Glioblastoma (GB) is the most aggressive form of brain cancer in adults, characterized by poor survival rates and lack of effective therapies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally through specific pairing with target messenger RNAs (mRNAs). Extracellular vesicles (EVs), a heterogeneous group of cell-derived vesicles, transport miRNAs, mRNAs and intracellular proteins, and have been shown to promote horizontal malignancy into adjacent tissue, as well as resistance to conventional therapies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA novel DPyDB-C[double bond, length as m-dash]N-18C6 compound was synthesised by linking a pyrene moiety to each phenyl group of dibenzo-18-crown-6-ether, the crown ether, through -HC[double bond, length as m-dash]N- bonds and characterized by FTIR, H-NMR, C-NMR, TGA, and DSC techniques. The quantitative C-NMR analysis revealed the presence of two position isomers. The electronic structure of the DPyDB-C[double bond, length as m-dash]N-18C6 molecule was characterized by UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopies in four solvents with different polarities to observe particular behavior of isomers, as well as to demonstrate a possible non-bonding chemical association (such as ground- and excited-state associations, namely, to probe if there were forming dimers/excimers).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Endocan is a specific endothelial mediator involved in the inflammatory response. Its role in the diagnosis of sepsis has been studied in adult patients and late onset neonatal sepsis. The clinical signs of early onset sepsis (EOS) are nonspecific and routinely used biomarkers, such as C-reactive protein and procalcitonin, have low sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Neonatal early onset sepsis assessment is based on the history of pregnancy and delivery and nonspecific clinical signs. None of the biomarkers currently in use for clinical practice has adequate prognostic value, so it is not possible to clearly distinguish neonates with culture-proven sepsis from those with only risk factors or clinical suspicion. Endocan is an endothelial mediator involved in the inflammatory response that is present in low concentrations in the serum of healthy subjects, and in much higher concentrations in patients with SIRS and septic shock.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status assessment has become increasingly important given the significant impact of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in lung cancer management. Our aim was to compare real life operational characteristics for three EGFR mutation assays - two targeted approaches and a next generation sequencing (NGS) technique.
Methods: EGFR mutation status was assessed for lung adenocarcinoma samples (formalin fixed- paraffin embedded samples) using qPCR, SNaPshot and NGS (Ion Torrent™) techniques.