Nowadays, one of the main challenges clinicians face is malignancies. Through the progression of technology in recent years, tumor nature and tumor microenvironment (TME) can be better understood. Because of immune system involvement in tumorigenesis and immune cell dysfunction in the tumor microenvironment, clinicians encounter significant challenges in patient treatment and normal function recovery. The tumor microenvironment can stop the development of tumor antigen-specific helper and cytotoxic T cells in the tumor invasion process. Tumors stimulate the production of proinflammatory and immunosuppressive factors and cells that inhibit immune responses. Despite the more successful outcomes, the current cancer therapeutic approaches, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, have not been effective enough for tumor eradication. Hence, developing new treatment strategies such as monoclonal antibodies, adaptive cell therapies, cancer vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors, and cytokines helps improve cancer treatment. Among adoptive cell therapies, the interaction between the immune system and malignancies and using molecular biology led to the development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. CAR-modified immune cells are one of the modern cancer therapeutic methods with encouraging outcomes in most hematological and solid cancers. The current study aimed to discuss the structure, formation, subtypes, and application of CAR immune cells in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

Introduction: Recognition of death risk factors is urgently needed, not only to identify the defining clinical and epidemiological characteristics with greater precision but also to facilitate the appropriate supportive care and prompt access to the intensive care unit (ICU) if necessary. This study aimed to investigate the influencing demographic characteristics, comorbidities disease, and radiologic finding on COVID-19 death. Method: Descriptive cross-sectional study included adult patients with COVID-19 from Imam Hossein. Demographic characteristics, comorbidities disease, chest CT scan findings, and outcome (death/survive) data were extracted from information health system (HIS), by using a data collection check list. To explore the influencing factors on mortality, logistic regression method was used. Result: Result demonstrated that most patients who died because of Covid-19 were men (63.4%), more than 60 years (86.4%), married (95.8%), and self-employed (37.1%) with a mean age of 72.1 ± 15.46 years ranging from 22 to 93 years. Having comorbidities disease such as cancer, cardiac disease, diabetes, age, and pathologic chest CT findings was associated with death. In contrast, gender, marital, job, cerebral vascular disease, and HTN were not correlated. Conclusion: Identification of demographic characteristics, comorbidities disease, and radiographic finding correlated with death of COVID-19 can help clinicians in order to with rapid diagnose and triages of high-risk patients to have a better plan for the care of these patients.

Background Choline is an important metabolite involved in phospholipids synthesis, including serum lipids, and is the immediate precursor of betaine. There are numerous studies with inconsistent results that evaluated the association between dietary choline intakes with cardiovascular risk factors. In addition, the association between dietary betaine and choline intakes with cardio-metabolic risk factors is not well studied. In the current study, our aim was to evaluate dietary choline and betaine intakes in the usual diet of obese individuals and to assess its association with serum lipids, blood pressure and glycemic markers among obese individuals. Methods We recruited a total number of 359 obese people aged between 20 and 50 years in the present study. A semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used for dietary assessment; dietary choline and betaine intakes were calculated using the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) database. National cholesterol education program adult treatment panel (NCEP-ATP)-III criteria was used metabolic syndrome (MetS) definition. Enzymatic methods were used to assess biochemical variables. Body composition was measured with the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) method. Results Higher body mass index (BMI), waist to hip ratio (WHR), fat-free mass (FFM) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) were observed in higher tertiles of dietary choline intake (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in terms of biochemical parameters among different tertiles of dietary choline intake, while systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were reduced in higher betaine tertiles (P < 0.05). For total dietary choline and betaine intakes, there was a reduction in DBP and low density lipoprotein (LDL) concentrations (P < 0.05). Also, a non-significant reduction in serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and MetS prevalence was observed in higher tertiles of dietary choline and betaine intakes. After classification of the study population according to MetS status, there was no significant difference in biochemical variables in subjects with MetS (P > 0.05), while in the non-MetS group, SBP, DBP, TG and insulin levels reduced in higher tertiles of dietary betaine and choline (P > 0.05). Conclusion According to our findings, higher dietary intakes of choline and betaine were associated with lower levels of blood pressure and LDL concentrations among obese individuals. Further studies are warranted to confirm the results of the current study.

Introduction: Predicting factors related to the severity and mortality of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients can significantly help in better management of their treatment. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the correlation between pulmonary radiologic findings based on the Warrick score and COVID-19 patients’ outcomes. Patients and Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 436 COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Shahid Mohammadi hospital in Bandar Abbas. Pulmonary radiologic findings were scored based on the Warrick score. Outcomes of COVID-19 patients, including disease severity and mortality, were followed. Independent T-test and binary logistic regression were conducted to explore the correlation between the pulmonary radiologic findings and patients’ outcomes. Results: Results showed that the correlation between pulmonary radiologic findings with both disease severity and mortality was significant, since higher pulmonary involvement caused greater severity and mortality. The Warrick score difference between dead and recovered patients and low and high disease severity were significant, therefore greater Warrick score caused more disease severity and mortality. Conclusion: Pulmonary radiologic findings based on the Warrick score can use as a predictor of COVID-19 patients’ outcomes.

Introduction: Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) is a major acute renal failure that can be prevented by atorvastatin administration. This study aims to evaluate the association between atorvastatin use and CI-AKI incidence using a systematic review and meta-analysis approach. Materials and Methods: Several international databases, including Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, PubMed, and the Google Scholar search engine, were queried in this study. STATA 14 software was conducted to analyze the data. In this study, standardized mean difference (SMD) index was conducted to investigate the relationship between atorvastatin and serum creatinine level. Results: Twelve clinical trials with a total sample size of 3299 were retrieved. The effect of atorvastatin on serum creatinine levels indicated a SMD of -2.26 (95% CI: -2.53, -1.98) at a dose of 20 mg/kg, -0.76 (95% CI: -1.47, -0.05) at a dose of 40 mg/kg, -2.69 (95% CI: -2.96, -2.42) at a dose of 60 mg/ kg, and -0.03 (95% CI: -0.14, 0.09) at a dose of 80 mg/kg. The effect of atorvastatin use on serum creatinine levels achieved a SMD of -2.72 (95% CI: -3.02, -2.43) in the 40-49 years age group and a SMD of -0.96 (95% CI: -1.73, -0.19) in the 50-59 years age group. The effect of high-dose atorvastatin therapy in reducing the serum creatinine levels, compared to low-dose therapy, was a SMD of -0.54 (95% CI: -1.03, -0.04). However, estimates for the effect of atorvastatin compared to rosuvastatin and placebo showed a SMD of -0.26 (95% CI: -0.76, 0.24) and -1.23 (95% CI: -2.22, -0.25), respectively. The effect of atorvastatin on blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels relative to the comparison group was a SMD of -1.10 (95% CI: -1.61, -0.58) and -1.36 (95% CI: -2.30, -0.42) respectively. Conclusion: Pre-treatment with atorvastatin is effective in CI-AKI prevention. High-dose atorvastatin administration at younger ages provides the best outcome for preventing CI-AKI. Meta-analysis Registration: This study has been compiled based on the PRISMA checklist, and its protocol was registered on the PROSPERO website (ID: CRD42023397276, available at https:// www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/#recordDetails).