ABSTRACT
@#Gene manipulation tools have transformed biomedical research and improved the possibilities of their uses for therapeutic purposes. These tools have aided effective genomic modification in many organisms and have been successfully applied in biomedical engineering, biotechnology and biomedicine. They also shown a potential for therapeutic applications to alleviate genetic and non-genetic diseases. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) and clustered regularly inter-spaced short-palindromic repeat/associated-protein system (CRISPR/Cas) are two of the tools applied in genetic manipulation. This review aims to evaluate the molecular influence of siRNA and CRISPR/Cas as novel tools for genetic manipulations. This review discusses the molecular mechanism of siRNA and CRISPR/Cas, and the advantages and disadvantages of siRNA and CRISPR/Cas. This review also presents comparison between siRNA and CRISPR/Cas as potential tools for gene therapy. siRNA therapeutic applications occur through protein knockout without causing damage to cells. siRNA knocks down gene expression at the mRNA level, whereas CRISPR/Cas knocks out gene permanently at the DNA level. Inconclusion, gene manipulation tools have potential for applications that improve therapeutic strategies and plant-derived products, but ethical standards must be established before the clinical application of gene editing.
ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: Patients with Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) usually diagnosed at advanced cancer stage and recurrent case. Rac1 have become an emerging therapeutic target for metastasis cancer. This gene is critically involved in cell polarization and reactive oxygen species-mediated cell killing. This study aims to investigate the Rac1 activities in NPC/HK1 cell line using siRNA approach and evaluate the calcium deposition profile. Methods: The NPC/ HK1cells were transfected with Rac1-siRNA (siRac1) at concentrations of 50nM, 100nM and 200nM for 24 hours and stained with alizarin red s for calcium mineralization profile. Levels of Rac1 gene expression were measured via qRT-PCR followed by the time dependent assessment for 24, 48 and 72 hours. Results: Findings revealed that siRac1 concentrations of 200nM (p-value <0.02) and 100nM (p-value <0.016) had significant Rac1 suppression while 50nM (p-value <0.076) had the least suppression. On the other hand, from alizarin red S staining showed no significant changes for calcium mineralization activity on treated and control cells. However, siRac1 treated cells at 200nM showed presence of intracellular organelle swelling and loss of membrane integrity in 70% of the cells. This observation could possibly be linked to early sign of necrosis activity, hypoxia and disruption in intracellular calcium influx. Conclusion: This study suggest that Rac1 gene suppression might be involved in disruption of calcium deposition and reactive oxygen species-mediated NPC/HK1 cell killing. Further insight on the Rac1 molecular mechanism are needed to understand its potential role as therapeutic target for NPC
Subject(s)
Nasopharyngeal CarcinomaABSTRACT
Background: The expansion of global travel has resulted in the importation of African Anopheles mosquitoes; giving rise to cases of local malaria transmission. Here; cases of airport malaria are used to quantify; using a combination of global climate and air traffic volume; where and when are the greatest risks of a Plasmodium falciparum-carrying mosquito being importated by air. This prioritises areas at risk of further airport malaria and possible importation or reemergence of the disease. Methods: Monthly data on climate at the Worlds' major airports were combined with air traffic information and African malaria seasonality maps to identify; month-by-month; those existing and future air routes at greatest risk of African malaria-carrying mosquito importation and temporary establishment. Results: The location and timing of recorded airport malaria cases proved predictable using a combination of climate and air traffic data. Extending the analysis beyond the current air network architecture enabled identification of the airports and months with greatest climatic similarity to Plasmodium falciparum endemic regions of Africa within their principal transmission seasons; and therefore at risk should new aviation routes become operational. Conclusions: With the growth of long haul air travel from Africa; the identification of the seasonality and routes of mosquito importation is important in guiding effective aircraft disinsection and vector control. The recent and continued addition of air routes from Africa to more climatically similar regions than Europe will increase movement risks. The approach outlined here is capable of identifying when and where these risks are greatest
Subject(s)
Malaria , Mosquito Control , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
"Epidemic detection algorithms are being increasingly recommended for malaria surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa. We present the results of applying three simple epidemic detection techniques to routinely collected longitudinal pediatric malaria admissions data from three health facilities in the highlands of western Kenya in the late 1980s and 1990s. The algorithms tested were chosen because they could be feasibly implemented at the health facility level in sub-Saharan Africa. Assumptions of these techniques about the normal distribution of admissions data and the confidence intervals used to define normal years were also investigated. All techniques identified two ""epidemic"" years in one of the sites. The untransformed Cullen method with standard confidence intervals detected the two ""epidemic"" years in the remaining two sites but also triggered many false alarms. The performance of these methods is discussed and comments are made about their appropriateness for the highlands of western Kenya."
Subject(s)
Disease/epidemiology , MalariaABSTRACT
El objetivo de la Fundación Simón I. Patiño se basa en la acción en actividades integradas, actuando en los principales sectores del desarrollo e integrandolos en cada acción. La agricultura, para mejorar la nutrición: la ecología, para asegurar un medio ambiente sano;la cultura, para una mejor toma de condicionesde las necesidades humanas y, como último recurso, la medicina, para aliviar a los enfermos. Aunque su vocación fundamental sigue siendo la atención médica
Subject(s)
Pediatrics , Health , Bolivia , Equipment and Supplies , Health ServicesABSTRACT
A large protein sequence database with over 31,000 sequences and 10 million residues has been analysed. The pair probabilities have been converted to entropies using Boltzmann's law of statistical thermodynamics. A scoring weight corresponding to "mixing entropy" of the amino acid pairs has been developed from which the entropies of the protein sequences have been calculated. The entropy values of natural sequences are lower than their random counterparts of same length and similar amino acid composition. Based on the results it has been proposed that natural sequences are a special set of polypeptides with additional qualification of biological functionality that can be quantified using the entropy concept as worked out in this paper.
ABSTRACT
El objetivo del centro de investigaciones fitogenéticas es seleccionar nuevas variedades de maíz, frijol, haba, lupino, trigo duro y girasol, más productivas, aptas para resistir mejor a las enfermedades y más ricas en proteinas y los aminoácidos esenciales