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The nephroprotective effect of Eryngium caucasicum extract alone and in combination with metformin in adult male diabetic rats
No full textIntroduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease associated with the disorders in the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids that affect insulin action. Objectives: The present study was designed to evaluate the nephroprotective effect of Eryngium caucasicum (Eryngo) extract alone and in combination with metformin (MET) in adult male diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: Thirty male Wistar rats randomly were designated into five groups (n = 6) including; group I (Control); rats received normal saline by gavage for 15 days. Group II; rats received a single injection of STZ at a dose of 60 mg/kg intraperitoneally. Group III; rats, after STZ injection, received 30 mg/kg of MET by gavage for 15 days. Group IV; rats, after STZ injection, received 30 ml/kg of Eryngo extract by gavage for 15 days. Group V; rats, after STZ injection, received the combination of MET and Eryngo extract at a dose of 30 mg/kg by gavage for 15 days. The kidneys were removed immediately after sacrificing and prepared for morphological examination. Kidney sections were examined for the intensity of kidney damage (vacuolization, flattening, degeneration, and necrosis). Results: Significant differences were observed in types of morphologic injury to renal tubular cells between groups (P < 0.05). Eryngo extract had more protective effect against kidney damage due to DM compared to MET and the combination of MET+Eryngo. Additionally, in pairwise comparisons of groups, the relationship between group II (DM group) and group IV (DM + Eryngo) was significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The administration of MET and Eryngo extract alone and their combination ameliorate types of morphologic injury to renal tubular cells in diabetic rats, however, the renoprotective effect of Eryngo extract alone is more remarkable
A survey on the anti-Trichomonas vaginalis effect of the hydroalcoholic extract of various medicinal plants in vitro
No full textBackground and aims: Trichomoniasis is the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection worldwide; although it is treated by a 5-nitroimidazole drug family such as metronidazole (MTZ) with numerous side effects, and in this regard, alternative new drugs are required. Therefore, this study examined the anti-Trichomoniasis effect of the hydroalcoholic extract of some traditional medicinal plants of Iran in vitro.
Methods: In this experimental study, the hydroalcoholic extracts of medicinal plants were prepared by maceration at a stock concentration of 20 mg/mL in the saline solution and then used for in vitro anti-trichomonas experiments. Trichomonas vaginalis trophozoites were isolated from the patient and cultured in a Trypticase Yeast extract Iron-Serum-33 medium. In addition, 200 μL of the culture medium containing 5×104 trophozoites was diluted in plate wells, and 10 doses were separately added on trophozoites for each extract serially diluted between 0.12 and 16 mg/mL in triplicate. The plates were incubated for 48 hours at 37 ° C with 5% CO2 . The number of trophozoites was counted with a hemocytometer and Trypan blue staining. Finally, the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) was calculated by probit analysis.
Results: Among the tested plants, Eugenia caryophyllata, Camellia sinensis, and Terminalia chebula Retz showed the best anti-trichomonal activity with IC50 values of 1.21, 1.62, and 1.66 mg/mL, respectively. All tested extracts had more IC50 than MTZ (IC50 100 mg/mL), an antiprotozoal drug used as a positive control.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, E. caryophylata, C. sinensis and T. chebula Retz affected the growth of T. vaginalis. Thus, it is recommended that other studies use this plant for the treatment of trichomoniasis infection.
Keywords: Medicinal plants, Hydroalcoholic extracts, Trichomonas vaginalis, Trophozoites, In vitr
Comments on “Prediction of Quality of Life Using Dermatology Life Quality Index in Iranian Patients with Neurofibromatosis Type 1”
No full textMutual Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Recent Earthquakes: A Scoping Review of the Lessons Learned
No full textObjective The aim of this study was to review the articles dealing with the mutual impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the recent earthquakes to elicit the various scopes of the lessons learned including the challenges, the successful measures, and the recommendations.
Methods: To detect the relevant studies published between February 1, 2020, and June 9, 2021, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched. Having considered specific inclusion/exclusion criteria, 18 studies were included.
Results: Seven major earthquakes have occurred concurrently or before the pandemic era in Albania, Croatia, Haiti, Great East Japan, Mexico, Nepal, and Utah. Thematic analysis revealed 5 themes for the "challenges" (management inefficiency, increased life-threatening, economic, socially related, and dual psychological challenges); 4 themes for the "efficient response measures" (health-care services measures, government measures, community-based cooperative activities, and disaster management response); and 3 major themes with 7 sub-themes for the "recommendations" including "the mitigation phase" (identifying probable natural disasters), "the preparedness phase" (preparing necessary equipment), and "the response phase" (mental care response measures, healthcare-related COVID-19 measures, economic improvement measures, recognizing community-based capabilities, and government-related boosting measures).
Conclusions: It is suggested that these scopes of the mutual impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the earthquakes be studied in systematic reviews
Current progress and challenges of immunotherapy in gastric cancer: A focus on CAR-T cells therapeutic approach
No full textGastric cancer (GC) is a severe malignancy, accounting for the third most common cancer death worldwide. Despite the development of chemo-radiation therapy, there has not been sufficient survival advantage in patients with GC who were treated by these methods. GC immunogenicity is hampered by a highly immunosuppressive microenvironment; therefore, further understanding of the molecular biology of GC is the potential to achieve new therapeutic strategies in GC therapy, including specific immunotherapy. Current immunotherapies are mainly based on cytokines, immune checkpoints, monoclonal antibodies (mAb), bispecific antibodies (BisAbs), antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). Immunotherapy has made significant progress in the treatment of GC, so that studies show that nivolumab as a programmed death 1 (PD1) inhibitor has proper safety and effectiveness as a third-line treatment for GC patients. Multiple monoclonal antibodies like ramucirumab and claudiximab were effective in treating GC patients, especially in combination with other treatments. Despite the challenges of CAR therapy in solid tumors, CAR therapy targets various GC cells targets; among them, intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 CAR-T cell and CLDN18.2 CAR-T cell have shown promising results. Although responses to all these treatments are encouraging and in some cases, durable, these successes are not seen in all treated patients. The present review represents the development of various immunotherapies especially CAR-T cell therapy, its current use, clinical data in GC, and their limitations
Preparation and Evaluation of Buccal Adhesive Film Containing Smoke of Anbar Nesara (Donkey Dung) for Treatment of Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis: Preparation a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
No full textRecurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is one of the most common ulcers of the oral mucosa that causes ulcers accompanied by pain and burning. Adhesive mucosal forms are a new drug delivery system that is available in tablet and film form. The film of buccal adhesive prolongs the stopping time of the drug, which leads to improved drug absorption. The purpose of this study, prepare and evaluate a buccal adhesive film containing smoke of Anbar Nesara was on the treatment of RAS. This study was performed as a double-blind randomized clinical trial on 80 patients. The study groups included the film group containing smoke and the other group the film without smoke. Buccal adhesive film of Anbar Nesara smoke was prepared using different compounds and appearance and pharmaceuticals properties, such as surface pH, adhesion strength and release time were investigated. Examination of films contained smoke showed that the prepared films had acceptable properties of appearance, surface pH and adhesion strength. Also, the prepared films containing smoke had significant therapeutic effects such as size decline, reduce inflammation and aphthous pain relief when applying the film contained smoke compared to control group. Smoke of Anbar Nesara have therapeutic effects on oral aphthous and lesions and buccal films are very effective as one of the new methods of drug delivery
Evaluate the effectiveness of a group psychoeducational intervention in reducing the level of cancer-related fatigue in women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer: A randomized controlled trial
No full textBackground: One of the most debilitating symptoms in breast cancer survivors is cancer-related fatigue (CRF). CRF weakens patients' physical, cognitive, and occupational functions. It is associated with poorer quality of life and may reduce recurrence-free and overall survival. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a group psychoeducational intervention in improving CRF in breast cancer patients. Materials and Methods: Fifty breast cancer patients who suffered from CRF were randomly assigned to receive a group psychoeducational intervention or control group. This study was designed as an eight weeks clinical trial. The psychoeducational intervention mainly consisted of concentrative movement therapy and energy conservation strategies. Primary outcome measures were the changes in the Fatigue Visual Analogue scale, Cancer Fatigue scale, and Piper Fatigue scale at the study endpoint. Measure assessments were made on four occasions: at baseline, after the intervention, one week, and four weeks post intervention. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS26. Results: The intervention improved CRF significantly (P < 0.001). All subscales of the Cancer Fatigue scale and the sensory, affective, and cognitive subscales of the Piper Fatigue scale showed statistically significant effects (P < 0.001) at all time points. However, the behavioral subscale of the Piper Fatigue scale was different only at the end of the study (P < 0.001). Conclusions: The group psychoeducational intervention improved CRF significantly. All the sensory, behavioral, physical, affective, and cognitive subscales improved. Accessible and confirmatory treatment can help patients to cope with fatigue in communitie
Corrigendum to “Reducing Cardiac Steatosis: Interventions to Improve Diastolic Function: A Narrative Review”. [Current Problems in Cardiology volume 48 (2023) 1–2]
No full textThe authors regret the name of one of the authors of this paper (Razieh Ziaei MD) has been removed from the original paper. The authors would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused
Apoptosis-inducing Plant-based Phenolic Compounds are Effective on Leukemia Cell Lines
No full textNumerous natural compounds have been identified that are able to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. These compounds have various chemical properties and are found in medicinal plants, vegetables, and fruits that are commonly consumed by humans. Phenols represent important compounds, which have been demon-strated to induce apoptosis in cancer cells, and some of the involved mechanisms have also been determined. The most important and abundant phenolic compounds are tannins, caffeic acid, capsaicin, gallic acid, resvera-trol, and curcumin. Induction of apoptosis with the least or no toxicity to natural tissues is one of the useful effects of many plant-based bioactive compounds. Phenols, with anticancer potency at different degrees, serve to induce apoptosis through different pathways, including both extrinsic (Fas) and intrinsic (calcium release, ROS increase, DNA degradation, and mitochondrial membrane impairment). In this review, we report these compounds and their apoptosis-inducing mechanisms. Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a precise and systematic mechanism that is aimed at removing damaged or abnormal cells and is very useful to control, treat, and prevent cancer. Apoptotic cells are characterized by specific morphological features and molecular expression. In addition to physiological stimuli, there are many external factors that can be useful for inducing apoptosis. Also, these compounds can affect the regulatory proteins of the apoptotic pathways, such as the apoptotic proteins (Bid and BAX) and antiapoptotic proteins (Bcl-2). Taking these compounds and their molecular mechanisms into account can help use them in combination with chemical drugs and develop new drugs