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Background There are little data on isolated hypertriglyceridemia and CVD risk. Heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) is one of the heat shock proteins (Hsps) with low molecular weight. It has been shown that the atherosclerosis patients have higher concentrations of anti-Hsp auto-antibodies. The aim of the current study was to assess the relationship between hypertriglyceridemia with serum anti-Hsp27 titres. Methods In this cross-sectional study, fasting serum lipid profile and anthropometric parameters of 1688 subjects (1113 subjects with and 575 without hypertriglyceridemia) aged 35–65 years were analyzed as part of the data derived from the Mashhad stroke and heart atherosclerotic disorders (MASHAD: 2010–2020). A validated questionnaire was used to collect the demographic data. Combined dyslipidemia was defined according to the NCEP ATPIII criteria. Results There were significant differences in waist and hip circumferences, level of fasting blood glucose, hs-CRP, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p Conclusion We found that serum anti-HSP27 antibody titers were significantly lower in the HTG group compared with individuals without HTG. However, levels of serum anti-HSP27 antibody can be affected by drug treatment. Therefore, the evaluation of drug treatment on the serum anti-HSP27 antibody in a larger population can help to confirm these findings.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers globally. A large portion of colorectal cancer patients who are treated with conventional chemotherapy eventually develop local recurrence or metastases. The failure of a complete cure in colorectal cancer patients may be related to the lack of complete eradication of cancer stem cells when using conventional therapy. Colorectal cancer stem cells comprise a small population of tumor cells that possess the properties of rapid proliferation and differentiation. The colorectal cancer stem cells are also phenotypically and molecularly distinct, and resistant to conventional chemo-radiotherapy. Therefore, it is important to identify approaches in combination with conventional therapy for targeting and eradicating cancer cells. The aim of this review was to summarize the main findings of recent studies on targeting colorectal cancer stem cells as a novel therapeutic approach in colorectal cancer treatment.

Oxidative stress is caused by an imbalance between the antioxidant defenses and pro-oxidant production in favor of pro-oxidant production. Vitamin D has the potential for both pro- and anti-oxidative effects. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of high dose vitamin D supplementation on the prooxidant-antioxidant balance (PAB) in Iranian girls attending High School.A total of 464 girls aged 12-18 years were asked to take vitamin D capsules containing 50000IU vitamin DVitamin D supplementation was associated with an increase in serum PAB (P 0.001) and a reduction in serum LDL-C (P 0.001), total cholesterol (P 0.001) and HDL-C (P 0.01) serum levels in Iranian adolescent girls. The results obtained from the current study show that there were significant improvements in weight (P 0.001), BMI (P 0.001) and FBG (P = 0.02) in adolescent girls who had 50-74.9 nmol/L serum 25OHD levels compared to50 nmol/L ones after the vitamin D supplementation. There was no significant association between the serum PAB and all biochemical factors (P 0.05 for all variables).The results showed that vitamin D supplementation has increased the PAB levels in teenage girls.

Extensive alterations in splicing is one of the molecular indicator for human cancers. Soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC), an obligatory heterodimer, is composed of α1 and β1 subunits. Each subunit is encoded by a separate gene, GUCY1a3 and GUCY1b3, correspondingly. sGC activity has been regulated by an alternative splicing and it has an important effect on the breast cancer. sGC alternative splicing has been evaluated in the 55 malignant, 25 benign and 30 normal breast tissues using qRT-PCR and RT-PCR. The differences between groups were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U. The expression of six different splice forms have been detected, three for α1 and three for β1 sGC. Expressions of Tr1, Tr2 β1 sGC and Tr7, Tr6 α1 sGC mRNA in the malignant breast tumors were significantly lower than those of benign and normal breast tissues. However, the expression of Tr3 α1 sGC mRNA was significantly higher than that of benign and normal tissues. Present data have provided some evidences for an alteration in the expression of α1 and β1 sGC alternative splicing forms which may contribute to the loss of sGC functions in the breast cancer. The observed information might be discussed by the cGMP status.

Background The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is used widely to investigate diet quality. It is used for a number of different applications, for example to measure compliance with dietary recommendations and guidelines. The Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) was created in 2002 and was designed to improve the ability to predict major chronic disease risks. Objective The main objective of the present study was to assess the associations between the HEI/AHEI with several cardiovascular disease risk factors (RFs) within a population sample of adults from northeastern Iran and to compare the predictive values obtained using HEI for these cardiovascular RFs with the values obtained using AHEI. Material and methods A total sample of 748 men, were recruited from Sarakhs City, in northeastern Iran. The mean age of study participants was 43.50 ± 8.88 years. Anthropometric indices were measured based on standard methods. Fasting blood samples (12 hrs) were collected from all subjects to determine several biochemical measures. HEI/AHEI were used to assess the quality of diet. Results There were no significant differences in diet quality with respect to the presence or absence of obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertriglyceridemia. AHEI was significantly higher among subjects with a high serum levels of sensitive-C reactive protein (Hs-CRP) (p = 0.005), and the HEI was higher in subjects with a high serum copper (p = 0.01). There were no significant correlations between HEI/AHEI with CVD risk factors. Conclusions The results showed that there were no significant associations between the HEI/AHEI with CVD risk factors in the study population.

Summary Background & aims Several genome-wide-association-studies have identified genetic variants in a region on chromosome 9p21 that are associated with an increased risk of Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes. Here we have explored the interaction of a genetic variant of the CDKN2A/B-rs10811661 gene locus with cardiovascular risk factors and environmental-exposures (e.g., diet and physical activity) in 1165 individuals recruited from the Mashhad-Stroke and Heart-Atherosclerotic-Disorders cohort. Methods Genotyping was carried out using TaqMan-real-time-PCR based method. The association of CDKN2A/B-rs10811661 locus and its interaction with dietary intake in association with the main determinants of dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular-risk-factors were assessed in 2 cohorts. Results Our data showed that obese subjects with a TT genotype had a higher level of TG, TG/HDL ratio and Hs-CRP, compared to the subjects with the wild type genotype, or individuals with a normal BMI. Moreover, the presence of a TT genotype was associated with increased risk of hypercholesterolemia, insulin resistance and CVD. These effects were more pronounced in the sub-group with low physical activity and a high dietary energy intake (e.g., the interaction between TT genotype and total energy intake on serum cholesterol was positive (RERI: 0.2, 95%CI (−0.96–1.3), AP: 0.1, 95%CI (−0.5–0.7) and SI: 1.2, 95%CI (0.3–5.1))). Conclusions We have found a significant association between the CDKN2A-rs10811661 polymorphism with cardiovascular risk factors and dyslipidemia in a non-diabetic population. It is possible that a low energy diet and high physical activity could ameliorate the unfavorable effects of T allele of CDKN2A/B locus. Functional analysis is warranted to investigate the value of this genetic biomarker of CVD risk in obese people.

Introduction Hypertension is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). The goal of this study was to establish the factors associated with hypertension by using a decision-tree algorithm as a supervised classification method of data mining. Methods Data from a cross-sectional study were used in this study. A total of 9078 subjects who met the inclusion criteria were recruited. 70% of these subjects (6358 cases) were randomly allocated to the training dataset for the constructing of the decision-tree. The remaining 30% (2720 cases) were used as the testing dataset to evaluate the performance of decision-tree. Two models were evaluated in this study. In model I, age, gender, body mass index, marital status, level of education, occupation status, depression and anxiety status, physical activity level, smoking status, LDL, TG, TC, FBG, uric acid and hs-CRP were considered as input variables and in model II, age, gender, WBC, RBC, HGB, HCT MCV, MCH, PLT, RDW and PDW were considered as input variables. The validation of the model was assessed by constructing a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results The prevalence rates of hypertension were 32% in our population. For the decision-tree model I, the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and area under the ROC curve (AUC) value for identifying the related risk factors of hypertension were 73%, 63%, 77% and 0.72, respectively. The corresponding values for model II were 70%, 61%, 74% and 0.68, respectively. Conclusion We have developed a decision tree model to identify the risk factors associated with hypertension that maybe used to develop programs for hypertension management.

Introduction Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) is involved in several biological processes, including angiogenesis and VEGF high levels results in higher risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to examine the interaction of the rs10738760 (A > G), a genetic polymorphism of VEGF, and dietary intake in subjects with MetS recruited as part of the Mashhad Stroke and Heart Atherosclerotic Disorders (MASHAD) cohort study. Methods In this cross-sectional study, International-Diabetes-Federation criteria (IDF) were applied to determine the presence of MetS. The polymerase chain reaction-amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS-PCR) was used for genotyping. A food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used for determining dietary macro/micronutrient intake. Results Subjects with the AA genotype for the VEGF polymorphism, and a high consumption of sugar, starch, monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), and saturated fatty acid (SFA) showed a significantly higher risk of MetS. There was a significant association between AA genotype with sugar (OR:1.02, 95% CI:1.01–1.03) and starch intake (OR:1.01, 95% CI:1.00–1.01) and risk of MetS (p Conclusions Individuals with an AA genotype, and a high intake of MUFA, SFA, sugar and starch, had a high risk of developing MetS. Therefore, this genetic polymorphism might determine disease susceptibility when combined with a high consumption of fat and carbohydrate. A further study is necessary to confirm this association as a potential marker in predicting CVD events.

Lactase deficiency problem discourages many adults from consuming milk as a major source of micro- and macronutrients. Enzymatic hydrolysis of lactose is an ideal solution for this problem but such processing adds significant costs. In this study, a cold active β-galactosidase from Planococcus sp-L4 (bgal) was optimized for expression of recombinant "BGalP" in Pichia pastoris. As a result of codon optimization, the codon adaptation index was improved from 0.58 to 0.85 after replacing rare codons. After transformation of two P. pastoris strains (KM71H and GS115), the activity of BGalP enzyme was measured in the culture supernatants using ortho-Nitrophenyl-β-galactoside (ONPG). Maximal activity was recorded as 3.7U/ml on day 11 in KM71H clone #2 which was 20% higher than the best GS115 clone. Activity measurements under different conditions indicated optimal activity at pH 6.5. It was active at temperatures ranging from 0 to 55°C with deactivation occurring at or above 60°C. Protein analysis of the crude ultra-filtrate showed the enzyme was ∼75kDa and was the major constituent (85%) of the sample. This enzyme have the potential to find utility for the breakdown of lactose in chilled milk and subsequently can be deactivated by pasteurization. The use of BGalP would minimize energy consumption thus decreasing cost and also help to preserve the nutritional elements of the milk.

Background Healthy behaviors, such as a healthy diet are associated with a reduced risk of several chronic diseases. We aimed to investigate the association of dietary quality, assessed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), with serum copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) and also dietary intake of Cu and Zn. Study design This cross-sectional study was performed in a sub-sample of 5313 participants (2162 males and 3151 females) aged 35-65 years recruited as part of MASHAD cohort study. Methods HEI was assessed using dietary intake data that were collected based on a 65 items food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Flame atomic absorption spectrometry was used to measure serum Cu and Zn concentrations. Dietary intakes of Cu and Zn were evaluated based on the FFQ data; they were adjusted for total energy. Results HEI values had a negative correlation with serum Cu concentration and positive correlation with dietary intake and serum Zn/Cu showed. After adjusting for confounding factors, results showed that with increasing 10 unit of HEI the risk of serum level of Cu Conclusion There was a negative and positive correlation between HEI and serum concentration of Cu and serum Zn/Cu, respectively in the middle-aged Iranian adults. Although, the association between serum concentrations of Zn and Cu with their dietary intake were not significant. The evaluation of these factors in a larger population and in cohort study design may help further confirm these findings.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between serum antibody titers to Hsp27 (anti-Hsp27) and pro-oxidant-antioxidant balance (PAB) in patients with angiographically-defined coronary artery disease (CAD) with or without the metabolic syndrome (MS). DESIGN Subjects (n=243) were classified into MS+ (n=161) and MS- (n=82) subgroups, based on the AHA/NHBLI criteria. RESULTS Serum anti-Hsp27 titers were found to be significantly higher in the MS+ vs. MS- group. However, no significant difference was observed in serum PAB values. When assessed for individual components of MS, increased serum anti-Hsp27 was found to be higher in subgroups with elevated triglycerides, elevated blood pressure and reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Subgroups of patients with elevated triglycerides had higher PAB values. HDL-C was the only significant predictor of anti-Hsp27 in the population as a whole. CONCLUSION The evidence from this investigation indicates the presence of elevated anti-Hsp27 in patients with concurrent CAD and MS compared to those with CAD alone.