In the present study, two amphiphilic star-hyperbranched copolymers, poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PMMA-b-PHEMA), with different hydrophilic PHEMA segment content (PMMA-b-PHEMA-1, and PMMA-b-PHEMA-2) were synthesized and their drug loading and release profiles were examined by using paclitaxel (PTX) as a model drug. Drug loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency were found to be similar in both polymers. Encapsulation efficiency found to be prominent with 98% and 98.5% for PMMA-b-PHEMA-1 and PMMA-b-PHEMA-2, respectively. On the other hand, drug release behaviors were varied in favor of the block copolymer comprising shorter PHEMA chains (PMMAb-PHEMA-1). Additionally, to assess biological effects of PTX-loaded polymers, human non-small cell lung carcinoma (A549) cells were used. Cell viability and cell cycle analysis showed that both polymers were not toxic to the cells. Cytotoxic effects of PTX-loaded PMMA-b-PHEMA-1 on A 549 cells were higher (66.49% cell viability at 5.0 ng/mL PTX) than that of PMMA-b-PHEMA-2 (72.47% cell viability at 5.0 ng/mL PTX) consistent with the drug release experiments.

This study involves bibliometric analysis of the scientific researches published in STEM education subject area. For this purpose, 2,313 studies about STEM education, published between 1992 and 2017 were analyzed bibliometrically and the trend of the last 26 years was revealed. Web of Science Core Collection database was scanned for "STEM Education" keyword and bibliometric data belonging to the studies were obtained. The studies were analyzed under the following sub-headings: number of publications per year, types of publications, language of publications, citation analysis, country collaborations, common citation networks and concepttopic tendencies. It is aimed to identify main authors who have conducted researches in the subject area and the works that they have done, as well as to determine the interaction between them. In addition, a word analysis was also conducted within the study in order to determine the concepts used in the researches published in STEM education area and covered in the data set. As a result of the analysis, collaborations and relationship patterns were visualized in the form of cognitive maps. In addition, the layout of the country collaborations, journals, authors, publications and concepts that form the sources of the citations in the network was evaluated.

action for calcitriol will help development of novel treatment strategies. Since vitamin D exerts its cellular actions via binding to its receptor and by altering expressions of a set of genes, we aimed to evaluate the effect of calcitriol on transcriptomic profile of breast cancer cells. We previously demonstrated that calcitriol alters ER stress markers, therefore in this study we have focused on ERstress related genes to reveal calcitriols action on these genes in particular.We have treated breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 with previously determined IC 50 concentrations of calcitriol and evaluated transcriptomic alterations via microarray.During analysis only genes altered by at least 2 fold with a p value less than 0.05 were taken into consideration.Our findings revealed an ER stress associated transcriptomic profile induced by calcitriol.Induced genes include genes with pro-survival function (NUPR1, DNAJB9, HMOX1, LCN2 and LAMP3) and with pro-death function (CHOP, DDIT4, NDGR1, NOXA and CLGN). These results suggest that calcitriol induces an ER-stress like response inducing both pro-survival and pro-death transcripts of the process.

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In this study, 24 marine macroalgae collected from the coastline of Izmir Gulf were examined for their antioxidant activities and their effects on cell proliferation. Crude extracts were obtained from samples with cold methanol extraction. Antioxidant activity was evaluated as 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and total phenolic content (TPC); growth inhibitory effects of the extracts were determined by using WST-8. Amongst the species, Polysiphonia denuata (Rhodophyta) and Cystoseira species (Phaeophyceae) have been noticed by their high DPPH radical scavenging activities and TPCs. As expected, there was a strong correlation between these tests. Dictyota dichotoma (Phaeophyceae) showed the highest anti-cancer activity on MCF-7 cells with an IC 50 of 17.2 ng mL -1 . Flow cytometry analyses demonstrated that D. dichotoma methanolic extract strongly induced apoptosis.This extract exhibited moderate viability inhibition on MCF10A cells (IC 50 : 49.3 ng mL -1 ), suggesting a potential use of the extracts or its compounds for cancer therapy. There was no correlation between anticancer potential and antioxidant content of the extracts.

Lipogenesis is considered to be a very important aspect of cancer metabolism and targeting de novo lipid synthesis or related pathways are among novel approaches to treat cancer. Many targets of the pathway including ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY), acetyl-CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthase have been evaluated for their potential in cancer treatment. However the role of citrate transport protein (CTP), another important component of lipogenesis pathway, is not well known for cancer metabolism and cell survival. Here we report that while chemical inhibition of CTP reduces cytoplasmic citrate levels and limits breast cancer cell viability effectively, siRNA based inhibition had little effect on both. We also compared the effects of CTP inhibition with ACLY and found that the inhibition of ACLY reduced cytoplasmic citrate levels and limited cell viability more effectively than CTP inhibition. Finally we have demonstrated that neither cell cycle arrest nor autophagy was induced in cells treated with CTP or ACLY siRNA. Inhibitions triggered apoptosis but only slightly. Growth inhibitory effects do not occur in normal mammary epithelial MCF-10A cell line.

Ganoderma lucidum is a medicinal higher Basidiomycetes mushroom that exerts anticancer effects through several different mechanisms. This study investigated the effects of G. lucidum on the telomerase activity and microRNA (miRNA) profiles of MCF-7 cells. According to the cytotoxicity results, the G. lucidum ether extract exhibits the highest cytotoxic potency; therefore it was chosen for the subsequent telomerase activity assay and miRNA profiling. The telomerase activity observed in the cells treated with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration of G. lucidum ether extract (100 µg/mL in dimethyl sulfoxide) was 32.2% lower than that of the control cells treated with 1% dimethyl sulfoxide. Among 1066 miRNAs, the most downregulated miRNA was hsa-miR-27a* (4.469-fold), and the most upregulated miRNA was hsa-miR-1285 (10.462-fold). A database search revealed the predicted miRNAs that target the catalytic subunit of the telomerase enzyme telomerase reverse transcriptase, and only miR-3687 (upregulated 2.153-fold) and miR-1207-5p (upregulated 2.895-fold) were changed by at least 2-fold. The miRNA profile changes demonstrated in this study provide a data set regarding their effects on the pathways that regulate telomerase activity in MCF-7 breast cancer cells treated with G. lucidum. These data should aid the development of novel cancer treatment strategies.