Browse Articles

Exploring natural ways to maintain keratin production in hair follicles

Roy et al. | Apr 29, 2024

Exploring natural ways to maintain keratin production in hair follicles
Image credit: Roy and Roy, 2024

We are looking into natural ways to help hair grow better and stronger by studying keratin synthesis in human hair follicles. The reason for conducting this research was to have the ability to control hair growth through future innovations. We wanted to answer the question: How can we find natural ways to enhance hair growth by understanding the connection with natural resources, particularly keratin dynamics? The main focus of this experiment is understanding the promotion of keratin synthesis within human hair follicles, which is important for hair development and health. While keratin is essential for the growth and strength of body tissues, including skin and hair, our research hints at its specific synthesis within hair follicles. In our research utilizing castor oil, coconut oil, a turmeric and baking soda mixture, and a sugar, honey, and lemon mixture, we hypothesize that oils, specifically coconut oil and castor oil, will enhance keratin synthesis, whereas mixtures, such as the turmeric and baking soda mixture and the sugar, honey, and lemon mixture, will result in a decrease keratin synthesis. The methods used show how different natural substances influence keratin formation within the hair follicles. The experiment involved applying natural resources to hair strands and follicles, measuring their length under the microscope daily, and assessing their health and characteristics over seven days. In summary, our research helps us understand how hair grows better. We found that using natural items like essential oils effectively alters keratin growth within the hair follicles and hair strands.

Read More...

In silico modeling of emodin’s interactions with serine/threonine kinases and chitosan derivatives

Suresh et al. | Jan 10, 2022

<i>In silico</i> modeling of emodin’s interactions with serine/threonine kinases and chitosan derivatives

Here, through protein-ligand docking, the authors investigated the effect of the interaction of emodin with serine/threonine kinases, a subclass of kinases that is overexpressed in many cancers, which is implicated in phosphorylation cascades. Through molecular dynamics theyfound that emodin forms favorable interactions with chitosan and chitosan PEG (polyethylene glycol) copolymers, which could aid in loading drugs into nanoparticles (NPs) for targeted delivery to cancerous tissue. Both polymers demonstrated reasonable entrapment efficiencies, which encourages experimental exploration of emodin through targeted drug delivery vehicles and their anticancer activity.

Read More...

The journey to Proxima Centauri b

Ramaswamy et al. | Apr 01, 2024

The journey to Proxima Centauri b
Image credit: The authors

Someday, rockets from Earth may be launched towards worlds beyond our solar system. But will these rockets be able to reach their destination within a human lifetime? Ramaswamy and Giovinazzi simulate rocket launches to an Earth-like exoplanet to uncover whether it's physically possible to complete the journey within a lifetime.

Read More...

Significance of Tumor Growth Modeling in the Behavior of Homogeneous Cancer Cell Populations: Are Tumor Growth Models Applicable to Both Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Populations?

Reddy et al. | Jun 10, 2021

Significance of Tumor Growth Modeling in the Behavior of Homogeneous Cancer Cell Populations: Are Tumor Growth Models Applicable to Both Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Populations?

This study follows the process of single-cloning and the growth of a homogeneous cell population in a superficial environment over the course of six weeks with the end goal of showing which of five tumor growth models commonly used to predict heterogeneous cancer cell population growth (Exponential, Logistic, Gompertz, Linear, and Bertalanffy) would also best exemplify that of homogeneous cell populations.

Read More...

Effects of social support on adolescent identity development

Yim et al. | Nov 12, 2024

Effects of social support on adolescent identity development

Adolescence is a critical period for self-identity formation, heavily influenced by feedback from social networks. This research examined the interplay between social support from parents and peers and self-concept development in adolescents using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. While individual support from parents and peers did not directly impact self-concept, their combined interaction significantly influenced it, highlighting the importance of various social supports in fostering healthy self-concept development and overall adolescent well-being.

Read More...

Computational Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) of Berberine Analogs in Double-Stranded and G-Quadruplex DNA Binding Reveals Both Position and Target Dependence

Sun et al. | Dec 18, 2020

Computational Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) of Berberine Analogs in Double-Stranded and G-Quadruplex DNA Binding Reveals Both Position and Target Dependence

Berberine, a natural product alkaloid, and its analogs have a wide range of medicinal properties, including antibacterial and anticancer effects. Here, the authors explored a library of alkyl or aryl berberine analogs to probe binding to double-stranded and G-quadruplex DNA. They determined that the nature of the substituent, the position of the substituent, and the nucleic acid target affect the free energy of binding of berberine analogs to DNA and G-quadruplex DNA, however berberine analogs did not result in net stabilization of G-quadruplex DNA.

Read More...