The Effect of Immune Max in the Liver, Kidney and Spleen Histological Structure in Male Albino Mice

Background: This study aimed to identify the effect of using the Immune Max dietary supplement on the histological composition of some organs in male albino mice. Methods: The study was conducted on the Swiss albino male mice which were divided into two groups: treated group with 0.162 mg/kg/day of Immune Max and second group as a control. Results: Histological examination was conducted for liver, kidney and spleen. The results showed some histological changes in these organs like loses of tissues, congestion, leukocytes infiltration and dead cells. Conclusion: The purpose of a conclusion that the use of the Immune Max nutritional supplement can cause damage to the tissues of a number of organs and this is likely to be due to the dose concentration and the duration of the treatment.

METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR SUBSTANTIATING SAFE LEVELS OF EXPOSURE TO ARTIFICIAL NANOMATERIALS (FOR EXAMPLE, CARBON NANOTUBES)

The unique physicochemical properties of carbon nanotubes allow them to be used in many fields. The global nanomaterials market is growing every year. An important step in introducing products to the domestic and world markets is to determine the safe exposure levels of CNTs. Establishing a corporate standard can serve as a preliminary stage before the approval of a state hygiene standard. Justification of the corporate standard is carried out in in vitro and in vivo experiments. The planning of experiments should be carried out taking into account the target organ under the influence of CNT - the respiratory system. The recommended dose / concentration range for experiments should include doses / concentrations derived from calculated and literature data. A necessary step is to obtain homogeneous dispersions in which CNTs become bioavailable for biological systems. During in vitro and in vivo experiments, the exposure level is determined at which no harmful effect is observed and / or the lowest level of exposure at which there is a harmful effect on the cell culture / respiratory tract of animals.

COAGULATION/FLOCCULATION PROCESS FOR OILY WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Oily wastewater is one of the most dangerous forms of environmental pollution, it is large amount of water that is wasted petrochemical industries, oily waste water contains oil, suspended solids, and dissolved solids. The study investigates the treatment of real oily waste water that was collected from al-Dura refinery (Iraq) /Middle Refineries Company from oil and suspended solid contamination for re-use and environmental consideration using coagulation and flocculation processes. Coagulation /flocculation is a common method used as primary purification processes to oily wastewater treatment due to its usability, performance, and low cost. Coagulation experiments were completed by the Jar Test device. The additives coagulants of ferric sulfate and aluminum sulfate were in a range about (10- 25) ppm, as well as polyelectrolyte- (polyacrylamide) as an additional flocculent in the range (1-4) ppm. The results show that ferric sulfate was more efficient in removing turbidity than Aluminum sulfate under the same conditions, with the best removal of turbidity at dose concentration 20 ppm of Ferric sulfate and a flocculent dose concentration of 3 ppm of polyacrylamide, also with oil content decreasing from 288 ppm to 14.4 ppm and the turbidity removal from 187 to 8.5 NTU.

Visualizing Antineoplastic Activity with a Whole Organism Drosophila melanogaster Screen

Cancer is a disease characterized by high mitosis rates with a loss of regulation. Many antineoplastics, those drugs used to treat cancer, act by slowing or halting mitosis. We are developing a whole-organism screening protocol to identify novel antineoplastics. After exposing Drosophila melanogaster eggs and larva to a compound, their growth rate and population decrease if mitosis inhibition or arrest occur. We screened several compounds from the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP). Our screen successfully identified two compounds, toyocamycin and stictic acid, previously identified as possible antineoplastics. Toyocamycin killed a fraction of the population proportional to the dose concentration resulting in full mortality at 100 and 200 µM. At low doses, toyocamycin also slowed larval development by a mean of one day. RNAseq showed that no genes were differentially expressed in mature flies after toyocamycin exposure was halted. Stictic acid delayed larval growth by an equal or greater margin compared to toyocamycin. These results demonstrate that decreases in Drosophila growth or population can predict a compound’s antineoplastic activity and toxicity.

Prediction of herb-drug interactions involving consumption of furanocoumarin-mixtures and cytochrome P450 1A2-mediated caffeine metabolism inhibition in humans

Herb-drug interaction (HDI) has become important due to the increasing popularity of natural product consumption worldwide. HDI is difficult to predict as botanical drugs usually contain complex phytochemical-mixtures which interact with drug metabolism. Currently, there is no pharmacological tool to predict HDI since almost all in vitro-in vivo-extrapolation (IVIVE) Drug-Drug Interaction (DDI) models deal with one inhibitor-drug and one victim-drug. The objectives were to modify IVIVE models of Mayhew et al. (2000) and Wang et al. (2004) for prediction of in vivo interaction between caffeine and furanocoumarin-containing herbs, and to confirm model prediction by comparing the predictive results with experimental data. The models were modified to predict in vivo herb-caffeine interaction using the same set of inhibition constants but different integrated dose/concentration of furanocoumarin mixtures in the liver. Different hepatic inlet inhibitor concentration ([I]H) surrogates were used for each furanocoumarin. In the Mayhew et al., the [I]H was predicted using the concentration-addition model for chemical-mixtures. In the Wang et al., the [I]H was calculated by adding individual furanocoumarins together. Once [I]H was determined, the models predicted an area-under-curve-ratio (AUCR) of each interaction. The results indicate that both models were able to predict the experimental AUCR of herbal products reasonably well.

Preparation of hydrogel reinforced with bentonite by gamma irradiation for metal absorption

A natural-based sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) hydrogel reinforced with bentonite was prepared by using gamma irradiation technology. This is a novel hydrogel that uses natural polymer to absorb metal ions in wastewater. The influence of dose, concentration of CMC and bentonite on the sorption of hydrogels was investigated by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) method. According to the Langmuir isotherm model, the maximum adsorption capacities of CMC/bentonite hydrogel for Cu2+ and Pb2+ were 181.82 mg/g and 204.08 mg/g at room temperature, respectively. The pseudo-second-order model which describes the adsorption process of Cu2+ and Pb2+ was also studied

Safety and immunogenicity evaluation of inactivated whole-virus-SARS-COV-2 as emerging vaccine development in Egypt

Background Current worldwide pandemic COVID-19 with high numbers of mortality rates and huge economic problems require an urgent demand for safe and effective vaccine development. Inactivated SARS-CoV2 vaccine with alum. Hydroxide can play an important role in reducing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, vaccine efficacy was evaluated through the detection of the neutralizing antibodies that protect mice from challenge with SARS-CoV 2 three weeks after the 2nd dose. We conclude that the vaccine described here has safety and desirable properties, and our data support further development and plans for clinical trials. Methods Characterized SARS-COV-2 strain, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 isolates (SARS-CoV-2/human/EGY/Egy-SERVAC/2020) with accession numbers; MT981440; MT981439; MT981441; MT974071; MT974069, and MW250352 at GenBank were isolated from Egyptian patients SARS-CoV-2-positive. Development of inactivated vaccine was carried out in a BSL—3 facilities and the immunogenicity was determined in mice at two doses (55 μg and 100 μg per dose). Results The distinct cytopathic effect (CPE) induced by SARS-COV-2 propagation on Vero cell monolayers and the viral particles were identified as Coronaviridae by transmission electron microscopy and RT-PCR on infected cells cultures. Immunogenicity of the developed vaccine indicated the high antigen-binding and neutralizing antibody titers, regardless of the dose concentration, with excellent safety profiles and no deaths or clinical symptoms in mice groups. The efficacy of the inactivated vaccine formulation was tested by the wild virus challenge of the vaccinated mice and viral replication detection in lung tissues. Conclusions Vaccinated mice recorded complete protection from challenge infection via inhibition of SARS-COV-2 replication in the lung tissues of mice following virus challenge, regardless of the level of serum neutralizing antibodies. This finding will support future trials for the evaluation of an applicable SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate.

Effect of Sublethal Dose/Concentration on Various Insect Behaviors

Most of the studies on the impact of insecticides have always used acute toxicity with an indicator of death, whereas the lethal effect cannot fully determine the effect of the insecticide on insects. Overall, the effect of sublethal dose/concentration of insecticides can cause biological effects, disrupt egg number, laying period, larva and pupal weight, development period, life span and fertility rate, in addition to influencing feeding behavior, spawning period, locomotor system and reducing or increasing production and response to pheromones, physiological effects on the reproductive and immune systems and the nutritional status of insects. This suggests that the sublethal effect is very important to form the basis for analysis of insecticide risk. In addition, the sublethal effect also affects the presence of natural enemies and other useful insects, so it is hoped that more studies on their impact on non-target insects are expected.Keywords: biological effects, natural enemies, pheromones, sublethal effect

FC 035VOCLOSPORIN INCREASES RENAL RESPONSE AT COMMONLY USED UPCR THRESHOLDS IN PATIENTS WITH LUPUS NEPHRITIS

Background and Aims Voclosporin is a novel calcineurin inhibitor with a favorable metabolic profile and a consistent dose-concentration relationship, potentially eliminating the need for therapeutic drug monitoring. We have previously reported the primary endpoint of the Phase 3 AURORA trial showing the addition of voclosporin to mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and a low-dose glucocorticoid regimen results in significantly higher renal response (RR) rates at one year of treatment compared to MMF and low-dose glucocorticoids alone in patients with lupus nephritis (LN). For the primary endpoint, RR was defined as ≤0.5 mg/mg UPCR with stable renal function in the presence of low-dose glucocorticoids and no use of rescue medication. Several studies have demonstrated that proteinuria represents the best single predictor for long-term renal outcomes.1,2 Given the efficacy of voclosporin in terms of proteinuria reduction, we conducted a sensitivity analysis evaluating RR with additional UPCR targets. Method A total of 179 participants in the voclosporin (23.7 mg BID) arm and 178 participants in the control arm from the AURORA trial were included in this analysis. All participants received MMF (target 1 g BID) and low-dose oral glucocorticoids (initiated at 20-25 mg/day and tapered to 2.5 mg/day at 16 weeks). For this post hoc analysis, the UPCR component of RR was revised to include UPCR targets at 0.2 mg/mg intervals above and below the original ≤0.5 target used for the primary endpoint in AURORA (i.e., ≤0.7 mg/mg or ≤0.3 mg/mg, respectively). Odds ratios for RR at six months and one year of treatment were analyzed using a logistic regression model with terms for treatment, baseline UPCR, biopsy class, and MMF use at baseline and region. Results RR with UPCR ≤0.7 mg/mg was achieved by 46.9% of participants in the voclosporin arm vs 32.0% of participants in the control arm at one year of treatment (OR 2.07, p<0.0014) and 39.1% of participants in the voclosporin arm vs 24.7% of participants in the control arm at six months of treatment (OR 2.10, p=0.0020). RR with UPCR ≤0.3 mg/mg was achieved by 28.5% of participants in the voclosporin arm vs 15.7% of participants in the control arm at one year (OR 2.27, p=0.0023 and 22.9% of participants in the voclosporin arm vs 14.0% of participants in the control arm at six months of treatment (OR 1.90, p=0.0238; Table 1). Conclusion Participants treated with voclosporin in addition to MMF and low-dose glucocorticoids achieved statistically significantly increased renal response rates regardless of the level of UPCR used, including at an even more stringent ≤0.3 mg/mg target. This analysis further supports the efficacy observed with voclosporin in the Phase 3 AURORA and the prior Phase 2 AURA-LV global trials.