Sharif Digital Repository

Background and Objective: Since ancient times, it has been said that drinking green tea brings relaxation. The substance that is responsible for a sense of relaxation is theanine. Theanine (γ-glutamylethylamide) is a unique non-protein amino acid. It gives an umami taste and a unique flavor to the tea, and has many physiological and pharmaceutical effects such as anti-tumor, anti-cancer, neuro-protective, anti-hypertensive and anti-obesity effects; it may further help in relaxation and increase focus. So this compound is essential for human body; however, it is not synthesized in the body and should be administrated orally. In the present study, the enzymatic biosynthesis of theanine was... 

Over the last decade, nanoparticles used as protein carriers have opened new avenues for a variety of biomedical applications. The main concern for these applications is changes in biological activity of immobilized proteins due to conformational changes on the surface of the carrier. To evaluate this concern, the preparation and biocatalyst activity of α-chymotrypsin-Fe 3O4 @ Au core/shell nanoparticles were investigated. First, Fe3O4 @ Au core/shell nanoparticles were synthesized by coprecipitation method and citrate reduction of HAuCl 4. TEM imaging revealed a core size of 13 ± 3 nm and a shell thickness of 4 ± 1 nm for synthesized nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to study... 

Novel high capacity swelling nanoporous hydrogel (NPH) was synthesized via graft copolymerization of acrylamide (AAm) onto kappa-carrageenan (kC, as a polysaccharide) and gelatin (as a protein) hybrid backbone, after hydrolysis of this system. The Taguchi method as a strong experimental design tool was used for its optimized synthesis. The Taguchi method was applied for the experimental and standard 9 orthogonal array (OA) with four factors and three levels for each factor. A series of NPHs were synthesized by proposed conditions of Qualitek-4 Software. Considering the results of 9 trials according to analysis of variance (ANOVA), optimum conditions were proposed. The swelling behavior of... 

Dracocephalum kotschyi essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation (HD), microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MAHD), and solvent-free microwave extraction (SFME) were investigated by GC-FID (Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector) and GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry). The percentage of oxygenated compounds was significantly increased from 62.52% in HD to 76.47% in MAHD, and 84.52% in SFME. Conversely, the monoterpene hydrocarbons were decreased from 30.84% in HD to 13.71% in MAHD, and 5.85% in SFME. The main compound in the essential oil obtained by HD is limonene, which accounted for more than 30% of the oil, while the percentage of this compound was reduced to 9.52% in... 

Hepcidin is a peptide hormone that plays an important role in iron metabolism. We have produced a recombinant mouse hepcidin-1 by using baculovirus expression system. Its expression yield was 25 μg/ml when cell culture media were supplemented with a protease inhibitor cocktail. The recombinant mouse hepcidin-1 and synthetic human hepcidin-25 had similar effects on reducing ferroportin expression in J774A cell line and in peritoneal macrophages. However, synthetic human hepcidin-25 was more efficient than recombinant mouse hepcidin-1 in reducing iron concentration in blood circulation (p < 0.01)  

Chitosan-coated human serum albumin nanoparticles were functionalized by MUC1 aptamer to obtain a selective drug carrier toward cancers overexpressing MUC1. The negative charges of albumin nanoparticles were shifted to positive charges by surface modification with chitosan, and MUC1 was conjugated through an acrylate spacer. The cytotoxicity of targeted nanoparticles was significantly more than non-aptamer nanoparticles, and also the chitosan-coated nanoparticles had more cytotoxic effects than the negatively charged albumin nanoparticles. The IC50 of targeted nanoparticles was 28 and 26% of free paclitaxel in MCF7 and T47D cells at 48 h, respectively. Confocal laser scanning electron... 

Recent studies showed that a large amount of graphene oxide accumulated in kidney and liver when it injected intravenously. Evaluation of lethal and apoptosis gene expression in these tissues, which are under stress is very important. In this paper the in vivo dose-dependent effects of graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide nanoplatelets on kidney and liver of mice were studied. Balb/C mice were treated by 20 mg/kg body weight of nanoplatelets. Molecular biology analysis showed that graphene nanoplatelets injected intravenously lead to overexpression of BAX gene in both kidney and liver tissues (P ≥ 0.01). In addition these nanoparticles significantly increase BCL2 gene expression in both... 

Two-dimensional boron nitride quantum dots (2D BNQDs) with excellent chemical stability, high photoluminescence efficiency, and low toxicity are a new class of advanced materials for biosensing and bioimaging applications. To overcome the current challenge about the lack of facile, scalable, and reproducible synthesis approach of BNQDs, we introduce a green and facile approach based on mechanochemical exfoliation of bulk h-BN particles in ethanol. Few-layered hydroxylated-functionalized QDs with a thickness of 1-2 nm and a lateral dimension of 2-6 nm have been prepared. The synthesized nanocrystals exhibit a strong fluorescence emission at 407 and 425 nm with a quantum efficiency of ∼6.2%.... 

Background: Skeletal muscle mass, which is regulated by a balance between muscle protein synthesis and degradation, is an important factor for movement to meet everyday needs, especially in pathological conditions and aging. The purpose of the present investigation was to compare the alterations of the gene expression involved in muscle protein synthesis and degradation signaling pathways induced by two exercise training protocols. Methods: Eight weeks old Wistar rats have been assigned to the present experimental study, which was conducted from August 2018 to October 2018 at the animal laboratory of Tehran University. They were randomly divided into two resistance and endurance training... 

Support vector machines (SVMs) were used as a novel learning machine in the authentication of the origin of salmon. SVMs have the advantage of relying on a well-developed theory and have already proved to be successful in a number of practical applications. This paper provides a new and effective method for the discrimination between wild and farm salmon and eliminates the possibility of fraud through misrepresentation of the country of origin of salmon. The method requires a very simple sample preparation of the fish oils extracted from the white muscle of salmon samples. 1H NMR spectroscopic analysis provides data that is very informative for analysing the fatty acid constituents of the... 

Vaccines require a period of at least three months for clinical trials, hence a method that can identify elicitation of immune response a few days after the first dose is a necessity. Evolutionary variable selections are modeling approaches for proper manipulation of available data which were used to set up an animal model for classification of time dependent 'HNMR metabolomic profiles and pattern recognition of fluctuations of metabolites in two groups of male rabbits. One group of rabbits was immunized with human red blood cells and the other used as control. Blood was obtained every 48 h from each rabbit for a period of six weeks and the serum monitored for antibodies and metabolites by... 

Despite tremendous efforts toward vaccination, influenza remains an ongoing global threat. The induction of strain-specific neutralizing antibody responses is a common phenomenon during vaccination with the current inactivated influenza vaccines, so the protective effect of these vaccines is mostly strain-specific. There is an essential need for the development of next-generation vaccines, with a broad range of immunogenicity against antigenically drifted or shifted influenza viruses. Here, we evaluate the potential of whole inactivated vaccines, based on chemical and physical methods, as well as new approaches to generate cross-protective immune responses. We also consider the mechanisms by... 

Free polymer graphene aerogel nanoparticles (GA NPs) were synthesized by using reduction/aggregation of graphene oxide (GO) sheets in the presence of vitamin C (as a biocompatible reductant agent) at a low temperature (40 °C), followed by an effective sonication. Synthesis of GA NPs in doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX)-containing solution results in the simultaneous synthesis and drug loading with higher performance (than that of the separately synthesized and loaded samples). To investigate the mechanism of loading and the capability of GA NPs in the loading of other drug structures, two groups of ionized (DOX, Amikacin sulfate and, D-glucosamine hydrochloride) and non-ionized (Paclitaxel... 

AgNPs@Chitosan and Co3O4-NPs@Chitosan were fabricated with Salvia hispanica. Results showed MZI values of 5 and 30 mm for Co3O4-NPs- and AgNPs@Chitosan against S. aureus, and 15 and 21 mm for Co3O4-NPs- and AgNPs@Chitosan against E. coli (24 h, 20 μg/mL), respectively. MTT assays showed up to 80% and 90%, 71% and 75%, and 91% and 94% mammalian cell viability for the green synthesized, chemically synthesized AgNPs and green synthesized AgNPs@Chitosan for HEK-293 and PC12 cells, respectively, and 70% and 71%, 59% and 62%, and 88% and 73% for the related Co3O4-NPs (24 h, 20 μg/mL). The photocatalytic activities showed dye degradation after 135 and 105 min for AgNPs@Chitosan and... 

One of the main challenges in elimination of oil contamination from polluted environments is improvement of biodegradation by highly efficient microorganisms. Bacillus subtilis MJ01 has been evaluated as a new resource for producing biosurfactant compounds. This bacterium, which produces surfactin, is able to enhance bio-accessibility to oil hydrocarbons in contaminated soils. The genome of B. subtilis MJ01 was sequenced and assembled by PacBio RS sequencing technology. One big contig with a length of 4,108,293 bp without any gap was assembled. Genome annotation and prediction of gene showed that MJ01 genome is very similar to B. subtilis spizizenii TU-B-10 (95% similarity). The comparison... 

Keratinocyte Growth Factor (KGF) is a paracrine-acting, epithelial mitogen that plays a prominent role in the regeneration of damaged epithelial tissues. In spite of different attempts to produce recombinant human KGF in many organisms, including bacteria, mammalian cells, plant cells and insect cells; production of recombinant form suffers from lower yields and recovery relative to other recombinant proteins of similar size and properties. Due to many advantages of Pichia pastoris expression systems for producing industrial enzymes and pharmaceutical proteins, in this study P. pastoris was chosen as a host for KGF expression. For preparing human KGF coding sequence, MCF-7 cell line was... 

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) biocompatible systems can host enzymes/bacteria/viruses. Herein we synthesized a series of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH)-decorated UiO-66-NH2 based on Citrus tangerine leaf extract for drug delivery and biosensor applications. Five chemically manipulated FAAH-like benzamides were localized on the UiO-66-NH2 surface with physical interactions. Comprehensive cellular and molecular analyses were conducted on HEK-293, HeLa, HepG2, PC12, MCF-7, and HT-29 cell lines (cytotoxicity assessment after 24 and 48 h). MTT results proved above 95 and 50% relative cell viability in the absence and presence of the drug, respectively. A complete targeted drug-releasing...