Zohreh Jahanafrooz | University of Tehran (original) (raw)

Papers by Zohreh Jahanafrooz

Neurology Asia

Rett syndrome is an X-linked dominant neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs mostly in females. ... more Rett syndrome is an X-linked dominant neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs mostly in females. De novo mutations in the MECP2 gene have an important role in the appearance of the features of this syndrome. We planned to study spectrum of MECP2 mutations in Rett syndrome patients and their clinical symptoms. A cohort of 29 patients referred by neurologists from Iranian Azeri Turks was screened. Then direct sequencing was utilized to characterize the spectrum of mutations in the MECP2 gene in Rett syndrome patients. A total of 10 different mutations on MECP2 gene were detected in 22 patients. We identified 2 (9%) frameshift, 10 (45.64%) nonsense, 8 (36.4%) missense mutations, and 2(9%) large deletions. In this cohort, one of the detected deletions was novel, namely 1023-1096del74nt. Random X chromosome inactivation in females’ cells and different MECP2 mutations can cause a phenotypic variability between patients. This is the first report regarding the spectrum of MECP2 mutation and...

Scientific Reports

The skin undergoes the formation of fine lines and wrinkles through the aging process; also, burn... more The skin undergoes the formation of fine lines and wrinkles through the aging process; also, burns, trauma, and other similar circumstances give rise to various forms of skin ulcers. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have become promising candidates for skin healing and rejuvenation due to not stimulating inflammatory responses, low probability of immune rejection, high metabolic activity, good large-scale production capacity and potentials for personalized medicine. iPSCs can secrete microvesicles (MVs) containing RNA and proteins responsible for the normal repairing process of the skin. This study aimed to evaluate the possibility, safety and effectiveness of applying iPSCs-derived MVs for skin tissue engineering and rejuvenation applications. The possibility was assessed using the evaluation of the mRNA content of iPSC-derived MVs and the behavior of fibroblasts after MV treatment. Investigating the effect of microvesicle on stemness potential of mesenchymal stem cells was p...

Background Over the past years, the applications of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) grow rapidly in... more Background Over the past years, the applications of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) grow rapidly in medicine as a promising option for regenerative medicine. So, increasing demands for MSCs and their derivations as cell-based drugs in the market are anticipated. One of the major challenges in MSC therapy is possible alterations in the stemness potential of MSCs during in vitro culture and proliferation. Microvesicles (MVs) reflect the transcriptional status of cells of origin. This study aimed to investigate the impact of 2D culture on stemness characteristics of MSCs by focusing on transcriptome in shed MVs.Methods and Results MVs were isolated from rat bone marrow MSCs using ultracentrifugation. Transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering were applied to characterizing MVs. Then, some markers related to stemness and differentiation were evaluated in shed MVs during 10-day culture. Meanwhile the cell proliferation and apoptosis were assessed in cultured MSCs. Based ...

Journal of Cellular Physiology, 2020

ATEFEH RAZAZAN AND JAVAD BEHRAVAN Single peptides and combination modalities for triple negative ... more ATEFEH RAZAZAN AND JAVAD BEHRAVAN Single peptides and combination modalities for triple negative breast cancer 4109 ZIYING ZHU , QIAN HOU , MEIRONG LI , AND XIAOBING FU Molecular mechanism of myofibroblast formation and strategies for clinical drugs treatments in hypertrophic scars 4120 NAVID SHOMALI , TOHID GHARIBI , GHASEM VAHEDI , REBAR N. MOHAMMED , HAMED MOHAMMADI , SEVDA SALIMIFARD AND FAROOGH MAROFI Mesenchymal stem cells as carrier of the therapeutic agent in the gene therapy of blood disorders 4135 MILAD ASHRAFIZADEH , ZAHRA AHMADI , TAHEREH FARKHONDEH , AND SAEED SAMARGHANDIAN Resveratrol targeting the Wnt signaling pathway: A focus on therapeutic activities 4146

Journal of Biomaterials Applications

The developing fetus is wrapped by a human amniotic membrane or amnion. Amnion is a promising hum... more The developing fetus is wrapped by a human amniotic membrane or amnion. Amnion is a promising human tissue allograft in clinical application because of its chemical composition, collagen-based, and mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix. In addition, amnion contains cells and growth factors; therefore, meets the essential parameters of tissue engineering. No donor morbidity, easy processing and storage, fewer ethical issue, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, and non-immunogenic properties are other advantages of amnion usage. For these reasons, amnion can resolve some bottlenecks in the regenerative medicine issues such as tissue engineering and cell therapy. Over the last decades, biomedical applications of amnion have evolved from a simple sheet for skin or cornea repair to high-technology applications such as amnion nanocomposite, powder, or hydrogel for the regeneration of cartilage, muscle, tendon, and heart. Furthermore, amnion has anticancer as well as ...

Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin

Purpose: Non-viral transfection approaches are extensively used in cancer therapy. The future of ... more Purpose: Non-viral transfection approaches are extensively used in cancer therapy. The future of cancer therapy lies on targeted and efficient drug/gene delivery. The aim of this study was to determine the transfection yields of two commercially available transfection reagents (i.e. Lipofectamine 2000, as a cationic lipid and PAMAM G5, as a cationic dendrimer) in two breast cell lines: cancerous cells (T47D) and non-cancerous ones (MCF-10A). Methods: We investigated the efficiencies of Lipofectamine 2000 and PAMAM G5 for transfection/delivery of a labeled short RNA into T47D and MCF-10A. In addition to microscopic assessments, the cellular uptakes of the complexes (fluorescein tagged-scrambled RNA with Lipofectamine or PAMAM dendrimer) were quantified by flow cytometry. Furthermore, the safety of the mentioned reagents was assessed by measuring cell necrosis through the cellular PI uptake. Results: Our results showed significantly better efficiencies of Lipofectamine compared to PAM...

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Current medicinal chemistry, 2021

Cancer, as a remaining challenging medical problem, affects millions of people around the world. ... more Cancer, as a remaining challenging medical problem, affects millions of people around the world. Cancer cell resistance is one of the main drawbacks in the complete prosperity of even more sophisticated therapies. Pore-forming peptides (PFPs), a group of natural defense system's proteins used by nearly whole living organisms as antibacterial and antifungal agents, could also be regarded as novel tumoricidal peptides. PFPs approach entails the use of soluble peptides by assembling on mainly target cell membrane and forming potential death-causing pores. Physical damage induction by natural PFPs or their synthetic derivatives could conquer the resistance mechanisms of tumor cells. Given that peptide drugs involve a significant proportion of the pharmaceutical market primarily because of easy synthesis and safety, evaluation of this nature provided model system as a group of anticancer peptides seems a valuable approach. Here, the mode of action of PFPs and their anticancer mechani...

Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin

Silibinin is an herbal polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study,... more Silibinin is an herbal polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study, its influence on U-CH2 (human sacral chordoma cell line) and MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma cell line) cells was investigated and compared. We analyzed real-time cell viability by xCELLigence system. It was found that the cytotoxic effect of silibinin began about 10 hours after administration. Silibinin differentially influenced MCF-7 and U-CH2 cells and caused decrease in the cell index value of MCF-7 cells more than U-CH2 cells (more than 2 times) at 24 h. This suggests that silibinin is a promising drug for breast cancer but less favorable for chordoma.

Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 2016

Silibinin is a natural polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study,... more Silibinin is a natural polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study, its influence on two of the most commonly employed human breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and T47D, and one non-malignant MCF-10A cell line, were investigated and compared. Cell viability, the cell cycle distribution and apoptosis induction were analyzed by MTT and flow cytometry, respectively. The effect of silibinin on PTEN, Bcl-2, P21, and P27 mRNAs expression was also investigated by real-time RT-PCR. It was found that silibinin caused G1 cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 and MCF-10A cells but had no effect on the T47D cell cycle. Silibinin induced cytotoxic and apoptotic effects in T47D cells more than the MCF-7 cells and had no cytotoxic effect in MCF-10A cells under the same conditions. Silibinin upregulated PTEN in MCF-7 and caused slightly increased P21 mRNA expression in T47D cells and slightly increased PTEN and P21 expression in MCF-10A cells. Bcl-2 expression decreased in all of th...

Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP, 2016

Silibinin is a natural polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study,... more Silibinin is a natural polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study, its influence on two of the most commonly employed human breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and T47D, and one non-malignant MCF-10A cell line, were investigated and compared. Cell viability, the cell cycle distribution and apoptosis induction were analyzed by MTT and flow cytometry, respectively. The effect of silibinin on PTEN, Bcl-2, P21, and P27 mRNAs expression was also investigated by real-time RT-PCR. It was found that silibinin caused G1 cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 and MCF-10A cells but had no effect on the T47D cell cycle. Silibinin induced cytotoxic and apoptotic effects in T47D cells more than the MCF-7 cells and had no cytotoxic effect in MCF-10A cells under the same conditions. Silibinin upregulated PTEN in MCF-7 and caused slightly increased P21 mRNA expression in T47D cells and slightly increased PTEN and P21 expression in MCF-10A cells. Bcl-2 expression decreased in all of th...

scientific journal of ilam university of medical sciences, 2014

Despite advances in diagnosis and therapy, cancer is still the leading cause of death worldwide. ... more Despite advances in diagnosis and therapy, cancer is still the leading cause of death worldwide. Beside the genetic and environmental factors, epigenetic factors also contribute to the etiology of cancer. More recently, a new class of small non-coding RNAs called microRNAs (miRs or miRNAs) has been linked to several human diseases, including cancer. MicroRNAs are involved in eukaryotic gene regulation, either by translational inhibition or exonucleolytic mRNA decay, targeted through imperfect complementarity between the microRNA and the 3′untranslated region (3′-UTR) of the mRNA. Considering the potential of microRNAs in targeting many of human mRNA, these classes of 19-25 oligonucleotides are involved in almost every biological process, including cell cycle regulation, cell growth, apoptosis, cell differentiation and stress response. Growing evidence suggests that microRNAs have a vital role in cancer biology and recent studies have confirmed the oncogenic or tumour suppression rol...

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by periodic p... more Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by periodic provocative attacks of fever with peritonitis, pleuritis, arthritis, or eriseplemya. Tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) plays an important role in the regulation of the immune response as a part of the cytokine network, including activation of macrophages and apoptosis. We investigated the possible association of TNF-a promoter 1031T/C and 308G/A polymorphisms in 86 FMF patients carrying M694 V homozygous mutation and 100 matched healthy controls both from Iranian Azeri Turks. Our data showed that patients with TNF-a 308 GG are more susceptible to the development of amyloidosis and arthritis (P value <.05). These data also showed that the frequency of TNF-a 308 A allele is considerably low among patients with amyloidosis, and it may have protective role among them (odds ratio [OR]1⁄4 0.083, w1⁄4 5.46, P value1⁄4 .003). Further evaluation of this polymorphism may be important and need furt...

Infection, Genetics and Evolution

Neurology Asia

Rett syndrome is an X-linked dominant neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs mostly in females. ... more Rett syndrome is an X-linked dominant neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs mostly in females. De novo mutations in the MECP2 gene have an important role in the appearance of the features of this syndrome. We planned to study spectrum of MECP2 mutations in Rett syndrome patients and their clinical symptoms. A cohort of 29 patients referred by neurologists from Iranian Azeri Turks was screened. Then direct sequencing was utilized to characterize the spectrum of mutations in the MECP2 gene in Rett syndrome patients. A total of 10 different mutations on MECP2 gene were detected in 22 patients. We identified 2 (9%) frameshift, 10 (45.64%) nonsense, 8 (36.4%) missense mutations, and 2(9%) large deletions. In this cohort, one of the detected deletions was novel, namely 1023-1096del74nt. Random X chromosome inactivation in females’ cells and different MECP2 mutations can cause a phenotypic variability between patients. This is the first report regarding the spectrum of MECP2 mutation and...

Scientific Reports

The skin undergoes the formation of fine lines and wrinkles through the aging process; also, burn... more The skin undergoes the formation of fine lines and wrinkles through the aging process; also, burns, trauma, and other similar circumstances give rise to various forms of skin ulcers. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have become promising candidates for skin healing and rejuvenation due to not stimulating inflammatory responses, low probability of immune rejection, high metabolic activity, good large-scale production capacity and potentials for personalized medicine. iPSCs can secrete microvesicles (MVs) containing RNA and proteins responsible for the normal repairing process of the skin. This study aimed to evaluate the possibility, safety and effectiveness of applying iPSCs-derived MVs for skin tissue engineering and rejuvenation applications. The possibility was assessed using the evaluation of the mRNA content of iPSC-derived MVs and the behavior of fibroblasts after MV treatment. Investigating the effect of microvesicle on stemness potential of mesenchymal stem cells was p...

Background Over the past years, the applications of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) grow rapidly in... more Background Over the past years, the applications of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) grow rapidly in medicine as a promising option for regenerative medicine. So, increasing demands for MSCs and their derivations as cell-based drugs in the market are anticipated. One of the major challenges in MSC therapy is possible alterations in the stemness potential of MSCs during in vitro culture and proliferation. Microvesicles (MVs) reflect the transcriptional status of cells of origin. This study aimed to investigate the impact of 2D culture on stemness characteristics of MSCs by focusing on transcriptome in shed MVs.Methods and Results MVs were isolated from rat bone marrow MSCs using ultracentrifugation. Transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering were applied to characterizing MVs. Then, some markers related to stemness and differentiation were evaluated in shed MVs during 10-day culture. Meanwhile the cell proliferation and apoptosis were assessed in cultured MSCs. Based ...

Journal of Cellular Physiology, 2020

ATEFEH RAZAZAN AND JAVAD BEHRAVAN Single peptides and combination modalities for triple negative ... more ATEFEH RAZAZAN AND JAVAD BEHRAVAN Single peptides and combination modalities for triple negative breast cancer 4109 ZIYING ZHU , QIAN HOU , MEIRONG LI , AND XIAOBING FU Molecular mechanism of myofibroblast formation and strategies for clinical drugs treatments in hypertrophic scars 4120 NAVID SHOMALI , TOHID GHARIBI , GHASEM VAHEDI , REBAR N. MOHAMMED , HAMED MOHAMMADI , SEVDA SALIMIFARD AND FAROOGH MAROFI Mesenchymal stem cells as carrier of the therapeutic agent in the gene therapy of blood disorders 4135 MILAD ASHRAFIZADEH , ZAHRA AHMADI , TAHEREH FARKHONDEH , AND SAEED SAMARGHANDIAN Resveratrol targeting the Wnt signaling pathway: A focus on therapeutic activities 4146

Journal of Biomaterials Applications

The developing fetus is wrapped by a human amniotic membrane or amnion. Amnion is a promising hum... more The developing fetus is wrapped by a human amniotic membrane or amnion. Amnion is a promising human tissue allograft in clinical application because of its chemical composition, collagen-based, and mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix. In addition, amnion contains cells and growth factors; therefore, meets the essential parameters of tissue engineering. No donor morbidity, easy processing and storage, fewer ethical issue, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, and non-immunogenic properties are other advantages of amnion usage. For these reasons, amnion can resolve some bottlenecks in the regenerative medicine issues such as tissue engineering and cell therapy. Over the last decades, biomedical applications of amnion have evolved from a simple sheet for skin or cornea repair to high-technology applications such as amnion nanocomposite, powder, or hydrogel for the regeneration of cartilage, muscle, tendon, and heart. Furthermore, amnion has anticancer as well as ...

Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin

Purpose: Non-viral transfection approaches are extensively used in cancer therapy. The future of ... more Purpose: Non-viral transfection approaches are extensively used in cancer therapy. The future of cancer therapy lies on targeted and efficient drug/gene delivery. The aim of this study was to determine the transfection yields of two commercially available transfection reagents (i.e. Lipofectamine 2000, as a cationic lipid and PAMAM G5, as a cationic dendrimer) in two breast cell lines: cancerous cells (T47D) and non-cancerous ones (MCF-10A). Methods: We investigated the efficiencies of Lipofectamine 2000 and PAMAM G5 for transfection/delivery of a labeled short RNA into T47D and MCF-10A. In addition to microscopic assessments, the cellular uptakes of the complexes (fluorescein tagged-scrambled RNA with Lipofectamine or PAMAM dendrimer) were quantified by flow cytometry. Furthermore, the safety of the mentioned reagents was assessed by measuring cell necrosis through the cellular PI uptake. Results: Our results showed significantly better efficiencies of Lipofectamine compared to PAM...

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Current medicinal chemistry, 2021

Cancer, as a remaining challenging medical problem, affects millions of people around the world. ... more Cancer, as a remaining challenging medical problem, affects millions of people around the world. Cancer cell resistance is one of the main drawbacks in the complete prosperity of even more sophisticated therapies. Pore-forming peptides (PFPs), a group of natural defense system's proteins used by nearly whole living organisms as antibacterial and antifungal agents, could also be regarded as novel tumoricidal peptides. PFPs approach entails the use of soluble peptides by assembling on mainly target cell membrane and forming potential death-causing pores. Physical damage induction by natural PFPs or their synthetic derivatives could conquer the resistance mechanisms of tumor cells. Given that peptide drugs involve a significant proportion of the pharmaceutical market primarily because of easy synthesis and safety, evaluation of this nature provided model system as a group of anticancer peptides seems a valuable approach. Here, the mode of action of PFPs and their anticancer mechani...

Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin

Silibinin is an herbal polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study,... more Silibinin is an herbal polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study, its influence on U-CH2 (human sacral chordoma cell line) and MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma cell line) cells was investigated and compared. We analyzed real-time cell viability by xCELLigence system. It was found that the cytotoxic effect of silibinin began about 10 hours after administration. Silibinin differentially influenced MCF-7 and U-CH2 cells and caused decrease in the cell index value of MCF-7 cells more than U-CH2 cells (more than 2 times) at 24 h. This suggests that silibinin is a promising drug for breast cancer but less favorable for chordoma.

Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 2016

Silibinin is a natural polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study,... more Silibinin is a natural polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study, its influence on two of the most commonly employed human breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and T47D, and one non-malignant MCF-10A cell line, were investigated and compared. Cell viability, the cell cycle distribution and apoptosis induction were analyzed by MTT and flow cytometry, respectively. The effect of silibinin on PTEN, Bcl-2, P21, and P27 mRNAs expression was also investigated by real-time RT-PCR. It was found that silibinin caused G1 cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 and MCF-10A cells but had no effect on the T47D cell cycle. Silibinin induced cytotoxic and apoptotic effects in T47D cells more than the MCF-7 cells and had no cytotoxic effect in MCF-10A cells under the same conditions. Silibinin upregulated PTEN in MCF-7 and caused slightly increased P21 mRNA expression in T47D cells and slightly increased PTEN and P21 expression in MCF-10A cells. Bcl-2 expression decreased in all of th...

Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP, 2016

Silibinin is a natural polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study,... more Silibinin is a natural polyphenol with high antioxidant and anticancer properties. In this study, its influence on two of the most commonly employed human breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and T47D, and one non-malignant MCF-10A cell line, were investigated and compared. Cell viability, the cell cycle distribution and apoptosis induction were analyzed by MTT and flow cytometry, respectively. The effect of silibinin on PTEN, Bcl-2, P21, and P27 mRNAs expression was also investigated by real-time RT-PCR. It was found that silibinin caused G1 cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 and MCF-10A cells but had no effect on the T47D cell cycle. Silibinin induced cytotoxic and apoptotic effects in T47D cells more than the MCF-7 cells and had no cytotoxic effect in MCF-10A cells under the same conditions. Silibinin upregulated PTEN in MCF-7 and caused slightly increased P21 mRNA expression in T47D cells and slightly increased PTEN and P21 expression in MCF-10A cells. Bcl-2 expression decreased in all of th...

scientific journal of ilam university of medical sciences, 2014

Despite advances in diagnosis and therapy, cancer is still the leading cause of death worldwide. ... more Despite advances in diagnosis and therapy, cancer is still the leading cause of death worldwide. Beside the genetic and environmental factors, epigenetic factors also contribute to the etiology of cancer. More recently, a new class of small non-coding RNAs called microRNAs (miRs or miRNAs) has been linked to several human diseases, including cancer. MicroRNAs are involved in eukaryotic gene regulation, either by translational inhibition or exonucleolytic mRNA decay, targeted through imperfect complementarity between the microRNA and the 3′untranslated region (3′-UTR) of the mRNA. Considering the potential of microRNAs in targeting many of human mRNA, these classes of 19-25 oligonucleotides are involved in almost every biological process, including cell cycle regulation, cell growth, apoptosis, cell differentiation and stress response. Growing evidence suggests that microRNAs have a vital role in cancer biology and recent studies have confirmed the oncogenic or tumour suppression rol...

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by periodic p... more Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by periodic provocative attacks of fever with peritonitis, pleuritis, arthritis, or eriseplemya. Tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) plays an important role in the regulation of the immune response as a part of the cytokine network, including activation of macrophages and apoptosis. We investigated the possible association of TNF-a promoter 1031T/C and 308G/A polymorphisms in 86 FMF patients carrying M694 V homozygous mutation and 100 matched healthy controls both from Iranian Azeri Turks. Our data showed that patients with TNF-a 308 GG are more susceptible to the development of amyloidosis and arthritis (P value <.05). These data also showed that the frequency of TNF-a 308 A allele is considerably low among patients with amyloidosis, and it may have protective role among them (odds ratio [OR]1⁄4 0.083, w1⁄4 5.46, P value1⁄4 .003). Further evaluation of this polymorphism may be important and need furt...

Infection, Genetics and Evolution