Assessment of the Effectiveness of Ultrasound-Guided Needle Aspiration of Lactating Breast Abscesses

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness of ultrasound-guided needle aspiration in treating lactating breast abscesses.

Methods

This study was conducted in Bach Mai Hospital, from 6/2020 to 7/2021. Lactating patients with breast abscesses underwent ultrasound-guided aspiration followed by antibiotics therapy.

Results

There were 59 lactating patients with 82 breast abscesses. Most of the abscesses had heterogeneous echogenicity, no capsule, and a size smaller than 5cm. Bacterial culture results showed that 85.4% of cases were Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The number of aspirations was from 1 to 5. The cure rate was 91.5%, and 5.3% of these cases had a complication associated with galactocele after treatment.

Conclusion

Ultrasound-guided needle aspiration is a minimally invasive treatment option for lactating breast abscesses with a high complete cure rate and good cosmetic results.

New Dipterocarpol-Based Molecules with α-Glucosidase Inhibitory and Hypoglycemic Activity

Dammarane triterpenoids are affordable and bioactive natural metabolites with great structural potential, which makes them attractive sources for drug development. The aim of the study was to investigate the potency of new dipterocarpol derivatives for the treatment of diabetes. Two dammaranes (dipterocarpol and its 20(24)-diene derivative) were modified by a Claisen-Schmidt aldol condensation to afford C2(E)-arylidenes in good yields. The majority of the synthesized compounds exhibited an excellent-to-moderate inhibitory effect toward α-glucosidase (from S. saccharomyces), among them eight compounds showed IC50 values less than 10 μM. 3-Oxo-dammarane-2(E)-benzylidenes (holding p-hydroxy- 3 l and p-carbonyl- 3 m substituents) demonstrated the most potent α-glucosidase inhibition with IC50 0.753 and 0.204 μM, being 232- and 857-times more active than acarbose (IC50 174.90 μM), and a high level of NO inhibition in Raw 264.7 cells with IC50 of 1.75 and 4.57 μM, respectively. An in vivo testing of compound 3 m (in a dose of 20 mg/kg) on a model of streptozotocin-induced T1DM in rats showed a pronounced hypoglycemic activity, the ability to reduce effectively the processes of lipid peroxidation in liver tissue and decrease the excretion of glucose and pyruvic acid in the urine. Compound 3 m reduced the death of diabetic rats and preserved their motor activity.

Synthesis and biological activity, and molecular modelling studies of potent cytotoxic podophyllotoxin-naphthoquinone compounds

A new approach for the synthesis of podophyllotoxin-naphthoquinone compounds using microwave-assisted three-component reactions is reported in this study. Novel podophyllotoxin-naphthoquinone derivatives with modification on ring E were synthesized. All the synthetic compounds were assessed in terms of their cytotoxicity profile against four cancer cell lines (KB, HepG2, A549, and MCF7), and noncancerous Hek-293 cell lines. Notably, treatment of SK-LU-1 cells with compounds 5a and 5b resulted in G2/M phase arrest of the cell cycle, caspase-3/7 activation, and apoptosis. Additionally, molecular docking studies were performed and showed important interaction of two compounds against residues in the colchicine-binding-site of tubulin as well. Taken together, compounds 5a and 5b were identified as potent anticancer agents.

A new approach for the synthesis of podophyllotoxin-naphthoquinone compounds using microwave-assisted three-component reactions is reported in this study.

Microwave-Assisted Three-Component Synthesis of Novel N-Arylated-Dihydrobenzo[g]quinoline-5,10-Diones and Their Potential Cytotoxic Activity

A convenient three-component synthetic approach was developed en route to new and significative N-arylated-dihydrobenzo[g]quinoline-5,10-diones using 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone, a variety of aromatic aldehydes, and 4-(arylamino)furan-2(5H)-ones. A sequence of steps including Knoevenagel condensation, Michael addition, [1,3]-hydrogen shift, intramolecular cyclization and dehydration led to the formation of products. All the products were structurally characterized by spectroscopic techniques and assessed in terms of their cytotoxicity profile against four cancer cell lines (KB, HepG2, A549, and MCF7), and human embryonic kidney (Hek-293) cell lines.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel benzo[a]pyridazino[3,4-c]phenazine derivatives

A convenient microwave-assisted one-pot four-component synthetic approach was developed en route to novel functionalized benzo[a]pyridazino[3,4-c]phenazine derivatives starting from 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone, aromatic aldehydes, methyl hydrazine and o-phenylenediamine. Nine new derivatives were successfully synthesized and subsequently evaluated in terms of their biological profiles. The results revealed good cytotoxic activities of compounds 6a, 6h against KB, HepG2, Lu1 and MCF7 human cancer cell lines. Besides that, compound 6d exhibited promising antimicrobial activities toward Staphylococcuc aureus and Bacillus subtilis bacterial strains with IC₅₀ < 6 μM.

Synthesis of new simplified hemiasterlin derivatives with α,β-unsaturated carbonyl moiety

In this Letter, we report a convenient and efficient method for the synthesis of new simplified derivatives of hemiasterlin in which the α,α-dimethylbenzylic moiety A is replaced by α,β-unsaturated aryl groups as Michael acceptor. Most of these derivatives have a strong cytotoxic activity on three human tumor cell lines (KB, Hep-G2 and MCF7). Analogs 17b and 17f showed a high cytotoxicity against KB and Hep-G2 cancer cell lines comparable to paclitaxel and ellipticine.