Involvement of Phytochemical-Encapsulated Nanoparticles’ Interaction with Cellular Signalling in the Amelioration of Benign and Malignant Brain Tumours

Brain tumours have unresolved challenges that include delay prognosis and lower patient survival rate. The increased understanding of the molecular pathways underlying cancer progression has aided in developing various anticancer medications. Brain cancer is the most malignant and invasive type of cancer, with several subtypes. According to the WHO, they are classified as ependymal tumours, chordomas, gangliocytomas, medulloblastomas, oligodendroglial tumours, diffuse astrocytomas, and other astrocytic tumours on the basis of their heterogeneity and molecular mechanisms. The present study is based on the most recent research trends, emphasising glioblastoma cells classified as astrocytoma. Brain cancer treatment is hindered by the failure of drugs to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB), which is highly impregnableto foreign molecule entry. Moreover, currently available medications frequently fail to cross the BBB, whereas chemotherapy and radiotherapy are too expensive to be afforded by an average incomeperson and have many associated side effects. When compared to our current understanding of molecularly targeted chemotherapeutic agents, it appears that investigating the efficacy of specific phytochemicals in cancer treatment may be beneficial. Plants and their derivatives are game changers because they are efficacious, affordable, environmentally friendly, faster, and less toxic for the treatment of benign and malignant tumours. Over the past few years, nanotechnology has made a steady progress in diagnosing and treating cancers, particularly brain tumours. This article discusses the effects of phytochemicals encapsulated in nanoparticles on molecular targets in brain tumours, along with their limitations and potential challenges.     

In-Silico Screening and Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Drug Bank Experimental Compounds against SARS-CoV-2

For the last few years, the world has been going through a difficult time, and the reason behind this is severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), one of the significant members of the Coronaviridae family. The major research groups have shifted their focus towards finding a vaccine and drugs against SARS-CoV-2 to reduce the infection rate and save the life of human beings. Even the WHO has permitted using certain vaccines for an emergency attempt to cut the infection curve down. However, the virus has a great sense of mutation, and the vaccine’s effectiveness remains questionable. No natural medicine is available at the community level to cure the patients for now. In this study, we have screened the vast library of experimental drugs of Drug Bank with Schrodinger’s maestro by using three algorithms: high-throughput virtual screening (HTVS), standard precision, and extra precise docking followed by Molecular Mechanics/Generalized Born Surface Area (MMGBSA). We have identified 3-(7-diaminomethyl-naphthalen-2-YL)-propionic acid ethyl ester and Thymidine-5′-thiophosphate as potent inhibitors against the SARS-CoV-2, and both drugs performed impeccably and showed stability during the 100 ns molecular dynamics simulation. Both of the drugs are among the category of small molecules and have an acceptable range of ADME properties. They can be used after their validation in in-vitro and in-vivo conditions.     

Nanoparticle type effects on heat generation during the plastic deformation of polyethylene nanocomposites

The correlation between nanoparticle type and internal heat generation during the plastic deformation of polyethylene nanocomposites is investigated. The effects of three different types of nanoparticle (carbon nanotube (CNT), carbon black (CB) and inorganic nanoclay) were evaluated using infrared thermography, simultaneously with tensile tests. The results showed a significant influence of nanoparticle type, content, dispersion and interaction on the temperature increase measured at different strain rates. The addition of all the nanoparticles increased the rate of heat generation, which resulted in thermal softening in the strain hardening region, and reduced the tensile strength. At low volume fractions, CNT nanofiller resulted in higher temperatures than seen with CB. The addition of nanoclay resulted in only a small temperature increase, and straining was companied by the formation of microcracks.     

A Lightweight Image Encryption Algorithm Based on Chaotic Map and Random Substitution

Chaotic-maps-based image encryption methods have been a topic of research interest for a decade. However, most of the proposed methods suffer from slow encryption time or compromise on the security of the encryption to achieve faster encryption. This paper proposes a lightweight, secure, and efficient image encryption algorithm based on logistic map, permutations, and AES S-box. In the proposed algorithm, SHA-2 based on the plaintext image, a pre-shared key, and an initialization vector (IV) are used to generate the initial parameters for the logistic map. The logistic map chaotically generates random numbers, which are then used for the permutations and substitutions. The security, quality, and efficiency of the proposed algorithm are tested and analyzed using a number of metrics, such as correlation coefficient, chi-square, entropy, mean square error, mean absolute error, peak signal-to-noise ratio, maximum deviation, irregular deviation, deviation from uniform histogram, number of pixel change rate, unified average changing intensity, resistance to noise and data loss attacks, homogeneity, contrast, energy, and key space and key sensitivity analysis. Experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm is up to 15.33× faster compared to other contemporary encryption methods.     

Morphology and strain rate effects on heat generation during the plastic deformation of polyethylene/carbon black nanocomposites

The phenomenon of internal heat generation during the plastic deformation of polyethylene/carbon black nanocomposites at high strain rates was investigated using a high resolution thermal camera. Material morphology, strain rate and carbon black (CB) content were found to be critical factors that affected heat generation during tensile testing, and consequently changed the mechanical behaviour. Two processing methods (M1 and M2) were used to prepare the materials, with CB contents of 0.5, 1 and 3 wt.%. The results showed a significant increase in internal heat generation after yielding, with temperatures exceeding 70 °C for materials processed using M1 and 55 °C for materials processed using M2. The temperature increase was dependent on the processing method, the CB content and the strain rate. The increase in temperature due to plastic heat generation affected the properties of the material, reducing the plastic hardening and reducing the tensile strength at high strain rates. This is of significance when considering the use of these materials in applications involving high strain rates, such as impact protection.     

Promising Lead Compounds in the Development of Potential Clinical Drug Candidate for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

According to WHO report, globally about 10 million active tuberculosis cases, resulting in about 1.6 million deaths, further aggravated by drug-resistant tuberculosis and/or comorbidities with HIV and diabetes are present. Incomplete therapeutic regimen, meager dosing, and the capability of the latent and/or active state tubercular bacilli to abide and do survive against contemporary first-line and second line antitubercular drugs escalate the prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis. As a better understanding of tuberculosis, microanatomy has discovered an extended range of new promising antitubercular targets and diagnostic biomarkers. However, there are still no new approved antitubercular drugs of routine therapy for several decades, except for bedaquiline, delamanid, and pretomanid approved tentatively. Despite this, innovative methods are also urgently needed to find potential new antitubercular drug candidates, which potentially decimate both latent state and active state mycobacterium tuberculosis. To explore and identify the most potential antitubercular drug candidate among various reported compounds, we focused to highlight the promising lead derivatives of isoniazid, coumarin, griselimycin, and the antimicrobial peptides. The aim of the present review is to fascinate significant lead compounds in the development of potential clinical drug candidates that might be more precise and effective against drug-resistant tuberculosis, the world research looking for a long time.     

The Flow of Blood-Based Hybrid Nanofluids with Couple Stresses by the Convergent and Divergent Channel for the Applications of Drug Delivery

This research work aims to scrutinize the mathematical model for the hybrid nanofluid flow in a converging and diverging channel. Titanium dioxide and silver TiO2 and Ag are considered as solid nanoparticles while blood is considered a base solvent. The couple-stress fluid model is essentially use to describe the blood flow. Therefore, the couple-stress term was used in the recent study with the existence of a magnetic field and a Darcy–Forchheiner porous medium. The heat absorption/omission and radiation terms were also included in the energy equation for the sustainability of drug delivery. An endeavor was made to link the recent study with the applications of drug delivery. It has already been revealed by the available literature that the combination of TiO2 with any other metal can destroy cancer cells more effectively than TiO2 separately. Both the walls are stretchable/shrinkable, whereas flow is caused by a source or sink with α as a converging/diverging parameter. Governing equations were altered into the system of non-linear coupled equations by using the similarity variables. The homotopy analysis method (HAM) was applied to obtain the preferred solution. The influences of the modeled parameters have been calculated and displayed. The confrontation of wall shear stress and hybrid nanofluid flow increased as the couple stress parameter rose, which indicates an improvement in the stability of the base fluid (blood). The percentage (%) increase in the heat transfer rate with the variation of nanoparticle volume fraction was also calculated numerically and discussed theoretically.     

A square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric method for the determination of Amaranth, a food additive dye

Square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric (AdSV) determinations of trace concentrations of the azo coloring agent Amaranth are described. The analytical methodology used was based on the adsorptive preconcentration of the dye on the hanging mercury drop electrode, followed by initiation of a negative sweep. In a pH 10 carbonate supporting electrolyte, Amaranth gave a well-defined and sensitive AdSV peak at -518 mV. The electroanalytical determination of this azo dye was found to be optimal in carbonate buffer (pH 10) under the following experimental conditions: accumulation time, 120 s; accumulation potential, 0.0 V; scan rate, 600 mV/s; pulse amplitude, 90 mV; and frequency, 50 Hz. Under these optimized conditions the AdSV peak current was proportional over the concentration range 1 x 10(-8)-1.1 x 10(-7) mol/L (r = 0.999) with a detection limit of 1.7 x 10(-9) mol/L (1.03 ppb). This analytical approach possessed enhanced sensitivity, compared with conventional liquid chromatography or spectrophotometry and it was simple and fast. The precision of the method, expressed as the relative standard deviation, was 0.23%, whereas the accuracy, expressed as the mean recovery, was 104%. Possible interferences by several substances usually present as food additive azo dyes (E110, E102), gelatin, natural and artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and antioxidants were also investigated. The developed electroanalyticals method was applied to the determination of Amaranth in soft drink samples, and the results were compared with those obtained by a reference spectrophotometric method. Statistical analysis (paired t-test) of these data showed that the results of the 2 methods compared favorably.     

Square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric determination of an antihistamine drug astemizole

The square-wave voltammetric technique was used to explore the adsorption properties of the astemizole drug. The analytical methodology used was based on the adsorptive preconcentration of the drug on a hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE), followed by the electrochemical reduction process which yielded a well-defined cathodic peak at −1.184 V (vs. the Ag/AgCl electrode). To achieve high sensitivity, various experimental and instrumental variables were investigated such as the supporting electrolyte, pH, accumulation time and potential, drug concentration, scan rate, SW frequency, pulse amplitude, convection rate, and the working electrode area. Under the optimized conditions, the AdSV peak current was proportional over the analyte concentration range of 5 × 10⁻⁷ to 2.5 × 10⁻⁶ mol L⁻¹ (r = 0.998) with the detection limit of 1.4 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹ (6.4 ng mL⁻¹). The precision of the proposed method in terms of RSD was 2.4 %, whereas the method accuracy was indicated by the mean recovery of 100.1 %. Possible interferences of several substances usually present in the pharmaceutical tablets and formulations were also evaluated. The applicability of this electroanalytic approach was illustrated by the determination of astemizole in tablets and biological fluids.