Paclitaxel (PTX) is one of the front-line drugs approved for the treatment of ovarian cancer. However, the application of PTX is limited due to the significant hydrophobicity and poor pharmacokinetics. We previously reported target-directed liposomes carrying tumor-selective conjugated antibody and encapsulated glycosylated PTX (gPTX-L) which successfully overcome the PTX limitation. The tubulin stabilizing activity of gPTX was equivalent to that of PTX while the cytotoxic activity of gPTX was reduced. In human ovarian cancer cell lines, SK-OV-3 and OVK18, the concentration at which cell growth was inhibited by 50% (IC₅₀) for gPTX range from 15–20 nM, which was sensitive enough to address gPTX-L with tumor-selective antibody coupling for ovarian cancer therapy. The cell membrane receptor CD44 is associated with cancer progression and has been recognized as a cancer stem cell marker including ovarian cancer, becoming a suitable candidate to be targeted by gPTX-L therapy. In this study, gPTX-loading liposomes conjugated with anti-CD44 antibody (gPTX-IL) were assessed for the efficacy of targeting CD44-positive ovarian cancer cells. We successfully encapsulated gPTX into liposomes with the loading efficiency (LE) more than 80% in both of gPTX-L and gPTX-IL with a diameter of approximately 100 nm with efficacy of enhanced cytotoxicity in vitro and of convenient treatment in vivo. As the result, gPTX-IL efficiently suppressed tumor growth in vivo. Therefore gPTX-IL could be a promising formulation for effective ovarian cancer therapies.

We recently have established a successful xenograft model of human glioblastoma cells by enriching hyaluronic acid-dependent spheroid-forming populations termed U251MG-P1 cells from U251MG cells. Since U251MG-P1 cells have been confirmed to express CD44 along with principal stemness marker genes, OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4 and Nanog, this CD44 expressing population appeared to majorly consist of undifferentiated cells. Evaluating the sensitivity to anti-cancer agents, we found U251MG-P1 cells were sensitive to doxorubicin with IC₅₀ at 200 nM. Although doxorubicin has serious side-effects, establishment of an efficient therapy targeting undifferentiated glioblastoma cell population is necessary. We previously designed a chlorotoxin peptide fused to human IgG Fc region without hinge sequence (M-CTX-Fc), which exhibited a stronger growth inhibitory effect on the glioblastoma cell line A172 than an original chlorotoxin peptide. Combining these results together, we designed M-CTX-Fc conjugated liposomes encapsulating doxorubicin and used U251MG-P1 cells as the target model in this study. The liposome modified with M-CTX-Fc was designed with a diameter of approximately 100–150 nm and showed high encapsulation efficiency, adequate loading capacity of anticancer drug, enhanced antitumor effects demonstrating increasing uptake into the cells in vitro; M-CTX-Fc-L-Dox shows great promise in its ability to suppress tumor growth in vivo and it could serve as a template for targeted delivery of other therapeutics.

Greenhouse horticulture's main purpose is to produce a comfortable indoor environment that encourages plant development. As a result, it promotes off-season crop farming and cultivation in areas where the natural environment is unsuitable for some types of flora. The proposed project in this study focuses on tomato cultivation where there is still minimal cultivation since the process is difficult to control and requires low temperatures, such as in some upland areas, to allow high quality and fast growth. Several essential characteristics that determine the quality of plant development and production, including as temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and the amount of sunlight that penetrates the plant house, will be monitored, and managed automatically in this project. The temperature and humidity sensor (DHT11), soil moisture sensors (YL - 69), ultraviolet (UV) sensor, 12 V water pump, 12 V Peltier module with heatsink, 26 W LED plant grow strip lights, and switchable glass that blocks 98% of UV rays are some of the most important components used in this study. According to the findings of the experiments, tomato plants cultivated with this prototype develop faster and healthier, even in high-temperature agricultural locations. Furthermore, this project can use IoT to control and safeguard tomato crops from being exposed to excessive ultraviolet radiation and pests by using applications installed on smart phones. Experimental results show that tomatoes grown in the suggested greenhouse system, the Smart Shaded Plant House, grow more quickly than tomatoes grown using traditional methods. By constantly monitoring these environmental variables, farmers can learn more about how each aspect affects growth and how to manage maximum crop productivity while growing certain vegetables and fruits in hot agricultural areas.

The World Health Organization announced the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and it has since infected over 286 million people worldwide in 2021, killing over 5.4 million. In Malaysia, the disease infected approximately 2,758,086 people, resulting in 31,487 deaths. Malaysian government has enacted a Movement Control Order (MCO) under the National Recovery Plan (NRP) to contain the infection. The multiple MCO phases resulted in the closure of numerous small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), resulting in revenue loss and employment losses. The objectives of this research include developing an efficient COVID-19 preventive countermeasure or enhance existing MITI Safe@Work guidelines for Malaysian SMEs and to suggest improvements to the National Recovery Plan roadmap and the MySejahtera system. An open-ended questionnaire survey is sent to Malaysian workers with safety or health background to obtain their professional information. By using Excel and NVivo software, 15 respondents’ answers are chosen for the qualitative analysis. The results include analysing experts’ valuation and insights on the existing countermeasures, NRP roadmap, MySejahtera system, development of preventive protocols for SMEs workplace, suggestion of improvements to the NRP roadmap and MySejahtera system application. In conclusion, these indicate that there are still improvements that can be made to the guidelines implemented by the government in the future with proper studies.