Search

Background & aim: Currently, due to the widespread use of antifungal drugs and the inability to treat candida patients with infection, the recurrence of the disease has increased in patients; therefore, this has caused researchers to use medicinal plants to treat fungal diseases. The aim of the present srudy was to investigate the effect of methanolic extract of Nasturtium officinale and Salvia officinalis on the clinical and standard isolates of Candida in comparison with the antifungal drug fluconazole. Methods: In the present experimental study conducted in 2019 on 31 clinical and standard Candida isolates, including 11 Candida albicans isolates, 10 Candida glabrata isolates, and 10 Candida parapsilosis isolates isolated from candidal vaginitis, urinary tract infection, and otomycosis in Yasuj, Iran. Once collecting sage and spring grass, their hydroalcoholic extracts were prepared and used to determine fungal sensitivity by broth microdilution method. For this purpose, according to the standard yeast suspension dilutions along with each of the medicinal agents and plant extracts were added to the 96-well plates and incubated at 35°C. To conclude, the lowest concentration of growth inhibitor was calculated for each isolate. The collected data were analyzed using Excel software. Results: In the present study, among the three drugs and extracts examined, the MIC50 for hydroalcoholic extract of sage on three species of Candida albicans, Candida glabrata and Candida parapsilosis, respectively; 25,000, 12,500 and 12,500 μg/ml and MIC50 for the methanol extract of spring grass on three species in the same way, 25,000 μg/ml and MIC50 for fluconazole for three species; 0.25, 0.5 and 0.125 μg/ml were obtained respectively. Conclusions: Compared to fluconazole, hydroalcoholic extracts of sage and spring grass had much less effect on clinical and standard Candida isolates. The common species that causes candidiasis is Candida albicans, and according to the results of the presnt study, the hydroalcoholic extracts of sage and spring grass have relatively little effects in laboratory conditions; therefore, the use of this plant extract for the treatment of candidiasis is not recommended.

Background & aim: Steroid production has been reported in the asexual tissues of the nervous system. Stimulants are in the normal activity, function and function of the nervous system. Identifying the conduction pathways involved in glucocorticoids and enabling brain parenchymal cells can offset the balance in the active nervous system at old ages when the body is depleted. Therefore, in this study, by increasing the activity of sonic hedgehog (SHH) pathway attempted by purmorphamine and its capacity by Gant 61, the effect of this pathway on steroid process in culture medium of glial neurons is evaluated. Methods: The present experimental study was conducted in 2021. First, neuronal stem cells were obtained from the cortex of a 14-day-old embryonic mice by standard methods. Survival of neuronal stem cells after treatment with 5 μM pregnenolone with different concentrations of purmorphamine (1,2,5, 10 and 20) and Gant 61 was performed by MTT method. Then the cells were placed in a differentiation medium and after treatment with different concentrations and 5-day incubation, the surface of the cells was removed from the cell culture medium and the amount of testosterone and estrogen were measured by ELISA and HPLC. Data were analyzed using ANOVA statistical test using graph pad software. Results: The survival data of the groups indicated an increase in survival after treatment with purmorphamine (114.3) compared to the Gant 61 group (63.7 Pg) (p≤0.5). Progesterone data in the supernatant of glial neurons showed that purmorphamine groups (287.2 Pg) had a significant increase compared to control (88.28) and Gant 61 (40.5 Pg) groups (p≤ 0.001). Also, testosterone data show that purmorphamine groups (73.8 Pg) in both ELISA and HPLC methods have a significant increase compared to the control (153.8 Pg) and Gant61 (52.92 Pg) groups (p≤ 0.0001). Also, pregnenolone group (236.5 Pg) showed a significant increase compared to Gant61 (40.5 Pg) group (p≤ 0.05). Analysis of estrogen data by HPLC method showed that there was a significant increase in estrogen production in the purmorphamine groups (331.2 Pg) compared to the control (42.11 Pg) and Gant61 (42.11 Pg) groups (p≤ 0.0001). Conclusion: The data from this study indicated that the induction of the shh pathway by purrmorphamine increased the production of steroid hormones (estrogen-progesterone and testosterone) by glial-neuronal differentiating cells, which inhibition of this pathway had the opposite effect. The present study concluded that induction of the shh pathway can lead to the production of steroids.

Abstract The zinc sulfide/copper oxide–carbon nanotube nanocomposite (ZnS/CuO-CNT) was fabricated by using an in-situ hydrothermal synthesis method and was used for simultaneous ultrasound-assisted adsorptive removal of a binary mixture of ponceau 4R (P4R) and tartrazine (TA) acid food dyes from contaminated water. The as-synthesized ZnS/CuO-CNT was described by FESEM, XRD, FTIR, BET, and zeta potential analysis. The results included nested network morphology, high purity with the crystalline structure, oxygen-containing functional groups, mesoporous/micropores texture with cumulate interspace, specific surface area of 106.54 m2 g-1, and zero-point charge (pHzpc) of 5.3. In adsorption experiments, the simultaneous effect of main independent variables, including solution pH, adsorbent dosage, concentration of each dye, temperature, and sonication time on the removal efficiency of dyes was studied systematically using the central composite design (CCD) method based on response surface methodology (RSM). Also, the second-order multivariate equation was presented to determine the relationship between the removal efficiencies of P4R and AT dyes and six independent effective variables. The high correlation coefficient (R2 ≥ 0.99), significant p-value (P 0.05) showed the high accuracy, and validity of the proposed model to predict the removal efficiency of P4R and TA acid food dyes. The experimental removal efficiency for P4R and TA dyes was found to be 98.45 ± 2.54, and 99.21 ± 2.23, respectively. Also, the Langmuir maximum adsorption capacity for P4R and TA dyes was determined to be 190.1 mg g-1 and 183.5 mg g-1, respectively. Finally, the adsorbent's reusability was tested for six periods and could be reused repeatedly without significant reduction in adsorption performance.

Current study is based on the synthesis and characterisation of MgSiO3 nanoparticles (MgSiO3 NPs) and its application for ultrasound-assisted solid-phase extraction (UASPE) of methylene blue (MB) dye from water samples using UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The prepared MgSiO3 NPs were fully identified and characterised by different techniques such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The prepared nano sorbent had spherical shape with size diameter of 20 nm. Central composite design (CCD) optimisation approach as versatile tool was used for investigation and optimisation of the effective parameters. Using CCD method, the optimised conditions were achieved to be pH of 7.0, sorbent dosage of 29.80 mg, ultrasonic time of 10.34 min, and temperature of 25°C at 500 µl of dimethylformamide eluent using Triton X-100 surfactant. Under the optimised conditions, the proposed method is applicable for wide linear range with detection limit of 0.084 mg L−1, limit of quantification of 0.28 mg L−1. The prepared MgSiO3 NPs have exceptional properties in terms of porous and sheets structure and also high adsorption capacity. In addition, the applied method showed satisfactory figure of merits in terms of pre-concentration factor of 10, which make candidate the applied method and nano sorbent as an operative and ideal candidate for pre-concentration and determination trace level of MB from water samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful gene therapy relies on carriers to transfer genetic materials with high efficiency and low toxicity in a targeted manner. To enhance targeted cell binding and uptake, we developed and synthesized a new gene delivery vector based on graphene oxide (GO) modified by branched polyethyleneimine (BPEI) and folic acid (FA). The GO‐PEI‐FA nanocarriers exhibit lower toxicity compared to unmodified PEI, as well as having the potential to efficiently condense and protect pDNA. Interestingly, increasing the polymer content in the polyplex formulation improved plasmid transfer ability. Substituting graphene oxide for PEI at an N/P ratio of 10 in the HepG2 and THP1 cell lines improved hIL‐12 expression by up to approximately eightfold compared to simple PEI, which is twice as high as GO‐PEI‐FA in Hek293 at the same N/P ratio. Therefore, the GO‐PEI‐FA described in this study may serve as a targeting nanocarrier for the delivery of the hIL‐12 plasmid into cells overexpressing folic acid receptors, such as those found in hepatocellular carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this research, mesoporous calcium aluminate nanostructures (meso-CaAl2O4) were synthesized using a citric acid-assisted sol–gel auto-combustion process as the potential adsorbent to eliminate toxic triphenylmethane dye malachite green (MG) from synthetic/real effluent. The surface morphology of meso-CaAl2O4 was highly porous with nanometric size and non-homogeneous surface. The specific surface area, total pore volume, and BJH pore diameter of meso-CaAl2O4 were 148.5 m2 g−1, 1.39 cm3 g−1, and 19 nm, respectively. The meso-CaAl2O4 also showed a very high heat resistance, due to losing only 7.95% of its weight up to 800 °C, which is mainly related to the moisture loss. The optimal adsorption conditions were obtained based on response surface methods (RSM)-central composite design (CCD) techniques. The Langmuir isotherm model was used for fitting the adsorption measurements, which presented 587.5 mg g–1 as the maximum adsorption capacity of the dye. The data obtained from the adsorption kinetics model were found to correspond to the pseudo-second-order model. Also, the thermodynamic parameters including enthalpy change (ΔH°), entropy change (ΔS°), and Gibbs free energy change (ΔG°) indicated that MG dye adsorption by the meso-CaAl2O4 was feasible, endothermic, and occurred spontaneously. Furthermore, the meso-CaAl2O4 was regenerated by microwave irradiation under 900 W at 6 min, and the MG dye removal efficiency was remained over 90% after the five cycles of microwave regeneration.

Background It is well-documented that using immunosuppressive drugs such as corticosteroids or cytokine blockers in treating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) increases the risk of co-infections. Here we systematically summarized the cases of COVID-19-associated parasitic infections (CAPIs) in Iran. Methods From 19 February 2020 to 10 May 2023, all studies on Iranian patients suffering from CAPIs were collected from several databases using a systematic search strategy. Results Of 540 records, 11 studies remained for data extraction. In this research, most of the studies were related to Lophomonas and Toxoplasma. Of 411 cases of CAPIs, toxoplasmosis (385 [93.7%]) had the highest rate of infection among Iranian patients, followed by blastocystosis (15 [3.6%]), fascioliasis (4 [0.97%]), leishmaniasis (3 [0.7%]), lophomoniasis (3 [0.7%]) and strongyloidiasis (1 [0.2%]). In general, Blastocystis enhanced diarrhoea in patients with COVID-19. Lophomonas, Toxoplasma and Strongyloides increased the severity of COVID-19, but Fasciola decreased its intensity. Patients with a history of cutaneous leishmaniasis showed mild symptoms of COVID-19. Also, patients with a prior history of hydatid cysts were not affected by COVID-19. Conclusions Due to the similar symptoms of some parasitic diseases and COVID-19 and immunosuppressive treatment regimens in these patients that may cause the reactivation or recurrence of parasitic infections, early diagnosis and treatment are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]