Cardiac fibrosis describes the inappropriate proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts (CFs), leading to accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins in the cardiac muscle, which is found in many pathophysiological heart conditions. A range of molecular components and cellular pathways, have been implicated in its pathogenesis. In this review, we focus on the TGF-β and WNT signaling pathways, and their mutual interaction, which have emerged as important factors involved in cardiac pathophysiology. The molecular and cellular processes involved in the initiation and progression of cardiac fibrosis are summarized. We focus on TGF-β and WNT signaling in cardiac fibrosis, ECM production, and myofibroblast transformation. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are one of the main players in the regulation of multiple pathways and cellular processes. MicroRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and circular long non-coding RNAs can all interact with the TGF-β/WNT signaling axis to affect cardiac fibrosis. A better understanding of these processes may lead to new approaches for diagnosis and treatment of many cardiac conditions.

Melanoma is known as an aggressive tumor which shows an increasing incidence and poor prognosis in the metastatic phase. Hence, it seems that diagnosis and effective management (including early diagnosis, choosing of the effective therapeutic platform, caring, and training of patients for early detection) are major aspects of melanoma therapy. Early detection of melanoma is a key point for melanoma therapy.There are various diagnosis options such as assessing of biopsy, imaging techniques, and biomarkers (i.e., several proteins, polymorphism, and liquid biopsy). Among the various biomarkers, assessing circulating tumor cells, cell-free DNAs, cell-free RNAs, and microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as powerful diagnosis tools for melanoma patients. Deregulations of these molecules are associated with melanoma pathogenesis. After detection of melanoma, choosing of effective therapeutic regimen is a key step for recovery of melanoma patients. Several studies indicated that various therapeutic approaches including surgery, immunotherapy, systematic therapy, radiation therapy and antibodies therapy could be used as potential therapeutic candidates for melanoma therapy. Caring for melanoma patients is one of the important components of melanoma therapy. Caring and training for melanoma patients could contribute to better monitoring of patients in response to various therapeutic options. Here, we summarized various diagnosis approaches such as assessing biopsy, imaging techniques, and utilization of various biomarkers (i.e., proteins, CTCs, cfDNAs, and miRNAs) as a diagnostic biomarker for detection and monitoring patients with melanoma. Moreover, we highlighted various therapeutic options and caring aspects in patients with melanoma.Melanoma is the fifth most common malignancy in men and the sixth in the women (Siegel et al., 2012). The 5-year survival rate is only 15% for remote metastasis, and a very poor cure rate (American Cancer Society, 2012). Owing to the poor prognosis and the lack of effective treatment options for patients with metastases, much attempt has been made to discover the etiology and pathogenesis of melanoma. Both environmental agents and genetic capacity appear to have an important role in malignancy progression (Miller & Mihm, 2006). The associated risk factors of progression into skin cancer are sun exposure (Gilchrest et al., 1999), the existence of atypical nevi (Hayward, 2003;Tucker et al., 2002), skin pigmentation phenotype, and personal and family histories of malignancy (Gandini et al., 2005; J Cell Physiol. 2019;234:3307-3320.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jcp

The results of our study indicated a higher rate of high-risk HPV infection among patients with endometriosis. The findings could provide us baseline information for future studies regarding the pathogenesis of endometriosis and the role of viral infection and their possible impact on future cancer development in this group of patients.

Cancer is the main cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, excluding infectious disease. Because of their lack of specificity in chemotherapy agents are used for cancer treatment, these agents have severe systemic side effects, and gradually lose their therapeutic effects because most cancers become multidrug resistant. Platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) are relatively new agents that are being tested in cancer therapy. This review covers the various methods for the preparation and physicochemical characterization of PtNPs. PtNPs have been shown to possess some intrinsic anticancer activity, probably due to their antioxidant action, which slows tumor growth. Targeting ligands can be attached to functionalized metal PtNPs to improve their tumor targeting ability. PtNPs-based therapeutic systems can enable the controlled release of drugs, to improve the efficiency and reduce the side effects of cancer therapy. Pt-based materials play a key role in clinical research. Thus, the diagnostic and medical industries are exploring the possibility of using PtNPs as a next-generation anticancer therapeutic agent. Although, biologically prepared nanomaterials exhibit high efficacy with low concentrations, several factors still need to be considered for clinical use of PtNPs such as the source of raw materials, stability, solubility, the method of production, biodistribution, accumulation, controlled release, cell-specific targeting, and toxicological issues to human beings. The development of PtNPs as an anticancer agent is one of the most valuable approaches for cancer treatment. The future of PtNPs in biomedical applications holds great promise, especially in the area of disease diagnosis, early detection, cellular and deep tissue imaging, drug/gene delivery, as well as multifunctional therapeutics.

No abstract

No abstract

We herein describe a case series of children with SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) complicated with acute intracardiac thrombosis. The diagnosis of COVID-19 was confirmed through the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Transthoracic echocardiography of patients revealed large intracardiac mobile masses resected successfully via cardiac surgery. The underlying mechanisms of this thrombus in the COVID-19 infection may be attributed to the hypercoagulation and inflammatory state of the disease incurred by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

No abstract