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Objectives. Given the high prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH), defined as high thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and normal free thyroxine (FT4), and uncertainty on treatment, one of the major challenges in clinical practice is whether to initiate the treatment for SCH or to keep the patients under surveillance. There is no published study that has identified predictors of short-term changes in thyroid status amongst patients with mild elevation of TSH (4.5–10 mIU/L).

Increased multidrug resistance prompted researchers to search for a new drug that has the ability to overcome antibiotic resistant pathogens. Essential oils have been used in folk medicine for centuries, therefore, they could be employed as an effective alternative to antibiotics without having secondary side effects.

Background and Objectives: breast cancer remains the most common health burden affecting females worldwide. Despite developments in breast cancer diagnostic approaches and treatment strategies, the clinical management of metastatic breast cancer remains challenging. Thus, there is a need to identify new biomarkers and novel drug targets for breast cancer diagnosis and therapy. Recently, aberrant glypican-3 (GPC3) expression in cancers has gained considerable interest in cancer research. The studies, however, have yielded contradictory results about GPC3 expression in breast cancer. Therefore, the current study aims to analyse GPC3 expression across a large panel of different breast cancer subtypes. Materials and Methods: GPC3 expression was immunohistochemically evaluated in 230 breast cancer patients along with eight normal tissues and its associations to clinical and demographic characteristics, as well as immunohistochemical biomarkers for breast cancer. Moreover, a public database consisting of breast cancer patients' survival data and GPC3 gene expression information was used to assess the prognostic value of GPC3 in the survival of breast cancer patients. Results: GPC3 expression was only characterised in 7.5% of different histological breast cancer subtypes. None of the normal breast tissues displayed GPC3 expression. Interestingly, all cases of Paget's disease, as well as 42.9% of intraductal and 16.7% of mucinous carcinomas were found to have GPC3 expression, where it was able to significantly discriminate Paget's disease and intraductal carcinoma from other breast cancer subtypes. Importantly, GPC3 expression was found more often in tumours that tested positive for the expression of hormone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), indicating more favourable histological subtypes of breast cancer. Consequently, longer relapse-free survival (RFS) was significantly correlated with higher GPC3 mRNA expression. Conclusions: Our study proposes that GPC3 is a promising breast cancer subtype-specific biomarker. Moreover, GPC3 may have the potential to be a molecular target for the development of new therapeutics for specific subtypes of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Very little has been published on the essential oil composition of Ruta graveolens worldwide. Herein, we report on the essential oil composition of Ruta graveolens growing in Jordan. The essential oil was isolated using hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of Ruta graveolens L and a chemical composition analysis was conducted using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The antibacterial activity was evaluated using a disc diffusion method. Thirty components, accounting for 98.1% of the oil, were identified. Ketones (43.02%), aldehydes (37.12%), esters (9.33%) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (5.22%), were the major constituents. The major compounds identified were 2-nonanone (37.13%), undecanal (34.69%), 2-acetoxydodecane (5.0%), and 2-decanone (3.31%). The essential oil of Ruta graveolens showed a good antibacterial activity against all the tested bacterial isolates. The oil proved to be more effective on Gram-positive than Gram-negative bacterial species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alkaptonuria is a very rare genetic disorder, characterized by a lack of homogentisate dioxygenase and causes accumulation of homogentisic acid. Clinical manifestations include dark urine, dark-black pigmentation of connective tissues (ochronosis), and arthritis of large joints and spine. The disease is usually diagnosed in adulthood by assessment of signs and symptoms of ochronosis. Confirmation of suspected diagnosis can be achieved by quantitative measurements of homogentisic acid levels. In this study, homogentisic acid was analyzed in 17 alkaptonuria patients. After liquid-liquid extraction, the analyte was determined by Gas Chromatography/ Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) method. For quantitation purposes, external calibration was applied first, regression coefficient of ≥ 0.995 indicated the linearity in the concentration range of 1-100 ng/µl. The instrumental detection limit (IDL) and lower limit of quantitation were 3.82 and 12.7 µg/L, respectively. Recovery rate was ≥ 89%. Precision given as relative standard deviation (RSD) ranged from 3 - 10 %. The results showed that the concentration of homogentisic acid ranged from 0.46 to 1.5 g/24 hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the phytochemical profile of methanol extract of Ephedra foeminea and assess its anti-carcer effect on a large set of normal and cancerous cell lines Methods: Extraction of air-dried powder of aerial parts of E. foeminea was carried out with methanol. The bioactive compounds in the extract were determined using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The anti-cancer effect of the extract was determined by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay against various types of normal and cancer cell lines. Serial concentrations of plant extract were used, ranging from 7.812 to1000 µg/mL. Doxorubicin (DOX) served as standard drug. The half-maximal concentration (IC50) values of the extract and DOX for each cell line were determined, and the selectivity index (SI) was computed. Results: Phytochemical analysis showed that the extract contained several bioactive compounds, including alkaloids, flavonoids, sterols and fatty acids. The hazardous ephedra alkaloids (ephedrine and pseudoephedrine) were absent in the plant extract. The extract showed significant anti-proliferative activity against cancer cell lines, when compared with the positive control, doxorubicin (p < 0.05). Selective and concentration-dependent cytotoxicity was exhibited in cancer cell lines of breast (MCF-7), lung (A549), colon (Caco-2), liver (HepG-2) and prostate (PC-3). Weak selectivity was produced in other cancer cell lines, i.e., human epithelioma (Hep-2) and cervical carcinoma (Hela). Interestingly, non-cancerous cells showed no or weak cytotoxicity. Conclusion: Ephedra foeminea exerts potential selectivity in anti-proliferative effect against some cancer cell lines. Thus, it is a promising drug source for the production of new and selective anti-cancer medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by high mortality rate, and its clinical management is difficult and complex. Therefore, there is a need for extensive efforts aimed at accelerating the discovery of novel therapies for TNBC. CYP4Z1 has been implicated in the development of breast cancer. The current study aimed at characterizing the expression of CYP4Z1 on TNBC., Materials and Methods: Using immunohistochemistry, CYP4Z1 expression was evaluated on 122 TNBC samples, four samples of breast cancers expressing ER, PR, and HER-2, and four samples of normal breast tissues. The association between the enzyme and various histopathological features and survival of patients were determined., Results: CYP4Z1 was strongly expressed in 83.3% of various histopathological subtypes of TNBC, when compared to negative expression in normal breast tissues. Interestingly, there were marked variations in CYP4Z1 expression with respect to histopathology subtype, histological grade, histological stage and tumor diameter. There was a high incidence of CYP4Z1 expression in patients with advanced grades, late stages and larger tumor sizes. Importantly, CYP4Z1 expression was correlated with the survival of TNBC patients, but it was an independent determinant of the poor prognosis of TNBC (p< 0.05)., Conclusion: CYP4ZI may be a potential biomarker or target for evolving new CYP4Z1-targeted treatments., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2021 Al-saraireh et al.)