There are many risk factors associated with breast cancer (BC) such as the familial history of BC, using hormone replacement therapy, obesity, personal habits, and other clinical factors; however, not all BC cases are attributed to these risk factors. Recent researches show a correlation between patient microbiome and BC suggested as a new risk factor. The present review article aimed at evaluating the role of the microbiome as a risk factor in the occurrence of BC, investigating the proposed mechanisms of interaction between the microbiome and human genes involved in BC, and assessing the impact of the altered composition of breast, gut, and milk microbiome in the physiological status of normal breast as well as cancerous or non-cancerous breast lesions. The study also evaluated the growing evidence that these altered populations may hinder chemotherapeutic treatment. The role of microbiome in the development and maintenance of inflammation, estrogen metabolism, and epigenetic alterations was properly investigated. Finally, clinical and therapeutic applications of the microbiome- e.g., probiotics, microbiome genome modulation, and engineered microbiome enzymes in the management of BC were reviewed.

We present a highly sensitive and selective nano-biosensor for rapid, stable and highly reproducible detection of ascorbic acid (AA) in the presence of dopamine, uric acid and other interferences by a three-layer sandwich arrangement of nitrogen-doped functionalized graphene (NFG), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and nanostructured polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposite. The enhanced AA electrochemical properties of the NFG/AgNPs/PANI electrode is attributed to the superior conductivity of the NFG-PANI and the excellent catalytic activity of AgNPs. The critical modification of the AgNPs-grafted NFG-PANI coated on very low-cost fluorine doped tin oxide electrode (FTOE) increased the charge transfer conductivity of the electrode (the resistance drops down from 11,000 Ω to 6 Ω). The nano-biosensor was used to accurately detect AA in vitamin C tablets with the recovery of 98%. The sensor demonstrated a low detection limit of 8 µM (S/N = 3) with a very wide linear detection range of 10–11,460 µM, good reproducibility and excellent selectivity performance for AA detection. The results demonstrate that this nanocomposite is a promising candidate for rapid and selective detection of AA in practical clinical samples.

Biomedical researchers have long looked for ways to diagnose and treat cancer patients at the early stages through biomarkers. Although conventional techniques are routinely applied in the detection of biomarkers, attitudes towards using Real-Time PCR techniques in detection of many biomarkers are increasing. Normalization of quantitative Real-Time PCR is necessary to validate non-biological alteration occurring during the steps of RNA quantification. Selection of variably expressed housekeeping genes (HKs) will affect the validity of the data. The aim of the present study was to identify uniformly expressed housekeeping genes in order to use in the breast cancer gene expression studies. Urokinase Plasminogen Activator was used as a gene of interest.