Role of Nutraceuticals in Treating Erectile Dysfunction via Inhibition of Phosphodiesterase-5 Enzyme: A Mini Review.

Drug repurposing is an ongoing and clever strategy that is being developed to eradicate tuberculosis amid challenges, of which one of the major challenges is the resistance developed towards antibiotics used in standard directly observed treatment, short-course regimen. Surpassing the challenges in developing anti-tuberculous drugs, some novel host-directed therapies, repurposed drugs, and drugs with novel targets are being studied, and few are being approved too. After almost 4 decades since the approval of rifampicin as a potent drug for drugsusceptible tuberculosis, the first drug to be approved for drug-resistant tuberculosis is bedaquiline. Ever since the urge to drug discovery has been at a brisk as this milestone in tuberculosis treatment has provoked the hunt for novel targets in tuberculosis. Host-directed therapy and repurposed drugs are in trend as their pharmacological and toxicological properties have already been researched for some other diseases making the trial facile. This review discusses the remonstrance faced by researchers in developing a drug candidate with a novel target, the furtherance in tuberculosis research, novel anti-tuberculosis agents approved so far, and candidates on trial including the host-directed therapy, repurposed drug and drug combinations that may prove to be potential in treating tuberculosis soon, aiming to augment the awareness in this context to the imminent researchers.

A retrospective study on clinical factors influencing intra-fraction motion using volumetric imaging for spine stereotactic body radiotherapy.

Objectives: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for the spine is challenging due to high-dose gradients sparing the cord in the treatment plans. We present our findings of initial setup error and intrafraction motion from Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging. Materials and methods: A total of 47 patients treated with spine SBRT with a total of 154 fractions following a fractionation schedule of 16 Gy in 1, 24 Gy in 2, and 30 Gy in 5 fractions were part of this study. Pre-treatment CBCT was used for localization of the target and couch shifts were applied based on target volume matching to the planning CT image set. Post-treatment CBCT was acquired for all fractions. Intrafraction motion (IFM) was calculated by matching post-treatment CBCT to planning CT for the target volume. Results: The average Intrafraction motion was 1.6 ± 0.9 mm for the study cohort. The average and standard deviation of intrafraction motion were 0.4 ± 1.1 (AP), 0.3 ± 0.9 (SI) and 0.2 ± 1.2 (RL) respectively. The average Initial setup error tabulated from the offline review showed a mean value of 7.8 ± 5.3 mm. The average and standard deviation of the initial setup error were 2.5 ± 5.5 (AP), 2.4 ± 5.3(SI), and 0.8 ± 4.5(RL) respectively. The correlation of intrafraction motion with body mass index (BMI) and the number of consecutive vertebrae levels did not show any statistical significance, however, there was a significant association with gender as women showed more IFM. Conclusions: Our study on intrafraction motion from CBCT images reinforced the importance of immobilization and imaging for positioning spine SBRT patients. Advances in knowledge: The need for CBCT and imagining for positional errors is emphasized while treating with SBRT spine and the need for proper immobilization techniques.

Identifying Patterns of Failure and Risk Factors for Recurrence in Patients of Paratesticular Sarcomas: Protocol of a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Para testicular sarcomas are rare mesenchymal tumors that affect patients of all ages. Unlike other sites of sarcoma, they tend to be of lower grade and have a higher propensity for lymphatic spread. Management is hampered by the small number of patients who differ in terms of tumor grade and histology. Current treatment approaches are based on case reports, small case series and literature reviews, resulting in a number of unresolved issues. The consensus on the type of surgery and adjuvant treatment is yet to be determined. The local relapse rates in the scrotum and groin after orchidectomy comes out to be 25%-37%, indicating the need for either aggressive surgery or adjuvant treatment. There is a paucity of data identifying the patterns of failure and risk factors for recurrence, which will help clinicians tailor appropriate treatment. METHODS: We aim to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the available data in the last 50 years in a methodologically rigorous and transparent manner to identify patterns of failure and high-risk factors for recurrence. The protocol is prepared in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA-P) 2015 guidelines. The protocol is registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42021237134). HIGHLIGHTS: Para testicular sarcomas are rare mesenchymal tumors that affects patients of all ages. Current treatment approaches are based on case reports, small case series and literature reviews, resulting in a number of unresolved issues. A systemic review was performed in 2013 based on survival rates, prognostic factors, and relapse sites on paratesticular sarcomas. However, it lacks a comprehensive review that can guide radiation oncologists to select in which patient's postoperative radiotherapy is warranted and define the target volume based on histopathological type, stage, and grade of the tumor. After 2013, new case series with improved methodology and sample size are published, which adds new information to the literature. In one case series, 22 patients with spermatic cord sarcoma were discussed, while in another study, long-term outcome analysis of 51 patients was discussed, and another study discussed eight patients.

Change in Trend in Various Clinico-Pathological Factors and Treatment Profile of Breast Cancer Patients: a Tertiary Cancer Centre Experience.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is by far the most frequent cancer of women (23% of all cancers), ranking second overall when both sexes are considered together. Since there has been change in clinico-pathological factors and treatment profiles for breast cancer patients over the years, the present study to evaluate the change trends in India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A detailed analysis was carried out with respect to age, menopausal status, family history, disease stage, surgery performed, histopathology, hormone receptor status, and use of chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. Change in various clinico-pathological factors and treatments of breast cancer cases was recorded and analysed. RESULTS: Mean age at presentation was found to be earlier in 2005-2006 compared with 1997-98 (p value: 0.046). More premenopausal women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005-2006 when this was compared with initial years of assessment (p value ≤0.001). When change in the receptor status was evaluated, we observed that there was a decrease in cases of ER and PR receptor positivity which was significant (p value: 0.007). Over the period of time, more f patients were not offered surgery initially in view of advanced disease when the two time periods were compared (p value: ≤0.001). There was a significant increase in patients who were initially offered neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in view of advanced disease at presentation (p value: ≤0.001). There was increasing number of patients who received palliative treatment for symptoms in 2005-2006 when compared to patients treated in 1997-98((p value: ≤0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Changes in mean age at presentation, premenopausal status, and stage at presentation have occurred over the years. More aggressive patterns of disease have become more common with early age at presentation and aggressive biological behaviour with receptor negative tumours.

QuadBase: genome-wide database of G4 DNA--occurrence and conservation in human, chimpanzee, mouse and rat promoters and 146 microbes.

Emerging evidence indicates the importance of G-quadruplex motifs as drug targets. [Stuart A. Borman, Ascent of quadruplexes-nucleic acid structures become promising drug targets. Chem. Eng. News, 2007;85, 12-17], which stems from the fact that these motifs are present in a surprising number of promoters wherein their role in controlling gene expression has been demonstrated for a few. We present a compendium of quadruplex motifs, with particular focus on their occurrence and conservation in promoters-QuadBase. It is composed of two parts (EuQuad and ProQuad). EuQuad gives information on quadruplex motifs present within 10 kb of transcription starts sites in 99 980 human, chimpanzee, rat and mouse genes. ProQuad contains quadruplex information of 146 prokaryotes. Apart from gene-specific searches for quadruplex motifs, QuadBase has a number of other modules. 'Orthologs Analysis' queries for conserved motifs across species based on a selected reference organism; 'Pattern Search' can be used to fetch specific motifs of interest from a selected organism using user-defined criteria for quadruplex motifs, i.e. stem, loop size, etc. 'Pattern Finder' tool can search for motifs in any given sequence. QuadBase is freely available to users from non-profit organization at http://quadbase.igib.res.in/.