Effect of glutamine analogue-acivicin on tumor induced angiogenesis in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma

407-413The inhibition of tumor growth and tumor induced angiogenesis by the glutamine antimetabolite acivicin was evaluated in 6-7 weeks old male Swiss albino mice bearing Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) transplanted by intraperitoneal (ip) injections of EAC cells. Treatment involving ip injections with two different doses of acivicin (0.05 and 0.4μg/g body weight/day) in saline revealed decrease in tumor volumes and reduced number of blood vessels on peritoneal wall after 10 and 15 days of treatment when compared to control (i.e. injected with saline only). Vascular hyperpermeability was found to be lesser in the treated groups of mice than the control as indicated by the FITC-D and colloidal carbon assay. Serum VEGF level was found to decrease in the drug treated groups both after 10 and 15 days of treatment. The results thus suggest that acivicin may suppress tumoral angiogenesis through regulation of VEGF level

Acivicin with glutaminase regulates proliferation and invasion of human MCF-7 and OAW-42 cells-An <i style="">in vitro</i> study

22-26Tumor cells intensely utilize glutamine as the major source of respiratory fuel. Glutamine-analogue acivicin inhibits tumor growth and tumor-induced angiogenesis in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma. In the present study, antitumor properties of acivicin in combination with glutaminase enzyme is reported. Acivicin along with E. coli glutaminase synergistically reduced in vitro proliferation and matrigel invasion of human MCF-7 and OAW-42 cells. Effects of single and combined treatments with acivicin and glutaminase on angiogenic factors were also analyzed in these cell lines. Co-administration of the treatment agents inhibits the release of VEGF and MMP-9 by cells in culture supernatant significantly than single agent treatments. The result suggests that combination of acivicin with glutaminase may provide a better therapeutic option than either of them given separately for treating human breast and ovarian cancer. However, further studies are required to be conducted in vivo for its confirmation

SiC MOSFETs for Offshore Wind Applications

Space and weight are critical factors for offshore wind applications during the construction, operation, and maintenance phases. Superior material properties of silicon carbide enable the development of power devices capable of switching fast as well as handling high power. Thus, this paper performs the quantitative evaluation of the total converter loss and efficiency at different switching frequencies in order to observe the potential performance gains that SiC MOSFETs can bring over Si IGBTs for such applications. When simulating the detailed converter losses in a three-phase, two-level topology; the turn-on and turn-off switching energy losses obtained from the laboratory measurement and the conduction losses acquired from the datasheet are used as a look-up table input. Additionally, the simulated results are compared with the analytical and the numerical solutions. In conclusion, this analysis gives an insight into how SiC MOSFET outperforms Si IGBT over all switching frequency ranges with the advantages becoming more visible at higher frequencies.publishedVersionContent from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Comorbidities and Risk Factors Associated With Insomnia in the Elderly Population

Introduction/Objectives: Sleep disorders affect around 50 to 70 million Americans, with chronic insomnia being the most common, especially in the elderly population. With an 11-fold increase in the US office visits due to insomnia, from 0.8 to 9.4 million, between 1993 and 2015, it is imperative to identify the modifiable risk factors. The aim of our study was to examine the association of risk factors and comorbid medical conditions with insomnia in patients 65 years, and older. Methods: We performed a retrospective electronic medical record review of the patients aged 65 years and older, who visited our suburban internal medicine office between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. Patients were divided into insomnia group, and the group without insomnia. The associated variables were compared. Results: Among 2431 patients, 247 patients (10.2%) had insomnia. Mean ages of the patients in the insomnia group and the group without insomnia were comparable (77 ± 8.1 year vs 76 ± 7.5 year; P  = .211). There was a significantly greater frequency of women in the insomnia group compared to the group without insomnia (63.2% vs 55.5%; P  = .022). In the insomnia group, there were significantly higher frequencies of association of certain comorbidities compared to the group without insomnia, such as dementia (6.5% vs 3.4%; P  = .015), depression (30.8% vs 14.9%; P  < 0.001), anxiety disorder (34.4% vs 17.4%; P  < .001), atrial fibrillation (19.4% vs 13.4%; P  = .01), and chronic pain disorders (32.8% vs 18.9%; P  < .001). Logistic regression analysis showed significantly greater odds of insomnia in patients who had depression (OR = 1.860, 95% CI 1.342–2.576; P  < .001), anxiety (OR = 1.845, 95% CI 1.342-2.537; P  < .001), and chronic pain disorders (OR = 1.901, 95% CI 1.417-2.549; P  < .001). Conclusions: Female sex, dementia, depression, anxiety, chronic pain disorders, and atrial fibrillation are associated with insomnia in the elderly patients. Presence of depression, anxiety, and chronic pain disorders are associated with greater odds of having insomnia in the elderly patients

Association of Risk Factors and Comorbidities With Chronic Pain in the Elderly Population

Introduction/Objective: Chronic pain disorders affect about 20% of adults in the United States, and it disproportionately affects individuals living in the neighborhoods of extreme socioeconomic disadvantage. In many instances, chronic pain has been noted to arise from an aggregation of multiple risk factors and events. Therefore, it is of importance to recognize the modifiable risk factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the comorbid medical conditions and risk factors associated with chronic pain disorders in patients aged 65 years and older. Methods: Our team retrospectively reviewed medical records of elderly patients (65 years and older) who were evaluated in our outpatient medicine office between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 for acute problems, management of chronic medical problems, or well visits. We divided our patients into a group who suffered from chronic pain disorder, and another group who did not have chronic pain disorder. The association of variables were compared between those groups. Results: Of the 2431 patients, 493 (20.3%) had a chronic pain disorder. A higher frequency of females in the group with chronic pain disorder was found compared to the group without a chronic pain disorder (60.6% vs 55.2%; P  = .033). The mean ages between the two groups were similar in the group with a chronic pain disorder compared to the group without (76.35 ± 7.5 year vs 76.81 ± 7.59 year; P  = .228). There were significant associations of certain comorbidities in the group with a chronic pain disorder compared to the group without a chronic pain disorder, such as depression (21.9% vs 15.2%; P  < .001), anxiety (27.0% vs 17.1%; P  < .001), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (8.7% vs 6.1%; P  = .036), obstructive sleep apnea (16.8% vs 11.6%; P  = .002), gastroesophageal reflux disease (40.8% vs 29.0%; P  < .001), osteoarthritis (49.3% vs 26.1%; P  < .001), other rheumatologic diseases (24.9% vs 19.4%; P  = .006), and peripheral neuropathy (14.4% vs 5.3%; P  < .001). Conclusion: Female sex, depression, anxiety, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obstructive sleep apnea, gastroesophageal reflux disease, osteoarthritis, other rheumatologic diseases, and peripheral neuropathy were significantly associated with chronic pain disorder in elderly patients, while BMI was not associated with chronic pain disorder

Risk Factors Associated With Atrial Fibrillation in Elderly Patients.

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia with a growing prevalence worldwide, especially in the elderly population. Patients with AF are at higher risk of serious life-threatening events and complications that may lead to long-term sequelae and reduce quality of life. The aim of our study was to examine the association of additional risk factors and comorbid medical conditions with AF in patients 65 years, or older. METHODS: We performed a retrospective electronic medical record review of patients aged 65 years and older, who visited our internal medicine office between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. RESULTS: Among 2,433 patients, 418 patients (17.2%) had AF. Our analysis showed that for each unit increased in age, there was a 4.5% increase in the odds of AF (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.2-6.9%; P \u3c 0.001). Compared to patients of Caucasian descent, African-American patients had significantly decreased odds of AF (odds ratio (OR) 0.274, 95% CI 0.141 - 0.531; P \u3c 0.001). Patients with hypertension had 2.241 greater odds of AF (95% CI 1.421 - 3.534; P = 0.001). Additional comorbidities with significantly greater odds of AF included other cardiac arrhythmias (OR 2.523, 95% CI 1.720 - 3.720; P \u3c 0.001), congestive heart failure (OR 3.111, 95% CI 1.674 - 5.784; P \u3c 0.001), osteoarthritis (OR 3.014, 95% CI 2.138 - 4.247; P \u3c 0.001), liver disease (OR 2.129, 95% CI 1.164 - 3.893; P = 0.014), and colorectal disease (OR 1.500 95% CI 1.003 - 2.243; P = 0.048). Comorbidities with significantly decreased odds of AF included other rheumatological disorder (OR 0.144, 95% CI 0.086 - 0.243; P \u3c 0.001), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) use (OR 0.206, 95% CI 0.125 - 0.338; P \u3c 0.001), and corticosteroid use (OR 0.553, 95% CI 0.374 - 0.819; P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Increasing age, hypertension, presence of other cardiac arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, osteoarthritis, liver disease, and colorectal disease are associated with increased odds of having AF

A comprehensive mechanistic basis of prostate cancer advancement & its personalized implementation-bridging the gap: present state and future prospect

Despite significant achievements in prostate cancer mechanistic understanding and its targeted therapies, currently there exists several major challenges that mainly arises during the therapy of advanced prostate cancer. Present prostate cancer precision medicine strategy principally suffers from several practical concerns, particularly in point of therapeutic resistance, tumor heterogeneity, complex clinical & pathological behavior and an extensive genomic perturbation landscape. Prostate Cancer Systems-Medicine Initiative is a global trans-disciplinary movement taken from corresponding scientific domains to critically determine the nature of this major existing challenges and its corresponding most possible solutions by systematically accumulating the present existing knowledge. Basically, it explains the importance of broad spectrum cancer hallmark based integrative approaches for development of combination therapy associated strategic measures for metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. The major findings of this initiative can be summarized by identification of 136 therapeutic resistance mediators, 103 prostate cancer driver oncogenes and 8 progression pathways along with 5 terrain factors which centrally drives the basic events in prostate cancer pathogenesis, its further metastatic propagation and ultimate therapeutic resistance. In addition, it also attempts to summarize the critical features and basic challenging aspects of current therapeutic options