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Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs), as covalently closed single-stranded noncoding RNA molecules, have been recently identified to involve in several biological processes, principally through targeting microRNAs. Among various neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), accumulating evidence has proposed key roles for circRNAs in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD); although the exact relationship between these RNA molecules and AD progression is not clear, they have been believed to mostly act as miRNA sponges or gene transcription modulators through the correlating with multiple proteins, involved in the accumulation of Amyloid β (Aβ) peptides, as well as tau protein, as AD’s pathological hallmark. More interestingly, circRNAs have also been reported to play diagnostic and therapeutic roles during the AD progression. Objective: The literature review indicated that circRNAs could essentially contribute to the onset and development of AD. Thus, in the current review, the circRNAs’ biogenesis and functions are addressed at first, and then the interplay between particular circRNAs and AD is comprehensively discussed. Eventually, the diagnostic and therapeutic significance of these noncoding RNAs is briefly highlighted. Results: A large number of circRNAs are expressed in the brain. Thereby, these RNA molecules are noticed as potential regulators of neural functions in healthy circumstances, as well as in neurological disorders. Moreover, circRNAs have also been reported to have potential diagnostic and therapeutic capacities in relation to AD, the most prevalent ND. Conclusion: CircRNAs have been shown to act as sponges for miRNAs, thereby regulating the function of related miRNAs, including oxidative stress, reduction of neuroinflammation, and the formation and metabolism of Aβ, all of which developed in AD. CircRNAs have also been proposed as biomarkers that have potential diagnostic capacities in AD. Despite these characteristics, the use of circRNAs as therapeutic targets and promising diagnostic biomarkers will require further investigation and characterization of the function of these RNA molecules in AD.

Introduction. Smoking status appears to lead to a poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients. However, findings from the studies conducted on this topic have not been consistent, and further exploration is required. Methods. The objective of this umbrella review was to examine the effects of smoking on COVID-19 management and mortality. Online databases that included PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched using relevant keywords up to July 27, 2022. Articles were restricted to the English language, and the PRISMA protocol was followed. Results. A total of 27 systematic reviews, published from 2020 to 2022, were included. Individual studies included in the systematic reviews ranged from 8 to 186, with various population sizes. The consensus from the majority of systematic reviews was that COVID-19 smoker patients experience greater disease severity, disease progression, hospitalization rate, hospital admission duration, mechanical ventilation, ICU admission, and mortality rate. Conclusions. COVID-19 patients with a history of smoking (current and former) are vulnerable to adverse hospital outcomes and worse COVID-19 progression. Effective preventive and supportive approaches are required to decrease the risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in patients with a history of smoking.

Introduction: The accurate number of COVID-19 cases is essential knowledge to control an epidemic. Currently, one of the most important obstacles in estimating the exact number of COVID-19 patients is the absence of typical clinical symptoms in a large number of people, called asymptomatic infections. In this systematic review, we included and evaluated the studies mainly focusing on the prediction of undetected COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates as well as the reproduction numbers, utilizing various mathematical models. Methods: This systematic review aims to investigate the estimating methods of undetected infections in the COVID-19 outbreak. Databases of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, and Embase, were searched for a combination of keywords. Applying the inclusion/ exclusion criteria, all retrieved English literature by April 7, 2022, were reviewed for data extraction through a two-step screening process; first, titles/ abstracts, and then full-text. This study is consistent with the PRISMA checklist. Results: In this study, 61 documents were retrieved using a systematic search strategy. After an initial review of retrieved articles, 6 articles were excluded and the remaining 55 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final review. Most of the studies used mathematical models to estimate the number of underreported asymptomatic infected cases, assessing incidence and prevalence rates more precisely. The spread of COVID-19 has been investigated using various mathematical models. The output statistics were compared with official statistics obtained from different countries. Although the number of reported patients was lower than the estimated numbers, it appeared that the mathematical calculations could be a useful measure to predict pandemics and proper planning. Conclusion: In conclusion, our study demonstrates the effectiveness of mathematical models in unraveling the true burden of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of more precise, and accurate infection and mortality rates, and reproduction numbers, thus, statistical mathematical modeling could be an effective tool for measuring the detrimental global burden of pandemic infections. Additionally, they could be a really useful method for future pandemics and would assist the healthcare and public health systems with more accurate and valid information.

The second leading mortality cause in the world is cancer, making it a critical issue that impacts human health. As a result, scientists are looking for novel biomarkers for cancer detection. The oral microbiome, made up of approximately 700 species-level taxa, is a significant source for discovering novel biomarkers. In this review, we aimed to prepare a summary of research that has investigated the association between the oral microbiome and gastrointestinal cancers.We searched online scientific datasets including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Eligibility criteria included human studies that reported abundances of the oral microbiome, or its diagnostic/prognostic performance in patients with gastrointestinal cancers.Some phyla of the oral microbiome have a relationship with cancers. Some particular phyla of the oral microbiome that may be related to gastrointestinal cancers consist of Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Fusobacteria. Changes in the abundances of Porphyromonas, Fusobacterium, Prevotella, and Veillonella are correlated with carcinogenesis, and may be used for distinguishing cancer patients from healthy subjects. Oral, colorectal, pancreatic, and esophageal cancers are the most important cancers related to the oral microbiome.The results of this study may help future research to select bacteria as an early diagnostic or prognostic biomarker of gastrointestinal cancer. Given the current state of our knowledge, additional research is required to comprehend the multiplex processes underlying the role of bacterial microbiota upon cancer progression and to characterize the complex microbiota-host interaction network.

Objectives Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide, many countries have designed clinical trials to find efficient treatments. We aimed to critically report the characteristics of all the registered and published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) conducted on COVID-19, and summarize the evaluation of potential therapies developed in various regions. Evidence acquisition We comprehensively searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Scopus, and Clinicaltrial.gov databases to retrieve all the relevant studies up to July 19, 2021, in conformity with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flowchart. We included all English-language published/registered RCTs on COVID-19, and excluded non-RCT, in-vitro/in-vivo, editorials, and review studies. Two reviewers independently evaluated all the records, and then analyzed by using SPSS 17. Results Within 3018 included studies, 2801 (92.8%) and 217 (7.2%) were registered or published RCTs consisting of about 600 synthetic drugs. Herbal medicines have been studied in 23 trials (10.6%) among the published RCTs and in 357 registered RCTs (12.7%). Hydroxychloroquine 23 (10.6%) and convalescent plasma 194 (6.9%) alone or in combination with other agents were the most frequently used interventions in published and registered RCTs, respectively. Most published RCTs have been conducted in Western Pacific Region (WPRO) (50 trials, 23.0%) including 45 trials from China. Also, a greater proportion of registered RCTs have been conducted in the Region of the Americas (PAHO) (885 trials, 31.6%) including 596 RCTs from the United States (U.S). Globally, 283 registered trials have been conducted to assess new developed vaccines for COVID or previously established for other disorders. Conclusion The present study highlighted the wide range of potential therapeutic agents in published and registered COVID-19 clinical trials across a wide range of regions. However, it is urgently required to global coordination in order to conduct more well-designed trials and progress in discovering safe and effective treatments. Graphical abstract Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40199-021-00422-8.

Geriatric psoriasis, due to its unusual clinical manifestations and higher rates of systemic complications in this age group, is a challenging issue for dermatologists. Therefore, we aimed to provide an overview of the epidemiological, clinical, and therapeutic consequences among patients aged over 60 years with psoriasis in a referral center in Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 156 patients over 60 years with the definitive diagnosis of psoriasis that were referred to our center between 2015 and 2019. By reviewing the recorded files of the patients, baseline characteristics including demographics, underlying comorbidities, age of disease onset, clinical type of the disease, clinical manifestations, and therapeutic approaches were extracted. The most common clinical feature was plaque type (73.1%) followed by pustular type (10.9%). The most frequent involved zone was the lower extremities (84.6%). Most of the patients were treated topically (87.1%), while as the most frequent systemic approaches, methotrexate and acitretin were considered for 74.4% and 60.3%, respectively. A significantly higher mean age at disease onset was found in female patients compared to male patients. The plaque type was more prevalent in men than in women. Also, the chance of nail involvement was 2.43 times higher in men than in women (p = 0.011, 95%CI: 1.22-4.84). The disease duration was significantly longer in patients suffering from plaque compared to those without this feature. Conversely, those with palmoplantar type experienced shorter disease duration. Psoriatic arthritis was also revealed in patients of lower ages. As in other societies, in our society, clinical characteristics, disease involvement patterns, as well as considered treatment approaches, can be influenced by demographic characteristics.

Inflammation is a double-edged sword in the pathophysiology of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The global rise in the prevalence of T2DM in one hand, and poor disease control with currently-available treatments on the other hand, along with an increased tendency towards the use of natural products make scientists seek herbal medicines for the management of diabetes and its complications by reducing C-reactive protein (CRP) as an inflammatory marker.To systematically review the literature to identify the efficacy of various medicinal plants with antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties considering their effect on CRP in animal models of T2DM.systematic review.Electronic databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochran Library were searched using the search terms "herbal medicine", "diabetes", "c-reactive protein", "antioxidants" till August 2021. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory animal Experimentation (SYRCLE's) tool. The study protocol was registered in PROSPERO with an ID number CRD42020207190. A manual search to detect any articles not found in the databases was also made. The identified studies were then critically reviewed and relevant data were extracted and summarized.Among total of 9904 primarily-retrieved articles, twenty-three experimental studies were finally included. Our data indicated that numerous herbal medicines, compared to placebo or hypoglycemic medications, are effective in treatment of diabetes and its complications through decreasing CRP concentrations and oxidative stresses levels. Medicinal plants including Psidium guajava L., Punica granatum L., Ginkgo biloba L., Punica granatum L., Dianthus superbusn L.. Moreover, Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms, Curcuma longa L., Azadirachta indica A. Juss., Morus alba L., and Ficus racemosa L. demonstrated potential neuroprotective effects in animal models of diabetes.Hypoglycemic medicinal plants discussed in this review seem to be promising regulators of CRP, and oxidative stress. Thus, these plants are suitable candidates for management of diabetes' complications. Nevertheless, further high-quality in vivo studies and clinical trials are required to confirm these effects.