The mechanical property of bone tissue scaffolds is one of the most important aspects in bone tissue engineering that has remained problematic. In our previous study, we fabricated a three-dimensional scaffold from nanohydroxyapatite/gelatin (nHA/Gel) and investigated its efficiency in promoting bone regeneration both in vitro and in vivo. In the present study, the effect of adding silicon carbide (SiC) on the mechanical and biological behaviors of the nHA/Gel/SiC and bone regeneration in vivo were determined. nHA and SiC were synthesized and characterized by the X-ray diffraction pattern and transmission electron microscope image. Layer solvent casting, freeze drying, and lamination techniques were applied to prepare these scaffolds. Then, the biocompatibility and cell adhesion behavior of the synthesized nHA/Gel/SiC scaffolds were investigated. For in vivo studies, rats were categorized into three groups: blank defect, blank scaffold, and rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (rBM-MSCs)/scaffold. After 1, 4, and 12 weeks post-injury, the rats were sacrificed and the calvaria were harvested. Sections with a thickness of 5 µm thickness were prepared and stained with hematoxylin-eosin and Masson's Trichrome, and immunohistochemistry was performed. Our results showed that SiC effectively increased the mechanical properties of the nHA/ Gel/SiC scaffold. No significant differences were observed in biocompatibility, cell adhesion, and cytotoxicity of the nHA/Gel/SiC in comparison with the nHA/Gel nanocomposite. Based on histological and immunohistochemical studies, both osteogenesis and collagenization were significantly higher in the rBM-MSCs/scaffold group, quantitatively and qualitatively. The present study strongly suggests the potential of SiC as an alternative strategy to improve the mechanical and biological properties of bone tissue engineering scaffolds, and shows that the preseeded nHA/Gel/SiC scaffold with rBM-MSCs improves osteogenesis in the engineered bone implant.

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women, with one in 20 globally. Oncolytic viruses have recently been the first step in the biological treatment of cancer, either genetically engineered or naturally occurring. They increase specifically inside cancer cells and destroy them without damaging normal tissues or producing a host immune response against tumour cells or expressing transgenes. One of the most known members of this family is the Newcastle disease virus (NDV), a natural oncolytic virus that selectively induces apoptosis and DNA fragmentation in human cancer cells.Methods: This study performed biochemical and molecular investigations with variable doses of NDV (32, 64, 128 HAU) and liposomal doxorubicin (9 mg/kg) on mouse triple-negative mammary carcinoma cell line 4T1 and BALB/c models tumours for the first time.Results: Real-time quantitative PCR analysis in NDV-treated animal tumours showed increased expression of P21, P27 and P53 genes and decreased expression of CD34, integrin Alpha 5, VEGF and VEGF-R genes. Additional assessments in treated mouse models also showed that NDV increased ROS production, induced apoptosis, reduced tumour size and significantly improved prognosis, with no adverse effect on normal tissues. Conclusions:These findings all together might indicate that NDV in combination with chemotherapy drugs could improve prognosis in cancer patients although many more conditions should be considered.

Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (PTC) is the most common subtype of thyroid cancer that is the most prevalent in the endocrine system. According to worldwide reports, its prevalence rate has been increasing in recent decades. The Discovery of DNA sequencing methods and molecular diagnostic techniques provides an insight into the understanding of PTC molecular biology and as well as in thyroidology, which opens a new perspective in finding molecular markers. Aligning cytological diagnostic methods with molecular behavior studies creates promising tools for better decision-making strategies for preoperative conditions to distinguish between benign from malignant thyroid nodules in challenging cases and limit unnecessary surgeries. Extensive studies have been performed on identifying the genes involved in PTC development and their prognosis. Currently, clinical and pathological features of the tumour (such as size, extrathyroid and lymph node invasion, and capsular invasion) are used to predict the prognosis of papillary thyroid cancer. In this review, we tried to summarize fundamental signaling pathways affecting PTC and the most important genetic alterations, including point mutations in proto-oncogenes and chromosomal rearrangements, as well as up/down-regulation of certain micro RNAs (miRNA) as an epigenetic change. Briefly, some of the most commonly altered genes in PTC are BRAF, RAS, RET, PAX8, PPARγ, and miRNAs like mir-146b, mir-221, mir-222, and mir-181b.