FGFR2 and miR-889-3p expression in oral cancer is associated with cervical lymph node metastasis.

OBJECTIVE: Fibroblast growth factor receptor-2 (FGFR2) and miR-889-3p expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tumours were compared to normal controls. We then examined the relationship between miR-889-3p, FGFR2 expression and patient clinicopathological features. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The interaction of FGFR2 and miR-889-3p was investigated using bioinformatics. Then, OSCC tumour biopsies and normal gingiva were collected and processed for expression analysis of FGFR2-specific mRNA and miR-889-3p using real-time PCR. Immunohistochemistry evaluated the expression of the FGFR2 protein. RESULTS: The protein and mRNA expression levels of FGFR2 were significantly greater in tumours when contrasted with controls. Expression of miR-889-3p was significantly lower in OSCC compared to normal tissues. The FGFR2 and miR-889-3p expressions were inversely related (-0.86 and -0.73, respectively) in both cases and controls. Changes in miR-889-3p and FGFR2 expression in tumour tissues were associated with lymph node metastasis (LNM), with ~0.57 and ~3.0 folds of change in positive-LNM patients, respectively. CONCLUSION: Decreased expression of miR-889-3p in OSCC tumours suggests that miR-889-3p functions as a tumour suppressor gene. Overexpression of FGFR2 further proves the role of miR-889-3p in the regulation of the FGFR2 pathway. This was further confirmed by showing differences in miR-889-3p expression in positive and negative LNM cases.

Wireless Body Area Nanonetworks via Vascular Molecular Communication.

Advancements in biotechnology and molecular communication have enabled the utilization of nanomachines in Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN2) for applications such as drug delivery, cancer detection, and emergency rescue services. To study these networks effectively, it is essential to develop an ideal propagation model that includes the channel response between each pair of in-range nanomachines and accounts for the interference received at each receiver node. In this paper, we employ an advection-diffusion equation to obtain a deterministic channel matrix through a vascular WBAN2. Additionally, the closed forms of inter-symbol interference (ISI) and co-channel interference (CCI) are derived for both full duplex (FDX) and half duplex transmission (HDX) modes. By applying these deterministic formulations, we then present the stochastic equivalents of the ideal channel model and interference to provide an innovative communication model by simultaneously incorporating CCI, ISI, and background noise. Finally, we evaluate the results with numerous experiments and use signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and capacity as metrics.

Perfluorocarbons: A perspective of theranostic applications and challenges.

Perfluorocarbon (PFC) are biocompatible compounds, chemically and biologically inert, and lacks toxicity as oxygen carriers. PFCs nanoemulsions and nanoparticles (NPs) are highly used in diagnostic imaging and enable novel imaging technology in clinical imaging modalities to notice and image pathological and physiological alterations. Therapeutics with PFCs such as the innovative approach to preventing thrombus formation, PFC nanodroplets utilized in ultrasonic medication delivery in arthritis, or PFC-based NPs such as Perfluortributylamine (PFTBA), Pentafluorophenyl (PFP), Perfluorohexan (PFH), Perfluorooctyl bromide (PFOB), and others, recently become renowned for oxygenating tumors and enhancing the effects of anticancer treatments as oxygen carriers for tumor hypoxia. In this review, we will discuss the recent advancements that have been made in PFC's applications in theranostic (therapeutics and diagnostics) as well as assess the benefits and drawbacks of these applications.

Evaluation of the Expression Levels of miR-21-5p and miR-429 Genes in Biopsy Samples from Patients with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

INTRODUCTION: MicroRNAs (miRs) are a group of endogenous, non-coding, 18-24 nucleotide length single-strand RNAs that mediate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level through mRNA degradation or translational repression. They are involved in regulating diverse cellular biological processes such as cell cycle, differentiation, and apoptosis. The deregulation of miRs affects normal biological processes, leading to malignancies, including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). This study evaluates the expression level of miR-21-5p and miR-429 genes in biopsy samples from patients with OSCC and performs a comparison with controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, tissue samples were obtained from 40 individuals (20 OSCC patients and 20 healthy controls) to determine miR-21-5p and miR-429 expression using the ΔCT method and analyzed by the Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: The mean age of subjects in the control and patient groups was 47.15 and 53.8 years, respectively. According to the Mann-Whitney test, significant differences were observed in miR-21-5p (p < 0.0001) and miR-429 (p = 0.0191) expression levels between the two groups (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The expression of miR-21-5p, miR-429, and combined miRNAs in the OSCC group was significantly higher compared to the control group. As a result, changes in the expression of these biomarkers in cancerous tissues could potentially be considered as a marker for the early diagnosis of OSCC.

The Effect of Dissolved Gases on the Short-Range Attractive Force between Hydrophobic Surfaces in the Absence of Nanobubble Bridging.

The short-range attractive forces between hydrophobic surfaces are key factors in a wide range of areas such as protein folding, lipid self-assembly, and particle-bubble interaction such as in industrial flotation. Little is certain about the effect of dissolved (well-controlled) gases on the interaction forces, in particular in those systems where the formation of surface nanobubble bridges is suppressed. Here, we probe the short-range attractive force between hydrophobized silica surfaces in aqueous solutions with varying but well-controlled isotherms of gas solubility. The first contact approach force measurement method using AFM shows that decreasing gas solubility results in a decrease of the force magnitude as well as shortening of its range. The behavior was found to be consistent across all four aqueous systems and gas solubilities tested. Using numerical computations, we corroborate that attractive force can be adequately explained by a multilayer dispersion force model, which accounts for an interfacial gas enrichment (IGE), that results in the formation of a dense gas layer (DGL) adjacent to the hydrophobic surface. We found that the DGL on the hydrophobic surface is affected only by the concentration of dissolved gases and is independent of the salt type, used to control the gas solubility, which excludes the effect of electrical double-layer interactions on the hydrophobic force.

A Novel Electrical Model for Advection-Diffusion-Based Molecular Communication in Nanonetworks.

In this paper, we propose an end-to-end electrical model to characterize the communication between two nanomachines via advection-diffusion motion along the conventional pipe medium. For this modeling, we consider three modules consisting of transmitter, advection-diffusion propagation and receiver. The modulation scheme and releasing molecules through the conventional pipe medium from the transmitter nanomachine is represented in the transmitter module. The advection-diffusion propagation of molecules along the flow-induced path is shown in advection-diffusion propagation module, and the demodulation scheme of bounded particles at the receiver nanomachine is characterized in the receiver module. Our objective is to find an electrical model of each module under the zero initial condition which enables us to represent the electrical circuit related to each module. The transmitter and the signal propagation models are built on the basis of the molecular advection-diffusion physics, whereas the receiver model is interpreted by stemming from the theory of the ligand-receptor binding chemical process. In addition, we employ the transfer function of modules to derive the normalized gain and the delay of each module. Supported by numerical results, we analyze the effect of physical parameters of the pipe medium on the total normalized gain and delay of molecular communications.

Attractive forces between hydrophobic solid surfaces measured by AFM on the first approach in salt solutions and in the presence of dissolved gases.

Interfacial gas enrichment of dissolved gases (IGE) has been shown to cover hydrophobic solid surfaces in water. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) data has recently been supported by molecular dynamics simulation. It was demonstrated that IGE is responsible for the unexpected stability and large contact angle of gaseous nanobubbles at the hydrophobic solid-water interface. Here we provide further evidence of the significant effect of IGE on an attractive force between hydrophobic solid surfaces in water. The force in the presence of dissolved gas, i.e., in aerated and nonaerated NaCl solutions (up to 4 M), was measured by the AFM colloidal probe technique. The effect of nanobubble bridging on the attractive force was minimized or eliminated by measuring forces on the first approach of the AFM probe toward the flat hydrophobic surface and by using high salt concentrations to reduce gas solubility. Our results confirm the presence of three types of forces, two of which are long-range attractive forces of capillary bridging origin as caused by either surface nanobubbles or gap-induced cavitation. The third type is a short-range attractive force observed in the absence of interfacial nanobubbles that is attributed to the IGE in the form of a dense gas layer (DGL) at hydrophobic surfaces. Such a force was found to increase with increasing gas saturation and to decrease with decreasing gas solubility.

Effects of oral Aloe vera on electrocardiographic and blood pressure measurements.

PURPOSE: The effects of oral aloe vera on electrocardiographic and blood pressure measurements were evaluated. METHODS: In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study, healthy volunteers over age 18 years received either 1200 mg of oral aloe vera powder or matching placebo on day 1 of the study and the treatment not received during the first phase on day 8. In each phase, electrocardiographic variables, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure were evaluated at baseline and one, three, five, and eight hours after treatment. The primary endpoint was the maximum posttreatment Q-Tc interval over eight hours in both groups. RESULTS: Sixteen participants were enrolled in the study, with a mean ± S.D. age of 25 ± 5 years. No significant differences in electrocardiographic or blood pressure measurements were observed. The maximum Q-Tc interval was 419 ± 17 milliseconds in the placebo group and 422 ± 17 milliseconds in the aloe-treated group. The maximum P-R intervals in the placebo- and aloe-treated groups were 166 ± 22 and 169 ± 25 milliseconds, respectively. The maximum QRS complex duration did not significantly differ between the placebo- and aloe-treated groups (89.4 ± 9 and 89.3 ± 9 milliseconds, respectively). The maximum systolic blood pressures in the placebo- and aloe-treated groups were 120 ± 16 and 120 ± 14 milliseconds, respectively. The maximum diastolic blood pressures in the placebo- and aloe-treated groups were 74 ± 10 and 75 ± 9 milliseconds, respectively. CONCLUSION: A single dose of oral aloe vera had no effect on electrocardiographic or blood pressure measurements in young healthy volunteers.

A CFD study of the effect of cyclone size on its performance parameters.

A three-dimensional Eulerian-Lagrangian fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to simulate the gas particulate flow inside cyclones with different sizes. Cyclones of different sizes, were used which named as cyclones I, II, and III. Cyclone I was considered as the biggest and cyclone III was considered as the smallest cyclone. The effects of cyclone size and inlet velocity on hydrodynamics behavior and performance parameters including cut-off diameter and pressure drop were investigated. The renormalization group (RNG) k-epsilon model and Reynolds stress model (RSM) were used to study the effect of turbulent modeling. Particle trajectories were calculated via discrete phase model (DPM). The velocity fluctuations were simulated with discrete random walk (DRW) model to study the turbulent dispersion of particles. The cut-off size and pressure drop were increased with increasing the cyclone size. The RSM predicted the cut-off diameter very well with the deviations of 2.3%, 3.4%, and 3.6% of the experimental data, for cyclones I, II, and III, respectively. CFD model was developed using Fluent code to simulate the gas particulate flow inside cyclone. The simulation results also confirmed the applicability of CFD modeling with RSM as a promising tool to study the cyclone size effect on performance parameters.