Background:Tuberculosis (TB) is the world's second most common infectious disease after Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AID) and the most frequent cause of mortality especially in developing countries. T regulatory (Treg) cells, which have suppressive activity and express forkhead winged-helix family transcriptional repressor p3 (FoxP3), suppress the immune responses against pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. There are controversial results regarding the role of FoxP3 expressing cells in the blood of patients with TB.Objectives:The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency CD4+ CD25+ Treg cells, and FoxP3 and Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Antigen 4 (CTLA-4) gene expressions in peripheral blood of patients with tuberculosis and patients with positive tuberculin skin test before and after Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) activation with Purified Protein Derivative (PPD).Patients and Methods:In this cross-sectional study, Peripheral Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) were isolated from peripheral blood of 29 patients with newly diagnosed pulmonary TB and 19 patients with positive tuberculin skin test. The PBMCs were activated with PPD for 72 hours. Activated cells were harvested, RNA was extracted and cDNA was synthesized. A real-time Taqman method was designed and optimized for evaluation of Foxp3 gene expression and SYBR Green method was used and optimized for evaluation of CTLA-4 gene expression. A flow cytometry analysis was used to evaluate the frequency of CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ regulatory T cells in both groups.Results:There was no significant difference in the frequency of CD4+ CD25+ FoxP3+ regulatory T cells between the two groups. Expression of FoxP3 and CTLA-4 in peripheral blood of patients with newly diagnosed TB was significantly lower than the control group after and before activation with PPD.Conclusions:The expression of FoxP3 and CTLA-4 in PBMCs of patients with newly diagnosed TB was low, which might suggest that Treg cells may be sequestered in the lungs.

We could establish a hybridoma in a native form. This stable and high-affinity anti-CD44 mAb has a potential for diagnostic procedures and laboratory research. Thus, it could be exploited as a suitable tool for target-specific diagnosis and even treatment in several cancers.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Self-management positively contributes to the Quality of Life of many patients with chronic diseases. Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between self-management and the quality of life and visual performance among patients with glaucoma. Materials and Methods: The current cross-sectional and comparative study was conducted at the glaucoma clinic of the Eye Hospital in Tabriz City, Iran. Through simple random sampling method, the quality of life, visual function, and self-management of 120 patients were compared using the Glaucoma Quality of Life (GQOL-15), National Eye Institute-Visual Functioning (NEI-VFQ), and Patient Activating Measure (PAM) questionnaires. The study participants' demographic data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Student Samples t-test and Pearson's correlational coefficient were conducted to compare mean scores and determine the study variables' relations. Results: The total Mean±SD scores for the quality of life, self-management, and visual performance of the studied patients were 33.88±12.73, 65.06±12.69, and 81.36±14.01, respectively. There was a significant relationship between self-management and the quality of life and visual performance of the patients (P=0.001). Conclusion: There was a significant linear relationship between self-management and the quality of life and visual performance of the studied patients; thus, considering selfmanagement strategies in patient education plans for nursing curriculums and hospitals' education programs are suggested.