Cytotoxic effects of essential oils and extracts of some mentha species on vero, Hela and Hep2 cell lines

Mentha species are widely used in traditional medicine mostly as anti-flatulence. Nowadays, their usage as flavor and preservative in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries has been developed. Moreover, cytotoxic effects of some Mentha species have been reported. In this study, cytotoxic properties of Mentha piperita, M. spicata, M. aquatica, M. crispa, M. pulegium and M. longifolia have been investigated. Different concentrations of essential oils and total extracts of six Mentha species were tested by MTT assay against Vero, Hep2 and Hela cell lines. The results showed that all samples were toxic against Vero, Hela and Hep2 cell lines [IC[50] 28.1-166.2 micro g/ml]. All examined Mentha species extracts and essential oils have cytotoxic effects but some of them could be considered as potent toxic agents

[Improved Diagnosis of brucella in human serum samples by double PCR assay]

Brucellae are gram-negative intracellular pathogens which cause zoonotic disease in humans. Clinical manifestations of brucellosis in human are variable and often are non-specific, and the diagnosis requires fast and accurate confirmation. Since the usc of serum instead of whole-blood samples offers several advantages for nucleic acid amplification methods, in this study we developed an improved PCR assay for the rapid and specific laboratory diagnosis of human brucellosis directly from serum specimens. DNA was extracted from 100 microL of serum from 30 patients with acute serologic brucellosis. The PCR reaction was carried out with Specific primers. Second PCR reaction for reamplification of the first reaction products was designed. A 223 bp conserved region on the sequence encoding the 31-KDa immunogenic outer membrane protein which is specific to the genus Brucella [BCSP31] and present in all its biovars was amplified in all serum samples. For confirmation and efficient amplification of the specific target, reamplification of the first PCR products had a sharper banding patterns with high sensitivity and specificity that might be considered as a new useful method for diagnosis of human brucellosis in serum specimens

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, a report on 10 cases

Anaplastic thyroid carcinomas are undifferentiated and highly aggressive tumors of the thyroid follicular epithelium, with a disease-specific mortality approaching 100 percent. This study reports ten cases with advanced anaplastic thyroid carcinoma with ineffective surgical interventions. Between 2001-2006, we treated 10 patients with anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid. All patients presented with advanced phase and were documented by pathological study. The surgical intervention was thyroidectomy in 3 cases, debunking surgery in other three, just tracheostomy in three cases, and only biopsy in one patient. All of our patients died in 4 days to 8 months after surgery. Surgical intervention had no benefit in treatment of advanced anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid and the suitable surgical intervention was to maintain an open airway. Early recognition of the disease is essential to allow prompt initiation of therapy. There is no cure for advanced situations, and surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy play no important role in the treatment

Thyroid tuberculosis

The incidence of tuberculosis is high and extrapulmonary tuberculosis is seen more frequently, the thyroid tuberculosis is rare. Thyroid tuberculosis is presented as thyroid nodule, thyroiditis or abscess formation. This condition should therefore be recognized whenever goiter is being treated, because it has an entirely different treatment. The aim of this report is to present thyroid tuberculosis in order to gain a better understanding of its clinical characteristic, diagnosis and treatment we present 9 cases of thyroid tuberculosis since 1995-2006 from north of Iran. They comprised 5 patients with thyroiditis, 2 cases with abscess formation and 2 with thyroid nodules. All patients were diagnosed using Fine Needle Aspiration [FNA] and treated by repeated surgery and anti-tuberculosis drugs. It is concluded that tuberculosis of thyroid should be kept in mind while treating diseases of the thyroid such as thyroid nodule, thyroiditis, thyrotoxicosis especially in communities with high prevalence of tuberculosis. The diagnosis of thyroid tuberculosis is facilitated by FNA and its treatment is achieved by simple surgery as well as anti-tuberculosis therapy