Egypt Nanotechnology Center

This study investigated the renoprotective potential of Nano-Cilostazol against cisplatin (CIS)-induced renal injury in male rats and explored its molecular mechanisms. Our results showed that Nano-Cilostazol has a favorable physicochemical characteristic, including a mean particle size of approximately 101 nm, narrow polydispersity, and high stability. FTIR analysis indicated successful drug entrapment, preserving functional groups and enhancing hydrogen bonding. Docking analysis showed that cilostazol had stronger binding affinities than disulfiram against seven acute kidney injury-related targets. Interaction profiling confirmed stable binding through hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic, and π-interactions with BAX, ASC, GSDMD, KIM-1, JAK2, NLRP3, and miRNA-155. In vivo, CIS administration led to marked renal dysfunction, showing up as significant elevations in serum urea, creatinine, cystatin-C, CRP, and NGAL which indicated by severe histopathological damage. Co-treatment with Nano-Cilostazol significantly lessened renal functional impairment biochemically and histopatologically. Nano-Cilostazol markedly reduced lipid peroxidation and oxidized glutathione while also restoring antioxidant defenses like superoxide dismutase and catalase, with total and reduced glutathione. Additionally, Nano-Cilostazol attenuated renal inflammation, inhibiting NF-κB activation, lowering pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-1β), and downregulating inflammatory and injury-related genes. CIS-triggered apoptotic signaling was also mitigated, shown by increased caspase-3 and BAX expression with downregulation of BCL-2. Nano-Cilostazol significantly inhibited apoptosis and pyroptosis (NLRP3, ASC, GSDMD)-related pathways, modulated JAK2/STAT3 signaling, and downregulated miRNA-155 expression. In conclusion, Nano-Cilostazol offers potent protection against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity.

588 Background: Biliary tract carcinomas (BTC) affect about 8,000 people annually across the U.S. and present with dismal prognoses. Disparities in mortality trends across the last two decades are not well-characterized. Methods: A retrospective analysis of death certificate data from the CDC WONDER database was performed for adults ≥25 years from 1999 to 2023 (ICD-10 codes C23, C24.0, C24.1, C24.9). Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) per 100,000 were standardized to the 2000 U.S. population. Data was stratified by age groups, race, gender, and census regions. Trends were evaluated using Joinpoint. Results: From 1999 to 2023, 103,589 deaths resulted from BTC. Overall AAMR declined from 2.18 in 1999 to 1.85 in 2023 (AAPC: -0.858, 95% CI: -1.139 to -0.576), decreasing significantly from 1999 to 2008 (APC-2.507) with a non-significant rise from 2008 onwards. Women consistently exhibited higher AAMRs (AAMR:1.958, AAPC: -0.931) than men (AAMR:1.745, AAPC: -0.763). 65+ years individuals exhibited highest death rates (AAMR: 7.382 , AAPC:-1.176). American Indians had the highest AAMR (2.295) but a significant decline (AAPC: -3.829) compared to Hispanic (AAMR: 2.448) and Black individuals (AAMR: 2.144). Metropolitan areas had higher AAMR (1.84) than non-metropolitan areas (1.81). Conclusions: The steady rise in BTC-related mortality from 2008 onwards with persistent demographic and temporal disparities underscores the need for timely and targeted interventions. Deaths and AAMRs per 100,000 for mortality trends related to BTC in adults in the U.S. between 1999 and 2023. Variable Deaths (n) AAMR (95% CI) Overall 103,589 1.852 (2.18-1.85) Male 41,713 1.745 (1.96-1.74) Female 61,876 1.958 (2.37-1.93) Non-Hispanic American Indian 840 2.295 (4.15-0.9) Non-Hispanic Asian 4,600 2.042 (2.59-1.84) Non-Hispanic Black 11,727 2.144 (2.2-2.19) Non-Hispanic White 86,344 1.811 (2.17-1.79) Hispanic 10,823 2.448 (3.32-2.19)

The purpose of our study was to investigate the neuroprotective effects of Nigella sativa (NSt) ethanolic extract (200 mg/kg) and/or Telmisartan(Tel) (10 mg/kg) against fipronil (Fip) (9.7 mg/kg)-induced neurobehavioral toxicity in rats, besides exploring the underlying mechanistic signaling pathways. Our results showed that the phytochemical analysis of NSt ethanolic extract by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS) revealed 43 compounds, mainly alkaloids, phenolics, terpenoids, fatty acids and flavonoids. While in our in vivo model of neurotoxicity, the combination of NSt and Tel effectively restored neurobehavioral alterations in rotarod, open field and T-maze tests. Additionally, the cotreatments of NSt and Tel significantly decreased acetylcholine, tumor necrosis factors-α, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, MDA, BAX, P62, LC3B and IBA-1. Conversely, they significantly upregulated GABA, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and antiapoptotic BCl2, P70S6K and miRNA137-5P without significant change in mTOR expression in hippocampus. Also, they ameliorated pathological alterations as detected by H&E staining, reduced glial fibrillary acidic protein and caspase-3 immunoreactivity. Electron microscopic examination of the combination group revealed the restoration of nuclear and mitochondrial structures with less glial activation and multivesicular bodies. In conclusion, the combination of NSt and Tel are notable agents in mitigating hippocampal neuronal necrosis and astrogliosis and reduced Fip-induced neurotoxicity.

Correction for ‘Room temperature sensing of CO2 using C3-symmetry pyridinium-based porous ionic polymers with triazine or benzene cores’ by Maha A. Alshubramy et al., RSC Adv., 2025, 15, 3317–3330, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4RA07062C.

Antibiotic alternatives are urgently needed to enhance growth performance, maintain gut ecosystem equilibrium, and support the immune system of broilers. Pomegranate peel (PP) by-product comprises 50% of the fruit and possesses antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, as well as fungicidal aspects. This study specifically aimed to evaluate, over a 35-day feeding period, the impact of dietary inclusion of graded levels of pomegranate peel by-products (0.1%, 0.3%, and 0.5%) on growth performance, carcass traits, antioxidants, gene expression of intestinal markers, and cecal microbial balance in broiler chickens to determine the most effective fortification level for optimizing health and productivity. A total of 240 male one-day Cobb500® broiler chicks were randomly split up into four distinct groups, with 3 replications (20 chicks/replicate). G1, the control group, was offered a base diet. The fortified groups, G2, G3, and G4, were offered a base diet enriched with various concentrations of PP by-products (0.1%, 0.3%, and 0.5%), respectively. The chicks offered a diet enriched with 0.5% PP achieved a substantial (p < 0.05) improvement in final BW development, cumulative BWG, FCR, as well as percentage of dressing yield, breast, and bursa versus the control group. Serum TAC, CAT were also jejunalGPx levels were also substantially elevated (P < 0.05) in PP-fortified groups versus the control group. Furthermore, mRNA expression of FABP2 was significantly upregulated in all PP-enriched groups compared to the control group. In the G4 (0.5% PP) enriched group, the greatest expression level was registered. However, there was no discernible variation in IL-1β across groups. Incorporation of 0.5% PP by-products significantly balanced cecal microbial composition, exhibited by a notable elevation in Lactobacillus population and a reduction in coliform counts. In conclusion, broiler diets supplemented with PP by-product, especially at 0.5%, maximize productivity and efficiency through fostering BWG, FCR, antioxidant status, and balanced gut health biomarkers.

Abstract Detecting fraudulent trading activities in the FinTech sector presents significant challenges due to the highly dynamic nature of financial markets and the rapid adaptation strategies employed by fraudsters. Conventional machine learning techniques, especially when trained on imbalanced datasets, often exhibit classification bias toward the majority class (legitimate transactions), reducing their ability to identify fraudulent behaviors. To address this limitation, we introduce a hybrid memetic-ABC framework that combines Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) sampling for global exploration with memetic local refinement to generate high-quality synthetic minority-class samples guided by feature importance. ABC ensures broad coverage of potential fraudulent patterns, while the memetic refinement fine-tunes synthetic samples and feature subsets to enhance discriminative power, capturing subtle anomalies in transaction amounts, locations, and timing. The framework further incorporates an anomaly detection module that constructs behavioral profiles for traders using historical transaction data, clustering them based on similar trading patterns. This enables identification of key indicators of potential fraud, such as sudden volume fluctuations, irregular transaction timings, and deviations from behavioral norms. For real-time monitoring and scalable deployment in decentralized environments, the system is extended into a Distributed Intrusion Detection System (DIDS) architecture, simultaneously detecting transactional anomalies and network-level threats, including DDoS attacks and unauthorized access attempts. By correlating anomalous trading patterns with DIDS-generated alerts, the approach achieves enhanced detection accuracy and robustness against complex fraud scenarios. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art techniques, achieving approximately 10% improvement in accuracy.