A role of radioprotective agents in cancer therapeutics: a review

In the field of medicine or dentistry, cancer is one of the most common causes for death of the individual worldwide, in which oral cancer accounts for about 10% of it. One of the most important treatment modalities for cancer includes radiotherapy. During radiotherapy, exposure of the normal tissue to these ionizing radiations, results in mutagenesis and cell death. Several modalities and clinical approaches have been made to reduce these early and late complications of the radiotherapies and one among them is, by the means of pharmacological agents. Many experimental and clinical studies have given rise to new concepts of chemical and molecular pharmacological agents that could be effective in protection and treatment of radiation damage to surrounding normal tissues. Clinical Significance: To reduce the significant complications in irradiated patients, the clinical implication of these radioprotective agents have emerged as potential drugs and with anti-tumour effect in the radiotherapy of various cancers including oral carcinomas

Photodynamic Therapy – A Non-invasive Treatment Modality for Precancerous Lesions

Introduction: Oral premalignant lesions are conditions having high potential tendency for transformation into malignancy. The use of a conservative and effective treatment modality is one of the best strategies for cancer prevention. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a non-invasive method for topical and selective treatment of oral precancerous lesions. The present study was taken up to determine the efficacy of PDT in oral precancerous lesions.Methods: The study consisted 13 patients with 24 oral leukoplakia (OL) lesions and 8 with 20 oral lichen planus (OLP) lesions, divided into control and study groups. These lesions were affecting various intraoral sites, the buccal mucosa being the most common site followed by tongue and gingiva. The treatment regimen of PDT included 98% 5–aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) which is topical applied and irradiated with light emitting diode (LED) of 420 nm wavelengths at several sessions.Results: In OL 16.6% of cases showed complete response, 66.6% partial response and 16.6% no response of the lesions to the treatment. In OLP 80% and 20% of the lesions showed partial and no response respectively. The differences with control groups for OL + OLP were found to be significant (P < 0.001).Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, we can conclude that PDT appears to be a feasible alternative to conventional therapy for oral premalignant lesions

Rare benign median nerve angiogenetic lipofibromatous hamartoma: A case report

Only a few cases of lipofibromatous hamartoma (LFH) of the median nerve have been described in the literature. LFH is a rare and low growing benign fibro-fatty tumour. It is characterised by the proliferation of mature adipocytes within the epineurium and the perineurium of the peripheral nerves. The median nerve is most frequently affected in the upper extremities. Carpal tunnel syndrome, paraesthesia, numbness and pain are frequently the results of involvement of the median nerve. In presented case, in addition to fibrolipoma, there was also new blood vessel formation noted, which was attributed to the chronicity of the lesion. Diagnosis was missed by ultrasound and MRI due to the presence of blood vessels. Histopathological diagnosis was confirmed. Surgical treatment with carpal tunnel release and neurolysis were performed. This resulted in favourable outcome in 3 months

Efficient Genome-Wide Detection and Cataloging of EMS-Induced Mutations Using Exome Capture and Next-Generation Sequencing

Chemical mutagenesis efficiently generates phenotypic variation in otherwise homogeneous genetic backgrounds, enabling functional analysis of genes. Advances in mutation detection have brought the utility of induced mutant populations on par with those produced by insertional mutagenesis, but systematic cataloguing of mutations would further increase their utility. We examined the suitability of multiplexed global exome capture and sequencing coupled with custom-developed bioinformatics tools to identify mutations in well-characterized mutant populations of rice (Oryza sativa) and wheat (Triticum aestivum). In rice, we identified ∼18,000 induced mutations from 72 independent M2 individuals. Functional evaluation indicated the recovery of potentially deleterious mutations for >2600 genes. We further observed that specific sequence and cytosine methylation patterns surrounding the targeted guanine residues strongly affect their probability to be alkylated by ethyl methanesulfonate. Application of these methods to six independent M2 lines of tetraploid wheat demonstrated that our bioinformatics pipeline is applicable to polyploids. In conclusion, we provide a method for developing large-scale induced mutation resources with relatively small investments that is applicable to resource-poor organisms. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that large libraries of sequenced mutations can be readily generated, providing enhanced opportunities to study gene function and assess the effect of sequence and chromatin context on mutations

A sugarcane mosaic virus vector for rapid in planta screening of proteins that inhibit the growth of insect herbivores

Spodoptera frugiperda (fall armyworm) is a notorious pest that threatens maize production worldwide. Current control measures involve the use of chemical insecticides and transgenic maize expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins. Although additional transgenes have confirmed insecticidal activity, limited research has been conducted in maize, at least partially due to the technical difficulty of maize transformation. Here, we describe implementation of a sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) vector for rapidly testing the efficacy of both endogenous maize genes and heterologous genes from other organisms for the control of S. frugiperda in maize. Four categories of proteins were tested using the SCMV vector: (i) maize defence signalling proteins: peptide elicitors (Pep1 and Pep3) and jasmonate acid conjugating enzymes (JAR1a and JAR1b); (ii) maize defensive proteins: the previously identified ribosome‐inactivating protein (RIP2) and maize proteinase inhibitor (MPI), and two proteins with predicted but unconfirmed anti‐insect activities, an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) and a lectin (JAC1); (iii) lectins from other plant species: Allium cepa agglutinin (ACA) and Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA); and (iv) scorpion and spider toxins: peptides from Urodacus yaschenkoi (UyCT3 and UyCT5) and Hadronyche versuta (Hvt). In most cases, S. frugiperda larval growth was reduced by transient SCMV‐mediated overexpression of genes encoding these proteins. Additionally, experiments with a subset of the SCMV‐expressed genes showed effectiveness against two aphid species, Rhopalosiphum maidis (corn leaf aphid) and Myzus persicae (green peach aphid). Together, these results demonstrate that SCMV vectors are a rapid screening method for testing the efficacy and insecticidal activity of candidate genes in maize

Effect of duration of edentulism on neutral zone position in relation to alveolar crest ridge

Aim: The purpose of the study was to establish a relation between the crest of alveolar ridge and functionally obtained neutral zone and to determine the effect of duration of edentulism on the location of neutral zone in relation to the crest of residual alveolar ridge. Materials and Methods: The study included three groups, Group I: 15 human subjects edentulous for 0 months to 2 years, Group 2: 15 human subjects edentulous for 2 years to 5 years and Group 3: 15 human subjects edentulous for more than 5 years. Neutral zone recording was performed for each human subjects and the bucco-lingual relationship of the crest of the mandibular alveolar ridge and position of neutral zone was examined. The results were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis h-test and Chi-square independent test. Results: The results suggested that the location of neutral zone varies from individual to individual depending on their musculature and there is significant relation to the duration of edentulism. As the duration of edentulism increases, there is more lingual positioning of neutral zone at the molar region of both side of the arch. At premolar region, there is no change in position of neutral zone, it remains constant since resorption of the alveolar ridge is directly under the buttress. In anterior region, there is more labial positioning of neutral zone as duration of edentulism increases. Conclusion: This technique proved itself to be an easy and inexpensive way to determine the relationship between the crest of alveolar ridge and neutral zone. Incorporating this technique into the practice would be a great aid, which could be exploited by the clinicians for functional and psychological comfort of the patients

Perspectives on intracellular perception of plant viruses

The intracellular nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat (NLR) class of immune receptors plays an important role in plant viral defence. Plant NLRs recognize viruses through direct or indirect association of viral proteins, triggering a downstream defence response to prevent viral proliferation and movement within the plant. This review focuses on current knowledge of intracellular perception of viral pathogens, activation of NLRs and the downstream signalling components involved in plant viral defence

Acanthomatous Ameloblastoma: A Rare Entity

Ameloblastoma is a slow-growing and locally aggressive true neoplasm of enamel organ-type tissue which does not undergo differentiation to the point of enamel formation. It is most commonly seen in the posterior region of mandible, less commonly in anterior region, and rarely crossing the midline. It occurs in age ranging from 20 to 50 years with equal frequencies between sexes. It has a high recurrence rate due to its capacity to infiltrate marrow spaces with pseudopods without concomitant resorption of trabecular bone. As a result, the margins of the tumor are not clearly evident radiographically or grossly during operation, and the lesion frequently recurs after inadequate surgical removal. Here, we report a rare case of acanthomatous ameloblastoma present in a young male in the anterior mandibular region crossing the midline, along with an added emphasis on its review

Perspectives on intracellular perception of plant viruses.

The intracellular nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat (NLR) class of immune receptors plays an important role in plant viral defence. Plant NLRs recognize viruses through direct or indirect association of viral proteins, triggering a downstream defence response to prevent viral proliferation and movement within the plant. This review focuses on current knowledge of intracellular perception of viral pathogens, activation of NLRs and the downstream signalling components involved in plant viral defence