BITA

Aflatoxins (AFs) are inevitable environmental contaminants that are detrimental to human and animal health. AFs interfere with metabolic processes, metabolizing into different hydroxylated derivatives in the liver, as well as mechanistically induce ROS accumulation, S-phase arrest, DNA damage, and cell apoptosis. Chronic consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated foods can adversely affect the male reproductive system, cause testicular damage, prevent testosterone synthesis, decline sperm quality, and cause infertility...

As demand for genetic cancer risk assessment (GCRA) continues to increase, so does the sense of urgency to scale up efforts to triage patients, facilitate informed consent, and order genetic testing for cancer risk. The National Society of Genetic Counselors outlines the elements of informed consent that should be addressed in a GCRA session. While this practice resource aims to improve health equity, research on how well the elements of informed consent are implemented in practice is lacking. This retrospective and prospective mixed-methods study assessed how adequately the elements of informed consent are addressed during pre-test GCRA among 307 community clinicians (CC) and 129 cancer genetic counselors (GC), and barriers they face to addressing these elements...

This research work presents a "green" strategy of weed valorization for developing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with promising interesting applications. Two types of AgNPs were phyto-synthesized using an aqueous leaf extract of the weed Andropogon halepensis L. Phyto-manufacturing of AgNPs was achieved by two bio-reactions, in which the volume ratio of (phyto-extract)/(silver salt solution) was varied. The size and physical stability of Andropogon -AgNPs were evaluated by means of DLS and zeta potential measurements, respectively...

OBJECTIVES: Infertility is inability to conceive after 12 months of regular unprotected sex. MiRNA expression changes can serve as potential biomarkers for infertility in males due to impaired spermatogenesis. This research was conducted to measure the expression level of miR-211 in plasma samples as a factor identifying infertility in comparison with the control group. METHODS: In this study, blood plasma were taken from the infertile men (n = 103) nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) or severe oligozoospermia (SO) and the control group (n = 121)...

Severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction is an independent risk factor for early and long-term mortality after coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG). Off-pump CABG (OPCAB) significantly reduces the early incidence of major complications in high-risk patients. Moreover, bilateral internal thoracic artery (BITA) grafting after CABG is associated with improved long-term outcomes. We aimed to evaluate the impact of multivessel OPCAB with BITA grafting for complete revascularization on postoperative and long-term outcomes in patients with low LV ejection fraction (EF)...

Due to its involvement in skin maintenance and repair, topical administration of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) is an interesting strategy for therapeutic purposes. We have formulated and characterized a topical rhGH-loaded liposomal formulation (rhGH-Lip) and evaluated its safety, biological activity, and preventive role against UVB-induced skin damage. The rhGH-Lip had an average size and zeta potential of 63 nm and -33 mV, respectively, with 70 % encapsulation efficiency. The formulation was stable at 4 °C for at least one year...

BACKGROUND: Anxiety is a common symptom of several mental health disorders and adversely affects motivated behaviors. Anxiety can emerge from associating risk of future harm while engaged in goal-guided actions. Using a recently developed behavioral paradigm to model this aspect of anxiety, we investigated the role of two cortical subregions, the prelimbic medial frontal cortex (PL) and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC), which have been implicated in anxiety and outcome expectation, in flexible representation of actions associated with harm risk...

BACKGROUND: Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) remains a significant source of morbidity and mortality following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Post-transplant, prophylactic rituximab has successfully decreased cGHVD rates in clinical trials, but the durability of this strategy is uncertain. The long-terms effect of post-HCT B cell depletion on immune reconstitution, B cell function, and infectious complications are also unknown. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we provide 10 year follow-up and correlative analyses on patients given post-HCT, prophylactic rituximab...

Breast cancer resistance to chemotherapy necessitates novel combination therapeutic approaches. Linc-RoR is a long intergenic noncoding RNA that regulates stem cell differentiation and promotes metastasis and invasion in breast cancer. Herein, we report a dual delivery system employing polyamidoamine dendrimers to co-administer the natural compound curcumin and linc-RoR siRNA for breast cancer treatment. Polyamidoamine dendrimers efficiently encapsulated curcumin and formed complexes with linc-RoR siRNA at an optimal N/P ratio...

The objective of the current study was to examine the antimicrobial, anti-adhesion, and anti-invasion properties of various concentrations of condition media obtained from adipose mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSCs CM) against Shigella flexneri (S. flexneri). AD-MSCs characterization and antimicrobial assay were performed using flow cytometry and microdilution by colony counting, respectively. For evaluating adhesion and invasion, Caco-2 cells were infected by S. flexneri at three different multiplicities of infection (MOIs of 1, 10, and 50) and then treated with DMEM medium and AD-MSCs CM...

The Artemisia genus belongs to the Asteraceae family and is used in the treatment of many different diseases such as hepatitis and cancer. So far, around 500 species of Artemisia have been found in different regions of the world. Artemisinin is one of the medicinal compounds found in Artemisia species. Hence, this medical feature encourages researchers to pay attention to various species of this genus to discover more genetic and phytochemical information. In the present study, five species of Artemisia including A...

OBJECTIVE: Assess the safety of ambulatory surgery performed for obstructive sleep apnea. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective chart review. SETTING: Tertiary care hospital. METHODS: Demographic data including age, gender, race, body mass index, insurance status, socioeconomic status, and distance traveled for surgery was collected, as well as comorbidities, and apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). Outcome variables included continuous positive airway pressure reinitiation, planned/unplanned postoperative admission, emergency department (ED) presentation, or readmission within 7 and 14 days of surgery...

Today, mechanical properties and fluid flow dynamic analysis are considered to be two of the most important steps in implant design for bone tissue engineering. The mechanical behavior is characterized by Young's modulus, which must have a value close to that of the human bone, while from the fluid dynamics point of view, the implant permeability and wall shear stress are two parameters directly linked to cell growth, adhesion, and proliferation. In this study, we proposed two simple geometries with a three-dimensional pore network dedicated to a manufacturing route based on a titanium wire waving procedure used as an intermediary step for Mg-based implant fabrication...

In this cross-sectional study, we examined the impact of access to nature on mental health utilization in urban neighborhoods using Texas outpatient encounters data merged with NatureScoreTM (0-100; low to high nature levels) and US census data (household income, education, employment, poverty, and insurance coverage) at the zipcode level. Our sample size included 61 million outpatient encounters across 1169 zipcodes, with 63% women and 30% elderly. A total of 369,344 mental health encounters were identified, with anxiety/stress and depression encounters representing 68...

Boron-containing compounds (BCC) have emerged as important pharmacophores. To date, five BCC drugs (including boronic acids and boroles) have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of cancer, infections, and atopic dermatitis, while some natural BCC are included in dietary supplements. Boron's Lewis acidity facilitates a mechanism of action via formation of reversible covalent bonds within the active site of target proteins. Boron has also been employed in the development of fluorophores, such as BODIPY for imaging, and in carboranes that are potential neutron capture therapy agents as well as novel agents in diagnostics and therapy...

Greek health care workers (HCWs) working with refugee and asylum-seeker populations may be at risk of trauma exposure and related distress. The current study sought to further understand the factors that may promote or hinder psychological adaptation among HCWs working with trauma-exposed refugee populations in Greece. Participants were HCWs (N = 20) who completed semistructured interviews. Thematic analysis procedures identified three main themes: vicarious traumatization, (b) mismatch of expectations, and (c) difficulty coping...

So far, several preliminary studies have been conducted on the effect of religious-spiritual education and care on the quality of life of women in different parts of Iran. Therefore, the current study aims to explore the effect of religious-spiritual education and care on the quality of life of Iranian women through systematic review and meta-analysis. Databases searched for studies related to the research objective include SID, MagIran, Embase, PubMed, Scopus, WoS, and Google Scholar. The search was performed using keywords linked to and validated with MeSH/Emtree with no time limit until April 2022...

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been proven to be one of the most powerful diagnostic tools for rare Mendelian disorders. Several studies on the clinical application of NGS in unselected cohorts of Middle Eastern patients have reported a high diagnostic yield of up to 48%, correlated with a high level of consanguinity in these populations. We evaluated the diagnostic utility of NGS-based testing across different clinical indications in 1436 patients from Iran, representing the first study of its kind in this highly consanguineous population...

BACKGROUND: Breast ultrasound is highly sensitive, but its specificity is not as high for detecting malignant lesions. Auxiliary modalities like elastography, Color and Power Doppler ultrasound are used as adjuncts to yield both a high sensitivity and specificity. Superb microvascular imaging (SMI) is a newer modality with more accuracy for detecting breast lesions. In this study, our goal was to investigate the role of SMI as an adjunct to ultrasound and find a suitable combination model for the evaluation of breast masses...

AIMS: Controversy remains as to whether the exercise stress test (EST) is sufficient for risk evaluation in patients with pre-excitation. This study aims to clarify the usefulness of EST in risk stratification in both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients presenting with pre-excitation. METHODS AND RESULTS: This prospective study includes consecutive asymptomatic and symptomatic patients with pre-excitation referred for risk assessment. All participants performed an incremental EST (bicycle) prior to an electrophysiology study (EPS)...