Liposomal drug delivery systems and anticancer drugs

Cancer is a life-threatening disease contributing to ~3.4 million deaths worldwide. There are various causes of cancer, such as smoking, being overweight or obese, intake of processed meat, radiation, family history, stress, environmental factors, and chance. The first-line treatment of cancer is the surgical removal of solid tumours, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. The systemic administration of the free drug is considered to be the main clinical failure of chemotherapy in cancer treatment, as limited drug concentration reaches the tumour site. Most of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in chemotherapy are highly cytotoxic to both cancer and normal cells. Accordingly, targeting the tumour vasculatures is essential for tumour treatment. In this context, encapsulation of anti-cancer drugs within the liposomal system offers secure platforms for the targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs for the treatment of cancer. This, in turn, can be helpful for reducing the cytotoxic side effects of anti-cancer drugs on normal cells. This short-review focuses on the use of liposomes in anti-cancer drug delivery

Characterization of quaternary chalcogenide As-Ge-Te-Si thin films

Investigated in this paper is the effect of replacement of Te by Si on the optical gap and some other physical operation parameters of quaternary chalcogenide As₃₀Ge₁₀Te₆₀₋xSix (where x = 0, 5, 10, 12 and 20 at.%) thin films. Thin films with the thickness 100-200 nm of As₃₀Ge₁₀Te₆₀₋xSix were prepared using thermal evaporation of bulk samples. Increasing Si content was found to affect the average heat of atomization, average coordination number, number of constraints and cohesive energy of the As₃₀Ge₁₀Te₆₀₋xSix alloys. Optical absorption is due to allowed non-direct transition, and the energy gap increases with increasing Si content. The chemical bond approach has been applied successfully to interpret the increase in the optical gap with increasing silicon content

Parents’ Acceptance to Alveolar and Nasoalveolar Molding Appliances during Early Cleft Lip and Palate Care: A Call for High-Quality Research

AIM: Acceptance and compliance of the parents are an essential pillar in the success of pre-surgical infant orthopedic (PSIO) treatment. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the burden of care associated with the alveolar molding (AM) and nasoalveolar molding (NAM) appliances as experienced by the parents with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate (UCLP) infants. METHODS: An electronic search was carried on by two reviewers in eight search engines, as well as a manual search till July 2019. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing AM/NAM appliances to controls in infants with UCLP were selected. Risk of bias was evaluated using Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool for RCTs. RESULTS: One RCT was included in the qualitative analysis. Non-significant differences were found in the amount of mothers’ satisfaction between the intervention and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: Insufficient low-quality evidence is available regarding the effects of AM and NAM on parents’ satisfaction and burden of care. No conclusions can be withdrawn from the existing studies. High-quality research is needed to elucidate the degree of parents’ acceptance to the molding appliances. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42016043174

Anthropometric Measurements for Egyptian Preterms at Birth: Single Center Pilot Study

ackground: Assessment of fetal growth is a major part of antenatal and perinatal care. It reflects the intrauterine environment quality. Developed countries seem to have larger fetuses than developing countries. Birth body length and head circumference (HC) of the newborn are crucial prognostic parameters in determining intrauterine growth. Aim of work: We aimed to pilot a study to determine whether Fenton charts are applicable to Egyptian preterms. Materials and Methods: This single-center cross-sectional pilot study included 2001 preterm newborns < 37 weeks gestational age. A single measurement of weight, length, and HC was measured at birth from preterms who were not born to diabetic mothers, or mothers with hypertension, do not have chromosomal or structural abnormalities, congenital cyanotic heart diseases, intrauterine growth retardation, and multiple births. We created anthropometric measurements curves using Lambda Mu Sigma (LMS) chart-maker Pro (version 2, 2006) and compared them with Fenton growth charts for preterms. Results: The weight percentiles of our studied preterms were similar to those of Fenton´s in all gestational ages. The 3rd percentile of length among female preterms, and their 3rd and 97th percentiles for head circumference were significantly higher than Fenton’s data (p = 0.018). Only the 3rd and 97th percentiles of HC measurements for our studied boys were significantly higher than Fenton’s measurements (p =0.031) and (p =0.016) respectively. Boys (n=1063) were heavier than girls (n= 983) (p = 0.003). Boys were taller than girls, and had bigger head circumference than girls (p = 0.009) and (p=0.000) respectively. Conclusion: Anthropometric measurements of our large studied cohort of preterms was in close agreement of the measurements of Fenton growth charts, apart from the larger head circumference encountered among our studied cohort. Fenton charts are applicable to Egyptian preterms

Role of anatomical sites and correlated risk factors on the survival of orthodontic miniscrew implants:a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Objectives The aim of this review was to systematically evaluate the failure rates of miniscrews related to their specific insertion site and explore the insertion site dependent risk factors contributing to their failure. Search methods An electronic search was conducted in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Knowledge, Scopus, MEDLINE and PubMed up to October 2017. A comprehensive manual search was also performed. Eligibility criteria Randomised clinical trials and prospective non-randomised studies, reporting a minimum of 20 inserted miniscrews in a specific insertion site and reporting the miniscrews’ failure rate in that insertion site, were included. Data collection and analysis Study selection, data extraction and quality assessment were performed independently by two reviewers. Studies were sub-grouped according to the insertion site, and the failure rates for every individual insertion site were analysed using a random-effects model with corresponding 95% confidence interval. Sensitivity analyses were performed in order to test the robustness of the reported results. Results Overall, 61 studies were included in the quantitative synthesis. Palatal sites had failure rates of 1.3% (95% CI 0.3–6), 4.8% (95% CI 1.6–13.4) and 5.5% (95% CI 2.8–10.7) for the midpalatal, paramedian and parapalatal insertion sites, respectively. The failure rates for the maxillary buccal sites were 9.2% (95% CI 7.4–11.4), 9.7% (95% CI 5.1–17.6) and 16.4% (95% CI 4.9–42.5) for the interradicular miniscrews inserted between maxillary first molars and second premolars and between maxillary canines and lateral incisors, and those inserted in the zygomatic buttress respectively. The failure rates for the mandibular buccal insertion sites were 13.5% (95% CI 7.3–23.6) and 9.9% (95% CI 4.9–19.1) for the interradicular miniscrews inserted between mandibular first molars and second premolars and between mandibular canines and first premolars, respectively. The risk of failure increased when the miniscrews contacted the roots, with a risk ratio of 8.7 (95% CI 5.1–14.7). Conclusions Orthodontic miniscrew implants provide acceptable success rates that vary among the explored insertion sites. Very low to low quality of evidence suggests that miniscrews inserted in midpalatal locations have a failure rate of 1.3% and those inserted in the zygomatic buttress have a failure rate of 16.4%. Moderate quality of evidence indicates that root contact significantly contributes to the failure of interradicular miniscrews placed between the first molars and second premolars. Results should be interpreted with caution due to methodological drawbacks in some of the included studies