Flavored Nanofiber Strips Loaded with Amoxicillin as an Alternative Method for Treating Bacterial Infections in Children
Semisynthetic penicillin, Amoxicillin, is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that is widely used to treat bacterial infections in children suffering ear, nose, and throat infections, genitourinary tract infections, skin infections, and lower respiratory tract infections1. This antibiotic works against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, such as Listeria monocytogenes, Haemophilus influenza, Streptococcus pneumonia , Streptococcus pyogene and Escherichia coli1,2. It shows antibacterial activity by inhibiting dd-transpeptidase, which maintains the integrity of the bacterial cell wall which results in bacterial cell death due to a fragile cell wall3. Nonadherence to medication was associated with 50% of drug-related hospitalizations in children4. In order to improve adherence and influence clinical outcome, it is important to acknowledge the importance of drug palatability to children4–6. The currently available liquid suspension form of this antibiotic is administered to patients through oral/GI routes. It is also available in capsules or tablets for adults7–9. In the gastrointestinal tract, the drug has to withstand variable pH conditions and enzymatic degradation , mucus and mucosal barriers to survive resulting in limiting drug bioavailability10,11. In addition to conventional drug delivery formulations, nanofibers can be used to deliver drugs orally, topically, and through buccal or transdermal routes12. Drug-loaded nanofibers offer many advantages as a delivery system, including their porous structure and their efficient delivery of various drugs and bioactive molecules including hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs12–14. Considering that amoxicillin palatability can affect children patients’ compliance and due to the advantages of both nanofiber drug delivery system and drug delivery through buccal routes, hence, this project aims to prepare flavored electrospun nanofibers loaded with amoxicillin to mask the unpleasant taste of the drug for treating children with bacterial infection. Nanofibers loaded with amoxicillin can be applied between the child's gum and cheek, allowing the fibers to dissolve in mucus and penetrate directly into the bloodstream.
KidneyLifePlus+ : Retinal Imaging Analysis for Kidney Disease Risk Assessment
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) represents a significant public health challenge, often referred to as a “silent disease” due to its asymptomatic progression during early stages (1–2). Consequently, most diagnoses occur during advanced stages (3 and beyond), where treatment options are more complex and outcomes are less favorable. Globally, CKD affects over 850 million individuals, with 434.3 million cases in Asia alone. Despite its prevalence, early-stage awareness remains alarmingly low, with only 5% of affected individuals aware of their condition. Existing screening methods are predominantly hospital-based, expensive, and time-intensive, limiting their accessibility, particularly in resource-constrained settings. This underscores an urgent need for more accessible and efficient diagnostic tools to enable early intervention. In response to this critical problem, we developed KidneyLifePlus+, an AI-powered platform that leverages advanced machine learning models, including U-net, ResNet-50, and YOLO v8, to analyze retinal images for early CKD detection. These models are integrated to ensure high screening accuracy by identifying subtle biomarkers indicative of CKD progression. Complementing the software, we designed proprietary hardware capable of capturing high-resolution retinal images, delivering performance comparable to hospital-grade equipment. By ensuring affordability and ease of use, the system extends screening capabilities beyond clinical environments, making it suitable for deployment in community healthcare settings. KidneyLifePlus+ addresses key limitations of traditional methods by offering a rapid, cost-effective, and highly accurate diagnostic solution. The platform’s potential to enhance early detection rates could significantly improve clinical outcomes and quality of life for CKD patients. Furthermore, this innovation contributes to global efforts to reduce the burden of CKD by promoting equitable access to diagnostic services, particularly in underserved regions.
In silico Screening of Forty Antiviral Phytochemicals as Inhibitors to the Envelope Protein of Dengue Virus Serotype 2 (DENV-2)
Infections by the Dengue virus (DENV) cause a disease amonghumansreferred to as Dengue fever, which causes thousands of fatalities globally. There is no existing treatment as of yet that successfully targets DENV. Among the factors thatdeterminetheentry of the virus and severity of the disease is the envelope(E) protein of DENV. This study aimed to examine forty antiviral phytochemicals enumeratedinpaststudiesaspossibleinhibitorstotheEprotein of DENV to provide candidates to aid in drug discovery against DENV. The phytochemicals were screened for their likelihood of inhibition of the E protein using AutoDock Suite and LigPlot+. Seven phytochemicals produced favorable binding affinities to the E protein, which are based on the interactions between the phytochemicals and amino acidsintheactivesiteoftheEprotein.Lipinski’s rule of 5 was then used to screen the seven phytochemicals for oral bioavailability. Glabridin has a binding affinity of -7.6 kcal/mol and was predicted to be orally bioavailable. This phytochemical interacts with amino acids in the E protein active site through hydrogen bonds to Asn355, andPhe337, as well as ten hydrophobic interactions. These interactions ensure that glabridin is able to specifically target and fit intotheactivesiteoftheEprotein, preventing its binding to the host cell and activating its viral proliferation. Glabridin is known to be found in the roots of licorice plants, providing anatural source for a possible cure for Dengue fever.
Sport specific assessment of inter-limb asymmetries: A way to reduce injuries
In recent years, lower inter-limb asymmetries have become a topic of increasing interest in sports research. Numerous studies have investigated the occurrence of between-limb differences in a variety of physical tests, ranging from strength, sprinting, and change of direction speed to jumping tasks. The main focus has been the association of asymmetries to either enhanced injury risk or reduced physical performance. Sport specific aspects and differences of lower limb asymmetries have not often been analysed. Additionally, most studies have been performed with male athletes. Women, however, present higher prevalence of lower limb asymmetries in strength, coordination, and postural control than men. These two aspects were therefore addressed in the present study. Female youth soccer (n=18, age: 16.7 ± 0.8 years) and floorball (n=18, age: 17.6 ± 0.9 years) players completed a test battery consisting of six unilateral jumping tasks in horizontal and lateral direction to detect sport specificity in inter-limb asymmetries. The test comprised the following hops: (1) Single Leg Hop for Distance and (2) a newly created version of it, (3) Single Leg Triple Hop, (4) Single Leg Crossover Hop, (5) Side Hop and (6) Single Leg 6-meters Timed Hop. The scores of every jump were calculated into Limb Symmetry Indexes for each participant. A linear mixed effect (LME) model (using function lmer in program R) was applied to evaluate the effects of sport and jump type on asymmetries. In terms of the whole test battery, there was a significantly higher magnitude of asymmetries in soccer compared to floorball (p=0.0067) with a mean difference of 1.9%. Three significant differences between the effects of different jump types were detected (5>2: p=0.027; 5>3: p6: p=0.014). Moreover, the results showed no significant effect on leg dominance. According to the findings of this study, soccer appears to be more asymmetric than floorball, leading to the suggestion that inter-limb asymmetries may not only be task-specific, but also sportspecific. Since no significant correlations were detected, this study suggests that inter-limb asymmetries are independent of leg dominance. Considering the possible reduction in athletic performance and increasing injury risk, strength and conditioning coaches are advised to assess athletes' inter-limb asymmetries using a broad, sport specific test battery and decrease them.
Automated Alternative Compression/Traction of Lower Extremities AACT as a Musculoskeletal Countermeasure to Mitigate Bone Loss and Muscle Atrophy in Microgravity
Space Medicine and relevant sciences are still considered a new era; the first humankind steps toward the space took place since less than 60 years. It has been noticed the adverse effects of microgravity on the human body in different aspects, our concern here is the musculoskeletal aspect. On the ground we didn’t notice how we can stand up, or how our muscles and bones of the lower limbs can keep us standing up right. This is by a complicated process including the bones, the equilibrium, and the anti-gravitational muscles of the lower limbs which occurred without thinking about it. The force of Earth gravity against our bones of the lower limbs makes them harder and makes the muscles stronger, because they are interfacing the earth gravitational force every moment we are standing up, as per Newton’s third law (for every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction), such forces are unavailable in space and its effect being obvious on arrival to earth after long stay space flights, so being unable to keep standing upright easily on their arrival. On return to earth the routine medical examinations revealed loss of astronaut muscle mass and bone density particularly of their lower extremities because they did not use them in space for a long time. Currently, astronauts on board of ISS (International Space Station) they accomplish daily tasks including resistive exercises ARED “Advanced Resistive Exercise Device” in form of treadmill, ergometer, and weightlifting machine, to decrease the loss of bone density and muscle mass of their lower limbs. Despite their discipline to those exercises they still lose 1-2% of the muscle mass and bone density that give importance to add some protective measures to keep their muscles and bones healthy. Through this article, the idea is to make a device such AACT (Automated Alternative Compression/Traction) to be applied daily to the astronauts lower limbs as part of their daily exercise during space flight to give push/traction forces to astronauts lower limbs to prevent or at least decrease such loss, by AACT we are mimicking the gravitational force of earth on astounds lower limbs during long space flights to let them be healthy till they come back.
EIPCA : Electrocardiogram Interpretation Pattern for Cardiovascular Abnormalities Prediction
Cardiac Arrhythmia is one of the conditions in the group of heart and blood vessel diseases that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (sudden death) and other conditions if not diagnosed quickly and accurately. According to research, heart and blood vessel diseases are the most common diseases and have a mortality rate of one-half of all non-communicable diseases. According to WHO statistics in 2012, it was found that there were 7.4 million deaths from heart and blood vessel diseases, and in 2017, the number of deaths increased to 177 million people, or about 94,444 people per day. Diagnosis of heart and blood vessel diseases can be done by measuring the electrical activity of the heart, and after the examination, a specialized physician will read and analyze the graph to find abnormal patterns. Currently, the shortage of qualified heart specialists to read the graph and screen for heart disease is a medical position shortage, which requires transferring data to hospitals with specialists, resulting in delays in diagnosis and treatment and even death. The project "EIPCA: Electrocardiogram Interpretation Pattern for Cardiovascular Abnormalities prediction" is an application program that assists in screening for fatal diseases that arise from abnormal heart rhythm. It employs artificial intelligence to aid in the screening and analysis of the electrical waveforms generated by an ECG machine, thus reducing diagnosis time and addressing the shortage of cardiology experts. EIPCA is comprised of two systems: (1) a system for screening and analyzing ECG waveforms using artificial intelligence to solve the problem of a shortage of specialized cardiology physicians, and (2) a system for risk assessment of fatal diseases by analyzing the ECG waveform data. The target group of the project is Rural hospitals, as well as health-related agencies. The project team hopes that the development of this project will significantly improve the efficiency and speed of screening for heart-related diseases, ultimately reducing the mortality rate from these diseases in the future.