Dysregulation of non-coding microRNAs during the course of tumor development, invasion and/or progression to the distant organs, makes them a promising candidate marker for the diagnosis of cancer and associated malignancies. This exploratory study aims at evaluating the usefulness of plasma concentration of circulating mir-146a as a non-invasive biomarker for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Total RNA including miRNA was isolated from 110 plasma samples of patients (n = 66), healthy controls (n = 24) and follow up (n = 20) cases and reverse transcribed. Relative concentrations were assessed using real-time quantitative PCR and fold-change was calculated by 2^−ΔΔCt method. Finally, relative concentrations were correlated to clinicopathological factors. Patients (n = 66) were analyzed to determine fold expression of miR-146a in plasma samples of ALL. Before chemotherapy, pediatric (n = 42) and adult (n = 24) showed overexpression of miR-146a compared with healthy controls (P < 0.0001). There was no effect of age and gender on mir-146a expression in plasma. mirR-146a expression was independent of clinical and hematological features. Moreover, miR-146a levels in plasma of paired samples (n = 20) after treatment showed significant decrease in expression (P < 0.001). Expression of plasma miR-146a may be utilized as non-invasive marker to diagnose and predict prognosis in pediatric and adult patients with ALL. Moreover predicted targets may be utilized for ALL therapy in future.

In this study, novel hydrothermal ex situ synthesis was adopted to synthesize MoS₂/WO₃ heterostructures using two different molar ratios of 1:1 and 1:4. The “bottom-up” assembly was successfully developed to synthesize spherical and flaky-shaped heterostructures. Their structural, morphological, compositional, and bandgap characterizations were investigated through XRD, EDX, SEM, UV-Visible spectroscopy, and FTIR analysis. These analyses help to understand the agglomerated heterostructures of MoS₂/WO₃ for their possible photocatalytic application. Therefore, prepared heterostructures were tested for RhB photodegradation using solar light irradiation. The % efficiency of MoS₂/WO₃ composites for 30 min irradiation of 1:1 was 91.41% and for 1:4 was 98.16%. Similarly, the % efficiency of 1:1 MoS₂/WO₃ heterostructures for 60 min exposure was 92.68%; for 1:4, it was observed as 98.56%; and for 90 min exposure, the % efficiency of 1:1 was 92.41%, and 98.48% was calculated for 1:4 composites. The photocatalytic efficiency was further verified by reusability experiments (three cycles), and the characterization results afterward indicated the ensemble of crystalline planes that were responsible for the high efficiency. Moreover, these heterostructures showed stability over three cycles, indicating their future applications for other photocatalytic applications.

Breast and ovarian cancers, despite having chemotherapy and surgical treatment, still have the lowest survival rate. Experimental stages using nanoenzymes/nanozymes for ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment are being carried out, and correspondingly the current treatment approaches to treat breast cancer have a lot of adverse side effects, which is the reason why researchers and scientists are looking for new strategies with less side effects. Nanoenzymes have intrinsic enzyme-like activities and can reduce the shortcomings of naturally occurring enzymes due to the ease of storage, high stability, less expensive, and enhanced efficiency. In this review, we have discussed various ways in which nanoenzymes are being used to diagnose and treat breast and ovarian cancer. For breast cancer, nanoenzymes and their multi-enzymatic properties can control the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells or tissues, for example, oxidase (OXD) and peroxidase (POD) activity can be used to generate ROS, while catalase (CAT) or superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity can scavenge ROS. In the case of ovarian cancer, most commonly nanoceria is being investigated, and also when folic acid is combined with nanoceria there are additional advantages like inhibition of beta galactosidase. Nanocarriers are also used to deliver small interfering RNA that are effective in cancer treatment. Studies have shown that iron oxide nanoparticles are actively being used for drug delivery, similarly ferritin carriers are used for the delivery of nanozymes. Hypoxia is a major factor in ovarian cancer, therefore MnO₂-based nanozymes are being used as a therapy. For cancer diagnosis and screening, nanozymes are being used in sonodynamic cancer therapy for cancer diagnosis and screening, whereas biomedical imaging and folic acid gold particles are also being used for image guided treatments. Nanozyme biosensors have been developed to detect ovarian cancer. This review article summarizes a detailed insight into breast and ovarian cancers in light of nanozymes-based diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

The common prevalent diseases in the age of 0 to 6 are related to urinary tract infections. If not properly diagnosed, they will lead to urological and nephrological complications. Uropathogens are developing resistance against most drugs and are harder to treat. A study was done on the inpatients and outpatients of the two hospitals located in Lahore. A total of 39,750 samples that were both male and female were collected. Escherichia and Klebsiella were found in 234 samples based on biochemical characterization, growth on CLED agar, and white blood cell/pus cell (WBC) microscopy. In comparison to males, female samples had a higher number of uropathogens (1:1.29). From the samples of Shaikh Zayed Hospital (SZH), the ratio of Klebsiella to Escherichia (1:1.93) was reported, while this ratio was 1.84:1 from the Children Hospital (CH). The incidence of UTI was higher in the month of September. Randomly selected Escherichia and Klebsiella were verified via a 16S rRNA sequence. Antibiotic resistance profiling of isolated bacterial strains was done against 23 antibiotics. The most efficient antibiotics against Klebsiella and Escherichia were colistin sulphate (100% sensitivity against bacteria from CH; 99.3% against strains from SZH) and polymyxin B (100% sensitivity against strains from SZH; 98.8% against strains from CH). Sensitivity of the total tested strains against meropenem (74%, SZH; 70% CH), Fosfomycin (68%, SZH; 73% CH strains), amikacin (74% SZH; 55% CH), and nitrofurantoin (71% SZH;67% CH) was found, Amoxicillin, ampicillin, and cefuroxime showed 100 to ≥90% resistance and are the least effective.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune disorder that leads to the demyelination of nerve fibers, which is the major cause of non-traumatic disability all around the world. Herbal plants Nepeta hindustana L., Vitex negundo L., and Argemone albiflora L., in addition to anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects, have shown great potential as neuroprotective agents. The study was aimed to develop a neuroprotective model to study the effectiveness of herbal plants (N. hindustana, V. negundo, and A. albiflora) against multiple sclerosis. The in vivo neuroprotective effects of ethanolic extracts isolated from N. hindustana, V. negundo, and A. albiflora were evaluated in lipopolysaccharides (LPS) induced multiple sclerosis Wistar rat model. The rat models were categorized into seven groups including group A as normal, B as LPS induced diseased group, while C, D, E, F, and G were designed as treatment groups. Histopathological evaluation and biochemical markers including stress and inflammatory (MMP-6, MDA, TNF-α, AOPPs, AGEs, NO, IL-17 and IL-2), antioxidant (SOD, GSH, CAT, GPx), DNA damage (Isop-2α, 8OHdG) as well as molecular biomarkers (RAGE, Caspase-8, p38) along with glutamate, homocysteine, acetylcholinesterase, and myelin binding protein (MBP) were investigated. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 and GraphPad Prism 8.0. The different extract treated groups (C, D, E, F, G) displayed a substantial neuroprotective effect regarding remyelination of axonal terminals and oligodendrocytes migration, reduced lymphocytic infiltrations, and reduced necrosis of Purkinje cells. The levels of stress, inflammatory, and DNA damage markers were observed high in the diseased group B, which were reduced after treatments with plant extracts. The antioxidant activity was significantly reduced in diseased induced group B, however, their levels were raised after treatment with plant extract. Group F (a mélange of all the extracts) showed the most significant change among all other treatment groups (C, D, E, G). The communal dose of selected plant extracts regulates neurodegeneration at the cellular level resulting in restoration and remyelination of axonal neurons. Moreover, 400 mg/kg dose of three plants in conjugation (Group F) were found to be more effective in restoring the normal activities of all measured parameters than independent doses (Group C, D, E) and is comparable with standard drug nimodipine (Group G) clinically used for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. The present study, for the first time, reported the clinical evidence of N. hindustana, V. negundo, and A. albiflora against multiple sclerosis and concludes that all three plants showed remyelination as well neuroprotective effects which may be used as a potential natural neurotherapeutic agent against multiple sclerosis.

Conventional systems of medicine play a crucial role in maintaining healthcare. Herbal medicines are intact and less harmful to human beings than synthetic medicines. This study aimed to investigate the phytochemicals and in vivo hypolipidemic effect of chloroform extract of Lagenaria siceraria in Triton X-100 (100mg/kg body weight) induced hyperlipidemic Wistar rats. The phytochemical characterization and estimation were performed on the base of the GC-MS approach. The Lagenaria siceraria extract (250 and 500mg/kg bw) was administered orally to hyperlipidemic-induced rats for 7days to examine its hypolipidemic activity. The experimental animals did not display any acute toxicity. Atorvastatin (10mg/kg bw) was used as a standard drug. Administration of Lagenaria siceraria extract lowers the total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and low-density lipoproteins-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels whereas elevating the high-density lipoproteins-cholesterol (HDL-C) level. Histological studies of the liver and heart also showed the hypolipidemic effect of the extract. On the 8^th day, no inflammation of the liver, myocardial necrosis, fibrosis, or atypia was seen. Furthermore, binding affinity and plausible binding mode of stigmastan-3-ol with HMG-CoA reductase were predicted by molecular docking studies which showed the same interaction patterns as atorvastatin. Moreover, the docking results were refined by 100ns MD simulations which revealed that stigmastan-3-ol extract formed a stable complex with protein and did not induce any conformational changes in protein structure.