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Breast carcinoma (BC) is one of the most frequent causes of cancer-related death among women, which is due to the poor response to conventional therapy. There are several complications associated with monotherapy for cancer, such as cytotoxicity to normal cells, multidrug resistance (MDR), side effects, and limited applications. To overcome these challenges, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy (monoclonal antibodies, anticancer vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors, and cytokines) has been introduced. Drug delivery systems (DDSs) based on nanotechnology have more applications in BC treatment owing to their controlled and targeted drug release with lower toxicity and reduced adverse drug effects. Several nanocarriers, such as liposomes, nanoparticles, dendrimers, and micelles, have been used for the effective delivery of drugs.This article presents opportunities and challenges in BC treatment, the rationale for cancer immunotherapy, and several combinational approaches with their applications for BC treatment.Nanotechnology can be used for the early prognosis and cure of BC. Several novel and targeted DDSs have been developed to enhance the efficacy of anticancer drugs. This article aims to understand new strategies for the treatment of BC and the appropriate design of nanocarriers used as a combinational DDS.

The Severe acute respiratory syndrome and the Middle East respiratory syndromes emerged in 2002 and 2012 respectively. Currently the world is witnessing a global pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV- 2) causing the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). Mucormycosis is a fungal infection primarily affecting individuals with an immunocompromised state like diabetes mellitus, malignancies etc. Patients who have or have had COVID-19 infection with pre-existing uncontrolled Type 2 Diabetes mellitus are presumably more vulnerable for emergence of fungal infections cases. This article presents a report of 6 cases with histopathological proven mucormycosis associated with COVID-19 and uncontrolled Diabetes mellitus.

Ultrasound stimulated drug delivery (USDD) is a unique strategy for drug delivery an essential research area for chemotherapy. Ultrasound (US) technique is an effective, noninvasive, targetable, and controllable technique where sound waves are utilized for cancer treatment. US can directly enhance the effective therapeutic concentration at target site, as it usually increases the penetrability of cell membrane for the poorly permeable drug and causes local hyperthermia. Recent research studies have explored polymer technology for triggered drug/gene delivery using external stimuli such as ultrasound, electromagnetic and laser induction. Several biodegradable polymers possess US-responsive characteristics which could be utilized in cancer therapy via hyperthermia and sonoporation using High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). The nanocarrier with US has display a great potential in diagnostic and therapeutic application in cancer. Exploited USDD systems include nanobubbles, nanodroplets, micelles, liposomes, microbubbles and nanoparticles etc. This chapter encompasses a detailed account of basic, recent advances and emerging application of USDD systems in cancer chemotherapy.

Liposomes are sphere-shaped vesicles consisting of one or more phospholipid bilayers. The liposomal drug delivery systems were utilized for delivery of compounds for different diseases. These systems improve the stability as well as cellular uptake of drugs. Site-specific delivery to the target site reduced the site effects. This chapter summarizes the recent advances in liposomal drug delivery systems (i) therapeutic applications-based chemotherapy; (ii) chemotherapy in combination to gene therapy and immunotherapy; (iii) theranostic applications for precise detection and simultaneous treatment of critical diseases and heavy metal toxicity; (iv) stimuli-triggered liposomes. This chapter gives a detailed account on aforementioned applications which might be beneficial to pharmaceutical scientists and industries to develop safe and effective liposomal systems.

Introduction. Middle ear infection affects mostly infants and children, associated with elevatedlevel of S. mutans, which increases the chances of developing caries.Aim. To evaluate the difference in level of Streptococcus mutans between normal children & children affected by middle ear infection.Method. This descriptive study was carried out on 120 children aged 5 years and younger. They were selected randomly from schools and medical hospitals. S. mutans was counted from saliva sample and a questionnaire was given to be filled by their parents about the feeding method, pattern and specific childhood illness.Result. Out of 120 children examined, 62 were boys and 58 were girls. Mean CFU in middle ear infection group was 5.60+9.53, whereas in children with no middle ear infection it was 1.70+3.34. Unpaired ‘t’ test revealed statistically significant difference among the two groups (p value = 0.001).Conclusion. S. mutans count was comparatively higher in children having middle ear infection rather than non-infected children, which may cause dental caries in the future.

Objectives: To provide a brief and precise review of management of patients requiring interventional procedures in ENT during covid-19 and the precautions required to be taken by ENT surgeons while performing them. Data Sources: The ENT cochrane, pubmed and web of science databases were searched and the words ‘covid-19’, ‘sars cov-2’ and ‘ENT’ were used in conjunction with ‘interventional procedures’. Conclusion: Non urgent procedures must be deferred. Having complete knowledge about the cases requiring interventional procedures in ENT and the precautions required to be kept in mind while performing them is a must.

In recent years, hundreds of candidate protein biomarkers have been identified using discovery-based proteomics. Despite the large number of candidate biomarkers, few proteins advance to clinical validation. We propose a hypothesis-driven approach to identify candidate biomarkers, previously characterized in the literature, with the highest probability of clinical applicability. A ranking method, called the “hypothesis-directed biomarker ranking” (HDBR) system, was developed to score candidate biomarkers based on seven criteria deemed important in the selection of clinically useful biomarkers. To demonstrate its application, we applied the HDBR system to identify candidate biomarkers for the development of a diagnostic test for the early detection of colorectal cancer. One-hundred and fifty-one candidate biomarkers were identified from the literature and ranked based on the specified criteria. The top-ranked candidates represent a group of biomarkers whose further study and validation would be justified in order to expedite the development of biomarkers that could be used in a clinical setting.