SummaryIn assisted reproductive technology (ART) programmes, approximately 10% of infertile patients have at least two or three repeated implantation failures (RIFs) after an in vitro fertilization (IVF) protocol. Successful implantation mainly depends on local immune tolerance mechanisms involving a spectrum of cytokines, interleukins and growth factors. The latter have played pivotal roles in the recruitment of immune cells (and notably T-lymphocyte cells). In total, 250 couples participating in frozen–thawed embryo transfer programme were incorporated in a randomized clinical trial (peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) subgroup: n=122; control subgroup: n=128). In the PBMC group, a blood sample was collected 5 days before the scheduled frozen–thawed embryo transfer; PBMCs were isolated using Ficoll separation and then cultured for 72 h. Two days prior to embryo transfer, 0.4 ml of cultured PBMCs were transferred into the patient’s uterus. Although the clinical pregnancy rate was higher in the PBMC group (34.4%) than in the control group (23.4%), this difference was not statistically significant (P=0.05 in a chi-squared test). Nevertheless, when we limited the analysis to patients with ≥3 RIFs (n=138), there was a significant difference in the clinical pregnancy rate between the PBMC group (38.6%) and the control group (19.7%; P=0.01). Our results imply that PBMC transfer can be part of effective fertility treatment for patients with RIF.

Background As the new pandemic created by COVID-19 virus created the need of rapid acquisition of a suitable vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 to develop Immunity and to reduce the mortality, the aim of this study was to identify SARS-CoV-2 S protein and N antigenic epitopes by using immunoinformatic methods to design a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, for which S and N protein-dependent epitopes are predicted. B cell, CTL and HTL were determined based on antigenicity, allergenicity and toxicity that were non-allergenic, non-toxic, and antigenic and were selected for the design of a multi-epitope vaccine structure. Then, in order to increase the safety of Hbd-3 and Hbd-2 as adjuvants, they were connected to the N and C terminals of the vaccine construct, respectively, with a linker. The three-dimensional structure of the structure was predicted and optimized, and its quality was evaluated. The vaccine construct was ligated to MHCI. Finally, after optimizing the codon to increase expression in E. coli K12, the vaccine construct was cloned into pET28a (+) vector. Results Epitopes which were used in our survey were based on non-allergenic, non-toxic and antigenic. Therefore, 543-amino-acid-long multi-epitope vaccine formation was invented through linking 9 cytotoxic CTL, 5 HTL and 14 B cell epitopes with appropriate adjuvants and connectors that can control the SARS coronavirus 2 infection and could be more assessed in medical scientific researches. Conclusion We believe that the proposed multi-epitope vaccine can effectively evoke an immune response toward SARS-CoV-2.

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Despite the researchers’ efforts, the cause and development of breast cancer is still incompletely understood. Currently, in some reports, human cytomegalovirus has been referred as a risk factor for breast cancer. This study aimed to determine relative frequency of cytomegalovirus in tissue samples of women with breast cancer in Sanandaj County. In this study, to determine the relative frequency of the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) 50 formalin-fixed tissues of breast cancer, which all were invasive ductal carcinoma, were studied using the nested-polymerase chain reaction. In 26 cases of breast cancer tissues (26/50), human cytomegalovirus was detected. Seventeen cases of breast cancer tissues were in a moderately differentiated stage, and nine cases had poor-differentiated stage tissues that were positive for viral DNA. At older ages (>45 years) the prevalence rate of human cytomegalovirus DNA was higher, but no significant association was seen (p=0.16). In general, due to the high prevalence of the DNA of human cytomegalovirus (58%), in this study it is assumed that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has a contributing role in breast cancer; although more study is required to clearly define its part in this type of cancer.

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