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Objective Antimicrobial resistance among the bacteria present in ready-to-eat foods like vegetable salads is an emerging concern today. The current study was undertaken to investigate the presence of multi-drug resistant extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producing E. coli and Salmonella spp. in raw vegetable salads served at hotels and restaurants in Bharatpur. A total of 216 salad samples were collected from three different grades of hotels and restaurants and examined for the presence of E. coli and Salmonella spp. in Microbiology laboratory of Birendra Multiple Campus by conventional microbiological techniques. Results Out of 216 samples, 66 samples (35.2%) showed the presence of Salmonella spp. whereas E. coli was recovered from 29 (13.4%) samples of which 3 samples harbored E. coli O157: H7. Antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed that 9 (13.6%) Salmonella and 4 (13.8%) E. coli isolates were detected as multi-drug resistant. Total ESBL producers reported were 5 (7.57%) Salmonella and 4 (13.8%) E. coli . The study also assessed a significant association between occurrence of E. coli and Salmonella with different grades of hotels and restaurants, personal hygiene and literacy rate of chefs and with the type of cleaning materials used to wash knives and chopping boards (p < 0.05). The findings suggest an immediate need of attention by the concerned authorities to prevent the emergence and transmission of food-borne pathogens and infections antimicrobial resistance among them.

The fat obtained from the ripened seeds of Diploknema butyracea is widely used as a vegetable oil in rural areas of Nepal. This study was aimed for the physicochemical evaluation (acid value, iodine value, saponification value, peroxide value, ester value, pH, and liquefaction point) of the Diploknema butyracea seed extract (chyuri fat) and the formulation of 2% w/w ketoconazole ointment by using it as a base. All the physicochemical parameters were determined quantitatively by using the method of Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP), volume-I. By fusion method, 3 different formulations F-A, F-B, and F-C were prepared, in which different proportions of chyuri fat, polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG 600), Tween 80, and propylene glycol were used as an ointment base. Various quality parameters such as spreadability, extrudability, viscosity, smoothness, pH, average fill weight, assay, content uniformity, accelerated stability, and drug release profiles were determined. HPLC was used for the determination of ketoconazole content in the ointment formulations. Physicochemical evaluation of the chyuri fat ensured its suitability for industrial purpose. The active ingredient release profile of formulations F-A (87.71%), F-B (88.89%), and F-C (91.09%) after 5 hours were within acceptable range along with other parameters. Assay of the formulations F-A, F-B, and F-C were reported to be 103.01, 107.9, and 102.45%, respectively. Overall, evaluation of the formulation F-A, prepared by using chyrui fat only, gave satisfactory results and most of the parameters were statistically similar (p>0.05) to the F-B and F-C formulated by incorporating a certain proportion of synthetic base. Thus it can be concluded that chyuri fat can be the best alternative to replace the expensive synthetic base.

A major obstacle to immunotherapy is insufficient infiltration of effector immune cells into the tumor microenvironment. Radiotherapy greatly reduces tumor burden but relapses often occur. Here we show that the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment was gradually established by recruiting Tregs after radiation. Despite tumors being controlled after depletion of Tregs in the irradiated area, improvement of mice survival remained poor. A much better antitumor effect was achieved with vaccination followed by radiation than other treatments. Vaccination followed by radiation recruited more effector T cells in tumor regions, which responded to high levels of chemokines. Sequential combination of vaccination and radiotherapy could elicit distinct host immune responses. Our study demonstrated that optimal combination of irradiation and vaccination is required to achieve effective antitumor immune responses. We propose a combination regimen that could be easily translated into the clinic and offer an opportunity for rational combination therapies design in cancer treatment.Zhang et al. use mouse tumor models to show that the optimum treatment regime for Treg-induced radiation resistance is vaccine administration followed by radiation therapy. This finding could inform the design of future combinatorial cancer therapies in the clinic.

Advances in immunotherapy, particularly with immune checkpoint inhibitors, have improved clinical outcomes in various cancer subtypes; however, resistance often occurs because these treatments rely on single agents and show limited translational success when combined. Therefore, it is necessary to develop immune checkpoint inhibitor‐based combination strategies by integrating next‐generation immunotherapies and innovative biomarkers. This review highlights the emerging combinatorial approaches that can be tailored to the distinct tumor microenvironment types to overcome resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors. It further emphasizes the rationale for integrating advanced biomarkers to predict response and personalize immunotherapy, highlighting the importance of combining next‐generation immunotherapies with immune checkpoint inhibitors and including them in current clinical trial designs. Building on this foundation, we integrate key lessons from failed clinical trials and the spectrum of toxicities associated with combination immunotherapy. Finally, we outline approaches for early biomarker discovery and clinical translation, including the incorporation of validated artificial intelligence–driven biomarker platforms into adaptive, biomarker‐guided trial designs.

PEGylation refers to the process of functionalizing nanoparticles with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to avoid unspecific uptake by the mononuclear phagocyte system and prolong the circulation half-life of nanomedicines. Immunogenicity and nonbiodegradability are the major limitations in PEGylation that can be resolved by substituting PEG with biofriendly polymers, such as hydroxyethyl starch (HES). In the current study, thiolated hydroxyethyl starch (HES-SH, 130/0.4) was harnessed to stabilize gold nanorods (AuNRs) and compared with PEG-SH-coated AuNRs at different aspects of characterization and photothermal analysis. Our results confirm that AuNRs were functionalized successfully with both HES-SH and PEG-SH, where the initial spectra and colloidal stability of gold nanorods were restored after functionalization. In addition, the photothermal conversion stability of gold nanorods was maintained during both HESylation and PEGylation without affecting the heat generation. In summary, we presume that HES-SH can be used as a surface modifier to stabilize gold nanorods and might be used as a promising alternative to PEG.

Antimicrobial resistance among bacteria present in ready-to-eat foods like vegetable salads is an emerging concern today. The current study was undertaken to investigate the presence of multi-drug resistant extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producing E. coli and Salmonella spp. in raw vegetable salads served at hotels and restaurants in Bharatpur. A total of 216 salad samples were collected from three different grades of hotels/restaurants and examined for the presence of E. coli and Salmonella spp. in Microbiology laboratory of Birendra Multiple Campus by conventional microbiological techniques. Out of 216 samples, 66 samples (35.2%) showed presence of Salmonella spp. whereas E. coli was recovered from 29(13.4%) samples of which 3 samples harbored E. coli O157: H7. Antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed that 9(13.6%) Salmonella and 4(13.8%) E. coli isolates were multi-drug resistant. Total ESBL producers reported were 5(7.57%) Salmonella and 4(13.8%) E. coli . The study also assessed a significant association between occurrence of E. coli and Salmonella with grades of hotels/restaurants, personal hygiene and literacy rate of chefs and with type of cleaning materials used to wash knives and chopping boards (p<0.05). The findings suggest immediate need of attention by concerned authorities to prevent emergence and transmission of food-borne pathogens and antimicrobial resistance.