Introduction: Adiponectin is anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor cytokine secreted exclusively from adipocytes. There
is a growing evidence of association between adiponectin gene polymorphism and development of pancreatic cancer.
The current study aimed at evaluation of the possible association between selected adiponectin gene polymorphism and
the risk of pancreatic cancer. Methods: Prospective case-control study included 77 patients (29 women and 48 men)
with biopsy-proven pancreatic adenocarcinoma and 97 healthy control. Blood samples from all included participants
were genotyped for 3 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) of adiponectin genes (rs1501299C>A, rs266729C>G and
rs2241766G>T) by PCR. Clinical, biochemical, and radiological data analyzed. Results: We demonstrated a significant
association between the three studied SNPs (rs1501299, rs266729, and rs2241766) and increased risk of pancreatic
adenocarcinoma (p<0.001). Furthermore, in clinical correlation analysis, Patients with rs2241766 polymorphism
have a lower frequency of lymph node involvement (p 0.05). Smoking and older age were independent predictors of
pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Conclusion: We provided evidence that variants in adiponectin gene might influence the
development and progression of pancreatic cancer.

Predicting significant fibrosis or cirrhosis in patients with hepatitis C virus has persistently preoccupied the research agenda of many specialized research centers. Many studies have been conducted to evaluate the use of readily available laboratory tests to predict significant fibrosis or cirrhosis with the purpose to substantially reduce the number of biopsies performed. Although many of them reported significant predictive values of several serum markers for the diagnosis of cirrhosis, none of these diagnostic techniques was successful in accurately predicting early stages of liver fibrosis. Therefore, in this study a single stage classification model and a multistage stepwise classification model based on Neural Network, Decision Tree, Logistic Regression, and Nearest Neighborhood clustering, have been developed to predict individual's liver fibrosis degree. Results showed that the area under the receiver operator curve (AUROC) values of the multistage model ranged from 0.874 to 0.974 which is a higher range than what is reported in current researches with similar conditions.

A simple, facile, efficient and one pot three-component procedure for the synthesis of pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines, triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines and pyrimido[1,2-a]benzimidazoles ring systems incorporating phenylsulfonyl moiety was developed via the reaction of 1-aryl-2-(phenylsulfonyl) ethanone derivatives 1a-d with the appropriate heterocyclic amine and triethyl orthoformate and evaluated as Aurora-A kinase inhibitors. The cytotoxic activity of the newly synthesized compounds against HST116 colon tumor cell line was investigated.2,7-Diphenyl-6-(phenylsulfonyl)pyrazolo [1,5-a] pyrimidine (4b) and its p-methoxy analogue 4c were found to be equipotent to Doxorubicin as a reference drug. Molecular modeling study was carried out in order to rationalize the in vitro anti-tumor results.

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Steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) is the second most frequent cause of ESRD in the first two decades of life. Effective treatment is lacking. First insights into disease mechanisms came from identification of single-gene causes of SRNS. However, the frequency of single-gene causation and its age distribution in large cohorts are unknown. We performed exon sequencing of NPHS2 and WT1 for 1783 unrelated, international families with SRNS. We then examined all patients by microfluidic multiplex PCR and next-generation sequencing for all 27 genes known to cause SRNS if mutated. We detected a single-gene cause in 29.5% (526 of 1783) of families with SRNS that manifested before 25 years of age. The fraction of families in whom a single-gene cause was identified inversely correlated with age of onset. Within clinically relevant age groups, the fraction of families with detection of the single-gene cause was as follows: onset in the first 3 months of life (69.4%), between 4 and 12 months old (49.7%), between 1 and 6 years old (25.3%), between 7 and 12 years old (17.8%), and between 13 and 18 years old (10.8%). For PLCE1, specific mutations correlated with age of onset. Notably, 1% of individuals carried mutations in genes that function within the coenzyme Q10 biosynthesis pathway, suggesting that SRNS may be treatable in these individuals. Our study results should facilitate molecular genetic diagnostics of SRNS, etiologic classification for therapeutic studies, generation of genotype-phenotype correlations, and the identification of individuals in whom a targeted treatment for SRNS may be available.

Silica-coated Fe2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized as carriers for the covalent immobilization and release of antimicrobial drug sparfloxacin (SPFX). SPFX-loaded nanoparticles exhibited time-dependent drug release, with no measurable in vitro cytotoxicity, making the drug@nanoparticle conjugates potentially relevant for nanomedicine applications.

Although cyclophosphamide (CTX) has been used for recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancers, resistance is usually expected. Thus, we conducted this study to examine the effect of adding all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) to CTX, to increase efficacy of CTX and reduce the risk of resistance developed. In this study, we investigated the combined effect of ATRA and CTX on the expression of apoptotic and angiogenesis markers in oropharyngeal carcinoma cell line (NO3), and the possible involved mechanisms. ATRA and CTX in combination significantly inhibited the proliferation of NO3 cells. Lower dose of CTX in combination with ATRA exhibited significant cytotoxicity than that of CTX when used alone, implying lower expected toxicity. Results showed that ATRA and CTX modulated oxidative stress; increased NOx and MDA, reduced GSH, and mRNA expression of Cox-2, SIRT1 and AMPK. Apoptosis was induced through elevating mRNA expressions of Bax and PAR-4 and suppressing that of Bcl-xl and Bcl-2, parallel with increased caspases 3 and 9 and decreased VEGF, endothelin-1 and CTGF levels. The primal action of the combined regimen on inflammatory signaling highlights its impact on cell death in NO3 cell line which was mediated by oxidative stress associated with apoptosis and suppression of angiogenesis.