Thousands of disease cases and hundreds of deaths occur globally each year due to invasive meningococcal disease. serogroup B (MenB) is the leading cause of such disease in developed countries. Two vaccines, 4CMenB and MenB-fHbp, that protect against MenB are available and include one or two forms respectively of factor H binding protein (fHbp), a key protective antigen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdolescents are particularly vulnerable to inadequate provision of mental health and addictions care, as services have been traditionally conceptualized to serve the needs of children or adults. Additionally, rural communities have been largely excluded from research investigating mental healthcare access and exhibit unique barriers that warrant targeted interventions. Finally, perspectives from the target population will be most important when understanding how to optimize adolescent mental health and addictions care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets
June 2024
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne)
February 2024
Background: Acromegaly is caused by excessive growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). Medical therapy plays a role as a treatment option for persistent disease after non-curative surgery or as a first-line therapy when surgery is not feasible. Pasireotide-LAR (Pas-LAR) is recommended for patients with acromegaly as second-line treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Endocrinol Invest
July 2024
Objective: Pasireotide LAR (PAS-LAR) was released in Italy in 2017 to treat acromegaly patients resistant to SRLs (Somatostatin Receptors Ligands). The long-term follow-up data of PAS-LAR therapy in Italy are limited. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PAS-LAR in acromegaly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlob Reg Health Technol Assess
January 2024
Background: Prolactinoma, the most common pituitary adenoma, is usually treated with dopamine agonist (DA) therapy like cabergoline. Surgery is second-line therapy, and radiotherapy is used if surgical treatment fails or in relapsing macroprolactinoma.
Objective: This study aimed to provide economic evidence for the management of prolactinoma in Italy, using a cost-of-illness and cost-utility analysis that considered various treatment options, including cabergoline, bromocriptine, temozolomide, radiation therapy, and surgical strategies.
Sarcopenia is an age-related clinical complaint characterized by the progressive deterioration of skeletal muscle mass and strength over time. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with faster and more relevant skeletal muscle impairment. Both conditions influence each other, leading to negative consequences on glycemic control, cardiovascular risk, general health status, risk of falls, frailty, overall quality of life, and mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe identification and recombinant production of functional antigens and/or epitopes of pathogens represent a crucial step for the development of an effective protein-based vaccine. Many vaccine targets are outer membrane proteins anchored into the lipidic bilayer through an extended hydrophobic portion making their recombinant production challenging. Moreover, only the extracellular loops, and not the hydrophobic regions, are naturally exposed to the immune system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets
June 2024
Background: Pasireotide is a multireceptor somatostatin analogue approved for the treatment of patients with Cushing's disease (CD) who are ineligible or poor candidates for pituitary surgery. Here we present a patient with severe recurrent CD who was treated with pasiretide and showed opposite results between hormonal levels and pituitary tumour size.
Case Presentation: A 54-year-old woman was diagnosed with CD, a first surgical transsphenoidal procedure was performed at the time of diagnosis, and the disease recurred seven years later.
A maternal vaccine to protect neonates against Group B Streptococcus invasive infection is an unmet medical need. Such a vaccine should ideally be offered during the third trimester of pregnancy and induce strong immune responses after a single dose to maximize the time for placental transfer of protective antibodies. A key target antigen is the capsular polysaccharide, an anti-phagocytic virulence factor that elicits protective antibodies when conjugated to carrier proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets
November 2023
Introduction: This guideline (GL) is aimed at providing a reference for the management of prolactin (PRL)-secreting pituitary adenoma in adults. However, pregnancy is not considered.
Methods: This GL has been developed following the methods described in the Manual of the Italian National Guideline System.
The diffusion of virtual reality applications dedicated to aging urges us to appraise its acceptance by target populations, especially the oldest olds. We investigated whether immersive virtual biking, and specifically a visuomotor manipulation aimed at improving visual exploration (augmented gaze), was well accepted by elders living in assisted residences. Twenty participants (mean age 89.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets
November 2023
Aim: This guideline (GL) is aimed at providing a reference for the management of non-functioning, benign thyroid nodules causing local symptoms in adults outside of pregnancy.
Methods: This GL has been developed following the methods described in the Manual of the National Guideline System. For each question, the panel appointed by Associazione Medici Endocrinology (AME) identified potentially relevant outcomes, which were then rated for their impact on therapeutic choices.
Recombinant protein-based vaccines are a valid and safer alternative to traditional vaccines based on live-attenuated or killed pathogens. However, the immune response of subunit vaccines is generally lower compared to that elicited by traditional vaccines and usually requires the use of adjuvants. The use of self-assembling protein nanoparticles, as a platform for vaccine antigen presentation, is emerging as a promising approach to enhance the production of protective and functional antibodies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: primary empty sella (PES) represents a frequent finding, but data on hormonal alterations are heterogeneous, and its natural history is still unclear. Our aim was to evaluate the pituitary function of patients with PES over a long follow-up.
Design: multicenter retrospective cohort study enrolling patients referred between 1984-2020 to five Pituitary Units, with neuroradiological confirmed PES and a complete hormonal assessment.
Somatostatin receptor ligands (SRLs) represent a true milestone in the medical therapy for acromegaly. The first-generation SRLs (FG-SRLs), octreotide and lanreotide, have demonstrated good efficacy in disease control and tumor shrinkage, and are still considered first-line medical therapies. The development of long-acting release (LAR) formulations has certainly improved the therapeutic tolerability of these drugs, although many patients still experience therapy-related burden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study, we report the management, in Lombardy, Italy, of one patient with Cushing's syndrome due to adrenal adenoma and another one with pheochromocytoma, whose surgeries were deferred owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProlactinomas are the most frequent pituitary adenomas. Prolactinoma may occur in different clinical settings and always require an individually tailored approach. This is the reason why a panel of Italian neuroendocrine experts was charged with the task to provide indications for the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that can be easily applied in different contexts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClaudin (Cldn)-10 tight junction (TJ) proteins are hypothesized to form the paracellular Na+ secretion pathway of hyposmoregulating mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) branchial epithelia. Organ-specific expression profiles showed that only branchial organs [the gill and opercular epithelium (OE)] exhibited abundant cldn-10 paralog transcripts, which typically increased following seawater (SW) to hypersaline (2SW) challenge. Post-translational properties, protein abundance, and ionocyte localization of Cldn-10c, were then examined in gill and OE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MenB) is the leading cause of meningococcal meningitis and sepsis in industrialized countries, with the highest incidence in infants and adolescents. Two recombinant protein vaccines that protect against MenB are now available (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets
January 2022
Background: Functional imaging with Ga-DOTATATE PET-CT is widely employed to detect both primary and metastatic pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PGL), but its results may be occasionally misleading as in the case here reported.
Case Presentation: We report here a 75-year-old woman with an interaortocaval PGL that was diagnosed after a hypertensive crisis occurring during the resection of a kidney tumor. Ga-DOTATATE PET-CT disclosed pathologic uptake in the abdomen and at the iliac crest.
Endocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets
November 2021
A 24-years old female was admitted for acute renal failure, melanoderma, hyponatremia, and hyperkalemia. The clinical suspicion of Addison's disease was confirmed by laboratory test and the appropriate replacement therapy with corticosteroids and fludrocortisone was started. In the meantime primary hypothyroidism and diabetes mellitus type 1 were disclosed and treated, thus fulfilling a diagnosis of autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAny newly diagnosed patient should be referred to a multidisciplinary team experienced in the treatment of pituitary adenomas. The therapeutic management of acromegaly always requires a personalized strategy. Normal age-matched IGF-I values are the treatment goal.
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