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  Background and Objectives : Familial Mediterranean Fever, an autosomal recessive disorder, is the most common and well known periodical fevers syndrome. Disease is mainly prevalent among non-Ashkenazi Jews, Arabs, Turks and Armenia. According to the geographical location of North-West of Iran, neighboring with two high risk FMF population (Turkey and Armenia), the prevalence of FMF in this region of Iran is not unlikely. The aim of this study was to estimate the carriers rate of FMF common mutations in healthy control people. Results can be potentially useful to estimate prevalence of disease.

  Methods : Randomly 200 samples from healthy people [non-FMF] from North-West of Iran selected. After taking consent, DNA was extracted from blood samples of these groups. Then mutations were evaluated using ARMS-PCR and RFLP-PCR techniques.

  Results : from 400 studied alleles, 44 and 7 mutant alleles were found for E148Q and V726A respectively. For 2 other mutations, no mutant alleles were found. The total allelic frequency for these four common mutations was 0.132. The carriers rate was 23.4%.

  Conclusion : This study showed that E148Q has high mutation frequency relative to other mutations in North-West of Iran.

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  Introduction and objective: Dicrocoelium dendriticum is a worldwide spread parasite of liver, bile ducts and gallbladder of especially ruminants and humans as well. Identification of specific antigens is useful for early diagnosis of the infection. The goal of this study was the isolation and identification of excretory-secretory and somatic antigens from D. dendriticum by sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)-PAGE and evaluation of humoral immune response against these antigens.

  Methods: The parasites were collected and washed by phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and supplemented by antibiotic for several times. For preparing somatic antigens, parasites were sonicated and centrifuged prior to collect supernatant. For preparing excretory-secretory antigens the viable parasites were transferred to the sterile medium. The samples were centrifuged and supernatants were collected. The sera of infected sheep with different infection degrees were collected too. Somatic and excretory-secretory proteins were isolated with SDS PAGE and stained with coomassie blue. Immunogenicity properties of the resulting proteins were determined using western blot analysis.

  Results: The total extract of somatic antigens analyzed by SDS-PAGE revealed 21 proteins. In mild infection, bands of 130 KDa were immune dominant. In moderate infections 48, 80 and 130 KDa and in heavy infections 48, 60, 80, 130 KDa were detected as immune dominant bands. In excretory- secretory antigens seven bands of protein were detected. In mild infection 130 KDa, in moderate infection 100, 120 and 130 KDa and in heavy infection 45, 80, 85, 100, 120 and 130 KDa were immune dominant bands.

  Conclusion: Probably the most immunogenic protein band during different degrees of infection was 130KDa that can be used for vaccination and inducing immunity.

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Background & objectives: Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) is defined by two or more consecutive miscarriages before 20 weeks of gestation. Adenosine deaminase (ADA) is an enzyme of purine salvage pathway and has two important isoenzymes ADA1 and ADA2. The adenosine deaminase G22A polymorphism (ADA*2) increases the level of adenosine. Adenosine may play a protective role against recurrent spontaneous abortions, since it regulates blood flow into the uterus and placenta. In consideration of the effect of decreased enzymatic activity of adenosine deaminase G22A polymorphism on adenosine levels we evaluated the protective effect of ADA*2 allele against recurrent spontaneous abortions in north-west of Iran. 

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Background & objectives: MEFV gene has a major role in Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) as an auto-inflammatory disorder. FMF is most often seen in the people of the Mediterranean area. Considering the significant role of the MEFV gene in many rheumatologic diseases and even non-rheumatologic disorders, it is necessary to identify different variations of these mutations in the healthy and normal population of this area.
Methods: 224 healthy people entered into this study. The blood samples were screened for the 12 most common MEFV gene variants according to manufacturer’s instructions. (FMF Strip Assay, Vienna lab, Vienna, Austria)
They filled a questionnaire containing the required information. All patients were initially evaluated for the FMF symptoms and signs in themselves and their first-degree relatives based on clinical criteria. Chi-squared test and t-test were employed for statistical analysis using SPSS ver.24.  
Results: Among 224 cases, 113 cases (50.4%) were male, and 111 cases (49.6%) were female. MEFV mutations were detected in 57 patients (25%) of them, 28 cases were male (49.1%) and 29 cases were female (50.9%). The most frequent mutations were E148Q (18.3%, 41cases), followed by P369S (3.1%, 7 cases), V726A (2.2%, 5cases), A744S (1.3%, 3cases), F479L, M694V and R761H (0.8%, each 2 cases), and eventually K695R (0.4%) respectively. Some mutations such as M694I, M680I (G/C), M680I (G/A), I692del were not seen in these samples. There were compound heterozygous mutations of E148Q/P369S, E148Q/V726A, E148Q/P369S, and P369S / F479L in normal population without any findings in favor of FMF.
Conclusion: Twenty-five percent of the normal population of the northwest of Iran carrying a heterozygous variant of the MEFV gene, E148Q (18.3%) as a most common mutation, which can be considered as a normal variant in the healthy population. The presence of M694I, M680I (G/C), M680I (G/A) and I692del mutations in the normal population can be interpreted with cautiously, while particular compound heterozygous mutations can be considered as normal variants.
 

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Background & Objectives: Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the world and Ardabil province is in the top ranks in the world. MicroRNAs are non-coding RNA molecules with a length of 18 to 21 nucleotides and due to their regulatory role in post- transcriptional gene expression; single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) could affect their function on target genes regulation.
Methods: Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood of 150 healthy volunteers, which were born and living in Ardabil province, 30 SNPs in microRNA genes have been detected by the Whole Exome Sequencing assay. Then, the obtained results were evaluated using Sanger-based PCR-Sequencing method. The Pearson correlation test was used for finding significant relationships.
Results: After confirming the WES results, the population frequency of the selected variants was compared with the general populations of Iran, Europe and the world. Based on the age-standardized rate (ASR), six variants with significant differences, including rs10061133, rs12220909, rs12983273, rs2292832, rs2505901 and rs6505162 were observed.
Conclusion: According to the previous case-control studies which indicate the association between the variants rs10061133, rs12220909, rs12983273, rs2505901, and rs6505162 and gastric carcinogenesis in various populations, the observed significant differences in our population could imply on the presence of the cancer susceptibility in Ardabil province.