Prediction of cough effectiveness in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients assessed by ultrasuond of the diaphragm during the cough expiration phase.

Assessing cough effectiveness, using Cough Peak Flow, is crucial for patients with Neuromuscular Diseases, such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Impaired cough function can contribute to respiratory decline and failure. The goal of the study is to determine the correlation between diaphragmatic excursion and cough expiratory phase, potentially utilizing ultrasonographic indices to estimate Cough Peak Flow in these patients.

Ventilatory efficiency in long-term dyspnoeic patients following COVID-19 pneumonia.

Background: Long COVID is defined as persistency of symptoms, such as exertional dyspnea, twelve weeks after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Objectives: To investigate ventilatory efficiency by the use of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) in patients with exertional dyspnea despite normal basal spirometry after 18 (T) and 36 months (T) from COVID-19 pneumonia.

Methods: One hundred patients with moderate-critical COVID-19 were prospectively enrolled in our Long COVID program.

Conformational targeting of intracellular Aβ oligomers demonstrates their pathological oligomerization inside the endoplasmic reticulum.

Aβ oligomers (AβOs) are crucially involved in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). However, the lack of selective approaches for targeting these polymorphic Aβ assemblies represents a major hurdle in understanding their biosynthesis, traffic and actions in living cells. Here, we established a subcellularly localized conformational-selective interference (CSI) approach, based on the expression of a recombinant antibody fragment against AβOs in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER).

Intrabodies for protein interference in Alzheimer’s disease.

Several open questions call for new studies on pathogenic mechanisms leading to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), with the search for upstream drivers of the neurodegeneration cascade, such as neurotrophic deficits, early misfolding events of AD-related proteins (Abeta and tau) and understanding the multifactorial basis of AD pathogenesis. Since seminal immunosympathectomy experiment which represents the first example of a knock out experiment (albeit a protein knock-out), antibodies have had a long and successful history as a tool to selectively interfere with the function of proteins in cells and in organisms and antibody technologies represent a major weapon in the set of target validation techniques. Here, we describe a technology, pioneered by our group, based on recombinant antibody domains exploited as intracellular antibodies (intrabodies) whereby antibodies are used as genes, rather than as proteins.

Antagonist profile of ibodutant at the tachykinin NK(2) receptor in guinea pig isolated bronchi.

In this study we have characterized the pharmacological profile of the non-peptide tachykinin NK(2) receptor antagonist ibodutant (MEN15596) in guinea pig isolated main bronchi contractility. The antagonist potency of ibodutant was evaluated using the selective NK(2) receptor agonist [βAla8]NKA(4-10)-mediated contractions of guinea pig isolated main bronchi. In this assay ibodutant (30, 100 and 300 nM) induced a concentration-dependent rightward shift of the [βAla8]NKA(4-10) concentration-response curves without affecting the maximal contractile effect.