Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a breast cancer subtype. At present, TNBC patients do not have approved targeted therapy. Therefore, patients primarily depend on forceful systemic chemotherapy that has unavoidable harmful side effects, resulting in inadequate therapeutic outcomes and leading to a high mortality rate. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop targeted therapies for the TNBC populace. Developing a new nanotherapeutic approach of combinational therapy could be an effective alternative strategy. Therefore, we designed a combination of hyaluronan (HA)–polyaniline (PANi)–imiquimod (R837), denoted as HA-PANi/R837, nanoparticles (NPs) that exhibited a high extinction coefficient of 8.23 × 108 M–1 cm–1 and adequate photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) (η = 41.6%), making them an efficient photothermal agent (PTA) that is highly beneficial for selective CD44-mediated photothermal ablation of TNBC tumors. Furthermore, co-encapsulation of R837 (toll-like receptor 7 agonist) immunoadjuvant molecules triggers an immune response against the tumor. The formed CD44-targeted HA-PANi/R837 NPs’ selectivity incinerates the tumor under near-infrared (NIR)-triggered photothermal ablation, generating tumor-associated antigens and triggering R837 combination with anti-CTLA-4 for immunogenic cell death (ICD) activation to kill the remaining tumor cells in mice and protect against tumor relapse and metastasis. Our results demonstrated that novel HA-PANi/R837 NP-induced photothermal ICD achieved in CD44-targeted TNBC is a promising application.

Generalized arterial calcification of infancy (GACI) is a life-threatening disorder in young infants. Cardiovascular symptoms are usually apparent within the first month of life. The symptoms are caused by calcification of large and medium-sized arteries, including the aorta, coronary arteries, and renal arteries. Most of the patients die by 6 months of age because of heart failure. Recently, homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations for the ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 1 (ENPP1) gene were reported as causative for the disorder. ENPP1 regulates extracellular inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi), a major inhibitor of extracellular matrix calcification. A newborn was diagnosed with GACI. The infant died at the age of 7 weeks of cardiac failure and the parents were referred to Molecular Biology and Cytogenetic lab for further workup. Cytogenetics analysis was performed on the parents, which showed normal karyotypes and mutational analysis for the ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 1 (ENPP1) gene was also performed. The mutational analysis showed that both father and mother of the deceased infant were heterozygous carriers of the mutation c.749C>T (p.P250L) in exon 7 of ENPP1 and it was likely, that the deceased child carried the same mutation homozygous on both alleles and died of GACI resulting from this ENPP1 mutation. The couple was counseled and monitored for the second pregnancy. Amniocentesis was performed at 15 weeks of gestation for mutational analysis of the same gene in the second pregnancy. The analysis was negative for the parental mutations. One month after the birth of a healthy infant, peripheral blood was collected from the baby and sent for reconfirmation. The results again were negative for the mutation and the baby was on 6 months follow up and no major symptoms were seen. The parents of the child benefited enormously by learning about the disease much in advance and also its risk of recurrence. The main aim of this study is to emphasize on two aspects: (i) the importance of modern molecular techniques in diagnosis such a syndrome and (2) the difficulties faced by the physician to provide appropriate diagnosis and the adequate genetic counseling to the family without molecular facilities.

Methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) plays a significant role in the metabolism of methionine. MTHFR deficiency is an autosomal recessive trait that could be a significant risk factor for a number of defects, for example, vascular events, due to lower dietary folate intake among South Indians. To find the incidence of 677 C>T and 1298 A>C in MTHFR gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) among the south Indian population, polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism were employed among 152 patients with myocardial infarction and 167 controls. The MTHFR 677CT genotype was found among 35 (22.4%) cases and 08 (4.8%) controls, the MTHFR 677CC allele was found among 115 (73.7%) cases and 159 (94.6%) controls. Also, the analysis of the MTHFR 1298A>C SNP identified the MTHFR 1298CC genotype among 16 (10.3%) cases and 01 (0.6%) control, the MTHFR 1298AC genotype was found in 56 (35.9%) cases and 27 (16.2%) controls, and the MTHFR 1298AA genotype was observed in 80 (51.3%) cases and 139 (82.6%) controls. The C vs. A allele also showed significantly higher frequency among the patients in comparison with the controls (p<0.0001). The results of this study indicate that the MTHFR A1298C SNP is more prevalent among south Indians compared with the MTHFR C677T SNP, suggesting a possible role of MTHFR A1298C in the pathogenesis of heart diseases.