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Antifungal effects of myrcene, the plant-based naturel compound, were investigated on Fusarium graminearum PH-1 and Fusarium culmorum FcUK99 references, for the first time. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and half of MIC (MIC 50 ) of both Fusarium strains against myrcene were found as 25 µg/µl and 12.5 µg/µl, respectively. MIC 50 application decreased the cell viabilities in the ratios of 34.90% and 33.91% in PH-1 and FcUK99, respectively (p < 0.01). The significantly increased catalase (CAT) activity was recorded in MIC 50 treated strains (p < 0.01). Apoptosis-like process and cellular oxidative stress were also monitored with acridine orange/ethidium bromide (Ao/Eb) dual staining and 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCF-DA) staining. The genomic template stability (GTS) percentages were calculated as 79% for PH-1 and 71% for FcUK99 via random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Methylation polymorphism values were calculated as 53.8% and 50.6% in PH-1 and 40.4% and 39% in FcUK99 for HapII and MspI, respectively by coupled restriction enzyme digestion-random amplification (CRED-RA). Methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) revealed that myrcene caused both type I and type III epigenetic modifications in both genomes. MIC 50 dose caused up to 13.86 ± 0.42-fold changes in the expressions of cat, mst20, and stuA, whereas downregulation in tri5 was recorded. Myrcene application did not change the retrotransposon movement in both species by the amplifying of idiomorphic retrotransposon patterns through inter-retrotransposon polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction (IRAP-PCR). This study demonstrated that myrcene is an effective compound in the management of phytopathogenic Fusarium species by causing morphological, genetic, epigenetic, and cellular alterations, and has a potential to utilize as an antifungal agent., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A sensitive electrochemical method based on carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and bimetallic nanoparticles of dysprosium oxide (Dy 2 O 3 ) and europium oxide (Eu 2 O 3 ) was developed for the determination of papaverine in pharmaceuticals and human urine. Several electrodes were compared in respect to their electrochemically active surface area calculated as 0.0603, 0.1300, 0.3440, 0.3740 and 0.4990 cm 2 for bare GCE, CNFs/GCE, Eu 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE, Dy 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE and Dy 2 O 3 @Eu 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE, respectively. Electrodes were also compared in respect to their performance towards the voltammetric process of papaverine. The peak potential (Epa) of papaverine was 1.094 V, 0.993 V, 0.978 V, 0.969 V and 0.966 V at unmodified GCE, CNFs/GCE, Eu 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE, Dy 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE and Dy 2 O 3 @Eu 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE, respectively. This indicated that the oxidation peak potential of papaverine shifted gradually towards the negative potentials and the peak current increased gradually from unmodified GCE to CNFs/GCE, Eu 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE, Dy 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE and Dy 2 O 3 @Eu 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE. The influence of experimental parameters such as scan rate and pH on the voltammetry of papaverine was studied. The Dy 2 O 3 @Eu 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE system presented a dynamic working range between 1.0 × 10 -7 and 2.0 × 10 -6  M with a detection limit of 1.0 × 10 -8  M for papaverine. The platform (Dy 2 O 3 @Eu 2 O 3 -CNFs/GCE) exhibited excellent sensitivity and selectivity for papaverine in the presence of uric acid and was successfully applied for determining papaverine in pharmaceuticals and urine samples., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

BRCA1/2 genes with high-penetrance are tumor suppressor and tumor susceptibility genes that play important roles in the homologous recombination mechanism in DNA repair and increase breast cancer risk. Variants in BRCA1 or BRCA2 are the main causes of familial and early-onset breast cancer. This study investigated pathogenic variant belonging to the BRCA2 gene splice region in monozygotic triplets. A 44-year-old woman was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 32 years old. Her monozygotic sister had a history of breast cancer. No malignancy was detected in the third one of the monozygotic triplets. Sanger sequencing was used to evaluate the BRCA1/2 gene status of the patient and family members. It was figured out that they had the same genetic variant, a heterozygous germ-line splice region variant (c.7008-1G > C) in the BRCA2 gene. This novel splice region variant may be a new pathogenic variant of the BRCA2 gene. Its association with breast cancers needs to be further verified in more patient cases., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

The results of investigations of arterial stiffness in Behçet's disease (BD) are contradictory and the reason for this contradictory situation is not clear. The lack of studies in homogenous groups according to the duration of the disease may be the cause of conflicting results. To compare arterial stiffness by assessing pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AIx) measurements in healthy controls (HC) and patients diagnosed with BD with short and long disease duration. This cross-sectional study was conducted between August-November 2017 and 54 patients with BD and 34 HC were included. Patients with BD who were diagnosed within 12 months were included in the group with short disease duration (SDD) and the others in the group with long disease duration (LDD). Parameters of cardiovascular risk of all participants were recorded and PWV and AIx values were measured from the brachial artery. AIx was significantly higher in all patients with BD, patients with BD with SDD and patients with BD with LDD, than in HC (p = 0.005, p = 0.011, p = 0.004, respectively). Pulse wave velocity values were not different from HC in patients with BD. When patients with BD with SDD and LDD were compared with each other, PWV was significantly higher in patients with BD with LDD (p = 0.030). There was a moderate correlation between PWV and disease duration (Rho = 0.414, p = 0.002). Augmentation index is higher in patients with BD than HC regardless of disease duration.

Fusarium graminearum and F. culmorum are phytopathogens, which cause destructive diseases in cereals. Epidemics of these phytopathogens are caused by mycotoxin contamination and the reduction of crop quality. In this study, the alteration due to in vitro camphor treatment on F. culmorum 9F and F. graminearum H11 isolates was investigated in terms of epigenetic, cellular, and transcription levels. Camphor with different concentrations (0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1, 2, and 4 µg/µL) was applied to potato dextrose agar (PDA) growth media. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) were calculated as 2 and 1 µg/µL, respectively. hog1 , mst20 , CAT , POD , mgv1 , stuA , and tri5 genes, which are related to various cellular processes and pathogenesis, were examined by qPCR assay. qPCR analysis showed that camphor treatment leads to the downregulation of tri5 expression but the upregulation of the remaining genes. Apoptosis and oxidative stress were confirmed via acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EB) and dichlorofluorescin diacetate (DCF-DA) staining, respectively. Moreover, coupled restriction enzyme digestion-random amplification (CRED-RA) assay, used for DNA methylation analysis, was carried out to evaluate epigenetic alterations. The decrease in genomic template stability (GTS) values, which resulted due to the alterations in random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiles caused by camphor treatment, were detected as 97.60% in F. culmorum 9F and 66.27% in F. graminearum H-11. The outer and inner methylated cytosine profiles are determined by CRED-RA assay as type I⁻IV epigenetic alterations. The outcomes indicated that camphor could lead to alterations at several molecular levels of F. graminearum and F. culmorum .

A composite of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and tri-metallic nanoparticles of gold, cobalt and nickel were used for the preparation of a novel voltammetric platform. The proposed voltammetric platform was utilized for quantifying ethyl paraben (EPB) in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. The electrode layers were characterized by utilizing X-ray diffraction method (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The electrode system, (Au-Ni-Co)NPs-CNFs/GCE, exhibited high catalytic activity and enhanced the electrochemical behaviour of EPB compared with several other electrodes. The proposed composite layer based electrode produced a well-defined oxidation peak at 0.760V. The determination of EPB was carried out by square wave voltammetry (SWV). The electrode produced a linear plot with a concentration range from 1.0×10 -9 to 1.0×10 -7 M at (Au-Ni-Co)NPs-CNFs/GCE. The composite material enabled a detection limit of 3.5×10 -10 M for EPB. Good reproducibility, high precision and excellent accuracy for EPB were obtained at (Au-Ni-Co)NPs-CNFs/GCE. The composite layer based platform was successfully applied for the quantification of EPB in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. The sensitive quantification of EPB is of great importance for the public health care. Furthermore, data show that EPB binds to DNA via intercalation with a binding constant of 2.51(±0.40)×10 4 ., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

An accurate and precise determination of terbutaline has been carried out using a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with a composite of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and nanoparticles of zirconium oxide (ZrO2NPs). Energy dispersive X-ray and scanning electron microscopic techniques were utilized for the characterization of the composite layer. Terbutaline exhibited a broad oxidation peak at 770mV on a GCE. However, MWCNTs/GCE presented an electrocatalytic effect toward the oxidation of terbutaline with a better anodic peak at 660mV. Furthermore, the electrochemical behavior of terbutaline has greatly been improved at a GCE modified with a composite of MWCNTs and nanoparticles of ZrO2. The ZrO2NPs/MWCNTs/GCE exhibited a sharp anodic wave at 645mV with a large enhancement of the current response for terbutaline. Square wave voltammetry (SWV) was performed for the determination of terbutaline at ZrO2NPs/MWCNTs/GCE. A linear plot was obtained for the current responses of terbutaline against concentrations in the range of 10-160nM yielding a detection limit of 2.25nM (based on 3Sb/m). Improved voltammetric behavior, long-time stability and good reproducibility were obtained for terbutaline at the proposed electrode. A mean recovery of 101.2% with an RSD% of 1.9 was obtained for the analysis of the drug formulation. The accurate and precise quantification of terbutaline makes the ZrO2NPs/MWCNTs/GCE system of great interest for monitoring its therapeutic use., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

An electrochemical sensor was prepared by modifying a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with a composite of yttrium (III) oxide nanoparticles (Y2O3NPs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for the determination of acetaminophen (ACT). Compared with a bare GCE and CNTs/GCE, the Y2O3NPs/CNTs/GCE exhibited a well-defined redox couple for ACT and highly enhanced the current response. The separations in the anodic and cathodic peak potentials (ΔEp) for ACT were 552mV, 24mV and 10mV at ba4re GCE, CNTs/GCE and Y2O3NPs/CNTs/GCE, respectively. The observation of only 10mV of ΔEp for ACT at Y2O3NPs/CNTs/GCE was a clear indication of a great acceleration of the electrode process compared to bare GCE and GCE modified with CNTs. Also, l-ascorbic acid (l-AA) and l-tyrosine (l-TRY) did not interfere with the selective determination of ACT. Square wave voltammetry (SWV) was performed for the quantification of ACT. A linear plot was obtained for current responses versus the concentrations of ACT over the range from 1.0×10(-10) to 1.8×10(-8)M with a detection limit of 3.0×10(-11)M (based on 3Sb/m). The proposed composite material provided high electrocatalytic activity, improved voltammetric behavior, good selectivity and good reproducibility. The accurate quantification of ACT makes the proposed electrode of great interest for the public health., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

An electrochemical sensor was prepared by the modification of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanoparticles of antimony tin oxide (ATO). The surface layer was characterized by scanning electronmicroscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray diffraction method (EDX) and ATR FT-IR spectroscopy. The proposed electrode was assessed in respect to the electro-oxidation of ractopamine. Compared with a bare GCE and a GCE electrode modified with CNTs, the ATONPs/CNTs/GCE exhibited a great catalytic activity towards the oxidation of ractopamine with a well-defined anodic peak at 600 mV. The current response was linear with the concentration of ractopamine over the range from 10 to 240 nM with a detection limit of 3.3 nM. The proposed electrode enabled the selective determination of ractopamine in the presence of high concentrations of ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA) and uric acid (UA). The proposed electrode was successfully applied for the determination of ractopamine in feed and urine samples. The sensitive and selective determination of ractopamine makes the developed method of great interest for monitoring its therapeutic use and doping control purposes.

An electrochemical sensor was prepared by the modification of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with a composite of nanoparticles of tungsten oxide (WO3) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for the quantification of paracetamol (PR). Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were performed for the characterization of the nanocomposite layer. Compared with a bare GCE and a GCE modified with CNTs, the proposed electrode (WO3NPs/CNTs/GCE) exhibited a well-defined redox couple for PR and a marked enhancement of the current response. The experimental results also showed that ascorbic acid (AA) did not interfere with the selective determination of PR. The proposed electrode was used for the determination of PR in 0.1M phosphate buffer solution (PBS) at pH7.0 using square wave voltammetry (SWV). The peak current increased linearly with the concentration of PR in the range of 1.0×10(-9)-2.0×10(-7)M. The detection limit (LOD) was 5.54×10(-11)M (based on 3Sb/m). The proposed voltammetric sensor provided long-time stability, improved voltammetric behavior and good reproducibility for PR. The selective, accurate and precise determination of PR makes the proposed electrode of great interest for monitoring its therapeutic use., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)