Recent Insight into Herbal Bioactives-Based Novel Approaches for Chronic Intestinal Inflammatory Disorders Therapy.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a life-threatening complex disease. It causes chronic intestinal inflammation in GIT. IBD significantly affects people's lifestyles and carries a high risk of colon cancer. IBD involves the rectum, ileum, and colon, with clinical manifestations of bloody stools, weight loss, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. The prevalence of inflammatory disease is increasing dramatically worldwide. Over 16 million people are affected annually in India, with an economic burden of $6.8- $8.8 billion for treatment. Modern medicine can manage IBD as immunosuppressive agents, corticosteroids, tumor necrosis factor antagonists, integrin blockers, and amino-salicylates. However, these approaches are allied with limitations such as limited efficacy, drug resistance, undesired side effects, and overall cost, which cannot be ignored. Hence, the herbal bioactives derived from various plant resources can be employed in managing IBD. Science Direct, PubMed, Google, and Scopus databases have been searched for conclusively relevant herbal plant-based anti-inflammatory agent compositions. Studies were screened through analysis of previously published review articles. Eminent herbal bioactives, namely curcumin, resveratrol, ellagic acid, silybin, catechin, kaempferol, icariin, glycyrrhizin acid, berberine, quercetin, rutin, and thymol are reported to be effective against IBD. Herbal leads are promising treatment options for IBD; they have been shown to display antiinflammatory and antioxidant properties by targeting enzymes and regulating the expressions of various inflammatory mediators. Natural products have been reported to have anti-inflammatory properties in various clinical and preclinical studies, and some are available as herbal preparations. Herbal medicine would be promising in association with the implication of a novel drug delivery system for managing IBD.

Recent Approaches on Molecular Markers, Treatment and Novel Drug Delivery System Used for the Management of Colorectal Cancer: A Comprehensive Review.

Colorectal cancer affects 1 in 25 females and 1 in 24 males, making it the third most frequent cancer with over 6,08,030 deaths worldwide, despite advancements in detection and treatments, including surgery, chemotherapeutics, radiotherapy, and immune therapeutics. Novel potential agents have increased survival in acute and chronic disease conditions, with a higher risk of side effects and cost. However, metastatic disease has an insignificant long-term diagnosis, and significant challenges remain due to last-stage diagnosis and treatment failure. Early detection, survival, and treatment efficacy are all improved by biomarkers. The advancement of cancer biomarkers' molecular pathology and genomics during the last three decades has improved therapy. Clinically useful prognostic biomarkers assist clinical judgment, for example, by predicting the success of EGFR-inhibiting antibodies in the presence of KRAS gene mutations. Few biomarkers are currently used in clinical settings, so further research is still needed. Nanocarriers, with materials like Carbon nanotubes and gold nanoparticles, provide targeted CRC drug delivery and diagnostics. Light-responsive drugs with gold and silica nanoparticles effectively target and destroy CRC cells. We evaluate the potential use of the long non-coding RNA (non-coding RNA) oncogene plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (PVT1) as a diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic biomarker, along with the latest nanotech breakthroughs in CRC diagnosis and treatment.

Anticancer therapeutic potential of 5-fluorouracil and nisin co-loaded chitosan coated silver nanoparticles against murine skin cancer.

Cancer is a major health concern worldwide as conventional treatment modalities face several limitations such as drug resistance, toxicity etc. To overcome such deficits, combination therapy involving anticancer peptides and chemodrugs is being considered as an attractive strategy. Therefore, present study developed, characterized and evaluated the anticancer potential of a single nanoconstruct comprising of oligomeric chitosan coated silver nanoparticles co-loaded with nisin and 5-florouracil (5-FU/nisin-CHI-AgNPs) against DMBA/TPA-induced murine skin cancer. It was fabricated using wet reduction method of silver salt to form silver nanoparticles followed sequentially by oligomeric chitosan coating, nisin conjugation to deacetylated units of chitosan oligomers (EDC/NHS chemistry) and physical loading of 5-FU. Biophysical characterisation studies revealed that the developed nanoconstruct had UV-visible absorption maxima at 420 nm, zeta potential of + 32.90 mV and 72.39 nm particle size (TEM analysis). In vivo anticancer therapeutic potential was assessed in terms of tumor statistics, histopathological, scanning electron microscopic analyses and testing oxidant/antioxidant status which exhibited marked reduction both in mean tumor volume (68.34 %) and mean tumor burden (82.39 %); restored skin histoarchitecture and improved oxidant/antioxidant status. Interestingly, anticancer therapeutic potential of nisin and 5-florouracil was found to be enhanced in vivo when bound on single composite nanoconstruct. The study forms a basis for developing synergetic single platforms against variety of cancers.

Antimicrobial peptides against colorectal cancer-a focused review.

Despite recent advances in the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), low patient survival rate due to emergence of drug resistant cancer cells, metastasis and multiple deleterious side effects of chemotherapy, is a cause of public concern globally. To negate these clinical conundrums, search for effective and harmless novel molecular entities for the treatment of CRC is an urgent necessity. Since antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are part of innate immunity of living beings, it is quite imperative to look for essential attributes of these peptides which may contribute to their effectiveness against carcinogenesis. Once identified, those characteristics can be suitably modified using several synthetic and computational techniques to further enhance their selectivity and pharmacokinetic profiles. Hence, this review analyses scientific reports describing the antiproliferative action of AMPs derived from several sources, particularly focusing on various colon cancer in vitro/in vivo investigations. On perusal of the literature, it appears that AMPs based therapeutics would definitely find special place in CRC therapy in future either alone or as an adjunct to chemotherapy provided some necessary alterations are made in their natural structures to make them more compatible with modern clinical practice. In this context, further in-depth research is warranted in adequate in vivo models.

Breast and cervical cancer risk in India: an update.

BACKGROUND: Breast and cervical cancers are two major cancers among Indian women. Analysis of trends would help in planning and organization of programs for control of these cancers. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the following study is to compute risk of breast and cervical cancers using updated data from different cancer registries of India and study of its trends. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data on incidence rates of breast and cervical cancers were obtained from six major cancer registries of India for the years 1982-2008 and from the recently initiated cancer registries, North Eastern Registries of India with a total of 21 registries. Annual percent change in incidence and risk in terms of one in number of women likely to develop cancer was estimated for both the cancers in various registries. RESULTS: The annual percentage change in incidence ranged from 0.46 to 2.56 and -1.14 to -3.4 for breast and cervical cancers respectively. Trends were significant for both cancers in the registries of Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi except Barshi and Bhopal. North East region showed decrease in risk for breast and cervical cancers whereas increasing trend was observed in Imphal (West) and for cervical cancer in Silchar. CONCLUSION: North Eastern region recorded decline in the incidence of breast cancer which is contrary to the observation in other registries, which showed increase in breast cancer and decline in cervical cancer incidences.

Fan beam dual energy X-ray absorptiometry body composition measurements in piglets.

OBJECTIVES: A piglet model was used to validate and cross validate the fan-beam (FB) dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) software vKH6 and to determine the predictive values of physiologic parameters (weight, length, age and gender) on body composition. METHODS: Nineteen piglets (Group A: 600 to 21100 g) were used to validate the FB-DXA measurements of body composition based on chemical analysis of the carcass. An additional 22 piglets (Group B: 640 g to 17660 g) had FB-DXA measurements, and these values were compared to the predicted values generated from regression equations computed from group A piglets. Body composition for bone mass, lean mass and fat mass was based on ash weight, nitrogen and fat measured from three aliquots of homogenate from each carcass. Data from all piglets (n = 41) were used to determine the variations in body composition. Data analysis used regression, t test and analysis of variance. RESULTS: Duplicate DXA (total weight TW, bone mineral content BMC, bone area BA, bone mineral density BMD, lean mass LM and fat mass FM) measurements were highly correlated (r = 0.98 to 1.00, p < 0.001 for all comparisons) and were not significantly different. No significant differences were found in the residuals from predicted versus measured DXA values between the larger and the smaller (<1.6 kg) piglets from Group A. For Group B piglets, the DXA measured TW of 5666 +/- 5692 g (mean +/- SD), LM (5063 +/- 5048 g), FM (465 +/- 510 g), BMC (138 +/- 139 g), BA (486 +/- 365 cm(2)) and BMD (0.235 +/- 0.071 g/cm(2)) were highly significantly correlated with (r = 0.94 to 1.00, p < 0.001 for all comparisons) and were not significantly different from the predicted values. Data from all piglets (n = 41) showed that weight is the dominant predictor of whole body and regional body composition. Length, age or gender contributed to <2% of the variability of body composition. CONCLUSION: Body composition measurements using the FB DXA software vKH6 is highly reproducible. The software vKH6 is validated for use in a wide range of body weights and body composition, and cross-validated using a separate group of animals. Body weight is the dominant predictor of body composition in immature piglets.