Lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) are two of the most widespread environmental toxicants, posing significant immunological and systemic health risks worldwide. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the immunotoxicity of Pb and As, highlighting their shared and unique cellular mechanisms, with a focus on oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, immune dysregulation, and epigenetic modifications. Pb exposure has been shown to suppress CD4⁺ T cell populations, alter CD8⁺ and NK cell ratios, elevate Th2 cytokines like IL-4 and IL-6, and increase IgE levels, contributing to heightened allergy risk and systemic inflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Pathog Ther
March 2025
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) promotes several cancers by increasing tumor cell motility, disrupting epithelial cell phenotypes, apical-basal polarity, and intracellular connections, and enhancing tumor resistance to immunotherapy and chemotherapy. Mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET), the opposite of EMT, causes tumor metastasis. EMT drives primary tumor cells, whereas MET inhibits them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground Exercise plays a significant role in influencing muscle metabolism and the secretion of myokines, which may have important therapeutic implications for managing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study explores the effects of a single session of moderate-intensity exercise on the levels of circulating myokines, specifically interleukin-6 (IL-6) and fractalkine, in individuals with T2DM compared to healthy controls. Methodology A total of 70 participants, including 35 individuals (50%) with T2DM and 35 healthy controls (50%) were enrolled in the study after taking their written informed consent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectrochemical nanosensors offer remarkable capabilities for precise and selective vitamin detection, with transformative implications for healthcare, nutrition, and food industry quality control. Nanotechnology advancements have facilitated the creation of nanoscale sensors with customized properties, enhancing the efficacy of detecting vitamins. Materials such as gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and quantum dots have been modified to display remarkable sensitivity and specificity for distinct vitamins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhen juxtaposed with 2D cell culture models, multicellular tumor spheroids demonstrate a capacity to faithfully replicate certain features inherent to solid tumors. These include spatial architecture, physiological responses, the release of soluble mediators, patterns of gene expression, and mechanisms of drug resistance. The morphological and behavioural similarities between 3D-cultured cells and cells within tumor masses highlight the potential of these models in studying cancer biology and drug responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Biochem Mol Toxicol
February 2025
Since its discovery in the bacterium Chromobacterium violaceum, violacein-a striking purple pigment-has garnered significant interest due to its promising applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Violacein exhibits a range of pharmacological properties, including anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antibacterial, and antiparasitic effects, yet its complete molecular mechanisms are still being elucidated. Its mechanisms of action likely involve complex interactions with cellular receptors, signaling pathways, and specific molecular targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPathophysiology
October 2024
Angiogenesis is a process involved in the formation of new blood capillaries from pre-existing ones. It is regulated by several anti-angiogenic molecules involved in tumor growth and metastasis. The endothelial angiopoietin Ang-Tie/PI3K/AKT growth receptor pathway is necessary for healthy vascular development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccording to the World Health Organization, cancer is the foremost cause of mortality globally. Various phytochemicals from natural sources have been extensively studied for their anticancer properties. Allicin, a powerful organosulfur compound derived from garlic, exhibits anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and antibacterial properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFerroptosis has been characterized as a form of iron-dependent regulated cell death accompanied by an accumulation of reactive oxygen species and lipid oxidation products along with typical morphological alterations in mitochondria. Ferroptosis is activated by diverse triggers and inhibited by ferrostatin-1 and liproxstatin-1, apart from iron chelators and several antioxidants, and the process is implicated in multiple pathological conditions. There are, however, certain ambiguities about ferroptosis, especially regarding the final executioner of cell death subsequent to the accumulation of ROS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanomedicine has been essential in bioimaging and cancer therapy in recent years. Nanoscale covalent-organic frameworks (COFs) have been growing as an adequate classification of biomedical nanomaterials with practical application prospects because of their increased porosity, functionality, and biocompatibility. The high sponginess of COFs enables the incorporation of distinct imaging and therapeutic mechanisms with a better loading efficiency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThese days carbon dots have been developed for multiple biomedical applications. In the current study, the transfection potential of synthesized carbon dots from single biopolymers such as chitosan, PEI-2kDa, and PEI-25kDa (S-CDs, PEI2-CDs, and PEI25-CDs) and by combining two biopolymers (CP2-CDs and CP25-CDs) through a bottom-up approach have been investigated. The characterization studies revealed successful synthesis of fluorescent, positively charged carbon dots <20 nm in size.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Gene Ther
September 2023
The second most pervasive cancer affecting the survival of women across the world is breast cancer. One of the biggest challenges in breast cancer treatment is the chemoresistance of cancer cells to various medications after some time. Therefore, highly specific blood-based biomarkers are required for early breast cancer diagnosis to overcome chemoresistance and improve patient survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNaunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol
March 2024
Engineering polymer-based nano-systems have attracted many researchers owing to their unique qualities like shape, size, porosity, mechanical strength, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Both natural and synthetic polymers can be tuned to get desired surface chemistry and functionalization to improve the efficacy of cancer therapy by promoting targeted delivery to the tumor site. Recent advancements in cancer immunoediting have been able to manage both primary tumor and metastatic lesions via activation of the immune system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn pursuit of a novel effective treatment for prostate cancer, methanolic extract of Stephania glabra tubers (Sg-ME) was utilized to fabricate silver (Sg-AgNP), copper oxide (Sg-CuONP), and silver-copper bimetallic nanoparticles (Sg-BNP). The characterization of the nanoparticles confirmed spherical shape with average diameters of 30.72, 32.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurcumin, derived from turmeric, has a strong anticancer potential known for millennia. The development of this phytochemical as a medicine has been hampered by several significant deficiencies, including its poor water solubility and low bioavailability. This review article discusses possibilities to overcome these bottlenecks by focusing on this natural polyphenol's nanoformulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Bacterial infection is a major crisis of 21st era and the emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens cause significant health problems. We developed, green chemistry-based silver nanoparticles (G-Ag NPs) using fruit peel extract. G-Ag NPs has a spherical shape in the range of ~ 40 nm with a surface charge of - 31 Mv.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiotechnol Adv
September 2023
Glycosylation-mediated post-translational modification is critical for regulating many fundamental processes like cell division, differentiation, immune response, and cell-to-cell interaction. Alterations in the N-linked or O-linked glycosylation pattern of regulatory proteins like transcription factors or cellular receptors lead to many diseases, including cancer. These alterations give rise to micro- and macro-heterogeneity in tumor cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Inhibitors of glucose transporters are being explored as potential anti-cancer drugs. Decreased cerebral glucose utilization with reduced levels of several glucose transporters is also an important pathogenic signature of neurodegeneration of Alzheimer's disease, but its exact role in the pathogenesis of this disease is not established. We explored in an experimental model if inhibitors of glucose transporters could lead to altered amyloid-beta homeostasis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuronal death, which are relevant in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiotechnol Genet Eng Rev
October 2023
High demand of bioactive molecules (food additives, antibiotics, plant growth enhancers, cosmetics, pigments and other commercial products) is the prime need for the betterment of human life where the applicability of the synthetic chemical product is on the saturation due to associated toxicity and ornamentations. It has been noticed that the discovery and productivity of such molecules in natural scenarios are limited due to low cellular yields as well as less optimized conventional methods. In this respect, microbial cell factories timely fulfilling the requirement of synthesizing bioactive molecules by improving production yield and screening more promising structural homologues of the native molecule.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Lung cancer is one of the highly lethal forms of cancer whose incidence has worldwide rapidly increased over the past few decades. About 80-85% of all lung cancer cases constitute non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and large cell carcinoma as the main subtypes. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have led to significant advances in the treatment of a variety of solid tumors, significantly improving cancer patient survival rates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFColorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide and has engrossed researchers' attention toward its detection and prevention at early stages. Primarily associated with genetic and environmental risk factors, the disease has also shown its emergence due to dysbiosis in microbiota. The microbiota not only plays a role in modulating the metabolisms of metastatic tissue but also has a keen role in cancer therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Combating triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is still a problem, despite the development of numerous drug delivery approaches. Mucin1 (MUC1), a glycoprotein linked to chemo-resistance and progressive malignancy, is unregulated in TNBC. GO-201, a MUC1 peptide inhibitor that impairs MUC1 activity, promotes necrotic cell death by binding to the MUC1-C unit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExplor Target Antitumor Ther
October 2022
(.) is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae with approximately 250 species widely dispersed in temperate, tropical, and subtropical areas. It is traditionally used to treat rheumatism, fever, asthma, stomach irritation, and inflammatory ailments.
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