Making the Best in a Bad Job: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Communication with Children and Adolescents with Severe Physical Condutions.

Ill children/adolescents who suffer from severe organic diseases have to cope with their inner experiences, therapies, and the global burden of the disease. Although sometimes depression, anger, and death anxiety are openly encountered in medical settings, other times they can be partially hidden by a reactive and defensive path. In these scenarios, psychoanalysis is challenged to contribute the best comprehension of the intimate communication, maybe hidden, and the needs of the ill patients to express themselves.

Using VEGAHUB Within a Weight-of-Evidence Strategy.

Industrial needs and regulatory requirements have played a significant role in accelerating the use of nontesting methods including in silico tools as alternatives to animal testing. The main interest is not solely on the use of in silico tools, or in read-across, but on better toxicological safety assessment of substances, and for this purpose more advanced, integrated strategies have to be implemented. VEGAHUB wants to promote this broader view, not necessarily focused on a specific approach.

Skin sensitization quantitative QSAR models based on mechanistic structural alerts.

Allergic contact dermatitis is increasingly of interest for the hazard characterization of chemicals. in vivo animal testing is usually adopted but in silico approaches are becoming the new frontier due to their swiftness and economic efficiency. Indeed, in silico models can rationalise the experimental outcomes besides having predictive ability.

Can Antiviral Activity of Licorice Help Fight COVID-19 Infection?

The phytotherapeutic properties of (licorice) extract are mainly attributed to glycyrrhizin (GR) and glycyrrhetinic acid (GA). Among their possible pharmacological actions, the ability to act against viruses belonging to different families, including SARS coronavirus, is particularly important. With the COVID-19 emergency and the urgent need for compounds to counteract the pandemic, the antiviral properties of GR and GA, as pure substances or as components of licorice extract, attracted attention in the last year and supported the launch of two clinical trials.

The similarity of inherited diseases (I): clinical similarity within the phenotypic series.

Background: Mutations of different genes often result in clinically similar diseases. Among the datasets of similar diseases, we analyzed the 'phenotypic series' from Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man and examined the similarity of the diseases that belong to the same phenotypic series, because we hypothesize that clinical similarity may unveil shared pathogenic mechanisms.

Methods: Specifically, for each pair of diseases, we quantified their similarity, based on both number and information content of the shared clinical phenotypes.

[Psychological interventions in hospital during the first-wave of CoViD-19: an overview of the experiences of the Units of Clinical Psychology in Lombardy, Italy.].

The current CoViD-19 pandemic threatens both physical and psychological well-being. According to the bio-psycho-social model, Units of Clinical Psychology of the Hospitals in Lombardy (Italy) reacted to this risk, offering diversified interventions, described in the present contribution. The medical staff operated on the front line during the emergency: psychologists addressed their needs through individual clinical work, sessions of decompression and debriefing.

The similarity of inherited diseases (II): clinical and biological similarity between the phenotypic series.

Background: Despite being caused by mutations in different genes, diseases in the same phenotypic series are clinically similar, as reported in Part I of this study. Here, in Part II, we hypothesized that the phenotypic series too might be clinically similar. Furthermore, on the assumption that gene mutations indirectly cause clinical phenotypes by directly affecting biological functions, we hypothesized that clinically similar phenotypic series might be biologically similar as well.

Quantitative analysis of proteins which are members of the same protein complex but cause locus heterogeneity in disease.

It is still largely unknown how mutations in different genes cause similar diseases - a condition known as locus heterogeneity. A likely explanation is that the different proteins encoded by the locus heterogeneity genes participate in the same biological function and, specifically, that they belong to the same protein complex. Here we report that, in up to 30% of the instances of locus heterogeneity, the disease-causing proteins are indeed members of the same protein complex.

From the "squiggle game" to "games of reciprocity" towards a creative co-construction of a space for working with adolescents.

The "squiggle game" is, above all, a method for relating and encouraging mutual exchange between the analyst and the patient (no matter if child, adolescent, or adult), enabling him to experience holding and freely explore different communication possibilities. After having explored the "technique" as it has been developed by Winnicott, this study also exposes some theoretical considerations, and some variations in the basic technique, brought together by the crucial role played by reciprocity: "Me a little and you a little." The paper is a clinical case with a Chinese adolescent.

Pathogenic Aβ A2V versus protective Aβ A2T mutation: Early stage aggregation and membrane interaction.

We investigated the effects of punctual A-to-V and A-to-T mutations in the amyloid precursor protein APP, corresponding to position 2 of Aβ1-42. Those mutations had opposite effects on the onset and progression of Alzheimer disease, the former inducing early AD pathology and the latter protecting against the onset of the disease. We applied Static and Dynamic Light Scattering and Circular Dichroism, to study the different mutants in the early stages of the aggregation process, essential for the disease.

Pain measurement in cancer patients: a comparison of six methods.

A consecutive sample of 53 chronic cancer pain patients were administered 5 different pain intensity scales: a visual analogue scale (VAS), a numerical rating scale from 0 to 10 (NRS), a verbal rating scale (VRS), the Italian Pain Questionnaire (Italian version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire) (PRI), and the Integrated Pain Score (IPS) which is an instrument designed at the Pain Therapy and Palliative Care Division of the National Cancer Institute of Milan to integrate pain intensity and duration in a single measure. These scales were administered before and after a definite therapy change. At the time of the second evaluation the patients were also administered a pain relief scale (IRS).