ACV with/without IVM: a new talk on intestinal CDX2 and muscular CD34 and Cyclin D1 during Trichinella spiralis infection.

The current study assessed the efficacy of Acyclovir (ACV) and Ivermectin (IVM) as monotherapies and combined treatments for intestinal and muscular stages of Trichinella spiralis infection. One-hundred Swiss albino mice received orally 250 ± 50 infectious larvae and were divided into infected-untreated (Group-1), IVM-treated (Group-2), ACV-treated (Group-3), combined IVM+ACV (Group-4), and healthy controls (Group-5). Each group was subdivided into subgroup-A-enteric phase (10 mice, sacrificed day-7 p.i.) and subgroup-B-muscular phase (10 mice, sacrificed day-35 p.i.). Survival rate and body weight were recorded. Parasite burden and intestinal histopathology were assessed. In addition, immunohistochemical expression of epithelial CDX2 in the intestinal phase and CyclinD1 as well as CD34 in the muscular phase were evaluated. Compared, IVM and ACV monotherapies showed insignificant differences in the amelioration of enteric histopathology, except for lymphocytic counts. In the muscle phase, monotherapies showed variable disruptions in the encapsulated larvae. Compared with monotherapies, the combined treatment performed relatively better improvement of intestinal inflammation and reduction in the enteric and muscular parasite burden. CDX2 and CyclinD1 positively correlated with intestinal inflammation and parasite burden, while CD34 showed a negative correlation. CDX2 positively correlated with CyclinD1. CD34 negatively correlated with CDX2 and CyclinD1. IVM +ACV significantly ameliorated CDX2, CyclinD1, and CD34 expressions compared with monotherapies. Conclusion. T. spiralis infection-associated inflammation induced CDX2 and CyclinD1 expressions, whereas CD34 was reduced. The molecular tumorigenic effect of the nematode remains questionable. Nevertheless, IVM +ACV appeared to be a promising anthelminthic anti-inflammatory combination that, in parallel, rectified CDX2, CyclinD1, and CD34 expressions.

The Role of Chlorella vulgaris in Attenuating Infertility Induced by Cadmium Chloride via Suppressing Oxidative Stress and Modulating Spermatogenesis and Steroidogenesis in Male Rats.

Cadmium (Cd) is an environmental pollutant known as endocrine disruptor . Cd has been reported to induce perturbations of the testicular functions and the subsequent decline of the male fertility of both animals and humans. Chlorella vulgaris (ChV) a species of green microalga has been reported to have multiple beneficial activities such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiapoptotic effects. Thus, this work was conducted to declare the benefits of Chlorella vulgaris (ChV) (500 mg/kg doses) against cadmium chloride CdCl2 (2 mg/kg doses) toxicity on the main and accessory reproductive organs' weight, structure, and function of male rats. Briefly, 40 adult male rats in 4 groups (n = 10) were used as follows; control, ChV, CdCl2, and CdCl2+ChV. (i) The 1st group was kept as control fed on pellet chow and water ad libitum. (ii) The second group is Chlorella vulgaris (ChV) group fed with C. vulgaris alga for 10 days (500 mg/kg BW). (iii) The third group was administrated CdCl2 (2mg/kg BW) via subcutaneous injection (S/C) daily for 10 days. (iv) The fourth group administered both CdCl2 and ChV with the abovementioned doses daily for successive 10 days. Our observations declared that cadmium exhibited an adverse influence on the testes and prostate gland architecture indicated by seminiferous tubule destruction, testicular edema, degeneration of Leydig cells, and prostate acini damage. All together affect the epididymal semen quality and quantity including sperm viability, motility, and count. Interestingly, ChV could restore the testicular architecture and spermatozoa regeneration accompanied by semen quality improvement and increased reproductive hormones including testosterone. On the other side, ChV suppresses reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation via enhancement the antioxidant-related genes in the testicular tissue including SOD, CAT, GSH, and MDA and maintaining spermatocyte survival via suppression of apoptotic related genes including caspase3 and activating steroidogenic related genes including StAR and HSD17ß3 in the cadmium-treated testes. In this study, ChV could enhance male fertility under normal or stressful conditions and ameliorate the adverse effects of hazardous heavy metals that are widely distributed in our environment.

Catalytic pyrolysis of waste polypropylene using low-cost natural catalysts.

The objective of this research is to produce oil from the catalytic pyrolysis of waste polypropylene (WPP) using a low-cost natural catalyst. Three natural catalysts were examined, i.e. Kaolin, Hematite, and white sand. Different catalyst-to-plastic ratios were examined, i.e. 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:6, and 1:8. The utilized catalysts were elementally analyzed using the XRF analysis and the surface area was analyzed by the BET multi-point method. The WPP thermal degradation behavior was investigated by the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), then the generated liquid oil was analyzed using the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Thermal cracking without a catalyst produced a yield of 70 wt% of liquid oil, and the maximum oil yield in case of using Hematite and white sand as a catalysts were 70 wt% and 68 wt%, respectively. However, the ratio of 1:2 of the Kaolin to the WPP produced the highest oil yield of 80.75 wt%, and the ratio of 1:8 of the white sand to the WPP produced the highest gas yield, i.e. 44 wt%. Using Kaolin in the catalytic pyrolysis of WPP produced oil with the lowest percentage of heavy oils, i.e. 25.98%, and the highest percentage of light oils, which is 25.37%, when compared to other catalysts such as Hematite and white sand. Kaolin has the lowest cost of oil production compared to Hematite and white sand, which is 0.28 $/kg of oil. Kaolin is an economical catalyst that improves the quality, as well as the quantity of the produced oil in comparison to Hematite, white sand and the non-catalytic case.

Biophotonic sensor for swift detection of malignant brain tissues by using nanocomposite YBa2Cu3O7/dielectric material as a 1D defective photonic crystal.

In the present research work we have theoretically examined the biosensing capabilities of proposed one dimensional defective photonic crystal for swift detection of malignant brain tissues. The transfer matrix formulation and MATLAB computational tool have been used to examine the transmission properties of proposed structure. The identical buffer layers of nanocomposite superconducting material have been used either side of cavity region to enhance the interaction between incident light and different brain tissue samples poured into the cavity region. All the investigations have been carried out under normal incidence to suppress the experimental liabilities involved. We have investigated the biosensing performance of the proposed design by changing the values of two internal parameters (1) the cavity layer thickness (d4) and (2) volume fraction (η) of nanocomposite buffer layers one by one to get the optimum biosensing performance from the structure. It has been found that the sensitivity of the proposed design becomes 1.42607 µm/RIU when the cavity region of thickness 15dd is loaded with lymphoma brain tissue. This value of sensitivity can be further increased to 2.66136 µm/RIU with η = 0.8. The findings of this work are very beneficial for designing of various bio-sensing structures composed of nanocomposite materials of diversified biomedical applications.

Experimental and computational chemical studies on the corrosion inhibition of new pyrimidinone derivatives for copper in nitric acid.

Inhibition of copper corrosion by some pyrimidinone derivatives, namely; (E)-N-(3-((1,3-dimethyl-2,4,6-trioxohexahydropyrimidin-5-yl)diazenyl)-2,5-diethoxyphenyl)benzamide (MA-975) and(E)-6-(4-((4-chlorophenyl)diazenyl)-3-methyl-5-oxo-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)-1,3 dimethylpyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione (MA-978C) in 1.0 M nitric acid (HNO3) was studied using weight loss (WL), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and potentiodynamic polarization (PP) measurements. The efficiency of inhibition increases as the concentration of inhibitor increases, and it also increases as the temperature increases. With the addition of the examined inhibitors, significant corrosion protection was obtained, and (MA-975) showed a very promising % IE (89.59%) at 21 × 10-6 M using the (WL) method. The polarization data revealed that these compounds act as mixed-type compounds and are adsorbed on the copper surface following Langmuir adsorption isotherm forming a protective thin film protecting the metal in the corrosive media. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray were used to examine the surface morphology of copper samples. Quantum calculations and Monte Carlo simulation techniques were applied with informative yields and the results matched the experimental findings.

Recent Progress in Modification Strategies of Nanocellulose-Based Aerogels for Oil Absorption Application.

Oil spills and oily wastewater have become a major environmental problem in recent years, directly impacting the environment and biodiversity. Several techniques have been developed to solve this problem, including biological degradation, chemicals, controlled burning, physical absorption and membrane separation. Recently, biopolymeric aerogels have been proposed as a green solution for this problem, and they possess superior selective oil absorption capacity compared with other approaches. Several modification strategies have been applied to nanocellulose-based aerogel to enhance its poor hydrophobicity, increase its oil absorption capacity, improve its selectivity of oils and make it a compressible and elastic magnetically responsive aerogel, which will ease its recovery after use. This review presents an introduction to nanocellulose-based aerogel and its fabrication approaches. Different applications of nanocellulose aerogel in environmental, medical and industrial fields are presented. Different strategies for the modification of nanocellulose-based aerogel are critically discussed in this review, presenting the most recent works in terms of enhancing the aerogel performance in oil absorption in addition to the potential of these materials in near future.

Connecting the brain cholesterol and renin-angiotensin systems: potential role of statins and RAS-modifying medications in dementia.

Millions of people worldwide receive agents targeting the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) to treat hypertension or statins to lower cholesterol. The RAS and cholesterol metabolic pathways in the brain are autonomous from their systemic counterparts and are interrelated through the cholesterol metabolite 27-hydroxycholesterol (27-OHC). These systems contribute to memory and dementia pathogenesis through interference in the amyloid-beta cascade, vascular mechanisms, glucose metabolism, apoptosis, neuroinflammation and oxidative stress. Previous studies examining the relationship between these treatments and cognition and dementia risk have produced inconsistent results. Defining the blood-brain barrier penetration of these medications has been challenging, and the mechanisms of action on cognition are not clearly established. Potential biases are apparent in epidemiological and clinical studies, such as reverse epidemiology, indication bias, problems defining medication exposure, uncertain and changing doses, and inappropriate grouping of outcomes and medications. This review summarizes current knowledge of the brain cholesterol and RAS metabolism and the mechanisms by which these pathways affect neurodegeneration. The putative mechanisms of action of statins and medications inhibiting the RAS will be examined, together with prior clinical and animal studies on their effects on cognition. We review prior epidemiological studies, analysing their strengths and biases, and identify areas for future research. Understanding the pathophysiology of the brain cholesterol system and RAS and their links to neurodegeneration has enormous potential. In future, well-designed epidemiological studies could identify potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) amongst medications that are already in use for other indications.

Mechanically exfoliated In2Se3 as a saturable absorber for mode-locking a thulium-doped fluoride fiber laser operating in S-band.

The rise of 2D materials since the discovery of graphene has been exponential. Their mechanical, electrical and optical properties are exceptional, similar to their 3D counterparts. In this paper, an α-In2Se3 crystal is mechanically exfoliated and transferred directly onto a fiber ferrule to serve as a saturable absorber (SA). A thulium-doped fluoride fiber is used as a gain medium to generate mode-locked pulses together with the In2Se3-based SA. The SA has a modulation depth of 14.6% and a saturation intensity of 0.4 kW/cm2. The passively generated mode-locked pulses have a repetition rate of 6.93 MHz and a pulse width of 5.79 ps. The mode-locked pulses also have a signal-to-noise ratio of 65.4 dB and a time-bandwidth product of 0.36. The pulse energy and peak power are 0.179 nJ and 27.2 W, respectively.

Synthesis and characterization of novel ion-imprinted guanyl-modified cellulose for selective extraction of copper ions from geological and municipality sample.

The new ion-imprinted guanyl-modified cellulose (II.Gu-MC) was prepared for the separation and determination of Cu (II) ions in different real samples. Several techniques such as Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), thermal analysis, potentiograph and elemental analysis have been utilized for the characterization of II.Gu-MC. The adsorption behavior of the ion imprinted polymer (II.Gu-MC) was evaluated and compared to the non ion-imprinted polymer (NII.Gu-MC) at the optimum conditions. The selectivity and the adsorption capacity were greatly enhanced by using the ion-imprinted polymer, indicating its validation for the separation and determination of Cu2+ ions in different matrices. The adsorption capacity by chelating fibers II.Gu-MC & NII.Gu-MC agreed with the second-order model, and the sorption-isotherm experiments revealed best agreement with Langmuir model. The adsorption capacity of II.Gu-MC and NII.Gu-MC were 115 and 55 mg·g-1, respectively. The II.Gu-MC was successfully employed for the selective separation and determination of Cu(II) ions with high accuracy.

Targeting Alzheimer's disease with gene and cell therapies.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) causes dementia in both young and old people affecting more than 40 million people worldwide. The two neuropathological hallmarks of the disease, amyloid beta (Aß) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles consisting of protein tau are considered the major contributors to the disease. However, a more complete picture reveals significant neurodegeneration and decreased cell survival, neuroinflammation, changes in protein and energy homeostasis and alterations in lipid and cholesterol metabolism. In addition, gene and cell therapies for severe neurodegenerative disorders have recently improved technically in terms of safety and efficiency and have translated to the clinic showing encouraging results. Here, we review broadly current data within the field for potential targets that could modify AD through gene and cell therapy strategies. We envision that not only Aß will be targeted in a disease-modifying treatment strategy but rather that a combination of treatments, possibly at different intervention times may prove beneficial in curing this devastating disease. These include decreased tau pathology, neuronal growth factors to support neurons and modulation of neuroinflammation for an appropriate immune response. Furthermore, cell based therapies may represent potential strategies in the future.

Integrated analysis of SNP, CNV and gene expression data in genetic association studies.

Integrative approaches that combine multiple forms of data can more accurately capture pathway associations and so provide a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms that cause complex diseases. Association analyses based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes, copy number variant (CNV) genotypes, and gene expression profiles are the 3 most common paradigms used for gene set/pathway enrichment analyses. Many work has been done to leverage information from 2 types of data from these 3 paradigms. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no work done before to integrate the 3 paradigms all together. In this article, we present an integrated analysis that combine SNP, CNV, and gene expression data to generate a single gene list. We present different methods to compare this gene list with the other 3 possible lists that result from the combinations of the following pairs of data: SNP genotype with gene expression, CNV genotype with gene expression, and SNP genotype with CNV genotype. The comparison is done using 3 different cancer datasets and 2 different methods of comparison. Our results show that integrating SNP, CNV, and gene expression data give better association results than integrating any pair of 3 data.

Adsorption of Cu(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), Pb(II) and Zn(II) from aqueous single metal solutions by guanyl-modified cellulose.

A novel chemically guanyl-modified cellulose (Gu-MC) - material has been synthesized for the adsorption of Cu2+, Cd2+, Hg2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ metal ions from aqueous solution. Cellulose was pretreated with periodate prior to its condensation with aminoguanidine for the formation of cellulose aldehyde-guanyl Schiff's. The synthesized material was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), elemental analysis, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Moreover, the effect of contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage, interfering ions and initial concentration of metal ions on the adsorption capacity were investigated. At optimum conditions, the adsorption capacities of Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Pb2+ and Hg2+ were 83, 78, 68, 52, and 48mgg-1, respectively. The kinetic of adsorption adopted to the second-order model and kinetic model showed that the chemical adsorption is the rate limiting step. The proposed material has been successfully applied for the adsorption of the target metal ions from different real samples with satisfactory results.

Tunable Q-switched fiber laser using zinc oxide nanoparticles as a saturable absorber.

Nanomaterials have ignited new interest due to their distinctive electronic, mechanical, and optical properties. Zinc oxide nanostructures are fabricated into thin film and then inserted between two fiber ferrules to act as a saturable absorber (SA). The modulation depth and insertion loss of the SA are 5% and 3.5 dB, respectively. When the ZnO-SA is incorporated into the laser cavity, a stable Q-switched pulse tunable from 1536 to 1586 nm (50 nm range) with pulse energy up to 46 nJ was observed. Our result suggests that ZnO is a promising broadband SA to generate passively Q-switched fiber lasers.

Passively Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser at C-band region based on WS2 saturable absorber.

We demonstrate a Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser using tungsten disulfide (WS2) as a saturable absorber. The WS2 is deposited onto fiber ferrules using a drop-casting method. Passive Q-switched pulses operating in the C-band region with a central wavelength of 1560.7 nm are successfully generated by a tunable pulse repetition rate ranging from 27.2 to 84.8 kHz when pump power is increased from 40 to 220 mW. At the same time, the pulse width decreases from a maximum value of 3.84 µs to a minimum value of 1.44 µs. The signal-to-noise ratio gives a stable value of 43.7 dB. The modulation depth and saturation intensity are measured to be 0.99% and 36.2 MW/cm², respectively.

Mode-locked thulium bismuth codoped fiber laser using graphene saturable absorber in ring cavity: reply.

Jung and Lee have made comments [Appl. Opt.53, 553-554 (2014)] on "Mode-locked thulium bismuth codoped fiber laser using Graphene saturable absorber in ring cavity" [Appl. Opt.52, 1226-1229 (2013)]. The answer for the comment is provided in this report.

Molecular design, synthesis and cell based HCV replicon assay of novel benzoxazole derivatives.

Hepatitis C virus inhibitors based on benzoxazole scaffold were designed based on molecular modeling simulation study including docking into the NS5B polymerase active site. Several compounds showed significant high simulation docking scores relative to the assigned benzimidazole lead compound. The designed compounds were synthesized, structurally elucidated and their antiviral activity was evaluated through cell-based replicon in cultured Huh 5-2 cells. A number of the synthesized compounds showed significant inhibitory activity ranging from (52.2% inhibition up to 98% at<50 µg/mL). N-Benzyl-2-phenylbenzo[1,3]oxazole-5-carboxamide (8b) and N-Phenethyl-2-phenylbenzo[1,3] oxazole-5-carboxamide (8c) demonstrated genuine HCV inhibitory activity with EC50 values of 41.6 and 24.5 µg/mL respectively.

Mode-locked thulium-bismuth codoped fiber laser using graphene saturable absorber in ring cavity.

We demonstrate mode locking of a thulium-bismuth codoped fiber laser (TBFL) operating at 1901.6 nm, using a graphene-based saturable absorber (SA). In this work, a single layer graphene is mechanically exfoliated using the scotch tape method and directly transferred onto the surface of a fiber pigtail to fabricate the SA. The obtained Raman spectrum characteristic indicates that the graphene on the core surface has a single layer. At 1552 nm pump power of 869 mW, the mode-locked TBFL self starts to generate an optical pulse train with a repetition rate of 16.7 MHz and pulse width of 0.37 ps. This is a simple, low-cost, stable, and convenient laser oscillator for applications where eye-safe and low-photon-energy light sources are required, such as sensing and biomedical diagnostics.

Bacterial and fungal endophthalmitis in upper Egypt: related species and risk factors.

OBJECTIVE: To study risk factors, contributing factors of bacterial and fungal endophthalmitis in Upper Egypt, test the isolated species sensitive to some therapeutic agents, and to investigate the air-borne bacteria and fungi in opthalmology operating rooms. METHODS: Thirty one cases of endophthalmitis were clinically diagnosed and microbiologically studied. Indoor air-borne bacteria and fungi inside four air-conditioned operating rooms in the Ophthalmology Department at Assiut University Hospitals were also investigated. The isolated microbes from endophthalmitis cases were tested for their ability to produce some extracellular enzymes including protease, lipase, urease, phosphatase and catalase. Also the ability of 5 fungal isolates from endophthalmitis origin to produce mycotoxins and their sensitivity to some therapeutic agents were studied. RESULTS: Results showed that bacteria and fungi were responsihle for infection in 10 and 6 cases of endophthalmitis, respectively and only 2 cases produced a mixture of bacteria and fungi. Trauma was the most prevalent risk factor of endophthalmitis where 58.1% of the 31 cases were due to trauma. In ophthalmology operating rooms, different bacterial and fungal species were isolated. 8 bacterial and 5 fungal isolates showed their ability to produce enzymes while only 3 fungal isolates were able to produce mycotoxins. Terbinafine showed the highest effect against most isolates in vitro. CONCLUSIONS: The ability of bacterial and fungal isolates to produce extracellular enzymes and mycotoxins may be aid in the invasion and destruction of eye tissues. Microbial contamination of operating rooms with air-borne bacteria and fungi in the present work may be a source of postoperative endophthalmitis.

The trypanocidal activity of amidine compounds does not correlate with their binding affinity to Trypanosoma cruzi kinetoplast DNA.

Due to limited efficacy and considerable toxicity, the therapy for Chagas' disease is far from being ideal, and thus new compounds are desirable. Diamidines and related compounds such as arylimidamides have promising trypanocidal activity against Trypanosoma cruzi. To better understand the mechanism of action of these heterocyclic cations, we investigated the kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) binding properties and trypanocidal efficacy against T. cruzi of 13 compounds. Four diamidines (DB75, DB569, DB1345, and DB829), eight arylimidamides (DB766, DB749, DB889, DB709, DB613, DB1831, DB1852, and DB2002), and one guanylhydrazone (DB1080) were assayed in thermal denaturation (T(m)) and circular dichroism (CD) studies using whole purified T. cruzi kDNA and a conserved synthetic parasite sequence. The overall CD spectra using the whole kDNA were similar to those found for the conserved sequence and were indicative of minor groove binding. Our findings showed that some of the compounds that exhibited the highest trypanocidal activities (e.g., DB766) caused low or no change in the T(m) measurements. However, while some active compounds, such as DB766, induced profound alterations of kDNA topology, others, like DB1831, although effective, did not result in altered T(m) and CD measurements. Our data suggest that the strong affinity of amidines with kDNA per se is not sufficient to generate and trigger their trypanocidal activity. Cell uptake differences and possibly distinct cellular targets need to be considered in the final evaluation of the mechanisms of action of these compounds.