DNA barcoding of Iranian radicine freshwater snails begins to untangle the taxonomy and phylogeography of intermediate hosts of schistosomiasis and fasciolosis from the Middle East and across Central Asia.

In the Middle East radicine snails are of considerable medical and veterinary importance acting as vectors of trematodes. In Iran, such snails are responsible for the transmission of the zoonotic trematodes Schistosoma turkestanicum and Fasciola gigantica. Historically, Radix gedrosiana has been incriminated as an important intermediate host for both trematodes, however, controversy remains over the snail's true taxonomic status. This species has been determined using morphological characters that has resulted in erroneous identification of species, affecting understanding of population biology, and ultimately affecting vector incrimination. In this current study DNA barcoding using cox1 and phylogenetic analyses revealed that snails identified as R. gedrosiana from Iran split into two separate species, Radix euphratica and Ampullaceana sp. The cox1 also provided useful insights into the evolutionary history of R. euphratica populations. Phylogeographic analyses indicated that R. euphratica had an Iraqi/Iranian origin approximately 3.3 MYA and exists as a large stable population across the Middle East and Central Asia, and a lack of genetic differentiation between geographical isolates. Such molecular barcoding techniques are crucial for the identification of radicine snails of Iran being invaluable for the monitoring of zoonotic flukes, understanding the distribution of infection and the accurate incrimination of snail vectors.

Multicoils-based inductive links dedicated to power up implantable medical devices: modeling, design and experimental results.

We present in this paper a new topology of inductively-coupled links based on a monolithic multi-coils receiver. A model is built to characterize the proposed structure using Matlab and is verified employing simulation tools under ADS electromagnetic environment. This topology accounts for the losses associated with the receiver micro-coil including substrate and oxide layers. The geometry of micro-coils significantly desensitizes the link to both angular and side misalignments. A custom fabrication process using 1 micron metal thickness is also presented by which two sets of micro-coils varying in the number of coils are realized. The first set possesses one coil 4 mm of diameter and represents a power efficiency close to 4% while the second set possesses multi-coils with an efficiency of 18%. The resulting optimized link can deliver up to 50 mW of power to power up an implantable device either sensor or stimulator. The experimental results for the prototypes are remarkably in agreement with those obtained from simulated models and circuits.

In vitro modulation of TCF7L2 gene expression in human pancreatic cells.

Several studies have recently reported strong association between type 2 diabetes and variation in the transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene, which has been confirmed by several other genome-wide studies. However, the physiological implications of this transcription factor on the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes is not yet known. The aim of this study was to investigate the alteration in TCF7L2 gene expression in human pancreatic cell line in response to various factors in vitro. MIA Paca-2 cell line (Human Pancreas cell line) was cultured in the presence of curcumin, lipopolysaccaride and glucose (low and high concentration). TCF7L2 gene expression was determined using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Treatment with curcumin significantly increased TCF7L2 gene expression to 3.24 fold (1.7-log fold) (P = 0.003) compared to the controls while treatment with LPS decreased TCF7L2 gene expression to 0.88-fold (-0.18-log). On the other hand, glucose increased TCF7L2 gene expression in pancreatic cell line. Our data suggest a role for TCF7L2 in glucose homeostasis. The contrary effect of curcumin and LPS on expression of TCF7L2 in pancreatic cells supports a role for TCF7L2 in their survival and function in inflammatory conditions.