Conceptual Overview of Prevalence of Prediabetes

Prediabetes increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, chronic renal disease, and cardiovascular disease in a person. In current practice, five alternative definitions of prediabetes are utilized, each based on different HbA1C, fasting glucose, and 2-hour glucose cut points. Prediabetes is a common condition that occurs between normal glycemia and diabetes. It is more common in elderly and obese people. The prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes can be influenced by a variety of individual, family, and societal variables. Additionally, as diabetes is the primary contributor to non-communicable diseases (NCD), it is crucial to identify the key temporal variables for diabetes early diagnosis. In turn, effective prediabetes and diabetes awareness, control, and preventive programs may be created by policymakers and public health professionals worldwide. Popular pathogenic pathways in prediabetes include insulin resistance, inflammation, and sensitivity to insulin. HBA1C, OGTT, and FPG are discussed as the diagnostic criteria in order of frequency. The most commonly researched therapies in the realm of prediabetes are metformin, exercise, and physical activity. Physiological markers including BMI, blood pressure, and waist circumference prompted relatively significant concern. Despite declining trends, the study demonstrates that prediabetes and diabetes are widely prevalent. In order to prevent non-communicable illnesses, the research suggests encouraging healthy lifestyles and regular screenings.

Small molecules as cancer targeting ligands: Shifting the paradigm

Conventional chemotherapeutics exploration is hampered due to their nonspecific distribution leading to unintended serious toxicity. Toxicity is so severe that deciding to go for chemotherapy becomes a question of concern for many terminally ill cancer patients. However, with evolving times nanotechnology assisted in reducing the haywire distribution and channelizing the movement of drug-enclosing drug delivery systems to cancer cells to a greater extent, yet toxicity issues still could not be obliterated. Thus, active targeting appeared as a refuge, where ligands actively or specifically deliver linked chemotherapeutics and carriers to cancer cells. For a very long time, large molecule weight/macromolecular ligands (peptides and big polymers) were considered the first choice for ligand-directed active cancer targeting, due to their specificity towards overexpressed native cancer receptors. However, complex characterization, instability, and the expensive nature demanded to reconnoitre better alternatives for macromolecule ligands. The concept of small molecules as ligands emerged from the idea that few chemical molecules including chemotherapeutics have a higher affinity for cancer receptors, which are overexpressed on cell membranes, and may have the ability to assist in drug cellular uptake through endocytosis. But now the question is, can they assist the conjugated macro cargos to enter the cell or not? This present review will provide a holistic overview of the small molecule ligands explored till now.

Real-world application of tumor mutational burden-high (TMB-high) and microsatellite instability (MSI) confirms their utility as immunotherapy biomarkers

Introduction

Microsatellite instability (MSI) testing and tumor mutational burden (TMB) are genomic biomarkers used to identify patients who are likely to benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors. Pembrolizumab was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in TMB-high (TMB-H) tumors, regardless of histology, based on KEYNOTE-158. The primary objective of this retrospective study was real-world applicability and use of immunotherapy in TMB/MSI-high patients to lend credence to and refine this biomarker.

Methods

Charts of patients with advanced solid tumors who had MSI/TMB status determined by next generation sequencing (NGS) (FoundationOne CDx) were reviewed. Demographics, diagnosis, treatment history, and overall response rate (ORR) were abstracted. Progression-free survival (PFS) was determined from Kaplan–Meier curves. PFS1 (chemotherapy PFS) and PFS2 (immunotherapy PFS) were determined for patients who received immunotherapy after progressing on chemotherapy. The median PFS2/PFS1 ratio was recorded.

Results

MSI-high or TMB-H [≥20 mutations per megabase (mut/MB)] was detected in 157 adults with a total of 27 distinct tumor histologies. Median turnaround time for NGS was 73 days. ORR for most recent chemotherapy was 34.4%. ORR for immunotherapy was 55.9%. Median PFS for patients who received chemotherapy versus immunotherapy was 6.75 months (95% confidence interval, 3.9-10.9 months) and 24.2 months (95% confidence interval, 9.6 months to not reached), respectively (P = 0.042). Median PFS2/PFS1 ratio was 4.7 in favor of immunotherapy.

Conclusion

This real-world study reinforces the use of TMB as a predictive biomarker. Barriers exist to the timely implementation of NGS-based biomarkers and more data are needed to raise awareness about the clinical utility of TMB. Clinicians should consider treating TMB-H patients with immunotherapy regardless of their histology.

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This retrospective study examined the real-world use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in TMB/MSI-high patients with a diverse set of cancer types.

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TMB is an emerging tumor-agnostic biomarker for response to treatment with ICIs that may expand personalized cancer care.

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ICIs remain underutilized as a first-line therapy for TMB/MSI-H patients without specific histologic approval for ICIs.

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The PFS2 to PFS1 ratio was 4.7, favoring immunotherapy over chemotherapy even as a second-line therapy.

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Our study reinforces the real-world evidence that TMB is a valid surrogate marker for MSI and can predict response to ICIs.

Pattern stabilization in swarms of programmable active matter: A probe for turbulence at large length scales

We propose an algorithm for creating stable, ordered, swarms of active robotic agents arranged in any given pattern. The strategy involves suppressing a class of fluctuations known as "nonaffine" displacements, viz., those involving nonlinear deformations of a reference pattern, while all (or most) affine deformations are allowed. We show that this can be achieved using precisely calculated, fluctuating, thrust forces associated with a vanishing average power input. A surprising outcome of our study is that once the structure of the swarm is maintained at steady state, the statistics of the underlying flow field is determined solely from the statistics of the forces needed to stabilize the swarm.

Exploring the link between crystal defects and nonaffine displacement fluctuations

We generalize and then use a recently introduced formalism to study thermal fluctuations of atomic displacements in several two- and three-dimensional crystals. We study both close-packed and open crystals with multiatom bases. Atomic displacement fluctuations in a solid, once coarse grained over some neighborhood, may be decomposed into two mutually orthogonal components. In any dimension d there are always d^{2} affine displacements representing local strains and rotations of the ideal reference configuration. In addition, there exist a number of nonaffine localized displacement modes that cannot be represented as strains or rotations. The number of these modes depends on d and the size of the coarse-graining region. All thermodynamic averages and correlation functions concerning the affine and nonaffine displacements may be computed within harmonic theory. We show that for compact crystals, such as the square and triangular crystals in d=2 and the simple body-centered-cubic and face-centered-cubic crystals in d=3, a single set of d-fold degenerate modes always dominates the nonaffine subspace and is separated from the rest by a large gap. These modes may be identified with specific precursor configurations that lead to lattice defects. In open crystals, such as the honeycomb and kagome lattices, there is no prominent gap, although soft nonaffine modes continue to be associated with known floppy modes representing localized defects. Higher-order coupling between affine and nonaffine components of the displacements quantifies the tendency of the lattice to be destroyed by large homogeneous strains. We show that this coupling is larger by almost an order of magnitude for open lattices as compared to compact ones. Deformation mechanisms such as lattice slips and stacking faults in close-packed crystals can also be understood within this framework. The qualitative features of these conclusions are expected to be independent of the details of the atomic interactions.

New piperidine derivative DTPEP acts as dual-acting anti-breast cancer agent by targeting ERα and downregulating PI3K/Akt-PKCα leading to caspase-dependent apoptosis

OBJECTIVES

In our ongoing studies to develop ER targeting agents, we screened for dual-acting molecules with a hypothesis that a single molecule can also target both ER positive and negative groups of breast cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

1-(2-(4-(Dibenzo[b,f]thiepin-10-yl)phenoxy)ethyl)piperidine (DTPEP) was synthesized and screened in both MCF-7 (ER+ve) and MDA-MB-231 (ER-ve) cells. Assays for analysis of cell cycle, ROS, apoptosis and MMP loss were carried out using flow cytometry. Its target was investigated using western blot, transactivation assay and RT-PCR. In vivo efficacy of DTPEP was validated in LA-7 syngeneic rat mammary tumour model.

RESULTS

Here, we report identification of dual-acting molecule DTPEP that downregualtes PI3K/Akt and PKCα expression, induces ROS and ROS-dependent apoptosis, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, induces expression of caspase indicative of both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. In MCF-7 cells, DTPEP downregulates ERα expression and activation. In MDA-MB-231 cells, primary cellular target of DTPEP is not clearly known, but it downregualtes PI3K/Akt and PKCα expression. In vivo study showed regression of LA-7 syngeneic mammary tumour in SD rat.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified a new dual-acting anti-breast cancer molecules as a proof of concept which is capable of targeting both ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancer.

Translationally invariant colloidal crystal templates

We show that dynamic, feed-back controlled optical traps, whose positions depend on the instantaneous local configuration of particles in a pre-determined way, can stabilise colloidal particles in finite lattices of any given symmetry. Unlike in a static template, the crystal so formed is invariant under uniform translations and retains all possible zero energy modes. We demonstrate this in silico by stabilising the unstable two-dimensional square lattice in a model soft solid with isotropic interactions.

Inhibitory effect of 2-(piperidinoethoxyphenyl)-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2H-benzo(b)pyran (K-1) on human primary endometrial hyperplasial cells mediated via combined suppression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and PI3K/Akt survival pathway

Endometrial hyperplasia is a precursor to the most common gynecologic cancer diagnosed in women. Apart from estrogenic induction, aberrant activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signal is well known to correlate with endometrial hyperplasia and its carcinoma. The benzopyran compound 2-(piperidinoethoxyphenyl)-3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2H-benzo (b) pyran(K-1), a potent antiestrogenic agent, has been shown to have apoptosis-inducing activity in rat uterine hyperplasia. The current study was undertaken to explore the effect of the benzopyran compound K-1 on growth and Wnt signaling in human endometrial hyperplasial cells. Primary culture of atypical endometrial hyperplasial cells was characterized by the epithelial cell marker cytokeratin-7. Results revealed that compound K-1 reduced the viability of primary endometrial hyperplasial cells and expression of ERα, PR, PCNA, Wnt7a, FZD6, pGsk3β and β-catenin without affecting the growth of the primary culture of normal endometrial cells. The β-catenin target genes CyclinD1 and c-myc were also found to be reduced, whereas the expression of axin2 and Wnt/β-catenin signaling inhibitor Dkk-1 was found to be upregulated, which caused the reduced interaction of Wnt7a and FZD6. Nuclear accumulation of β-catenin was found to be decreased by compound K-1. K-1 also suppressed the pPI3K/pAkt survival pathway and induced the cleavage of caspases and PARP, thus subsequently causing the apoptosis of endometrial hyperplasial cells. In conclusion, compound K-1 suppressed the growth of human primary endometrial hyperplasial cells through discontinued Wnt/β-catenin signaling and induced apoptosis via inhibiting the PI3K/Akt survival pathway.