Asthma is a chronic and heterogeneous inflammatory disorder with several different phenotypes. Whereas clinical features of asthma are non-specific and pulmonary function tests are often insensitive, further development is needed for efficient treatment or even early diagnosis. Recently, several airway inflammatory biomarkers have emerged as valuable tools in diagnosis and management of asthma. The analysis of molecular markers of airways inflammation has provided promising and non-invasive techniques that facilitate the detection of disease phenotypes as well as measurement of therapeutic efficacy. Although conventional treatments remain the preferred therapy, they do not adequately control some severe cases of asthma. Novel therapeutic agents have been developed to target various biomarkers involved in the inflammatory responses and have been investigated in patients with asthma. In this article, we summarized the most studied asthma biomarkers, derived from a variety of biological sources including exhaled gases, induced sputum, serum and urine. Likewise, the effects of current anti-inflammatory asthma treatments on inflammatory biomarkers and some promising biomarkers for developing new targeted therapies are also discussed.

The article Efficacy and safety of duloxetine and Pregabalin in Iranian patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain: a double-blind, randomized clinical trial, written by Khojasteh Joharchi, Moosareza Memari, Eznollah Azargashb, and Navid Saadat, was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 13

One-anastomosis gastric bypass is an attractive bariatric procedure. It is effective in weight loss and comorbidity resolution. It is a relatively simple and fast operation with low complication rates that make it a suitable option in super-obese individuals. Although not proven yet, there are some concerns about its long-term safety profile in terms of biliary reflux, marginal ulcer, and esophagogastric malignancy. In this article, we review the technique of this procedure and discuss about some practical surgical highlights. Furthermore, we overview studies performed about this procedure and compare it to some other well-established bariatric operations, while providing a detailed study about the facts related to its outcomes and complications.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a condition with insufficient insulin production or in the setting of insulin resistance with many origins including intestinal microbiota-related molecular mechanism. Insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) is responsible for insulin breakdown in various tissues and is known as a potential drug target for T2D. Here, we assessed the effects of cell-free supernatant (CFS) and UV-killed Lactobacillus casei IBRC_M10711 on IDE expression, IDE activity, and insulin degradation in Caco-2 cell line. It was found that CFS and UV-killed L. casei IBRC_M10711 led to lower expression of IDE. UV-killed L. casei IBRC_M10711 significantly inhibited IDE activity but CFS did not. Insulin degradation was affected with none of them. In conclusion, L. casei IBRC_M10711 is effective on IDE expression and its activity, but not on insulin degradation. Future studies are recommended to explore the effect of this probiotic on other substrates of IDE.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder caused by T-cell-mediated inflammation within airways. The prevalence of allergic diseases is rapidly increasing so that knowing allergens (characterization and types) and strategies for asthma management, prevention and treatment are very important. The most strategy is the production of recombinant allergens. Many of the problems associated with using natural allergenic products for allergy diagnosis and treatment can be overcome with the use of genetically engineered recombinant allergens. Various recombinant allergens are now emerging as strong candidates for allergen-specific immunotherapy. Extrinsic asthma (a type of asthma) may respond to immunotherapy such as using recombinant allergens. These exciting novel therapies provide not only the promise of new therapies for asthma but also valuable tools for the investigation of asthma mechanisms. This review describes strategies for asthma management, prevention and treatment, and especially recombinant allergens and also recent progresses in the molecular biology of recombinant allergens and then advantage and disadvantage of these allergens are explained. There are many methods for producing allergens such as extraction of serum, Ro/SS-A anti-Ro/SS-A system, Using the Solid-Phase Immunoadsorption system and finally recombinant technology for producing recombinant allergens. Recombinant allergens can express in many systems such as bacteria, yeast, insect cells, animal cells, and transgenic plant. We describe recombinant allergens produced in these systems. The obtained results hold promise that recombinant allergen–based immunotherapy will improve current immunotherapy practice and may open possibilities for new treatment strategies and possibly even for prophylactic vaccination.