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The article presents a case study of a 20-year-old man who presented with several symptoms including body swelling and progressive hearing loss. After neurological examination, magnetic resonance imaging and other medical tests he was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type 2 and referred for surgical treatment.

Background: Colorectal carcinoma is a malignant epithelial tumor originating in the large bowel. More than 90% of colorectal carcinomas (CRC) are adenocarcinomas. This being graded morphologically at H&E stain in histopathology as well-differentiated, moderately differentiated, and poorly differentiated. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess any association with different histopathological types and extent of differentiation of CRC with change in expression of CK 7 and Cytokeratin 20 (CK20). Materials and Methods: In the present study, total 59 patients has been selected by the predetermined sampling techniques. The specimen was collected and the necessary processing was done for H&E stain and for immunohistochemistry for CK 20 and CK 7 profile. Results: This study showed that most of the well-differentiated colorectal carcinoma are CK20 (+ve)/Cytokeratin 7 (CK7) (-ve) and poorly differentiated CRC are CK20 (+) and/CK7 (+) and also CK20 (-ve)/CK7 (+ve). Conclusion: Hence, from this study, it is evident that the expression of CK 20 positivity decreasing and CK7 positivity increasing in respect of progression of well differentiated to poorly differentiated colorectal carcinoma, that is, there is a relationship of expression of CK20 and CK7 profile with the histological grading of colorectal carcinoma. Furthermore, the expression profile of CK20 and CK 7 may be of helpful while searching for unknown primary in cases of metastatic deposit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Aims: ARID1A is postulated to be a tumor suppressor gene owing to loss-of-function mutations in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC). However, its role in pancreatic pathogenesis is not clear despite recent studies using genetically engineered mouse (GEM) models. We aimed at further understanding of its direct functional role in PDAC, using a combination of GEM model and PDAC cell lines. Methods: Pancreas-specific mutant Arid1a-driven GEM model (Ptf1a-Cre; KrasG12D; Arid1af/f or “KAC”) was generated by crossing Ptf1a-Cre; KrasG12D (“KC”) mice with Arid1af/f mice and characterized histologically with timed necropsies. Arid1a was also deleted using CRISPR-Cas9 system in established human and murine PDAC cell lines to study the immediate effects of Arid1a loss in isogenic models. Cell lines with or without Arid1a expression were developed from respective autochthonous PDAC GEM models, compared functionally using various culture assays, and subjected to RNA-sequencing for comparative gene expression analysis. DNA damage repair was analyzed in cultured cells using immunofluorescence and COMET assay. Results: Retention of Arid1a is critical for early progression of mutant Kras-driven pre-malignant lesions into PDAC, as evident by lower Ki-67 and higher apoptosis staining in “KAC” as compared to “KC” mice. Enforced deletion of Arid1a in established PDAC cell lines caused suppression of cellular growth and migration, accompanied by compromised DNA damage repair. Despite early development of relatively indolent cystic precursor lesions called intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs), a subset of “KAC” mice developed aggressive PDAC in later ages. PDAC cells obtained from older autochthonous “KAC” mice revealed various compensatory (“escaper”) mechanisms to overcome the growth suppressive effects of Arid1a loss. Conclusions: Arid1a is an essential survival gene whose loss impairs cellular growth, and thus, its expression is critical during early stages of pancreatic tumorigenesis in mouse models. In tumors that arise in the setting of ARID1A loss, a multitude of “escaper” mechanisms drive progression.

Smart nanoparticles for medical applications have gathered considerable attention due to an improved biocompatibility and multifunctional properties useful in several applications, including advanced drug delivery systems, nanotheranostics and in vivo imaging. Among nanomaterials, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) were deeply investigated due to their peculiar physical and chemical properties. The large surface to volume ratio, coupled with a reduced size, antimicrobial activity, photocatalytic and semiconducting properties, allowed the use of ZnO NPs as anticancer drugs in new generation physical therapies, nanoantibiotics and osteoinductive agents for bone tissue regeneration. However, ZnO NPs also show a limited stability in biological environments and unpredictable cytotoxic effects thereof. To overcome the abovementioned limitations and further extend the use of ZnO NPs in nanomedicine, doping seems to represent a promising solution. This review covers the main achievements in the use of doped ZnO NPs for nanomedicine applications. Sol-gel, as well as hydrothermal and combustion methods are largely employed to prepare ZnO NPs doped with rare earth and transition metal elements. For both dopant typologies, biomedical applications were demonstrated, such as enhanced antimicrobial activities and contrast imaging properties, along with an improved biocompatibility and stability of the colloidal ZnO NPs in biological media. The obtained results confirm that the doping of ZnO NPs represents a valuable tool to improve the corresponding biomedical properties with respect to the undoped counterpart, and also suggest that a new application of ZnO NPs in nanomedicine can be envisioned.

Zinc oxide nanocrystals (ZnO-NCs) doped with transition metal elements or rare earth elements can be probed for magnetic resonance imaging to be used as a molecular imaging technique for accurate diagnosis of various diseases. Herein, we use Mn as a candidate of transition metal elements and Gd as a presenter of rare earth elements. We report an easy and fast coprecipitation method exploiting oleic acid to synthesize spherical-shaped, small-sized doped ZnO-NCs. We show the improved colloidal stability of oleate-stabilized doped ZnO-NCs compared to the doped ZnO-NCs synthesized by conventional sol–gel synthesis method, i.e., without a stabilizing agent, especially for the Mn dopant. We also analyze their structural, morphological, optical, and magnetic properties. We are able to characterize the persistence of the crystalline properties (wurtzite structure) of ZnO in the doped structure and exclude the formation of undesired oxides by doping elements. Importantly, we determine the room-temperature ferromagnetism of the doped ZnO-NCs. This oleate-stabilized coprecipitation method can be subjected as a standard procedure to synthesize doped and also co-doped ZnO-NCs with any transition metal elements or rare earth elements. In the future, oleate-stabilized Gd/Mn-doped ZnO-NCs can be exploited as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents and possibly increase the signal intensity on T1-weighted images or reduce the signal intensity on T2-weighted images.

The presence of leaky vasculature and the lack of lymphatic drainage of small structures by the solid tumors formulate nanoparticles as promising delivery vehicles in cancer therapy. In particular, among various nanoparticles, the mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) exhibit numerous outstanding features, including mechanical thermal and chemical stability, huge surface area and ordered porous interior to store different anti-cancer therapeutics with high loading capacity and tunable release mechanisms. Furthermore, one can easily decorate the surface of MSN by attaching ligands for active targeting specifically to the cancer region exploiting overexpressed receptors. The controlled release of drugs to the disease site without any leakage to healthy tissues can be achieved by employing environment responsive gatekeepers for the end-capping of MSN. To achieve precise cancer chemotherapy, the most desired delivery system should possess high loading efficiency, site-specificity and capacity of controlled release. In this review we will focus on multimodal decorations of MSN, which is the most demanding ongoing approach related to MSN application in cancer therapy. Herein, we will report about the recently tried efforts for multimodal modifications of MSN, exploiting both the active targeting and stimuli responsive behavior simultaneously, along with individual targeted delivery and stimuli responsive cancer therapy using MSN.

Ensuring the high quality of end product steel by removing phosphorus content in Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) is essential and otherwise leads to cold shortness. This article aims at understanding the dephosphorization process through end-point P-content in BOF steelmaking based on data-mining techniques. Dephosphorization is often quantified through the partition ratio ( l p ) which is the ratio of wt% P in slag to wt% P in steel. Instead of predicting the values of l p , the present study focuses on the classification of final steel based on slag chemistry and tapping temperature. This classification signifies different degrees (‘High’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Low’, and ‘Very Low’) to which phosphorus is removed in the BOF. Data of slag chemistry and tapping temperature collected from approximately 16,000 heats from two steel plants (Plant I and II) were assigned to four categories based on unsupervised K-means clustering method. An efficient decision tree-based twin support vector machines (TWSVM) algorithm was implemented for category classification. Decision trees were constructed using the concepts: Gaussian mixture model (GMM), mean shift (MS) and affinity propagation (AP) algorithm. The accuracy of the predicted classification was assessed using the classification rate (CR). Model validation was carried out with a five-fold cross validation technique. The fitted model was compared in terms of CR with a decision tree-based support vector machines (SVM) algorithm applied to the same data. The highest accuracy (≥97%) was observed for the GMM-TWSVM model, implying that by manipulating the slag components appropriately using the structure of the model, a greater degree of P-partition can be achieved in BOF.

Target fortification (TFO) reduces natural macronutrient variation in breast milk (BM). Daily BM analysis for TFO increases neonatal intensive care unit work load by 10–15 min/patient/day and may not be feasible in all nurseries. The variation of macronutrient intake when BM analysis is done for various schedules was studied. In an observational study, we analyzed 21 subsequent samples of native 24-h BM batches, which had been prepared for 10 healthy infants (gestational age 26.1 ± 1.3 weeks, birth weight: 890 ± 210 g). Levels of protein and fat (validated near-infrared milk analyzer), as well as lactose (UPLC-MS/MS) generated the database for modelling TFO to meet recommendations of European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition. Intake of macronutrients and energy were calculated for different schedules of BM measurements for TFO (n = 1/week; n = 2/week; n = 3/week; n = 5/week; n = 7/week) and compared to native and fixed dose fortified BM. Day-to-day variation of macronutrients (protein 20%, carbohydrate 13%, fat 17%, energy 10%) decreased as the frequency of milk analysis increased and was almost zero for protein and carbohydrate with daily measurements. Measurements two/week led to mean macronutrient intake within a range of ±5% of targeted levels. A reduced schedule for macronutrient measurement may increase the practical use of TFO. To what extent the day-to-day variation affects growth while mean intake is stable needs to be studied.

Aim: The present study was carried out to compare the associated role of micro minerals and hormones in repeat breeding animals with the normal crossbred cows. Materials and Methods: Blood samples were collected from 10 normal cycling and 10 repeat breeding crossbred cows of Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, Narendrapur to study the plasma mineral profile and hormonal activities. Results: Zn was found to be highly significant (p