Nanoadsorbents in focus for the remediation of environmentally-related contaminants with rising toxicity concerns.

Modern lifestyle demands high-end commodities, for instance, cosmetics, detergents, shampoos, household cleaning, sanitary items, medicines, and so forth. In recent years, these products' consumption has increased considerably, being antibiotics and some other pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs). Several antibiotics and PPCPs represent a wide range of emerging contaminants with a straight ingress into aquatic systems, given their high persistence in seawater, effluent treatment plants, and even drinking water. Under these considerations, the necessity of developing new and affordable technologies for the treatment and sustainable mitigation of pollutants is highly requisite for a safer and cleaner environment. One possible mitigation solution is an effective deployment of nanotechnological cues as promising matrices that can contribute by attending issues and improving the current strategies to detect, prevent, and mitigate hazardous pollutants in water. Focused on nanoparticles' distinctive physical and chemical properties, such as high surface area, small size, and shape, metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been investigated for water remediation. MNPs gained increasing interest among research groups due to their superior efficiency, stability, and high catalyst activity compared with conventional systems. This review summarizes the occurrence of antibiotics and PPCPs and the application of MNPs as pollutant mitigators in the aquatic environment. The work also focuses on transportation fate, toxicity, and current regulations for environmental safety.

Insight Into Nanoliposomes as Smart Nanocarriers for Greening the Twenty-First Century Biomedical Settings.

The necessity to develop more efficient, biocompatible, patient compliance, and safer treatments in biomedical settings is receiving special attention using nanotechnology as a potential platform to design new drug delivery systems (DDS). Despite the broad range of nanocarrier systems in drug delivery, lack of biocompatibility, poor penetration, low entrapment efficiency, and toxicity are significant challenges that remain to address. Such practices are even more demanding when bioactive agents are intended to be loaded on a nanocarrier system, especially for topical treatment purposes. For the aforesaid reasons, the search for more efficient nano-vesicular systems, such as nanoliposomes, with a high biocompatibility index and controlled releases has increased considerably in the past few decades. Owing to the stratum corneum layer barrier of the skin, the in-practice conventional/conformist drug delivery methods are inefficient, and the effect of the administered therapeutic cues is limited. The current advancement at the nanoscale has transformed the drug delivery sector. Nanoliposomes, as robust nanocarriers, are becoming popular for biomedical applications because of safety, patient compliance, and quick action. Herein, we reviewed state-of-the-art nanoliposomes as a smart and sophisticated drug delivery approach. Following a brief introduction, the drug delivery mechanism of nanoliposomes is discussed with suitable examples for the treatment of numerous diseases with a brief emphasis on fungal infections. The latter half of the work is focused on the applied perspective and clinical translation of nanoliposomes. Furthermore, a detailed overview of clinical applications and future perspectives has been included in this review.

Risk factors for uterine fibroids among women undergoing tubal sterilization.

Uterine leiomyomas are reported to be the most common benign gynecologic tumors affecting premenopausal women, and they are often associated with considerable morbidity. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors for uterine fibroids among women undergoing tubal sterilization. Cases comprised women aged 17-44 years whose uterine fibroids were first visualized at the time of tubal sterilization (1978-1979 or 1985-1987) or who reported a history of uterine fibroids (n = 317). Controls were randomly selected from women with no laparoscopic evidence of or history of fibroids (n = 1,268). Adjusted odds ratios were estimated using unconditional logistic regression separately for White (n = 1,235) and African-American (n = 350) women. Risk factors for White women included: age 40-44 years (odds ratio (OR) = 6.3; 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.5, 11.6), > or =5 years since last delivery (OR = 1.9; 95% CI: 1.1, 3.1), lifetime cigarette smoking of > or =1 pack/day (OR = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.1, 2.3), menstrual cycle length of >30 days (OR = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.1, 3.3), and menstrual bleeding for > or =6 days (OR = 1.4; 95% CI: 1.0, 2.0). Parous women were at reduced risk compared with nulliparous women (OR = 0.2; 95% CI: 0.1, 0.3). Advancing age was the only significant risk factor for African-American women (ages 40-44 years, OR = 27.5; 95% CI: 5.6, 83.6). Current oral contraceptive use and elective abortion were not associated with fibroids.

In vitro interactions between platinum analogues in human ovarian-carcinoma cell lines.

In vitro and clinical data suggest that cisplatin and carboplatin resistance may be overcome in some cases by dose escalation, although clinical toxicities limit this approach. Administration of platinum analogues in combination is an alternative dose-intensification strategy that has been little studied. The cytotoxicities of cisplatin (CDDP), carboplatin (CBDCA), and tetraplatin (TP, ormaplatin) alone and in combination were assayed by inhibition of the clonogenic survival of human ovarian-carcinoma cell lines (a) from an untreated patient (A2780), (b) selected for CDDP resistance in vitro (2780-CP70), and (c) from patients presenting with clinically refractory disease (OVCAR3, OVCAR10). The sensitivity patterns of these cell lines to platinum analogues were consistent with the existence of at least two platinum-resistance phenotypes - one being moderately resistant to CDDP and CBDCA but highly resistant to TP and the other being highly resistant to CDDP and CBDCA but only partially cross-resistant with TP. Effects of drug combinations were determined by median-effect analysis. Interactions between platinum analogues were variable in different cell lines. Synergistic cytotoxicity was apparent for the CDDP-CBDCA combination in the A2780 and OVCAR-3 cell lines and for the CDDP-TP combination in 2780-CP70 and OVCAR-3. Strong antagonistic effects were seen for CBDCA-TP in 2780-CP70. Platinum analogues showed additive effects in the remaining cell lines. These data suggest that there may be distinct sensitivity phenotypes for platinum-analogue combinations. The demonstration of in vitro synergy between platinum analogues supports their combined clinical use.