A radiobiological comparison of hypo-fractionation versus conventional fractionation for breast cancer 3D-conformal radiation therapy

BackgroundThe present research was aimed to compare the toxicity and effectiveness of conventional fractionated radiotherapy versus hypo-fractionated radiotherapy in breast cancer utilizing a radiobiological model.Materials and methodsThirty-five left-sided breast cancer patients without involvement of the supraclavicular and axillary lymph nodes (with the nodal stage of N0) that had been treated with conventional or hypo-fractionated were incorporated in this study. A radiobiological model was performed to foretell normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) and tumor control probability (TCP).ResultsThe data represented that TCP values for conventional and hypo-fractionated regimens were 99.16 ± 0.09 and 95.96 ± 0.48, respectively (p = 0.00). Moreover, the NTCP values of the lung for conventional and hypo-fractionated treatment were 0.024 versus 0.13 (p = 0.035), respectively. Also, NTCP values of the heart were equal to zero for both regimens.ConclusionIn summary, hypo-fractionated regimens had comparable efficacy to conventional fraction radiation therapy in the case of dosimetry parameters for patients who had left breast cancer. But, utilizing the radiobiological model, conventional fractionated regimens presented better results compared to hypo-fractionated regimens.     

Tetrahydrobenzothiophene carboxamides: Beyond the kinase domain and into the fatty acid realm

A series of tetrahydrobenzothiophene carboxamides, inspired by structural features present in kinase and SCD1 inhibitors, are presented here. Prototype compound 8 (MMDD13) modulates fatty acid elongase and desaturase indexes, lipid accumulation, while preserving kinase inhibitory activity. This chemotype represents a stepping stone towards chemical probes to study the consequences of lipid metabolism modulation through non-redundant pathways.     

Prognostic role and therapeutic susceptibility of cathepsin in various types of solid tumor and leukemia: A systematic review

Cathepsins (CTSs) are multifunctional proteins that can play prominent roles in cancer progression and metastasis. In this systematic review, we compared the prognosis of CTS subtypes overexpression in leukemia and solid tumors, and investigated the effect of different factors on CTS prognosis. We systematically searched published articles indexed in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane library, ISI Web of Science, and EmBase databases from February 2000 until January 2020. Among the selected leukemia and solid tumors studies, overexpression of CTS subtypes in newly diagnosed and treated patients were with poor prognosis in 43 studies (79.6%) and with good prognosis in 9 studies (16.6%). However, there were 2 studies (3.8%) with either good or poor prognosis, depending on conditions and caner stage and host cell. The relation between CTS and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) in leukemia and solid tumors was mentioned in 7 studies (13%). Overexpression of CTS subtypes in all new case patients had contributed to the induction of poor prognosis. It seems that CTS subtypes, based on the type of cancer and its stage, the type of host cells, and the probable relation with HLA, breed good or poor prognosis in patients with cancer. Therefore, monitoring the overexpression of CTS subtypes and determining the effect of each of these factors on CTS prognosis could be helpful in predicting cancer prognosis both in newly diagnosed or under treatment patients. They could also be useful in finding ways for improving the efficiency of contemporary therapeutic strategies in various types of leukemia and solid tumors.     

The effects of the esterified Quercetin with omega3 and omega6 fatty acids on viability,nanomechanical properties,and BAX/BCL-2 gene expression in MCF-7 cells

Molecular Biology Reports - Quercetin is one of the major flavonoids and it appears to have cytotoxic effects on various cancer cells through regulating the apoptosis pathway genes such as BAX and...     

Metaheuristics and Pontryagin’s minimum principle for optimal therapeutic protocols in cancer immunotherapy: a case study and methods comparison

Journal of Mathematical Biology - In this paper, the performance appropriateness of population-based metaheuristics for immunotherapy protocols is investigated on a comparative basis while the goal...     

Comparison of different artificial neural network architectures in modeling of Chlorella sp. flocculation

Biodiesel production from microalgae feedstock should be performed after growth and harvesting of the cells, and the most feasible method for harvesting and dewatering of microalgae is flocculation. Flocculation modeling can be used for evaluation and prediction of its performance under different affective parameters. However, the modeling of flocculation in microalgae is not simple and has not performed yet, under all experimental conditions, mostly due to different behaviors of microalgae cells during the process under different flocculation conditions. In the current study, the modeling of microalgae flocculation is studied with different neural network architectures. Microalgae species, Chlorella sp., was flocculated with ferric chloride under different conditions and then the experimental data modeled using artificial neural network. Neural network architectures of multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function architectures, failed to predict the targets successfully, though, modeling was effective with ensemble architecture of MLP networks. Comparison between the performances of the ensemble and each individual network explains the ability of the ensemble architecture in microalgae flocculation modeling.     

Prevalence and Molecular Identification of the Mediterranean Variant Among G6PD-Deficient Sistani and Balouch Males in Southeastern Iran

To determine the prevalence of G6PD deficiency and a Mediterranean mutation among males in southeastern Iran, we studied 1,097 Sistani and Balouch schoolboys. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic data and a history of malaria infection; blood samples were evaluated for G6PD deficiency and the G6PD Mediterranean mutation. Of the 1,097 boys screened, 175 were G6PD deficient (5.8 % of the Sistani boys and 19.3 % of the Balouch boys). The malaria survey indicated that among Balouch subjects, malaria infection was about 14 times that of Sistani subjects. Molecular characterization of G6PD-deficient samples revealed a general frequency of 85.1 % for the Mediterranean variant among all subjects (75 % among Sistani and 86.2 % among Balouch cases). The high prevalence of G6PD deficiency among Balouch populations confirms the hypothesis that the distribution of G6PD deficiency is concordant with the geographic distribution of malaria.     

Relationships between environmental variables and vegetation across mountain wetland sites,N. Iran

The mountain wetlands studied represent a unique habitat on the southern slopes of the Alborz mountain range, the second largest range in Iran. In comparison with other parts of this range the western section is ecologically and botanically unknown. Floristic and vegetation variation were assessed using diverse environmental variables along a broad altitudinal span (350 m to 3200 m a.s.l.). Using both statistical and ordination analyses floristic variation was assessed on three defined altitudinal belts which were delimited based on Alborz macro-climatic boundaries. The distribution of individual wetland plant species, of phytogeographic elements and of life-forms all differ among altitudinal belts. This result is also shown in both direct and indirect analyses of ordinations. The proportion of geophytes significantly increases with altitude and geophytes are very well represented in the upper altitudinal belt. The number of species of a narrow phytogeographical distribution (e.g. endemics) increases with altitude, soil pH and EC declined with altitude. The first axis of DCA ordination with passively projected environmental variables indicates that, organic matter and concentration of Fe²⁺ are increased toward higher altitude. The second axis of ordination is related to both soil texture and slope inclination. The distribution of species in the CCA species plot is also close to the distribution of those in the DCA ordination. This study indicates that altitude and slope together with other dependent environmental variables (pH, EC, Ca²⁺ and soil texture) are the main ecological factors controlling species distribution across the Western Alborz wetland sites.     

Ugi Bis-Amide Derivatives as Tyrosinase Inhibitor; Synthesis,Biology Assessment,and in Silico Analysis

Herein, a straightforward synthetic strategy mediated by Ugi reaction was developed to synthesize novel series of compounds as tyrosinase inhibitors. The structures of all compounds were confirmed by FT-IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, and CHNOS techniques. The tyrosinase inhibitory activities of all synthesized derivatives 5a – m were determined against mushroom tyrosinase and it was found that derivative 5c possesses the best inhibition with an IC₅₀ value of 69.53±0.042 μM compared to the rest of the synthesized derivatives. Structure–activity relationships (SARs) showed that the presence of 4-MeO or 4-NO₂ at the R² position plays a key role in tyrosinase inhibitory activities. The enzyme kinetics studies showed that compound 5c is an noncompetitive inhibitor. For in silico study, the allosteric site detection was first applied to find the appropriate binding site and then molecular docking and molecular dynamic studies were performed to reveal the position and interactions of 5c as the most potent inhibitor within the tyrosinase active site. The results showed that 5c bind well with the proposed binding site and formed a stable complex with the target protein.