Level of daily physical activity in individuals with COPD compared with healthy controls

Background

Persons with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), performing some level of regular physical activity, have a lower risk of both COPD-related hospital admissions and mortality. COPD patients of all stages seem to benefit from exercise training programs, thereby improving with respect to both exercise tolerance and symptoms of dyspnea and fatigue. Physical inactivity, which becomes more severe with increasing age, is a point of concern in healthy older adults. COPD might worsen this scenario, but it is unclear to what degree. This literature review aims to present the extent of the impact of COPD on objectively-measured daily physical activity (DPA). The focus is on the extent of the impact that COPD has on duration, intensity, and counts of DPA, as well as whether the severity of the disease has an additional influence on DPA.

Results

A literature review was performed in the databases PubMed [MEDLINE], Picarta, PEDRO, ISI Web of Knowledge and Google scholar. After screening, 11 studies were identified as being relevant for comparison between COPD patients and healthy controls with respect to duration, intensity, and counts of DPA. Four more studies were found to be relevant to address the subject of the influence the severity of the disease may have on DPA. The average percentage of DPA of COPD patients vs. healthy control subjects for duration was 57%, for intensity 75%, and for activity counts 56%. Correlations of DPA and severity of the disease were low and/or not significant.

Conclusions

From the results of this review, it appears that patients with COPD have a significantly reduced duration, intensity, and counts of DPA when compared to healthy control subjects. The intensity of DPA seems to be less affected by COPD than duration and counts. Judging from the results, it seems that severity of COPD is not strongly correlated with level of DPA. Future research should focus in more detail on the relation between COPD and duration, intensity, and counts of DPA, as well as the effect of disease severity on DPA, so that these relations become more understandable.     

Lethal and sublethal effects of Iranian isolates of Steinernema feltiae and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora on the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata

To determine the LC₅₀ values of two entomopathogenic nematodes against Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) prepupae, different concentrations of the nematodes were tested in soil. Because of the different temperature requirements of the two nematode species, bioassay experiments were conducted at 20 ± 1°C and 27 ± 2°C for Steinernema feltiae Filipjev (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae) and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Poinar (Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae), respectively. Both the isolates were effective against L. decemlineata. LC₅₀ values of H. bacteriophora against progeny of field-collected adults and laboratory-reared adults were estimated as 8.5 and 7.6 IJ per prepupa, respectively. For S. feltiae the value was calculated as 51.2 IJ per prepupa against offspring of laboratory-reared adults of L. decemlineata only. Cellular encapsulation of both nematode species was observed. Sublethal nematode concentrations caused wing deformation and delayed metamorphosis which may affect Colorado potato beetle adult fitness.     

Antibacterial and antioxidant activity and essential oil composition of Grammosciadium scabridum Boiss. from Iran

The in vitro antibacterial and antioxidant activity of the essential oil and its two main components of Grammosciadium scabridum Boiss. (Apiaceae) growing wild in Iran, as well as the composition of its essential oil were studied. A total of 19 compounds representing 99.9% of the oil has been identified. Gamma-Terpinene (73.5%), p-cymene (14.2%) and (E)-beta-farnesene (5.3%) were characterized as the main components. The oil showed remarkable activity against three Gram-negative and four Gram-positive test bacteria, with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 0.31 to 10.00 mg/ml. The oil and its two main components were also subjected to screening for their possible antioxidant activity by using the 2,2-diphenyl-l-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The free radical scavenging capacity of the oil was determined with an IC50 value of 6.6 mg/ml.     

GObar: A Gene Ontology based analysis and visualization tool for gene sets

Background  

Microarray experiments, as well as other genomic analyses, often result in large gene sets containing up to several hundred genes. The biological significance of such sets of genes is, usually, not readily apparent.     

Invasive aspergillosis promotes tumor growth and severity in a tumor-bearing mouse model

Invasive aspergillosis increases in chronic immunosuppressive diseases such as cancer. There is little information about the mechanisms by which Aspergillus infection affects the immune regulation and microenvironment of cancer cells. Hence, this study was aimed at investigating the effect of invasive aspergillosis on immunosurveillance, metastasis, and prognosis of cancer in tumor-bearing mice. After implantation of mouse mammary tumor in BALB/c mice, they were infected with Aspergillus conidia intravenously. For comparison, groups of mice were experimentally infected with Aspergillus conidia or implanted with tumor cells separately. Seven days after Aspergillus infection, the serum levels of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) were measured by ELISA, and subsequently regulatory T lymphocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry. The survival of animals and mean tumor size were then determined. Our results indicated that tumor sizes in mice increased significantly after infection with Aspergillus conidia. Moreover, invasive aspergillosis enhanced the population of regulatory lymphocytes and level of TIMP-1. This study supports the idea that massive Aspergillus infection could stimulate tumor growth and increases the possibility of a bad prognosis. As a result, treatment of Aspergillus infection could be considered an important issue for efficient cancer therapy.     

Bioengineered chimeric tRNA/pre-miRNAs as prodrugs in cancer therapy

Today, biologic prodrugs have led to targeting specific tumor markers and have increased specificity and selectivity in cancer therapy. Various studies have shown the role of ncRNAs in cancer pathology and tumorigenesis and have suggested that ncRNAs, especially miRNAs, are valuable molecules in understanding cancer biology and therapeutic processes. Most miRNAs-based research and treatment are limited to chemically synthesized miRNAs. Synthetic alterations in these miRNA mimics may affect their folding, safety profile, and even biological activity. However, despite synthetic miRNA mimics produced by automated systems, various carriers could be used to achieve efficient production of bioengineered miRNAs through economical microbial fermentation. These bioengineered miRNAs as biological prodrugs could provide a new approach for safe therapeutic methods and drug production. In this regard, bioengineered chimeric miRNAs could be selectively processed to mature miRNAs in different types of cancer cells by targeting the desired gene and regulating cancer progression. In this article, we aim to review bioengineered miRNAs and their use in cancer therapy, as well as offering advances in this area, including the use of chimeric tRNA/pre-miRNAs.     

Serum Iron,Zinc, and Copper Concentration in Premature Graying of Hair

Premature graying of hair with unclear etiology, which is known as premature canities, is a common cause of referrals to the dermatologists. We assessed the relationship between serum iron, copper, and zinc concentrations with premature canities. This study was conducted on patients under 20 years old suffering from premature canities, having a minimum of ten gray hair fibers, and referring to university hospitals of Isfahan (Iran). The results were compared with age–sex-matched controls. Demographic data and disease characteristics were recorded for two groups. We studied serum iron, copper, and zinc concentrations of 66 patients and 66 controls using atomic absorption and Ferrozine methods. The mean age of studied cases was 17.8 ± 2.0 years, and the mean age of the onset of canities was 15.5 ± 3.2 years with no significant difference between males and females (P > 0.05). Serum copper concentration was significantly lower in patients compared with controls (90.7 ± 37.4 vs. 105.3 ± 50.2 μg/dL, P = 0.048), but serum iron concentration was significantly lower in controls compared to patients (88.8 ± 39.5 vs. 108.3 ± 48.4 μg/dL, P = 0.008). Also, there was no significant difference between patients and controls in serum zinc concentration (114.8 ± 67.8 vs. 108.2 ± 49.9 μg/dL, P = 0.285). According to these results, among copper, zinc, and iron, a low serum copper concentration may play a role in premature graying of hairs in our society. Further studies are needed to find the underlying mechanism of this relationship.     

A new avenue for classification and prediction of olive cultivars using supervised and unsupervised algorithms

Various methods have been used to identify cultivares of olive trees; herein we used different bioinformatics algorithms to propose new tools to classify 10 cultivares of olive based on RAPD and ISSR genetic markers datasets generated from PCR reactions. Five RAPD markers (OPA0a21, OPD16a, OP01a1, OPD16a1 and OPA0a8) and five ISSR markers (UBC841a4, UBC868a7, UBC841a14, U12BC807a and UBC810a13) selected as the most important markers by all attribute weighting models. K-Medoids unsupervised clustering run on SVM dataset was fully able to cluster each olive cultivar to the right classes. All trees (176) induced by decision tree models generated meaningful trees and UBC841a4 attribute clearly distinguished between foreign and domestic olive cultivars with 100% accuracy. Predictive machine learning algorithms (SVM and Naïve Bayes) were also able to predict the right class of olive cultivares with 100% accuracy. For the first time, our results showed data mining techniques can be effectively used to distinguish between plant cultivares and proposed machine learning based systems in this study can predict new olive cultivars with the best possible accuracy.     

Ultrastructural changes of sheep cumulus-oocyte complexes following different methods of vitrification

To determine the ultrastructural changes of sheep cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) following different methods of vitrification, good quality isolated COCs (GV stage) were randomly divided into the non-vitrified control, conventional straw, cryotop and solid surface vitrification groups. In both conventional and cryotop methods, vitrified COCs were respectively loaded by conventional straws and cryotops, and then plunged directly into liquid nitrogen (LN2); whereas in the solid surface group, vitrified COCs were first loaded by cryotops and then cooled before plunging into LN2. Post-warming survivability and ultrastructural changes of healthy COCs in the cryotop group especially in comparison with the conventional group revealed better viability rate and good preservation of the ooplasm organization. However in all vitrification groups except the cryotop group, mitochondria were clumped. Solely in the conventional straw group, the mitochondria showed different densities and were extremely distended. Moreover in the latter group, plenty of large irregular connected vesicles in the ooplasm were observed and in some parts their membrane ruptured. Also, in the conventional and solid surface vitrification groups, cumulus cells projections became retracted from the zona pellucida in some parts. In conclusion, the cryotop vitrification method as compared with other methods seems to have a good post-warming survivability and shows less deleterious effects on the ultrastructure of healthy vitrified-warmed sheep COCs.     

Doubled haploid plants following colchicine treatment of microspore-derived embryos of oilseed rape (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Brassica napus L.</Emphasis>)

An efficient method for producing doubled haploid plants of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) was established using in vitro colchicine treatment of haploid embryos. Haploid embryos in the cotyledonary stage were treated with one of four colchicine concentrations (125, 250, 500 and 1,000 mg/L); for one of three treatment durations (12, 24 and 36 h) at one of the two temperatures (8 and 25°C) and were compared to control embryos (without colchicine treatment). The number of chromosomes, seed recovery, size and density of leaf stomata, and pollen grain size from regenerated plants were determined. No doubled haploid plants were regenerated from control embryos; however, the doubled haploid plants were regenerated from colchicine-treated embryos. A high doubling efficiency, 64.29 and 66.66% of regenerated plants, was obtained from 250 mg/L colchicine treatment for 24 h and 500 mg/L colchicine treatment for 36 h, respectively, at 8°C. Following 500 mg/L colchicine treatment for 36 h, a few plants regenerated (9 plants). At the higher colchicine concentration (1,000 mg/L), no plant regenerated. These results indicate that the colchicine treatment of embryos derived from microspores can induce efficient chromosome doubling for the production of doubled haploid lines of oilseed rape.