Publications by authors named "Shirin Hosseini"

Influenza A virus (IAV) infection can increase the risk of neuroinflammation, and subsequent neurodegenerative diseases. Certain IAV strains, such as avian H7N7 subtype, possess neurotropic properties, enabling them to directly invade the brain parenchyma and infect neurons and glia cells. Host sex significantly influences the severity of IAV infections.

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Despite advances in antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory treatment, inflammation and its consequences remain a major challenge in the field of medicine. Inflammatory reactions can lead to life-threatening conditions such as septic shock, while chronic inflammation has the potential to worsen the condition of body tissues and ultimately lead to significant impairment of their functionality. Although the central nervous system has long been considered immune privileged to peripheral immune responses, recent research has shown that strong immune responses in the periphery also affect the brain, leading to reactive microglia, which belong to the innate immune system and reside in the brain, and neuroinflammation.

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Neuroinflammation can be triggered by various stimuli, including viral infections. Viruses can directly invade the brain and infect neuronal cells or indirectly trigger a "cytokine storm" in the periphery that eventually leads to microglial activation in the brain. While this initial activation of microglial cells is important for viral clearance, chronic activation leads to excessive inflammation and oxidative stress, which can be neurotoxic.

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Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD), is characterized by a gradual cognitive decline associated with the accumulation of Amyloid beta (Aβ)-oligomers, progressive neuronal degeneration and chronic neuroinflammation. Among the receptors shown to bind and possibly transduce the toxic effects of Aβ-oligomers is the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75). Interestingly, p75 mediates several crucial processes in the nervous system, including neuronal survival and apoptosis, maintenance of the neuronal architecture, and plasticity.

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Influenza A virus (IAV) subtypes are a major cause of illness and mortality worldwide and pose a threat to human health. Although IAV infection is considered a self-limiting respiratory syndrome, an expanded spectrum of cerebral manifestations has been reported following IAV infection. Neurotropic IAVs, such as the H7N7 subtype, are capable of invading the central nervous system (CNS) and replicating in brain cells, resulting in microglia-induced neuroinflammation.

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A reliable method for metabolite extraction is central to mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. However, existing methods are lengthy, mostly due to the step of scraping cells from cell culture vessels, which restricts metabolomics in broader application such as lower cell numbers and high-throughput studies. Here, we present a simplified metabolite extraction (SiMeEx) method, to efficiently and quickly extract metabolites from adherent mammalian cells.

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In recent decades, a number of infectious viruses have emerged from wildlife or reemerged that pose a serious threat to global health and economies worldwide. Although many of these viruses have a specific target tissue, neurotropic viruses have evolved mechanisms to exploit weaknesses in immune defenses that eventually allow them to reach and infect cells of the central nervous system (CNS). Once in the CNS, these viruses can cause severe neuronal damage, sometimes with long-lasting, life-threatening consequences.

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Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a burden on the public health system because it is a neurodegenerative disease that is incurable and for which there is no successful treatment. AD patients suffer from symptoms for many years, with progressive loss of cognitive and functional abilities. In addition to the features of AD, described as amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, neuroinflammatory processes, genetic factors, and lifestyle also play important roles.

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Microtubules (MTs) are central components of the neuronal cytoskeleton and play a critical role in CNS integrity, function, and plasticity. Neuronal MTs are diverse due to extensive post-translational modifications (PTMs), particularly detyrosination/tyrosination, in which the C-terminal tyrosine of α-tubulin is cyclically removed by a carboxypeptidase and reattached by a tubulin-tyrosine ligase (TTL). The detyrosination/tyrosination cycle of MTs has been shown to be an important regulator of MT dynamics in neurons.

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The anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-37 (IL-37) belongs to the IL-1 family but is not expressed in mice. We used a human IL-37 (hIL-37tg) expressing mouse, which has been subjected to various models of local and systemic inflammation as well as immunological challenges. Previous studies reveal an immunomodulatory role of IL-37, which can be characterized as an important suppressor of innate immunity.

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Article Synopsis
  • Macrophages undergo significant metabolic changes during their M1-like pro-inflammatory polarization, particularly involving the production of itaconate, which plays roles in both facilitating and responding to inflammation.
  • Itaconate is produced in macrophages through a specific mitochondrial process involving the enzyme aconitase decarboxylase 1 (ACOD1) and utilizes carbon sources from the TCA cycle.
  • The study highlights that the balance between oxidative and reductive TCA cycle metabolism is crucial for itaconate synthesis, noting differences between mouse and human macrophages in how they respond to hypoxic conditions regarding itaconate production.
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Influenza viruses until today are a leading cause of worldwide severe pandemics and represent a major threat to human and animal health. Although the primary target of influenza viruses is the lung, infection may manifest with acute and even chronic neurological complications (e.g.

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Numerous studies demonstrate that neuroinflammation is a key player in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Interleukin (IL)-1β is a main inducer of inflammation and therefore a prime target for therapeutic options. The inactive IL-1β precursor requires processing by the the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome into a mature and active form.

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Background: Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is an important human pathogen that can cause the serious illness tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). Patients with clinical symptoms can suffer from severe meningoencephalitis with sequelae that include cognitive disorders and paralysis. While less than 30% of patients with clinical symptoms develop meningoencephalitis, the number of seropositive individuals in some regions indicates a much higher prevalence of TBEV infections, either with no or subclinical symptoms.

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Type I interferon receptor (IFNAR) signaling is a hallmark of viral control and host protection. Here, we show that, in the hippocampus of healthy IFNAR-deficient mice, synapse number and synaptic plasticity, as well as spatial learning, are impaired. This is also the case for IFN-β-deficient animals.

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Acute influenza infection has been reported to be associated with neurological symptoms. However, the long-term consequences of an infection with neurotropic and non-neurotropic influenza A virus (IAV) variants for the CNS remain elusive. We can show that spine loss in the hippocampus after infection with neurotropic H7N7 (rSC35M) and non-neurotropic H3N2 (maHK68) in female C57BL/6 mice persists well beyond the acute phase of the disease.

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Article Synopsis
  • Inflammatory reactions post-cardiac surgery can lead to complications, and perioperative corticosteroid therapy is a common strategy to mitigate these issues.
  • A randomized study was conducted with 100 children undergoing Tetralogy of Fallot repair to assess the effectiveness of a single dose of methylprednisolone given after surgery.
  • The results indicated that while there was a reduced incidence of bacteremia, the use of methylprednisolone did not significantly improve overall clinical outcomes post-surgery.
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Background: Recent years have witnessed the emergence of obesity as a major public health concern. The drastic rise in obesity and its concomitant co-morbidities is a reflection of the recent changes in dietary habits in Iran and many other developing countries. A recent large population study in Tehran reported that 58% and 75% of middle-aged Iranian men and women, respectively, were either overweight or obese.

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Background: Usual dosage of morphine (10 mg/kg) induces analgesia and ultra-low dose (ULD) of morphine (1 µg/kg); hyperalgesia, and C-fibers are also bearing µ-opioid receptors; here the importance of C-fibers on pain and morphine induced analgesia/hyperalgesia is questioned and investigated using pain evaluation methods and infant capsaicin treating for C-fibers lesioning.

Methods: Wistar male rats (200-250 grams) were assigned to three categories i.e.

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Background: Astrocytes are cells within the central nervous system which are activated in a wide spectrum of infections, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. In pathologic states, they produce inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and nitric oxide (NO), and sometimes they induce apoptosis. Their protease-activated receptors (PARs) can be activated by proteases, e.

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