Wasp Venom Biochemical Components and Their Potential in Biological Applications and Nanotechnological Interventions.

Wasps, members of the order Hymenoptera, are distributed in different parts of the world, including Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Korea, and Argentina. The lifestyles of the wasps are solitary and social. Social wasps use venom as a defensive measure to protect their colonies, whereas solitary wasps use their venom to capture prey. Chemically, wasp venom possesses a wide variety of enzymes, proteins, peptides, volatile compounds, and bioactive constituents, which include phospholipase A2, antigen 5, mastoparan, and decoralin. The bioactive constituents have anticancer, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, the limited quantities of wasp venom and the scarcity of advanced strategies for the synthesis of wasp venom's bioactive compounds remain a challenge facing the effective usage of wasp venom. Solid-phase peptide synthesis is currently used to prepare wasp venom peptides and their analogs such as mastoparan, anoplin, decoralin, polybia-CP, and polydim-I. The goal of the current review is to highlight the medicinal value of the wasp venom compounds, as well as limitations and possibilities. Wasp venom could be a potential and novel natural source to develop innovative pharmaceuticals and new agents for drug discovery.

Essential oils of aromatic Egyptian plants repel nymphs of the tick Ixodes ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae).

Due to the role of Ixodes ricinus (L.) (Acari: Ixodidae) in the transmission of many serious pathogens, personal protection against bites of this tick is essential. In the present study the essential oils from 11 aromatic Egyptian plants were isolated and their repellent activity against I. ricinus nymphs was evaluated Three oils (i.e. Conyza dioscoridis L., Artemisia herba-alba Asso and Calendula officinalis L.) elicited high repellent activity in vitro of 94, 84.2 and 82%, respectively. The most active essential oil (C. dioscoridis) was applied in the field at a concentration of 6.5 µg/cm2 and elicited a significant repellent activity against I. ricinus nymphs by 61.1%. The most repellent plants C. dioscoridis, C. officinalis and A. herba-alba yielded essential oils by 0.17, 0.11 and 0.14%, respectively. These oils were further investigated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. α-Cadinol (10.7%) and hexadecanoic acid (10.5%) were the major components of C. dioscoridis whereas in C. officinalis, α-cadinol (21.2%) and carvone (18.2%) were major components. Artemisia herba-alba contained piperitone (26.5%), ethyl cinnamate (9.5%), camphor (7.7%) and hexadecanoic acid (6.9%). Essential oils of these three plants have a potential to be used for personal protection against tick bites.

Anti-schistosomiasis triterpene glycoside from the Egyptian medicinal plant Asparagus stipularis

Bioassay-guided isolation using an in vitro assay testing for anti- schistosomiasis yielded a novel triterpene saponin, asparagalin A, from the n-butanol extract of the roots of Asparagus stipularis Forssk., Asparagaceae. The structure was elucidated by spectroscopic analysis and chemical transformations. Administration of asparagalin A resulted in a retardation of worm growth and locomotion at the first day and showed a significant activity of egg-laying suppression at 200 µg/mL concentration.

Switching to letrozole versus continued tamoxifen therapy in treatment of postmenopausal women with early breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Tamoxifen has been the mainstay of breast cancer therapy. Over time, resistance to tamoxifen may develop. The aromatase inhibitors have proven to be a powerful drug for use in hormone-sensitive early breast cancer. The switching strategy was designed to combine the apparent superior efficacy of aromatase inhibitors with tamoxifen favourable effects. METHODS: This study was performed on 120 postmenopausal women with histologically confirmed, hormone receptor-positive, operable invasive breast carcinoma who remained free of disease after 2 years of adjuvant tamoxifen therapy. They were randomized to receive either letrozole 2.5mg/day (60 patients) or to continue 20mg/day tamoxifen for 5 years (60 patients). RESULTS: The treatment groups were well balanced in terms of age, tumor size, nodal status, oestrogen and progesterone receptor status, and previous surgery. The disease recurred in 10 patients in the group receiving tamoxifen and 3 patients in the same group switched to letrozole. There were 8 deaths in the group receiving tamoxifen and 3 deaths in the group of patients who switched to letrozole. Disease-free survival was higher in the group of patients who switched to letrozole compared to the group of patients who received tamoxifen (p=0.04), while the overall survival was not statistically significantly different in the two groups. Letrozole was associated with a significantly lower rate of vaginal bleeding and thromboembolic events. However, bone fractures and adverse cardiovascular events were more frequent in the arm receiving letrozole than in the arm receiving tamoxifen but these differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Switching to letrozole after 2 years of tamoxifen may be better than continuing five years of tamoxifen therapy as regard efficacy and tolerability. Further study is recomended on a larger group of patients to verify this finding. KEY WORDS: Breast cancer - Hormonal treatment - Letrozole - Tamoxifen.

Preoperative isolated limb infusion of Doxorubicin and external irradiation for limb-threatening soft tissue sarcomas.

BACKGROUND: At present, limb-sparing surgery is the most appropriate and acceptable treatment option for soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities. To increase the number of limb-sparing resections in the treatment of locally advanced soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities, preoperative radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy are often used. Isolated limb perfusion of cytostatic agents is an effective alternative option but technically complex. Isolated limb infusion, essentially a low-flow isolated limb perfusion without oxygenation via a percutaneous catheter, had been developed as a simple alternative. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to achieve limb-sparing surgery in patients with locally advanced soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities that would otherwise have required an amputation or a functionally mutilating surgery by performing preoperative isolated limb infusion with doxorubicin and external beam irradiation to obtain local control and make limb-sparing surgery feasible. METHODS: A total of 40 patients with locally advanced soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities were evaluated between 2002 and 2005. Tumors were located in the lower limb in 28 patients (70%) and in the upper limb in 12 patients (30%). All of these patients were felt to be unresectable and were referred because amputation was considered the only available treatment option. They underwent preoperative isolated limb infusion with doxorubicin (0.7 and 1.4 mg/kg for the upper and lower limbs, respectively). Preoperative external beam radiotherapy started within 3-7 days after isolated limb infusion was administered. The total dose was 35 Gy in ten fractions. After 3-7 weeks, surgery was performed aiming at limb preservation. RESULTS: Tumor response was seen in 85% of patients, rendering these large sarcomas resectable in most cases. The mean values of pretreatment tumor volume and post-treatment volume were 2797 cm(3) and 1781 cm(3), respectively, with a significant p value of 0.0001. Histologic response was seen in 80% of patients. At a median followup of 15 months (range = 5-35), limb salvage was achieved in 82.5%. Procedure-related complications were limited and easily managed. CONCLUSION: Isolated limb infusion with doxorubicin is a simple and safe method of regional chemotherapy. The addition of preoperative external beam irradiation helped to increase the rate of limb salvage in patients with large and/or high-grade soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities.

Rapid diagnosis and follow up of bladder cancer patients using urinary high molecular weight cytokeratins.

We have developed an office-based dot-EIA for the detection of a urinary high molecular weight cytokeratin (CK). Immunohistochemical staining and western blot based on CK1K10 monoclonal antibody were used to identify the CK. Urine of 192 patients with different types, grades, and stages of bladder tumor and 72 controls were evaluated using dot-EIA. An intense and diffuse cytoplasmic reaction was shown in bladder squamous cell carcinoma. The target epitope was identified in urine at 65, 56, and 40-kDa. The CK purified from urine showed single polypeptide at 65-kDa using SDS-PAGE and single peak at 7.4 min using capillary zone electrophoresis. The dot-EIA detected the CK with high sensitivity (97%) and specificity (94%). The CK was not detected in urine of bladder cancer patients showing response to radiotherapy. The sensitive and specific office-based detection of urinary cytokeratin would be helpful in rapid diagnosis and follow up of bladder carcinoma.

An office-based immunodiagnostic assay for detecting urinary nuclear matrix protein 52 in patients with bladder cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To report the rapid (5 min) and simple detection of a nuclear matrix protein (NMP) in the urine of patients with bladder cancer, using a newly developed office-based dot-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Western blot and specific immunoglobulin-G antibody were used to identify the urinary NMP marker. Urine samples from 149 patients with bladder cancer and 72 controls were evaluated using the developed dot-ELISA. The initial responses of 43 patients treated by irradiation were followed using the assay. RESULTS: The NMP marker was identified in the urine of patients with bladder cancer at 52 kDa (NMP-52) by Western blot. The dot-ELISA detected the urinary NMP-52 marker in 92% of patients with squamous cell carcinoma, 98% with transitional cell carcinoma, and all six of those with adenocarcinoma of the bladder, with a specificity of 94%. The positive and negative predictive values (97% and 94%, respectively) and efficiency (96%) of the dot-ELISA were high. In addition, the NMP-52 tumour marker was not detected in the urine of patients who showed a response after radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: Detecting the urinary NMP-52 marker using dot-ELISA would be helpful in the rapid diagnosis and follow-up of patients with bladder cancer.