Novel insights on oral squamous cell carcinoma management using long non-coding RNAs.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most prevalent forms of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) with a poor overall survival rate (about 50%), particularly in cases of metastasis. RNA-based cancer biomarkers are a relatively advanced concept, and non-coding RNAs currently have shown promising roles in the detection and treatment of various malignancies. This review underlines the function of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the OSCC and its subsequent clinical implications.

Non-Coding RNAs in Oral Cancer: Emerging Roles and Clinical Applications.

Oral cancer (OC) is among the most prevalent cancers in the world. Certain geographical areas are disproportionately affected by OC cases due to the regional differences in dietary habits, tobacco and alcohol consumption. However, conventional therapeutic methods do not yield satisfying treatment outcomes.

Intracellular Ellagic Acid Derived from Goat Urine DMSO Fraction (GUDF) Predicted as an Inhibitor of c-Raf Kinase.

Background: Dietary chemicals and their gut-metabolized products are explored for their anti-proliferative and pro-cell death effects. Dietary and metabolized chemicals are different from ruminants such as goats over humans.

Methods: Loss of cell viability and induction of death due to goat urine DMSO fraction (GUDF) derived chemicals were assessed by routine in vitro assays upon MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

Protective role of host complement system in infection.

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a life-threatening fungal infection for immunocompromised hosts. It is, therefore, necessary to understand the immune pathways that control this infection. Although the primary infection site is the lungs, aspergillosis can disseminate to other organs through unknown mechanisms.

An Intracellular Tripeptide Arg-His-Trp of Serum Origin Detected in MCF-7 Cells is a Possible Agonist to β2 Adrenoceptor.

Background: The need for agonists and antagonists of β2 adrenoceptor (β2AR) is warranted in various human disease conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular and other metabolic disorders. However, the sources of agonists of β2AR are diverse in nature. Interestingly, there is a complete gap in the exploration of agonists of β2AR from serum that is a well-known component of culture media that supports growth and proliferation of normal and cancer cells in vitro.

Visualizing the knowledge outburst in global research on COVID-19.

The scholarly output of the new coronavirus research has been proliferating. During five months, an amount of 14,588 scientific publications about nCoV-2 and COVID-19 has been generated intensively (as indexed in Scopus on 31 May 2020). Such a knowledge outburst has created ample interest in understanding the research landscape of this newly configured area.

Sensing the interactions between carbohydrate-binding agents and -linked glycans of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein using molecular docking and simulation studies.

A recent surge in finding new candidate vaccines and potential antivirals to tackle atypical pneumonia triggered by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) needs new and unexplored approaches in solving this global pandemic. The homotrimeric transmembrane spike (S) glycoprotein of coronaviruses which facilitates virus entry into the host cells is covered with -linked glycans having oligomannose and complex sugars. These glycans provide a unique opportunity for their targeting via carbohydrate-binding agents (CBAs) which have shown their antiviral potential against coronaviruses and enveloped viruses.

Dietary Choices Modulate Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells: A Role of FXR Nuclear Receptor.

Intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneity (TMH) among colorectal cancer patients is considered as major hurdles to develop precise, potent, and personalized cancer therapeutics. The discernible factors that contribute to the existence of TMH and associated problems are suggested as genetic, molecular, epigenetic, and environmental pressures including shifts in trend from high-fiber diet to high-fat/processed sugar diet. In essence, components of high fat/processed sugar diet potentiate metabolic re-programing of inherent cellular heterogeneity of cancer stem cells (CSCs) by genetic and epigenetic pathways intersected by the farnesoid X receptor (FXR) nuclear receptor.

Metabolic Ink Lactate Modulates Epigenomic Landscape: A Concerted Role of Pro-tumor Microenvironment and Macroenvironment During Carcinogenesis.

Tumor heterogeneity is influenced by various factors including genetic, epigenetic and axis of metabolic-epigenomic regulation. In recent years, metabolic-epigenomic reprogramming has been considered as one of the many tumor hallmarks and it appears to be driven by both microenvironment and macroenvironment factors including diet, microbiota and environmental pressures. Epigenetically, histone lysine residues are altered by various post-translational modifications (PTMs) such as acetylation, acylation, methylation and lactylation.

Plant lectins and their usage in preparing targeted nanovaccines for cancer immunotherapy.

Plant lectins, a natural source of glycans with a therapeutic potential may lead to the discovery of new targeted therapies. Glycans extracted from plant lectins are known to act as ligands for C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) that are primarily present on immune cells. Plant-derived glycosylated lectins offer diversity in their N-linked oligosaccharide structures that can serve as a unique source of homogenous and heterogenous glycans.

A dosimetric study of electron beam therapy vs. high-dose-rate mould brachytherapy in adjuvant treatment of non-melanoma skin carcinomas of the head and neck region.

Purpose: Radiation for superficial tumours of the head and neck region can be given either by brachytherapy or electrons. Brachytherapy (BT), due to rapid dose fall-off and minor set-up errors, should be superior to external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for treatment of lesions in difficult locations such as the nose and earlobe. The present study is a dosimetric comparison of computed tomography (CT)-based mould brachytherapy treatment plans with 3D conformal electron beam therapy in the treatment of non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC).

Engineering anti-cancer nanovaccine based on antigen cross-presentation.

Dendritic cells (DCs) present exogenous antigens on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules, thereby activating CD8+ T cells, contributing to tumor elimination through a mechanism known as antigen cross-presentation. A variety of factors such as maturation state of DCs, co-stimulatory signals, T-cell microenvironment, antigen internalization routes and adjuvants regulate the process of DC-mediated antigen cross-presentation. Recently, the development of successful cancer immunotherapies may be attributed to the ability of DCs to cross-present tumor antigens.

A Leishmania donovani dominant-negative mutant for eIF2α kinase LdeK1 elicits host-protective immune response.

Dominant-negative mutation of LdeK1 gene, an eIF2α kinase from Leishmania donovani, revealed its role in translation regulation in response to nutrient starvation earlier. However, whether the kinase influences the infectivity of the parasites which naturally encounters nutrient deprivation during its life cycle was interesting to investigate. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments resulted in decrease of the parasite burden in peritoneal macrophages and in splenic/ hepatic load, respectively.

Identifying Drug Resistant miRNAs Using Entropy Based Ranking.

MicroRNAs play an important role in controlling drug sensitivity and resistance in cancer. Identification of responsible miRNAs for drug resistance can enhance the effectiveness of treatment. A new set theoretic entropy measure (SPEM) is defined to determine the relevance and level of confidence of miRNAs in deciding their drug resistant nature.

Extrachromosomal circular DNAs: an extra piece of evidence to depict tumor heterogeneity.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) comprises a heterogeneous number and type of cellular and noncellular components that vary in the context of molecular, genomic and epigenomic levels. The genotypic diversity and plasticity within cancer cells are known to be affected by genomic instability and genome alterations. Besides genomic instability within the chromosomal linear DNA, an extra factor appears in the form of extrachromosomal circular DNAs (eccDNAs; 2-20 kbp) and microDNAs (200-400 bp).

Activation of HRI is mediated by Hsp90 during stress through modulation of the HRI-Hsp90 complex.

Heme Regulated Inhibitor (HRI) is known to get activated in various stresses such as heme deficiency, heat shock, heavy metal toxicity etc. Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), a ubiquitous cytoplasmic protein interacts with HRI in order to regulate protein synthesis. However, it still remains to establish this interaction of HRI and Hsp90 at cellular levels and how this modulation of HRI activity is mediated by Hsp90 during stress.

conidial metalloprotease Mep1p cleaves host complement proteins.

Innate immunity in animals including humans encompasses the complement system, which is considered an important host defense mechanism against , one of the most ubiquitous opportunistic human fungal pathogens. Previously, it has been shown that the alkaline protease Alp1p secreted from mycelia degrades the complement components C3, C4, and C5. However, it remains unclear how the fungal spores ( conidia) defend themselves against the activities of the complement system immediately after inhalation into the lung.

Cloning and characterization of trehalase: a conserved glycosidase from oriental midge, .

Insect trehalase is a multiferous enzyme, crucial for normal physiological functions as well as under stress conditions. In this report, we present a fundamental study of the trehalase gene segment (1587 bp) from (CrTre) encoding for 529 amino acids, using appropriate bioinformatics tools. , a tropical midge is an emerging animal model to investigate the consequences of environmental stresses.

A Single-Step Simultaneous Protein Staining Procedure for Polyacrylamide Gels and Nitrocellulose Membranes by Alta During Western Blot Analysis.

A simple method for staining of proteins simultaneously on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gels and nitrocellulose membranes by Alta during Western blot analysis is described. A 5% solution of Alta, a commercially available cosmetic preparation, is added in the upper tank buffer during electrophoresis. On completion of electrophoresis, the gel is washed in distilled water, viewed on a white light plate and a transilluminator to photograph the protein profiles.

The Leishmania donovani IMPACT-like protein possesses non-specific nuclease activity.

IMPACT (Imprinted and Ancient)-like proteins are known to be regulators of GCN2 (General control non-derepressible 2) kinases involved in translation regulation. Here, we report on cloning and characterization of an IMPACT-like protein, LdIMPACT from Leishmania donovani which harbours two domains. 'RWD domain' at the N-terminal end that mediates GCN2 regulation, while a conserved 'ancient domain' lies at the C-terminal end whose function remains elusive.

Mutual concessions and compromises between stromal cells and cancer cells: driving tumor development and drug resistance.

Background: Various cancers have been found to be associated with heterogeneous and adaptive tumor microenvironments (TMEs) and to be driven by the local TMEs in which they thrive. Cancer heterogeneity plays an important role in tumor cell survival, progression and drug resistance. The diverse cellular components of the TME may include cancer-associated fibroblasts, adipocytes, pericytes, mesenchymal stem cells, endothelial cells, lymphocytes and other immune cells.

Computational insights into the interaction of small molecule inhibitors with HRI kinase domain.

The Heme-Regulated Inhibitor (HRI) kinase regulates globin synthesis in a heme-dependent manner in reticulocytes and erythroid cells in bone marrow. Inhibitors of HRI have been proposed to lead to an increased amount of haemoglobin, benefitting anaemia patients. A series of indeno[1,2-c]pyrazoles were discovered to be the first known in vitro inhibitors of HRI.

Emergence of a genotype I variant of avian infectious bronchitis virus from Northern part of India.

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is one of the foremost causes of a persistent economic burden to poultry industries worldwide. IBV belongs to the genus Gammacoronavirus within the family Coronaviridae. The IBV infection leads to respiratory and nephrogenic symptoms in broiler chickens.