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The interchange of information from one cell to another relies on the release of hundreds of different molecules including small peptides, amino acids, nucleotides, RNA, steroids, retinoids, or fatty acid metabolites. Many of them are released to the extracellular matrix as free molecules and others can be part of the cargo of cellular vesicles. Small extracellular vesicles (30–150 nm), also known as exosomes, are a known mechanism of cell-to-cell communication in the nervous system. Exosomes participate in the pathogenesis of several neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. However, exciting emerging evidence demonstrates that exosomes also regulate mechanisms of the sensory process including nociception. The goal of this review is to summarize the literature on exosome biogenesis, methods of small vesicle isolation and purification, and their role in nociception. We also provide insights on the potential applications of exosomes as pain biomarkers or as novel therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a new endogenous small non-coding RNA family that arranges expression of a few genes related in normal development as well as human diseases such as cancer. miRNAs are developing as potential diagnostic and therapeutic markers with deregulated expression in various cancers including lung cancer. In this study, we aimed to find out miRNA expression profiles and to show the relationship between non-small cell lung cancer and microRNAs levels, if there is. In the present study, the expression profiles of 740 miRNA in plasma from 31 patients and 64 healthy subjects were evaluated using high-throughput real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. All statistical analyses were performed using the Biogazelle's qbase PLUS 2.0 software. Our results showed that expression levels of 7 microRNAs (miR-20b-5p, -30c, -146a, -192-5p, - 206, -484, -574-3p) were significantly upregulated in patients when compared to control group (p< 0.05). Expression levels of five miRNAs (miR-24-3p, - 30a-5p, -106b-5p, -223-3p, -331-5p) were found significantly downregulated in lung cancer patients (p< 00.5). Conclusion: In conclusion, our result showed that up-regulated and down-regulated miRNAs may be important role of early detection in non-small cell lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Recently, the concept of persistent postsurgical opioid use has been described for patients undergoing cancer surgery. Our hypothesis was based on the premise that patients with oral tongue cancer require high dosages of opioids before, during, and after surgery, and thus a large percentage of patients might develop persistent postsurgical opioid use. Methods After institutional review board approval, we conducted a retrospective study that included a cohort of patients with oral tongue cancers who underwent curative-intent surgery in our institution. Multivariable logistic regression models were fit to study the association of the characteristics of several patients with persistent (six months after surgery) and chronic (12 months after surgery) postoperative opioid use. Results A total of 362 patients with oral tongue malignancies were included in the study. The rate of persistent use of opioids after surgery was 31%. Multivariate analysis showed that patients taking opioids before surgery and those receiving adjuvant therapy were 2.9 and 1.78 times more likely to use opioids six months after surgery. Fifteen percent of the patients were taking opioids 12 months after surgery. After adjusting for clinically relevant covariates, patients complaining of moderate tongue pain before surgery and those taking opioids preoperatively had at least three times higher risk of still using these analgesics one year after surgery. Conclusions Patients with oral tongue cancers have a high risk of developing persistent and chronic postsurgical opioid use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey is among the richest countries in terms of biodiversity because of having different ecologies and climatic characteristics. Turkey's flora consists of approximately 12000 plant species (vascular plants). Geophytes create an important part of the floristic richness of Turkey. Geophytes are considered as ornamental plants in landscape design and they are used in many areas such as beds, border, rock garden, lawn areas etc. The use of these plants in the design can be increased to ensure the continuity of natural species. it was aimed to make a selection of the natural geophytes of Kocaeli province and continuity of visuality. Color is an important characteristic which increases the visual value of the plant. Colors affect human physiology and emotions. A strong visual effect can be created with geophytes flowers. In this study, geophytes in Kocaeli flora have been analyzed and these which are possible to be used in landscape design and practices have been chosen. The geophytes in Kocaeli, have been found to be rich in terms of taxa. It has been determined that 114 geophytes belonging to 13 families exist in Kocaeli flora. It has been determined that a large part of the geophytes have white flowers (18.42%) and it follows yellow (15.79%), purple (12.28%), pink (11.40%) respectively and other colors. In addition to the flower colors, the color effects were also revealed in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey has a rather important place for flora or botanic tourism with its plant diversity resources and there has been a substantial rise in the number of activities realized within this scope in recent years. Within this scope, it is extremely important to elaborate on these resource areas included within the geography of our country for flora tourism activities and reveal their potentials in terms of sustainability. In this study, the Beskayalar and Ballikayalar Natural Parks included within the protected area system of our country were examined and their woody plant potentials tried to be revealed within the scope of the flora tourism values. The obtained results indicated that both natural parks were satisfactorily good for the flora or botanic tourism activities thanks to the presence of woody taxon, but there was more taxon diversity in the Beskayalar natural park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leukemia is a clonal disease caused by genetic-epigenetic aberrations and we investigated the profile of circulating 741 microRNAs (miRNA) in plasma of newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients compared to healthy individuals. MiRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules and have critical roles in cell differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis. They regulate haematopoiesis in haematopoietic stem cells and committed progenitor cells, but they also play role in pathogenesis of acquired hematologic neoplasms. Recently, a growing body of evidence has implicated specific miRNAs in pathogenesis of leukemia and circulating miRNAs could serve as non-invasive biomarkers for detection of leukemia. Aim of this study was to identify miRNAs epigenetically regulated in acute and chronic leukemias. RNA was isolated using High Pure miRNA Isolation Kit (Roche) following manufacturer's protocol. cDNA and preamplification protocols were obtained from isolated plasma miRNAs. The BioMarkTM 96.96 Dynamic Array (Fluidigm Corporation) for real-time qPCR was used to simultaneously quantite the expression of 741 miRNAs. Statistical analyses were performed using Biogazelle's qbase PLUS 2.0 software. Among analyzed 741 miRNAs, mir-1290 and miR-548c-3p were down-regulated, mir-24-3p, miR-30b- 5p and miR-19a-3p were up-regulated in all leukemic patients comparing with control group (p< 0.05). However, in patients with ALL, mir-24-3p was significantly down-regulated and miR-548c-3p was significantly up-regulated compared to healthy subjects (p< 0.05). Our study is the first study showing the higher expression levels of miR-548c-3p in ALL. We conclude that miR-24-3p and miR-548c-3p can be used as potential biomarkers for detecting ALL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Apoptosis and its regulatory mechanisms take part in renal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury which can result in acute renal failure and the inhibition of the caspase is considered as a new therapeutic strategy. In this context, we investigated the antiapoptotic and cytoprotective effects of iloprost, a prostacyclin analog, in kidney as a distant organ. Methods: Wistar albino rats were randomized into five groups ( n == 12 in each) as sham, ischemia, I/R, iloprost (10 μg kg−1), and I/R ++ iloprost (10 μg kg−1). A 4 h reperfusion procedure was carried out after 4 h of ischemia. Caspase-8 was evaluated for death receptor-induced pathways, whereas caspase-9 was evaluated for mitochondria-dependent pathways and caspase-3 was investigated for overall apoptosis. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity and nitrite content as an indicator of nitric oxide (NO) production were also analyzed in kidney tissues. Results: Caspases-3, -8, and -9 were all significantly elevated in both ischemia and I/R groups compared to the sham group; however, treatment with iloprost reduced caspases-3, -8, and -9. SOD enzyme activity was attenuated by iloprost when compared to ischemic rats. The different effects of NO were found which change according to the present situation in ischemia, I/R, and treatment with iloprost. Conclusions: These findings suggested that iloprost prevents apoptosis in both receptor-induced and mitochondria-dependent pathways in renal I/R injury and it may be considered as a cytoprotective agent for apoptosis. Understanding the efficiency of iloprost on the pathways for cell death may lead to an opportunity in the therapeutic approach for renal I/R injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Objective of this study is to identify relationship of microRNAs with nicotine use and disease status of major depression. Method: The blood samples of 50 patients who were admitted to Mersin University Teaching Hospital Psychiatry Department and 41 healthy controls (HC) were collected. To establish better diagnosis and eliminate deficiency of Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) (such as higher scoring of somatic and sleep-related items) we used both HDRS and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (which is focused on core symptoms of depression). For accurate phenotyping, patients, who met diagnostic criteria for major depression according to DSM IV, HDRS score above 17, has no comorbid psychiatric and medical condition, never used psychiatric drugs before and has not take any medication for 1 month prior to blood sampling period were included. Subtypes like psychotic, melancholic, anxious, seasonal and atypical were excluded. HC was also consisted of individuals, who have no history of psychiatric and chronic medical condition, has not take any medications for 1 month prior to blood sampling period and whose HDRS score was under 7. All of the participants were asked whether they smoke or not. Patients were asked if they had previous episodes and any triggering stressor and previous episodes. Our microRNA analysis method is described in our poster named "MicroRNAs as Potential Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder". Mann Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Results of the first part of our study results are presented elsewhere (poster name: MicroRNAs as Potential Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder). We didn't find any significant relationship with nicotine use and microRNA levels. Stressor related microRNAs were mir320a and mir451a. Among patients, who had a history of previous episode, statistically significant microRNAs were mir17-5p, mir223-3p, mir320a and mir451a. Conclusion: The other poster of us identified mir320a, mir451a, mir17-5p and mir223-3p as potential biomarkers for depression. Here we demonstrate that these mentioned microRNAs were related also with previous episodes. This result should be verified with also further studies. We didn't find any relationship between nicotine use and peripheral microRNA levels. Probably, Evaluation of both depressed and healthy individuals caused this confusion. Further studies investigating nicotine use only, among healthy controls could be helpful to understand nicotine-related peripheral microRNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Objective of this study is to identify whether microRNAs could be potential biomarkers for major depressive disorder (MDD). Method: The blood samples of 50 patients and 41 healthy controls were collected from individuals, who were admitted to Mersin University Teaching Hospital Psychiatry Department. To identify better diagnosis and eliminate deficiency of Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) (such as higher scoring of somatic and sleep items), we used both HDRS and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (which is focused on core symptoms of depression). For accurate phenotyping, patients who met diagnostic criteria for major depression according to DSM IV, made a HDRS score above 17, has no comorbid psychiatric and medical condition, never used psychiatric drugs before and didn't take any medication for 1 month prior to blood sample taking period included. Subtypes like psychotic, melancholic, anxious, seasonal and atypical were excluded. Control group was also consisted of individuals who have no history of psychiatric and chronic medical condition, didn't take any drugs for 1 month prior to blood sample taking period and made a HDRS score under 7. We identified microRNAs related with genes that have been shown to be expressed similary in both prefrontal cortex and peripheral blood. We hypothesized that some of these microRNAs should be expressed differentially between MDD patients and controls and could be a biomarker for MDD. Blood samples which were drawn into EDTA tubes were accomplished by centrifugation at 4000 rpm for 15 min for plasma separation. Supernatant of plasma was recovered and stored at -80°C until analysis. RNA was isolated using the High Pure miRNA Isolation Kit following the manufacturer's protocol. cDNA and preamplification protocols were obtained from the isolated plasma microRNAs. The BioMark™ 96.96 Dynamic Array for real-time qPCR was used to simultaneously quantify the expression of 372 microRNAs. Mann Whitney U test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Mir320a was significantly down regulated and mir451a was significantly up regulated among MDD patients. Conclusion: MicroRNAs are small non-coding 16-22 nucleotide long RNA transcripts and they usually point mRNA's to degrade and provide them from translation. To our current knowledge, it is the first study investigating microRNAs as potential biomarkers for MDD. We found mir320a down regulated between MDD group and controls. Mir320a is predicted to be related with lots of genes which include GRIN2A and DISC1. Previous studies showed that GRIN2A was upregulated in both MDD patients and suicidal patients. Down regulation of mir320a is predicted to be related with upregulation of GRIN2A. A genetic linkage study demonstrates DISC1 as a potential target for MDD. According to our findings and previous literature, plasma mir320a levels could be an indicator of GRIN2A related processes in prefrontal cortex of depressed patients. We found mir451a upregulated among depressed patients. A previous study showed that ketamine treatment reduced mir451a levels. In recent years ketamine is predicted to be one of the rapid acting potential antidepressant treatments. Based on acting mechanism of ketamine mir451 could be a marker for treatment response. Our study demonstrates the possibility of microRNAs as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To investigate the effect of fluid resuscitation and L-arginine administration on oxidant status markers, blood gases, lactate and apoptosis in the brain tissue of a rat model of TBI with hemorrhagic shock., Material and Methods: A total of 60 rats were divided into six groups: control, isotonic saline-treated, 7.5% NaCl-treated (hypertonic saline), L-arginine-treated (100 mg/kg), saline + L-arginine-treated and 7.5% NaCl + L-arginine-treated groups. Closed head contusive weight-drop injuries were performed with hemorrhagic shock in all of the groups. Mean arterial pressure (MAP), pulse rate, lactate, malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and apoptosis were investigated., Results: In a total of 48 rats, MAP levels remained higher than 60 mmHg for 3 hours in all of the treatment groups. The highest MAP values in each group were recorded. Higher MDA and lower TAC levels were observed in the control group than in all of the treatment groups (all p < 0.05). The number of apoptotic cells was highest in the control group and lowest in the L-arginine group., Conclusion: L-arginine administration may be an alternative treatment option for individualized fluid resuscitation in patients with TBI and hemorrhagic shock.

The interchange of information from one cell to another relies on the release of hundreds of different molecules including small peptides, amino acids, nucleotides, RNA, steroids, retinoids, or fatty acid metabolites. Many of them are released to the extracellular matrix as free molecules and others can be part of the cargo of cellular vesicles. Small extracellular vesicles (30-150 nm), also known as exosomes, are a known mechanism of cell-to-cell communication in the nervous system. Exosomes participate in the pathogenesis of several neurological conditions including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. However, exciting emerging evidence demonstrates that exosomes also regulate mechanisms of the sensory process including nociception. The goal of this review is to summarize the literature on exosome biogenesis, methods of small vesicle isolation and purification, and their role in nociception. We also provide insights on the potential applications of exosomes as pain biomarkers or as novel therapeutics.