Nutrition and cancer: A review of the evidence for an anti-cancer diet

It has been estimated that 30–40 percent of all cancers can be prevented by lifestyle and dietary measures alone. Obesity, nutrient sparse foods such as concentrated sugars and refined flour products that contribute to impaired glucose metabolism (which leads to diabetes), low fiber intake, consumption of red meat, and imbalance of omega 3 and omega 6 fats all contribute to excess cancer risk. Intake of flax seed, especially its lignan fraction, and abundant portions of fruits and vegetables will lower cancer risk. Allium and cruciferous vegetables are especially beneficial, with broccoli sprouts being the densest source of sulforophane. Protective elements in a cancer prevention diet include selenium, folic acid, vitamin B-12, vitamin D, chlorophyll, and antioxidants such as the carotenoids (α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene, lutein, cryptoxanthin). Ascorbic acid has limited benefits orally, but could be very beneficial intravenously. Supplementary use of oral digestive enzymes and probiotics also has merit as anticancer dietary measures. When a diet is compiled according to the guidelines here it is likely that there would be at least a 60–70 percent decrease in breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers, and even a 40–50 percent decrease in lung cancer, along with similar reductions in cancers at other sites. Such a diet would be conducive to preventing cancer and would favor recovery from cancer as well

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

A Sensitive Validated Spectrophotometric Method for the Determination of Flucloxacillin Sodium

A simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method has been proposed for the determination of flucloxacillin sodium. The determination method is based on charge transfer complexation reaction of the drug with iodine in methanol-dichloromethane medium. The absorbance was measured at 362 nm against the reagent blank. Under optimized experimental conditions, Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration ranges 1-9 μg/mL for flucloxacillin. The method was validated for specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy. The degree of linearity of the calibration curves, the percent recoveries, limit of detection and quantitation for the spectrophotometric method were determined. No interferences could be observed from the additives commonly present in the pharmaceutical formulations. The method was successfully applied for in vitro determination of human urine samples with low RSD value. This is simple, specific, accurate and sensitive spectrophotometric method

Effects of incorporating germinated brown rice on the antioxidant properties of wheat flour chapatti

Brown rice after germinating for 24 and 48 h was milled into flour and incorporated in whole wheat flour at a level of 10% to prepare chapattis. The objective was to use chapatti as a delivery vehicle for germinated brown rice. The flour blends and chapattis made from the flour blends were evaluated for their antioxidant properties. Incorporating germinated brown rice flour increased the total phenolic content of the flour blend from 1897 to 2144 µg FAE/g. The total flavonoids content increased significantly from 632.3 to1770.9 µg CAE/g and metal chelating activity significantly increased by 71.62%. Antioxidant activity increased significantly by the addition of brown rice flour and addition of 24- and 48-h germinated brown rice flour further increased the antioxidant activity significantly. The total phenolic content and total flavonoids content decrease significantly in all the blends after baking the flour into chapatti. A decrease of 3% to 29% was observed in the total phenolic content and a decrease of 25% to 42% was observed in the total flavonoids content. However, baking of the flour blends into chapatti increased the reducing power, metal chelating activity by three folds and antioxidant activity from 64% to 104%

Case Report - Follicular dendritic cell tumour of tonsil - Is it an under diagnosed entity?

Neoplasms of follicular dendritic cells are uncommon and while majority of them occur in lymph nodes, they are increasingly recognized at varied sites such as abdominal viscera. Tonsil is the most common extra nodal site for occurrence of FDCT in the head and neck region. We describe three cases of follicular dendritic cell tumour occurring in the tonsil

Follicular dendritic cell tumour of tonsil - is it an underdiagnosed entity?

Neoplasms of follicular dendritic cells are uncommon and while majority of them occur in lymph nodes, they are increasingly recognized at varied sites such as abdominal viscera. Tonsil is the most common extra nodal site for occurrence of FDCT in the head and neck region. We describe three cases of follicular dendritic cell tumour occurring in the tonsil

Association between varying cut-points of intermediate hyperglycemia and risk of mortality, cardiovascular events and chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the updated evidence regarding prediabetes for predicting mortality, macrovascular and microvascular outcomes.Research design and methods We identified English language studies from MEDLINE, PubMed, OVID and Cochrane database indexed from inception to January 31, 2020. Paired reviewers independently identified 106 prospective studies, comprising nearly 1.85 million people, from 27 countries. Primary outcomes were all-cause mortality (ACM), cardiovascular mortality (CVDM), cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke. Secondary outcomes were heart failure, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and retinopathy.Results Impaired glucose tolerance was associated with ACM; HR 1.19, 95% CI (1.15 to 1.24), CVDM; HR 1.21, 95% CI (1.10 to 1.32), CVD; HR 1.18, 95% CI (1.11 to 1.26), CHD; HR; 1.13, 95% CI (1.05 to 1.21) and stroke; HR 1.24, 95% CI (1.06 to 1.45). Impaired fasting glucose (IFG) 110–125 mg/dL was associated with ACM; HR 1.17, 95% CI (1.13 to 1.22), CVDM; HR 1.20, 95% CI (1.09 to 1.33), CVD; HR 1.21, 95% CI (1.09 to 1.33), CHD; HR; 1.14, 95% CI (1.06 to 1.22) and stroke; HR 1.22, 95% CI (1.07 to 1.40). IFG 100–125 mg/dL was associated with ACM; HR 1.11, 95% CI (1.04 to 1.19), CVDM; HR 1.14, 95% CI (1.03 to 1.25), CVD; HR 1.15, 95% CI (1.05 to 1.25), CHD HR; 1.10, 95% CI (1.02 to 1.19) and CKD; HR; 1.09, 95% CI (1.01 to 1.18). Glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) 6.0%–6.4% was associated with ACM; HR 1.30, 95% CI (1.03 to 1.66), CVD; HR 1.32, 95% CI (1.00 to 1.73) and CKD; HR 1.50, 95% CI (1.32 to 1.70). HbA1c 5.7%–6.4% was associated with CVD HR 1.15, 95% CI (1.02 to 1.30), CHD; HR 1.28, 95% CI (1.13 to 1.46), stroke; HR 1.23, 95% CI (1.04 to 1.46) and CKD; HR 1.32, 95% CI (1.16 to 1.50).Conclusion Prediabetes is an elevated risk state for macrovascular and microvascular outcomes. The prevention and management of prediabetes should be considered

Copper nanoparticles decorated N-doped mesoporous carbon with bimodal pores for selective gas separation and energy storage applications

We demonstrate a synthesis of copper nanoparticles decorated over nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon with different N and Cu contents which exhibit conducting, redox, basic, adsorption, and excellent textural properties. These materials are prepared through a nanotemplating approach by simultaneously encapsulating sucrose, guanidine hydrochloride, and Cu(NO3)2 into the porous channels of mesoporous SBA-15 at a low carbonization temperature of 600 ◦C. The prepared materials exhibit an ordered mesoporous carbon framework with bimodal pores, decorated with nitrogen and Cu functionalities on the surface of the pores and in the wall structure. The presence of nitrogen functionalities in the porous carbon matrix not only helps to reduce the Cu ions but also stabilizes the nanoparticles and offers redox sites, which are beneficial for adsorption and electrochemical applications. The optimized sample exhibits the highest adsorption capacity of different gases such as CO2 – 22.5 mmol/g at 273 K, H2 - 13.5 mmol/g at 77 K at 30 bar and CH4 - 5 mmol/g at 298 K and 50 bar. We also demonstrate that the prepared material shows a high selectivity of adsorption towards CO2 in a mixture of CO2/ H2 and CO2/CH4 and it also registers a high supercapacitance of 209 F g- 1 at a current density of 1 A g- 1 with excellent cyclic stability.Kavitha Ramadass, Kripal S. Lakhi, CI Sathish, Ajanya M. Ruban, Rohan Bahadur, Gurwinder Singh, Harpreet S. Gujral, Mohammed Al-Abri, Ala'a H. Al-Muhtaseb, Ehsan Tavakkoli, Jiabao Yi, Ajay Karakoti, Ajayan Vin