Exposure to environmental pollutants is a major public health concern. This study investigated the inflammatory and tumorigenic effects of environmental pollutants (benzene, benzo[a]pyrene, cadmium, and diisononyl phthalate) on transformed A549 and H292 lung alveolar epithelial cells and non-transformed BEAS-2B lung bronchial epithelial cells. The cytotoxic effects of the pollutants were analyzed

BACKGROUND: Lichens, which represent symbiotic associations of fungi and algae, are potential sources of numerous natural products. Physciosporin (PHY) is a potent secondary metabolite found in lichens and was recently reported to inhibit the motility of lung cancer cells via novel mechanisms.PURPOSE: The present study investigated the anticancer potential of PHY on colorectal cancer (CRC) cells.M

Deoxypodophyllotoxin (DPT) is a cyclolignan compound that exerts anti-cancer effects against various types of cancers. DPT induces apoptosis and inhibits the growth of breast, brain, prostate, gastric, lung, and cervical tumors. In this study, we sought to determine the effect of DPT on cell proliferation, apoptosis, motility, and tumorigenesis of three colorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines: HT29, DL

Usnic acid (UA), a lichen secondary substance, has considerable anticancer activity in vitro, whereas its effect in vivo is limited. Here, potassium usnate (KU) was prepared by the salinization of UA to enhance its water solubility. KU showed increased bioavailability compared with UA in the tumor, liver, and plasma of a CT26 syngeneic mouse tumor xenograft model after oral administration, as dete

Heat-shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a molecular chaperone that activates oncogenic transformation in several solid tumors, including lung and breast cancers. Ganetespib, a most promising candidate among several HSP90 inhibitors under clinical trials, has entered Phase III clinical trials for cancer therapy. Despite numerous evidences validating HSP90 as a target of anticancer, there are few studies o

Lichens produce various unique chemicals that are used in the pharmaceutical industry. To screen for novel lichen secondary metabolites that inhibit the stemness potential of colorectal cancer cells, we tested acetone extracts of 11 lichen samples collected in Chile. Tumidulin, isolated from Niebla sp., reduced spheroid formation in CSC221, DLD1, and HT29 cells. In addition, mRNA expressions and p

BACKGROUND: Endolichenic fungi are microbes that inhabit the thalli of lichens and produce various unique chemicals that can be used for pharmaceutical purposes.PURPOSE: This study screened a library of endolichenic fungal extracts to identify novel anticancer agents capable of suppressing the tumorigenicity of human cancer cells.METHODS: Active compounds were isolated from extracts of endolicheni

In 1936, when the Provisional Agreement concerning the Status of Refugees coming from Germany was adopted, the same course was followed: the term refugee covered all persons coming from Germany. The definition of the term refugee was not established by the adoption of the 1967 Refugee Protocol, which created a more or less complete correspondence between the mandate of the UNHCR and treaty law. Fr

This chapter focuses on society's construction in normative terms and, thereby, tries to lay the foundation for a theory based on the strategy of anatomy applied to society. Anatomy is that part of biology that deals with how organisms are built. All living organisms consist of cells that are structured in different types of tissues, which, in turn, build up the organs. Society starts over again f

We introduce a family of stochastic optimization methods based on the Runge–Kutta–Chebyshev (RKC) schemes. The RKC methods are explicit methods originally designed for solving stiff ordinary differential equations by ensuring that their stability regions are of maximal size. In the optimization context, this allows for larger step sizes (learning rates) and better robustness compared to e.g. the p

It is well known that Gaussian polynomials (i.e., q-binomials) describe the distribution of the [Formula presented] statistic on monotone paths in a rectangular grid. We introduce two new statistics, [Formula presented] and [Formula presented]; attach “ornaments” to the grid that scramble the values of [Formula presented] in specific fashion; and re-evaluate these statistics, in order to argue tha

Objective: Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disease with motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. Non-motor symptoms like depression and altered social cognition are proposed to be caused by dysfunction of the hypothalamus. We measured the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in a cohort of HD gene expansion carriers (HDGECs), comp

Impairment of normal hematopoiesis and leukemia progression are 2 well-linked processes during leukemia development and are controlled by the bone marrow (BM) niche. Extracellular matrix proteins, including laminin, are important BM niche components. However, their role in hematopoiesis regeneration and leukemia is unknown. Laminin α4 (Lama4), a major receptor-binding chain of several laminins, is

Imaging is an integral part of breast cancer diagnosis, staging and follow-up. Breast imaging is also important for radiation therapy planning. The radiation oncologist needs to review patient’s imaging (e.g. mammography) to evaluate the extent of disease (for radiation planning, not for diagnostic purposes) and for treatment planning. Pre-treatment imaging is the key for planning radiation target

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of intensive smoking cessation interventions (ISCIs) directly compared with shorter interventions (SIs), measured as successful quitting.METHOD: Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library and CINAHL were searched on 15 October 2021. Peer-reviewed randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of adult, daily smokers undergoing an ISCI were included. No setting, time or languag