Evaluation of the changes in the expression levels of miR-141 and SHP gene in prostate cancer specimens

Introduction: Primary screening tests currently used for prostate cancer (PCa), don’t have sufficient sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, early diagnosis and management of treatment is one of the challenges faced by physicians. Today, more familiar with the signaling pathways involved in the pathogenesis of cancers, several molecules have been introduced as diagnostic biomarker or drug design. The androgen receptor is one of the most important pathways involved in the pathogenesis of PCa. The miR-141, as a member of the miR-200 family has a regulatory role by targeting the Small heterodimer partner (SHP , NR0B2) at the downstream of this molecular pathway. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate changes in the expression of miR-141 and SHP in tissue samples of PCa patients compared to benign prosttic hyperplasia (BPH) tissues. Method: In this study, changes in expression of miR-141 and SHP at the RNA level were performed using qRT-PCR technique on 68 prostate tissues containing, 26 localized PCa, 4 metastatic PCa, 30 BPH and 8 tumor-adjacent normal tissues. Also, the analysis of the results was investigated using REST software. Changes in SHP expression at protein level were investigated in 20 Paraffin-embedded tissue blocks containing 10 PCa and 10 BPH using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Results: The findings of this study showed that miR-141 increased in metastatic samples compared with localized samples (P <0.001, 31.17-fold change). Tumor samples showed a lower expression level of SHP compared with BPH tissues at mRNA and protein level (p = 0.014, 4.7 fold change) and (p = 0.02, 1.8 fold change), respectively. Conclusion: According to our results, it can be concluded that miR-141 plays a role in the pathogenesis of PCa through the androgen receptor signaling pathway and the SHP regulation. Also, miR-141 has a high potential for diagnosis of PCa as a prognostic biomarker. Keywords: Prostate cancer, SHP gene, miR-141, Biomarke

Macroscopic and microscopical investigations of the effects of alcoholic extract of henna (Lawsonia inermis) on skin healing of experimentally induced tissue damage in macro fish (Labidochromis caeruleus)

One of the well-known herbal drugs is henna (Lawsonia inermis). According to the components in henna, several beneficial properties (i.e., antimicrobial, anti-inflammation, wound healing, trypsin inhibitory and antioxidant) have been reported. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of two natural substances (sodium chloride and henna extract) on experimental skin lesion due to pulling out scales and trypsin injection (0/02 ml, beneath dorsal fin). For this purpose, 54 fish in weight 5/5±0/55 of were divided to 3 groups, with eighteen fish in each group. Fishes were placed in laboratory condition in 22-25 ˚C. Two, four and six days after induction of skin injury, fishes were treated with different agents for 10 minutes. First group was treated in salt water 1%, second group in henna extract 0.5% and the control group without any additives. The fish were sampled weekly, 3 times by sampling from the wound. Macroscopic examination showed that color changes of wound place decreased in henna group in comparison with that other groups. In third week of healing, normal appearance of skin were seen in most of fishes in henna and salt groups. Microscopic study revealed a decrease in inflammatory cells infiltration in henna group second week after induction of skin injury. It seems that henna by decreasing inflammatory process, can also prevent skin damage and secondary infections that can help faster and more effective on wound healing than salt bath in fish

Dynamic extended finite element method (XFEM) analysis of discontinuous media

The extended finite element method (XFEM) is found promising in approximating solutions to locally non-smooth features such as jumps, kinks, high gradients, inclusions, or cracks in solid mechanics problems. The XFEM uses the properties of the partition of unity finite element method (PUFEM) to represent the discontinuities without the corresponding finite element mesh requirements. In the present thesis numerical simulations of statically and dynamically loaded heterogeneous beams, heterogeneous plates and two-dimensional cracked media of isotropic and orthotropic constitutive behaviour are performed using XFEM. The examples are chosen such that they represent strong and weak discontinuities, static and dynamic loading conditions, anisotropy and isotropy and strain-rate dependent and independent behaviours. At first, the Timoshenko beam element is studied by adopting the Hellinger-Reissner (HR) functional with the out-of-plane displacement and through-thickness shear strain as degrees of freedom. Heterogeneous beams are considered and the mixed formulation has been combined with XFEM thus mixed enrichment functions are used. The results from the proposed mixed formulation of XFEM correlate well with analytical solutions and Finite Element Method (FEM) and show higher rates of convergence. Thus the proposed method is shear-locking free and computationally more efficient compared to its conventional counterparts. The study is then extended to a heterogeneous Mindlin-Reissner plate with out-of-plane shear assumed constant through length of the element and with a quadratic distribution through the thickness. In all cases the zero shear on traction-free surfaces at the top and bottom are satisfied. These cases involve weak discontinuity. Then a two-dimensional orthotropic medium with an edge crack is considered and the static and dynamic J-integrals and stress intensity factors (SIF’s) are calculated. This is achieved by fully (reproducing elements) or partially (blending elements) enriching the elements in the vicinity of the crack tip or body. The enrichment type is restricted to extrinsic mesh-based topological local enrichment in the current work. A constitutive model for strain-rate dependent moduli and Poisson ratios (viscoelasticity) is formulated. The same problem is studied using the viscoelastic constitutive material model implemented in ABAQUS through an implicit user defined material subroutine (UMAT). The results from XFEM correlate well with those of the finite element method (FEM). It is shown that there is an increase in the value of maximum J-integral when the material exhibits strain rate sensitivity.Open Acces

Evaluation of the Housekeeping Genes; β‐Actin, Glyceraldehyde‐3‐Phosphate‐Dehydrogenase, and 18S rRNA for Normalization in Real‐Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Analysis of Gene Expression in Human Adipose Tissue

Background: Several studies suggested that beta-actin, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), and 18S rRNA are expressed constitutively and contribute to the fundamental reference actions essential for cell viability and maintenance. However, there are inconsistency in this regard. Hence, we aimed to evaluate the accuracy of these three potential reference genes for Real‐Time quantitative reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) application for normalization in two types of human adipose tissues.Materials and Methods: Subcutaneous and visceral fat tissues were derived from 19 healthy and 20 obese subjects and RT-qPCR was applied to determine the expression levels of beta-actin, GAPDH, and18S rRNA.Results: The gene expression level of beta-actin, GAPDH, and 18S rRNA was essentially the same in the subcutaneous and visceral fat tissues of all participants (P&gt;0.05). Hence, all considered housekeeping genes displayed high expression stability and the analysis revealed that normalization to all of these three housekeeping genes gave a result that satisfactorily reflected the acceptable mRNA expression levels in adipose tissues.Conclusion: Collectively, our findings suggest of beta-actin, GAPDH, and18S rRNA as reference genes applicable in human adipose tissue in the context of obesity

Anti-Nociceptive Effect of Sufentanil Polymeric Dissolving Microneedle on Male Mice by Hot Plate Technique

Background: Despite the widespread use of opioids to manage severe pain, its systemic administration results in side effects. Among the subcutaneous and transdermal drug delivery systems developed to deal with adverse effects, microneedles have drawn attention due to their rapid action, high drug bioavailability, and improved permeability. Sufentanil (SUF) is an effective injectable opioid for treating severe pain. In this study, we investigated the analgesic effects of SUF using dissolvable microneedles. Methods: SUF polymeric dissolvable microneedles were constructed through the mold casting method and characterized by SEM and FTIR analysis. Its mechanical strength was also investigated using a texture analyzer. Fluorescence microscopy was applied in vitro to measure the penetration depth of microneedle arrays. Irritation and microchannel closure time, drug release profile, and hemocompatibility test were conducted for the validation of microneedle efficiency. Hot plate test was also used to investigate the analgesic effect of microneedle in an animal model. Results: Local administration of SUF via dissolving microneedles had an effective analgesic impact. One hour after administration, there was no significant difference between the subcutaneous and the microneedle groups, and the mechanical properties were within acceptable limits. Conclusion: Microneedling is an effective strategy in immediate pain relief compared to the traditional methods.</p

Comparison of the Performance of Two Terahertz Antennas Based on Photonic Structures for Cancer Tissue Detection

This article proposes the design and performance comparison between two wideband Vivaldi antennas (more than 120% bandwidth) operating at 0.5-2 THz and a dual-band log-periodic antenna at 1.2 and 1.5 THz for cancer detection with novel arrangements of photonic crystals, metasurfaces, and grating reflectors. In the Vivaldi structure, the photonic crystal walls are implemented on both sides of the antenna to provide an electrical shield to focus energy for gain enhancement and antenna directivity as well as sidelobe reduction. The front-to-back ratio (F/B) is another issue for this antenna where toothed elements are used as reflectors to reduce the antenna's backlobe. This antenna covers the frequency range of 0.5-2 THz with a maximum gain of 8.8 dBi. The proposed antenna is used for breast and skin cancer detection modeled by a Debye 2nd order model. In the second structure, a log-periodic toothed antenna is used as the radiator along with photonic crystals and metasurfaces to improve antenna directivity and reduce the F/B ratio. In this structure, the metasurface is designed as a fractal disk to also exhibit dual-band characteristics. The maximum antenna gain is increased to 11.5 dBi with near 90% efficiency. Reflection and transmission values, pulse response, and phase change of healthy and cancerous tissues are used for cancer detection.</p

Ileal intussusception secondary to both lipoma and angiolipoma: a case report

Lipoma and angiolipoma are common benign neoplasms that occur in the subcutaneous tissue and rarely in the gastrointestinal tract. These tumors are usually asymptomatic but may present with abdominal pain, bleeding and obstruction. We present a 53-years-old woman with abdominal discomfort for several weeks accompanied with bloody diarrhea and recurrent vomiting. Ileo-ileal invagination was diagnosed by computed tomography scan. Laparotomy revealed five intraluminal masses that caused intussusception. Histopathological study showed that one was angiolipoma and other lesions were lipoma. We have described some aspects of diagnosis and treatment of this rare cause of intestinal intussusception

Burn Your Vote: Decentralized and Publicly Verifiable Anonymous Voting at Scale

Secure and trustworthy electronic voting requires more than correctness and censorship resistance, it must also ensure voter privacy, vote confidentiality, and protection against coercion. Prior work attempt to address these challenges using heavyweight cryptographic primitives such as homomorphic encryption, time-lock puzzles, or multi-party computation. These approaches often involve complex computations, depend on trusted parties, and typically do not scale well. We propose a lightweight, fully on-chain anonymous voting protocol based on a novel application of the proof-of-burn (PoB) mechanism. Voters anonymously commit to their votes by burning tokens to pseudorandom addresses and later submit zero-knowledge proofs attesting to their valid participation. Our design achieves vote integrity, coercion resistance, and unlinkability without relying on encrypted ballots, trusted third parties, or centralized tallying. The tallying process is public and operates on plaintext votes that are authenticated yet unlinkable to voters. This enables flexible voting models—including token-weighted and quadratic voting—with minimal on-chain overhead. We formally analyze the protocol’s security guarantees and demonstrate support for a broad range of voting models. We implement the protocol as an open-source library fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and our experimental evaluation confirms its high scalability and improved efficiency compared to the state-of-the-art

Optimization of photochemical decomposition acetamiprid pesticide from aqueous solutions and effluent toxicity assessment by Pseudomonas aeruginosa BCRC using response surface methodology

Contamination of water resources by acetamiprid pesticide is considered one of the main environmental problems. The aim of this study was the optimization of acetamiprid removal from aqueous solutions by TiO2/Fe3O4/SiO2 nanocomposite using the response surface methodology (RSM) with toxicity assessment by Pseudomonas aeruginosa BCRC. To obtain the optimum condition for acetamiprid degradation using RSM and central composite design (CCD). The magnetic TiO2/Fe3O4/SiO2 nanocomposite was synthesized using co-precipitation and sol�gel methods. The surface morphology of the nanocomposite and magnetic properties of the as-synthesized Fe3O4 nanoparticles were characterised by scanning electron microscope and vibrating sample magnetometer, respectively. In this study, toxicity assessment tests have been carried out by determining the activity of dehydrogenase enzyme reducing Resazurin (RR) and colony forming unit (CFU) methods. According to CCD, quadratic optimal model with R2 = 0.99 was used. By analysis of variance, the most effective values of each factor were determined in each experiment. According to the results, the most optimal conditions for removal efficiency of acetamiprid (pH = 7.5, contact time = 65 min, and dose of nanoparticle 550 mg/L) was obtained at 76.55. Effect concentration (EC50) for RR and CFU test were 1.950 and 2.050 mg/L, respectively. Based on the results obtained from the model, predicted response values showed high congruence with actual response values. And, the model was suitable for the experiment�s design conditions. © 2017, The Author(s)