Glioblastoma is one of the most common and detrimental forms of solid brain tumor, with over 10,000 new cases reported every year in the United States. Despite aggressive multimodal treatment approaches, the overall survival period is reported to be less than 15 months after diagnosis. A widely used approach for the treatment of glioblastoma is surgical removal of the tumor, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. While there are several drugs available that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), significant efforts have been made in recent years to develop new chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of glioblastoma. This review describes the molecular targets and pathogenesis as well as the current progress in chemotherapeutic development and other novel therapies in the clinical setting for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Background: Improving the care of patients with glioblastoma (GB) requires accurate and reliable predictors of patient prognosis. Unfortunately, while protein markers are an effective readout of cellular function, proteomics has been underutilized in GB prognostic marker discovery. Methods: For this study, GB patients were prospectively recruited and proteomics discovery using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis (LC-MS/MS) was performed for 27 patients including 13 short-term survivors (STS) (≤10 months) and 14 long-term survivors (LTS) (≥18 months). Results: Proteomics discovery identified 11 941 peptides in 2495 unique proteins, with 469 proteins exhibiting significant dysregulation when comparing STS to LTS. We verified the differential abundance of 67 out of these 469 proteins in a small previously published independent dataset. Proteins involved in axon guidance were upregulated in STS compared to LTS, while those involved in p53 signaling were upregulated in LTS. We also assessed the correlation between LS MS/MS data with RNAseq data from the same discovery patients and found a low correlation between protein abundance and mRNA expression. Finally, using LC-MS/MS on a set of 18 samples from 6 patients, we quantified the intratumoral heterogeneity of more than 2256 proteins in the multisample dataset. Conclusions: These proteomic datasets and noted protein variations present a beneficial resource for better predicting patient outcome and investigating potential therapeutic targets.

In addition to physical health, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global economy and mental health significantly. The economic and social consequence has sparked many psychological mediators. In severe cases, they led to suicidal behavior in individuals like as seen in the 1918-1919 flu pandemic and in the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic. Previously, a few articles have been published with regard to COVID-19 suicides in Bangladesh. However, all these articles talked about sporadic cases of suicides with no clear picture of the holistic overview of suicides in Bangladesh. Herein, we looked into all COVID-19 suicide cases from March 01, 2020, to July 31, 2020, as reported in Bangladeshi media. Our study also reports the risk factors contributing to suicidal incidents. Moreover, we also identified the impact of gender, profession, and COVID-19 diagnosis status on committing suicide. This study will shed light on the topic with a clear understanding of the causalities influencing individuals to suicide. Furthermore, it will help the policymakers to take necessary actions to prevent any further suicides.

Earlier studies from our lab identified acid ceramidase as a novel target for glioblastoma. While acid ceramidase inhibitors are able to kill the tumor cell lines in vitro, a little is known about their blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability which is the most important consideration for glioblastoma drug development. Parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA) is