The Effect of Oncolytic Viruses in Aiding Cancer Immunotherapy

Oncolytic viruses are known as genetically engineered viruses or ones that can be found in nature, that are used to selectively reproduce in cancer cells and kill them without harming the normal and healthy cells. Oncolytic viruses have been considered an effective form of immunotherapy and offer a new approach for cancer treatment. Only one oncolytic virus has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA, which is T-Vec (talimogene laherparepvec). This is a second-generation oncolytic herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). Another oncolytic virus has been approved only in China in 2005, which is called Oncorine. It is an E1B-deleted adenovirus, which is used for head and neck cancer and esophagus cancer (Fukuhara, Ino, Todo, 2016). This paper will demonstrate the clinical effectiveness of oncolytic viruses and how they have proven to help with cancer immunotherapy

Interaction Between Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase And Graphene Oxide And Its Impact On Cardiovascular Diseases

Here we report possibly for the first time the computational understanding of the interactions between the nanomaterial Graphene Oxide (GO) and the enzyme Nuclear Diphosphate Kinase (NDPK) and its implications. Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics (NAMD) and Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD) were used to run simulations and analyze the interactions between NDPK and GO. The simulations have run for 100 ns, and it is observed that GO is able to block the active site of the enzyme. Graphene oxide is being used because of its excellent biocompatibility, high water dispersibility, and large surface area. NDPK has numerous roles in the body, such as activating G-proteins and transferring a phosphate from ATP to GDP (resulting in ADP and GTP). It also plays a role in cell proliferation, development, signal transduction, endocytosis, etc[2]. Normally, increased activity of NDPK yields the synthesis of the second messenger cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) . However, during heart failure, NDPK suppresses cAMP formation due to altered signal transduction pathways via G-proteins. In a healthy heart, nitric oxide (NO) is produced by the body in the endothelium that lines the walls of blood vessels so that the veins and arteries can dilate and blood can flow through the body. However, during heart failure, the endothelium lining is damaged, which inhibits the production of NO. cAMP signal transduction pathways have the potential to produce NO after the endothelium lining is in the process of being damaged . Therefore, when NDPK suppresses cAMP during heart failure, it in turn inhibits the production of nitric oxide— which is crucial for a healthy heart. Using NAMD simulations and analysis using VMD, it is observed that graphene oxide is attracted to the active site of NDPK. Strong interactive forces (van der Waals forces) exist between the primary residue of the active site of NDPK (histidine 118) and graphene oxide. Also, throughout the simulation, the structure of the enzyme is preserved. From the 100 ns worth of simulation, it is observed that the graphene oxide blocks the primary residue of the active site of NDPK and can therefore cease the enzyme’s function, lower the rate of reaction, and potentially affect heart failure

Sustainable Use of Waste Banana Peel (Musa × sapientum L.) Powder for Enhancement of Nutritional Properties of Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate is a very popular confectionary product among children, made by combining cocoa (55%) with cocoa butter (7.5%) and sugar (42%) has high antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and free-radical scavenging properties. Chocolates also have a high concentration of cocoa and flavanols contents which is very beneficial for human health. The nutritional value of the dark chocolate samples prepared was further enhanced by using unripe banana peel powder. The peel of banana fruit is a waste material, but it also has antioxidant, antibacterial, and antibiotic properties which encourages its use in industries like pharmaceuticals. So, after considering the nutritional value of unripe banana fruit peel, the powder of unripe banana peel was added to the dark chocolate in the concentration of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9% to increase the nutritional value of dark chocolate. The premix powder containing iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12 was also added to the dark chocolate samples in the concentration of 2% in all the variants. The nutritional value of chocolate samples made by using unripe banana peel powder and premix increased significantly but the color of the product decreased significantly as the concentration of banana powder increased

The Uniqueness of Albumin as a Carrier in Nano Drug Delivery

The quest for precision medicine hinges on targeted drug delivery, minimizing off-target effects while maximizing therapeutic impact. Among nanocarriers, albumin – the most abundant protein in human blood – emerges as a uniquely biocompatible stealth bomber. Its inherent advantages, including exceptional biodegradability, prolonged circulation, and natural affinity for diseased tissues, perfectly align with the goals of personalized medicine. Albumin readily solubilizes poorly soluble drugs, enhancing bioavailability and broadening the therapeutic arsenal. Its versatile surface allows for targeted modifications, enabling dual diagnosis and treatment (theranostics) tailored to individual needs. While challenges remain in optimizing drug loading and targeting specificity, albumin-based nanocarriers hold immense promise for revolutionizing personalized healthcare, delivering potent therapeutics with pinpoint accuracy. The burgeoning field of nanodrug delivery seeks to redefine therapeutic landscapes by engineering nanoscale carriers that meticulously deliver potent drugs to their designated targets, minimizing systemic exposure and maximizing therapeutic efficacy. This pursuit aligns perfectly with the burgeoning field of precision medicine, where personalized treatments demand exquisite control over drug delivery. Within this intricate choreography, albumin, the abundant and versatile protein resident in human plasma, emerges as a maestro, orchestrating a symphony of advantages that make it a prime candidate for nanocarrier construction

STUDY ON IMPLICATIONS OF COPY NUMBER VARIATIONS (CNVs) IN HUMAN POPULATION

Objective: To investigate the role and implications of copy number variations (CNVs) in different diseases found in the human population using various computational tools and databases.Methods: Five different diseases were taken into consideration namely Autism, Type-II Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Breast Cancer, and Psoriasis. To validate the CNV's associated with various human diseases different tools and databases were used such as CNV annotator, DECIPHER, Database of Genomic Variants (DGV), CNVD, CNV Workshop, CNV Web store. Finally, the results were analysed to identify the extent of CNVs association in selected diseases.Results: Among all the selected diseases, the maximum numbers of CNV's were found in the case of breast cancer which in total 3851 at chromosome number one. Among all the selected diseases, minimum numbers of CNV's were found in the case of psoriasis, and a significant amount of CNVs are present in all the selected diseases.Conclusion: CNVs constitutes a substantial fraction of total genetic variability and it has the importance in modulating human diseases. This study has shown a significant presence of CNVs in all the selected diseases. Hence it can be concluded that CNVs can be major causing factors in many other life threatening diseases as well and a specific study designed to identify these variations can open a new dimension in the development of novel therapy for those diseases

A Computational Approach for Understanding the Interactions between Graphene Oxide and Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase with Implications for Heart Failure

During a heart failure, an increased content and activity of nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK) in the sarcolemmal membrane is responsible for suppressing the formation of the second messenger cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)—a key component required for calcium ion homeostasis for the proper systolic and diastolic functions. Typically, this increased NDPK content lets the surplus NDPK react with a mutated G protein in the beta-adrenergic signal transduction pathway, thereby inhibiting cAMP synthesis. Thus, it is thus that inhibition of NDPK may cause a substantial increase in adenylate cyclase activity, which in turn may be a potential therapy for end-stage heart failure patients. However, there is little information available about the molecular events at the interface of NDPK and any prospective molecule that may potentially influence its reactive site (His118). Here we report a novel computational approach for understanding the interactions between graphene oxide (GO) and NDPK. Using molecular dynamics, it is found that GO interacts favorably with the His118 residue of NDPK to potentially prevent its binding with adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which otherwise would trigger the phosphorylation of the mutated G protein. Therefore, this will result in an increase in cAMP levels during heart failure.https://doi.org/10.3390/nano802005

Talk2BEV: Language-enhanced Bird's-eye View Maps for Autonomous Driving

Talk2BEV is a large vision-language model (LVLM) interface for bird's-eye view (BEV) maps in autonomous driving contexts. While existing perception systems for autonomous driving scenarios have largely focused on a pre-defined (closed) set of object categories and driving scenarios, Talk2BEV blends recent advances in general-purpose language and vision models with BEV-structured map representations, eliminating the need for task-specific models. This enables a single system to cater to a variety of autonomous driving tasks encompassing visual and spatial reasoning, predicting the intents of traffic actors, and decision-making based on visual cues. We extensively evaluate Talk2BEV on a large number of scene understanding tasks that rely on both the ability to interpret free-form natural language queries, and in grounding these queries to the visual context embedded into the language-enhanced BEV map. To enable further research in LVLMs for autonomous driving scenarios, we develop and release Talk2BEV-Bench, a benchmark encompassing 1000 human-annotated BEV scenarios, with more than 20,000 questions and ground-truth responses from the NuScenes dataset.Comment: Project page at https://llmbev.github.io/talk2bev

Implementation of the SutteARIMA method to predict short‑term cases of stock market and COVID‑19 pandemic in USA

The objective of this study is to compare the different methods which are effective in predicting data of the short-term effect of COVID-19 confirmed cases and DJI closed stock market in the US. Data for confirmed cases of COVID-19 has been obtained from Worldometer, the database of Johns Hopkins University and the US stock market data (DJI) was obtained from Yahoo Finance. The data starts from 20 January 2020 (first confirmed COVID-19 case the US) to 06 December 2020 and DJI data covers 21 January 2019 to 04 December 2020. COVID-19 data was tested for the period 30 November to 06 December and DJI from 25 November 2020 to 04 December. From the result, we find that the method SutteARIMA was found more suitable to calculate the daily forecasts of COVID- 29 confirmed cases and DJI in the US and this method has been used in this study. For the evaluation of the prediction methods, the accuracy measure means absolute percentage error (MAPE) has been used. The MAPE value with the SutteARIMA of 0.56 and 0.60 for COVID-19 and DJI stock respectively was found to be smaller than the MAPE value with ARIMA method

Investigating the delivery of health and nutrition interventions for women and children in conflict settings: a collection of case studies from the BRANCH Consortium.

Globally, the number of people affected by conflict is the highest in history, and continues to steadily increase. There is currently a pressing need to better understand how to deliver critical health interventions to women and children affected by conflict. The compendium of articles presented in this Conflict and Health Collection brings together a range of case studies recently undertaken by the BRANCH Consortium (Bridging Research & Action in Conflict Settings for the Health of Women and Children). These case studies describe how humanitarian actors navigate and negotiate the multiple obstacles and forces that challenge the delivery of health and nutrition interventions for women, children and adolescents in conflict-affected settings, and to ultimately provide some insight into how service delivery can be improved

Exosomal mediated signal transduction through artificial microRNA (amiRNA):A potential target for inhibition of SARS-CoV-2

Exosome trans-membrane signals provide cellular communication between the cells through transport and/or receiving the signal by molecule, change the functional metabolism, and stimulate and/or inhibit receptor signal complexes. COVID19 genetic transformations are varied in different geographic positions, and single nucleotide polymorphic lineages were reported in the second waves due to the fast mutational rate and adaptation. Several vaccines were developed and in treatment practice, but effective control has yet to reach in cent presence. It was initially a narrow immune-modulating protein target. Controlling these diverse viral strains may inhibit their transuding mechanisms primarily to target RNA genes responsible for COVID19 transcription. Exosomal miRNAs are the main sources of transmembrane signals, and trans-located miRNAs can directly target COVID19 mRNA transcription. This review discussed targeted viral transcription by delivering the artificial miRNA (amiRNA) mediated exosomes in the infected cells and significant resources of exosome and their efficacy