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Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common malignancies of the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). HNSCC is recognized as the eighth most commonly occurring cancer globally in men. It is essential to distinguish between cancers arising in the head and neck regions due to significant differences in their etiologies, treatment approaches, and prognoses. As the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset is available in HNSCC, the survival analysis prognosis of OSCC patients based on the TCGA dataset for discovering gene expression-based prognostic biomarkers is limited. To address this paucity, we aimed to provide comprehensive evidence by recruiting studies that have reported new biomarkers/signatures to establish a prognostic model to predict the survival of OSCC patients. Using PubMed search, we have identified 34 studies that have been using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)-based Cox regression analyses to establish signature prognosis that related to different pathways in OSCC from the past 4 years. Our review was focused on summarizing these signatures and implications for targeted therapy using FDA-approved drugs. Furthermore, we conducted an analysis of the LASSO Cox regression gene signatures. Our findings revealed 13 studies that correlated a greater number of regulatory T cells (Tregs) cells in protective gene signatures with increased recurrence-free and overall survival rates. Conversely, two studies displayed an opposing trend in cases of OSCC. We will also explore how the dysregulation of these signatures impacts immune status, promoting tumor immune evasion or, conversely, enhancing immune surveillance. Overall, this review will provide new insight for future anti-cancer therapies based on the potential gene that is associated with poor prognosis in OSCC.

Oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) are a group of lesions carrying the risk of developing into cancer. The gold standard to predict which lesions are more likely to undergo malignant transformation is the presence of dysplasia histologically. However, not all dysplastic lesions progress, and non-dysplastic lesions may also undergo malignant transformation. Oral carcinogenesis is a complex molecular process that involves somatic alterations and the deregulation of transcriptions, protein expression, and metabolite levels. Metabolomics, which is the scientific study of metabolites, has emerged as a promising high-throughput approach to investigate the metabolic changes of small molecules in biological pathways. In this review, we summarize the data relating to the metabolomic profiling of OPMDs, which will help elucidate the complex process of oral carcinogenesis. Furthermore, we identify that among all metabolites, citrate, pyruvate, and glutamate may serve as potential biomarkers for oral leukoplakia (OLK). Notably, metformin and gluconate have been shown to target glutamate and citrate, respectively, in cancer cells. Based on these findings, we propose that targeting these metabolites in patients with OPMD could be a promising therapeutic strategy to mitigate OPMD progression and potentially reduce the risk of malignant transformation. We also discuss the limitations and future directions of metabolomics in OPMD. Understanding these important metabolites is crucial for early detection and monitoring of oral cancer progression.

Qubits based on ions trapped in linear radio-frequency traps form a successful platform for quantum computing, due to their high fidelity of operations, all-to-all connectivity, and degree of local control. In principle, there is no fundamental limit to the number of ion-based qubits that can be confined in a single 1D register. However, in practice, there are two main issues associated with long trapped-ion crystals, that stem from the “softening” of their modes of motion, upon scaling up: high heating rates of the ions’ motion and a dense motional spectrum; both impede the performance of high-fidelity qubit operations. Here, we propose a holistic, scalable architecture for quantum computing with large ion crystals that overcomes these issues. Our method relies on dynamically operated optical potentials that instantaneously segment the ion crystal into cells of a manageable size. We show that these cells behave as nearly independent quantum registers, allowing for parallel entangling gates on all cells. The ability to reconfigure the optical potentials guarantees connectivity across the full ion crystal and also enables efficient midcircuit measurements. We study the implementation of large-scale parallel multiqubit entangling gates that operate simultaneously on all cells and present a protocol to compensate for crosstalk errors, enabling full-scale usage of an extensively large register. We illustrate that this architecture is advantageous both for fault-tolerant digital quantum computation and for analog quantum simulations.

Abstract The external globus pallidus (GPe) coordinates action-selection through GABAergic projections throughout the basal ganglia. GPe arkypallidal (arky) neurons project exclusively to the dorsal striatum, which regulates goal-directed and habitual seeking. However, the role of GPe arky neurons in reward-seeking remains unknown. Here, we identified that a majority of arky neurons target the dorsolateral striatum (DLS). Using fiber photometry, we found that arky activities were higher during random interval (RI; habit) compared to random ratio (RR; goal) operant conditioning. Support vector machine analysis demonstrated that arky neuron activities have sufficient information to distinguish between RR and RI behavior. Genetic ablation of this arkyGPe→DLS circuit facilitated a shift from goal-directed to habitual behavior. Conversely, chemogenetic activation globally reduced seeking behaviors, which was blocked by systemic D1R agonism. Our findings reveal a role of this arkyGPe→DLS circuit in constraining habitual seeking in male mice, which is relevant to addictive behaviors and other compulsive disorders.

The periodontal ligament (PDL) contains a unique population of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), also known as PDL stem cells (PDLSCs). The regenerative properties of PDLSCs offer much potential for stem cell-based therapy, particularly for periodontal or bone regeneration. Aspirin (ASA) is a widely used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that has been reported to modulate a variety of diseases, such as cardiovascular, diabetes, and cancer. This review article focuses on the impacts of ASA on various stem cells. First, we will explain what constitutes PDLSCs and their derivation from periodontal tissues. Then we will discuss the mechanisms of ASA and its effect on periodontal tissues. Next, we focus on aspirin’s effects on the differentiation of various types of stem cells. Finally, we investigate the effects of ASA on growth factors that could enhance the osteoblastic potential of derived stem cells.

Evidence is limited on how the onset of health conditions affects tobacco/nicotine use. We report analyses from adults in the U.S. PATH study relating changes in established cigarette and/or e-cigarette use between Waves 1 and 4 to onset of conditions in Waves 2 or 3.

Hotel Penaga is a heritage-listed boutique hotel in the Unesco World Heritage Site in Penang, Malaysia. It was built in the 1920s and renovated into a 45-room hotel in 2008. Hotel Penaga was the first heritage-listed renovated hotel to be awarded Gold by the Green Building Index. Currently, Hotel Penaga is managed by Vouk Hotel Management. Hotel Penaga is committed to environmental sustainability and emphasizes destination marketing in its hotel operations. Achieving a healthy occupancy rate for the hotel is one of the biggest challenges for Hotel Penaga, especially after the pandemic.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a type of cancer that arises from the epithelium lining of the oral cavity, hypopharynx, oropharynx, and larynx. Despite the advancement of current treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, the overall survival rate of patients afflicted with HNSCC remains poor. The reasons for these poor outcomes are due to late diagnoses and patient-acquired resistance to treatment. Natural products have been extensively explored as a safer and more acceptable alternative therapy to the current treatments, with numerous studies displaying their potential against HNSCC. This review highlights preclinical studies in the past 5 years involving natural products against HNSCC and explores the signaling pathways altered by these products. This review also addresses challenges and future directions of natural products as chemotherapeutic and chemoprevention agents against HNSCC.

Abstract The production of hydrogen to be used as an alternative renewable energy has been widely explored. Among various methods for producing hydrogen from hydrocarbons, methane decomposition is suitable for generating hydrogen with zero greenhouse gas emissions. The use of high temperatures as a result of strong carbon and hydrogen (C–H) bonds may be reduced by utilizing a suitable catalyst with appropriate catalyst support. Catalysts based on transition metals are preferable in terms of their activeness, handling, and low cost in comparison with noble metals. Further development of catalysts in methane decomposition has been investigated. In this review, the recent progress on methane decomposition in terms of catalytic materials, preparation method, the physicochemical properties of the catalysts and their performance in methane decomposition were presented. The formation of carbon as part of the reaction was also discussed. Graphic abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide. A major risk factor for this condition is increased serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels for which statins have been successful in reducing serum LDL-C to healthy concentrations. However, patients who are statin intolerant or those who do not achieve their treatment goals while on high-intensity statin therapy, such as those with familial hypercholesterolemia, remain at risk. With the discovery of PCSK9 inhibitors, the ability to provide more aggressive treatment for patients with homozygous and heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia has increased. Ezetimibe reduces LDL-C by 15%-20% when combined with statin. 2 , 3 Protein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors have been found to achieve profound reductions in LDL-C (54%-74%) when added to statins. They have shown dramatic effects at lowering major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in high-risk patients 4 with LDL-C levels ≥70 mg/dL and can be used in populations that are statin intolerant or not at goal levels with maximally tolerated statin therapy. PCSK9 inhibitors also produce minimal side effects. Myopathy, a common side effect for patients on statins, has been rare in patients on PCSK9 inhibitors. Randomized trials have shown that reduction in LDL-C has translated to clinical benefits even in patients who have not achieved their LDL-C target.

Physical and emotional pain deteriorates the quality of well-being. Also, numerous non-invasive and invasive treatments for diagnosed diseases such as cancer medications and surgical procedures cause various types of pain. Despite the multidisciplinary approaches available to manage pain, the unmet needs for medication with minimal side effects are substantial. Especially with the surge of opioid crisis during the last decades, non-opioid analgesics may reduce life-threatening overdosing and addictive liability. Although many clinical trials supported the potential potency of cannabis and cannabidiol (CBD) in pain management or treatment, the long-term benefits of cannabis or CBD are still not evident. At the same time, growing evidence shows the risk of overusing cannabis and CBD. Therefore, it is urgent to develop novel analgesic medications that minimize side effects. All four well-identified adenosine receptors, A1, A2A, A2B, and A3, are implicated in pain. Recently, a report demonstrated that an adenosine A1R-specific positive allosteric modulator (PAM) is a potent analgesic without noticeable side effects. Also, several A3R agonists are being considered as promising analgesic agent. However, the importance of adenosine in pain is relatively underestimated. To help readers understand, first, we will summarize the historical perspective of the adenosine system in preclinical and clinical studies. Then, we will discuss possible interactions of adenosine and opioids or the cannabis system focusing on pain. Overall, this review will provide the potential role of adenosine and adenosine receptors in pain treatment.

Point of care testing (POCT) is an analytical test performed by a healthcare professional outside of a conventional laboratory. The global POCT market was valued at US$ 23.16 billion in 2016 and is forecasted to grow to US$ 36.96 billion in 2021. This upward trend for POCT has increased workload for pathology departments who manage POCT. This research aims to characterize and analyse the teaching and training of POCT at United Kingdom (UK) universities on Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) accredited biomedical science degrees, and at UK hospital laboratories. A freedom of information (FOI) request was sent in 2018 to all 52 UK universities with an accredited IBMS Biomedical science degree to request information on teaching of POCT, with a 100% response rate. Further FOI requests were sent to all National Health Service (NHS) hospital pathology departments in the UK, regarding POCT training provided to trainee Biomedical scientists, with a 97% response rate. Twelve of the degrees contained no POCT teaching, with a further 9 having no specific POCT teaching. Sixty-six laboratories confirmed that there was no POCT training. The university teaching hours varied between 0 and 35 hours. The median time spent teaching POCT at university was 2 hours. The laboratory teaching hours varied between 0 and 450 hours The median time spent teaching POCT in hospital laboratories was 3 hours. A content analysis of the learning outcomes provided by 29 universities showed that only 61% (84/137) were measurable and 26% (36/137) of the learning outcomes used action verbs that have previously been listed to be avoided in learning outcome writing. Only 9% (13/137) of outcomes specifically described POCT, with 8 of these being measurable. The findings demonstrate that although this is a commonly required skill for biomedical scientists, there is a clear lack of POCT teaching and training in the UK. To meet the new Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) guidelines, but most importantly to ensure the workforce is fit for the needs of the current healthcare system, the quality and quantity of POCT teaching and training needs to improve.

Highway companies engage in projects with governments through the concession model in which the governments’ aim is in fulfilling public interest while the highway companies aim to increase their financial stability. However, highway companies face various operational risks that would impede their financial excellency. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the financial performances of the highway companies with the goal programming (GP) model. The GP model is a powerful tool in solving multi-objective issues. This paper studies the listed highway companies, namely LITRAK, TALIWRK, and EDGENTA from 2017 to 2022 using financial data. Based on the optimal solution of GP model, all three companies have reached the goals for assets, equities, and optimum management items. LITRAK, TALIWRK, and EDGENTA have underachievement for the goal of liability management. The GP model has identified the potential improvements for these highway companies for further improvement based on the benchmark values.

The construction industry is the driver to the social and economic development of a country. However, the construction industry is capital intensive and resource-reliance with high risk. These characteristics of the construction industry show high vulnerability to financial uncertainties. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the financial performance of the construction companies in Malaysia with goal programming (GP) model. This paper found that ECONBHD, GADANG, and MELATI have high liabilities while GADANG and MELATI have low profits. The powerful GP model has highlighted that the construction companies have high liquidity and solvency risks and could face problems to sustain their operations. This study could help the companies to determine the decremental and incremental values to reach the benchmark values for better financial performance.

Malarial and other haemosporidian parasites are widespread; however, their temporal dynamics are ill-understood. Longitudinal sampling of a threatened riparian bird revealed a consistently very low prevalence over 13 years (∼5%) despite infections persisting and prevalence increasing with age. In contrast, three key species within this tropical community were highly infected (∼20–75% prevalence) and these differences were stable. Although we found novel lineages and phylogenetic structure at the local level, there was little geographic structuring within Australasia. This study suggests that malarial parasite susceptibility is determined by host factors and that species can maintain low levels despite high community prevalence. Keywords: Avian malaria, Wildlife diseases, Purple-crowned fairy-wrens, Haemoproteus, Plasmodium

The carbon monoxide methanation has possessed huge potential as an effective method to produce synthetic natural gas (SNG). The basic requirements such as high catalytic activity at low temperatures (

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is characterized as a chronic, relapsing disease with a pattern of excessive drinking despite negative consequences to an individual’s life. Severe chronic alcohol use impairs the function of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which contributes to alcohol-induced cognitive and executive dysfunction. The mPFC contains more mitochondria compared to other cortical areas, which suggests mitochondrial damage may occur in AUD and trigger subsequent behavior change. Here, we identified morphological and functional changes in mitochondria in the mPFC in C57BL6/J mice after 8 h of withdrawal from chronic intermittent alcohol (CIA) exposure. Three-dimensional serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBFSEM) reconstruction revealed that CIA exposure elongated mPFC mitochondria and formed mitochondria-on-a-string (MOAS). Furthermore, alcohol significantly affected mitochondrial bioenergetics, including oxidative phosphorylation and electron transport, with inhibited aerobic respiration in mPFC mitochondria after CIA exposure. We also found decreased expression of fusion (mitofusin 2, Mfn2) and increased fission (mitochondrial fission 1 protein, Fis1) proteins in the mPFC of alcohol-treated mice. In sum, our study suggests that CIA exposure impairs mitochondrial dynamics and function in the mPFC.

Glutamatergic dysregulation is known to contribute to altered emotional regulation. Astrocytic glutamate transporter 1 (GLT1) is responsible for the majority of glutamate clearance from synapse. However, the role of astrocytic GLT1 in affective processes such as anxiety- and depression-like behavior is not fully understood. Here, we found that astrocytic GLT1 deficient mice entered more frequently, and spent more time in the open arms of elevated plus maze without difference in overall distance traveled in the open field, nor were there any metabolic changes observed in the metabolic chamber compared to wildtype mice. Moreover, mice lacking astrocytic GLT1 exhibited less immobile time and moved greater area in the tail suspension test. Similarly, in the forced swim test, they showed less immobile time and moved greater area. In addition, we found that astrocytic GLT1 deficiency reduced freezing responses in the fear contextual and cued tests. Taken together, our findings suggest that astrocytic GLT1 deficiency decreases anxiety and depression-like behaviors.

Introduction: Pre-school orthoptic vision screening (POVS) was implemented by the Scottish government and is a standardised assessment to promote early detection of visual problems in children. The target conditions are amblyopia, refractive errors and strabismus. We present the preliminary findings for the first three years of the screening program. Methods: The data from POVS was collected retrospectively. The data includes screening years 2013 to 2016 inclusive. Data was collected from each health board in Scotland. We report the coverage, referral rate, true positives and positive predictive values. Results: A total of 167,962 children were due to have vision screening over the 3 screening years included in this paper. This figure does not include the children that opted out of the eye test (mean opt-out rate 1.8%) and children that already attend the hospital eye service (mean already attend rate 3.1%). The POVS program had a mean coverage of 85.5%, ranging from 63.7% to 94.8% between health boards. Over the 3 year screening period, the mean referral rate was found to be 17.9%. The mean true positive rate was 88.9%, and the mean positive predictive value was 86.9%. Conclusion: The Scottish data set on pre-school orthoptic vision screening has shown excellent mean coverage. A consistently high true positive rate over the three screening years demonstrates it is a sensitive screening program, which is essential for the detection of visual problems in children.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting more than 6 million US citizens and representing the most prevalent cause for dementia. Neurogenesis has been repeatedly reported to be impaired in AD mouse models, but the reason for this impairment remains unclear. Several key factors play a crucial role in AD including Aβ accumulation, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles accumulation, and neuronal loss (specifically in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus). Neurofibrillary tangles have been long associated with the neuronal loss in the dentate gyrus. Of note, Aβ accumulation plays an important role in the impairment of neurogenesis, but recent studies started to shed a light on the role of APP gene expression on the neurogenesis process. In this review, we will discuss the recent approaches to neurogenesis in Alzheimer disease and update the development of therapeutic methods.

Current strategies for producing antibody-drug conjugates often rely on inefficient conjugation chemistry or on generating mutations in the antibody sequence. Here the authors demonstrate a mutation-free, single-step conjugation platform utilizing a buried lysine residue.

Background: Indonesia ranks the second highest in blindness worldwide. One of the factors that may cause blindness is posterior capsule opacification (PCO), a secondary cataract that developed after cataract surgery. PCO eventually leads to visual impairment. The common management for PCO is neodymium:yttrium-aluminium-garnet (Nd:YAG) laser posterior capsulotomy. It is an effective, non-invasive, and painless procedure. The aim of this study was to describe the visual acuity of PCO patients after Nd: YAG laser posterior capsulotomy. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted based on simple randomized secondary data from Cicendo Eye Hospital, Bandung from January 2013 to August 2014. Results: Out of 102 patients, 53 patients (51.96%) were male and 49 (48.04%) were females. The male to female ratio was 1:1. The maximum number of patients was at age group of 60−69 years (33.33%). Sixty−nine patients (67.65%) presented mild or no visual impairment uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) post-laser. Eighty-nine patients (87.25%) presented mild or no visual impairment best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) post-laser. Generally, 94 patients (92.16%) showed improvement of visual acuity after Nd:YAG laser posterior capsulotomy. Three patients (2.49%) were suffering from blindness UCVA post-laser and 1 patient (0.98%) falls at blindness BCVA post-laser respectively. Conclusions: Improvement of visual acuity is achieved after Nd:YAG laser posterior capsulotomy in PCO patients.

The capture and storage of CO2have been suggested as an effective strategy to reduce the global emissions of greenhouse gases. Hence, many studies have been carried out to develop highly efficient materials for capturing CO2. Herein, the CO2 capture performance of mesoporous ceria nanoparticle (MCN) was described. The MCN was synthesized under mild conditions through a sol-gel method using hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a surfactant and further undergone a calcination process at 673 K for 3 h. The prepared MCN possess high surface area (76.0 m2 g-1) which is around 9-fold higher than that of commercial CeO2 (8.7 m2 g-1), indicating that the organic modification using CTAB is an effective way of preparing a porous structure. The MCN exhibited high CO2 uptake of 213.8 micromol g-1 at 298 K and 1 bar. The prepared MCN using sol gel has shown a rapid and cost-effective method compared to the hydrothermal method.

Zernike modes are commonly used in adaptive optics systems to represent optical wavefronts. However, real-time calculation of Zernike modes is time consuming due to two factors: the large factorial components in the radial polynomials used to define them and the large inverse matrix calculation needed for the linear fit. This paper presents an efficient parallel method for calculating Zernike coefficients from phase gradients produced by a Shack-Hartman sensor and its real-time implementation using an FPGA by pre-calculation and storage of subsections of the large inverse matrix. The architecture exploits symmetries within the Zernike modes to achieve a significant reduction in memory requirements and a speed-up of 2.9 when compared to published results utilising a 2D-FFT method for a grid size of 8×8. Analysis of processor element internal word length requirements show that 24-bit precision in precalculated values of the Zernike mode partial derivatives ensures less than 0.5% error per Zernike coefficient and an overall error of

The following commentary on the direction and substance of the curriculum review process currently happening in Singapore was included because of its interest to readers from other countries. However, the views expressed here are those of the author, a respected and experienced Asian mathematics educator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors or the international advisory panel.

The large amount of sago waste produced by sago processing industries can cause serious environmental problems. When dried, these residues usually have a high starch content (around 58%) and have many potential applications. In this study, the drying of sago waste using a fluidized bed dryer (FBD), which offers more advantages than other drying methods, is analyzed via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. A two-dimensional (2D) FBD model is also developed and a mesh independency test is conducted immediately afterwards. A fine mesh is selected for the CFD model and a simulation is conducted using ANSYS Fluent 17.1 software (Ansys Inc., version 17.1, Canonsburg, PA, USA). The governing and discretized algebraic equations are solved by applying the phase-coupled semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations. Both the Eulerian–Eulerian multiphase model approach and the turbulence model are applied in the simulation due to the turbulent flow in the dryer. A velocity of 1.30 m/s and temperature of 50 °C are selected as boundary conditions based on the optimum parameter values from previous experiments. The final moisture content that we aim to achieve is 10% or a moisture ratio of 0.25 in sago waste for the purpose of animal feed, so as to prevent bacterial growth and for packaging purposes based on common industrial practice. Both the drying rate and fluidization profile are examined at air velocities of 0.6, 1.0, 1.3, 1.8, and 2.2 m/s. Based on the results, the velocity range of 1.0 m/s to 2.2 m/s is deemed suitable for the fluidization and drying of sago waste with a particle size of 2000 μm for a drying simulation of 1 h. The drying rate is further examined at air temperatures of 50 °C, 60 °C, 70 °C, and 80 °C, whereas the fluidization profile is examined at particle sizes of 200, 500, 1000, and 2000 μm. The results reveal excellent fluidization at a particle size range of 500 μm to 2000 μm and a velocity of 1.3 m/s.

A decade of PMRI saw the changes in the classroom in some of the primaryschools in Indonesia. Based on observation, we can say that though themathematics syllabus in Indonesia did not change, its curriculum has changedunder the movement of PMRI. In this article, we put in writing some of theexperience gained through the involvement in designing curricula since 1971.Hopefully, some of the observations made may be of use to the colleagues inIndonesia. The discussion below will cover some deciding factors in designing acurriculum, some practices, and the latest trends. For convenience, we keep thediscussion general, and do not refer to a specific syllabus. Also, in many cases,we refer mainly to secondary schools, that is, Grade 7 to Grade 10.Key words: PMRI, syllabus, mathematics curriculum, assessment, modelling DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22342/jme.1.1.789.1-10

Betulinic acid (BA) is a pentacyclic triterpene found in several botanical sources that has been shown to cause apoptosis in a number of cell lines. This study was undertaken to determine the in vitro cytotoxic properties of BA towards the human mammary carcinoma cell line MDA-MB-231 and the human promyelocytic leukaemia cell line HL-60 and the mode of the induced cell death. The cytotoxicity and mode of cell death of BA were determined using the MTT assay and DNAfragmentation analysis, respectively. In our study, the compound was found to be cytotoxic to MDA-MB-231 and HL-60 cells with IC50 values of 58 μg/mL and 134 μg/mL, respectively. Cells treated with high concentrations of BA exhibited features characteristic of apoptosis such as blebbing, shrinking and a number of small cytoplasm body masses when viewed under an inverted light microscope after 24 h. The incidence of apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 was further confirmed bythe DNA fragmentation analysis, with the formation of DNA fragments of oligonucleosomal size (180-200 base pairs), giving a ladder-like pattern on agarose gel electrophoresis. BA was more cytotoxic towards MDA-MB-231 than HL-60 cells, and induced apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 cells.