Preparation, characterization, and cytotoxicity of CPT/Fe2O3-embedded PLGA ultrafine composite fibers: a synergistic approach to develop promising anticancer material

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LEVELS ANTIINFAMMATORY CYTOKINES (ІL-4, ІL-10) IN MAINTENCE HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS DEPENDING ON EXPRESSED ANAEMIA AND CHARACTER DEFEAT OF KIDNEY

Aims: The purpose of the present study was to compare the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines in patients with chronic kidney disease, prolonged sessions of hemodialysis, depending on the severity of anemia. Materials and methods: We investigated 155 patients with chronic kidney disease, prolonged sessions of hemodialysis and anemia (mean age 46.4±12.4). Patients were divided into 4 groups depending on expressed of anemia: in the I-st (n=22) group – patients with the level of hemoglobin over 110g/l, in the II (n=66) group hemoglobin 90 - 110g/l, in the III (n=44) group hemoglobin 70-89 g/l, in the IV (n=22) group hemoglobin <70 g/l. Results: We have defined that level of IL-4 was clinically significantly lower (p <0.001) in patients, who have getting hemodialysis by comparison to control group. Levels of IL-4 had a significant differences between all of group of patients and controls (p <0.05). IL-10 had a positive correlation with the level of Hb (r=0.2405; p=0.003). ІL-4 had a negative correlation with the level of Hb (r=-0.4842; p <0.001). The average level of IL-4 was significantly increased in diabetic patients compared with non-diabetic patients 92±17.7 vs 48.3±28.1 (p <0.05). Conclusions: All of studied patients have had an increased level of anti- inflammatory cytokines. Serum IL-4 was higher in patients with diabetes. The levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10) have had a significant correlation with the severity of anemia

Insights into the Middle Eastern paternal genetic pool in Tunisia: high prevalence of T-M70 haplogroup in an Arab population

To obtain refreshed insights into the paternal lineages of Tunisian populations, Y-chromosome diversity was assessed in two populations belonging to an Arab genealogical lineage, Kairouan and Wesletia, as well as in four Tunisian Andalusian populations, Testour, Slouguia, Qalaat-El-Andalous and El Alia. The Arabs from Kairouan revealed 73.47% of E-M81 and close affinities with Berber groups, indicating they are likely arabized Berbers, clearly differentiated from the Arabs from Wesletia, who harbored the highest frequency (71.8%) of the Middle Eastern component ever observed in North Africa. In the Tunisian Andalusians, the North African component largely prevailed, followed by the Middle Eastern contribution. Global comparative analysis highlighted the heterogeneity of Tunisian populations, among which, as a whole, dominated a set of lineages ascribed to be of autochthonous Berber origin (71.67%), beside a component of essentially Middle Eastern extraction (18.35%), and signatures of Sub-Saharan (5.2%), European (3.45%) and Asiatic (1.33%) contributions. The remarkable frequency of T-M70 in Wesletia (17.4%) prompted to refine its phylogeographic analysis, allowing to confirm its Middle Eastern origin, though signs of local evolution in Northern Africa were also detected. Evidence was clear on the ancient introduction of T lineages into the region, probably since Neolithic times associated to spread of agriculture.This work was partially financed by FEDER-Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020-Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação in the framework of the projects “Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences (i3S)” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER007274). IPATIMUP integrates the i3S research unit. VG is supported by FCT under the program contract provided in Decree-Law no.57/2016 of August 29

Imaging, Spectroscopic, Mechanical and Biocompatibility Studies of Electrospun Tecoflex® EG 80A Nanofibers and Composites Thereof Containing Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

The present study discusses the design, development and characterization of electrospun Tecoflex® EG 80A class of polyurethane nanofibers and the incorporation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to these materials. Scanning electron microscopy results confirmed the presence of polymer nanofibers, which showed a decrease in fiber diameter at 0.5% wt. and 1% wt. MWCNTs loadings, while transmission electron microscopy showed evidence of the MWCNTs embedded within the polymer matrix. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy were used to elucidate the polymer-MWCNTs intermolecular interactions, indicating that the C-N and N-H bonds in polyurethanes are responsible for the interactions with MWCNTs. Furthermore, tensile testing indicated an increase in the Young’s modulus of the nanofibers as the MWCNTs concentration was increased. Finally, NIH 3T3 fibroblasts were seeded on the obtained nanofibers, demonstrating cell biocompatibility and proliferation. Therefore, the results indicate the successful formation of polyurethane nanofibers with enhanced mechanical properties, and demonstrate their biocompatibility, suggesting their potential application in biomedical area

No severe and global X chromosome inactivation in meiotic male germline of Drosophila

This article is a response to Vibranovski et al

ANALYSIS OF THE MORTALITY STRUCTURE IN HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS

Studies of the mortality structure in patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) remain relevant and are the basis for developing measures and recommendations directed to increase the lifetime of patients. Aim. The aim was to study the assessment of death causes in patients who received programmed hemodialysis, based on the demographic and gender characteristics, the duration of dialysis treatment. Methods. Mortality causes in 137 patients who received programmed hemodialysis from 2007 to 2011 years in Kyiv City Scientific and Practical Center of Nephrology an Dialysis were analyzed. Results. The leading cause of death was cardiovascular complications, but their decreasing has been observed since 2008. Fatality rate in young and middle- aged women with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) was almost two times higher than that of men. At the same time CVD is a predominant cause of men’s death at the age older than 44. Cerebrovascular complications were permanently in the second place of the mortality structure. About 30% of deaths occurred during the first 90 days of HD treatment, 72,5% of them were among males. Conclusion. Gender characteristics influence the structure of death causes in patients received programmed hemodialysis depending on age

Combining specificity determining and conserved residues improves functional site prediction

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Predicting the location of functionally important sites from protein sequence and/or structure is a long-standing problem in computational biology. Most current approaches make use of sequence conservation, assuming that amino acid residues conserved within a protein family are most likely to be functionally important. Most often these approaches do not consider many residues that act to define specific sub-functions within a family, or they make no distinction between residues important for function and those more relevant for maintaining structure (e.g. in the hydrophobic core). Many protein families bind and/or act on a variety of ligands, meaning that conserved residues often only bind a common ligand sub-structure or perform general catalytic activities.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we present a novel method for functional site prediction based on identification of conserved positions, as well as those responsible for determining ligand specificity. We define Specificity-Determining Positions (SDPs), as those occupied by conserved residues within sub-groups of proteins in a family having a common specificity, but differ between groups, and are thus likely to account for specific recognition events. We benchmark the approach on enzyme families of known 3D structure with bound substrates, and find that in nearly all families residues predicted by SDPsite are in contact with the bound substrate, and that the addition of SDPs significantly improves functional site prediction accuracy. We apply SDPsite to various families of proteins containing known three-dimensional structures, but lacking clear functional annotations, and discusse several illustrative examples.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results suggest a better means to predict functional details for the thousands of protein structures determined prior to a clear understanding of molecular function.</p