The human parvovirus B19 (B19) usually causes a subclinical infection in immunocompetent individuals. Whereas immunocompromised individuals such as patients infected with HIV are at risk of persistent anemia due to B19 infection. Only few studies have been carried out on distribution and molecular epidemiology of B19 in Iran. We aimed to determine the frequency and genotype of B19 among Iranian patients infected with HIV. We conducted a survey on 99 HIV patients and 64 healthy controls. IgG and IgM antibodies against B19 were detected by ELISA and B19 DNA was assessed by nested PCR. PCR products were subjected to direct sequencing and classified after phylogenetic analysis. The prevalence of B19 immunoglobulin was 11.1% for IgG and 1% for IgM. B19 DNA was detected in 13.1% of cases. The prevalence of B19 IgG, IgM, and DNA in control group was 25%, 1.6%, and 9.4%, respectively. B19 IgG was significantly lower in HIV group than in normal controls. There was no significant difference regarding anemia between cases and controls. All sequenced B19 isolates belonged to genotype 1A with low genetic diversity. Our findings indicated that in the HAART era, the importance of B19 infections in HIV patients may be limited whereas persistent B19 viremia in the circulation of healthy controls raises a potential concern in blood donations.

The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) infection and its virulence in exotic cage birds over a limited area and time period. A set of 335 samples was collected from 24 different species of exotic unvaccinated cage birds kept in the zoological gardens and bird markets of the Tehran province of Iran during 1.5 years. Except for three pigeons, all of the sampled birds were healthy with no clinical signs of Newcastle disease. NDV was detected in three sick pigeons by haemagglutination assay (HA), haemagglutination inhibition (HI) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests while two of them were identified as virulent types by RT-PCR. Although the remaining samples were negative by Newcastle-disease-specific HA and HI tests, 35 of them (10%) were identified as positive and 25 (72%) were determined as the velogenic type by RT-PCR test. Five PCR products were sequenced and all were confirmed as NDV but sequences were different from each other and from other sequences from Iran. In total, 14 species (58%) were infected and 10 species were uninfected with the velogenic type without showing any signs. Pigeons are very sensitive to NDV infection and play an important role in its epidemiology. In this study, the PCR test was found to be a more sensitive and powerful method than the HA and HI tests for detection of NDV reservoirs and carrier status in exotic birds. Also, the frequency of infection with the virulent type showed that the exotic birds should probably be considered one of the main causes of recurrent annual epidemics of Newcastle disease in endemic regions.

The epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is a Type I transmembrane superficial glycoprotein antigen that is expressed on the surface of basolateral membrane of multiple epithelial cells with some exceptions such as epidermal keratinocytes, hepatocytes, thymic cortical epithelial cells, squamous stratified epithelial cells, and myoepithelial cells that do not express the molecule. The molecule plays a pivotal role in the structural integrity, adhesion of the epithelial tissues and their interaction with the underlying layers. EpCAM prevents claudin‐7 and claudin‐1 molecules from degradation, thereby, decreasing the number of tight junctions and cellular interconnections, and promoting the cells toward carcinogenic transformation. Moreover, the mutations in the EpCAM gene lead to congenital tufting enteropathy, severe intestinal epithelium homeostasis disorders, and Lynch and Lynch syndrome. Overexpression of EpCAM on stem cells of some cancers and the presence of this molecule on circulating tumor cells (CTCs) makes it a promising candidate for cancer diagnosis as well as tracing and isolation of CTCs.

: The central dogma of molecular biology explains the flow of genetic information from DNA to functional products such as proteins. In most cases, a linear relationship with high correlation coefficient exists between the concentration of mRNA, the middle man, and the functional product. Untranslated regions (UTRs) of RNA form considerable base pairing that contributes to the secondary and tertiary structures of mRNA. The interaction between the mRNA secondary structures (cis-elements), RNA-binding proteins (RBP) and miRs (trans-element) are critical determinants of mRNAs' fate and stability. Among different viral families, the positive sense (+) RNA viruses use the simplest possible strategy of replication and expression; as the same molecule functions both as a genome and mRNA. Additionally, nucleotide composition and codon usage of +RNA viruses are the closest to human codon adaptation index (CAI). Since the origin of replication of viral intermediate RNA molecules is at the 3'-end of the genome, the 3'UTR plays a role in viral RNA replication. Moreover, the messenger role of RNA likely places functional demands on the 3'UTR to serve a role typical of cellular mRNA. This article reviews the effect of 3'UTR of RNA viruses with positive sense and genomes on mRNA stability and translation improvement. A range of animal (e.g., Dengue, Sindbis, Corona and Polio) and plant (Barley yellow dwarf, Brome mosaic, Turnip crinkle, Tobacco mosaic, Cowpea mosaic and Alfalfa mosaic) viruses are examined to highlight the role of 3'UTR in viral survival and as a potential target for pharmaceutical applications.

Purpose: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is specified by high vascularity and repetitious metastasis. Although several studies have indicated that angiogenesis has an important role in invasive breast cancer, a suitable model of TNBC that can show the exact onset of angiogenesis factors still needs to be developed. The purpose of this study is to determine the expression level of angiogenesis factors in different clinical stages of the 4T1 tumor as TNBC mouse model. Methods: Twenty mice were injected by the 4T1 cell line, and four mice selected as healthy controls. Following by tumor induction, the mice were randomly put into four groups, each contains four mice. Once the tumor volume reached to the early stage (<100 mm3 ), intermediate stage (100-300 mm3 ), advanced stage (300-500 mm3 ), and end stage (>500 mm3 ), they were removed by surgery. Then, the expression levels of Hif1α, VEGFR1, and VEGFR2 genes, as well as tumor markers of VEGF, bFGF and CD31, were evaluated by qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC) respectively. The statistical analysis was done by SPSS version 16. Results: TNBC tumors were confirmed and multi-foci metastasis in the lung were seen. The mRNA and protein expression levels of the angiogenesis factors increased in the early stage and as the tumor grew, their expression level enhanced dramatically. Conclusion: The 4T1 syngeneic mouse tumor may serve as an appropriate TNBC model for further investigation of the angiogenesis and therapies. Moreover, angiogenesis factors are induced before the advanced stage, and anti-angiogenesis therapy is necessary to be considered at the first line of treatment in TBNC.