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Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common musculoskeletal and joint disorder. However, no disease-modifying therapy for OA is currently available, and the etiology of OA is poorly understood. Epigenetics has emerged as a new and important area of research on OA. Differing from genetics, Epigenetic factors are known to be tissue-specific and highly dynamic, being dependent on environmental stimuli and developmental stages. Therefore, human studies into OA epigenetics are sensitive to confounding and reverse causation. Here, we will review the epigenetic mechanism in OA onset and progression by focusing on the opposing action of two families of enzymes: histone methyltransferases and histone demethylases, such as DOT1L, KDM4B, KDM6A, KDM6B, EZH2, and LSD1. Moreover, the TGF-β1 signaling pathway has proven to be one of the key factors in cartilage and bone formation, and in recent research, was found to initiate and develop OA disease by TGF-β1 overexpression. Besides the introduction of enzymes and TGF-β1 signaling, some special epigenetic regulation mechanisms associated with key transcription factors (e.g. RUNX2, NFAT1, and SOX9) in OA disease are also reviewed here in detail to clarify the OA epigenetic mechanism. The overall understanding of these epigenetic mechanisms underlying the issues will accelerate the development of novel therapeutic strategies for OA., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Cancer has emanated as a daunting menace to human-kind even though medicine, science, and technology has reached its zenith. Subsequent scarcity in the revelation of new drugs, the exigency of salvaging formerly discovered toxic drugs such as doxorubicin has emerged. The invention of drug carrier has made drug delivery imminent which is ascribable to its characteristic traits of specific targeting, effective response to stimuli and biocompatibility. In this paper, the nanoscale polymeric drug carrier poly(N,N-diethyl acrylamide) nanohydrogel has been synthesized by inverse emulsion polymerization. Lower critical solution temperature of the polymeric carrier has been modified using graphene quantum. The particle size of pure nanohydrogel was in the range of 47 to 59.5 nm, and graphene quantum dots incorporated nanohydrogels was in the range of 68.1 to 87.5 nm. Doxorubicin (hydroxyl derivative of anthracycline) release behavior as a function of time and temperature was analyzed, and the Lower critical solution temperature of the synthesized nanohydrogels has been found to be in the range of 28-42 °C. Doxorubicin release characteristics have improved significantly as the surrounding temperature of the release media was increased near to physiological temperature. Further, the cumulative release profile was fitted in the different kinetic model and found to follow a Fickian diffusion release mechanism. The hydrogel was assessed for its cytotoxicity in B16F10 cells by MTT assay. In-vivo studies were done to study the lung metastasis by melanoma cancer and the results showed a rational favorable prognosis which was confirmed by evaluating hematological parameters and the non-immunogenic nature of nanohydrogel by cytokine assay. Comprehensively, the results suggested that poly(N,N-diethyl acrylamide) nanohydrogels have potential application as an intelligent drug carrier for melanoma cancer., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Associations between Transforming Growth Factor beta-1 (TGF-β1), Platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) and C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX-1) with pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA) have already been established. Therefore, TGF-β1, PDGF-BB and CTX-1 could be used as the potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of this disease., Methods: 160 knee OA cases and 80 healthy controls were chosen. Serum concentrations of TGF-β1, PDGF-BB and CTX-1 were tested twice on the same samples using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Knee OA cases were classified using Kellgren-Lawrence (K-L) criteria into four groups. Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) Osteoarthritis Index scores were evaluated for all cases., Results: TGF-β1 serum levels in knee OA cases were significantly higher compared to controls (t=11.37, p<0.01). Average serum level of TGF-β1 was positively associated with K-L grades. The diagnostic efficiency of serum TGF-β1 was proved to be moderate and the cut-point value was 12.11ng/ml showing favorable diagnostic indexes. In contrast, similarities were found not only in serum levels of PDGF-BB and CTX-1 between OA groups and controls but also in WOMAC scores., Conclusion: Our findings supported that TGF-β1 has a positive correlation with the severity of knee OA confirmed by radiographs. Therefore, TGF-β1 might serve as a potential biomarker in established knee OA., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)