Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease in women and is worldwide. The incidence rate of women's breast cancer in 2020 was 2,261,419 and 2022 estimates diagnosing 1,918,030 cases. The disease is heterogeneous and the pathogenesis of breast cancer still remains unclear. Much progress has been made in early detection and better treatment to improve survival. Unfortunately, the current treatment strategies destroy the patient's quality of life. The patients develop drug resistance, exhibit severe side effects, and not afford the cost creates anxiety among the patients, families, and friends. In addition, a considerable number of patients relapse as a result of organ metastasis, e.g., the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC, ER-/PR-HER2-). The 5-year survival rate of patients who recurred with distant metastasis is less than 20%. More than half a million women worldwide still suffer from metastatic breast cancer annually, and 90% of their deaths could be attributed to metastasis. One of the reasons for the failure of cancer therapeutics is the approaches did not consider the cancer holistically. All breast cancer cells and their micro environmental capillary endothelial cells express asparagine-linked (N-linked) glycoproteins. We have tested a biologic and a small molecule, Tunicamycin-P (P = pure N-glycosylation inhibitor) to interfere with the protein N-glycosylation pathway in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) by specifically blocking the catalytic activity of N-acetylglusosaminyl 1-phosphate transferase (GPT) activity. The outcome has been quantitative inhibition of in vitro and in vivo angiogenesis and the breast tumor progression of multiple subtypes in pre-clinical mouse models with "zero" toxicity. We have, therefore, concluded that Tunicamycin-P is expected to supersede the current therapeutics and become a Glycotherapy treating breast cancer of all subtypes.
Biomass conversion to chemicals and fuels is an important subject in the development of alternative feedstock that are sustainable and meet environmental compatibility and economics of emerging technologies. In this article, a perspective of how catalysis research has led to many discoveries for alternative synthetic routes is presented. Fundamental aspects of catalyst design involving multi-metallic nano structured catalysts have been highlighted that led to exceptional performance of biomass conversion processes. The challenges in commercial implementation of these inventions in the context of competitive economics, separation technologies and sustainability have been addressed.
Carbohydrate-based surfactants (CBS) are an important class of amphiphilic compounds containing both hydrophilic and lipophilic moieties. These natural surfactants are biosynthesized within living cells and also easily can be prepared synthetically from the most abundant carbohydrate-rich renewable vegetable raw materials such as cellulose, pectin, hemicellulose, starch, etc. and fatty materials by sequential reactions. Extensive exploitation of non-renewable fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum; natural gas etc. damages the human and ecological health with significant contribution in overall pollution, thus the quest for novel methods and strategies has been accelerated to replace the conventional non-renewable fossil fuel sources with renewable, biodegradable, as well as sustainable sources for surfactant production. In this scenario, carbohydrate surfactants are of great interest because they are naturally abundant, biocompatible, highly biodegradable, and not noxious for the environment, which makes them an excellent alternative to surfactants from petrochemical sources.
In this mini-review, simple aspects of carbohydrate based gelator molecules and detailed overview about the design strategy, syntheses, and the self-assembly of several sugar-based gelators,which can form organogel and hydrogel has been discussed. We have also elucidated the use of these sugar-based gelators, particularlyorganogelators, hydrogelators, phase selective gelators and photo-responsive gelators for numerous applications,viz., marine oil-spill recovery, removal of dyes, water treatment, self-healing property and bio-medical applications. Moreover the mechanism of gelation of few of these gelators has been deliberated. [GRAPHICS] .
Tissue engineering in alliance with regenerative medicine provides new strategies to improve or repair different types of biological tissues. The main requirement of tissue engineering is 2D or 3D polymeric scaffolds to provide cell attachment, proliferation and cell differentiation to the damaged tissue. In recent times, the interest to synthesize scaffolds using natural polymers is thriving. Among these polymers, chitosan-based materials have gained more attention in tissue engineering because of their unique inherent biological properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability and also cost effectiveness. The weaknesses of chitosan due to its low mechanical strength and poor water solubility have significantly affected the spectrum of its applications in biological engineering, however, it has been shown to overcome these concerns either through conjugation with other polymers or by synthesizing modified derivatives. The present review mainly focusses on the different properties of chitosan and its applicability in tissue engineering in combination with other polymers with an outlook into future applications.
