Future University in Egypt

Neurological disorders affect the nervous system and can impair physical, cognitive, or emotional functions. They often result in challenges such as movement difficulties and the inability to perform daily activities. Common conditions include stroke, traumatic brain injury, and cerebral palsy. Physical therapy is a common approach to managing these disorders. Recently, virtual reality (VR), a technology that creates interactive, simulated environments, has been used in rehabilitation. This study presents a rehabilitative game-based system to improve patients’ movements and cognitive abilities. Six games were designed using the Unity platform, namely, “Piano,” “Connect,” “Drag & Drop,” “Little Intelligent,” “Memory,” and “Hack & Slash.” The Oculus Quest 2 VR headset was used to simulate the virtual environment for gaming. A mobile application called “Recover Me” was created to facilitate communication between patients and physiotherapists. A score index was generated for each patient, indicating the performance. It enables monitoring and assessment of the patients, leading to customizing the treatment plan based on progress. The study proposed simulating monitoring and evaluation of the patients by training an artificial neural network model to predict scores for the developed games and consequently indicate the patient’s actual status. A dataset of 50 patients with different injuries was used. Results indicate patient satisfaction with gaming and enjoyment. Moreover, a regression analysis was performed to detect the progress level of each patient, indicating that 60% of the tested patients had improved. A low-cost VR game-based system has proven effective in rehabilitating neurological disorders.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced bacterial keratitis is one of the most sight-threatening corneal infections associated with intense ocular inflammatory reactions that may lead to vision loss. Hence, this study investigated the efficacy of three nanocomposite chitosan-coated penetration enhancer vesicles (PEVs) to augment the ocular delivery of saponin(s), α-hederin (PEVI), hederacoside C (PEVII), or both (PEVIII) for treatment of Pseudomonas keratitis and its induced inflammatory response. The three formulations were prepared using the ethanol injection method and comprehensively characterized. In vitro, the antibacterial activity of the three formulations against P. aeruginosa was evaluated using agar well-diffusion method, pyocyanin production inhibition, and swarming and twitching motility inhibition assays. The therapeutic effect of the three formulations has been investigated in P. aeruginosa keratitis by gross lesion monitoring, determination of bacterial bioburden, biochemical markers, histopathological examination, and scoring after 7 days of topical treatment. Data revealed that PEVI, PEVII, and PEVIII nanocomposites showed particle size in the nanometer range, high entrapment efficiency, good stability, and sustained release of the saponins throughout 24 h. Among them, PEVIII exhibited notably strong in vitro antipseudomonal activity. Additionally, animals treated topically with PEVIII showed an appreciable gross lesion reduction, corneal tissue improvement, and formidable bacterial load reduction compared with untreated and gentamicin sulfate eye (GENTAWISE®) ointment-treated groups. Moreover, PEVIII treatment showed the most significant reduction in TNF-α, NF-κB, ROS levels, and OPRL virulence gene expression while enhancing PI3K/Akt activation. Therefore, this study offers PEVIII as a promising treatment for P. aeruginosa keratitis.Graphical Abstract