dr hab. Ewa Augustin | Gdańsk University of Technology

Background Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most aggressive cancers and is the seventh leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. PC is characterized by rapid progression and resistance to conventional treatments. Mutations in KRAS, CDKN2A, TP53, SMAD4/DPC4, and MYC are major genetic alterations associated with poor treatment outcomes in patients with PC. Therefore, optimizing PC therapy is a tremendous challenge. Unsymmetrical...

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs), due to their nanometric size and photostability, are increasingly used as ingredients in sunscreens to absorb and scatter UV radiation. However, the current state of knowledge is insufficient to guarantee their safety. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the cytotoxicity of ZnONPs and TiO2NPs in the presence and absence of UV radiation...

Due to the numerous dangers arising from excessive use of antibiotics in treatments, researchers have been searching for natural alternatives to conventional antibiotics. Despite the popularity of plant extracts, essential oils, and their derivatives in herbal medicine, their applications in novel therapies are rather limited. This paper tries to open a new possibility for infection treatments by assessing the suitability of antimicrobial...

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a process that constitutes a significant obstacle to effective anticancer therapy. Here, we examined whether unsymmetrical bisacridines (UAs) are substrates for ABC transporters and can influence their expression in human colon LS 174T and prostate DU 145 cancer cells. Moreover, we investigated the cytotoxicity and the cellular response induced by UAs in these cells. The ATPase activities of MDR1,...

This paper presents a comparison of the antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity against L929 cells of chitosan xerogels prepared by dissolving the polymer in a solution of lactic acid (LA) or carbonic acid (CO2) and then freeze-drying. There was no simple relationship between the antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity of the samples obtained using both techniques (LA and CO2). Chitosan materials obtained by the LA method in a...