Helicobacter pylori bacterium is one of the most common bacterial infections globally and is the leading cause of indigestion, gastric and duodenal ulcers, and gastric cancer. This bacterium can escape the antibacterial effects of stomach acid by adapting to the inner layers of the stomach. It combines with the natural sugars in the gastric mucosa. The compound is so effective that it makes bacterium resistant. For genes related to the pathogenesis of H. pylori, using the existence of genes such as cagA, hopQI, and hopQII, PCR is performed on some of these genes to amplify fragments of different lengths. One of the less-studied cases is that two or more pathogenic genes are simultaneously associated with H. pylori. This study examined the frequency of diseases and healthy individuals infected with H. pylori and cagA and hopQII genotypes. To diagnose H. pylori infection in healthy and stomach cancer patients, the PCR products are electrophoresed on the agarose gel after glmM gene amplification by PCR. To this aim, stomach tissue biopsies were used for patients, and saliva was used for healthy individuals. For this purpose, 150 gastric biopsy samples from stomach cancer patients and 150 saliva samples from healthy people were collected. Data showed a significant relationship between the coexistence of two genes, cagA and hopQII, and stomach cancer. 34.2% of patients and 10.1% of healthy individuals showed two genotypes, while other healthy people (89.9%) infected with H. pylori did not have this genotype. Therefore, the simultaneous presence of these two bacterial genes in human societies can be an essential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of gastric cancer.

Recently, stem cells have been considered renewable cell sources in the treatment of diabetes and the development of insulin-producing cells. In this regard, the current study aimed to compare Insulin-producing cells from bone marrow stem cells with injectable insulin in rats with type I diabetes. For this purpose, 40 rats were divided into four groups: the control or healthy group, the diabetic control group, the group that received differentiated insulin-producing cells from bone marrow, and the group that received insulin treatment. To differentiate insulinproducing cells from bone marrow, the femoral bone marrow of rats was extracted using the flushing method. Differentiated cells were evaluated using dithizone-specific dye, anti-insulin-proinsulin antibodies, and antiinsulin beta receptors. Also, the expression of the pdx-I gene, as the specific gene of pancreatic cells, was examined by RT-PCR. The results showed that transplantation of insulin-producing cells could significantly increase blood insulin levels in diabetic rats. This increase intensified in the second stage of transplantation when more cells were injected into rats. Concerning decreasing blood sugar levels, differentiated cells were able to reduce blood sugar levels significantly. Even in the first stage of cell injection, in which the rats received a small number of cells, their blood sugar levels were controlled by these cells. As a result, the present study showed that repeated transplants of insulin-producing cells differentiated from bone marrow could decrease blood sugar and increase insulin levels. Article info

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Glioblastoma is a fatal brain tumor, and the standard treatment for this cancer is the surgical removal of the tumor followed by chemotherapy with temozolomide and radiotherapy. Because chemotherapy has many side effects, the use of compounds extracted from natural herbs, due to fewer side effects, can be a good alternative or supplement to chemical drugs in cancer treatment. In this study, curcumin (diferuloylmethane), known as the main active ingredient of turmeric, was used to evaluate its cytotoxicity on four human glioblastoma cell lines (U373, U251, D54, and T98G). Among these cell lines, U373 was temozolomide resistance, and T98G was photodynamic treatment resistance. These cell lines were treated with increasing concentrations of diferuloylmethane. Survival percentage was assessed by MTT assay and the trypan blue staining method was used to evaluate the rate of cell death and confirm the results of the MTT assay. The results showed that diferuloylmethane has a cytotoxic effect on U251, D54, and T98G cell lines. This effect was higher in high concentrations of diferuloylmethane on U251 and D54 than on U373. Therefore, according to the results of the current study and further studies, curcumin (diferuloylmethane) can be considered an effective complementary treatment in the treatment of glioblastoma. Article info

Rivaroxaban is an anticoagulant drug that prevents forming of blood clots. In addition, it can be administered to prevent and treat thrombotic diseases such as atrial fibrillation, cardiac arrhythmia, heart valve disease, orthopedic surgery, and thrombophilia to reduce the risk of thrombosis. Various factors such as age, gender, diet, medications, and genetic factors effectively determine the dose of rivaroxaban. Genetic variability in drug-metabolizing enzymes, including the cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes and especially CYP3A4, has been associated with rivaroxaban response. The current study aimed to identify the frequency of CYP3A4 common polymorphisms, as well as their association with rivaroxaban response in 100 patients of Arab descent (48.6% female). CYP3A4 gene polymorphisms were examined by the PCR-RFLP method, and the findings were analyzed by SPSS 16 software and t-test. The frequency of CYP3A4*1B/*1B, CYP3A4*1B/*1A, CYP3A4*1B/*1C, and CYP3A4*1A/*1C was 67.35%, 10.64%, 19.12% and 2.89%, respectively. According to our results, CYP3A4 *1B/*1B genotype was the most common, and patients with CYP3A4*1B/*1B alleles needed a higher daily dose of rivaroxaban than *1B/*1A, *1B/*1C, and *1A/*1C carriers (9.57 ± 1.54 mg/day, P=0.015). Therefore, according to the results, CYP3A4 gene polymorphism has an important effect on the dose of rivaroxaban required to maintain the International Normalized Ratio (INR) in the range of 2-3. Article info