Nanotechnology is an evolving field with enormous potential for biomedical applications. The growing interest to use inorganic nanoparticles in medicine is due to the unique size- and shape-dependent ...optoelectronic properties. Herein, we will focus on gold, silver and platinum nanoparticles, discussing recent developments for therapeutic applications with regard to cancer in terms of nanoparticles being used as a delivery vehicle as well as therapeutic agents. We will also discuss some of the key challenges to be addressed in future studies.
By virtue of excellent tissue responses in bone tissue, silicon oxide (silica) based materials have been used for bone tissue engineering. Creating nanoscale porosity within silica based materials ...expands their applications into the realm of controlled release area. This additional benefit of silica based materials widens their application in the orthopedic fields in a major way. This review discusses the various chemical and physical forms of silica based controlled release materials, the release mechanisms, the applications in orthopedic procedures and their overall biocompatibility.
Display omitted
Abstract The incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection has significantly increased. Generally, the success of this bacterium as a pathogen is attributed to its ability ...to adhere to surfaces and remain there, under the protection of an extracellular matrix known as biofilm. To combat MRSA with regular doses of vancomycin, efforts are continuously underway to increase its effectiveness. A promising technique is to use combinational therapeutics. In vitro experiments showed that farnesol can be used as an adjuvant with conventional antibiotics. Farnesol is a natural sesquiterpenoid and quorum-sensing molecule. The biggest obstacle to using this concept is that farnesol is highly water insoluble. This compromises its bioavailability if it were to be used along with vancomycin at the site of infection when the treatment needs to be administered in vivo . Herein we designed an efficient therapeutic strategy for the simultaneous delivery of both antibiotic and adjuvant in order to treat MRSA infections. We demonstrate that sufficient quantities of both vancomycin and farnesol can be incorporated into sol–gel silica applied as thin films on an implant surface. The incorporation of the hydrophobic farnesol does not affect the stability of the thin films and neither does it affect the controlled release of vancomycin. The data demonstrate the potent adjuvant effect of farnesol on vancomycin in inhibiting MRSA infection. In vitro experiments show the complete inhibition (106 fold reduction in growth compared to control) of methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) when the ratio of vancomycin to farnesol in the sol–gel silica films is optimized. The local delivery of antibiotics minimizes the need for systemic antibiotics. The incorporation of vancomycin and farnesol into thin sol–gel films represents a new treatment paradigm for the topical delivery of antibiotics with adjuvant. The potential clinical benefits are significant and include avoiding the need for revision surgery, preventing surgical site infection and controlling healthcare costs.
Antibody and T-cell immunity to conserved influenza virus antigens can protect animals against infection with diverse influenza strains. Although immunity against conserved antigens occurs in humans, ...whether such responses provide cross-protection in humans and could be harnessed as the basis for universal influenza vaccines is controversial. The 2009 pandemic provided an opportunity to investigate whether pre-existing cross-reactive immunity affected susceptibility to infection.
In 2009, we banked sera and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from blood donors, then monitored them for pandemic influenza infection (pH1N1) by polymerase chain reaction or seroconversion. Antibodies to hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), nucleoprotein (NP), matrix 2 (M2), and HA-pseudotypes were measured in sera. T-cell inteferon-γ enzyme-linked immunospot responses were measured in PBMC.
There were 13 infections in 117 evaluable donors. Pre-existing T-cell reactivity to pH1N1 was substantial (of 153 donors tested, 146 had >100 spot-forming cells/10
cells). Antibodies reactive with pH1N1 were common: anti-NP (all donors) and anti-M2 (44% of donors). Pseudotype-neutralizing antibodies to H1 were detected, but not to highly conserved HA epitopes. Unexpectedly, donors with symptomatic pH1N1 infection had sharp rises in HA pseudotype-neutralizing antibodies, not only pH1N1 but also against multiple seasonal H1s. In addition, an exploratory study of a T-cell marker (response to NP
) identified probable infection missed by standard criteria.
Although the number of infections was inadequate for conclusions about mechanisms of protection, this study documents the wide variety of pre-existing, cross-reactive, humoral and cellular immune responses to pandemic influenza virus antigens in humans. These responses can be compared with results of other studies and explored in universal influenza vaccine studies.
Tauopathy is a complex disorder associated at the junction of several other pathologies. Intrinsically disordered tau protein remains therapeutically challenging due to its undruggable nature and is ...a possible reason for monumental failure of several tau‐based therapies. Herein, nanogold remodeled tau is reported as a pseudo‐nanochaperon and shows therapeutic benefit by passive targeting in transgenic tau P301L mutant mice. Treatment with nanogold polyethylene glycol (Au‐PEG) conjugate moderately improves the learning ability of the tau P301L mice that corroborates with diminished phosphorylated tau burden. Circulating total tau level that acts in a prion fashion is significantly reduced upon Au‐PEG treatment. Similarly, a high level of tau is found in macaque monkey serum and Au‐PEG inhibits amyloidosis of Alzheimer's patients and primate's serum samples ex vivo. Addtionally, brain MRI of an old aged macaque monkey shows the decrease of grey matter, which correlates with mutual loss of grey matter upon progressive dementia as reported. Au‐PEG tunes tau and other circulating pro‐dementia factors that are present in human AD serum, by remodeling the protein and repairing aberrant proteostasis. Alteration of proteotoxic tau function by nanogold as a kinetic stablizer holds translational potential to combat socially challenging dementia.
Pathogenic tau triggers tauopathy, which serves as a focal point for many other neurodegenerative diseases. Nanogold polyethylene glycol(Au‐PEG) alters tau as a nanochaperon and lowers protopathic tau burden while also acting as kinetic stabilizer preventing tau oligomerization. Au‐PEG inhibits amyloidosis in human AD serum by remodeling tau‐like pro‐dementia factors. Editing tau function by Au‐PEG brings optimism to managing Alzheimer's dementia.
Abstract
Background
Detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has principally been performed through the use of real-time reverse-transcription polymerase ...chain reaction testing. Results of such tests can be reported as cycle threshold (Ct) values, which may provide semi-quantitative or indirect measurements of viral load. Previous reports have examined temporal trends in Ct values over the course of a SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Methods
Using testing data collected during a prospective household transmission investigation of outpatient and mild coronavirus disease 2019 cases, we examined the relationships between Ct values of the viral RNA N1 target and demographic, clinical, and epidemiological characteristics collected through participant interviews and daily symptom diaries.
Results
We found that Ct values are lowest (corresponding to a higher viral RNA concentration) soon after symptom onset and are significantly correlated with the time elapsed since onset (P < .001); within 7 days after symptom onset, the median Ct value was 26.5, compared with a median Ct value of 35.0 occurring 21 days after onset. Ct values were significantly lower among participants under 18 years of age (P = .01) and those reporting upper respiratory symptoms at the time of sample collection (P = .001), and were higher among participants reporting no symptoms (P = .05).
Conclusions
These results emphasize the importance of early testing for SARS-CoV-2 among individuals with symptoms of respiratory illness, and allow cases to be identified and isolated when their viral shedding may be highest.
The fatal amplification of lung cancer across the globe and the limitations of current treatment strategies emphasize the necessity for substitute therapeutics. The incorporation of phyto-derived ...components in chemo treatment holds promise in addressing those challenges. Despite the significant progressions in lung cancer therapeutics, the complexities of molecular mechanism and pathways underlying this disease remain inadequately understood, necessitating novel biomarker targeting. The Himalayas, abundant in diverse plant varieties with established chemotherapeutic potential, presents a promising avenue for investigating potential cures for lung carcinoma. The vast diversity of phytocompounds herein can be explored for targeting the disease. This review delves into the multifaceted targets of lung cancer and explores the established phytochemicals with their specific molecular targets. It emphasizes comprehending the intricate pathways that govern effective therapeutic interventions for lung cancer. Through this exploration of Himalayan flora, this review seeks to illuminate potential breakthroughs in lung cancer management using natural compounds. The amalgamation of Himalayan plant-derived compounds with cautiously designed combined therapeutic approaches such as nanocarrier-mediated drug delivery and synergistic therapy offers an opportunity to redefine the boundaries of lung cancer treatment by reducing the drug resistance and side effects and enabling an effective targeted delivery of drugs. Furthermore, additional studies are obligatory to understand the possible derivation of natural compounds used in current lung cancer treatment from plant species within the Himalayan region.
In recent times, various machine learning approaches have been widely employed for effective diagnosis and prediction of diseases like cancer, thyroid, Covid-19, etc. Likewise, Alzheimer’s (AD) is ...also one progressive malady that destroys memory and cognitive function over time. Unfortunately, there are no dedicated AI-based solutions for diagnoses of AD to go hand in hand with medical diagnosis, even though multiple factors contribute to the diagnosis, making AI a very viable supplementary diagnostic solution. This paper reports an endeavor to apply various machine learning algorithms like SGD, k-Nearest Neighbors, Logistic Regression, Decision tree, Random Forest, AdaBoost, Neural Network, SVM, and Naïve Bayes on the dataset of affected victims to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. Longitudinal collections of subjects from OASIS dataset have been used for prediction. Moreover, some feature selection and dimension reduction methods like Information Gain, Information Gain Ratio, Gini index, Chi-Squared, and PCA are applied to rank different factors and identify the optimum number of factors from the dataset for disease diagnosis. Furthermore, performance is evaluated of each classifier in terms of ROC-AUC, accuracy, F1 score, recall, and precision as well as included comparative analysis between algorithms. Our study suggests that approximately 90% classification accuracy is observed under top-rated four features CDR, SES, nWBV, and EDUC.
The rhizomes of ginger have been in use in many forms of traditional and alternative medicines. Besides being employed as condiment and flavoring agent, it is used in the treatment of nausea, ...osteoarthritis, muscle pain, menstrual pain, chronic indigestion, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. Ginger rhizome contains volatile oils, phenolic compounds and resins, and characterization studies showed that 6-gingerol, 6-shogaol, and 6-paradol are reported to be the pharmacologically active components. Gingerol is a major chemical constituent found as volatile oil in the rhizomes of ginger. It has several medicinal benefits and used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, nausea, cancer, and diabetes. Many studies have been carried out in various parts of the world to isolate and standardize gingerol for their use as a complementary medicine. The present review summarizes wide range of research studies on gingerol and its pharmacological roles in various metabolic diseases.
Graphical Abstract
Cancer is one of the deadly diseases all over the world which is defined as unregulated growth and division of the cells. Natural remedies, particularly derived from plants, were used to treat a ...range of illnesses for thousands of years, including cancer. Several orchid species have been reported as a cure to treat various types of cancers. Orchids are huge family of flower bearing plants. They are traditionally used in folk medicine for the cure of various infectious diseases and tumour. Many of bioactive compounds isolated from orchid plants such as Dendrobium longicornu Lindl., Dendrobium transparens, Rhyncostylish retusa, Vanda cristata, Anoectochilus formosanus etc. possess anticancer activities via modifying the biotransformation of potential carcinogens by xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes, alteration of hormone synthesis, inhibition of cancer cell proliferation, suppression of protein expression, impede of cell cycle and impairment of cell growth. In actual circumstances active constituents present in orchidaceae family are not so explored. So, in this review we covered the article published till 2022 using different electronic databases PubMed/ MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The present review highlights the orchid plant family and its bioactive constituents with anticancer activity via various signalling pathways, as well as their possible mechanisms of action.
Display omitted
•Cancer is a spectrum of disorders thats can leads to death.•Several orchid plants have been reported to cure various types of cancers.•Many bioactive compounds isolated from orchid plants such as Dendrobium longicornu, Dendrobium transparens, Rhyncostylish retusa, Vanda cristata, Anoectochilus formosanus etc. possess anticancer activities.•They showed anticancer activity against various types of cancer cell line.•In this study, we reviewed several anticancer properties identified in orchid plants via various signalling pathways, as well as their possible mechanisms of action.
PDF
