Determinants of delayed healthcare access and stigma associated with pandemic SARS-CoV-2 infec-tion: findings from a pilot study in the immigrant population in Catania (Sicily Region, Southern Italy).

Background: the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have aggravated existing social and healthcare inequalities among particular population groups, such as ethnic minorities, who showed increased susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Objectives: to characterize risk profiles or determinants of delayed healthcare access, as well as knowledge, risk perception, behaviour, and social stigma concerning SARS-CoV-2 infection in the immigrant population in the city of Catania (Sicily Region, Southern Italy).

Design: pilot, descriptive study.

Real life hexavalent vaccination among children as a practical guide for public health professionals: Four years (from 2016 to 2019) of clinical practice in Sicily, Italy.

Hexavalent (HV) vaccination is a priority for newborn protection and in Italy is included in the National Immunization Plan with a three doses cycle at 61, 121 and 301 days of age. A retrospective clinical study has been conducted to evaluate real life clinical practice of HV vaccination in the fourth most populous Italian Region. Data on the completion of the HV cycle, on the interchangeability between the two HV adopted in 2016-2017 (DTaP3-IPV-HB/Hib) and 2018-2019 (DTaP5-IPV-HB-Hib) and on the use above the established age, were collected in five Sicilian Local Health Authorities.

Attitudes of Healthcare Personnel towards Vaccinations before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Vaccines constitute highly effective tools for controlling and eliminating vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) and are assessed to avert between two to three million deaths per year globally. Healthcare personnel (HCP) constitute a priority group for several vaccinations. However, studies indicate significant rates of vaccine hesitancy among them and, therefore, of acceptance of vaccination recommendations.

Measles and Pregnancy: Immunity and Immunization-What Can Be Learned from Observing Complications during an Epidemic Year.

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease. Unvaccinated pregnant women are not only at risk of infection but also at risk of severe pregnancy complications. As measles causes a dysregulation of the entire immune system, we describe immunological variations and how immune response mechanisms can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Unraveling a new player in multiple sclerosis pathogenesis: The RNA-binding protein HuR.

Background: ELAV-like proteins are a small family of RNA-binding proteins that are fundamental players in post-transcriptional mechanisms and are involved in the pathogenesis of neurologic and psychiatric disorders. HuR, the ubiquitously expressed member of the family, is also implicated in sustaining inflammation and inflammatory diseases, supporting the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Inflammation plays a central role in Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which represents the most common cause of permanent physical disability in young adults.

Response to oxidative stress of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from multiple sclerosis patients and healthy controls.

The complex scenario of multiple sclerosis (MS) pathology involves several mechanisms, including oxidative stress response. The heat shock proteins (HSPs) are important for the protection of the cells; however, their role in MS is not clear. The present research is focused on the response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to oxidative stress and to the involvement of HSP70-2 (a protein coded by the HSPA1B gene, located in the MHC class III).

Case-control study on intestinal intussusception: implications for anti-rotavirus vaccination.

Background: Intussusception represents the most common cause of abdominal emergency among young children but nearly 75% of cases are still considered idiopathic.

Research Design And Methods: A case-control study was conducted among Sicilian children aged 0-59 months with a hospital admission for intussusception between 2009 and 2015 to identify factors associated with intussusception onset.

Results: Overall, 125 cases and 190 controls were recruited for the study.

[Breastfeeding in Sicily Region (Southern Italy): analysis of prevalence, of contextual inequalities, and of other associated risk factors].

Objectives: to describe the prevalence of breastfeeding in Sicily Region (Southern Italy) and to analyze the socioeconomic status and other major risk factors on the attitudes towards exclusive breastfeeding.

Design: information on the practice of breastfeeding in Sicily have been collected from a Regional survey on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). An index of socioeconomic position was created by using data from the 2011 Census of the Italian National Institute of Statistics.

Waterborne Norovirus outbreak at a seaside resort likely originating from municipal water distribution system failure.

In May 2016 a Norovirus (NoV) gastroenteritis outbreak involved a high school class visiting a seaside resort near Taormina (Mascali, Sicily). Twenty-four students and a teacher were affected and 17 of them showed symptoms on the second day of the journey, while the others got ill within the following 2 days. Symptoms included vomiting, diarrhoea and fever, and 12 students required hospitalisation.

What's new about oral treatments in Multiple Sclerosis? Immunogenetics still under question.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic pathology affecting the Central Nervous System characterized by inflammatory processes that lead to demyelination and neurodegeneration. In MS treatment, disease modifying therapies (DMTs) are essential to reduce disease progression by suppressing the inflammatory response responsible for promoting lesion formation. Recently, in addition to the classical injectable DMTs like Interferons and Glatiramer acetate, new orally administered drugs have been approved for MS therapy: dimethyl fumarate, teriflunomide and fingolimod.

Persistence of immunity 18-19 years after vaccination against hepatitis B in 2 cohorts of vaccinees primed as infants or as adolescents in Italy.

This study was aimed at assessing the anti-HBs persistence and immune memory 18-19 y after vaccination against hepatitis B in healthy individuals primed as infants or adolescents. We enrolled 405 teenagers (Group A) vaccinated as infants, and 409 young adults (Group B) vaccinated as adolescents. All vaccinees were tested for anti-HBs and anti-HBc antibodies; those found anti-HBc positive were further tested for HBsAg and HBV DNA.

Complement C4A and C4B Gene Copy Number Study in Alzheimer's Disease Patients.

Background/objectives: Increasing evidence suggests the importance of neuroinflammation in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is a complex neurodegenerative disorder. Complement activation occurs in the brain of patients with AD and seems to contribute to an important local inflammatory state. Increased expression of the fourth serum complement component 4 (C4) has been observed in AD patients in many studies.

Heat shock protein 70-hom gene polymorphism and protein expression in multiple sclerosis.

Immune-mediated and neurodegenerative mechanisms are involved in multiple sclerosis (MS). Growing evidences highlight the role of HSP70 genes in the susceptibility of some neurological diseases. In this explorative study we analyzed a polymorphism (i.

The immunogenicity and safety of a tetravalent measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine when co-administered with conjugated meningococcal C vaccine to healthy children: A phase IIIb, randomized, multi-center study in Italy.

Introduction: Multiple vaccination visits and administrations can be stressful for infants, parents and healthcare providers. Multivalent combination vaccines can deliver the required number of antigens in fewer injections and clinic visits, while vaccine co-administration can also reduce the number of visits. This non-inferiority study was undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of co-administering a combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) vaccine with conjugated meningococcal C (MenC) vaccine in a large cohort of healthy Italian toddlers.

The Possible Involvement of HLA Class III Haplotype (RAGE, HSP70 and TNF Genes) in Alzheimer's Disease.

In the central nervous system Hsp70s seems to have a protective role in repair and removal of cellular proteins damaged by stress conditions. A protective role of Hsp70 was also shown in Alzheimer Disease. The HSP70-1 +190 G/C polymorphism is located in the gene 5'UTR region and it is implicated in alteration of the transcription binding factor; HSP70-2 +1267 A/G causes a silent mutation in the coding region and it seems to influence the mechanism of mRNA translation; HSP70-hom +2437 A/G causes a substitution Met → The (M493T) in the coding region and it seems to influence the bond with the substrate and therefore on the chaperone activity of hsp70.

Analysis of hospitalizations due to intussusception in Sicily in the pre-rotavirus vaccination era (2003-2012).

Background: Intussusception is the most common cause of bowel obstruction in infants with an incidence ranging from 9-328 cases per 100,000 infants aged 0-11 months. Causes underlining this clinical manifestation are still unknown. Possible relationship with a withdrawn tetravalent rotavirus vaccine was not confirmed by post-licensure studies and actually no increased risk of intussusception was found between infants vaccinated with both the recently licensed rotavirus vaccines.

A measles outbreak in Catania, Sicily: the importance of high vaccination coverage and early notification of cases for health and economic reasons.

Measles is a paediatric exanthematous disease. Even though vaccination has dramatically reduced measles morbidity and mortality, outbreaks still occur due to insufficient vaccination coverage and importation of the virus from endemic regions. Although child vaccination coverage in Italy has been broadened (from 74% in 2000 to 90.

Hepatitis B immunity in teenagers vaccinated as infants: an Italian 17-year follow-up study.

We assessed the persistence of hepatitis B surface antigen antibody (anti-HBs) and immune memory in a cohort of 571 teenagers vaccinated against hepatitis B as infants, 17 years earlier. Vaccinees were followed-up in 2003 and in 2010 (i.e.

Are Hsp70 protein expression and genetic polymorphism implicated in multiple sclerosis inflammation?

Genetic and environmental factors contribute to disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS) susceptibility, the most prevalent neurological pathology affecting young individuals in Western countries. We focused our attention on HSP70-2, an inducible chaperon induced under stress conditions. Genotype analysis of HSP70-2 (+1267 A/G) polymorphism revealed a significant association between the minor allele G and presence of MS (OR:1.

The human leukocyte antigen class III haplotype approach: new insight in Alzheimer's disease inflammation hypothesis.

The Alzheimer's disease "inflammation hypothesis" has emerged only recently, suggesting the risk of developing AD might be influenced by variants of genes encoding for inflammatory mediators. In order to investigate in this direction, genomic DNA from 194 Italian AD cases and 454 healthy controls matched by gender and ethnicity was analyzed for the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End products (RAGE, HLA class III-centromere portion) -374 and - 429 SNPs and for the Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-α, HLA class III-telomere portion) -857, -308 and -238 SNPs by RFLP and Real Time PCR. Our data show statistically significant deviations between AD patients and healthy controls concerning RAGE -374 SNP genotype (TT: p=0.

HLA class III genes involvement in Kawasaki disease: a case-control study in Caucasian population.

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute, multisystemic, febrile vasculitis of unknown aetiology, which affects young children mainly under 5 years of age. The clinical variability has until now prevented to decrypt KD aetiological factors. Recently, the importance of genetics and the pivotal role of the immune system have emerged.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene variants and Alzheimer disease: an association study in an Alzheimer disease Italian population.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) promotes neuronal survival during development and protects neurons from insults of various kinds. Changes in production of BDNF have been reported in differing neurodegenerative pathologies and, in particular, in Alzheimer disease (AD). We studied 200 AD patients and 408 healthy controls for BDNF Val66Met(G196A) polymorphism, 200AD and 384 healthy controls for BDNF 270 C/T polymorphism, and 200AD and 393 healthy controls for BDNF 11757 G/C polymorphism by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and real-time PCR.

Association between two polymorphisms in the HLA-G gene and angiographic coronary artery disease.

Atherosclerosis and related complications still represent the major cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries. Therefore, it is particularly important to investigate the molecules involved in cardiac inflammation. Evidence exists showing that the human leukocyte antigen‑G (HLA-G) gene tissue expression and related protein physiological significance is influenced by two polymorphisms, rs16375 and rs1632933.

Booster vaccination of pre-school children with reduced-antigen-content diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis-inactivated poliovirus vaccine co-administered with measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine: a randomized, controlled trial in children primed according to a 2 + 1 schedule in infancy.

Background: Pertussis occurs in older children, adolescents and adults due to waning immunity after primary vaccination. Booster vaccination for pre-school children has been recommended in Italy since 1999. In this study (NCT00871000), the immunogenicity, safety and reactogenicity of a booster dose of reduced-antigen content diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis-inactivated poliovirus vaccine (dTpa-IPV; GSK Biologicals Boostrix™-Polio; 3-component pertussis) vs.