Background: It appears that ivermectin can potentially act against COVID-19 infection. Today, it is an urgent need to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ivermectin. The effect of ivermectin therapy on mild to severe COVID-19 patients was investigated.Methods: A 45-days randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, phase 2 clinical trial was designed at five hospitals. A total number of 180 mild to severe hospitalized patients with confirmed PCR and chest image tests were enrolled. The radiographic findings, hospitalization and low O2 saturation duration, and clinical outcomes such as mortality and variables of blood samples were analyzed using standard statistical analyses in SPSS (V20).Results: Average age of the participants was 56 years (45-67) and 50% were women. The primary and secondary results showed significant changes between day zero and day five of admission (∆ 0/5) in terms of ΔALC5/0, ΔPLT5/0, ΔESR5/0, ΔCRP5/0, duration of low O2 saturation, and duration of hospitalization (CI = 95% ). Risk of mortality was also decreased significantly in the study groups.Conclusion: Ivermectin as an adjunct reduced the rate of mortality, low O2 duration, and duration of hospitalization in adult COVID 19 patients. The improvement of other clinical parameters showed that the ivermectin, with a wide margin of safety, had a high therapeutic effect on COVID-19.Trial Registration: This trial was registered with the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials website (registration ID IRCT20200408046987N1).
Shigellosis is one of the major public health concerns in developing and low-income countries caused by four species of Shigella. There is an apparent need to develop rapid, cost-effective, sensitive and specific methods for differentiation of Shigella species to be used in outbreaks and health surveillance systems. We developed a sensitive and specific Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) based method followed by principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) assays to differentiate four species of Shigella isolates from stool samples. The FTIR based method was evaluated by differentiation of 91 Shigella species from each other in clinical samples using both gold standards (culture-based and agglutination methods) and developed FTIR assay; eventually, the sensitivity and specificity of the developed method were calculated. In summary, four distinct FTIR spectra associated with four species of Shigella were obtained with wide variations in three definite regions, including 1800–1550 cm−1, 1550–1100 cm−1, and 1100–800 cm−1 distinguish these species from each other. In this study, we found the FTIR method followed by PCA analysis with specificity, sensitivity, differentiation error and correct differentiation rate values of 100, 100, 0 and 100%, respectively, for identification and differentiation of all species of the Shigella in stool samples.
Since the urease enzyme creates gastric cancer, peptic ulcer, hepatic coma, and urinary stones in millions of people worldwide, it is essential to find strong inhibitors to help patients. Natural products are well known for their beneficial effects on health and efforts are being made to isolate the ingredients, the so-called flavonoids. Flavonoids are now considered as an indispensable component in a variety of nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic applications. Kaempferol (KPF) is an antioxidant found in many fruits and vegetables. Many reports have explained the significant effects of dietary KPF in reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, ischemia, stroke, and Parkinson's. The current study aimed at investigating the inhibitory impact of KPF on Jack bean urease (JBU) using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and molecular mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann surface area (MM-PBSA) calculations to confirm the results obtained from isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), extended solvation model, and docking software. In addition, UV-VIS spectrophotometry was used to study the kinetics of urease inhibition. Calorimetric and spectrophotometric determinations of the kinetic parameters of this inhibition indicate the occurrence of a reversible and noncompetitive mode. Also, the docking and MD results indicated that the urease had well adapted to the kaempferol in the binding pocket, thereby forming a stable complex. Kaempferol displayed low binding energy during MMPBSA calculations. The inhibitory potential of kaempferol was confirmed by experimental and simulation data, but in vivo investigations are also recommended to validate our results.
Today, plant compounds and substances of natural origin as bio products are strongly recommended for the prevention and treatment of cancer. In the field of biomedicine antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant properties among the most known activities of Humus and the products obtained from humus. In this study, the effect of humic and fulvic acids (HA, FA), bio product of humus, on breast cancer cells (MCF7), the most common cancer among women, was investigated. To achieve optimum cytotoxic time and determine the effect of the different parameters the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied. The main parameters influencing the cytotoxic performance in the MTT assay, such as time and concentrations were regarded. The cell viability was measured using different concentrations of HA and FA including 10, 50, 100, and 200 µg/mL for 14, 24, and 48 h, respectively. Apoptosis, cell cycle, mechanical properties and survivin gene expression of MCF7 cells treated with HA and FA were analyzed after 14 h. Our results showed that HA and FA induced apoptosis, reduced cell viability and gene expression in the cured MCF7 cells. We have seen a dose-dependent behavior of HA in increasing the cell population in phase Sub-G1. The results of AFM showed that the increasing behavior of elastic modulus value and cell-cell adhesion forces were dose-dependent in cells treated with HA and FA. The golden result of this study was the matching of laboratory and statistical results which confirms the success of the RSM model in biological researches.
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