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Wireless body area networks (WBANs) assemble multiple transceiver nodes in, on, or around a patient's body to transmit physiological signals to the sink node and further send it to the medical personnel via a medical server. WBANs a sensor network that is characterized as energy-dependent. Due to this finite nature, the deployment of intelligent utilization is needed. Quality of service (QoS) is another area that needs rapt attention to receive exactly what was sent from the source node to the destination node and throughput. Critical data transmission is characterized by abnormal data status that requires an urgent response from the medical personnel without delay to save the patient's life. In this review article, we propose a review of critical data transmission in wireless body area networks. However, most past articles in this line focus more on energy-efficient, security and privacy, quality of the links, throughput, network maximization, and so on. None of them looks into the direction of transmitting critical data directly to the sink node without multi-hopping of the physiological signals between intermediate nodes, which wastes the time of transmission to save patient life. This disparity between these scholars motivates us to fill the gap between them. This review article briefly discussed the state-of-the-art critical data transmission in WBANs alongside the WBANs architecture and implementation. Furthermore, a pragmatic approach to determining the threshold's degree of critical data index sensed during transmission was also considered.

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are an integral part of a Wireless sensor network, where sensor nodes are strategically placed in the human body to sense physiological signals and transmit them to the medical personnel via server for medical observations. Every sensor node in WBANs has a general limitation in energy efficiency, end-to-end delay, residual energy, etc. Also, the high energy consumption in WBANs is mainly due to the number of hops covered during physiological signal transmission. This work developed a hop-distance scenario to address these challenges and improve on what others have done. It buffered traffic estimation schemes to minimize end-to-end delay and the total network energy efficiency. This work minimizes end-to-end delay dual-sink cluster-based routing in WBANs by improving the existing dual-sink-sink cluster-based scheme (iDSCB). The simulation result shows that the Minimization of end-to-end delay of the improved dual-sink cluster-based (iDSCB) enhanced the performance of the current article DSCB in terms of end-to-end delay and residual energy by 3.15% and 8.88%, respectively.

WBAN comprises multiple sensor nodes strategically located on patients' bodies. They collect physiological signals from a patient under medical observation and transmit them to the medical personnel for further analysis via a medical server. These sensor nodes are energy-dependent. The challenges associated with WBAN are the power source, delay, and so on. Since their energy source is derived from rechargeable batteries, it is impossible to stop the network operation to replace the battery. Past articles concentrated more on the problem of enhancing network delay and throughput. However, they did not look into the area of TDMA and CCA schemes to improve their work. This brings their work into network energy degradation, which reduces their throughput. This article implements Enhancing throughput cluster-based DSCB by improving the existing Dual-sink clustering approach (DSCB). The simulation result depicted that the Enhanced throughput of iDSCB improved the performance of the current work DSCB in terms of throughput and End-to-End Delay by 6.60% and 3.14%, respectively.

Abstract: The use of herbal remedies for medicinal purposes is becoming more popular around the world. As a result, plants have become viable treatment options for a variety of diseases. Garcinia kola (bitter kola) is a perennially grown plant in the Guttiferae family that has been evaluated and reported to have numerous health-promoting properties. Kolaviron is a biflavanoid and major phytochemical found in Garcinia kola that includes Garcinia Biflavanoid-1 (GB-1), kolaflavanone, and Garcinia Biflavanoid-2 (GB-2). It is obtained as a fraction extracted from Garcinia kola. Kolaviron's pharmacological properties include anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, ameliorative, anti-asthmatic, anti-cancer, anti-malarial, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, anti-atherogenic, neuroprotective, anti-diabetic, and anti-amnesic properties. Kolaviron is recommended for use in clinical settings because it has been shown to have a high therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials. The purpose of this review is to assess the therapeutic efficacy of kolaviron.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The management of diabetes over the years has involved the use of herbal plants, which are now attracting interest. We assessed the antidiabetic properties of aqueous extract of C. purpureus shoots (AECPS) and the mechanism of action on pancreatic ß-cell dysfunction.Methods: This study was conducted using Thirty-six 36) male Wistar rats. The animals were divided into six equal groups (n = 6) and treatment was performed over 14 days. To induce diabetes in the rats, a single dose of 65 mg/kg body weight of alloxan was administered intraperitoneal along with 5% glucose. HPLC analysis was carried out to identified potential compounds in the extract. In vitro tests α-amylase, and α-glucosidase were analyzed. Body weight and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were measured. Biochemical parameters, such as serum insulin, liver glycogen, hexokinase, glucose-6-phosphate (G6P), fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (F-1,6-BP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-ĸB), were analyzed. Additionally, mRNA expressions of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT), B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were each evaluated.Results: This in vitro study showed inhibitory potency of Cenchrus purpureus extract (AECPS) as compared with the positive controls. AECPS showed a gradual decrease in alloxan-induced increases in FBG, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL-c), G6P, F-1,6-BP, malondialdehyde (MDA), IL-6, TNF-α, and NF-ĸB and increased alloxan-induced decreases in liver glycogen, hexokinase, and high density lipoprotein (HDL-c). The diabetic control group exhibited pancreatic dysfunction as evidenced by the reduction in serum insulin, homeostasis model assessment of ß-cell function (HOMA-β), expressions of PI3K/AKT, Bcl-2, and PCNA combined with an elevation in homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) revealed 3-O-rutinoside, ellagic acid, catechin, rutin, and kaempferol in AECPS.Conclusion: AECPS showed efficient ameliorative actions against alloxan-induced pancreatic dysfunction, oxidative stress suppression as well as, inflammation, and apoptosis via the activation of PI3K/AKT signaling pathways.

The treatment of diabetes involves the use of herbal plants, attracting interest in their cost-effectiveness and efficacy. An aqueous extract of Persea americana seeds (AEPAS) was explored in this study as a possible therapeutic agent in rats with diabetes mellitus. The induction of diabetes in the rats was achieved by injecting 65 mg/kg body weight (BWt) of alloxan along with 5% glucose. This study was conducted using thirty-six (36) male Wistar rats. The animals were divided into 6 equal groups, (n = 6) and treated for 14 days. In vitro assays for total flavonoid, phenols, FRAP, DPPH, NO, α-amylase, and α-glucosidase, were performed. Biochemical indices fasting blood sugar (FBS), BWt, serum insulin, liver hexokinase, G6P, FBP, liver glycogen, IL-6, TNF-α, and NF-ĸB in the serum, were investigated as well as the mRNA expressions of PCNA, Bcl2, PI3K/Akt in the liver and pancreas. The in vitro analyses showed the potency of AEPAS against free radicals and its enzyme inhibitory potential as compared with the positive controls. AEPAS showed a marked decrease in alloxan-induced increases in FBG, TG, LDL-c, G6P, F-1, 6-BP, MDA, IL-6, TNF-α, and NF-ĸB and increased alloxan-induced decreases in liver glycogen, hexokinase, and HDL-c. The diabetic control group exhibited pancreatic dysfunction as evidenced by a reduction in serum insulin, HOMA-β, expressions of PI3K/AKT, Bcl-2, and PCNA combined with an elevation in HOMA-IR. The HPLC revealed luteolin and myricetin to be the phytochemicals that were present in the highest concentration in AEPAS. The outcome of this research showed that the administration of AEPAS can promote the activation of the PI3K/AkT pathway and the inhibition of β-cell death, which may be the primary mechanism by which AEPAS promotes insulin sensitivity and regulates glycolipid metabolism.

Vascularization is fundamental to the growth and spread of tumor cells to distant sites. As a consequence, angiogenesis, the sprouting of new blood vessels from existing ones, is a characteristic trait of cancer. In 1971, Judah Folkman postulated that tumour growth is angiogenesis dependent and that by cutting off blood supply, a neoplastic lesion could be potentially starved into remission. Decades of research have been devoted to understanding the role that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays in tumor angiogenesis, and it has been identified as a significant pro-angiogenic factor that is frequently overexpressed within a tumor mass. Today, anti-VEGF drugs such as Sunitinib, Sorafenib, Axitinib, Tanibirumab, and Ramucirumab have been approved for the treatment of advanced and metastatic cancers. However, anti-angiogenic therapy has turned out to be more complex than originally thought. The failure of this therapeutic option calls for a reevaluation of VEGF as the major target in anti-angiogenic cancer therapy. The call for reassessment is based on two rationales: first, tumour blood vessels are abnormal, disorganized, and leaky; this not only prevents optimal drug delivery but it also promotes hypoxia and metastasis; secondly, tumour growth or regrowth might be blood vessel dependent and not angiogenesis dependent as tumour cells can acquire blood vessels via non-angiogenic mechanisms. Therefore, a critical assessment of VEGF, VEGFRs, and their inhibitors could glean newer options such as repurposing anti-VEGF drugs as vascular normalizing agents to enhance drug delivery of immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Various MAC-protocol has been adopted over the years in Telemedicine, also known as Wireless Body Area Network system (WBANs), to enhance the proper transmission of the busy congestion of data message. However, these techniques could not coordinate traffic congestion in the receiver node, which could make the receiver nodes experience an "active mode" most of the time compared to the transmit node. This is dangerous to the network system because of uncontrollable energy usage. In this protocol, the intelligent sensor is strategically located around or implanted in the human body for the collection of human body physiological parameters. WBANs experienced some limitations such as latency and excessive consumption of energy which may hinder the lifetime maximization of the system if not taken care of properly. In this work, four elements are responsible for carrying-out only traffic data, and they are implemented by using the highest priority sensor nodes within a short period used for communicating to the Buffer Traffic Condition (BTC) discussed and the traffic measurement to mitigate active-mode interval in the receiving phase of the improved superframe structure of IEEE 802.15.6. Furthermore, meaningful information about the superframe to mitigate the busy traffic and enhance this protocol was also discussed as its possible functions with the help of an adaptive system. No article depicts the analysis of the work on the dynamic buffer traffic condition scheme, and this proposed scheme can improve on the existing one.

This study investigates the antidiabetic effect of a ketogenic diet (KD) on sucrose-induced insulin resistance in the fruit fly model. The fruit flies were divided and grouped into four: Group A, B, C, and D, representing the control, high-sucrose diet (HSD), KD, and HSD + KD, respectively. The administration of the various treatments to the groups proceeded for 7 days. The flies were thereafter immobilized, homogenized, and the homogenates used for biochemical parameters determination. This includes glucose concentration, antioxidant status, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and protein concentration. There was a significant increase (p < .05) in weight gain, glucose concentration, TG, HMG-CoA reductase activity, TC, and lipid peroxidation status of the HSD group compared with the control and KD groups. The antioxidant enzymes measured (superoxide dismutase, catalase, and reduced glutathione) and protein concentrations were repressed significantly (p < .05) in the HD groups but significantly elevated (p < .05) in the KD, HSD + KD, and the control groups. The KD improved biochemical parameters altered during the onset of sucrose-induced insulin resistance. With further research on this, KD may emerge as the much-awaited treatment option for diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) with almost reduced toxicity concerns. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Novel KD are sources of dietary phytocompounds with proven antioxidant activities. The antidiabetic activity of the KD was investigated. The results showed that the KD proves to serve as a better effective antidiabetic option in Drosophila melanogaster. The observed results could provide the potential application of the KD as an alternative therapy for diabetes management.

This study determines the contraceptive activity of Allium sativa (Garlic) and Allium cepa (Onion) juices on reproductive output and development of Drosophila melanogaster. The fruit flies were divided and grouped into 5, group A serves as the control, group B serves as the onion group, group C serves as the garlic group, group D serves as the onion + garlic group, while group E serves as the standard contraceptive group. Biochemical parameters measured were superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase (CAT), Glutathione-S-transferase (GST), malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride, mating test, and negative geotaxis. There was a significant reduction in the levels of MDA in onion, garlic, onion + garlic groups when compared with the control, in contrast, a significant increase was observed in SOD, CAT, and GST activities. Furthermore, there was a significant reduction in nitric oxide levels in garlic, onion + garlic extract with a corresponding increase in the standard contraceptive group. There was a significant reduction in the concentration of TC and HMG-CoA in garlic and standard contraceptive groups when compared with the control while triglyceride revealed a considerable increase in the garlic group when compared with the control. The mating test showed there was a considerable reduction in the onion, garlic, onion + garlic, and standard contraceptive when compared with the control. Taken together, Allium sativum proved to serve as a better contraceptive in D. melanogaster as a possible effective option for contraceptives, which is further, supported by their strong antioxidant activity. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: A. cepa and A. sativum are sources of dietary phytocompounds with proven antioxidant activities. The contraceptive activity of A. cepa and A. sativum juice extract was investigated. The results showed that A. cepa and A. sativum and their combination prove to serve as a better effective option for contraceptives in D. melanogaster. The observed results could provide the potential application of A. cepa and A. sativum as an alternative therapy for contraceptives.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is one of the main challenges occurring among men worldwide, and is characterised by trouble getting or keeping steady erection during sexual intercourse. Various drugs like sildenafil, a phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor (PDE-5) are freely available in the pharmacies, though normally associated with several adverse. This study was designed to assess the molecular relations obtainable between catechin, garcinal, garcinoic acid and d-tocotrienol compounds isolated from Garcinia kola and targeted receptor linked to ED. These processes include the molecular docking of catechin, garcinal, garcinoic acid, d-tocotrienol, and sildenafil to receptor: PDE-5 via AutoDock Vina. Following the docking of catechin, garcinal, garcinoic acid and d-tocotrienol with the PDE-5-receptor protein, we observed that all are protein inhibitors with garcinoic acid showing better binding affinity -10.0 kcal/mol with PDE-5 receptor relevant to ED. Hence, the results provided insights into the development of garcinoic acid as a replacement for present ED management, with further analysis worth considering.

Neurodegenerative diseases, for example Alzheimer’s, are perceived as driven by hereditary, cellular, and multifaceted biochemical actions. Numerous plant products, for example flavonoids, are documented in studies for having the ability to pass the blood-brain barrier and moderate the development of such illnesses. Computer-aided drug design (CADD) has achieved importance in the drug discovery world, innovative developments in the aspects of structure identification and characterization, bio-computational science, and molecular biology have added to the preparation of new medications towards these ailments. In this study we evaluated nine flavonoid compounds identified from three medicinal plants, namely T. diversifolia, B. sapida, and I. gabonensis for their inhibitory role on acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity, using pharmacophore modeling, auto-QSAR prediction, and molecular studies, in comparison with standard drugs. The results indicated that the pharmacophore models produced from structures of AChE, BChE and MAO could identify the active compounds, with a recuperation rate of the actives found near 100% in the complete ranked decoy database. Moreso, the robustness of the virtual screening method was accessed by well-established methods including enrichment factor (EF), receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), Boltzmann-enhanced discrimination of receiver operating characteristic (BEDROC), and area under accumulation curve (AUAC). Most notably, the compounds’ pIC50 values were predicted by a machine learning-based model generated by the AutoQSAR algorithm. The generated model was validated to affirm its predictive model. The best models achieved for AChE, BChE and MAO were models kpls_radial_17 (R2 = 0.86 and Q2 = 0.73), pls_38 (R2 = 0.77 and Q2 = 0.72), kpls_desc_44 (R2 = 0.81 and Q2 = 0.81) and these externally validated models were utilized to predict the bioactivities of the lead compounds. The binding affinity results of the ligands against the three selected targets revealed that luteolin displayed the highest affinity score of −9.60 kcal/mol, closely followed by apigenin and ellagic acid with docking scores of −9.60 and −9.53 kcal/mol, respectively. The least binding affinity was attained by gallic acid (−6.30 kcal/mol). The docking scores of our standards were −10.40 and −7.93 kcal/mol for donepezil and galanthamine, respectively. The toxicity prediction revealed that none of the flavonoids presented toxicity and they all had good absorption parameters for the analyzed targets. Hence, these compounds can be considered as likely leads for drug improvement against the same.

Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), is considered being a multifaceted disorder that presents a major therapeutic problem. Despite the widespread efforts in managing T2DM, drug discovery therapies remain insufficient. There are several new and vital antidiabetic drug agents under examination of many research clusters. Computational tools have influenced drug discovery at several levels. Hence, this study aimed to explain the molecular interactions via an in silico simulation approach between Aframomum melegueta seed-derived compounds as antidiabetic agents against carbohydrate metabolism regulatory target proteins (DPP-4, GSK-3, and GLP-1) involved in T2DM. Pharmacophore modeling, Auto-QSAR, induced-fit docking (IFD) simulation, free energy of binding affinity through the MM-GBSA method, and molecular docking were used to sort out the compounds as well as determining their drug ability. The results revealed the pharmacophore models created from the structures of DPP-4, GSK-3, and GLP-1 could determine the lead candidates with a restorative ability rate found near 100% of the actives in the comprehensive decoy database ranking. We predicted the pIC50 values of the compounds via a learning-based machine that was created by auto-QSAR. We authenticated the created model to confirm its analytical procedure. The greatest models attained for DPP-4, GSK-3, and GLP-1 were kpls_desc_35 (R2 = 0.73 and Q2 = 0.73), kpls_desc_4 (R2 = 0.72 and Q2 = 0.66), and kpls_radical_14 (R2 = 0.88 and Q2 = 0.64) and these confirmed models were used to predict the bioactivities of the hit candidates. While several isolated bioactive compounds from Aframomum melegueta revealed a better binding affinity score, binding free energy along with observance of RO5, only three compounds (ethinyl estradiol, 8-gingerol, and zingerone) revealed a more satisfactory pIC50. Thus, these compounds can be novel candidates for drug discovery in diabetes treatment.

This work focuses on the clustering in Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). Recently, it was found that less attention was given to Line-of-Sight (LoS) and Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) clustering in WBAN. Past works on LoS clustering WBAN consider the problem of enhancing the network throughput and end-to-end delay of the network. However, the problem of necessary hop count for packet transmission has not been considered. The non-consideration of necessary nodes hop count degrades the performance of cluster-based WBAN as throughput of the network is reduced in addition to high end-to-end delay. This work develops a hop count aware WBAN for enhancing the performance of body nodes called improved Dual Sink Approach using Clustering in Body Area Network (iDSCB). The simulation results depicted that the hop distance criterion of iDCSB improved the performance of WBAN in terms of end-to-end delay and throughput by 3.16% and 6.59%, respectively.

As the number of casualties and confirmed cases of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) gradually decreases, several countries across the globe are gradually trying to ease their society to some semblance of normalcy. However, to avoid systems that restrict social interactions in indoor environments, it is necessary to adopt solutions that redefine the ethos of social interactions within indoor environments. To achieve this, technology-based contact tracing (TCT) has been adopted as one of the systems used to mitigate the spread of the outbreak. On this premise, this review discusses co-location technologies suitable for indoor environments, with a specific focus on co-location solutions whose implementation costs are affordable, scalable, and whose access conditions utilize existing infrastructures that are available in off-the-shelf user equipment. This review focuses on wireless fidelity (WiFi) as a co-location technology adopted for TCT. On this premise, the limitations around adoption and recommendations, which highlight improvements, are compactly discussed around WiFi. In this context, a future research direction - on which this review is based - is compactly discussed.