Background: Using natural killer (NK) cells to treat hematopoietic and solid tumors has great promise. Despite their availability from peripheral blood and cord blood, stem cell-derived NK cells provide an "off-the-shelf" solution.
Methods: In this study, we developed two CAR-NK cells targeting PD-L1 derived from lentiviral transduction of human umbilical cord blood (UCB)-CD34 cells and UCB-CD34-derived NK cells.
Background And Purpose: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in approximately 25% of breast cancer patients; therefore, its inhibition is a therapeutic target in cancer treatment.
Experimental Approach: In this study, two new variants of designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins), designated EG3-1 and EG3-2, were designed to increase their affinity for HER2 receptors. To this end, DARPin G3 was selected as a template, and six-point mutations comprising Q26E, I32V, T49A, L53H, K101R, and G124V were created on its structure.
Aims: The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the impact of sesame supplementation on body weight (BW), body mass index (BMI), triglycerides (TGs), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
Data Synthesis: PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, and Embase were searched without any restrictions until September 2023.Only RCTs reporting the effects of sesame supplementation on body composition and lipid profiles were included, while observational studies and animal models were excluded.
J Trace Elem Med Biol
January 2024
Introduction: Several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have demonstrated the beneficial effects of chromium supplementation in managing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The current systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the associations between chromium supplementation and body composition in patients with T2DM.
Methods: To achieve this, PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that reported the effects of chromium supplementation on body composition such as body weight (BW), body mass index (BMI), fat mass (FM), and waist circumference (WC) in patients with T2DM from inception until July 2023.
Introduction: There have been various clinical studies on the effect of Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) supplementation on blood pressure (BP), but the findings from these are contradictory. Therefore, we performed a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis to summarize the relation of ALA supplementation and systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in adults.
Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted in Medline (PubMed), Embase, Scopus, and ProQuest up to July 2023.
Purpose: Considering the high prevalence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) together with the importance of improved physical growth and the significance of promoting healthcare quality among T1DM children, this meta-analysis aims to determine mean final height in this population group.
Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane databases for all studies published until May 2023 and reviewed references of published articles. Meta-analytic procedures were used to estimate the effect size (mean final height Z-score) among T1DM children in a random effects model.
Integrated polyurethane (PU)-based foams modified with PEGylated graphene oxide and folic acid (PU@GO-PEG-FA) were developed with the goal of capturing and detecting tumor cells with precision. The detection of the modified PU@GO-PEG surface through FA against folate receptor-overexpressed tumor cells is the basis for tumor cell capture. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were applied to study the strength of FA interactions with the folate receptor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResistance-nodulation-cell devision (RND) efflux pump variants have attracted a great deal of attention for efflux of many antibiotic classes, which leads to multidrug-resistant bacteria. The present study aimed to discover the interaction between the RND efflux pumps and antibiotics, find the conserved and hot spot residues, and use this information to target the most frequent RND efflux pumps. Protein sequence and 3D conformational alignments, pharmacophore modeling, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulation were used in the first level for discovering the function of the residues in interaction with antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe herein fabricated a cancer nanotheranostics platform based on Graphene Oxide Quantum Dot-Chitosan-polyethylene glycol nanoconjugate (GOQD-CS-PEG), which were targeted with MUC-1 aptamer towards breast and colon tumors. The interaction between aptamer and MUC-1 receptor on the desired cells was investigated utilizing molecular docking. The process of curcumin release was investigated, as well as the potential of the produced nanocomposite in targeted drug delivery, specific detection, and photoluminescence imaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypercholesterolemia is a significant risk factor for heart disease. The soluble fiber in oat (Avena sativa L.), beta-glucan has been shown to significantly lower serum total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels but not triglycerides (TG) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) according to previous studies, reviews, and meta-analyses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The newly emerged coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) continues to infect humans, and no completely efficient treatment has yet been found. Antibody therapy is one way to control infection caused by COVID-19, but the use of classical antibodies has many disadvantages. Heavy chain antibodies (HCAbs) are single-domain antibodies derived from the Camelidae family.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStructural engineering of the recombinant thrombolytic drug, Reteplase, and its cost-effective production are important goals in the pharmaceutical industry. In this study, a single-point mutant of the protein was rationally designed and evaluated in terms of physicochemical characteristics, enzymatic activity, as well as large-scale production settings. An accurate homology model of Reteplase was used as the input to appropriate tools to identify the aggregation-prone sites, while considering the structural stability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Health-care workers (HCWs) as frontline soldiers are involved in the war against COVID-19. Not only their protection from COVID-19 is important but also their mental health is a concern. This study aimed to measure the psychological distress among HCWs in the time of COVID-19 in Isfahan, Iran.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Reteplase, the recombinant form of tissue plasminogen activator, is a thrombolytic drug with outstanding characteristics, while demonstrating limited solubility and reduced plasminogen activation. Previously, we designed a variant of Reteplase with positively supercharged surface, which showed promising stability, solubility and activity. This study was devoted to evaluation of the utility of supercharging technique for enhancing these characteristics in Reteplase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReteplase (recombinant plasminogen activator, r-PA) is a thrombolytic agent recombined from tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA), which has several prominent features such as strong thrombolytic ability and expressibility. Despite these outstanding features, it demonstrates reduced fibrin binding affinity, reduced stimulation of protease activity, and lower solubility, hence higher aggregation propensity, compared to t-PA. The present study was devoted to design r-PA variants with comparable structural stability, enhanced biological activity, and high solubility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAvicenna J Med Biotechnol
January 2019
Background: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a serious problem in the world. 5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin) plays an important role in obesity, glucose control and insulin resistance. The polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene linked promoter region (5-HTTLPR) might influence 5-HTT expression and serotonin uptake.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThrombolytic drugs activate plasminogen which creates a cleaved form called plasmin, a proteolytic enzyme that breaks the crosslinks between fibrin molecules. The crosslinks create blood clots, so reteplase dissolves blood clots. Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is a well-known thrombolytic drug and is fibrin specific.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Influenza H1N1 is very important worldwide and point mutations that occur in the virus gene are a threat for the World Health Organization (WHO) and druggists, since they could make this virus resistant to the existing antibiotics. Influenza epidemics cause severe respiratory illness in 30 to 50 million people and kill 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide every year. Nowadays, drug design is not done through trial and error because of its cost and waste of time; therefore bioinformatics studies is essential for designing drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Placental abruption is one of the most common causes of bleeding during pregnancy. Multiple factors are known to be associated with increase of risk of placental abruption such as alcohol, cocaine use and cigarette smoking. The objective of this study was to identify risk factors for placental abruption in an Iranian women population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF