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Identifying patient's cellular radiosensitivity before radiotherapy (RT) in breast cancer (BC) patients allows proper alternations in routinely used treatment programs and reduces the adverse side effects in exposed patients. This study was conducted on blood samples taken from 60 women diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC) BC (mean age: 47±9.93) and 30 healthy women (mean age: 44.43±6.7). The standard G2 assay was performed to predict cellular radiosensitivity. To investigate miR-22 and miR-335 expression levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), qPCR was performed. The sensitivity and specificity of the mentioned miRNAs were assessed by plotting the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. Binary logistic regression was performed to identify the miRNA involvement in BC and cellular radiosensitivity (CR) of BC patients. The frequency of spontaneous and radiation-induced chromatid breaks (CBs) was significantly different between control and patient groups (p<0.05). A cut-off value was determined to differentiate the patients with and without cellular radiosensitivity. miR-22 and miR-335 were significantly downregulated in BC patients. miRNAs expression levels were directly associated with CR. ROC curve assessment identified that both miRNAs had acceptable specificity and sensitivity in the prediction of BC and CR of BC patients. Binary logistic regression showed that both miRNAs could also predict BC successfully. Although only miR-22 was shown potent to predict CR of BC patients, both miR-22 and miR-335 might act as tumor suppressor miRNAs in BC. miR-22 and miR-335 may be promising potential biomarkers in BC prediction along with other important biomarkers. Moreover, mirR-22 might be a potential biomarker for the prediction of CR in BC patients.

Background: Endemic areas for soil-transmitted helminthiases often lack the tools and trained personnel necessary for point-of-care diagnosis. This study pilots the use of smartphone microscopy and an artificial neural network-based (ANN) object detection application named Kankanet to address those two needs., Methodology/principal Findings: A smartphone was equipped with a USB Video Class (UVC) microscope attachment and Kankanet, which was trained to recognize eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworm using a dataset of 2,078 images. It was evaluated for interpretive accuracy based on 185 new images. Fecal samples were processed using Kato-Katz (KK), spontaneous sedimentation technique in tube (SSTT), and Merthiolate-Iodine-Formaldehyde (MIF) techniques. UVC imaging and ANN interpretation of these slides was compared to parasitologist interpretation of standard microscopy.Relative to a gold standard defined as any positive result from parasitologist reading of KK, SSTT, and MIF preparations through standard microscopy, parasitologists reading UVC imaging of SSTT achieved a comparable sensitivity (82.9%) and specificity (97.1%) in A. lumbricoides to standard KK interpretation (97.0% sensitivity, 96.0% specificity). The UVC could not accurately image T. trichiura or hookworm. Though Kankanet interpretation was not quite as sensitive as parasitologist interpretation, it still achieved high sensitivity for A. lumbricoides and hookworm (69.6% and 71.4%, respectively). Kankanet showed high sensitivity for T. trichiura in microscope images (100.0%), but low in UVC images (50.0%)., Conclusions/significance: The UVC achieved comparable sensitivity to standard microscopy with only A. lumbricoides. With further improvement of image resolution and magnification, UVC shows promise as a point-of-care imaging tool. In addition to smartphone microscopy, ANN-based object detection can be developed as a diagnostic aid. Though trained with a limited dataset, Kankanet accurately interprets both standard microscope and low-quality UVC images. Kankanet may achieve sensitivity comparable to parasitologists with continued expansion of the image database and improvement of machine learning technology., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Purpose: The present study is a case-control analysis of a SNP (rs28368082) in exon 7 of the SPO11 gene and its possible association with male infertility in three provinces of Iran. We also searched for genetic differences among populations., Methods: Using Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis, we genotyped 113 infertile men and 50 fertile controls. Then, samples consisting SNP, as determined by PCR-RFLP, were genotyped by sequencing. The differences in genotype distributions between cases and fertile controls were examined using Chi-squared analysis. The genetic difference between individuals with mutated nucleotide was investigated by phylogenetic trees. Genetic difference among populations (provinces) was analyzed through ANOVA test, and homogeneity was investigated using STRUCTURE and K-means clustering analysis., Results: According to the statistical analysis, the SNP was significantly associated with male infertility in all populations except oligozoospermic cases of the Center region. The phylogenetic trees showed partial genetic variation among the individuals, although ANOVA test showed no significant genetic difference between populations (provinces) for both azoospermic, and oligozoospermic cases. Eventually, we affirmed that individuals in the inclusive populations had genetic difference, but it was not statistically significant for dividing underlying populations to separate groups, so each population was homogenous., Conclusion: Our study indicates that the mentioned polymorphism in SPO11 gene may be linked to the susceptibility of azoospermia and oligozoospermia male infertility in three provinces of Iran. Further studies are required to support obtained results. It finally should be noted that the possible association between a particular SNP and a specific disease completely depends on the underlying population.