Search

Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders refer to gastrointestinal tract conditions, ranging from dyspepsia to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) and malignant tumors. Biomarkers, which are assessable indicators of the presence or severity of the disorders, are indispensable agents to diagnose GI conditions. Diagnostic biomarkers, including serological biomarkers, antibodies, immunological biomarkers, fecal biomarkers, and genetic biomarkers (Non-encoding RNAs), are investigated and categorized in this review. Furthermore, we have discussed the essential biological functions and diagnostic roles and the advantages and disadvantages of these biomarkers, besides novel genetic biomarkers such as miRNA-146a and their role in GI diseases.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent malignancy and the second leading cause of death among women worldwide that is caused by numerous genetic and environmental factors. Hence, effective treatment for this type of cancer requires new therapeutic approaches. The traditional methods for treating this cancer have side effects, therefore so much research have been performed in last decade to find new methods to alleviate these problems. The study of the molecular basis of breast cancer has led to the introduction of gene therapy as an effective therapeutic approach for this cancer. Gene therapy involves sending genetic material through a vector into target cells, which is followed by a correction, addition, or suppression of the gene. In this technique, it is necessary to target tumour cells without affecting normal cells. In addition, clinical trial studies have shown that this approach is less toxic than traditional therapies. This study will review various aspects of breast cancer, gene therapy strategies, limitations, challenges and recent studies in this area.

Context: This study investigated the uses of statistical techniques in nursing research articles (RAs) published within 2016 - 2020. Evidence Acquisition: Through stratified random sampling, 374 quantitative and mixed-method RAs were selected from five nursing journals (i.e., International Journal of Nursing Studies, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, Nurse Education Today, Nursing Outlook, and Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing) published within 2016 - 2020. The statistical techniques used in these articles were derived, aggregated, and listed. Results: Descriptive statistics (20.59%) and multiple regression (15.74%) were the most frequent statistics used in the nursing RAs. Regarding the level of statistics, 49.83%, 17.00%, and 4.31% of the techniques were basic, intermediate, and advanced, respectively, indicating that basic statistical techniques are by far the most frequently used techniques in nursing RAs. The findings also revealed that students with basic and intermediate knowledge of statistics could understand 66.83% of the techniques used in nursing RAs. Conclusions: The classification of statistical techniques derived from RAs presented in this study can meet the needs of nurses who wish to understand the benefits of statistics in nursing practice and hopefully can encourage them to take this part of research and practice more seriously.

Background: The efficacy of various massage doses in palliative cancer care settings is still debated, and no specific protocol is available. Aim: Evaluating response to various massage doses for symptom cluster of pain-fatigue-sleep. Design: A 7-arm randomized-controlled trial with weekly massage for 4 weeks depending on the prescribed dose (15-, 30-, or 60-min; 2× or 3×/week) and a 4-week follow-up. The intensities of pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance were measured using a 0–10 scale at nine-timepoint; baseline, weekly during the intervention, and the follow-up period. Then, the mean scores of the three symptoms were calculated as the symptom cluster intensity at each timepoint. IRCT.ir IRCT20150302021307N5. Setting/participants: Adults with cancer ( n = 273) who reported all three symptoms at three oncology centers in Iran. Results: The odds of clinical improvement (at least 30% reduction in symptom cluster intensity from baseline) increased with dose-escalation significantly [(OR = 17.37; 95% CI = 3.87–77.90 for 60-min doses); (OR = 11.71; 95% CI = 2.60–52.69, for 30-min doses); (OR = 4.36; 95% CI = 0.94–20.32, for 15-min doses)]. The effect durability was significantly shorter at 15-min doses compared to 30- and 60-min doses. The odds of improvement for doses 3×/week was not significant compared to doses 2×/week (OR = 12.27 vs OR = 8.34); however, the effect durability for doses 3×/week was significantly higher. Conclusions: The findings indicated that dose-escalation increases the efficacy of massage for the pain-fatigue-sleep symptom cluster. Although the 60-min doses were found to be more effective, the 30-min doses can be considered more practical because they are less costly and time-consuming. Our findings can be helpful to develop massage guidelines in palliative care settings. Trial registration: Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials, IRCT20150302021307N5.

Background. In the event of accidents and disasters, the presence of volunteers, if not organized, can sometimes worsen the situation instead of improving it. Objectives. This research was aimed at the ways of organizing volunteers in the healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic in the southwest of Iran. Material and method. This questionnaire-based descriptive study was conducted on 140 volunteer health workers either active in providing services to COVID-19 patients or on the waiting list. The participants were selected using convenience sampling. They completed the information form, which was analyzed after collection using SPSS version 22. Results. The 140 volunteers' mean age was 32.5 with a standard deviation of 7.5. Of these volunteers, 62.1% had volunteered to serve since the first days of the outbreak. According to the participants of this study, the management of volunteers was spontaneous under the supervision of the official and state system, and the vast majority of them considered the official healthcare system's reception of volunteers as positive but saw the bureaucracy as a major obstacle to recruiting volunteers, especially nursing and midwifery graduates. Finally, the participants' motive for volunteering was found to be a sense of personal responsibility and human duty. Conclusions. Proper planning, organization and management of volunteers in an epidemic situation should be taken into account by healthcare officials in order to receive the highest efficiency in times of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tumor cell growth and survival are the outcomes of communication between tumor cells and tumor microenvironment (TME). In other words, tumor cell growth and survival are greatly affected by the interaction between adjacent cells and tumor cells. In this paper, we review the recent advances in studies of TME, including metabolic interplays between tumor cells and their non-malignant neighbors (peaceful interaction and autophagy), trades of signaling pathways (approach to most important ones; cytokine pathway, NF-kB pathway, intra-tumoral hypoxia, oxidative stress, and nitric oxide-depended pathways), miRNAs (as the regulatory molecules which are present in TME), and Tumor-associated Exosomes (TAEs). Characterization of TME bio-molecules, nutrient changes, and cellular and molecular interactions help to clarify the progression of cancer and find novel targets for the treatment of cancer..

Background: Cholera triggered by Vibrio cholerae remains the main reason for morbidity and mortality all over the world. In addition, salmonellosis is regarded as an infectious disease that makes it essential for the identification and detection of Salmonella. With a beta-barrel structure consisting of eight non-parallel beta strands, OmpW family is widely distributed among gram-negative bacteria. Moreover, OmpW isolated from S. typhimurium and Vibrio cholerae can be used in vaccine design. Methods: Topology prediction was determined. T-cell and B-cell epitopes were selected from exposed areas, and sequence conservancy was evaluated. The remaining loops and inaccessible residues were removed to prepare OmpW-1. High antigenicity peptides were detected to replace inappropriate residues to obtain OmpW-2. Physicochemical properties were assessed, and antigenicity, hydrophobicity, flexibility, and accessibility were compared to the native Omp-W structure. Low score areas were removed from the designed structure for preparing the OmpW-3. To construct OmpW-4, TTFrC was used as T-CD4+ cell-stimulating factor and CTB as adjuvant to the end of the C-terminal of this sequence, which can increase the antigenicity and sequence density. The sequences were re-analyzed to delete the unfavorable residues. Besides, the solubility of the mature OmpW and the designed structure were predicted while overexpressed in E. coli. Results: The designed vaccine is a stable protein which has immune cells recognizing epitopes and is considered as an antigen. The construct can be overexpressed in a E. coli. Conclusion: The multi-epitope vaccine is a suitable stimulator for immune system and would be a candidate for experimental research. Recent patents describing numerous inventions related to the clinical facets of vaccine peptide against human infectious disease.

espanolLos investigadores cuyo primer idioma no es ingles se enfrentan a grandes dificultades cuando tratan de publicar en esa lengua. Al enviar sus manuscritos a revistas en ingles, dichos investigadores generalmente reciben comentarios de los revisores que critican las estructuras retoricas que adoptan. Una de estas criticas se refiere a como manejan la relacion entre el autor y el destinatario potencial, esto es, como los autores expresan su actitud y certeza ante los reclamos, y crean solidaridad entre ellos y sus lectores. Este estudio intenta examinar como los manuscritos escritos por investigadores iranies y evaluados favorablemente difieren de las versiones originales con respecto a los cambios que ocurren en el sistema de compromiso (engagement) de los textos. El estudio demuestra que el conocimiento inadecuado por parte de los escritores iranies de las ponderaciones interpersonales de las estructuras lexicogramaticales utilizadas —con lo que otorgan un indebido credito a otros investigadores del campo— se mitiga si se le da mas peso especifico a las citas de distancia, no logrando de esta manera una argumentacion solida y rigurosa. EnglishNon-native English speaking (NNES) scholars face great hardship when they attempt to publish in English. Upon submitting their manuscripts to English-language journals, these scholars usually receive comments from the reviewers criticizing the rhetorical structures they adopt. One of these criticisms is concerned with how they manage the relationship between the author and the potential addressee; that is, the scholars’ expression of their attitude and the way they adjust the certainty of their claims and establish a relationship with their readers. This study attempted to examine how the acceptably revised manuscripts written by Iranian scholars differ from the originally submitted versions regarding the changes happening to the Engagement system of the texts. Findings showed Iranian scholars’ inadequate knowledge of the interpersonal weightings of the lexico-grammatical structures they used —hence giving undue credit to other researchers in the field— was mitigated by giving more space to the feature of distance citations, thereby failing to achieve a typically sound and rigorous argumentation.

Nowadays, poisoning with metal phosphides, especially aluminum phosphide (ALP), is one of the main health threats in human societies. Patients suffer from significant complications due to this type of poisoning, and the heart is one of the main organs targeted by ALP. Therefore, in this study, we discussed the effect of phosphine on cardiac function. This study is based on data obtained from PubMed, between 2002 and 2020. The key keywords included "Aluminum phosphide," "Oxidative Stress," "Mitochondria," "Cardiovascular disease," and "Treatment." The results showed that ALP produced reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to mitochondrial dysfunction. ROS production leads to red blood cell hemolysis, decreased ATP production, and induction of apoptosis in cardiomyocytes, which eventually results in cardiovascular disease. Since ALP has the most significant effect on cardiomyocytes, the use of appropriate treatment strategies to restore cell function can increase patients' survival.

Different factors influence the development‎ and control of ageing. It is well known that progressive telomere shorting is one of the molecular mechanisms underlying ageing. The shelterin complex consists of six telomere-specific proteins which are involved in the protection of chromosome ends. More particularly, this vital complex protects the telomeres from degradation, prevents from activation of unwanted repair systems, regulates the activity of telomerase, and has a crucial role in cellular senescent and ageing-related pathologies. This review explores the organization and function of telomeric DNA along with the mechanism of telomeres during ageing, followed by a discussion of the critical role of shelterin components and their changes during ageing.

CRISPR/Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein9) may be viewed as an adaptive bacterial immune system. When a virus infects a bacterium, a fragment of the virus genome is inserted into the CRISPR sequence of the bacterial genome as a memory. When the bacterium becomes infected again with the same virus, an RNA molecule that is a transcript of the memory sequence, directs Cas9, an endonuclease, to the complementary region of the virus genome, and Cas9 disables the virus by a double-strand break. In recent years, studies have shown that by designing synthetic RNA molecules and delivering them along with Cas9 into eukaryotic cells, different regions of the cell's genome can be targeted and manipulated. These findings have drawn much attention to this new technology and it has been shown that CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing can be used to treat some human diseases. These include infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases. In this review article, in addition to a brief overview of the biology of the CRISPR/Cas9 system, we collected the most recent findings on the applications of CRISPR/Cas9 technology for better investigation of the pathogenesis and treatment of viral infections (human immunodeficiency virus infection, hepatitis virus infections, and onco-virus infections), non-viral infections (parasitic, fungal, and bacterial infections), and autoimmune diseases.

Following stent implantation and vascular injury, restenosis is one of the prominent clinical problems due to the synergism effects of inflammatory cytokines and growth factors. Restenosis development is accompanied by increased proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) into the intimal region. The content has been obtained from PubMed database and the Google Scholar search engine through searching English-language articles (1989–2019) using keywords “Vascular injury,” “Restenosis,” “Growth factors,” “Cytokines,” and “Smooth muscle cells.” After the vascular injury, the secretion of inflammatory factors can stimulate inflammatory cells, which lead to the release of growth factors. This can stimulate the migration of VSMCs and neointimal hyperplasia, and, as a result, lead to restenosis. Inflammatory cytokines, such as transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ), often stimulate growth factors such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF), which can accelerate the restenosis process. Other cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1 (IL-1) in the initial inflammation inhibit restenosis by affecting insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs). Considering the synergism effects of inflammatory cytokines and growth factors in the pathogenesis of restenosis, it is expected that these factors can be used as prognostic markers with therapeutic purposes.

Background: As an essential principle, the collective life of human beings can constitute a human society only when human rights are respected. Demanding and respecting the rights of patients, as an inevitable part of human society, requires familiarity with patient-involved individuals. The present study aimed to determine the awareness level of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (AJUMS) students about the Charter of Patients’ Rights (CPR). Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 200 senior university students who had been in contact with patients during their undergraduate program. They were invited from different faculties of the university. The data collection tool was a two-section questionnaire. The first section covered the demographic information, and the second included 29 questions about the 5 principles of the CPR. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS by descriptive statistics, and analytical tests, including Independent Samples t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Results: From the 200 study participants, 103 (51%) were female. The Mean±SD of students’ awareness was 14.50±2.3. The highest and lowest mean scores belonged to the areas of access to services and confidentiality. There was no statistically significant difference between the awareness score of students from different faculties (P=0.359). Conclusion: This study results suggested that the awareness level of the medical students about the CPR was unsatisfactory. Instituting ethical codes among students and providing them knowledge of their professional lives is an essential part of the university’s responsibilities.

Background: Most commonly reported clinical manifestations are fever, fatigue and dry cough. Interestingly, a small percentage of patients experience GI symptoms, with the most common being anorexia, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. We aimed to conduct a comparative study on COVID-19 patients with or without gastrointestinal patients (GI). Aims: The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a dire health problem, causing a massive crisis for global health. Methods: Collective data of clinical manifestations and laboratory reports of patients admitted to Razi Hospital, Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran, for two weeks were analyzed. Results: Our results showed that GI symptoms are not statistically significant criteria to be predictive or prognostic factors in COVID-19 patients, although they are probably related to the acute or non-acute phase of the disease. Moreover, non-specific GI symptoms seem to result from cytokine storm that occurred during the disease. Conclusion: Therefore, our results did not support GI tract involvement as a common route of COVID- 19 infection. Maybe future research will shed light on why and how the gastrointestinal system becomes infected by COVID-19.

Cancerous cells are abnormal cells characterized by aberrant growth and proliferation, which can involve various types of cells and tissues. Through numerous signalling pathways, many mechanisms are involved in cells that keep them normal. These signalling pathways are tightly set by different proteins whose expression is regulated by a large number of factors. In other words, when a regulating factor does not act properly or undergoes a change in its function or expression, the result will be that the subordinate gene and subsequently the related protein will show deranged expression and activity. This leads to disordered signalling pathways which bring about uncontrolled proliferation in cells. One of the most significant factors in adjusting the expression of genes is noncoding RNAs. It should be noted that all underlying causes initiating malignancy try to alter the main regulatory factors in cellular processes and gene expression and direct the cell to an unregulated state. Microorganisms have been identified as one of the important elements to direct normal cells to abnormality. That is, they probably agitate the malignant traits through manipulating significant factors such as ncRNAs in given cells using their own or host-related factors. The present study is aimed at examining how the long noncoding RNAs are involved in microorganism-mediated cancers.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs), as an emerging group of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), have received the attention given evidence indicating that these novel ncRNAs are implicated in various biological processes. Due to the absence of 5' and 3' ends in circ-RNAs, their two ends are covalently bonded together, and they are synthesised from pre-mRNAs in a process called back-splicing, which makes them more stable than linear RNAs. There is accumulating evidence showing that circRNAs play a critical role in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus (DM). Moreover, it has been indicated that dysregulation of circRNAs has made them promising diagnostic biomarkers for the detection of DM. Recently, increasing attention has been paid to investigate the mechanisms underlying the DM process. It has been demonstrated that there is a strong correlation between the expression of circRNAs and DM. Hence, our aim is to discuss the crosstalk between circRNAs and DM and its complications.

Objective: Cyclin D1 is an essential protein that acts as a mitogenic sensor. In this manuscript, we discuss the importance of cyclin D1 in oncology and cardio-oncology, and we challenge the prognostic and therapeutic response values of cyclin D1 to figure out if it can be a beneficial marker. We also discuss the agents and microRNAs that can be used as a potential therapeutic approach via regulating cyclin D1 expression in oncology and cardio-oncology. Discussion: Clinical significance of cyclin D1 is defined not only in several cancers such as breast cancer, melanoma, and glioblastoma but also in cardiomyocyte regeneration and cardiac hypertrophic growth. Several studies have indicated that the injection of cardiotoxic agents such as doxorubicin (DOX) induces damage to the cardiac system and increases cyclin D expression at single injection, which might be related to DXO-mediated damage in the adult heart. However, cyclin D1 overexpression leads to hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes, and cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)) inhibitors such as p16 do not inhibit the hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes. Thus, the reaction is CDK-independent. Conclusions: Cyclin D1 overexpression is positively correlated with tumor progression, treatment response, cardiotoxicity, and poor prognosis. Cyclin D1 expression has an important role in cardiac hypertrophy, and it can be a promising marker in monitoring cardiomyocyte treatment responses, cardioprotection, and cardiotoxicity. Finally, cyclin D1 plays an important role in hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes via a novel mechanism. Given all these pieces of evidence, cyclin D1 can be introduced as a favorable biomarker in future cardiology and cardio-oncology.

Background: Patients with COVID-19 have shown a wide variety of symptoms and mortality rates in different communities. Objectives: This study aimed to compare the epidemiological, clinical, and paraclinical features of patients with COVID-19 who have overcome the disease with patients who died. Methods: All hospitalized patients admitted to Special Corona Hospital who had a positive real-time PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 from January to March 2020 were included in the study. Clinical characteristics, date of disease onset, hospital admission date, and the severity of COVID-19 were obtained from each patient's medical records. Independent sample t-test was used to compare continuous variables between the groups of the discharged and expired patients. The independence between categorical variables and the outcome was assessed by Chi-square or Fisher's exact tests. Results: The order of essential variables for admission as the starting time are pH, WBC count, loss of consciousness, neutrophil count, base excess (BE), HCO3, age, BUN, O2 saturation, and lymphocyte count. Conclusions: In the current study, the mortality rate of COVID-19 was 30% and was significantly associated with critical disease intensity, fever, chills, loss of consciousness, ischemic heart disease (IHD) history, Parkinson's disease, invasive O2 therapy, and troponin level.

Cellular signaling pathways play a very important role in almost all molecular processes in the cell, and are generally composed of a complex set of cascades in which enzymes and proteins play a key role. These signaling pathways include different types of cellular signaling classified based on their receptors and effector proteins such as enzyme-linked receptors, cytokine receptors, and G-protein-coupled receptors each of which is subdivided into different classes. Signaling pathways are tightly controlled by different mechanisms mostly thorough inhibiting/activating their receptors or effector proteins. In the last two decades, our knowledge of molecular biology has changed dramatically and today we know that more than 85% of the human genome expresses noncoding RNAs most of which are crucial in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cells. One of these noncoding RNAs are long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) containing more than 200 nucleotides. LncRNAs participate in the progression of cancer growth through several mechanism including signaling pathways. In this review, we summarize some of the most important of lncRNAs and their effect on important signaling pathways.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small protected molecules with a length of 18 to 25 nucleotides. Many studies have recently been conducted on miRNAs, illustrating their role in regulating many biological, physiological, and pathological activities, such as maintaining cellular signalling and regulating cellular pathways. The main role of miRNAs is to regulate the expression of genes after translation, which can lead to the destruction or suppression of translation by binding to mRNAs. As any change in the regulation of miRNAs is associated with several physiological abnormalities, such as type 2 diabetes and its complications, these molecules can be used for therapeutic purposes or as biomarkers for the diagnosis of diseases such as diabetes and its complications. In this review article, we will discuss important findings about the miRNAs and the role of these molecules in different phases of the wound‐healing process of chronic wounds, especially diabetic ulcer.

The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and its metabolites play an important role in homeostasis of body, especially the cardiovascular system. In this study, we discuss the imbalance of multiple systems during the infection and the importance of therapeutic choice, dosing, and laboratory monitoring of cardiac and anti-coagulant therapies in COVID-19 patients. The crosstalk between angiotensin, kinin-kallikrein system, as well as inflammatory and coagulation systems plays an essential role in COVID-19. Cardiac complications and coagulopathies imply the crosstalks between the mentioned systems. We believe that the blockage of bradykinin can be a good option in the management of COVID-19 and CVD in patients and that supportive treatment of respiratory and cardiologic complications is needed in COVID-19 patients. Ninety-one percent of COVID-19 patients who were admitted to hospital with a prolonged aPTT were positive for lupus anticoagulant, which increases the risk of thrombosis and prolonged aPTT. Therefore, the question that is posed at this juncture is whether it is safe to use the prophylactic dose of heparin particularly in those with elevated D-dimer levels. It should be noted that timing is of high importance in anti-coagulant therapy; therefore, we should consider the level of D-dimer, fibrinogen, drug-drug interactions, and risk factors during thromboprophylaxis administration. Fibrinogen is an independent predictor of resistance to heparin and should be considered before thromboprophylaxis. Alteplase and Futhan might be a good choice to assess the condition of heparin resistance. Finally, the treatment option, dosing, and laboratory monitoring of anticoagulant therapy are critical decisions in COVID-19 patients.

Introduction: Bowel preparation for colonoscopy plays an important role in the evaluation of the colon. Many methods for preparing the colon for colonoscopy do not work well. Aim: To use a low-fibre diet as a standard and applicable method for bowel preparation in performing colonoscopy and increasing patients’ adherence to colonoscopy. Materials and Methods: Clinical control trial design was used to compare bowel preparation in people receiving a low-fibre diet with those who did not receive food {Nil Per Os (NPO)} for bowel preparation. The participants included 477 patients who were randomly divided into two groups including 223 patients having a low-fibre diet (for dinner) and 254 patients having nothing for dinner (NPO). Data were recorded including age, sex, weight, height, level of education, bowel preparation score, colonoscopy diagnosis and sedative dose. Both groups were given a solution of 3 L of ethylene glycol and 60 mg of bisacodyl at three occasions: 3 pm and 7 pm the day before colonoscopy and 6 am on the colonoscopy day. Scoring criteria for colonoscopy preparation included excellent (clean and free of any liquids), very good (clean with clear fluid, underlying mucus visible in clear fluid), good (clean with dirty liquid), poor (with particles including stools, but can be assessed at 80% mucus), and very poor (containing stool particles, and mucosal evaluation below 80%, colonoscopy was cancelled in this group). The data were analysed by SPSS version 21.0 using Chi-square and Independent Samples Test. Results: About 82% of patients who consumed a low-fibre diet for bowel preparation the night before colonoscopy had an excellent and very good quality of bowel preparation compared with 74.9% of patients not receiving any diet. The number of patients who cancelled the colonoscopy were more in the group not receiving any diet (4.7% versus 2.6%). The data indicated that the quality of colon preparation decreased by age (p=0.0001), whereas Body Mass Index (BMI) did not differ on colon cleansing. When having dinner, patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) had significantly more secretion of air bubble and foam formation than patients not eating dinner (p=0.002). The results showed that the difference in bowel preparation quality between the two groups was not significant (p=0.169), and increased patient adherence to colonoscopy in the first group. Conclusion: Implementing a proper bowel preparation method is very important in improving the quality of colonoscopy and increasing the patient’s adherence to colonoscopy. Using a low-fibre diet on the day before colonoscopy can help achieve this goal.

Highlights • The prevalence of IBD is increasing in many societies. • The need for an appropriate biomarker for the diagnosis and management of IBD is felt. • Fecal Calprotectin is helpful biomarker in discrimination between IBD and IBS. • Fecal calprotectin showed significant correlation with some endoscopic activity indices. • In COVID-19 pandemic, fecal calprotectin can be helpful for IBD non-invasive management. • In interpreting the results of fecal calprotectin test, test limitations should be considered., The term IBD is usually used for referring to a group of inflammatory gastro-intestinal diseases (mainly Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis). Accordingly, IBD arises as a result of inappropriate immune response to intestinal commensal organisms among genetically susceptible individuals. Performing colonoscopy and histopathologic evaluation on an inflamed bowel biopsy specimen are currently considered as gold standards for diagnosis and management of IBD. Correspondingly, these techniques are known to be invasive and costly. In recent decades, fecal calprotectin, as a biomarker, has received much attention for the diagnosis and non-invasive management of IBD. Up to now, many studies have investigated the efficacy of fecal calprotectin in the areas of IBD differentiation from IBS, prediction of endoscopic and histologic activities of IBD and prediction of disease recurrence. Although some of these studies have reported promising results, some others have shown significant limitations. Therefore, in this paper, we reviewed the most interesting ones of these studies after a brief discussion of the laboratory measurement of fecal calprotectin. Moreover, we attempted to provide an answer for the question of whether fecal-calprotectin could be considered as a potential surrogate marker for colonoscopy.

Cholera triggered by Vibrio cholerae remains the main reason for morbidity and mortality all over the world. In addition, salmonellosis is regarded as an infectious disease that makes it essential for the identification and detection of Salmonella. With a beta-barrel structure consisting of eight non-parallel beta strands, OmpW family is widely distributed among gram-negative bacteria. Moreover, OmpW isolated from S. typhimurium and Vibrio cholerae can be used in vaccine design.Topology prediction was determined. T-cell and B-cell epitopes were selected from exposed areas, and sequence conservancy was evaluated. The remaining loops and inaccessible residues were removed to prepare OmpW-1. High antigenicity peptides were detected to replace inappropriate residues to obtain OmpW-2. Physicochemical properties were assessed, and antigenicity, hydrophobicity, flexibility, and accessibility were compared to the native Omp-W structure. Low score areas were removed from the designed structure for preparing the OmpW-3. To construct OmpW-4, TTFrC was used as T-CD4+ cell-stimulating factor and CTB as adjuvant to the end of the C-terminal of this sequence, which can increase the antigenicity and sequence density. The sequences were re-analyzed to delete the unfavorable residues. Besides, the solubility of the mature OmpW and the designed structure were predicted while overexpressed in E. coli.The designed vaccine is a stable protein that has immune cells recognizing epitopes and is considered as an antigen. The construct can be overexpressed in an E. coli.The multi-epitope vaccine is a suitable stimulator for the immune system and would be a candidate for experimental research. Recent patents describe numerous inventions related to the clinical facets of vaccine peptide against human infectious disease.

The cell cycle is controlled by precise mechanisms to prevent malignancies such as cancer, and the cell needs these tight and advanced controls. Cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor p27 (also known as KIP1) is a factor that inhibits the progression of the cell cycle by using specific molecular mechanisms. The inhibitory effect of p27 on the cell cycle is mediated by CDKs inhibition. Other important functions of p27 include cell proliferation, cell differentiation and apoptosis. Post- translational modification of p27 by phosphorylation and ubiquitination respectively regulates interaction between p27 and cyclin/CDK complex and degradation of p27. In this review, we focus on the multiple function of p27 in cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, epigenetic modifications and post- translational modification, and briefly discuss the mechanisms and factors that have important roles in p27 functions.

Solid tumors are a heterogeneous group of malignancies that result from out-of-control proliferation of cells. Thrombocytopenia is a common complication among patients with solid tumors that predispose them to bleeding disorders. The aim of this review article is to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the risk and incidence of thrombocytopenia in solid tumors. It can be argued that thrombocytopenia is a poor prognostic factor in solid tumors that can result from several factors such as polymorphism and mutation in some transcription factors and cytokines involved in megakaryocytic maturation or from the adverse effects of treatment. Therefore, an understanding of the exact mechanism of thrombocytopenia pathogenesis in each stage of solid tumors can help in developing therapeutic strategies to decrease bleeding complications in these malignancies.

FGF21 is a peptide hormone that regulates homeostasis of lipid and glucose as well as energy metabolism. It is mainly expressed and secreted in liver and adipose tissues, and it is expressed in lower amounts in the aorta. Recent clinical and preclinical studies indicate increased serum FGF21 levels in atherosclerosis patients. Also, FGF21 therapy has been reported to reduce the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis in animal models and in vitro studies. Moreover, growing evidence indicates that administration of exogenous FGF21 induces anti-atherosclerotic effects, because of its ability to reduce lipid profile, alleviation of oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis. Therefore, FGF21 can not only be considered as a biomarker for predicting atherosclerosis, but also induce protective effects against atherosclerosis. Besides, serum levels of FGF21 increase in various diseases including in diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and obesity, which may be related to initiating and exacerbating atherosclerosis. On the other hand, FGF21 therapy significantly improves lipid profiles, and reduces vascular inflammation and oxidative stress in atherosclerosis related diseases. Therefore, further prospective studies are needed to clarify whether FGF21 can be used as a prognostic biomarker to identify individuals at future risk of atherosclerosis in these atherosclerosis-associated diseases. In this review, we will discuss the possible mechanism by which FGF21 protects against atherosclerosis.

Introduction: There are various applications and health information systems which have been developed to promote the effective retrieval of patient information, statistics, research, and education. Therefore, there is a need to design them in consistency with scientific principles of usability. To this end, the usability of hospital information sub-systems employed at the hospitals of Ahvaz were compared using heuristic evaluation method. The objective of the study was to assess the usability of hospital information system according to heuristic evaluation.Material and Methods: Six trained evaluators, independently determined the ADT subsystem, HIM subsystem, and NIS according to Nielsen’s 10 Heuristic Principles. Since more than half of the hospitals (about 54%) employed Sib application, no specific sampling method was used. After combining the usability problems, the average severity ratings of the problems were calculated, and then the subsystems were compared.Results: The number of the usability problems of the ADT information subsystem, HIM subsystem, and NIS were 40, 39, and 37, respectively. After merging the problems, the features of “user control and freedom” with 20 cases and “flexibility and efficiency of use” with six cases had the highest and the lowest inconsistencies with usability principles. The average severity ratings of the problems also varied between 1.7 and 3.Conclusion: Heuristic evaluation method is regarded as one of the approaches appropriate to identify usability problems in health information systems. Thus, it is advisable to utilize this method to modify the design of the systems and to improve their efficiency before their implementation in order to increase user satisfaction.