Recent advancements of nanoparticles application in cancer and neurodegenerative disorders: At a glance

Nanoscale engineering is one of the innovative approaches to heal multitudes of ailments, such as varieties of malignancies, neurological problems, and infectious illnesses. Therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) may be modified in aspect because of their ability to stimulate physiological response while limiting negative consequences by interfacing and activating possible targets. Nanomaterials have been extensively studied and employed for cancerous therapeutic strategies since nanomaterials potentially play a significant role in medical transportation. When compared to conventional drug delivery, nanocarriers drug delivery offers various benefits, such as excellent reliability, bioactivity, improved penetration and retention impact, as well as precise targeting and administering. Upregulation of drug efflux transporters, dysfunctional apoptotic mechanisms, and a hypoxic atmosphere are all elements that lead to cancer treatment sensitivity in humans. It has been possible to target these pathways using nanoparticles and increase the effectiveness of multidrug resistance treatments. As innovative strategies of tumor chemoresistance are uncovered, nanomaterials are being developed to target specific pathways of tumor resilience. Scientists have recently begun investigating the function of nanoparticles in immunotherapy, a field that is becoming increasingly useful in the care of malignancies. Nanoscale therapeutics have been explored in this scientific literature and represent the most current approaches to neurodegenerative illnesses and cancer therapy. In addition, current findings and various biomedical nanomaterials' future promise for tissue regeneration, prospective medication design, and the synthesis of novel delivery approaches have been emphasized.

Natural therapeutics and nutraceuticals for lung diseases: Traditional significance, phytochemistry, and pharmacology

BACKGROUND

Lung diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), infections like influenza, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), asthma and pneumonia lung cancer (LC) are common causes of sickness and death worldwide due to their remoteness, cold and harsh climatic conditions, and inaccessible health care facilities.

PURPOSE

Many drugs have already been proposed for the treatment of lung diseases. Few of them are in clinical trials and have the potential to cure infectious diseases. Plant extracts or herbal products have been extensively used as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Indian Ayurveda. Moreover, it has been involved in the inhibition of certain genes/protiens effects to promote regulation of signaling pathways. Natural remedies have been scientifically proven with remarkable bioactivities and are considered a cheap and safe source for lung disease.

METHODS

This comprehensive review highlighted the literature about traditional plants and their metabolites with their applications for the treatment of lung diseases through experimental models in humans. Natural drugs information and mode of mechanism have been studied through the literature retrieved by Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, SciFinder, Scopus and Medline PubMed resources against lung diseases.

RESULTS

In vitro, in vivo and computational studies have been explained for natural metabolites derived from plants (like flavonoids, alkaloids, and terpenoids) against different types of lung diseases. Probiotics have also been biologically active therapeutics against cancer, anti-inflammation, antiplatelet, antiviral, and antioxidants associated with lung diseases.

CONCLUSION

The results of the mentioned natural metabolites repurposed for different lung diseases especially for SARS-CoV-2 should be evaluated more by advance computational applications, experimental models in the biological system, also need to be validated by clinical trials so that we may be able to retrieve potential drugs for most challenging lung diseases especially SARS-CoV-2.

A Study to find out the Correlation between Handgrip Strength and Hand Breadth of Bangladeshi Male Cricket Batsman

This cross sectional analytical type of study was conducted at department of Anatomy, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh from July 2015 to June 2016 on 50 adult Bangladeshi male sprinters (Group A) and 50 adult Bangladeshi male cricket batsman (Group B). Sample collection was done by convenient purposive sampling technique. History of any injury of hand during playing was excluded to construct standard measurement. Hand breadth was measured with the help of slide calipers. Hand grip strength Dynamometer was used to measure the hand grip strength. Paired Student's 't' test, unpaired student's 't' test and Pearson's correlation coefficient test were done for statistical analysis of the result. The aim of the present study was to determine hand breadth and average hand grip strength of Bangladeshi male cricket batsman to find out correlation between them that may be used as a baseline for other professions as well for future research in our country. The mean right and left hand grip strength was significantly higher in the cricket batsman than in the sprinters. The mean right and left hand breadth was found to be significantly higher in the cricket batsman than in the sprinters. Right and left hand grip strength showed significant positive correlation with hand breadth in both hand. The study findings suggest that regular physical exercise and training increase hand grip strength.

Antibacterial Effect of Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) leaf gel against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae

This experimental study was carried out to determine the antibacterial effect of Ethanolic extract of Aloe vera leaf gel (EAE) against standard strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in the Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics in collaboration with the Department of Microbiology, Mymensingh Medical College, Mymensingh, Bangladesh from July 2017 to June 2018. Ethanol extract was used in five different concentrations (100, 200, 300, 400 and 500μg/ml). Dose dependent inhibitory effect was seen against the test organisms using disc diffusion method. For S. aureus, Zones of inhibition (ZOI) were 7, 12, 13, 16 and 20 mm at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 μg/ml respectively; for P. aeruginosa, ZOI were 0, 7, 12, 14 and 17 mm at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 μg/ml respectively; for E. coli, ZOI were 0, 8, 12, 15 and 18 mm at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 μg/ml respectively; for K. pneumoniae, ZOI were 7, 10, 11, 13 and 17 mm at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 μg/ml respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was assessed by broth dilution technique. The MICs of EAE for S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, E. coli and K. pneumoniae were 500, 650, 650 and 600 μg/ml respectively. From the study it is clearly observed that ethanolic extract of Aloe vera leaf gel possesses antibacterial effect against the test pathogens. Further studies are required to detect and isolate the biologically active ingredients present in the Aloe vera leaves which are responsible for this antibacterial effect. Hopefully, that would lead to the discovery of new and more potent antimicrobial agents originated from Aloe vera.

Seasonal Variations in Water Quality of the Ganges and Brahmaputra River, Bangladesh

Jahangirnagar University Environmental Bulletin, Vol.2, 71-82, 2013 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jueb.v2i0.16332

A power law approach to orifice flow rate calibration

Although standards for orifice flow meter design, installation, and calibration are supported herein, noncompliant devices exist in many pilot-, lab-scale, and on-board applications. For these, a common calibration practice is to preserve the ideal square root relation and determine a device specific discharge coefficient value. This work provides theoretical and empirical analyses to support relaxing the square root relation between orifice pressure drop and flow rate for noncompliant devices. The resulting power law relation is shown to improve accuracy, precision, and rangeability. Whether a device specific square root or power law model is used, it requires off-line or in-line calibration data. As such, a power law calibration model may only be useful for on-board and small-scale applications.

Comparison between tramadol hydrochloride & nalbuphine hydrochloride in the treatment of per-operative shivering after spinal anaesthesia

Per-operative shivering following spinal anaesthesia is a common problem in the operation theatre. Adequate management of shivering during operation is one of the goals of anesthesiologists for the benefit of the patient. Because there are many unpleasant and harmful effects caused by shivering in many patients especially respiratory and cardiac disease patients. For this reason aggressive and optimal treatment of per-operative shivering is essential to reduce the morbidity of the patients. Our observations were that occurrence of shivering was more in younger patients than older patients, thin patients than obese patients, anxious patients than non-anxious patients and more frequent in patients who received vasoconstrictor drugs, administration of fluid at running rate just before or during operation, administration of cold local anaesthetic agents (by taking drug from the freeze) into subarachnoid space. And shivering was better managed by administration of nalbuphine HCl and surface skin warming (wrapping of the skin). There are many studies regarding the incidence, prevention & treatment of post-operative shivering but there is no study regarding the incidence & treatment of per-operative shivering by nalbuphine following spinal anaesthesia. This study was designed to compare the anti-shivering efficacy and side effects (Nausea, Vomiting, and Somnolence) of tramadol hydrochloride with that of nalbuphine hydrochloride in the treatment of per-operative shivering following spinal anaesthesia. This study was also done to observe the incidence of shivering during operation following spinal anesthesia.

Recovering nutrients from wastewater treatment plants through struvite crystallization: CFD modelling of the hydrodynamics of UBC MAP fluidized-bed crystallizer

This paper is an attempt to model the hydrodynamics of the UBC (University of British Columbia) MAP (magnesium ammonium phosphate) fluidized bed crystallizer. In this study, a numerical investigation of hydrodynamics of the UBC MAP crystallizer was performed, using commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, Fluent 6.3. One of the main findings of this modelling effort is the relative distribution of the different phases, in this case solids (struvite crystals) and liquid (water), within the reactor. This information is very important, in the sense that it helps fixing the size of the crystallizer, which can be a significant factor, affecting the total cost of the process. Another finding of this simulation is the volume fraction distribution of the different sizes of solid particles, which actually provides insight into the hydrodynamics of the reactor and will fill up the knowledge gap in developing an overall mechanistic model for the crystallizer.

Phosphorus recovery from anaerobic digester supernatant by struvite crystallization: model-based evaluation of a fluidized bed reactor

This paper is an attempt to model the UBC (University of British Columbia) MAP (Magnesium Ammonium Phosphate) fluidized bed crystallizer. A mathematical model is developed based on the assumption of perfect size classification of struvitre crystals in the reactor and considering the movement of liquid phase as a plug flow pattern. The model predicts variation of species concentration of struvite along the crystal bed height. The species concentrations at two extreme ends (inlet and outlet) are then used to evaluate the reactor performance. The model predictions provide a reasonable good fit with the experimental results for both PO4-P and NH4-N removals. Another important aspect of this model is its capability of predicting the crystals size and the bed voidage at different height of the reactor. Those predictions also match fairly well with the experimental observations. Therefore, this model can be used as a tool for performance evaluation of the reactor and can also be extended to optimize the struvite crystallization process in the UBC MAP reactor.

Effects of various process parameters on struvite precipitation kinetics and subsequent determination of rate constants

In this paper, struvite (MgNH(4)PO(4).6H(2)O) precipitation kinetics were studied with different operating conditions (varying supersaturation, pH, Mg:P ratio, degree of mixing and seeding conditions) and relevant rate constants were determined by fitting a slightly modified first-order kinetic model to the experimental data obtained. The rate of change of ortho-P concentration in the bulk solutions increases with increasing supersaturation ratio. The estimated rate constants are 2.034, 1.716 and 0.690 hr(-1) for the supersaturation ratio of 9.64, 4.83, and 2.44, respectively. Kinetic parameters were also evaluated for the Mg:P ratio between the ranges of 1.0 and 1.6, indicating higher phosphorus removal efficiency with increasing Mg:P ratio. The rate constants were found to be 0.942, 2.034 and 2.712 hr(-1) for Mg:P ratios of 1.0, 1.3 and 1.6, respectively. The experimental observations for kinetic study of struvite precipitation with different stirrer speeds clearly show that the mixing intensity used had little effect on the intrinsic rate constants. K values found to be 2.034 and 1.902 h(-1) for 100 and 70 rpm, respectively. Seeding, with 250-500 microm of seed crystals during the struvite precipitation kinetics test, was found to have very little effect on the ortho-P removal.

Exploring the determination of struvite solubility product from analytical results

The solubility of magnesium ammonium phosphate hexahydrate (struvite) was determined in different water and wastewater solutions, by using the analytical results of the solubility tests conducted in the Environmental Engineering Lab at the University of British Columbia. The various factors affecting the struvite solubility such as pH, ionic strength and the temperature of the solutions were also studied in this project. The struvite solubility product values were found to vary significantly from one solution to another and over the range of the experimental conditions as well. For instance, the solubility product (Ksp) determined at 20 degrees C for anaerobic digester supernatant from the Penticton, B.C. Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, was found to vary from 8.46 x 10(-15) (pKsp =14.07) to 1.3 x 10(-13) (pKsp =12.89), over a pH range 6.45 to 8.97; while in the case of distilled water, with the same struvite crystals and at the identical temperature, it was found to vary from 5.21 x 10(-15) (pKsp=14.28) to 2.12 x 10(-13) (pKsp =12.67) over a pH range of 7.01 to 9.62. These results explore the possible reasons for widely varying struvite solubility reported in the literature. A possible correlation was also developed to correlate struvite solubility product with varying temperature. Furthermore, an attempt was made to establish a correlation between conductivity and calculated ionic strength of the solutions. A significant gap, between the values predicted by the correlation developed in this study and those predicted by the existing correlation, was also observed.