Irinotecan is a critical anticancer drug used to treat metastatic colorectal cancer and advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma by obstructing topoisomerase 1; however, it can cause minor-to-severe and life-threatening adverse effects. UDP glucuronosyltransferase family 1 member A1 () polymorphisms increase the risk of irinotecan-induced neutropenia and diarrhea. Hence, screening for polymorphisms before irinotecan-based chemotherapy is recommended to minimize toxicity, whereas liposomes offer the potential to deliver irinotecan with fewer side effects in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Recently, progress has been made toward understanding the efficiency of polymer composites with natural fibres. With the hope of enhancing the characteristics of polymer composites supplemented with natural fibres in a watery environment, TiO2 nanoparticles have been used to improve their performance in the field.
Method: These nanoparticles were filled in luffa-epoxy components at 1, 3, and 5 % volume fractions.
In developing countries, like Pakistan, the pursuit of urbanization and economic development disrupts the delicate ecosystem, resulting in additional biogeochemical emissions of heavy metals into the human habitat and posing significant health risks. The levels of these trace elements in humans remain unknown in areas at higher risk of pollution in Pakistan. In this investigation, selected trace metals including Copper (Cu), Chromium (Cr), Lead (Pb) Cadmium (Cd), Cobalt (Co), Nickel (Ni), and Arsenic (As) were examined in human hair, urine, and nail samples of different age groups from three major cities (Muzaffargarh, Multan, and Vehari) in Punjab province, Pakistan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndustrial wastewater irrigation of agricultural crops can cause a lot of environmental and health problems in developing countries due to heavy metals deposition in agricultural soils as well as edible plant consumption by human beings. Therefore, this study was conducted to find out the heavy metals concentration in industrial wastewater and soil irrigated with that wastewater. In addition, the aim was to determine the impact of industrial wastewater irrigation on Parthenium hysterophorus and Zea mays genes involved in growth improvement and inhibition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: According to World Health Organization, melanoma claims the lives of about 48000 people worldwide each year. The purpose of this study was to identify potential phytochemical pool from Diplazium esculentum against proteins that contribute to melanoma development.
Methods: The research was carried to locate potentially bioactive molecules and conduct a theoretical analysis of active ingredients from DE to impact melanoma.
Background And Aims: There is growing evidence on the contribution of psychological factors to internet addiction; yet it remains inconsistent and deserves further exploration. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the psychological symptoms (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms, stress, depression, anxiety and loneliness) and internet addiction (IA) among the university students in Malaysia.
Materials And Methods: A total of 480 students from different faculties in a Malaysian public university participated in this study.
COVID-19 has been associated with various hyper-inflammatory conditions (HICs) such as macrophage activation, hematological dysfunction, cytokinaemia, coagulopathy, and liver inflammation. However, it is not clear if the differences in the disease severity and mortality shown by male and female COVID-19 patients are associated with these HICs. Here, we review the literature and present supporting laboratory data on the gender differences associated with various HICs in COVID-19 patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are pollutants of worldwide concern that seriously threaten public health and ecosystems. Machine learning (ML) prediction models have been applied to predict ARGs in beach waters. However, the existing studies were conducted at a single location and had low prediction performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Originating as a cluster of unexplained cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, China, a novel coronavirus disease, officially named as COVID-19 by WHO, has now reached a pandemic level. In the wake of this global health crisis, stringent public health measures were implemented to curtail the spread of COVID-19. At a local level, the University Hospitals of North Midlands National Health Service Trust suspended all elective and outpatient activity, primarily to address the current potential implications of the COVID-19 outbreak.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith the rapid development of deep learning techniques, new innovative license plate recognition systems have gained considerable attention from researchers all over the world. These systems have numerous applications, such as law enforcement, parking lot management, toll terminals, traffic regulation, etc. At present, most of these systems rely heavily on high-end computing resources.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoil mercury (Hg) and its bioaccumulation in food crops have attracted widespread concerns globally due to its harmful effects on biota. However, soil mercury fractionation, bioavailability, and the major factors predicting its transfer and accumulation in soil-wheat-systems have not been thoroughly explored. Twenty-one (21) soil samples collected throughout China with a wide spectrum of physico-chemical characteristics were contaminated with HgCl and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, the application of various recommendation algorithms on over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as Amazon Prime and Netflix has been explored, but the existing recommendation systems are less effective because either they fail to take an advantage of exploiting the inherent user relationship or they are not capable of precisely defining the user relationship. On such platforms, users generally express their preferences for movies and TV shows and also give ratings to them. For a recommendation system to be effective, it is important to establish an accurate and precise relationship between the users.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe robust use of osmolytes (i.e., polyols and sugars) in the key therapeutic regimens/formulations has questioned their impact beyond the stability of therapeutic proteins as these osmolytes trigger structural alterations into proteins including misfolding and subsequent aggregation into amyloid fibrils.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigate the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for the NAFTA countries. In this investigation, we approach this hypothesis from a different methodology and propose employing the ARMEY curve hypothesis since the mathematical-functional propositions of both hypotheses were constructed on the same inverted U-shaped relationships. Thus, for the first time, it can be interpreted that the EKC hypothesis is empirically tested through a transmission mechanism of the ARMEY curve hypothesis in a single composite model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Pollut Res Int
March 2022
Human activities such as deforestation and cultivation contribute to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the environment. Methane is emitted by energy exploration, coal mining, natural gas spills, waste, and waste dumps. Methane generated by such greenhouse gases has significantly contributed to the climate change and global warming.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMercury (Hg) contamination and accumulation in food crops is a global threat posing potential health risk to humans. However, Hg phytoavailability in soil-pepper system and its influencing factors largely remain unknown. In this study, a greenhouse pot experiment was conducted to grow peppers using 21 Chinese agricultural soils with varied soil properties and aged Hg levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioremediation and phytoremediation have demonstrated potential for decontamination of petroleum hydrocarbon-impacted soils. The total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) are known to induce phytotoxicity, reduce water retention in soil, associate hydrophobic nature and contaminants' in situ heterogeneous distribution, limit soil nutrient release and reduce soil aeration and compaction. The ageing of TPHs in contaminated soils further hinders the degradation process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGreenhouse gases are considered an immense threat for the environment and humanity on the planet, and also cause the climatic change. The present analysis key aim was to explore the effect of CO2 emission on foreign investment, renewable energy utilization, and population growth in Pakistan. The ARDL bounds testing technique was applied to investigate the variables' interaction via short- and long-run analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConstitutive NF-κB activation (NF-κB) confers survival and proliferation advantages to cancer cells and frequently occurs in T/B cell malignancies including adult T cell leukemia (ATL) caused by human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1). Counterintuitively, NF-κB by the HTLV-1 transactivator/oncoprotein Tax induces a senescence response, and HTLV-1 infections in culture mostly result in senescence or cell-cycle arrest due to NF-κB How NF-κB induces senescence, and how ATL cells maintain NF-κB and avert senescence, remain unclear. Here we report that NF-κB by Tax increases R-loop accumulation and DNA double-strand breaks, leading to senescence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTitanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiONPs) application in variety of commercial products would likely release these NPs into the environment. The interaction of TiONPs with terrestrial plants upon uptake can disturb plants functional traits and can also transfer to the food chain members. In this study, we investigated the impact of TiONPs on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Tacrolimus is a narrow therapeutic index medication, which requires therapeutic drug monitoring to optimize dosing based on systemic exposure. MITRA microsampling offers a convenient, minimally invasive approach for the collection of capillary blood samples from a finger prick versus conventional venous blood sampling for quantitation of tacrolimus blood concentrations. However, the suitability of MITRA microsampling for the determination of tacrolimus concentrations requires assessment in clinical settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus is a narrow therapeutic index medication, which requires therapeutic drug monitoring to optimize dose on the basis of systemic exposure. MITRA microsampling offers a minimally invasive approach for the collection of capillary blood samples from a fingerprick as an alternative to conventional venous blood sampling for quantitation of tacrolimus concentrations.
Methods: A bioanalytical method for the quantitation of tacrolimus in human whole blood samples collected on MITRA tips was developed, using liquid-liquid extraction followed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry detection.