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Background: Thyroidectomy is a common procedure performed by the general surgeons. Stridor is an airway sign caused by a variety of post-thyroidectomy complications. Objective: To determine the incidence of post-thyroidectomy stridor and the risk factors associated with its occurrence. Patients and Methods: The study included 280 adult patients who had total or partial thyroidectomy performed by various surgeons. Patients were followed up for 6 months after they were discharged from the hospital. Data collected included demographic information, type of thyroid disease, duration of illness before surgery, type of surgery, number of intubation attempts, and the presence of hoarseness and hematoma post-operatively. Results: Only eighteen patients (6.43%) who underwent thyroidectomy developed stridor during the follow-up period. They were compared to 25 other patients who were chosen from the original sample based regular visit of patients during the follow up. Higher body mass index (BMI), bilateral thyroidectomy, presence of concomitant hoarseness and hematoma, and more than one attempt at intubation were all associated with an increased risk of post-thyroidectomy stridor. Conclusion: Stridor affects only a small percentage of patients undergoing thyroidectomy. Increased BMI, bilateral thyroidectomy, presence of concomitant hoarseness and hematoma, and frequent tracheal intubation are the most common risk factors for post-thyroidectomy stridor.

Psoriasis is a skin disease which results in scales on the skin caused by flaky patches. Psoriasis is triggered by various conditions such as drug reactions, trauma, and skin infection etc. Globally, there are 125 million people affected by psoriasis and yet there is no effective treatment available, and it emphasizes the need for discovery of efficacious treatments. De-novo drug development takes 10–17 years and $2–$3 billion of investment with

Background: Super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) contain a chemotherapeutic drug and are regarded as a promising technique for improving targeted delivery into cancer cells. Results: In this study, the fabrication of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was investigated with loaded Dextran (DEX-SPION) using the co-precipitation technique and conjugated by folate (FA). These nanoparticles (NPs) were employed as carriers and anticancer compounds against liver cancer cells in vitro. Structural, magnetic, morphological characterization, size, and drug loading activities of the obtained FA-DEX-5-FU-SPION NPs were checked using FTIR, VSM, FESEM, TEM, DLS, and zeta potential techniques. The cellular toxicity effect of FA-DEX-5-FU-SPION NPs was evaluated using the MTT test on liver cancer (SNU-423) and healthy cells (LO2). Furthermore, the apoptosis measurement and the expression levels of NF-1, Her-2/neu, c-Raf-1, and Wnt-1 genes were evaluated post-treatment using flow cytometry and RT-PCR, respectively. The obtained NPs were spherical with a suitable dispersity without noticeable aggregation. The size of the NPs, polydispersity, and zeta were 74 ± 13 nm, 0.080 and −45 mV, respectively. The results of the encapsulation efficiency of the nano-compound showed highly colloidal stability and proper drug maintenance. The results indicated that FA-DEX-5-FU-SPION demonstrated a sustained release profile of 5-FU in both phosphate and citrate buffer solutions separately, with higher cytotoxicity against SNU-423 cells than against other cells types. These findings suggest that FA-DEX-SPION NPs exert synergistic effects for targeting intracellular delivery of 5-FU, apoptosis induction, and gene expression stimulation. Conclusions: The findings proved that FA-DEX-5-FU-SPION presented remarkable antitumor properties; no adverse subsequences were revealed against normal cells.How to cite: Mahdia SA, Kadhimb AA, Albukhaty S, et al. Gene expression and apoptosis response in hepatocellular carcinoma cells induced by biocompatible polymer/magnetic nanoparticles containing 5-fluorouracil. Electron J Biotechnol 2021;52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2021.04.001

This study was conducted in the greenhouse of Biology Department in the College of Science- Salahaddin University- Erbil, which consisted of interaction application of Salicylic acid (SA) concentrations (0,100,200,400 ppm) and Lead (Pb) concentrations (0, 5, 10 ppm) on vegetative growth, yield and chemical components of common bean. It was found that SA significantly decreased the harmful effects of Pb on the vegetative growth characteristics such as plant height, number of leaves.plant-1, number of branches.plant-1, the dry weight of the shoot system, and yield components such as number of seeds.pod-1, dry weight of 100 seeds. The adverse effects of Pb on chemical components such as chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll contents, total protein content of leaves , and total sodium by the influence of salicylic acid.

This experiment consist of combination influence of salicylic acid and lead on common bean plants which conducted in greenhouse of Biology Department in the College of Science- University of Salahaddin- Erbil, with foliar application of Salicylic acid (SA) concentrations (0,100,200,400 ppm) and Lead (Pb) concentrations (0, 5, 10 ppm) on vegetative growth, yield and chemical components of common bean. The study consists of ten treatments with four replications. The following growth parameters were observed plant height, number of leaves, number of branches, dry weight of shoot system, water content leaf area, and yield characteristics such as pod number seed number dry weight of 100 seeds, and chemical contents and mineral contents of leaves. The results notices that SA significantly decreased the harmful effects of Pb on the vegetative growth characteristics such as height of plant number of leaves, number of branches, weight dry of shoot system, also on yield parameters such as number of seeds per pod, dry weight of 100 seeds and on chemical contents such as chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll contents, total protein content of leaves and total sodium.

Medicinal plants are known for their diverse use in the traditional medicine of the Himalayan region of Pakistan. The present study is designed to investigate the anticancer and antimicrobial activities of Prunus cornuta and Quercus semicarpifolia. The anticancer activity was performed using cancerous human cell lines (HepG2, Caco-2, A549, MDA-MB-231, and NCI-H1437 carcinoma cells), while the antimicrobial activity was conducted with the agar-well diffusion method. Furthermore, toxicity studies were performed on alveolar and renal primary epithelial cells. Initially, different extracts were prepared by maceration techniques using n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, butanol, and methanol. The preliminary phytochemical screening showed the presence of secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, glycosides, and quinones. The chloroform extract of P. cornuta (PCC) exhibited significant inhibitory activity against Acinetobacter baumannii (16 mm) and Salmonella enterica (14.5 mm). The A. baumannii and S. enterica strains appeared highly susceptible to n-hexane extract of P. cornuta (PCN) with an antibacterial effect of 15 mm and 15.5 mm, respectively. The results also showed that the methanolic extracts of Quercus semecarpifolia (QSM) exhibited considerable antibacterial inhibitory activity in A. baumannii (18 mm), Escherichia coli (15 mm). The QSN and QSE extracts also showed good inhibition in A. baumannii with a 16 mm zone of inhibition. The Rhizopus oryzae strain has shown remarkable mycelial inhibition by PCM and QSN with 16 mm and 21 mm inhibition, respectively. Furthermore, the extracts of P. cornuta and Q. semicarpifolia exhibited prominent growth inhibition of breast (MDA-MB-231) and lung (A549) carcinoma cells with 19–30% and 22–39% cell viabilities, respectively. The gut cell line survival was also significantly inhibited by Q. semicarpifolia (24–34%). The findings of this study provide valuable information for the future development of new antibacterial and anticancer medicinal agents from P. cornuta and Q. semicarpifolia extracts.

Background: Advanced nanobiotechnology provides safe and efficient drug delivery systems to deliver chemotherapy that targets cancer cells efficiently. Methods: A polymeric-magnetic nanocarrier was composed of a dextran (DEX) shell, a superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPION) core and was conjugated with folate (FA) to carry the anticancer drug vincristine (VNC) in Tera-1 testicular tumor cells. The molecular mechanisms by which apoptosis was induced were analyzed using flow cytometry and qPCR, which exhibited anticancer activity of nanoparticles (NPs). Results: This nanocarrier revealed a controlled release of VNC in citrate and phosphate buffer solutions that were maintained at pH 5.5 and pH 7.4, respectively. The Inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were greater than 5 mg/mL and displayed ten times higher cytotoxicity than the comparable free drug concentration. The Caspase-9 and P53 expressions were increased, whereas P21 and AKt1 decreased noticeably in the treated cells. The results point to the possible activation of apoptosis following treatment with NPs loaded with vincristine.

In the current study, the surface of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPION) was coated with dextran (DEX), and conjugated with folic acid (FA), to enhance the targeted delivery and uptake of vinblastine (VBL) in PANC-1 pancreatic cancer cells. Numerous analyses were performed to validate the prepared FA-DEX-VBL-SPION, such as field emission scanning transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), Zeta Potential, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). The delivery system capacity was evaluated by loading and release experiments. Moreover, in vitro biological studies, including a cytotoxicity study, cellular uptake assessment, apoptosis analysis, and real-time PCR, were carried out. The results revealed that the obtained nanocarrier was spherical with a suitable dispersion and without visible aggregation. Its average size, polydispersity, and zeta were 74 ± 13 nm, 0.080, and −45 mV, respectively. This dual functional nanocarrier also exhibited low cytotoxicity and a high apoptosis induction potential for successful VBL co-delivery. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis demonstrated the activation of caspase-3, NF-1, PDL-1, and H-ras inhibition, in PANC-1 cells treated with the FA-VBL-DEX-SPION nanostructure. Close inspection of the obtained data proved that the FA-VBL-DEX-SPION nanostructure possesses a noteworthy chemo-preventive effect on pancreatic cancer cells through the inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis.

Role of Christian Wives in Elijahian Policy

Artificial neural network (ANN), in comparison with empirical correlations, has recently received more attention. The present paper includes predictive modeling of heat transfer coefficient for binary mixtures in pool boiling for hydrocarbon compounds, using Back propagation techniques through Multilayer Perceptron, one of the types of the artificial neural networks. To train and learn the system, predictive neural network was found, which is capable of understanding and predicting the preset output which is heat transfer coefficient. The principle operation of such neural networks is based on the experimental data collected from some researchers [1-4]. A new ANN model is proposed using five inputs (mole fraction, temperature difference, heat flux, density and viscosity) to predict the heat transfer coefficient. The prediction using ANN shows 0.0026 AARE (Absolute Average Relative Error) with most widely known correlations namely those of Calus, Fujita and Thome which have given 0.086, 0.066 and 0.038 respectively.