ROLE OF INTERMEDIARY BIOMARKERS IN DETERMINING THE ANTICANCER EFFICACY OF MARINE COMPOUNDS

In the present study, two of the probable an umor marine compounds, manzamine A and sarcophine, were screened using benzo[a]pyrene (BP)-derived DNA adduct formation in MCF-7 cells as intermediary biomarker. Briefly, MCF-7 cells were treated with the compounds for 24 h followed by treatment with BP (0.5 μM). After 24h incubation, cellular DNA was isolated and analyzed for BP-derived DNA adducts by ³²P-postlabeling technique. Manzamine A and sarcophine increased the BP-DNA adducts by 2 to 4-folds. Further, manzamine A (50 μM) substantially down regulated the expression of p53 while sarcophine (50 μM) slightly induced the level of p21. The residual DNA repair ability was almost completely abolished by manzamine A while sarcophine was ineffective. Based on our preliminary results, these compounds may be classified as potential genotoxic.     

Severe pulmonary hemorrhage in a 3‐week‐old neonate with COVID‐19 infection: A case report

Our patient is a 3‐week‐old female neonate, presented with complaints of low‐grade fever and a congested nose for one day. Eventually, she developed progressive desaturation, hypotension, and poor perfusion due to severe pulmonary hemorrhage. Then, she developed cardiac arrest and was declared dead.     

Long-Term Effect of Gluten-Free Diets on Nutritional Status,Body Composition,and Associated Factors in Adult Saudi Females with Celiac Disease

This cross-sectional study examines the influence of long-term gluten-free diet (GFD) consumption on nutritional status, body composition, and associated factors in adult Saudi females with celiac diseases (CD). Fifty-one patients who have been diagnosed with CD and have been on GFD for more than 1 year were included in this study where data regarding their dietary pattern, as well as a complete analysis of their anthropometric parameters, vitamins B12 and D levels, and complete blood count (CBC), were collected. Data have shown that all included patients showed a reduced intake in all micro and macro-nutrients, as well as vitamin D, folate, calcium, and iron. However, the vast majority of all measured hematological parameters and blood indices were within the expected reference range. In addition, 51%, 43.1%, and 60.8% of the patients showed low waist/hip ratio (WHR), decreased level of total body fat (BF), and decreased level of visceral fat (VF), respectively, whereas 33.3% were slim. The poor educational level and some psychosocial factors were associated with the poor nutritional status of the patients. In conclusion, the GFD-dependent intake by female patients with CD adversely affects their nutritional intake and anthropometric indices and leads to a deficiency in major nutrients, vitamins, and ions.     

Optimized 2-methoxyestradiol invasomes fortified with apamin: a promising approach for suppression of A549 lung cancer cells

Certain anticancer agents selectively target the nucleus of cancer cells. One such drug is 2-methoxyestradiol (2ME), which is used for treating lung cancer. To improve the therapeutic effectiveness of these agents, many new methods have been devised. 2ME was entrapped into the core of hydrophobic invasomes (INVA) covered with Phospholipon 90G and apamin (APA). The Box–Behnken statistical design was implemented to enhance the composition. Using Design-Expert software (Stat-Ease Inc., Minneapolis, MN), the INVA component quantities were optimized to obtain spherical particles with the smallest size, that is, a diameter of 167.8 nm. 2ME-INVA-APA significantly inhibited A549 cells and exhibited IC₅₀ of 1.15 ± 0.04 µg/mL, which is lower than raw 2ME (IC₅₀ 5.6 ± 0.2 µg/mL). Post 2ME-INVA-APA administration, a significant rise in cell death and necrosis was seen among the A549 cells compared to those treated with plain formula or 2ME alone. This effect was indicated by increased Bax expression and reduced Bcl-2 expression, as well as mitochondrial membrane potential loss. Moreover, the cell cycle analysis showed that 2ME-INVA-APA arrests the G2-M phase of the A549 cells. Additionally, it was observed that the micellar formulation of the drug increased the cell count in pre-G1, thereby exhibiting phenomenal apoptotic potential. Furthermore, it up-regulates caspase-9 and p53 and downregulates TNF-α and NF-κβ. Collectively, these findings showed that our optimized 2ME-INVA-APA could easily seep through the cell membrane and induce apoptosis in relatively low doses.     

A Numerical Measurement Method for Dynamic Granular Materials Based on Computer Vision

Granular materials are widespread in nature and human production, and their macro-mechanical behavior is significantly affected by granule movement. The development of computer vision has brought some new ideas for measuring the numerical information (including the amount of translation, the rotation angle, velocity, acceleration, etc.) of dynamic granular materials. In this paper, we propose a numerical measurement method for dynamic granular materials based on computer vision. Firstly, an improved video instance segmentation (VIS) network is introduced to perform end-to-end multi-task learning, and its temporal feature fusion module and tracking head with long-sequence external memory can improve the problems of poor video data quality and high similarity in appearance of granular materials, respectively. Secondly, the numerical information can be extracted through a series of post-processing steps. Finally, the effectiveness of the measurement method is verified by comparing the numerical measurement results with the real values. The experimental results indicate that our improved VIS obtains an average precision (AP) of 76.6, the relative errors and standard deviations are maintained at a low level, and this method can effectively be used to measure the numerical information of dynamic granular materials. This study provides an intelligent proposal for the task of measuring numerical information of dynamic granular materials, which is of great significance for studying the spatial distribution, motion mode and macro-mechanical behavior of granular materials.     

Hemangioma of the maxillary sinus: A benign and rare cause of epistaxis

Hemangioma of the facial sinuses is a rare pathology, and given the lack of clinical specificity, the differential diagnosis with a malignant lesion often arises. We report the case of a 32-year-old patient who consulted for recurrent epistaxis of moderate severity. The preoperative diagnosis of a hemangioma of the left maxillary sinus was based on computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging data, confirmed by the anatomopathological study of the surgical specimen, preceded by an embolization that facilitated the endoscopic surgical excision.     

Beneficial effects of clopidogrel on glycemic indices and oxidative stress in patients with type 2 diabetes

Objective of present study is to evaluate the possible role of clopidogrel in improving glycemic indices and oxidative stress in patients with type 2 diabetes.This study was performed on 42 uncontrolled type 2 diabetic patients at the specialized center for Endocrinology and Diabetes, Al-Rasafa Directorate of Health, Baghdad. All of the patients were treated with (glibenclamide 5 mg at morning) and randomized into two groups: the first group includes 22 patients treated with clopidogrel tablets (75 mg/day) for 2 months; the second group includes 20 patients treated with a placebo formula (sodium bicarbonate 200 mg/day) for the same period. Treatment with clopidogrel produced significant improvement (P < 0.05) in fasting serum glucose (FSG), fasting serum insulin level, quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI); and oxidative stress markers: serum malondialdehyde (MDA) and serum reduced glutathione (GSH) compared to their baseline levels. There was significant elevation (P < 0.05) in both FSG and fasting serum insulin and the MDA level with significant reduction (P < 0.05) in QUICKI of placebo group compared to their baseline levels. However, clopidogrel produced significant elevation (P < 0.05) in AST and ALT levels but placebo formula caused no significant alteration (P > 0.05) in the serum levels of these two enzymes.In conclusion the treatment with clopidogrel improved glycemic indices and reduced oxidative stress in patients with type 2 diabetes.     

Introduction of cadmium chloride additive to improve the performance and stability of perovskite solar cells

With the increase in the importance of using green energy sources to meet the world''s energy demands, attempts have been made to push perovskite solar cell technology toward industrialization all around the world. Improving the properties of perovskite materials as the heart of PSCs is one of the methods to fabricate favorable photovoltaic (PV) solar cells based on perovskites. Here, cadmium chloride (CdCl₂) was used as an additive source for the perovskite precursor to improve its PV properties. Results indicated CdCl₂ improves the perovskite growth and tailors its crystalline properties, suggesting boosted charge transport processes in the bulk and interfaces of the perovskite layer with electron–hole transport layers. Overall, by incorporation of 1.0% into the MAPbI₃ layer, a maximum power conversion efficiency of 15.28% was recorded for perovskite-based solar cells, higher than the 12.17% for the control devices. The developed method not only improved the PV performance of devices but also boosted the stability behavior of solar cells due to the passivated domain boundaries and enhanced hydrophobicity in the CdCl₂-based devices.

With the increase in the importance of using green energy sources to meet the world''s energy demands, attempts have been made to push perovskite solar cell technology toward industrialization all around the world.     

Evaluation of the Effect of the Loading Time on the Microtensile Bond Strength of Various Restorative Materials Bonded to Silver Diamine Fluoride-Treated Demineralized Dentin

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of immediate versus delayed loading times on the microtensile bond strength (μTBS) of restorative materials, including resin-based composite (RBC), resin-modified glass ionomer cement (RMGIC) and glass ionomer cement (GIC), that were bonded to silver diamine fluoride (SDF)-treated demineralized dentin. Ninety caries-free extracted premolar teeth were assigned to three groups (n = 30) loaded with RBC, RMGIC and GIC restorative materials. Each group was further divided into three subgroups (n = 10): subgroup A (control specimens), immediate loading of the restorative material on sound dentin; subgroup B, demineralized dentin, SDF treatment and immediate loading of the restorative material; and subgroup C, demineralized dentin, SDF treatment and restorative material loading a week later. One-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post-hoc tests were performed to compare the μTBS values. The RBC exhibited the highest µTBS, followed by RMGIC and GIC. Multiple comparisons showed an increase in the µTBS in the delayed loading groups irrespective of the restorative material used. The majority of the failure modes were adhesive. Delayed loading of RMGIC for 1 week after SDF application showed significantly higher µTBS than that of immediate loading.