Objective: To test the coalescence effect of two chemotherapy drugs at low effective dose (cisplatin and taxotere) combined with pomegranate juice on A549 cancer cells. Methods: Infrared spectroscopy method is a qualitative test that was performed to ensure the existence of the phytochemicals providing the antioxidant activity through the presence of the hydroxyl group (-OH). The viability of A549 cell line and normal MCs was tested using the neutral red uptake, Clonogenic survival, XTT and Cell migration assays. Results: Our results showed that this combination firstly led to a greater decrease in the viability of cells comparing to those treated with chemotherapy drugs alone, and secondly led to a significant reduction in cell migration. Conclusions: These data suggest a synergistic effect between the pomegranate and cisplatin which makes probably this combination a powerful option for treating lung adenocarcinoma and in parallel minimizing the systemic side effects.

Objective: To identify regions of the brain affected during cognitive working memory during tasks to assess attention, planning and decision making among military aviation personnel who have chronic intermittent exposure to high altitude environment. Method: A case-control study was conducted in the Universiti Putra Malaysia among eight military personnel, four of whom had chronic intermittent exposure to high altitude training. They were divided into two groups, chronic intermittent exposure group (CE) (n=4) and a control group (n=4). They underwent a task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that utilised spatial working memory task to objectively evaluate the neural activation in response to the Tower of London paradigm. Each correct answer was given a score of one and the maximum achievable score was 100%. Results: A consecutive dichotomised group of CE (4/8) and control (4/8) of age-matched military aviation personnel with a mean age of 37.23±5.52 years; showed significant activation in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). This in turn was positively correlated with response accuracy. A significant difference in the response accuracy was noted among both the groups at p<0.05. Conclusion: At the minimum results of power analysis of this preliminary fMRI study, our group of aviation personnel who had chronic intermittent exposure to hypobaric hypoxic environment, did not have any significant decrease in cognitive function namely attention, decision-making and problem solving compared to controls during a working memory task