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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are multisystemic autoimmune diseases with multifactorial nature. Considering limitations of the current conventional serological tests for diagnosis of these diseases, researchers strive to find new and more valid biomarkers. The methylation level of interferon-induced protein 44-like (IFI44L) promoter was evaluated in 69 patients with SLE, 61 patients with RA, and 71 healthy subjects. Quantitative methylation of the promoter region of IFI44L gene was measured in DNA extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with methylation-quantification endonuclease-resistant DNA (MethyQESD) method. Our findings revealed a substantial hypomethylation of IFI44L promoter in SLE and RA patients compared with healthy volunteers (mean: 60.36%±64.54%, 47.59%±30.34%, and 89.17%±76.96%, respectively; PSLE= 0.018, PRAIFI44L promoter methylation had a sensitivity of 84/06% and 93/65% and specificity of 32/39% and 29/58, respectively. The promoter methylation level was not meaningfully different between SLE and RA patients (P > 0.05). Moreover, our analysis revealed that the methylation level of IFI44L promoter was not statistically significantly different between SLE disease activity and renal involvements (P > 0.05). While RA patients with a higher concentration of CRP had a lower DNA methylation level (P = 0.012). The methylation level of IFI44L promoter was lower in PBMCs of Iranian patients with SLE and RA than that control group. Furthermore, DNA methylation level of IFI44L promoter had a negative correlation with RA disease activity. However, there was not a significant association between clinical characteristics of SLE.

مقدمه: سرطان‌های بدخیم کولورکتال، چه در صورت تکی و چه در صورت خانوادگی، اگر با افزایش میزان ناپایداری در میکروستلایت همراه باشند، پیش‌آگهی بهتری دارند، راهکار متفاوتی برای جراحی در آن‌ها اتخاذ می‌شود و پاسخ متفاوتی نسبت به داروی شیمی‌درمانی 5FU (Fluorouracil) خواهند داد. بنا بر این، امروزه برای بیماران مبتلا به سرطان کولورکتال ارثی و غیر ارثی، آزمایش سنجش وضعیت ناپایداری میکروستلایت انجام می‌شود. هدف این مطالعه، سنجش کارایی نشانگر تک نوکلئوتیدی MT1XT20 در جمعیت بیماران مبتلا به سرطان کولون ارثی غیر پولیپی (HNPCC یا Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer) کشور ایران بود. علاوه بر نشانگر پیش‌گفته، از دو روش بررسی وضعیت میکروستلایت با پنل 5 نشانگری و استاندارد Promega و نیز آزمایش ایمنوهیستوشیمیایی استفاده شد. روش‌ها: در این مطالعه، نشانگر تک نوکلئوتیدی MT1XT20 و کیت استاندارد Promega از طریق روش PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) بر روی 20 خانواده‌ی مبتلا به HNPCC ایرانی مورد سنجش قرار گرفت و آزمایش ایمنوهیستوشیمیایی نیز برای بررسی وضعیت 4 پروتئین مهم دخیل در مسیر ترمیم ناجور جفت شدگی مورد استفاده قرار گرفت. یافته‌ها: در روش سنجش ناپایداری میکروستلایت از طریق پنل Promega و نشانگر تک نوکلئوتیدی MT1XT20 به ترتیب 8 (40 درصد) و 5 نمونه (25 درصد) از 20 نمونه وضعیت ناپایداری نشان دادند. در روش ایمنوهیستوشیمیایی نیز، 7 نمونه از 20 نمونه (35 درصد) وضعیت کمبود پروتئین مسیر ترمیم ناجور جفت شدگی را نشان دادند. در میان نشانگرهای مورد استفاده در کیت Promega، نشانگر BAT26 ناپایدارترین نشانگر بود و در هر 8 نمونه، Microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) تشخیص داده شده توسط کیت Promega ناپایداری نشان داد. نشانگرهای NR21 و NR24 در 7 نمونه (5/87 درصد) ناپایداری نشان دادند و نشانگرهای BAT25 و MONO27 به ترتیب با نشان دادن ناپایداری در 6 (0/75 درصد) و 5 نمونه (5/62 درصد)، پایدارترین نشانگرها بودند. نتیجه‌گیری: MT1XT20 در جمعیت ایتالیایی، به عنوان نشانگر تک نوکلئوتیدی مورد اعتماد ارزیابی شده است، اما این مسأله در رابطه با جمعیت ایرانی صدق نمی‌کند. در عوض، BAT26 با نشان دادن ناپایداری در تمام نمونه‌های MSI-H ارزیابی شده توسط کیت Promega، می‌تواند به عنوان نشانگری موثق و قابل مقایسه با پنل 5 نشانگری Promega در جمعیت ایرانی در نظر گرفته شود.

Background: Integral membrane proteins involve in a variety of valuable cellular processes including signal transduction, transport and cell-to-cell communication. Thus, due to their importance, are targeted to treatment of diseases or disorders. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to obtain adequate membrane proteins. A variety of expression systems have been used to overexpress these proteins but mammalian cells can produce membrane proteins structurally close to natural form of them and are favourable for this purpose. TOSO/FAIM3 (Fas Apoptosis Inhibitory Molecule), highly conserved membrane protein, playing important role in cell survival, immune surveillance, and homeostasis and in this study was overexpressed on HEK-293T membrane. Methods: Eukaryotic expression vector pEZ-M67-TOSO was transformed into Escherichia coli top 10F’ strain to multiply. Then, the plasmid was extracted and digested with restriction enzyme Eco31I to make a linear plasmid. Subsequently, HEK-293T cells were transfected with linear plasmid and treated with hygromycin to select TOSO expressing stable cells. After three weeks, resistant colons were expanded, Chromosomal DNA and total RNA were extracted and the presence of TOSO-cDNA in HEK-293T genome and the expression level of TOSO were evaluated using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Real-time PCR methods, respectively. Findings: The integration of TOSO expressing cassette in HEK-293T genome was confirmed. HEK-293 cells expressed 1700 mRNA TOSO molecule/cell which was in the range of protein with abundant expression. Conclusion: Mammalian cells represent membrane proteins in desirable form versus other expression systems. For this reason, we used HEK293T cells to overexpress transmembrane TOSO protein. In this investigation, we successfully constructed the HEK293 cell line with stable TOSO overexpression, which will facilitate further researches to characterize biophysical and biochemical structure and function of TOSO and pharmaceutical biological researches about it.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this clinical trial was to assess the effects of probiotic soy milk and soy milk on anthropometric measures and blood pressure (BP) in type 2 diabetic (T2D) patients. METHODS: A total of 40 patients with T2D, 35-68 years old, were assigned to two groups in this randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial. The patients in the intervention group consumed 200 ml/day of probiotic soy milk containing Lactobacillus planetarium A7 and those in control group consumed 200 ml/day of soy milk for 8 weeks. Anthropometric and BP measurements were performed according to standard protocols. For detecting within-group differences paired-sample t-tests was used and analysis of covariance was used for determining any differences between two groups. (The trial has been registered in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials, identifier: IRCT: IRCT201405265062N8). RESULTS: In this study, we failed to find any significant changes between probiotic soy milk and soy milk in term of body mass index (26.65 ± 0.68 vs. 26.33 ± 0.74, P = 0.300) and waist to hip ratio (1.49 ± 0.08 vs. 1.54 ± 0.1, P = 0.170). Although soy milk did not have any effect on BP, probiotic soymilk significantly decreased systolic (14.7 ± 0.48 vs. 13.05 ± 0.16, P = 0.001) and diastolic BP (10 ± 0.7 vs. 9.1 ± 1, P = 0.031). CONCLUSION: In our study, probiotic soy milk in comparing with soy milk did not have any beneficial effects on anthropometric measures in these patients. We need more clinical trial for confirming the effect of probiotic foods on anthropometric measure in diabetic patients. However, probiotic soy milk decreased systolic and diastolic BP significantly. &nbsp

Background: Cystinuria, one of the first diagnosed inborn errors of metabolism, recognized by hyperexcretion of cystine, lysine, ornithine and arginine into the urine. So far, two genes associated with cystinuria have been identified: SLC3A1 (2p16.3) that encodes the heavy subunit rBAT of the renal b0,+ transporter and SLC7A9 (19q13.1), which encodes the light subunit b0,+AT. Patients with type A cystinuria have two SLC3A1 mutations, whereas patients with type B have two SLC7A9 mutations and finally patients with type AB have one mutation in each gene. Considering the population-specific distribution of mutations in disease, limited studies on the genetic bases of the cystinuria have been done in Middle East. This research presents the results of mutation analysis on patients with cystinuria in Iran. Methods: Thirty unrelated patients with cystinuria operated to remove kidney stones were screened by urologist .The patients were analyzed for mutation using amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) and polymerase chain reaction-Restriction fragment length polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction (RFLP-PCR) methods. Findings: We found some variations including missense mutations, polymorphism and intron variant, but the most frequent mutations, M467T and also T216M and R333W, were not detected in our patients. Conclusion: Our research may confirm the ethnic distribution of mutations in cystinuria and this study can expand our concept of the genetic basis of cystinuria in Iranian patients.

Milk thistle [Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn.] is an important medicinal-industrial plant. The medicinal compounds of milk thistle are derived from its seeds. The plant is commercially cultivated for the production of silymarin. Cultivation offers the opportunity to optimise achene yield and silymarin content. Furthermore, efforts should be made to develop new cultivars. The main objective of milk thistle breeding is to develop high yielding cultivars with elevated silymarin content. There are few developed cultivars of milk thistle (e.g. Argintiu, Budakalaszi, Szibilla, Khoreslo, Babak Castle, Mirel, Silma and Silyb). Different genotypes of milk thistle have variable amount of silymarin e.g. a ‘Royston’ genotype is rich in silymarin (6-10%). Further progress can be made by using the genetic diversity available in abundance in different genotypes. The main concern of the breeder should be to increase the yield and silymarin contents of the seeds. Asynchronous flowering and seed shedding are also major problems in milk thistle cultivation. At the time of harvest, the plants have flower heads at all stages of development resulting non-uniform maturation of seeds. Therefore, a breeding effort in milk thistle should be planned to obtain plants with simultaneous flowering and reduced crop losses. The developed cultivar Argintiu is characterised by simultaneous seed maturation in flower heads. The wild populations, as valuable gene pools, could be exploited for the improvement of milk thistle crop.