Assessment of Serum Uric Acid, Urea, and Glucose Levels and Associated Factors among Breast Cancer Patients Attending A Tertiary Hospital in Bahirdar, Ethiopia: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is currently become a major public health problem in both developed and developing regions, it is one of the most common surgical problems in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study assessed serum uric acid, urea, and glucose levels and associated factors among benign, malignant breast cancer patients and apparently healthy women attending at Felege-Hiwot comprehensive Specialized Hospital. METHODS: Hospital based comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among benign, malignant breast cancer patients and apparently healthy women attending at Felege-Hiwot Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. Out of 178 study participants 66 benign and 23 malignant fine needle aspirate cytology confirmed breast cancer patients and 89 apparently healthy women, included. Multivariable logistic regression models used to measure the strength of associations. A P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Majority of the study participants, 81(91%) controls, 55(83.3%) benign, and 17(73.9%) malignant cases were premenopausal. Serum glucose 144.47±74.35 and uric acid 6.84±2.54 levels were significantly elevated in malignant cases than control (p-value< 0.05).   Patients with malignant status were 4.38 times more likely to have hyperglycemia (AOR=4.38, 95%CI: 1.98-19.97) and 5.53 times more likely have hyperuricemia (AOR=20.43-95% CI: 6.80- 61.23), 4 times more likely to have uremia (AOR=4.09, 95% CI: 1.06-15.91) compared to apparently healthy women. CONCLUSION: Serum glucose, and uric acid levels were significantly higher in malignant and benign cases compared with apparently healthy women. Family history of breast cancer, body mass index, systolic hypertension, comorbidity, residence and menopausal status were significantly associated with hyperglycemia, uremia and hyperuricemia

An integrated multi-molecular sensor for simultaneous BRAFV600E protein and DNA single point mutation detection in circulating tumour cells

The analysis of circulating cancer biomarkers in the form of liquid biopsies confers several potential benefits as compared to traditional surgical tissue sampling. As a common key anomaly strongly implicated across several cancer types, the BRAFV600E mutation is one of the most valuable oncogenic biomarkers available in liquid biopsies. Crucially, BRAFV600E is also an actionable mutation which could be arrested by clinically beneficial drug inhibitors. Yet, as is true for most single base disease mutations, current BRAFV600E detection in either its DNA or protein molecular state is still liable to false positive/negative outcomes, thus impacting patient treatment benefit. Here we present an integrated multi-molecular sensor (IMMS) for an entire sample-to-answer workflow from melanoma cell capture to simultaneous quantification of both intracellular BRAFV600E DNA and protein levels on a single platform. The IMMS combines (i) specific capture and release of circulating melanoma cells; (ii) electric field-induced cell lysis; (iii) simultaneous quantification of BRAFV600E DNA and protein levels. We investigated the IMMS system's analytical performance in cell capture, release and lysis, and intracellular BRAFV600E detection by ligase-mediated DNA amplification and antibody-based protein hybridization. As a proof-of-concept, we successfully demonstrated circulating BRAFV600E detection at both DNA and protein molecular levels in simulated melanoma plasma samples. With its capabilities in integrated and miniaturized analysis, the IMMS could lead the emergence of a new generation of multi-molecular lab-on-chip biosensors for enabling more accurate and extensive analysis of powerful circulating biomarkers in patient liquid biopsies

Molecular inversion probe-based SPR biosensing for specific, label-free and real-time detection of regional DNA methylation

DNA methylation has the potential to be a clinically important biomarker in cancer. This communication reports a real-time and label-free biosensing strategy for DNA methylation detection in the cancer cell line. This has been achieved by using surface plasmon resonance biosensing combined with the highly specific molecular inversion probe based amplification method, which requires only 50 ng of bisulfite treated genomic DNA

eMethylsorb: rapid quantification of DNA methylation in cancer cells on screen-printed gold electrodes

Simple, sensitive and inexpensive regional DNA methylation detection methodologies are imperative for routine patient diagnostics. Herein, we describe eMethylsorb, an electrochemical assay for quantitative detection of regional DNA methylation on a single-use and cost-effective screen-printed gold electrode (SPE-Au) platform. The eMethylsorb approach is based on the inherent differential adsorption affinity of DNA bases to gold (i.e. adenine > cytosine ≥ guanine > thymine). Through bisulfite modification and asymmetric PCR of DNA, methylated and unmethylated DNA in the sample becomes guanine-enriched and adenine-enriched respectively. Under optimized conditions, adenine-enriched unmethylated DNA (higher affinity to gold) adsorbs more onto the SPE-Au surface than methylated DNA. Higher DNA adsorption causes stronger coulombic repulsion and hinders reduction of ferricyanide [Fe(CN)]ions on the SPE-Au surface to give a lower electrochemical response. Hence, the response level is directly proportional to the methylation level in the sample. The applicability of this methodology was tested by detecting the regional methylation status in a cluster of eight CpG sites within the engrailed (EN1) gene promoter of the MCF7 breast cancer cell line. A 10% methylation level sensitivity with good reproducibility (RSD = 5.8%, n = 3) was achieved rapidly in 10 min. Furthermore, eMethylsorb also has advantages over current methylation assays such as being inexpensive, rapid and does not require any electrode surface modification. We thus believe that the eMethylsorb assay could potentially be a rapid and accurate diagnostic assay for point-of-care DNA methylation analysis

A microfluidic-SERSplatform for isolation and immuno-phenotyping of antigen specific T-cells

T-cells play a major role in host defense mechanisms against many diseases. With the current growth of immunotherapy approaches, there is a strong need for advanced technologies to detect and characterize these immune cells. Herein, we present a simple approach for the isolation of antigen specific T-cells from the complex biological sample based on T-cell receptor (TCR) and peptide major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) interaction. Subsequently, we characterize those antigen specific T-cells by profiling TCR expression heterogeneity. Our approach utilizes an alternating current electrohydrodynamic (ac-EHD) based microfluidic platform for isolation and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for TCR expression profiling. The use of ac-EHD enables specific isolation of T-cells by generating a nanoscopic shear force at the double layer of the sensing surface which enhances the frequency of pMHC and TCR interactions and consequently shears off the nonspecific targets. TCR expression profiling of the isolated T-cells was performed by encoding them with SERS-labelled pMHCs followed by SERS detection in bulk as well as in single T-Cell. In proof-of-concept experiments, 56.93 ± 7.31% of the total CD4+T-cells were captured from an excess amount of nonspecific cells (e.g., PBMCs) with high specificity and sensitivity (0.005%). Moreover, TCR analysis data using SERS shows the heterogeneity in the T-cell receptor expression which can inform on the activation status of T-cells and the patient’s response to immunotherapy. We believe that this approach may hold potential for numerous applications towards monitoring immune status, understanding therapeutic responses,and effective vaccine development

TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND TODAYS ROLE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Today, foreign language skills are becoming an integral part of vocational education. Specialists in various fields have a high level of cooperation with foreign partners, so they have a high demand for language learning. In modern society, foreign languages are becoming an important part of vocational education. Such knowledge is first acquired by people in schools, colleges, high schools, and later in institutes, training courses, or by familiarizing themselves with basic information sets that help them learn a foreign language independently. Today there is a large collection of teaching materials for people with different levels of language skills. Success in achieving this goal depends on the practical methods and skills of teachers

DNA methylation-based point-of-care cancer detection: challenges and possibilities

Eukaryotic cell DNA conserves a distinct genomic methylation pattern, which acts as a molecular switch to control the transcriptional machinery of the cell. However, pathological processes can alter this methylation pattern, leading to the onset of diseases such as cancer. Recent advances in methylation analysis provide a more precise understanding of the consequence of DNA methylation changes towards cancer progression. Consequently, the discoveries of numerous methylation-based biomarkers have inspired the development of simple tests for cancer detection. In this opinion article, we systematically discuss the benefits and challenges associated with the promising methylation-based approaches and develop a point-of-care index to evaluate their potential in terms of point-of-care cancer diagnostics