For health management, nutraceuticals are chosen based on the risk of toxicity and adverse effects of pharmaceuticals.Nutraceuticals avoid side effects and are natural dietary supplements. As a result, nutraceuticals hold certain advantages over conventional medicines. These products are broadly classified into three categories—nutrients, herbal formulations, and dietary supplements—based on their natural origin and chemical composition. To ensure the safety of dietary supplements as food items, they are regulated by the FDA. In India, the government introduced the Food Safety and Standards Act in 2006 to oversee the regulation of the nutraceutical industry. Herbal nutraceuticals serve as effective tools for promoting optimal health, enhancing longevity, and improving overall quality of life.They play a crucial role in combating both acute and chronic diseases that arise from nutritional deficiencies. This review highlights various recent developments and emerging perspectives on nutraceuticals, particularly focusing on their potential to influence disease progression based on specific medical indications
Decoding the molecular heterogeneity of cancer is fundamental to the application of precision oncology, but multi-omics data are inherently noisy, high-dimensional and incomplete, making it difficult to find robust subtypes. We propose an integrative computational framework that integrates four complementary modules: robust correlation estimation to noise these patient similarity networks, UMAP for nonlinear dimensionality reduction, p-Laplacian Hypergraph construction to capture higher-order relations, and Mapper-based topological data analysis to identify shape-driven patient subgroups. This design is modular, scalable and resilient to the absence of particular omics modalities, allowing both local and global structures to contribute to clinically relevant subtyping. We validated the framework in five TCGA cohorts, GBM, BRCA, LUAD, KIRC, and COAD, based on log-rank p-values, Restricted Life Expectancy Difference RLED and silhouette measures. The method was consistently more effective than established techniques such as SNF, NEMO and RSC-OTRI. In GBM, it resulted in a survival separation of 221 days with the log-rank p-value of 0.0006 and a silhouette score of 0.58. Strong stratification was also evident in the BRCA and LUAD cohorts, where RLED gains were 174 and 146 days, respectively, and the silhouette scores were >0.52. Ablation studies confirmed the need for each module, as excluding robust correlation decreased GBM RLED from 221 to 167 days, replacing UMAP severely decreased clustering quality and excluding Mapper decreased survival stratification. Pathway enrichment analyses supported the biological significance of the subtypes and associated them with PI3K-Akt signalling, hypoxia response, and ER+/HER2 pathways. Overall, this framework provides a powerful, interpretable and clinically versatile approach to multi-omics cancer subtyping, with potential to drive the advancement of patient stratification and/or guide precision oncology interventions.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition that worsens with time and is defined by the buildup of defective mitochondria and the selective loss of neurons that are dopaminergic. Neuronal homeostasis relies on the delicate symphony of events involving mitophagy, the selective autophagic elimination of damaged mitochondria, and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling. The intricate interplay between mitophagy and mTOR pathways is discussed in this review, drawing attention to the fact that both pathways play a dual role in neuronal survival and degeneration in PD. Hyperactivation of mTOR signaling suppresses mitophagy, which can lead to mitochondrial malfunction and increased neurodegeneration, in contrast to nutrient-rich situations when mTOR signaling promotes cell development and inhibits autophagy. On the flip side, removing damaged mitochondria and avoiding oxidative stress depend on proper mitophagy activation through the PINK1/Parkin pathway. Cellular energy shortages and neuronal death can also be caused by excessive or dysregulated mitophagy. Here, we go over the molecular processes that control the interaction of mTOR complexes, AMPK, ULK1, and autophagy-related proteins, and how dysregulation of this interaction contributes to the development of PD. In order to restore mitochondrial quality control and attenuate neurodegeneration in PD, it is promising to understand this bidirectional regulation and find treatment pathways that modulate mTOR and mitophagy.
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a common gastric pathogen that is linked to peptic ulcers, gastric cancer and systemic disorders. There is emerging evidence of an association between infection with H. pylori and chronic kidney disease and non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis, and possible renal and hepatic involvement. This study was conducted to assess the relationship between H. pylori and kidney and liver function changes in Saudi Arabian people. Blood samples were collected from 82 participants divided into two groups, namely H. pylori-infected and non-infected. Biochemical analyses were done to determine kidney (creatinine, urea, sodium and potassium) and liver function (ALT, AST, ALP, total protein and albumin). A total of 82 participants were included in the study, of whom 42 (51.2%) tested positive for Helicobacter pylori infection, while 40 (48.8%) were non-infected and served as the control group. Liver enzyme levels (ALP (64.00), AST (21.40), ALT (21.26) and GGT (20.78)) were normal and did not differ significantly between groups (p > 0.05). Regression analysis showed a significant relationship between H. pylori infection and high creatinine (OR = 6.38, p = 0.018). Borderline correlations were found for GGT (OR = 1.179, p = 0.092), uric acid (OR = 2.661, p = 0.061), and the electrolytes and lipid profiles showed no significant variation. H. pylori infection was significantly related to elevated creatinine levels, and may be affecting renal function. Most liver and electrolyte parameters were not affected. Further studies with larger cohorts are required in order to confirm these findings.
Osteoporosis represents a significant global health issue, marked by diminished bone density and a heightened susceptibility to fractures. Early detection is essential for effective intervention; however, prevailing diagnostic techniques such as Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) are often prohibitively expensive and difficult to access in numerous areas. Although ultrasound-based methods offer a non-invasive and economically viable alternative, their precision is frequently undermined by noise present in the signals. This paper undertakes a comparative examination of both traditional and contemporary signal processing filters (including Low-pass, Median, Wavelet, Kalman, Bilateral, Anisotropic Diffusion and Savitzky-Golay filters) and introduces a groundbreaking hybrid filter that integrates Wavelet Transform, Wiener Filter and Non-Local Means Filter. The hybrid filter proposed here is specifically engineered to maintain essential signal characteristics while effectively mitigating noise, thus rendering it highly suitable for the detection of osteoporosis. The proposed hybrid filter integrates Wavelet Transform, Wiener, and Non-Local Means Filter techniques to enhance signal denoising, achieving superior performance over traditional methods. We evaluate the performance of the proposed filter using a dataset of simulated ultrasound signals, both normal and osteoporotic. The signals are processed using Fourier and Wavelet transforms for feature extraction, and a 1D CNN is employed for classification. The results demonstrate that the hybrid filter outperforms traditional and advanced filters in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, and F1-score, making it a promising tool for clinical applications.
