Journal of Advanced Biomedical Sciences

Identification and Analysis of Dyslipidemia Risk Factors in a Population-Based Study: Data from the Fasa Persian Cohort

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:43:28 +0000

Background & Objectives: Dyslipidemia is a major public health issue worldwide characterized by changes in lipid index such as cholesterol, Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) and triglycerides (TG).This manuscript aimed to investigate the associated factors of dyslipidemia in Fasa Persian cohort study.

Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on the baseline data of Fasa Persian cohort with an initial sample size of 10129 subjects (35-70 years old) in 2021 in Iran. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the relationship between covariates and dyslipidemia.

Results: The number of males in this study was 4572 and the number of females was 5557. The prevalence of dyslipidemia in them was 40.8% and 27.7%, respectively (p-value < 0.001), and the prevalence of dyslipidemia in the whole study population was 3407 (33.6%). Dyslipidemia was also more common in alcoholics, opium users, smokers, high glycemic index and higher body mass index (BMI). Men were 1.68 times more likely to have dyslipidemia than women. Opium and cigarette smokers were 1.15 and 1.36 times more likely to have dyslipidemia than nonsmokers, respectively. Also, as BMI increases, the likelihood of dyslipidemia becomes higher than the reference group (below 18.5), and people with a BMI greater than 30 have the highest obesity range.

Conclusions: This study showed that the prevalence of dyslipidemia in the studied population was higher in men than in women and several risk factors such as gender differences, body mass index, smoking and opium use are effective in the prevalence of dyslipidemia.

A Real-time Quantitative Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay Targeting com1 Gene of Coxiella burnetii

Razieh Zabihi, Keivan Majidzadeh-A, Abbas Morovvati, Mohammad Soleimani — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:43:45 +0000

Background & Objectives: The present study designed a loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method to rapidly detect Coxiella burnetii (C. burnetii) and develop a sensitive Real-time quantitative LAMP (Q-LAMP) assay to quantify Q fever.

Materials & Methods: Primers were specifically designed for use in targeting the com1 conserved gene of C. burnetii to carry out LAMP detection of the agent causing Q fever. After obtaining the LAMP reaction, the sensitivity of the method was assessed by preparing a serial ten-fold dilution of a plasmid carrying com1 gene.

Results: The assay’s sensitivity for the visual detection of changes in turbidity or turbidimeter and electrophoresis of agarose gel were 0.4 fg and 0.04 fg, respectively. Hence, the lower limit of detection was 120 and 12 copies of the gene detected in 60 min. The results of this study were indicative of the simplicity, rapidness, sensitivity, and specificity of the LAMP assay for C. burnetii detection and a probable improvement of the diagnostic procedure used in clinical laboratories.

Conclusion: The assay specificity was assessed using Coxiella genomic DNA and a panel of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The LAMP assay was shown to be highly specific for detection of Coxiella without any observable amplification products from non-Coxiella organisms.

The Effect of Silver Nanoparticles Produced from Extract of Medicinal Plant (Kelussia) on Kidney Function Tests

Nezam Armand, Hassan Morovvati, Yaser Azizi — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:43:57 +0000

Background & Objectives: Kelussia odoratissima is involved in the treatment of kidney stones, irritation of the urinary tract and kidney and bladder cleansing. It is useful for gout patients and is used to treat kidney and ureteral stones. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Kelussia odoratissima on renal function tests in male rats.

Materials & Methods: In this study, 20 rats were randomly divided into one control group and three treatment groups (n=5 per group). The treatment groups received a 40, 80, and 120 mg/kg silver nanoparticles produced by the extracts of Kelussia, orally once a day for 6 days. After taking a blood sample, a kidney function test was performed. SPSS software version 21 was used for data collection, and the results were presented as mean and standard deviation (mean±SEM).

Results: Oral administration of silver nanoparticles produced by Kelussia extracts at 80 mg/kg dose significantly reduced bilirubin and urea compared to the control group (P<0.05). The 120 mg/kg dose also significantly reduced urea compared to the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant effect on total protein, albumin and urea.

Conclusion: Silver nanoparticles produced by the Kelussia extracts did not show any negative effect on kidney function, but had some positive effect on waste removal.

The Effect of a Six-Week Home Exercise Program on Pain and Disability in UltrasoundDiagnosed Patients with Subacromial Subdeltoid Impingement Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Salman Vojdani, Sarah Hojjati, Zahra Sadeghi Mazidi, Maryam Talebi Moghaddam — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:44:09 +0000

Background & Objectives: There is conflicting evidence regarding the effects of exercise on shoulder impingement syndrome. Exercise therapy is one of the methods used to reduce pain and increase muscle strength in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome. There are several exercise therapy programs available in this area. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of exercise therapy on pain and disability in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome.

Materials & Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted in 25 patients with impingement syndrome from the Dastgheib Yasaei Pain Clinic in Fasa. Patients were randomized to receive medication (n=13) or medication plus exercise therapy (n=12). The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and the Verbal Numeric Rating Scale were used to measure disability and pain intensity before and after the intervention. Patient satisfaction was measured using the Likert scale. Independent and paired t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, and chi-squared were performed at a significant level of P≤0.05. Analyses were performed with SPSS software (version 25.0).

Results: There were no differences between groups in pre-intervention demographics (P>0.05), pain intensity (P=0.16), and ODI scores (0.93). Post-intervention pain and ODI scores were significantly higher in the medication group than in the medication-exercise group (P=0.06, P=0.03, respectively). There was a significant difference in pain and ODI scores at post-intervention compared to pre-intervention in both groups (P<0.001). The difference in pain intensity between pre- and post-intervention in both groups was also statistically significant (P=0.006). There was a significant difference in patient satisfaction between groups (P=0.03).

Conclusion: These results suggest that a regular exercise program, along with medication, may be effective in reducing pain and disability in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome.

Functionalization of Carbon Nanotubes Loaded with Tamoxifen and Their Anticancer Potential against Human Breast Cancer Cells Review

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:44:13 +0000

Background & Objectives: Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) serve as molecular carriers for in vivo and in vitro delivery. Initial studies have suggested that nanotubes in drug delivery can enhance the therapeutic response to anti-cancer drugs. The present study intended to investigate the effect of CNTs carrying tamoxifen (TAM-CNTs) on the induction of apoptosis in the MDAMB-231 cell line.

Materials & Methods: The cells were treated with various concentrations of TAM and TAMCNTs. The IC50 for these compounds was determined using a MTT assay. The cells were then treated with a lower concentration of IC50. The BAX and BCL-2 genes expression were evaluated by Real-Time PCR and Western blot. Flow cytometry was employed for evaluating apoptosis induction by TAM and TAM-CNTs.

Results: The IC50 value of TAM and TAM-CNTs in a 48-hour period was 66.19 mg/mL and 36.59 mg/mL, respectively. The results demonstrated that BAX in the cells treated with TAM and TAM-CNTs was upregulated 3.64 and 7.88 times, respectively (P <0.05). Conversely, BCL-2 was downregulated 3.98 and 5.31 times (P <0.05). Furthermore, Western blot experiments confirmed the expression of BAX and BCL-2 proteins based on their gene expression. Flow cytometry results indicated that the viability of MDA-MB-231 cells in the control group, TAM-treated, and TAM-CNTs-treated cells was 95.3%, 64.9%, and 13.75%, respectively. This suggests that TAM-CNTs significantly diminishes cell viability compared to TAM (P <0.001).

Conclusion: The findings revealed that TAM accompanied by CNTs exhibits a greater cytotoxic and apoptotic effect on MDA-MB-231 cells.

Intelligent Diagnosis of Heart Diseases Based on Electrocardiographic Signal

Mohammadjavad Hosseinpoor — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:44:22 +0000

Background & Objectives: Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. ECG signals are used to diagnose it. This study aims to eliminate signal noise by converting available wavelets and extracting existing waves. The location-related properties and amplitude of these waves will be extracted to develop a model based on the random forest algorithm for training and evaluating the algorithm.

Materials & Methods: This study uses the MIT-BIH dataset, which contains digital ECG signals extracted from Holter bands for different patients at Arrhythmia Hospital from 1975 to 1979. The study applies signal processing and machine learning techniques to classify ECG signals and identify heart patients. The MATLAB software implemented the algorithm, which was evaluated based on accuracy, error rate, TP, FP, Precision, Recall, F-Measure, and ROC criteria. These criteria were determined by a confusion matrix.

Results: The study results and comparisons demonstrate that the proposed method is highly effective in detecting heart patients. The proposed method’s accuracy was found to be 99%, which is higher than other machine learning methods.

Conclusion: The proposed method achieved an accuracy of 99.1957%, surpassing other machine learning methods like support vector machine, neural network, and Bayes.

Investigating The Expression Changes of miR-93-3p, NFATc1 and NFATc3 Genes in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC) of Breast Cancer Patients

Mansoreh Dastgir, Garshasb Rigi, Samira Ghaedmohammadi, Sedigheh Tahmasebi — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:44:30 +0000

Background & Objectives: Breast cancer is the most lethal malignancy in women. miRNAs function as epigenetic regulators and contribute to the pathogenesis of breast cancer. Nuclear factor of activated T-cells, cytoplasmic 1 (NFATc1) and 3 (NFATc3), are targeted by microRNA-93 (miR93). This study aims to evaluate the expression of these genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of healthy women and women with breast cancer

Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, blood samples were collected from 20 healthy women and 20 women with early-stage breast cancer. After isolating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis were performed. The expression of the desired genes was then examined by Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). Statistical analysis was conducted. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant, and Student’s t-test was used to evaluate the relative changes in gene expression.

Results: The results demonstrated that the expression of NFATc1 and NFATc3 genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of breast cancer patients was significantly reduced compared to their expression in healthy individuals. Conversely, the expression of the miR-93-3p gene was significantly lower in healthy women than in breast cancer patients (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: This study investigated the expression of miR-93-3p and its downstream targets, the NFATc1 and NFATc3 genes, for the first time in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The expression levels were shown to be significantly different in patients with breast cancer compared to healthy women.

Comparison of Treatment Outcomes for Tennis Elbow: Corticosteroid Injection and Casting vs. Acupuncture and Physiotherapy

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 09:44:41 +0000

Background & Objectivs: Today, despite the existence of numerous treatments for tennis elbow, the search for more effective methods continues due to the limited efficacy of these existing approaches. This study aimed to compare the results of tennis elbow treatment in two groups: patients receiving corticosteroid injection and casting, and patients receiving acupuncture and physiotherapy.

Materials & Methods: This quasi-experimental study, conducted in Jiroft in 2021, investigated the effectiveness of different treatment approaches for tennis elbow. Fifty patients diagnosed with tennis elbow were randomly divided into two groups of 25 each. One group received a combination of corticosteroids and casts, while the other group received acupuncture and physiotherapy. A pain line was used to assess pain levels based on VAS criteria. Data were analyzed using SPSS-26 statistical software, employing Chi-square, Fisher’s Exact, Mann-Whitney, one-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests.

Results: The majority of patients were female (66%) and housewives (46%). There was a significant difference in pain outcomes between the two groups: physiotherapy alone and physiotherapy combined with corticosteroids and casts. This difference was observed across various conditions (pain at rest, pain during activity, and amount of pain evoked during activity) (p <0.05). In simpler terms, corticosteroids and casts were more effective in reducing pain from tennis elbow compared to acupuncture and physiotherapy. Additionally, corticosteroids and casts had a greater effect on hand movement (supination, pronation, extension, and flexion) compared to acupuncture and physiotherapy.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that treatment of tennis elbow with a combination of corticosteroid injection and casting is more effective than acupuncture or physiotherapy alone. Corticosteroid injections themselves are also an effective way to relieve tennis elbow pain.