Adherence to physical activity among pregnant women in Southern Italy: results of a cross-sectional survey.

Problem: Knowledge about physical activity in pregnancy is limited compared to general population and several approaches have been used to evaluate duration and intensity of physical activity during pregnancy.

Background: Although physical activity can contribute to maternal and fetal well-being, more than half of women stopped their physical activity because of pregnancy.

Aim: To evaluate the adherence to physical activity of low-risk pregnant women by adapting an Italian version of the PPAQ.

Whole-Cell Biosensor for Iron Monitoring as a Potential Tool for Safeguarding Biodiversity in Polar Marine Environments.

Iron is a key micronutrient essential for various essential biological processes. As a consequence, alteration in iron concentration in seawater can deeply influence marine biodiversity. In polar marine environments, where environmental conditions are characterized by low temperatures, the role of iron becomes particularly significant.

Recombinant protein production in TAC125 biofilm.

Biofilms have great potential for producing valuable products, and recent research has been performed on biofilms for the production of compounds with biotechnological and industrial relevance. However, the production of recombinant proteins using this system is still limited. The recombinant protein production in microbial hosts is a well-established technology and a variety of expression systems are available.

Evaluation of Antioxidant Defence Systems and Inflammatory Status in Basketball Elite Athletes.

Intense physical activity can induce metabolic changes that modify specific biochemical biomarkers. In this scenario, the purpose of our study was to evaluate how intense physical activity can affect oxidative metabolism. Following this, fifteen professional basketball players and fifteen sedentary controls were recruited and subjected to two samplings of serum and urine in the pre-season (September) and two months after the start of the competitive season (November).

Recurrent acinic cell carcinoma of the parotid gland with lateral skull base invasion: Case report and discussion of the literature.

Medical records of a 76-year-old woman with a recurrent acinic cell carcinoma of the left parotid gland with lateral skull base invasion were reviewed. She underwent subtotal petrosectomy followed by radiation therapy. After surgery, she remained disease-free for more than 16 months.

Development of high-copy number plasmids in Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAC125.

The Antarctic bacterium Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAC125 (PhTAC125) is considered an interesting alternative host for the recombinant protein production, that can be explored when the conventional bacterial expression systems fail. Indeed, the manufacture of all the difficult-to-express proteins produced so far in this bacterial platform gave back soluble and active products. Despite these promising results, the low yield of recombinant protein production achieved is hampering the wider and industrial exploitation of this psychrophilic cell factory.

Metabolic Robustness to Growth Temperature of a Cold- Adapted Marine Bacterium.

Microbial communities experience continuous environmental changes, with temperature fluctuations being the most impacting. This is particularly important considering the ongoing global warming but also in the "simpler" context of seasonal variability of sea-surface temperature. Understanding how microorganisms react at the cellular level can improve our understanding of their possible adaptations to a changing environment.

Nasal Vestibulitis and Vestibular Furunculosis: a systematic review about two common nasal infections and considerations about correct diagnosis and management.

Background: Nasal vestibulitis (NV) and nasal vestibular furunculosis (NVF) are two infectious processes of the nasal vestibule, sharing common etiology, the same risk of complications, and similar treatment while remaining two different pathological entities.

Methods: We performed a comprehensive literature research on NV and NVF in PubMed, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases, with the aim to review the evidence on these two conditions and discuss the therapeutic approaches.

Results: We identified a total of 248 records; according to our inclusion/exclusion criteria, 27 of them, published over a period of 59 years (1962-2021), were included in this review.

Combination of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Oral Steroids for the Treatment of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Early or Late?

Background and Objectives: Several treatments are available for sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL), but no studies have compared the different treatments based on the delay from the onset of the disease. Our study aims to compare the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), oral steroids (OS) and combination of both therapies (HBOT + OS) for treating SSNHL. Materials and Methods: This randomized study analyzed 171 patients with SSNHL.

Active human full-length CDKL5 produced in the Antarctic bacterium Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAC125.

Background: A significant fraction of the human proteome is still inaccessible to in vitro studies since the recombinant production of several proteins failed in conventional cell factories. Eukaryotic protein kinases are difficult-to-express in heterologous hosts due to folding issues both related to their catalytic and regulatory domains. Human CDKL5 belongs to this category.

[Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency on healthy infants receiving standard supplementation].

Unlabelled: Vitamin D (VD) is essential for calcium and phosphorus metabolism. Its deficiency can cause rickets. In Chile, newborns receive 400UI/day supplementation from the first day of age until the first year.

Diagnostic and Therapeutic Potential for HNP-1, HBD-1 and HBD-4 in Pregnant Women with COVID-19.

Pregnancy is characterized by significant immunological changes and a cytokine profile, as well as vitamin deficiencies that can cause problems for the correct development of a fetus. Defensins are small antimicrobial peptides that are part of the innate immune system and are involved in several biological activities. Following that, this study aims to compare the levels of various cytokines and to investigate the role of defensins between pregnant women with confirmed COVID-19 infection and pregnant women without any defined risk factor.

Conditional gene silencing in the Antarctic bacterium Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAC125.

Since the release in 2005 of the genome sequence and annotation of the first Antarctic marine bacterium, the number of genomes of psychrophilic microorganisms in public databases has steadily increased. Unfortunately, the lack of effective molecular tools for the manipulation of these environmental strains still hampers our understanding of their peculiar strategies to thrive in freezing conditions, limiting the functional genomics approaches to differential analyses only. Over the past two decades, our research group established the first effective gene cloning/expression technology in the Antarctic Gram-negative marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAC125.

Soluble Recombinant Protein Production in Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAC125: The Case Study of the Full-Length Human CDKL5 Protein.

The Antarctic bacterium Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAC125 is an unconventional protein production host displaying a notable proficiency in the soluble production of difficult proteins, especially of human origin. Furthermore, the accumulation of recombinant products in insoluble aggregates has never been observed in this bacterium, indicating that its cellular physicochemical conditions and/or folding processes are rather different from those observed in mesophilic bacteria. The ability of this cell factory was challenged by producing a human protein, the cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (hCDKL5) in the bacterium cytoplasm at 0 °C.

Genome analysis of a new biosurfactants source: The Antarctic bacterium Psychrobacter sp. TAE2020.

Biosurfactants are considered a possible green alternative to chemical surfactants for countless commercial products including detergents and cleaners, personal care products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and therapeutics, food additives, emulsifiers, and dispersants for bioremediation. Organisms from extreme environments are well-adapted to the harsh conditions and represent an exciting avenue of discovery of naturally occurring biosurfactants. In this study, we report the genome analysis of Psychrobacter sp.

How can we manage Bezold abscess emergency in COVID-19 pandemic? Blind ceftriaxone and metronidazole treatment to avoid infection spread.

Bezold abscess (BA) can be a rare complication of different forms of otitis media. We describe a rare case of BA determined by . Because of COVID-19 restriction, the surgery had to be delayed up to the swab results.

Whole-genome sequencing of Pseudomonas sp. TAE6080, a strain capable of inhibiting Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm.

Antarctic bacteria are able to survive under extreme environmental conditions and have adapted to exploit some of the most ephemeral nutrient pockets. Importantly, such strains have been often shown to be capable of synthesizing compounds of valuable biotechnological importance. Here we show that Pseudomonas sp.

Evaluation of Discomfort in Nasopharyngeal Swab Specimen Collection for SARS-CoV-2 Diagnosis.

Background: The rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide has impo-sed the need to identify a test that quickly recognizes affected subjects, both symptomatic and asymptomatic. The most reliable option has been proven to be the RT-PCR, which allows to detect virus RNA on a specimen from a high viral load site, such as nasopharynx. Nasopha-ryngeal sample collection is possible by means of a nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) and is a practical and relatively non-invasive technique, but rather bothersome for the recipient.

Modelling hCDKL5 Heterologous Expression in Bacteria.

hCDKL5 refers to the human cyclin-dependent kinase like 5 that is primarily expressed in the brain. Mutations in its coding sequence are often causative of hCDKL5 deficiency disorder, a devastating neurodevelopmental disorder currently lacking a cure. The large-scale recombinant production of hCDKL5 is desirable to boost the translation of preclinical therapeutic approaches into the clinic.

Mood Disorder in Cancer Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy During the COVID-19 Outbreak.

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is having a devastating psychological impact on patients, especially patients with cancer. This work aims to evaluate mood disorders of cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy during COVID-19 in comparison with cancer patients who underwent radiation therapy in 2019. We included all the patients undergoing radiation therapy at our department in two-time points (once a week for a month in May 2019) and during the COVID-19 outbreak (in April 2020).

Improvement of TAC125 as a Cell Factory: IPTG-Inducible Plasmid Construction and Strain Engineering.

Our group has used the marine bacterium TAC125 (TAC125) as a platform for the successful recombinant production of "difficult" proteins, including eukaryotic proteins, at low temperatures. However, there is still room for improvement both in the refinement of TAC125 expression plasmids and in the bacterium's intrinsic ability to accumulate and handle heterologous products. Here, we present an integrated approach of plasmid design and strain engineering finalized to increment the recombinant expression and optimize the inducer uptake in TAC125.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Otolaryngology Residency: A Real-Life Experience.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic as been rapidly spreading worldwide. In our country, the entire Italian Healthcare System has been forced to adapt to this unprecedented condition in this century. The Head and Neck Department clinical and surgical activity was substantially reduced.