Background: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the world. Noncoding RNA especially miRNAs have important regulatory roles in cancer. miRNAs are small non coding RNA 21-23 nucleotides long which have different levels of expression between tumors and normal tissues. This study was designed to compare expression level of miRNA-21 between Iranian population colorectal cancer tissues and normal tissue.Methods: This case-control study has performed in medical genetics department of Tehran University of Medical Sciences from January to November 2013. We used 35 samples. The samples were isolated from tumor and adjacent normal tissues of colon.Thirty-five samples were divided into different groups according to cliniopathologic features including tumor size (>4 and<4 cm), metastasis (+ and -) and stage. After small RNA extraction from tissues by small RNA purification kit the quality and quantity of extracted RNA was determined using spectrophotometry. cDNAs were synthesized and real-time polymerase chain reaction carried out. Finally expression levels were statistically analyzed by LinRegPCR and REST software.Results: miRNA-21 expression ratio in stages I, II and III were 1.804 and 4.574, respectively, the increase from stage III was statistically significant (P=0.037). The expression were also studied according to different clinicopathologic status of colon cancer, tumor size (>4 and <4 cm) and metastatic (+ and -), miRNA-21 over expressed in both groups, however the increase was not statistically significant.Conclusion: In this study, we found miR-21 over-expression in advanced stage in tumoral tissue comparing with normal adjacent tissue. This means perhaps in the future it would be possible to use miRNA-21 as an informative prognostic biomarker to guide for better treatment strategies for colorectal cancer patients. Our findings also indicate that miRNA-21 is a promising new molecular target for designing novel therapeutic strategies to control colorectal cancer.

Introduction: VZV (Varicella Zoster Virus) is classified as a member of the Herpesviridae family and Alphaherpesvirinae subfamily. It is the etiologic agent of two distinct clinical diseases: Chickenpox (Varicella) and shingles (Zoster). During infection, the VZV proteins are expressed in a cascade regulated manner. Immediate-early (lE) gene products are transactivators that regulate the expression of early (E) and late (L) genes. The lE genes include ORFs: 4, 61, 62 and 63. The E gene product p29 is a DNA- inding protein also known to regulate the activity of a late gene, ORF67, the product of which is glycoprotein I (gp I). The objective of this investigation was to monitor the ability of the promoter of another late gene (ORF 14) to respond to the transregulatory activity of p29.Materials & Methods: For this purpose, primers were designed to amplify by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which is the promoter region of ORF14 and ORF67 (as control). The PCR products were subsequently cloned in a reporter vector containing the lacZ coding sequence. After Maxi-preparation of plasmids in Transient expression Assays, these plasmids were individually used to co transfect Huh7 and Mewo human cell lines and Vero cell line along with other plasmids which contained gene expressing transacivatory proteins.Results: Considering the system's sensitivity and positive control, it seems ORF 14 gene expression is different in three cell lines. Thus, the role of P29 is proved in Vero cell line to some extent.