Brain tumor stem cells: Role in neuro-oncogenesis and therapeutic implications

Malignant brain tumors are notorious for high morbidity and mortality. Our deficient understanding of brain tumor pathogenesis is reflected in our inability to cure this disease. Treatment remains palliative at best. The cancer stem cell hypothesis of brain tumors promises to consolidate many observations which have previously eluded neuroscientists and may reveal why aberrations in developmental programs are among the commonest findings in brain tumors. It is ironic that brain ontogeny and cancer - two processes with very different outcomes - exploit similar mechanisms to multiply, migrate,and survive. Implications of this hypothesis extend beyond mere academic interest. It may explain our current failures in the clinic and sets the stage for novel therapeutic paradigms aimed at altering the developmental adaptations of brain malignancies

Therapeutic Potential of Dietary Phenolic Acids

Although modern lifestyle has eased the quality of human life, this lifestyle’s related patterns have imparted negative effects on health to acquire multiple diseases. Many synthetic drugs are invented during the last millennium but most if not all of them possess several side effects and proved to be costly. Convincing evidences have established the premise that the phytotherapeutic potential of natural compounds and need of search for novel drugs from natural sources are of high priority. Phenolic acids (PAs) are a class of secondary metabolites spread throughout the plant kingdom and generally involved in plethora of cellular processes involved in plant growth and reproduction and also produced as defense mechanism to sustain various environmental stresses. Extensive research on PAs strongly suggests that consumption of these compounds hold promise to offer protection against various ailments in humans. This paper focuses on the naturally derived PAs and summarizes the action mechanisms of these compounds during disease conditions. Based on the available information in the literature, it is suggested that use of PAs as drugs is very promising; however more research and clinical trials are necessary before these bioactive molecules can be made for treatment. Finally this review provides greater awareness of the promise that natural PAs hold for use in the disease prevention and therapy

Assessment of stack emissions during different phases of electric arc furnace steelmaking process

Electric arc furnace steelmaking is a fast growing manufacturing process in which steel scrap is re-melted and desired quality steel grades are produced. It is considered to be a process which generates high degree of harmful gases and hazardous metal dust. The aim of this paper constitutes the assessment of flue gases and its air environmental factor pollution to the steelmaking in different technological process phases of electric arc furnace. The main components of the process flue gas are Carbon Oxide, Sulfur Oxide, Carbon dioxide and Nitrogen Oxide. The flue gas concentrations were analyzed by Portable combustion and stack Emissions gas analyzer. The overall process is divided into two phases; melting and blowing. A comparison was carried out between both technological phases and its respective flue gas concentrations. In melting phase, the minimum and maximum concentration of Carbon Oxide, Sulfur Oxide and Nitrogen Oxide were 75-836 mg/Nm3, 4-33 mg/Nm3 and 1-60 mg/Nm3 respectively. During the blowing phase the minimum and maximum concentration of Carbon Oxide, Sulfur Oxide and Nitrogen Oxide were 12-415 mg/Nm3, 2-14 mg/Nm3 and 1-42 mg/Nm3 respectively. The results were interpreted and compared with concentration of gaseous emissions existing in NEQS (National Environmental Quality Standards) of Pakistan. According to this study, it is evident that melting phase has more negative impact on the air environment factor then blowing phase, so it is necessary to mitigate the pollutant concentration during this technological phase. Few recommendations have offered including installation of a chemical energy package at Electric Arc furnace to reduce pollutant gases, so that the environmental impact becomes minimal and yield of the process maximize

Antimicrobial potential of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG): a green tea polyphenol

Abstract: The compounding problem of microbial resistance has become a global threat nowadays and demands urgent attention. Given the limited number of clinically proven drugs available, reversion towards compounds from natural resources have become renewed source of interest. Utilization of novel and potent antimicrobial agents with different targets can act as accessories to antibiotic therapy. Considerable amount of research has been conducted on the various advantages of secondary metabolites produced by different plants. Among these, polyphenols have come into sight over the past few decades as a potential source to promote human health. This article summarizes the various health benefits of EGCG, the major component of green tea polyphenols with more emphasis on the anti-microbial properties of EGCG

QoS-Aware Radio Access Technology (RAT) Selection in Hybrid Vehicular Networks

Política editorial: https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/policies/book-policiesThe increasing number of wireless communication technologies and standards bring immense opportunities and challenges to provide seamless connectivity in Hybrid Vehicular Networks (HVNs). HVNs could not only enhance existing applications but could also spur an array of new services. However, due to sheer number of use cases and applications with diverse and stringent QoS performance requirements it is very critical to efficiently decide on which radio access technology (RAT) to select. In this paper a QoS-aware RAT selection algorithm is proposed for HVN. The proposed algorithm switches between IEEE 802.11p based ad hoc network and LTE cellular network by considering network load and application’s QoS requirements. The simulation-based studies show that the proposed RAT selection mechanism results in lower number of Vertical Handovers (VHOs) and significant performance improvements in terms of packet delivery ratio, latency and application-level throughput

Enabling DSRC and C-V2X Integrated Hybrid Vehicular Networks: Architecture and Protocol

Emerging Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) applications such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Connected and Autonomous Driving (CAD) requires an excessive amount of data by vehicular sensors, collected, processed, and exchanged in real-time. A heterogeneous wireless network is envisioned where multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs) can coexist to cater for these and other future applications. The primary challenge in such systems is the Radio Resource Management (RRM) strategy and the RAT selection algorithm. In this article, a Hybrid Vehicular Network (HVN) architecture and protocol stack is proposed, which combines Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) technology-enabled ad hoc network and infrastructure-based Cellular V2X (C-V2X) technologies. To this end, we address the design and performance evaluation of a distributed RRM entity that manages and coordinates Radio Resources (RR) in both RATs. Central to distributed RRM are adaptive RAT selection and Vertical Handover (VHO) algorithms supported by two procedures. (1) Measurement of Quality of Service (QoS) parameters and associated criteria to select the suitable RAT according to the network conditions. (2) Dynamic communication management (DCM) via implementing RR-QoS negotiation. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed architecture and protocol suite under various parameter settings and performance metrics such as the number of VHOs, packet delivery ratio, and throughput, and latency

ChatGPT as a Clinical Decision Maker for Urolithiasis: Compliance with the Current European Association of Urology Guidelines

Background and objective Generative artificial intelligence models are among the most promising and widely used tools used in health care. This review investigates GPT-4 answers to decision-making questions regarding the diagnosis and treatment of urolithiasis across several clinical settings and their correspondence to the current European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines. Methods In March 2024, the GPT-4 model was asked 11 questions, containing a brief description of a patient with urolithiasis. All questions were grouped according to urolithiasis care step: diagnosis, urgent care, scheduled intervention, and metaphylaxis. When responses were received, compliance with the current EAU guidelines was assessed by experienced urologists. Key findings and limitations Although all responses were provided with information that corresponded to EAU guidelines, six of the 11 answers were associated with missed guideline–provided parts, and incorrect data were given in eight of the 11 answers. GPT-4 is relatively safe in the initial diagnostic flow of patients suspected of having stones within the urinary tract and during treatment planning; however, its understanding of all the nuances of metaphylaxis leaves much to be desired and is far from the dogma given in the EAU guidelines. Moreover, GPT-4 knowledge of strategy and algorithm is not always aligned with the EAU guidelines. Conclusions and clinical implications Despite the fact that from the perspective of patients with urolithiasis, GPT-4 is capable of answering their questions well, the specificity of questions from urologists is labor intensive for its current version, and necessitates the ability to interpret it correctly and further attempts to improve it. While some aspects of diagnostics are more accurate, these struggle with surgical planning and algorithms in line with the EAU guidelines. Patient summary The generative artificial intelligence (AI) model GPT-4 is capable of answering urology-related questions, but lacks detailed responses. Although some aspects of the diagnostics are accurate, knowledge of surgical planning is not in line with the European Association of Urology guidelines. Future improvements should focus on efforts to enhance the accuracy, reliability, and clinical relevance of AI tools in urology.publishedVersio

Cellular energy status is indispensable for perillyl alcohol mediated abrogated membrane transport in Candida albicans

The prevalence of fungal infections and their resistance patterns in fungal isolates from large number of patients with impaired immunity still remains poorly monitored. In spite of significant advances being made in the improvement of antifungal drugs, only a limited number of antifungal drugs are currently available. The present study aimed to gain further mechanistic insights into the previously described anticandidal activity of natural monoterpenoid, perillyl alcohol (PA). We found that cellular transport across cell membrane was abrogated in presence of PA. This was demonstrated by dose and time dependent enhanced cellular leakage accompanied by inhibited sodium and potassium cellular transport. In addition, we found disrupted pH homeostasis which was depicted by enhanced extracellular pH. We further observed that mitochondrial energy status is highly integrated with the antifungal activity of PA. This was evident from inhibited propidium iodide (PI) uptake in presence of sodium azide and di-nitro phenol (DNP) which showed no fluorescence when treated with PA. Moreover, we observed that PA leads to disrupted mitochondrial membrane potential. Additional cell death hallmarks in response to PA such as nuclear fragmentation was also observed with 4\u27,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining. Taken together, PA is a novel candidate that deserves further attention to be exploited as effective antifungal agent of pharmacological interest