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Introduction: A variation in dental pain following tooth extraction and implant placement has been observed. The present study aimed to compare pain in patients undergoing tooth extraction and implant placement. Materials and Methods: Eighty-four patients underwent tooth extraction and implant placement in maxillary central incisor. Pain (VAS) was recorded at 24 h, 24 h, and 48 h. Results: The mean pain value (VAS) at 24 h post-operatively after tooth extraction was 6.1 and after implant insertion was 2.9. At 48 h after tooth extraction was 4.3 and after implant insertion was 1.1 and after 72 h after tooth extraction was 2.4 and after implant insertion was 0.27. A significant difference was observed between both procedures at different intervals of time (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The pain experienced by patients during dental implant insertion was comparatively less as compared to dental tooth extraction.

BackgroundDeregulated purine metabolism is critical for fast-growing tumor cells by providing nucleotide building blocks and cofactors. Importantly, purine antimetabolites belong to the earliest developed anticancer drugs and are still prescribed in clinics today. However, these antimetabolites can inhibit non-tumor cells and cause undesired side effects. As liver has the highest concentration of purines, it makes liver cancer a good model to study important nodes of dysregulated purine metabolism for better patient selection and precisive cancer treatment.MethodsBy using a training dataset from TCGA, we investigated the differentially expressed genes (DEG) of purine metabolism pathway (hsa00230) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and determined their clinical correlations to patient survival. A prognosis model was established by Lasso‐penalized Cox regression analysis, and then validated through multiple examinations including Cox regression analysis, stratified analysis, and nomogram using another ICGC test dataset. We next treated HCC cells using chemical drugs of the key enzymes in vitro to determine targetable candidates in HCC.ResultsThe DEG analysis found 43 up-regulated and 2 down-regulated genes in the purine metabolism pathway. Among them, 10 were markedly associated with HCC patient survival. A prognostic correlation model including five genes (PPAT, DCK, ATIC, IMPDH1, RRM2) was established and then validated using the ICGC test dataset. Multivariate Cox regression analysis found that both prognostic risk model (HR = 4.703 or 3.977) and TNM stage (HR = 2.303 or 2.957) independently predicted HCC patient survival in the two datasets respectively. The up-regulations of the five genes were further validated by comparing between 10 pairs of HCC tissues and neighboring non-tumor tissues. In vitro cellular experiments further confirmed that inhibition of IMPDH1 significantly repressed HCC cell proliferation.ConclusionIn summary, this study suggests that purine metabolism is deregulated in HCC. The prognostic gene correlation model based on the five purine metabolic genes may be useful in predicting HCC prognosis and patient selection. Moreover, the deregulated genes are targetable by specific inhibitors.

Excessive use of food coloring agents in the food industry to make the food more attractive or improve the taste has caused various health and ecological problems. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a reliable, sensitive, and selective sensing probe to detect food dyes in different food products for future industrial processing and biosafety. In recent decades, surface-functionalized quantum dots (QDs), owing to their unique optical properties, have gained tremendous interest for a wide range of applications, including biomedical, bioimaging and sensing applications. Herein, we have reported the synthesis of excellent colloidal stable and highly luminescent CdTe core and CdTe@ZnTe core–shell QDs using dual functionalizing agents, polyvinyl pyrrolidone and vitamin C. The synthesized QDs were explored as excellent sensing probes for the food dyes carmoisine, Ponceau 4R and tartrazine with limit of detection (LOD) values of 0.097 ± 0.006, 0.147 ± 0.001 and 0.044 ± 0.001 μM for CdTe–PVP QDs and 0.079 ± 0.001, 0.114 ± 0.002 and 0.042 ± 0.001 μM for CdTe@ZnTe–PVP QDs, respectively. The sensitivity of the synthesized QDs for the food dyes was also investigated in real samples (soft drinks and medications). Moreover, considering the potential effects of QDs as therapeutics or nano-drug carriers, the interactions between the synthesized QDs and carrier protein human serum albumin (HSA) were investigated. The binding affinity was observed to be in the order of 104 M−1. QDs were found to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA, and both types of quenching (static and dynamic) occur via electrostatic interactions in association with hydrophobic forces without any significant alteration in the protein structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Preterm labour and delivery have a major contribution to perinatal mortality and morbidity. Tocolytic therapy reduces neonatal mortality and morbidity by prolonging gestation, allowing for corticosteroid administration and inutero transfer to a tertiary care centre. There is a need to find out better tocolytic agent that is most effective and with the least side-effects. Aim: To compare oral Nifedipine and transdermal Nitroglycerine patch to achieve tocolysis in preterm labour. Materials and Methods: A prospective interventional study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, Etawah, from January 2020 to June 2021. A total of 100 women presenting with signs and symptoms of preterm labour with live singleton pregnancy and intact membranes were included. All the women were divided into Group-A (n=50) and Group-B (n=50). Group-A received oral Nifedipine 20 mg of oral initially and 10 mg Nifedipine repeated after 30 minutes if the contractions persisted. Oral Nifedipine 10 mg was repeated every six hours till contractions subsided, and a transdermal Nitroglycerin patch (25 mg) was directly applied to the skin of the abdomen in Group-B. Demographic profile, the number of patients in which tocolysis was successful, improvement in Bishop score, prolongation in gestational age, maternal sideeffects, and foetal outcomes in the form of birth weight, APGAR score, and NICU admission were recorded in both the groups on Excel sheet. Chi-square test and t-test were used to test the significance of the difference between categorical and continuous variables respectively. A p-value less than 0.05 were taken as significant. Results: In Group-A 94% (47 out of 50) achieved tocolysis while in Group-B 86% (43 out of 50) achieved tocolysis (p value-0.182). The mean prolongation of pregnancy was 17.70±13.04 and 13.14±11.03 in Groups A and B, respectively. The maternal complication was significantly higher in Group-B as compared to Group-A (22% Vs 6%, p-value-0.0097). In Group-A mean birth weight was 2.422 kg ±0.34 whereas in Group-B mean birth weight was 2.204±0.38 Kg (p-value-0.0032). Conclusion: Both drugs oral Nifedipine and transdermal Nitroglycerine were found to be effective in the treatment of preterm labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the interactions of bioactive phenolic acids [ferulic acid (FA), caffeic acid (CA), and chlorogenic acid (CGA)] with the carrier protein bovine hemoglobin (BHb) helps to understand their modes of binding and transport, which affect their bioavailability. The protein–ligand complexes exhibited binding constants (Kb) in the range of 104 M−1, indicating a reversible mode of association. BHb–CA complexation attenuated the inherent fluorescence of BHb (β2-Trp37 dominant fluorophore) through a static quenching mechanism. However, a combined (static and dynamic) quenching mechanism was observed for the BHb–FA/CGA complexes. In this study, the thermodynamic parameter, ΔG°, determined from fluorescence spectroscopy, was negative, suggesting that the complexation of BHb with phenolic acids was spontaneous. The negative change in enthalpy [ΔH° = –(8.539 ± 1.331) kJ mol−1, –(10.620 ± 1.028) kJ mol−1, and –(8.637 ± 0.232) kJ mol−1 for BHb–FA, BHb–CA, BHb–CGA complexes, respectively] and positive entropy change [ΔS° = + (63.862 ± 1.218) J mol−1 K−1, +(67.108 ± 1.681) J mol−1 K−1, and +(62.540 ± 1.058) J mol−1 K−1 for BHb–FA, BHb–CA, BHb–CGA complexes, respectively] indicated that hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic forces stabilized the complexes. Computational studies also illustrated similar interactive forces in BHb–ligand complexes. Changes around the microenvironment of the Trp residues in the binding process were verified using various spectral measurements. Circular dichroism and Fourier infrared spectroscopies illustrated a decrease in the α-helical content of BHb during complexation. Fibril inhibition properties of the ligands were verified using ThT assay, ANS binding studies, Congo Red assay, turbidity assay, Soret absorption measurements, and CD spectral measurements. The structure–activity relationship, binding affinity, and interactive forces between the protein and phenolic acids could explain the order of anti-fibrillation properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional drug production methods are costly. Now, it has been proved that plants are potentially a new source of pharmaceutical proteins, including vaccines, antibodies, blood substitutes, and other therapeutic entities. Unlike mammalian-derived rDNA drugs, plant-derived antibodies, vaccines, and other proteins are particularly advantageous since they are free of mammalian viral vectors and human pathogens. Plants-made therapeutics are cheaper, safer, and can be abundantly produced and easily stored. Recombinant proteins and other metabolites are produced in transgenic plants for industrial or pharmaceutical purposes, which is known as molecular farming. Transgenic plants carry one or more foreign genes transferred through the techniques of transformation. Although initially, these were produced only in a limited number of plant species (e.g., tobacco, petunia, tomato, etc.), later, these could be produced in any plant species, including both dicots and monocots. Transgenic plants resistant to herbicides, insects, viruses, and a host of abiotic stresses have already been produced. These plants have also been produced for improved nutritional quality and are suitable for food processing. The aim of this review paper is to understand plant molecular farming, the advantages and limitations of the process, and biosafety concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many poor people worldwide cannot afford nutritious food and depend on rice for their daily food needs. In 2022, Asia was home to 55% (402 million) of the people in the world affected by hunger, while more than 38% (282 million) lived in Africa. India is the world's secondlargest producer of rice, wheat, vegetables, and fruit. Malnutrition is a major problem that causes many immediate and long-term health problems. Over 33 lakh children in India are malnourished, with Maharashtra, Bihar, and Gujarat having a major share. Vitamin A deficiency causes irreversible blindness in 500,000 children annually, which ultimately results in large-scale deaths. In Southeast Asia, due to VAD, every year, five million children develop symptoms that may lead to blindness. VAD is also a matter of concern in several areas of Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It is estimated that vitamin A nutrition may prevent approximately 1 to 2 million deaths every year among children aged 1 to 4 and an additional 0.25 to 0.5 million during the higher age group of children. One of the major causes of vitamin A deficiency is that milled rice does not contain ß-carotene, which is the precursor of vitamin A synthesis. In this scenario, adopting Golden Rice which is genetically modified rice could benefit the population living in developing countries. This review article gives emphasis on the importance of overcoming vitamin A deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]