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Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads all around the world and leads to several new infection cases and mortality. A better understanding of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pathogenesis could lead to more efficient therapeutic approaches. Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the Toll-like receptors expression profile in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in COVID-19 patients in Iran. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated 32 COVID-19 patients. At the admission time based on the disease severity patients were divided into two groups of severe and mild COVID-19. A group of 16 normal people was evaluated as the healthy control. Blood samples were collected before any treatment from patients at the admission time. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell isolation preformed on blood samples. RNA is extracted from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and use for the cDNA synthesis. The expression level of TLR-3, 4, and 7 were evaluated by using semi-quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: The patient’s mean age was 57.12±3.08 years and 15 (47%) were male. The background disorders represent two patients in the severe group with respiratory disorders, four patients with cardiovascular disease, and seven patients with diabetes. The TLRs expression levels represent a higher expression of TLR-4 in COVID-19 in comparison with controls for TLR-4 (P=0.007), TLR-3 and 7 also represent up-regulation however there were no statistically significant differences in the relative fold changes (RFCs) between groups for all other evaluated TLRs (P>0.05). Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of the TLR-4 in COVID-19 patients in expression level. Further studies for a clear conclusion about TLRs expression levels are recommended.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS) in which both neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration play critical roles in the pathogenesis of the disease. A growing body of evidence indicates that some antibiotics have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. Rifampicin, commonly used for the treatment of mycobacteria, has been shown to exert neuroprotective activities in neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we examined the efficacy of rifampicin on demyelination, gliosis, apoptosis, inflammation, behavioral dysfunction, and biochemical alterations in the cuprizone model of demyelination. For this aim, male C57BL/6J mice were fed a chow containing 0.2% cuprizone (w/w) for 6 weeks to induce reversible demyelination in the corpus callosum. Mice intraperitoneally received serial doses of rifampicin (10, 20, or 40 mg/kg body weight) in the last 7 days of a 6-week period of cuprizone treatment. The results showed that the administration of rifampicin led to the improvement in motor behavioral deficits. In line with this, rifampicin decreased the number of apoptotic cells in the corpus callosum thereby diminishing the expression of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax, as well as increasing Bcl-2. Moreover, rifampicin significantly lowered the levels of interleukin-6, interleukin-1β, caspase-12 activity, heme oxygenase-1(HO-1), nitric oxide (NO), and malondialdehyde (MDA) in mice treated with cuprizone. Conversely, the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and the level of ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) were increased in response to the treatment with rifampicin. Histopathological findings demonstrated that rifampicin statistically promoted remyelination and mitigated microgliosis and astrogliosis. It seems that rifampicin is able to be added to the armamentarium of therapies for multiple sclerosis.

We enthusiastically read the article in PNAS by Leibovitch et al. (1), in which they show that intranasal inoculations with human herpesvirus (HHV)-6A and HHV-6B accelerate the onset and severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). They performed an outstanding job in utilizing marmosets to mimic the multiple sclerosis (MS)-like symptoms rather than female C57BL/6 mice. Although the creativity of their work is undeniable, several points exist that are worth mentioning. It is allegedly known … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: harirchm{at}tums.ac.ir. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

In this study, an analytical method is developed to obtain mechanical and thermal stress and mechanical displacement in two dimensional steady (r,θ) state a functionally graded porous material hollow sphere (FGpm). It is assumed that properties of poro, and FGM material is changed through thickness according to power law functions. heat conduction equation is obtained for obtaining temperature distribution and navier equations analytically using legendre polynomials and Euler differential equations system for investigating displacements changes and stress and potential functions for different indices power indices.