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Background: Sponges are champion of bioactive producers because of the variety of products that have been found from them. Most bioactive compounds extracted from sponges were classified into antibiotic, antiviral, antitumor, and anti-inflammatory. Tow marine sponge species were collected during winter 2016 from Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, Egypt viz., Callyspongia crassa and Callyspongia siphonella. The collected sponge species belong to family Callyspongiidae. The sponge samples were extracted by ethanol and investigated as a promising source of natural products which can be used as antitumor, antiviral, and antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory agents. Results: Results revealed that the crude extract of C. siphonella showed high antitumor activity with value of 5.57 and 1.39 μg/ml as IC50 against colon cancer (caco-2) and breast cancer (Mcf-7) on cell line, respectively. Also the C. crassa extract showed high cytotoxic effect to Vero cell with HAV (hepatitis A virus), which exhibits that MIC was 9.765 μg/ml, the most effective extract was of C. crassa against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans. Also, ethanolic crude of C. siphonella showed positive antibacterial activity against P. aueroginosa. Indeed, there much other extracts exhibited no antibacterial activities, especially all extracts against Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio damsela. The C. crassa extract conducted an antioxidant activity in corresponding to ascorbic acid standard with value of 671 μg/ml as IC50. There was only one crude extract that had anti-inflammatory activity; it was of C. crassa (61.47%). Conclusions: The present investigation confirmed that the crude extract of C. siphonella conducted to promising antitumor agent against colon and breast cancer, while the crude extract of C. crassa conducted to promising anti-inflammatory and antiviral agents. In summary, the marine sponges are an indispensable, chemodiverse, biodiverse, and rich source of natural products and secondary metabolites with potent pharmacological effects. The studies should be interested with spongederived bioactive compounds as a promising strategy that deserves further attention in future investigations in order to address the limitations regarding sustainable supply of marine drugs.

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Atherosclerosis is one of the potential risk factors in hypertensive patients with epistaxis. This may have an impact on treatment choices.

Fear of falling is the most common reported fear among older adults. Nevertheless, little is known about whom among this population develops fear of falling and why. This study aims to identify physical and psychosocial correlates of fear of falling among older adults in assisted living facilities. Data were collected from interviews with 208 residents using measures of fear of falling, physical and social functioning, depression, and state and trait anxiety. Results revealed that 48.6% of the participants had moderate to severe concern about falling. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed that use of a walking device, depression, balance impairment, trait anxiety, female gender, and a previous history of a fall or falls were independent factors associated with fear of falling. It is suggested that improving physical fitness and balance control and increasing one's self-efficacy and sense of control over the environment can decrease these sources of fear among older adults.

There is a great demand to introduce new approaches into cancer treatment field due to incidence of increased breast cancer all over the world. The current study was designed to evaluate the role of imatinib mesylate (IM) and/or hesperidin (HES) nanoparticles alone or in combination in enhancing the anticancer activity and to investigate the ability of nanoencapsulation to reduce cardiotoxicity of IM in solid Ehrlich carcinoma (SEC)‐bearing mice. IM and HES were loaded into PLGA (poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) polymer. SEC was induced in female albino mice as a model for experimentally induced breast cancer. Mice were randomly divided into eight groups (n = 10). On day 28 from tumor inoculation, mice were sacrificed and blood samples were collected in heparinized tubes for hematological studies, biochemical determination of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) levels. In addition, tumor and cardiac tissues were utilized for histopathological examination as well as determination of MDR‐1 gene expression. Immunohistochemical staining of BAX and BCL‐2 was done. Nano IM‐ and/or Nano HES‐treated groups showed a significant reduction in tumor volume, weight, hematological, cardiac markers, and tumor MDR‐1 gene downregulation compared to free conventional treated groups. In conclusion, the use of HES as an adjuvant therapy with IM could improve its cytotoxic effects and limit its cardiac toxicity. Furthermore, nanoencapsulation of IM and/or HES with PLGA polymer showed a remarkable anticancer activity.

Exopolysaccharides (EPSs) are high molecular weight polymers consisting of different sugar residues they are preferable for replacing synthetic polymers as they are degradable and nontoxic. Many microorganisms possess the ability to synthesize and excrete exopolysaccharides with novel chemical compositions, properties and structures to have potential applications in different fields. The present study attempt to optimize the production of EPS by marine Bacillus subtilis SH1 in addition to characterization and investigation of different valuable applications. Effect of medium type, incubation period and pH were studied using the one factor at a time experiments. It was shown that the highest productivity (24 gl-1) of exopolysaccharides was recorded by using yeast malt glucose medium with pH 9 at the fourth day of incubation. Experimental design using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize various nutrients at different concentrations. The finalized optimized medium contained (gl-1) glucose (5), peptone (2.5), yeast extract (4.5) and malt extract (4.5) increased the production of EPS to 33.8 gl-1 with1.4 fold increase compared to the basal medium. Chemical characterization of the extracted EPS showed that, FTIR spectra exhibited bands at various regions. Moreover, HPLC chromatogram indicated that the EPS was a heteropolysaccharide consisting of maltose and rhamnose. The study was extended to evaluate the potentiality of the extracted polysaccharides in different medical applications. Results concluded that, EPS exhibited antibacterial activity against Aeromonas hydrophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus faecalis and the highest antibacterial activity (7.8, 9 and 10.4 AU/ml) was against S. faecalis at 50, 100 and 200 mg/ml respectively. The EPS exhibited various degree of antitumor effect toward the tested cell lines (MCF-7, HCT-116 and HepG2). In addition, EPS exhibited antiviral activity at 500 μg/ml. The antioxidant capacity increased with increasing the concentration of the sample. Scanning electron microscopic analysis showed that EPS had compact film-like structure, which could make it a useful in the future applications as in preparing plasticized film.

The present study aimed to investigate the antibacterial properties of crude extracts from some soft coral species from the Red Sea, Hurghada, Egypt. Crude extracts of Lobophytum pauciliforum, Dendronephthya hemprichi, Sarcophyton gracile, Sarcophyton glaucum, Sinularia gardineiri, Sinularia leptoclados, Nephthea pacifica, Sarcophyton acutum, Sarcophyton spongosium and Xenia macrospiculata, were tested against fish and human pathogenic bacteria. The well cut -diffusion technique was used to determine the absolute activity units (AU) and the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) using disc-diffusion technique were determined against the most affected bacterial pathogens (E. coli and S. aureus). The AU of the ethanolic crude extract ranged from 1.4 to 25.0 for Sarcophyton acutum and Lobophytum pauciliforum, respectively. On the other side, ethyl acetate crude extracts showed the highest AU (16.0) for L. pauciliforum against S. aeurus, followed by (11.1) of N. pacifica and X. macrospiculata against). The MIC of L. pauciliforum ethyl acetate crude extract was recorded as (50 mg ml -1 ) against both E. coli and S. areaus ATCC 6358.Extracts from some soft corals showed the ability to inhibit the growth of some pathogenic bacteria indicating that it could be used for medical purposes.