Occurrence and distribution of meso- and macroplastics in the water, sediment, and fauna of the Nile River, Egypt.

The present study described the most recent findings concerning the abundance and distribution of plastic in water, sediment, and fauna in the Nile River of Upper Egypt as an interesting research point. The findings revealed that plastics were abundant in the water, sediments, fish, and crayfish throughout the sites. The Nagaa Hammadi site has the highest abundance of meso- and macroplastics in its water and sediment. African catfish had the highest abundance of meso- and macroplastics compared to the other species, while Nile tilapia had no meso- or macroplastics in its alimentary canal or gills in all sites. The Edfu site has the highest abundance of mesoplastics in the alimentary canals of African catfish, while the Nagaa Hammadi site has the highest abundance of mesoplastics in the gills, and macroplastics appeared only in the alimentary canal of African catfish from the El-wasta site. Only mesoplastics were found in the crayfish's alimentary canal, with the Nagaa Hammadi site having the highest abundance. No macroplastics were detected in the crayfish's gills or alimentary canal. Additionally, this work lets us understand how plastics behave in freshwater environments, and it is a step toward decision-makers taking appropriate measures to reduce their risk.

Combinatorial antitumor effects of amino acids and epigenetic modulations in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly fatal form of liver cancer. Recently, the interest in using amino acids as therapeutic agents has noticeably grown. The present work aimed to evaluate the possible antiproliferative effects of selected amino acids supplementation or deprivation in human HCC cell lines and to investigate their effects on critical signaling molecules in HCC pathogenesis and the outcomes of their combination with the histone deacetylase inhibitor vorinostat. HepG2 and Huh7 cells were treated with different concentrations of L-leucine, L-glutamine, or L-methionine and cell viability was determined using MTT assay. Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70 S6K), p53, and cyclin D1 (CD1) protein levels were assayed using ELISA. Caspase-3 activity was assessed colorimetrically. L-leucine supplementation (0.8-102.4 mM) and L-glutamine supplementation (4-128 mM) showed dose-dependent antiproliferative effects in both cell lines but L-methionine supplementation (0.2-25.6 mM) only affected the viability of HepG2 cells. Glutamine or methionine deprivation suppressed the proliferation of HepG2 cells whereas leucine deprivation had no effect on cell viability in both cell lines. The combination between the effective antiproliferative changes in L-leucine, L-glutamine, and L-methionine concentrations greatly suppressed cell viability and increased the sensitivity to vorinostat in both cell lines. The growth inhibitory effects were paralleled with significant decreases in IGF-1, phospho p70 S6k, and CD1 levels and significant elevations in p53 and caspase-3 activity. Changes in amino acids concentrations could profoundly affect growth in HCC cell lines and their response to epigenetic therapy.