ABSTRACT
Background: The severe damages of toxoplasmosis clearly indicate the need for the development of a more effective vaccine. Immunization with plasmid DNA is a promising vaccination technique. Therefore, GRA7 plasmid was prepared to be used as a vaccine. The purpose of this study was evaluation of immunization with cocktail DNA vaccine including plasmids encoding Toxoplasma gondii ROP2 and GRA7 in BALB/c mice
Methods: In this study, 733 bp of GRA7 gene was cloned in pCDNA3.1 plasmid as an expression vector. The plasmids containing GRA7 and ROP2 genes were administered via IM according to immunized mice three times with a 3 week interval. For lymphocyte proliferation and cytokine assay, splenocytes of immunized mice were cultured for proliferation and cytokine assay. The other mice in each group were inoculated by the parasite and mortality of the mice was evaluated on a daily basis
Results: The cytokine assay results and lymphocyte proliferation response in cocktail DNA vaccines showed that IFN-gamma levels were significantly higher than controls [p<0.05], whereas IL-4 expression level in BALB/c mice immunized with cocktail was lower than that in control groups and these results are confirmed by MTT test. Predominance of the levels of IgG2a over IgG1 was observed in sera of the immunized mice. Furthermore, IgG2a values in cocktail DNA vaccines pcGRA7 were significantly higher than control group [p<0.01]. In contrast, IgG1 antibodies were similar between the two groups [p>0.5]. So, survival time in the immune groups was significantly prolonged in comparison to control ones [p<0.01]
Conclusion: The immunized mice by DNA vaccine produce higher titration of IFNgamma, indicated with Th1 response which is confirmed by high level of IgG2a. These data demonstrate that the cocktail GRA7/ROP2 is a potential vaccine candidate against toxoplasmosis
ABSTRACT
Background: Iron deficiency is often observed in obese individuals. The prevalence of obesity has increased at an epidemic rate. A few small studies have noted a possible association between iron deficiency and obesity. The purpose of the study has been determined relationship between anthropometric including body mass index and the size of abdomen and iron-shortage anemia
Materials and Methods: Descriptive, analytical, and cross sectional methods of research have been applied in the study. The instruments used to collect the data were a set of organized items in the questionnaire and a checklist contained the measurement of abdominal obesity, height, weight, BMI, the results of ferritin levels, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and TIBC and MCV. The tools were validated via content validity and test-retest. The participants were the staff [n=300] of Hamadan branch, Islamic Azad university, Iran, who were selected via census sampling technique. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, that is, chi-square, Pearson correlation coefficient, and ANOVA were run using SPSS software
Results: 48.4% had overweight and 43.9% had various degrees of general obesity. 45.7% of women and 1.9% of men suffered from abdominal obesity. 3.2% of men had ferritin levels less than 20ng/dl and 79.2% of them had high levels of TIBC, while 31.5% of women had ferritin serum less than 12ng per dl and 73.9% of them had high TIBC. There was a significant relationship between abdominal obesity and TIBC, HB, HCT, and ferritin serum [p<0.0005]
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate the high prevalence of overweight, obesity, and abdominal obesity and their relationship with iron deficiency anemia. These are non-communicable disease, which are directly related to the lifestyle
ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is a major health problem worldwide. The diabetes self-care behavior is an effective strategy to control diabetes. The study aimed to investigate the predictors of self-care behavior based on the Health Belief Model [HBM] among type 2 diabetic patients. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 390 diabetic patients referred to Hamadan Diabetes Research Center with a simple random sampling method. The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire including demographic characteristics, self-care behaviors and HBM constructs. Data were analyzed using parametric tests in SPSS-19 software. According to the findings, the diabetic patients had a moderate level of self-care behaviors. Also results showed that, HBM explained 29.6% of the variance in frequency of self-care behaviors. Perceived self-efficacy, perceived severity, perceived barrier and perceived susceptibility were the best significant predictors [P<0.05]. The researchers suggest to promote self-care behaviors, preparing training packages tailored to the needs of diabetic patients with emphasis on increasing self-efficacy and removal barriers of normal self-care behaviors are necessary
ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is a major health problem worldwide. The diabetes self-care behavior is an effective strategy to control diabetes. The study aimed to investigate the predictors of self-care behavior based on the Health Belief Model [HBM] among type 2 diabetic patients. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 390 diabetic patients referred to Hamadan Diabetes Research Center with a simple random sampling method. The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire including demographic characteristics, self-care behaviors and HBM constructs. Data were analyzed using parametric tests in SPSS-19 software. According to the findings, the diabetic patients had a moderate level of self-care behaviors. Also results showed that, HBM explained 29.6% of the variance in frequency of self-care behaviors. Perceived self-efficacy, perceived severity, perceived barrier and perceived susceptibility were the best significant predictors [P<0.05]. The researchers suggest to promote self-care behaviors, preparing training packages tailored to the needs of diabetic patients with emphasis on increasing self-efficacy and removal barriers of normal self-care behaviors are necessary