Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, including Romania, where its incidence has increased significantly during the last decade. Ovarian cancer is the fourth leading cause of mortality by cancer in women. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are major cancer predisposition genes, responsible for a large percentage of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) families. We investigated 17 patients from unrelated HBOC families in north-eastern Romania, screening for mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 by mutation-specific PCR and by dideoxy sequencing. We identified four BRCA1 and two BRCA2 mutations in the 17 families. The overall mutation frequency was 41% (7/17; 5 BRCA1 and 2 BRCA2). Two mutations (BRCA1 c.2241dupC and BRCA2 c.8680C>T) were novel and not listed in the BIC database. Two recurrent BRCA1 mutations (c.5266dupC and c.181T>G), previously described among Ashkenazi Jewish and Eastern European populations, were also found. Two unclassified variants (UV) were found, one of which was novel (BRCA2 c.4589A>G). Medical follow-up for mutation carriers was implemented. Our study is the first molecular investigation of the role of the BRCA genes in breast and ovarian cancer in Romania.

Organic semiconductors are an attractive class of materials with large application in various fields, from optoelectronics to biomedicine. Usually, organic semiconductors have low electrical conductivity, and different routes towards improving said conductivity are being investigated. One such method is to increase their ordering degree, which not only improves electrical conduction but promotes cell growth, adhesion, and proliferation at the polymer–tissue interface. The current paper proposes a mathematical model for understanding the influence of the ordering state on the electrical properties of the organic semiconductors. To this end, a series of aromatic poly(azomethine)s were prepared as thin films in both amorphous and ordered states, and their supramolecular and electrical properties were analyzed by polarized light microscopy and surface type cells, respectively. Furthermore, the film surface characteristics were investigated by atomic force microscopy. It was established that the manufacture of thin films from mesophase state induced an electrical conductivity improvement of one order of magnitude. A mathematical model was developed in the framework of a multifractal theory of motion in its Schrodinger representation. The model used the order degree of the thin films as a fractality measure of the physical system’s representation in the multifractal space. It proposed two types of conductivity, which manifest at different ranges of fractalization degrees. The mathematical predictions were found to be in line with the empirical data.

Cervical cancer represents a major health problem among females due to its increased mortality rate. The conventional therapies are very aggressive and unsatisfactory when it comes to survival rate, especially in terminal stages, which requires the development of new treatment alternatives. With the use of nanotechnology, various chemotherapeutic drugs can be transported via nanocarriers directly to cervical cancerous cells, thus skipping the hepatic first-pass effect and decreasing the rate of chemotherapy side effects. This review comprises various drug delivery systems that were applied in cervical cancer, such as lipid-based nanocarriers, polymeric and dendrimeric nanoparticles, carbon-based nanoparticles, metallic nanoparticles, inorganic nanoparticles, micellar nanocarriers, and protein and polysaccharide nanoparticles. Nanoparticles have a great therapeutic potential by increasing the pharmacological activity, drug solubility, and bioavailability. Through their mechanisms, they highly increase the toxicity in the targeted cervical tumor cells or tissues by linking to specific ligands. In addition, a nondifferentiable model is proposed through holographic implementation in the dynamics of drug delivery dynamics. As any hologram functions as a deep learning process, the artificial intelligence can be proposed as a new analyzing method in cervical cancer.

Both incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC) in Romania have shown a continuous increase during the last decades. Hereditary Non-Polyposic Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC), also known as Lynch syndrome, is mainly attributable to mismatch repair (MMR) genes MSH2, MSH6, and MLH1. Individuals carrying germ-line mutations of these genes present high lifetime risk of colorectal and other cancers, compared to non-carriers. Oncogenetics is developed worldwide nowadays, for identifying hereditary predisposition to cancer and offering appropriate clinical follow-up to patients and mutation carriers in Lynch families. Molecular oncogenetic diagnosis in Lynch syndrome is based on complete Sanger sequencing of entire MMR genes, which is time and resources consuming, therefore needing an appropriate and adapted optimization. Conventional sequencing requires a sufficient number of available samples to be processed simultaneously, which increases the waiting time for diagnostic results. Complete analysis for only one patient meets difficult technical problems due to the complex co-amplification of all gene regions of interest within the same conditions, therefore increasing the costs and reducing the cost-effectiveness of the test. Here we present an original and robust technical protocol for sequencing the entire MSH2, MSH6, and MLH1 coding sequence for one patient in a single PCR plate. Our optimized and verified system overcomes all technical problems and offers a quick, robust, and cost-effective possibility to personalize molecular oncogenetic diagnosis in Lynch syndrome.