Validation of Protein Biomarker Candidates for Diagnosis of HBV induced HCC

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a major contributor to the global cancer burden. It affects millions of people in Pakistan on a yearly basis. Furthermore, HCC is linked to viral infections Hepatitis B and C, which account for roughly 87 percent of HCC cases in Pakistan. HCC is identified using imaging techniques such as MRI, Ultrasound, and histology, which have radiation hazards and frequently need expensive healthcare systems that are less available in most of the developing countries. Novel HCC biomarkers are being developed as part of a large research project aimed at detecting the disease early. These include the creation of biomarkers based on HCC patients' transcriptome and proteomic profiles. Circulating proteins, which are easily detected in body fluids, including blood serum, may thus provide an opportunity for the development of HCC biomarkers. Blood-based serum biomarkers must be developed for easy, non-invasive, and early detection of HCC. In conjunction with imaging techniques, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) has been used to detect HCC, although it has little clinical usefulness. Also, the reported AFP negative results make its utility meager. Multiple circulating proteins have been studied as biomarker possibilities for HCC diagnosis in recent years. In this study, Blood serum was used to validate three novel protein biomarker candidates to detect HBV induced HCC that had previously been predicted using a bioinformatics methodology. Proteins named C6, C8A and C8B were measured in the serum of 22 HCC patients infected with HBV in Pakistani population and compared to AFP levels using quantitative ELISA. C8A possesses considerable biomarker potential, with 95.45 percent specificity and 77.27% sensitivity with 0.933 Area Under the Curve (AUC), whereas C6 and C8B showed poor biomarker potential. Hence, C8A demonstrated great promise as a circulating blood-based protein biomarker for HBV induced HCC diagnosis. View Article DOI: 10.47856/ijaast.2022.v09i03.00

The effect of development and land use change on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships under humid tropical condition: case study of Bernam watershed Malaysia

Study of the land use changes and their effects on runoff and sediment patterns for the watershed level are essential in water resource planning and management. This study provides an approach to identify the effects of land-use changes on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relations in humid tropical region. For this purpose Bernam watershed located in Selangor state of Malaysia which is subjected to rapid land-use changes to residential and agriculture has been selected. The study was based on the comparison of the effect of land-use changes during two periods, 1980s and 1990s. The study objectives were to identify the change of land-use in the years of 1989 and 1998 and analyze its effects on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships. In this study, double mass curve with trend curve have been used to examine the effect of land use changes on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships. The results showed that the land-use change can be considered as main reason for increased runoff and sediment in tropical regions where the change in rainfall amount can be neglected. Land use changes altered the rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships and lead to higher slope for the trend (STC) of annual rainfall-runoff mass curve and runoff-sediment mass curve in 1990s than those in 1980s. It is implied that more runoff and sedimentation occurred in 1990s. Hence in order to reduce flood occurrence and sediment increases due to land-use changes, planners should consider tighter and straight control measures to be part of any watershed development plan in the future

Nanoencapsulation of Mandarin Essential Oil: Fabrication, Characterization, and Storage Stability

This study evaluates the combined efficiency of whey protein isolate (WPI) with maltodextrin (MD) and gum arabic (GA), as a delivery system for encapsulating Citrus reticulata essential oil (CEO). The wall materials blended at different rates were produced to obtain seven formulations of nanocapsules (NCEO), namely NCEO-GA, NCEO-MD, NCEO-WPI, NCEO-GA/MD, NCEO-GA/WPI, NCEO-MD/WPI, and NCEO-GA/MD/WPI. The interaction between CEO and WPI was simulated by molecular docking. Findings showed that the physicochemical characteristics and storage stability of formulations containing WPI were considerably improved. The NCEO-GA/MD/WPI formulation demonstrated the optimum values of encapsulation efficiency (92.08%), highest glass transition temperature (79.11 °C), high crystallinity (45.58%), high thermal stability (mass loss at 100 °C < 5%), and also had the highest antioxidant activity and lowest peroxide value after storage. This study demonstrated that combining WPI with MD and GA, as wall material encapsulation, can produce nanocapsules with superior properties to those created using polysaccharides individually

Fabrication and characterization of chitosan/gelatin films loaded with microcapsules of pulicaria jaubertii extract

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of incorporating two concentrations of microcapsules containing Pulicaria jaubertii extract (MPJE) on the physicochemical, microstructure, and bioactivities properties of films based on chitosan (CH), gelatin (GEL), and CH50:GEL50 for possible use as active food packaging in the future. The MPJE treatment was compatible with the CH and/or GEL film without affecting chemical structures. Physico-mechanical results revealed that the CH50:GEL50 film showed optimal properties. The films blended with MPJE considerably improved in glass transition temperature and thermal stability. The films treated with MPJE presented high barrier property toward UV and visible light. Compared with that of the control films, the microstructure of the films loaded with MPJE had a rougher surface with homogeneous microcapsules, which increased with increasing MPJE concentration. Furthermore, mixing MPJE with CH and/or GEL led to the for�mation of high bioactive films with lower moisture content than the control films, suggesting that MPJE can be utilized to preserve lipid-rich foods