Intra-tracheal delivery of mesenchymal stem cell-conditioned medium ameliorates pathological changes by inhibiting apoptosis in asthmatic rats

Molecular Biology Reports - Asthma, an inflammatory illness of the lungs, remains the most common long-term disease amongst children. This study tried to elaborate the status of apoptosis in...     

Airborne bacteria and fungi in a wastewater treatment plant: type and characterization of bio-aerosols,emission characterization and mapping

Aerobiologia - Exposure to bioaerosols causes infection, over-sensitivity, respiratory, and lung diseases. This study was conducted at Sanandaj wastewater treatment plant in three seasons of...     

Aryl hydrocarbon‐estrogen alpha receptor‐dependent expression of miR‐206, miR‐27b,and miR‐133a suppress cell proliferation and migration in MCF‐7 cells

The underlying functions of miR‐206, miR‐133a, miR‐27b, and miR‐21, and their link to the estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) signaling pathways remain largely unexplored. In this study, we detect the expression of miR‐206, miR‐133a, miR‐27b, and miR‐21 in MCF‐7 through quantificational real‐time polymerase chain reaction assay along with the activation/inhibition of ERα and AhR receptors. Aside from this, cell proliferation and migration as well as AhR‐dependent CYP1A1 enzyme activity were measured. Here, we found that the forced increased expression of miR‐206, miR‐133a, and miR‐27b were closely associated with the suppression of MCF‐7 cell proliferation and migration. The anti‐proliferative‐metastatic effect of miR‐206, miR‐133a, and miR‐27b was probably mediated by targeting the ERα and AhR signaling pathways. Considered together, our study indicated that the overexpression of miR‐206, miR‐133a, and miR‐27b might be potential biomarkers for prognosis and therapeutic strategies in breast cancer.     

Air quality modeling for health risk assessment of ambient PM10, PM2.5 and SO2 in Iran

In this study, we have estimated the number of total mortality (T-mortality), cardiovascular morbidity (CV-mortality), respiratory mortality (R-mortality), hospital admissions due to cardiovascular diseases (HA-CVD), respiratory diseases (HA-RD), chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) due to exposure to particulate matter less than 10 µm (PM₁₀), 2.5 µm (PM_2.5) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in western Iran in 2016. The World Health Organization (WHO) method was used to assess the mortality and morbidity among the exposed people. The results showed that about 3.9% CM (95% CI: 2.9–7.8%), 3.9% HA-RD (95% CI: 2.4–7.8%) and 4.4% HA-CVD (95% CI: 3.0–6.8%) for ambient PM₁₀ and about 7.3% TM (95% CI: 4.2–9.7%), 12.1% CM (95% CI: 3.5–14.6%) and 3.0% RM (95% CI: 0–6.3%) for PM_2.5 are respectively attributed to concentrations exceeding 10 µg/m³. Furthermore, 3.2% HA-COPD (95% CI: 0–5.04%) and 4.2% AMI (95% CI: 1.6–4.3%) can be attributed to SO₂ concentrations greater than 10 µg/m³, respectively. To reduce the adverse health effect of PM, health advices provided by health authorities should be given to general population especially vulnerable people such as people with chronic lung and heart pathologies, elderly and children during the dusty days.     

Influence of Colloidal Silicon Dioxide on Gel Strength,Robustness, and Adhesive Properties of Diclofenac Gel Formulation for Topical Application

The objective of this study is to identify the extent of stiffness, adhesiveness, and thixotropic character of a three-dimensional gel network of a 1% diclofenac sodium topical gel formulation in the presence and absence of colloidal silicon dioxide (CSD) and assess its ease of application and adhesiveness using both objective and subjective analysis. The 1% diclofenac gel was mixed with different amounts of CSD (e.g., 0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 5% w/w) and allowed to equilibrate prior to testing. The texture analyzer in combination with a cone-cap assembly was used to objectively investigate the changes in spreadability and adhesiveness of the gel system before and after addition of CSD. Results indicate that an increase in pliability and adhesiveness at levels ≥2 to ≤5% w/w of CSD dispersed in the gel ensues. For subjective analysis, gels with (2% w/w) CSD and in the absence of CSD were uniformly applied to a 20-cm² (5 cm × 4 cm) surface area on the forearms of healthy volunteers and vehicle preferences by the volunteers regarding ease of application, durability on the skin, compliance, and feelings concerning its textural properties were assessed. It appears that changes in the gel formulation with the addition of CSD enhance gel viscosity and bonding to the skin. Results further show that changes in physical and rheological characteristics of gel containing 2% w/w CSD did not significantly change subject preferences for the gel preparations. These findings may help formulators to have additional options to develop more robust and cost-effective formulations.KEY WORDS: colloidal silicon dioxide, gel-silica, texture analysis, thixotropic gel, topical gel     

Solid-State Interactions at the Core-Coat Interface: Physicochemical Characterization of Enteric-Coated Omeprazole Pellets Without a Protective Sub-Coat

Conventionally, scanning electron or transmission microscopy, Raman and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, terahertz, florescence, and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging have been used to characterize functional coating structure. This study highlights the use of fluorescence microscopy to investigate the physicochemical stability and coating integrity of the commercially available enteric-coated omeprazole pellets containing a basic excipient and prepared by extrusion and spheronization or drug layering on the nonpareil seed, immediately followed by enteric coating (i.e., absence of protective sub-coat). The nature of coating interface and the likely development of an in situ interfacial layer after the application of enteric coating solution was examined using HPLC, NMR, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and fluorescent imaging methods. Likewise for the characterization of the solid pellet structure via fluorescence microscopy, a new approach based on fracturing technique (to avoid surface contamination) rather than microtome sectioning was used and validated. Analytical data showed that the pellets containing omeprazole remained chemically stable (>99.5% recovered). Control of the microenvironmental pH by the addition of alkalinizing excipient within a core formulation or as part of drug layering on top of nonpareil seed appears to efficiently neutralize the acidic effect of enteric coating dispersion. Fluorescence images further illustrate the absence of any discernable in situ layer formation at the coat-core interface.KEY WORDS: alkalinizing excipient, DSC, enteric coating, florescence microscopy, functional coating layer(s), HPLC, NMR, omeprazole stability     

Visual DNA -- identification of DNA sequence variations by bead trapping

In this paper we describe a method that uses the nearly covalent strength biotin-streptavidin interaction to attach a paramagnetic bead of micrometer size to a DNA molecule of nanometer size, scaling up the spatial size of a query DNA strand by a factor of 1000, making it visible to the human eye. The use of magnetic principles enables rapid binding and washing of detector beads, facilitating a readout of amplified DNA sequences in a few minutes. Here we exemplify the method on mitochondrial DNA variations using an array platform. Visual identification and documentation can be performed with an ordinary mobile phone equipped with a built-in camera.     

Comparison of estimation capabilities of response surface methodology (RSM) with artificial neural network (ANN) in lipase-catalyzed synthesis of palm-based wax ester

Background  

Wax esters are important ingredients in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, lubricants and other chemical industries due to their excellent wetting property. Since the naturally occurring wax esters are expensive and scarce, these esters can be produced by enzymatic alcoholysis of vegetable oils. In an enzymatic reaction, study on modeling and optimization of the reaction system to increase the efficiency of the process is very important. The classical method of optimization involves varying one parameter at a time that ignores the combined interactions between physicochemical parameters. RSM is one of the most popular techniques used for optimization of chemical and biochemical processes and ANNs are powerful and flexible tools that are well suited to modeling biochemical processes.     

Differing activities of homeostatic chemokines CCL19, CCL21, and CXCL12 in lymphocyte and dendritic cell recruitment and lymphoid neogenesis

Despite their widespread expression, the in vivo recruitment activities of CCL19 (EBV-induced molecule 1 ligand chemokine) and CXCL12 (stromal cell-derived factor 1) have not been established. Furthermore, although CXCL13 (B lymphocyte chemoattractant) has been shown to induce lymphoid neogenesis through induction of lymphotoxin (LT)alpha1beta2, it is unclear whether other homeostatic chemokines have this property. In this work we show that ectopic expression in pancreatic islets of CCL19 leads to small infiltrates composed of lymphocytes and dendritic cells and containing high endothelial venules and stromal cells. Ectopic CXCL12 induced small infiltrates containing few T cells but enriched in dendritic cells, B cells, and plasma cells. Comparison of CCL19 transgenic mice with mice expressing CCL21 (secondary lymphoid tissue chemokine) revealed that CCL21 induced larger and more organized infiltrates. A more significant role for CCL21 is also suggested in lymphoid tissues, as CCL21 protein was found to be present in lymph nodes and spleen at much higher concentrations than CCL19. CCL19 and CCL21 but not CXCL12 induced LTalpha1beta2 expression on naive CD4 T cells, and treatment of CCL21 transgenic mice with LTbetaR-Fc antagonized development of organized lymphoid structures. LTalpha1beta2 was also induced on naive T cells by the cytokines IL-4 and IL-7. These studies establish that CCL19 and CXCL12 are sufficient to mediate cell recruitment in vivo and they indicate that LTalpha1beta2 may function downstream of CCL21, CCL19, and IL-2 family cytokines in normal and pathological lymphoid tissue development.