IMPACT OF SODIUM DICHLOROACETATE ALONE AND IN COMBINATION THERAPIES ON LUNG TUMOR GROWTH AND METASTASIS

Lung cancer is the second most common form of cancer with the highest mortality rate worldwide in 2020 despite the advances in targeted- and immuno-therapies. Metabolic reprogramming has been recognized as an essential emerging cancer hallmark in which altered metabolic pathways represent an attractive therapeutic target. Sodium Dichloroacetate (DCA), a pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) inhibitor, effect has been investigated in various tumors. Building on the already published data, this pre-clinical study aims to explore the anticancer potential of DCA in lung cancer alone and in combination with chemo- and targeted therapies using two non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines namely, A549 and LNM35. This project was addressed through the investigation of the impact of DCA on lung cancer cell viability, migration, invasion, and colony growth in-vitro and on tumor growth and metastasis using the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) and the nude mice models in-vivo. The anti-angiogenic potential of DCA, its safety profile, and the impact of its combination with the proposed chemotherapy and first-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKi) were also investigated. This study demonstrated that DCA causes a concentration- and time-dependent decrease in the viability of A549 and LNM35 cells and the growth of their colonies in-vitro. Similarly, DCA slow-down the growth of A549 and LNM35 tumor xenografts in both the chick embryo CAM and nude mice models in-vivo. DCA decreases the angiogenic capacity of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in-vitro by decreasing HUVECs tube formation and sprouting, suggesting the inhibition of tumor angiogenesis as a potential mechanism behind its anti-tumor growth effect. On the other hand, DCA did not inhibit the in-vitro migration and invasion and the in-vivo incidence and growth of lymph nodes metastases in nude mice xenografted with the highly metastatic lung cancer cells LNM35. Treatment with DCA did not show any significant side effects on the chick embryos viability or on the nude mice weight and survival. In addition, blood, kidney, and liver function tests showed no toxicity with DCA when compared to the control group. Finally, DCA significantly enhanced the anticancer effect of cisplatin in LNM35, gefitinib and erlotinib in both cell lines. In summary, these findings demonstrate that DCA is a safe and promising therapeutic agent for lung cancer and pave the way for further pre-clinical studies validating the impact of DCA in combination with not only the first generation but also the second and third generation of EGFR-Tki in-vivo

Fertility Indices of Rats in Response to Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) Administration

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of oral administration of DHEA on fertility indices in female rats. A total of 18 adult female rats 2.5-3.5 months old and weighting 200-250g were divided into three equal groups: G1-control received saline solution, G2- received 2mg DHEA /kg B.Wt orally and daily for 2 weeks prior to gestation. G3- received the same dose for two weeks prior and during gestation. The was a significant increase in fertility, gestation indeces of rats received DHEA for two weeks prior and during gestation. At the meantime, the gestation length, viability and lactating indeces were decreased in this group as compared with others. In conclusion, administration of DHEA at dose of 2 mg /kg B.Wt for 2 weeks prior to and during gestation seems to be safe as no abortion and fetal abnormalities were recorded. Keywords: DHEA, Fertility indeces, rats

Antibiotic resistance pattern of HA-MRSA strains isolated from leukemia patients in Baghdad, Iraq

Digitalitzat per Artypla

Eyes Recognition System Using Central Moment Features

Central moment is widely used in pattern recognition because of their discrimination power and robustness. For eye recognition these moments can also be normalized so that the moments are also size invariant. In this work, the proposal Eyes Recognition with Moments System(ERMS) including two methods, first method Shape Feature Extraction(SFE) by using central moment and some image processing techniques worked together for the features extraction, second step is a method to recognition of eyes features by comparing between an input test eyes features (moments) from the input image and an eyes features which store d in the features database

Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology In The Diagnosis Of Head And Neck Masses

Background Commonly presenting neck masses occur within lymph nodes, thyroid, parotid and other salivary glands. Objective This study is designed to assess the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity in various head and neck lesions Material and method fine needle cytology and the histopathology were done on 100 patients who presented with palpable head and neck mass (es). Result Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for detection of lymphoma is 50%, 90%, 70.0% respectively. While the overall sensitivity, specificity, accuracy is 88%, 98%, 93%. Conclusion fine needle aspiration is a highly accurate method for primary diagnosis of neck masses apart from lymphoma

Nanostructural and optical properties of hierarchical ZnO grown via hydrothermal method

A simple hydrothermal method was employed to synthesize 3D hierarchical ZnO nanorods deposited on Si (100) substrate at different growth temperatures (110 and 90oC) within 3 h. The structure, mode and composition of hierarchical ZnO nanorods were investigated by XRD, FESEM and EDX spectroscopy. The polycrystalline ZnO nanostructures products were indexed as hexagonal wurtzite structured, while the morphology was urchin like ZnO nanorods with different aspect ratio of nanorods and stoichiometric. The photoluminescence (PL) properties were studied of as-grown ZnO samples dependent on various growth temperatures. The PL results after UV excitation source were shown a single broad Vis emission peak for both samples with absents of UV emission peak. The emission edge of Vis peak was exhibited blue-shift due to increase temperature growth, and that suggest enhancement in hierarchical ZnO nanorods crystallinity. Oxygen deficiency is evidence on the creation various defects types in hierarchical ZnO nanorods. It is responsible on Vis emission bands. The results demonstrate promising future for the hierarchal ZnO nanostructure which could be applied in optoelectronics and gas sensing

Effect of etching time on optical and morphological features of N-type porous silicon prepared by photo-electrochemical method

Achieving efficient visible photoluminescence from porous-silicon (PSi) is demanding for optoelectronic and solar cells applications. Improving the absorption and emission features of PSi is challenging. Photo-electro-chemical etching assisted formation of PSi layers on n-type (111) silicon (Si) wafers is reported. Samples are prepared at constant current density (~30 mA/cm2) under varying etching times of 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 min. The influence of etching time duration on the growth morphology and spectral properties are inspected. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurement is performed to determine the optical properties of as-synthesized samples. Sample morphologies are imaged via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The thickness and porosity of the prepared samples are estimated using the gravimetric method. The emission and absorption data is further used to determine the samples band gap and electronic structure properties. Results and analyzed, interpreted with different mechanisms and compared

Fluctuating rainfall as one of the important cause for desertification in Iraq

Desertification is regarded as one of the most problems over the entire world. There are many reasons lead to this problem. Climatic factors such (rainfall, temperature and evaporation) are some of them. Annual rainfall amount is one of the most important parameters that lead to desertification for this reason it chosen to achieve this research. In this paper rainfall data with the help of Geographic Information System (GIS) to produce maps of Iraqi surface climate. In order to achieve this goal, the available data from a number of climate monitoring stations located on the surface of the country has been were adopted. The annual mean of rainfall for the period from 1990 to 2010 has been used. The Iraqi shape file map was used to overlay the results. The output of the research are presented in GIS maps that demonstrating the variation of rainfall over the study period for the monitoring climate stations

THE EFFECT OF VARIATION OF NONLINEAR LOAD ON POWER FACTOR OF THE AC SUPPLY NETWORK

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of the converter system on the power factor of the supply network .Therefore a 3-phase, 6-pulse , bridge converter is assembled and connected to a power supply through a 3-phase ac voltage regulator .The theoretical analysis is simulated using Fourier series analysis and Fast Fourier Transform ( FFT ) algorithm . The experimental measurements of distortion factor , displacement factor and total power factor are recorded . The experimental results are shown to be coincident with the theoretical results. The consideration of power factor improvement relative to distortion and displacement factors is discussed