Is there an Association between Variants in Candidate Insulin Pathway Genes IGF-I, IGFBP-3, INSR, and IRS2 and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Iranian Population?

Karimi, Khatoon,Mahmoudi, Touraj,Karimi, Negar,Dolatmoradi, Hesamodin,Arkani, Maral,Farahani, Hamid,Vahedi, Mohsen,Parsimehr, Elham,Dabiri, Reza,Nobakht, Hossein,Asadi, Asadollah,Zali, Mohammad Reza Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.9

Background: Several epidemiological studies have shown associations between colorectal cancer (CRC) risk and type 2 diabetes and obesity. Any effects would be expected to be mediated through the insulin pathway. Therefore it is possible that variants of genes encoding components of the insulin pathway play roles in CRC susceptibility. In this study, we hypothesized that polymorphisms in the genes involving the insulin pathway are associated with risk of CRC. Materials and Methods: The associations of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IGF-I (rs6214), IGFBP-3 (rs3110697), INSR (rs1052371), and IRS2 (rs2289046) genes with the risk of CRC were evaluated using a case-control design with 167 CRC cases and 277 controls by the PCR-RFLP method. Results: Overall, we observed no significant difference in genotype and allele frequencies between the cases and controls for the IGF-I, IGFBP-3, INSR, IRS2 gene variants and CRC before or after adjusting for confounders (age, BMI, sex, and smoking status). However, we observed that the IRS2 (rs2289046) GG genotype compared with AA+AG genotypes has a protective effect for CRC in normal weight subjects (p=0.035, OR=0.259, 95%CI= 0.074-0.907). Conclusions: These findings do not support plausible associations between polymorphic variations in IGF-I, IGFBP-3, INSR, IRS2 genes and risk of CRC. However, the evidence for a link between the IRS2 (rs2289046) variant and risk of CRC dependent on the BMI of the subjects, requires confirmation in subsequent studies with greater sample size.

Proposed Pathway Linking Respiratory Infections with Depression

Zeinab Karimi,Maryam Chenari,Farhad Rezaie,Shima Karimi,Najmeh Parhizgari,Talat Mokhtari-Azad 대한정신약물학회 2022 CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE Vol.20 No.2

Depression is one of the most important causes of disability and loss of useful life of people around the world. Acute respiratory infection caused a large number of severe illnesses and deaths of the world and most of these due to viral infections, which is estimated more than 80% of respiratory infections. Detection of viruses by immune pathogen recognition receptors activates the intracellular signaling cascade and eventually cause produces interferons. Inflammatory process begins with secretion of interferons and the expression of interferon-stimulated genes. One of the most important of these genes is indoleamine-pyrrole 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), which plays a major role in tryptophan catabolism. IDO is an intracellular monomeric enzyme that is also responsible for breaking down and consuming tryptophan in the Kynurenine pathway. Increased inflammation has been linked to decrease tryptophan concentrations and increase kynurenine levels. We tried to explain the role of inflammation by viral respiratory infections in causing depression.

Immunogenicity of EIT chimeric protein expressed in transplastomic tobacco plants towards development of an oral vaccine against Escherichia coli O157:H7

Karimi, Farrokh,Mousavi, Amir,Salmanian, Ali Hatef,Alizadeh, Houshang,Rafati, Sima 한국식물생명공학회 2013 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.7 No.4

Chloroplast genetic engineering offers an opportunity for high level expression and cost-effective recombinant protein production. Escherichia coli O157:H7 is one of the most important zoonotic pathogens causing hemorrhagic colitis (HC) and the life-threatening hemolytic-uremic syndrome in humans worldwide. The occurrence of zoonotic E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in recent years has led to increased efforts in the development of safe and cost-effective immunogenic antigens against E. coli O157:H7. EspA and Tir/Intimin proteins are the important virulence factors which are encoded by the LEE locus of enterohemorrhagic E. coli. In this study, we hypothesized that the high level expression of the chimeric form of these effectors in chloroplasts and using tobacco transplastomic plants as an oral delivery system for the development of an edible-base vaccine would induce an immune response for the prevention of E. coli 0157:H7 attachment and colonization in animal model mice. The prokaryotic codonoptimized EIT protein was expressed in plastid genome via chloroplast transformation. Putative transplastomic plants were analyzed by PCR, and Southern blot analysis confirming chloroplast integration and homoplasmy in the T1 progeny. Immunoblotting and ELISA assays demonstrated that the EIT protein was expressed in chloroplasts and accumulated up to 1.4 % of total soluble protein in leaf tissue. In mice orally immunized with transplastomic tobacco plant leaves, high immunological responses (IgG and IgA specific antibodies) were detected in serum and feces. Finally, the challenging assay with E. coli O157:H7 in immunized mice showed reduced bacterial shedding.

Identification of hub salt-responsive genes in Cucumis sativus using a long non-coding RNA and mRNA interaction network

Karimi Marzieh,Pakdel Mohammad Hossein,Bali lashaki Khosro,Soorni Aboozar 한국원예학회 2022 Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology Vol.63 No.4

Cucumber is a commercially important vegetable crop whose growth and productivity are significantly influenced by salinity. Currently, there is little information about salt-related genes and the associated biological pathways involved in salt stress response and tolerance in this crop. Accordingly, this study aimed to unravel the complex molecular mechanism components underlying salinity in cucumber using long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) identification and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Here, two previously published high-throughput RNA-seq datasets obtained from control and salt-treated tissues of cucumber roots and leaves were employed. First, the potential lncRNAs were identified based on a bioinformatics pipeline. Subsequently, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed lncRNAs (DE-lncRNAs) were utilized as the input for the WGCNA to identify the clusters of highly interconnected lncRNAs and mRNAs. According to the results, 17 DE-lncRNAs out of 279 and 7 DE-lncRNAs out of 166 putative lncRNAs were detected between salt-treated and control samples in root and leaf tissues, respectively. Using WGCNA, 2226 unique DEGs and 23 DE-lncRNAs were categorized into 10 distinctive co-expression modules, of which, four modules, including blue, brown, yellow, and turquoise, contained the highest number of salt-related genes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis identified four significantly enriched pathways, including, “plant hormone signal transduction”, “starch and sucrose metabolism”, “MAPK signaling pathway”, and “phenylpropanoid biosynthesis”, related to salt stress response in cucumber. The novel hub genes identified in this study could be exploited for further functional studies aiming to introduce salt-tolerant cucumber varieties utilizing molecular engineering approaches.

Implementation of a 35KVA Converter Base on the 3-Phase 4-Wire STATCOMs for Medium Voltage Unbalanced Systems

Karimi, Mohammad Hadi,Zamani, Hassan,Kanzi, Khalil,Farahani, Qasem Vasheghani The Korean Institute of Power Electronics 2013 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.13 No.5

This paper discussed a transformer-less shunt static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) with consideration of the following aspects: fast compensation of the reactive power, harmonic cancelation and reducing the unbalancing of the 3-phase source side currents. The STATCOM control algorithm is based on the theory of instantaneous reactive power (P-Q theory). A self charging technique is proposed to regulate the dc capacitor voltage at a desired level with the use of a PI controller. In order to regulate the DC link voltage, an off-line Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to tune the coefficients of the PI controller. This algorithm arranged these coefficients while considering the importance of three factors in the DC link voltage response: overshoot, settling time and rising time. For this investigation, the entire system including the STATCOM, network, harmonics and unbalancing load are simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK. After that, a 35KVA STATCOM laboratory setup test including two parallel converter modules is designed and the control algorithm is executed on a TMS320F2812 controller platform.

Implementation of Proteomics for Cancer Research: Past, Present, and Future

Karimi, Parisa,Shahrokni, Armin,Nezami Ranjbar, Mohammad R. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.6

Cancer is the leading cause of the death, accounts for about 13% of all annual deaths worldwide. Many different fields of science are collaborating together studying cancer to improve our knowledge of this lethal disease, and find better solutions for diagnosis and treatment. Proteomics is one of the most recent and rapidly growing areas in molecular biology that helps understanding cancer from an omics data analysis point of view. The human proteome project was officially initiated in 2008. Proteomics enables the scientists to interrogate a variety of biospecimens for their protein contents and measure the concentrations of these proteins. Current necessary equipment and technologies for cancer proteomics are mass spectrometry, protein microarrays, nanotechnology and bioinformatics. In this paper, we provide a brief review on proteomics and its application in cancer research. After a brief introduction including its definition, we summarize the history of major previous work conducted by researchers, followed by an overview on the role of proteomics in cancer studies. We also provide a list of different utilities in cancer proteomics and investigate their advantages and shortcomings from theoretical and practical angles. Finally, we explore some of the main challenges and conclude the paper with future directions in this field.

Study of CO₂⁺(CO₂)_n Cluster in a Paul Ion Trap

Karimi, L.,Sadat Kiai, S.M.,babazaheh, A.R.,Elahi, M.,Shafaei, S.R. Korean Society for Mass Spectrometry 2019 Mass spectrometry letters Vol.10 No.1

In this article, the properties of ${CO_2}^+(CO_2)_n$ clusters in a Paul ion trap have been investigated using mass-selective instability mode which conducted by chosen precursor ions, mainly $Ar^+$ and ${CO_2}^+$ produced by a mixture of Ar and $CO_2$. Exposure of ${CO_2}^+$ ions to $CO_2$ molecules, lead to the formation of ${CO_2}^+(CO_2)_n$ clusters. Here, Ar gas react as a buffer gas and lead to form ${CO_2}^+(CO_2)_n$ cluster by collisional effect.

Immunomodulatory effects of silymarin after subacute exposure to mice: A tiered approach immunotoxicity screening

Karimi, Gholamreza,Hassanzadeh-Josan, Samed,Memar, Bahram,Esmaeili, Seyed-Alireza,Riahi-Zanjani, Bamdad KOREAN PHARMACOPUNCTURE INSTITUTE 2018 Journal of pharmacopuncture Vol.21 No.2

Silymarin is a flavonoid complex extracted from the Silybum marianum plant with a wide range of pharmacological and biochemical effects. In the present study, the immunomodulatory effects of silymarin were investigated in BALB/c mice. Silymarin was administered daily by intraperitoneal injection at doses of 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg for 14 consecutive days. Following the exposure, host hematological parameters, spleen cellularity and histopathological examination, as well as delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) responses, hemagglutination titers (HA), splenocyte cytokine production and lymphocyte proliferation assay were studied in all of the test groups of animals. The results showed that the low dose of silymarin (50 mg/kg) could stimulate both cellular and humoral immune functions in the treated hosts. In addition, silymarin at 100 mg/kg appeared to impact on DTH responses and lymphoproliferation. Based on the finding here, it would seem that silymarin has efficient immunostimulant properties. As a recommendation, the application of silymarin along with acupuncture technique (herbal acupuncture) can be thought as a good plan to modulate and enhance the immune system for the management of several immunodeficiency disorders. However, further studies are required to demonstrate this hypothesis.

Evidence for U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Recommendations Against Routine Mammography for Females between 40-49 Years of Age

Karimi, Parisa,Shahrokni, Armin,Moradi, Sedighe Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.3

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among females, worldwide, accounting for 22.9% of all cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) in females. Mammography is a sensitive (77-95%) and specific (94-97%) screening method for breast cancer. Previously, females between the 40-50 years old were recommended to have mammograms every one to two years. However, based on current evidence, in 2009, USPSTF recommended that the decision to start regular, biennial screening mammography for females younger than 50 years should be an individual decision and take patient context into account, including the patient's values regarding specific benefits and harms. This decision was based on findings regarding radiation exposure, false-positive and false-negative rates, over-diagnosis, and pain and psychological responses. The goal of this paper is to focus on evidence for updating the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation against routine mammography for females between 40-49 years of age.

Neuroprotective effects of chloroquine on neurological scores, blood-brain barrier permeability, and brain edema after traumatic brain injury in male rats

Karimi Maryam,Nazari Somayeh,Shirani Faramarz,Alivirdiloo Vahid,Siahposht-Khachaki Ali,Edalatkhah Sepehr,Khanian Rama 대한신경집중치료학회 2023 대한신경집중치료학회지 Vol.16 No.1

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of leading causes of death among young people worldwide. Chloroquine, an antimalarial drug, has been shown to easily cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and inhibit autophagy in a variety of disorders, including Alzheimer disease and brain ischemia. We investigated the effects of chloroquine on neuronal protection after induction of brain trauma in male rats.Methods: A total of 120 male Wistar rats were treated with chloroquine at doses of 1.5, 3, and 6 mg/kg intraperitoneally after induction of diffuse TBIs. The veterinary coma scale was used to assess short-term neurological deficits. BBB disruption was evaluated using the Evans Blue dye method 6-hour post-injury. Vestibulomotor function was evaluated using the beam walk and beam balance methods. Histopathological changes in the brain tissue in different groups were evaluated using light microscopy and hematoxylin-eosin staining. Brain water and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) contents of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) were assessed using the wet/dry method and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively.Results: The results showed that injecting chloroquine (3 and 6 mg/kg) 30 minutes after TBI significantly reduced brain edema and BBB disruption, and recovered neurological deficits post-TBI (P<0.01). Furthermore, CSF MMP-9 was significantly reduced after administration of 1.5 mg/kg chloroquine (P<0.01).Conclusion: Chloroquine has neuroprotective effects in the brain, and thus, has the potential to mitigate the effects of brain trauma. It is possible that the anti-inflammatory and neurogenic effects of chloroquine are due to a decrease in MMP secretion in the CSF.