Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that infect the bacteria within which their reproduction cycle takes place, a process that ends in the lysis and death of the bacterial cell. Some phages are also able to destroy bacterial biofilms. Due to increased antibiotics resistance, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, another biofilm-forming pathogen, is a problem in many parts of the world. Zinc oxide (ZnO) and other metal nanoparticles (NPs) are biologically active and also possess anti-biofilm properties. ZnO-NPs were prepared by the green synthesis method using orange peels. The vibrational peaks of the ZnO-NPs were analyzed using FTIR analysis, and their size and morphological properties were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The ability of the ZnO-NPs to reduce or eliminate P. aeruginosa biofilm alone or in combination with phages PB10 and PA19 was investigated. The P. aeruginosa cells were effectively killed in the preformed 48 h biofilms during a 24 h incubation with the ZnO-NP–phage combination, in comparison with the control or ZnO-NPs alone. The treatments on growing biofilms were most efficient in the final stages of biofilm development. All five treatment groups showed a significant biofilm reduction compared to the control group (p < 0.0001) at 48 h of incubation. The influence of the ZnO-NPs and phages on the quorum sensing system of P. aeruginosa was monitored by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) of the autoinducer biosynthesis gene lasI. While the ZnO-NPs repressed the lasI gene transcription, the phages slightly activated it at 24 and 48 h of incubation. Also, the effect of the ZnO-NPs and phage PA19 on the viability of HFF2 cells was investigated and the results showed that the combination of NPs with PA19 reduced the toxic effect of ZnO-NPs and also stimulated the growth in normal cells.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer that frequently spreads to other parts of the body, with a low chance of recovery and a high mortality rate. Long non-coding RNAs are considered significant prognostic and diagnostic indicators because they are dysregulated in various cancers and have distinctive expression patterns and high tissue- and cell-specificity. VLDLR-AS1 lncRNA deregulation has been associated with several malignancies. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the expression levels of VLDLR-AS1 in CRC. It was the first time this assessment was conducted. Methods: We studied 188 samples, including 94 tumor samples and 94 paired adjacent non-tumor tissues. Total RNA was extracted, and its quantity and purity were assessed. TaKaRa PrimeScript 1st Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Kusatsu, Japan) was used for the reaction. The StepOnePlus Real-Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems) was set up to assess the relative expression of VLDLR-AS1. Results: According to the qRT-PCR data, the VLDLR-AS1 expression levels in CRC tissues were significantly lower than in tumor margins (P < 0.0001). In addition, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that VLDLR-AS1 expression can discriminate between tumor and non-tumor samples with the sensitivity and specificity of 72.34% and 51.06%, respectively (P = 0.03, AUC = 0.6274). However, no significant association was found between the expression levels of VLDLR-AS1 and clinicopathological features in CRC patients. Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that VLDLR-AS1 lncRNA is significantly downregulated in the tumor tissues of CRC patients compared to healthy tumor margin tissues. This evidence shows the potential of this gene as a promising biomarker for the early detection of CRC development.

Background: Recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA), defined as two or more succeeding abortions during 20 weeks of gestation, affects 3–5% of pregnancies. Several studies have found that most women with RSA had at least one (and sometimes two copies) of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T variant. Materials and Methods: The study involved 118 women who had two or more spontaneous abortions (SAs) as the case group and 118 women who had at least one live birth but no SA as the control group. Clinical features such as age, body mass index (BMI), medication received, family history of abortion, and thrombophilia were investigated. Real-time PCR was used for genotyping subjects for MTHFR C677T gene polymorphism. Results: Significant differences in age, BMI, and medication received characters have been shown between those in the patients' group. For the MTHFR C677T gene, the genotypes for the patients' group were 36%, 60%, and 4%, whereas the genotypes for the control group were 30%, 58%, and 12%. In addition, the C and T allelic frequencies were 59% and 41% in the healthy control group and 67% and 33% in the patients' group, respectively. A significant association was found between the TT genotype and RSA. A 3.84-fold increased risk of RSA was associated with the TT genotype (odds ratio = 3.84, confidence interval: 1.28–10.93, p-value = 0.02). Conclusions: In this study, homozygosity for the T allele was significantly lower in the RSA-affected than in healthy women, whereas heterozygosity did not vary substantially between the two groups, which was in line with other studies.