological functions. Understanding the embryonic development of these neuronal populations is crucial to elucidate their physiological function including brain excitability in the adult brain. New evidence is emerging about the impact of an altered embryonic development of dopamine and serotonin neurons onto seizure susceptibility in the adult life. In this Mini-review, we summarized our kainic acid (KA) induced seizure susceptibility in adult mutant mouse lines with targeted manipulation of Otx2, En1, and En2 genes. Our results demonstrated that altered development of dopamine (DA) neurons does not interfere with KA seizure susceptibility, while increased serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) hyperinnervation leads to resistance to KA-induced seizure. We propose that developmental alterations of serotonergic but not dopaminergic circuits play a crucial role in controlling seizure susceptibility in the adult life.

The impermeability of biological membranes is a major obstacle in drug delivery; however, some peptides have transition capabilities of biomembranes. In recent decades, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been introduced as novel biocarriers that are able to translocate into the cells. CPPs are biologically potent tools for non-invasive cellular internalization of cargo molecules. Nevertheless, the non-specificity of these peptides presents a restriction for targeting drug delivery; therefore, a peptidic nanocarrier sensitive to matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) has been prepared, called activatable cell-penetrating peptide (ACPP). In addition to the cell-penetrating peptide dendrimer (DCPP), other analogues of CPPs have been synthesized. In this study, the most recent literature in the field of biomedical application of CPPs and their analogues, ACPP and DCCP, were reviewed. This review focuses on CPP and its analogues, ACPP and DCPP, as novel nanocarriers for drug delivery. In addition, nanoconjugates and bioconjugates of these peptide sequences are discussed. DCCP, branched CPPs, compared to linear peptides have advantages such as resistance to rapid biodegradation, high loading capacities and large-scale production capability.