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Background: Numerous molecular changes are involved in the development and progression of bladder cancer. Regular follow-up of patients is crucial due to the high recurrence rate of bladder cancer. The aim of this study is to determine the role of B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase and ZEB2 expressions in onset and progression of bladder cancer. We have also investigated their relationships to pathological characteristics. Methods: We conducted this case-control study on bladder cancer and its healthy adjacent tissue, and normal bladder tissue from patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. After extraction of total RNA and cDNA synthesis, quantitative expression analysis was performed in duplicate using real-time PCR. Changes in the gene expression were calculated according to the 2(-ΔΔCt) equation. The products were confirmed by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis and sequenced by Bioneer Company. Data was analyzed using the SPSS software (version 16). Results: There was significantly greater B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase expression in 82% of bladder tumor samples compared to the adjacent tissues. In 91.1% of tumor samples, the gene expression was also significantly higher than healthy bladder tissues from patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. We observed overexpression of B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase in 61.7% of the healthy margin tissue samples compared to healthy bladder tissues of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (P<0.001). Expression of ZEB2 in 52.9% of the bladder tumor samples was significantly higher than healthy peripheral tissues. This increase was observed in 94.1% of tumor samples compared to healthy bladder tissues of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (P<0.001). Pearson correlation coefficient showed a positive relationship between B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase and ZEB2 in cancerous samples (r = 0.75) and healthy margin tissue samples (r = 0.49). Conclusion: During the carcinogenesis process, molecular changes are seen in healthy margin tissue. These molecular changes may be the reason for the high recurrence rate of bladder cancer. B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase can potentially be a target cancer therapy in antisense technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is one of the world health problems. Leishmania major is the etiological agent of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL). Promastigote and amastigote are two morphological forms of Leishmania parasites that express different proteins and p27 is an important gene encoding cytochrome c oxidase (COX) component. P27 gene expresses a 27 kDa protein that essential in ATP synthesis. This study aimed to compare p27 gene expression in promastigote and amastigote forms in Iranian strain of L. major (MRHO/IR/75/ER). Methods: This study was conducted in 2015. Clinical isolates of CL patients from north, center, west and south parts of Iran were collected and identified by PCRRFLP. After RNA extraction of promastigotes and amastigotes and cDNA synthesis, the expression level of p27 gene was compared by real-time RT-PCR. Results: By comparison of expression level between amastigote and promastigote forms of Iranian strain of L. major, up-regulation of p27 gene (2.73 fold) was observed in amastigotes. Moreover, there was no significant difference in p27 gene expression between L. major isolates. Conclusion: p27 gene and protein can be considered as a target in recombinant vaccine production and treatment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless channel emulation is becoming increasingly important, particularly with the advent of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where system performance is highly dependent on the accurate representation of the channel condition. In this paper, we compare the conventional finite impulse response (FIR)-based emulator versus solely performing the emulation in the frequency domain. We show that for single-input-single-output (SISO) systems, FIR-based emulators are computationally efficient but that the complexity rapidly becomes impractical for larger array sizes. On the other hand, frequency-domain approaches exhibit a fixed initial complexity cost that grows at a reduced rate as a function of the array size, resulting in significant savings in complexity for higher order arrays. As an illustrative example of this approach, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) architecture implementing a sample 3 × 3 MIMO system exhibits resource savings of up to 67% over a similarly constrained FIR approach. The architecture is discussed in detail, and implementation results, as well as laboratory measurements, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An episomal RNAi silencing construct containing the inducible cbhB promoter and a hairpin structure has been made to downregulate the alb1 gene in the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. Transformation of fungal protoplasts resulted in a high number of transformants with an inducible silenced phenotype (white spores). Efficient downregulation of the alb1 gene using this system suggests that this approach may overcome the variable downregulation observed with integrative constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Introduction of the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery has guided the researchers to discover the function of essential vital or virulence factor genes in the microorganisms such as fungi. In the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, the gene sidB plays an essential role in septation, conidiation and vegetative hyphal growth. In the present study, we benefited from the RNAi strategy for down-regulating a vital gene, sidB, in the fungus A. nidulans., Methods: The 21-nucleotide small interfering RNA (siRNA) was designed based on the cDNA sequence of the sidB gene in A. nidulans. Transfection was performed through taking up siRNA from medium by 6 hour-germinated spores. To evaluate the morphologic effects of siRNA on the fungus, germ tube elongation was followed. Moreover, total RNA was extracted and quantitative changes in expression of the sidB gene were analyzed by measuring the cognate sidB mRNA level by use of a quantitative real-time RT-PCR assay., Results: Compared to untreated-siRNA samples, a significant inhibition in germ tube elongation was observed in the presence of 25 nM of siRNA (42 VS 21 µM). In addition, at the concentration of 25 nM, a considerable decrease in sidB gene expression was revealed., Conclusion: Usage of RNAi as a kind of post-transcriptional gene silencing methods is a promising approach for designing new antifungal agents and discovering new drug delivery systems.