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In the last decade, injectable hydrogels have attracted a lot of attention due to their excellent functional properties in the field of drug delivery for precise, non-invasive and focused tissue locations. Therefore, designing drug delivery systems (DDS) responsive to hydrogel stimuli to release a drug to an external stimulus with various advantages, can be very challenging. Due to their biocompatibility, mucosal adhesion, and hemostatic activity, chitosan (Chitosan)-based hydrogels offer a lot of potential for tissue engineering and drug delivery. It can be difficult to manage the structure of these stimuli-responsive CS hydrogels or they may require additional crosslinking agents, such as hydrogels with dual pH and thermo-responsiveness. Therefore, it is crucial to create these hydrogels for medicinal applications., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Garshasbi, Salehi, Naghib, Ghorbanzadeh and Zhang.)

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal B-cell malignancy characterized by the accumulation of neoplastic proliferation of a plasma cell in the bone marrow that produces a monoclonal immunoglobulin. The immune checkpoint inhibitors against programmed death-1/programmed death-1 ligand and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 axis have demonstrated appropriate anticancer activity in several solid tumors and liquid cancers, and are rapidly transforming the practice of medical oncology. However, in a high percentage of patients, the efficacy of immune checkpoints blockade remains limited due to innate or primary resistance. Moreover, the malignancies progress in many patients due to acquired or secondary resistance, even after the clinical response to immune checkpoints' blockade. The evidence shows that multiple tumor-intrinsic and tumor-extrinsic factors and alterations in signaling pathways are involved in primary and secondary resistance to immune checkpoints blockade. Improved identification of intrinsic and extrinsic factors and mechanisms of resistance or response to immune checkpoints blockade may not only provide novel prognostic or predictive biomarkers but also guide the optimal combination/sequencing of immune checkpoint blockade therapy in the clinic. Here, we review the underlying biology and role of immune checkpoints blockade in patients with MM. Furthermore, we review the host and tumor-related factor effects on immune checkpoints blockade in MM immunotherapy., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in the world. Genetic polymorphisms in Interleukin (IL) genes are one of the most important risk factors in BC. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of rs1946518 C/A polymorphism in the promoter region of the IL-18 gene and BC risk in Iranian women. In this case-control study, we recruited 140 women with BC as a case group and 140 age and ethnically matched women as healthy controls from East Azerbaijan, Tabriz in Iran. The genomic DNA was extracted using a salting-out method from peripheral blood leukocytes. Genotyping was performed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). The genotype distribution in BC patients was 37.86% CC, 47.14% CA, and 15.00% AA, whereas in healthy controls these were 40.72% CC, 42.85% CA, and 16.43% AA. Statistical analysis showed that the genotype and allele frequencies of IL-18 rs1946518 C/A polymorphism were not significantly different between BC patients and healthy controls (p>0.05). The only significant difference between cases and controls was related to family history (p=0.023). In conclusion, our study indicated that IL-18 rs1946518 C/A polymorphism was not associated with BC in the Iranian women population. However, more studies on different races and geographic areas are required to determine the exact role of rs1946518 C/A polymorphism in prognosis, diagnosis, and risk of BC.