Flavonoid, pterocarpans and steroid from Erythrina fusca Lour. growing in Bangladesh: isolation, and antimicrobial and free-radical scavenging activity

Background: Erythrina fusca Lour. (fam. Fabaceae) is a flowering tree, found extensively in tropical and subtropical Asian countries, and is known for its use in traditional medicine for the treatment of various human ailments, for example, fever, liver complications, infections, and headaches. Objective: To carry out phytochemical study, and antimicrobial and free-radical scavenging activity evaluation of E. fusca. Methods: Ground stem bark of this plant was extracted by maceration with methanol, partitioned with various organic solvents, and compounds were isolated by chromatographic means. Structures of isolated compounds were confirmed by spectroscopic analyses. The antibacterial activity was assessed by the disc diffusion method, and the free-radical scavenging activity was determined by DPPH assay. Results: The carbon tetrachloride soluble fraction of the methanol extract of E. fusca afforded shinpterocarpin (1), lupinifolin (2), 3,9-dihydroxy-4-(3,3-dimethylallyl) [6aR,11aR]-pterocarpan (3) and β-sitosterol (4). Compounds 1-3 showed considerable antimicrobial activity against five Gram-positive and eight Gram–negative bacterial and three fungal strains tested in this study. Compound 1 exhibited the highest zone of inhibition of 19.4 mm against Bacillus subtilis. Additionally, compounds showed free-radical scavenging effects in DPPH assay with the IC50 values of 8.8, 7.7 and 7.9 µg/mL for compound 1, 2 and 3, respectively. However, they displayed some general toxicity in BSL assay. Conclusion: The isolation of bioactive compounds 1-3 supports some traditional medicinal uses of this plant. However, general toxicities found in the BSL assay might raise concerns regarding its safety, while offering a new avenue of future investigation on cytotoxicity of these compounds against human cancer cell lines

Design and study of an mmWave wearable textile based compact antenna for healthcare applications

In this study, the design of a compact and novel millimeter wave cotton textile-based wearable antenna for body-centric communications in healthcare applications is presented. The free space and on-body antenna performance parameters for the proposed antenna at 60 GHz are investigated and analyzed. The antenna is based on a 1.5 mm thick cotton substrate and has an overall dimension of 7.0 × 4.5 ×1.5 mm3. In free space, the antenna is resonant at 60 GHz and achieves a wide impedance bandwidth. The maximum gain at this resonant frequency is 6.74 dBi, and the radiation efficiency is 93.30%. Parametric changes were carried out to study the changes in the resonant frequency, gain, and radiation efficiency. For body-centric communications,the antenna was simulated at 5 different distances from a three-layer human torso-equivalent phantom. The radiation efficiency dropped by 24% and gradually increased with the gap distance. The antenna design was also analyzed by using 10 different textile substrates for both free space and on-body scenarios. The major benefits of the antenna are discussed as follows. Compared to a previous work, the antenna is very efficient, compact, and has a wide bandwidth. In BCWCs for e-health applications, the antenna needs to be very compact due to the longer battery life, and it has to have a wide bandwidth for high data rate communication. Since the antenna will be wearable with a sensor system, the shape of the antenna needs to be planar, and it is better to design the antenna on a textile substrate for integration into clothes. The antenna also needs to show high gain and efficiency for power-efficient communication. This proposed antenna meets all these criteria, and hence, it will be a good candidate for BCWCs in e-health applications

Design and analysis of a compact superwideband millimeter wave textile antenna for body area network

The advancement of wireless technology has led to an exponential increase in the usage of smart wearable devices. Current wireless bands are getting more congested, and we are already seeing a shift towards millimeter wave bands. This paper proposes a design for a millimeter wave textile antenna for body-centric communications. The antenna has a quasi-self-complementary (QSC) structure. The radiating patch is a semicircular disc with a radius of 1.855 mm and is fed by a 5.07 mm long, 0.70 mm wide microstrip feedline. A complementary leaf-shaped slot is etched in the ground plane. The radiating disc and the ground plane are attached to a 1.5 mm thick nonconducting 100% polyester substrate. The antenna has an overall dimension of 10 mm × 7:00 mm. In free space, the antenna achieved a superwideband impedance bandwidth that covers the Ka, V, and W bands designated by IEEE. At 60 GHz, the antenna’s radiation efficiency was 89.06%, with a maximum gain of 5.7 dBi. Millimeter waves are easily blocked by obstacles and have low skin penetration depth. On-body investigations were carried out by placing the antenna on a human phantom at five different distances. No significant amount of back radiation was observed. The radiation efficiency decreased to 67.48% at 2 mm away from the phantom, while the maximum gain slightly increased. The efficiency and radiation patterns improved as the distance between the antenna and the phantom gradually increased. Ten different textile substrates were also used to test the antenna. With a few exceptions, the free space and on-body simulation results were very similar to polyester. The design and simulation of the antenna were carried out using the CST microwave studio

Peptide-based and small molecule PD-1 and PD-L1 pharmacological modulators in the treatment of cancer

Cancer immunotherapy is an option to enhance physiological defence mechanism to fight cancer, where natural substances (e.g., antigen/antibody) or small synthetic molecule can be utilized to improve and restore the immune system to stop or slacken the development of malignant cells, stop metastasis and/or help the immune response with synthetic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and tumour-agnostic therapy to eliminate cancer cells. Interaction between the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and its receptor (programmed cell death protein 1, PD-1), and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA4) linked signalling pathways have been identified as perilous towards the body's immune mechanism in regulating the progression of cancer. It is known that certain cancers use these pathways to evade the body's defence mechanism. The immune system is capable of responding to cancer by stalling these trails with specific synthetic antibodies or immune checkpoint inhibitors, which can ultimately either stop or slow cancer cell development. Recent findings and data suggested that using such inhibitors invigorated a new approach to cancer treatment. These inhibitors usually activate the immune system to identify and eliminate cancer cells rather than attacking tumour cells directly. PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors have already been substantiated for their efficacy in over twenty variations of cancer through different clinical trials. Studies on molecular interaction with existing PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors that are mainly dominated by antibodies are constantly generating new ideas to develop novel inhibitors. This review has summarised information on reported and/or patented small molecules and peptides for their ability to interact with the PD-1/PD-L1 as a potential anticancer strategy

Pancreatic cancer treatment with targeted therapies: are we there yet

Objective: Pancreatic cancer (PaCa) is a disease that is extremely difficult to treat and is associated with a high fatality rate. The majority of patients present to hospitals with metastatic or end-stage cancer, making the ultimate cure impossible. End-stage PaCa has no specific treatment, though surgery, irradiation, and chemotherapy can help patients live longer. Consequently, it is vital to accumulate all information on potential targeted therapies for this cancer into a single report. Materials and methods: This review has been compiled using relevant keywords and a thorough web search utilising PubMed, ScienceDirect, GoogleScholar, Scopus, MEDLINE, and SpringerLink. Results: Conventional medicines that target various biological processes have a significant negative impact on normal cells. As a result, targeted therapies are required, which include the use of small-molecule inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies to target cancer cell surface receptors, growth factors, and other proteins involved in disease progression. In this review, we summarize the known targeted PaCa therapies, which include inhibitors of the KRAS, mTOR, and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways, as well as PARP, hedgehog, EGFR/ErbB, and TGF-β signaling pathways, along with inhibitors of the neurotrophic tropomyosin receptor kinase (NTRK). Conclusions: An adequate understanding of PaCa pathogenesis and the adoption of tailored medicines can increase patients’ overall survival. We believe targeted therapy can help patients with PaCa to have a better prognosis. As such, more research is needed to find appropriate biomarkers to aid in early tumor diagnosis and to discover novel prospective therapeutics based on the drugs listed in this article