Advancing cancer theranostics through biomimetics: A comprehensive review.

Nanotheranostics, especially those employing biomimetic approaches, are of substantial interest for molecular imaging and cancer therapy. The incorporation of diagnostics and therapeutics, known as cancer theranostics, represents a promising strategy in modern oncology. Biomimetics, inspired by nature, offers a multidisciplinary avenue with potential in advancing cancer theranostics. This review comprehensively analyses recent progress in biomimetics-based cancer theranostics, emphasizing its role in overcoming current treatment challenges, with a focus on breast, prostate, and skin cancers. Biomimetic approaches have been explored to address multidrug resistance (MDR), emphasizing their role in immunotherapy and photothermal therapy. The specific areas covered include biomimetic drug delivery systems bypassing MDR mechanisms, biomimetic platforms for immune checkpoint blockade, immune cell modulation, and photothermal tumor ablation. Pretargeting techniques enhancing radiotherapeutic agent uptake are discussed, along with a comprehensive review of clinical trials of global nanotheranostics. This review delves into biomimetic materials, nanotechnology, and bioinspired strategies for cancer imaging, diagnosis, and targeted drug delivery. These include imaging probes, contrast agents, and biosensors for enhanced specificity and sensitivity. Biomimetic strategies for targeted drug delivery involve the design of nanoparticles, liposomes, and hydrogels for site-specific delivery and improved therapeutic efficacy. Overall, this current review provides valuable information for investigators, clinicians, and biomedical engineers, offering insights into the latest biomimetics applications in cancer theranostics. Leveraging biomimetics aims to revolutionize cancer diagnosis, treatment, and patient outcomes.

Development and Validation of Yoga Protocol for Patients with Depression.

Background: Scientific evidence suggests that yoga is beneficial for treating mental health disorders. To the best of our knowledge, minimal studies have been done on the development of a yoga module for the specific clinical aspects of depression and there is no particular study on yoga protocol development for mild depression and moderate depression. Purpose: The primary aim of this study is to develop specific yoga protocol modules for treating patients affected with mild and moderate depression. Methods: Yoga protocols for treating mild and moderate depression were developed using classical yoga texts, previous literature, and with the help of yoga experts. 26 practices for mild depression and 35 practices for moderate depression were identified, each of which was scored as (a) not essential, (b) useful but not essential, and (c) essential, and content validity ratio (CVR) determined using Lawshe's formula for the validation. Results: Expert's opinion revealed that 13 out of 28 practices and 12 out of 35 practices showed significant CVR (>0.60) for mild and moderate depression. Conclusions: The yoga practices developed based on experts' opinion is the first step toward the development of a validated protocol for mild and moderate depression. This will be assessed for its effectiveness through a randomized controlled study to confirm the module's efficiency.

Role of yoga in stress management and implications in major depression disorder.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the leading causes of disability affecting more than 340 million people and second largest contributor to global burden of disease. Chronic stress is a common risk factor and important contributor for MDD. Stress could be defined as the "perceived inability to cope". Stressful life events are shown to provoke a sequence of psychological and physiological adjustments including nervous, endocrine and immune mechanisms. Stress can lead to elevation of a variety of inflammatory cytokines and stress hormones, can cause autonomic dysfunction and imbalance in neurotransmitters. Yoga can reduce depressive symptoms by alleviating stress. Studies have shown that yoga can reduce inflammation, maintain autonomic balance and also has a role in maintaining the neurotransmitters. It has role on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the peripheral nervous system including GABA, limbic system activity, inflammatory and endocrine responses. Yoga along with antidepressants can help in reducing the depressive symptoms in patient with MDD. Yoga is an ideal complementary and alternative therapy for mental health disorders.

An Observational Study to Analyse the Association of the ABO and Rh Blood Group Systems With Bronchial Asthma.

Background ABO blood group types are hereditary factors that have been shown to affect the blood levels of many antigens and proteins. Some blood groups have surprisingly been shown to be associated with some specific diseases, probably due to yet unexplained altering effects on the immune system or on the levels of other system-specific proteins. Studies conducted previously attempting to relate bronchial asthma and blood groups have had variable results and such studies on a large scale have not been ventured in India. Hence, the significance of the current study, which aims to search for an increased occurrence of bronchial asthma in any one of the ABO blood group phenotypes and additionally in Rh blood groups. Objective The objective of this study was to analyze the possible association of the ABO and Rh blood group types with bronchial asthma.  Methods This is an observational study with 475 bronchial asthma patients, and 2052 non-asthmatic individuals belonging to the same geographical zone. After obtaining informed consent, ABO and Rh Blood group testing was done on the study subjects using the hemagglutination method. Chi-squared tests were employed for the comparison of proportions. Statistical significance was agreed upon for an error of 5%. Results The O blood group was predominant in both cases (46.9 %) and controls (36.1%). A chi-square analysis revealed a statistically significant higher percentage of O blood group in patients (χ2: 24.537; degrees of freedom (DF): 3; p-value = <0.01). The cases had more Rh -ve individuals (12%) than controls (8%), which too was statistically significant (χ2: 6.711; degrees of freedom (DF): 1; p-value = 0.01). Conclusion The present study shows a positive association between the O blood group and the Rh-negative blood group with bronchial asthma.

DHEA and polycystic ovarian syndrome: Meta-analysis of case-control studies.

BACKGROUND: Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a heterogenous endocrine disorder characterized by irregular menstrual cycles, hirsuitism and polycystic ovaries. It is further complicated by metabolic syndrome, infertility and psychological stress. Although the etiopathogenesis is unclear, many studies have pointed out the role of stress in this syndrome. DHEA, being a stress marker is being used by scientists to compare the stress levels between polycystic ovarian cases and healthy controls. However, the results obtained from previous studies are equivocal. OBJECTIVE: To perform meta-analysis and find the association between stress and the syndrome. DATA SOURCES: Relevant data till January 2021 were retrieved from PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Web of Science using MeSH terms. STUDY SELECTION: Case-control studies having PCOS subjects as cases and healthy women as controls were selected provided; their basal DHEA levels were mentioned in the published articles. DATA EXTRACTION: Two authors independently extracted the articles and qualified the final studies. DATA SYNTHESI: Pooled meta-analysis was done using random effect model and showed level of DHEA statistically significant in PCOS compared to healthy controls (SMD = 1.15, 95% CI = 0.59-1.71).Heterogeneity was statistically significant as well (I2 = 95%). CONCLUSION: Thismeta-analysis on DHEA and PCOS has helped in generating evidence regarding the involvement of stress in the pathogenesis of PCOS.

Programmed Death Ligand 1; An Immunotarget for Renal Cell Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: In this era of developing targeted therapies and immunotherapies as a treatment for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), Programmed death ligand 1 (PDL1) as a novel biomarker for RCC is analysed in our study. About 90% of all renal cancers are Renal Cell Carcinoma. Most cases are diagnosed incidentally. 17% of cases are advanced at the time of diagnosis. PDL1 being a trans-membrane cell surface protein is expressed on the tumor cells and is found to have a chief role to inhibit the T cell immune response. It is essential to improve the host immunity by targeting the PD1/PDL1 pathway, thereby destroying the tumor progression. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of PDL1 in tumor cells and adjacent normal tissue among the renal cell carcinoma patients and assess the relation between the PDL1 expression and the tumor characters. METHODS: This is a retrospective study. Ethical clearance was obtained from the institution. 150 histopathologically proven RCC cases were chosen. Immunohistochemistry using a PD-L1 rabbit monoclonal antibody was performed on paraffin embedded formalin fixed tissue blocks. Q scoring was done to calculate the expression of PDL1. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Chi square test was done to assess the comparison between the PDL1 expression in tumor cells and their characteristic features like histology, grade and stage. SPSS (version 20.0) was used for analysis. P value <0.05 was considered significant. It also explains the heterogenous nature of PDL1 as it expressed more in the aggressive pathologic characters like high grade. RESULTS: Positive PD-L1 expression was seen in 44% of tumors. Significant association was observed between high WWHO ISUP grading and positive PDL1 expression (p=0.028). It was expressed in 75% of the sarcomatous type of RCC and 46.8% of clear cell RCCs. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that blocking PD1/PDL1 pathway may become an effective mode of treatment in cancer immunotherapy especially for Renal Cell Carcinomas. Our findings confirmed the significant association between expression of PDL1 and the high graded tumors which proves it to be an important prognostic factor.