Background: The approval of new disease-modifying therapies by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicine Agency makes it necessary to optimize non-invasive and cost-effective tools for the identification of subjects at-risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease (AD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimer's disease, the leading cause of dementia globally, represents an unresolved clinical challenge due to its complex pathogenesis and the absence of effective treatments. Considering the multifactorial etiology of the disease, mainly characterized by the accumulation of amyloid β plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein, we discuss the A673V mutation in the gene coding for the amyloid precursor protein, which is associated with the familial form of Alzheimer's disease in a homozygous state. The mutation offers new insights into the molecular mechanisms of the disease, particularly regarding the contrasting roles of the A2V and A2T mutations in amyloid β peptide aggregation and toxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CREs) are globally considered to be a major threat to public health. National and international guidelines emphasize the importance of routine active surveillance policies to prevent their transmission. Consequently, screening for the evaluation of the status of colonization by CREs in hospitalized patients in Italy is considered essential to contain and control the spread of these microorganisms and their evolution towards infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we investigate the validity of objective operator data as proxy indicators for riskier gambling as based upon an independent self-report measure. Such work is important to strengthen the validity of gambling research involving objective behavioral indicators of harm used to detect higher risk gambling or product choices. To address these aims, a total of 21,464 individual customers from a single international operator completed the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Clin Transl Neurol
November 2024
Methods: This study assessed data from two cohorts of patients with alpha-synucleinopathies (University of Brescia and University of Rome Tor-Vergata cohorts). Consecutive participants with video-polysomnography-confirmed iRBD, Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and controls underwent neurological, clinical and I-FP-CIT SPECT imaging assessments. Individuals with iRBD were longitudinally monitored to collect clinical phenoconversion to PD or DLB.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article constitutes a review of the existing literature on the potential correlation between autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) and intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) of the pancreas. Additionally, it presents a clinical case where familiarity for both pathologies was observed, derived from the direct experience of our clinic, reinforcing the hypothesis of a possible common pathogenetic pathway. The review focuses on the potential genetic correlation between these two pathologies within the realm of ciliopathies, emphasizing the importance of targeted screening and monitoring strategies to detect pancreatic complications early in patients with ADPKD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study aims to assess the activity of solutions containing povidone-iodine (PI) and hydrogen peroxide (HO) alone or combined on the biofilm of microbial species in the contest of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI).
Methods: Different antiseptic solutions were tested on 2-day-old biofilms of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and fungi at 1 and 3 minutes of exposure. The efficacy of these solutions was evaluated by measuring the biofilm metabolic activity by methoxynitrosulfophenyl-tetrazolium carboxanilide (XTT) reduction assay.
Introduction: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common genetic kidney disease and the 4th leading cause of renal replacement therapy in the world. ADPKD is a systemic disorder as cysts may develop in several organs. Liver cysts are the most common extrarenal manifestations and are often incidentally detected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe introduce a georeferenced dataset of Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE), Ecosystem Respiration (ER) and meteo-climatic variables (air and soil temperature, air relative humidity, soil volumetric water content, pressure, and solar irradiance) collected at the Nivolet Plain in Gran Paradiso National Park (GPNP), western Italian Alps, from 2017 to 2023. NEE and ER are derived by measuring the temporal variation of CO concentration obtained by the enclosed chamber method. We used a customised portable non-steady-state dynamic flux chamber, paired with an InfraRed Gas Analyser (IRGA) and a portable weather station, measuring CO fluxes at a number of points (around 20 per site and per day) within five different sites during the snow-free season (June to October).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFragile X messenger ribonucleoprotein 1 (FMRP) is a widely expressed RNA binding protein involved in several steps of mRNA metabolism. Mutations in the FMR1 gene encoding FMRP are responsible for fragile X syndrome (FXS), a leading genetic cause of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder, and fragile X-associated tremor-ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), a neurodegenerative disorder in aging men. Although FMRP is mainly expressed in neurons, it is also present in glial cells and its deficiency or altered expression can affect functions of glial cells with implications for the pathophysiology of brain disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis review navigates the intricate relationship between gender, hormonal influences, and the progression of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), highlighting the limited literature on this crucial topic. The study explores the impact of female sex hormones on liver and renal manifestations, uncovering gender-specific differences in disease progression. Actually, hormonal therapy in women with ADPKD remains a challenging issue and is a source of concern regarding its potential impact on disease outcomes, particularly at the hepatic level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn an effort to help reduce the costs of fluorescence microscopy and expand the use of this valuable technique, we developed a low-cost platform capable of visualising and analysing the spatio-temporal dynamics of intracellular Ca signalling in astrocytes. The created platform, consisting of a specially adapted fluorescence microscope and a data analysis procedure performed with Imagej Fiji software and custom scripts, allowed us to detect relative changes of intracellular Ca ions in astrocytes. To demonstrate the usefulness of the workflow, we applied the methodology to several astrocyte preparations, specifically immortalised human astrocyte cells and wild-type mouse cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLampedusa, the largest island of the Pelagie archipelago, Sicily, Italy, has proven to be a rich source of plants and shrubs used in folk medicine. These plants, often native to the island, have been very poorly investigated for their phytochemical composition and biological potential to be translated into pharmacological applications. To start achieving this purpose, a specimen of , a plant native to Lampedusa, was investigated for the first time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe accumulation of protein aggregates defines distinct, yet overlapping pathologies such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In this study, we investigated ATG5, UBQLN2, ULK1, and LC3 concentrations in 66 brain specimens and 120 plasma samples from AD, DLB, FTD, and control subjects (CTRL). Protein concentration was measured with ELISA kits in temporal, frontal, and occipital cortex specimens of 32 AD, 10 DLB, 10 FTD, and 14 CTRL, and in plasma samples of 30 AD, 30 DLB, 30 FTD, and 30 CTRL.
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