The disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has led the scientific community to undertake an unprecedented effort to characterize viral infection mechanisms. Among these, interactions between the viral glycosylated Spike and the human receptors ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are key to allowing virus invasion. Here, we report and test a fully rational methodology to design molecules that are capable of perturbing the interactions between these critical players in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe modulation of protein function via designed small molecules is providing new opportunities in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry. While drugs have traditionally been developed to block enzymatic activities through active site occupation, a growing number of strategies now aim to control protein functions in an allosteric fashion, allowing for the tuning of a target's activation or deactivation via the modulation of the populations of conformational ensembles that underlie its function. In the context of the discovery of new active leads, it would be very useful to generate hypotheses for the functional impact of new ligands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn order to tackle the global increase in overweight and obesity prevalence, several nutrient profiling systems have been developed; among others, Food Compass Score (FCS) has been designed to encompass multiple domains of food healthfulness. However, environmental sustainability of healthy diets is another crucial dimension which should not be overlooked in the context of human health. The aim of the present study is to assess the association between healthiness and environmental sustainability of food items, using the FCS and Agribalyse databases, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecular chaperones, a family of proteins of which Hsp90 and Hsp70 are integral members, form an essential machinery to maintain healthy proteomes by controlling the folding and activation of a plethora of substrate client proteins. This is achieved through cycles in which Hsp90 and Hsp70, regulated by task-specific co-chaperones, process ATP and become part of a complex network that undergoes extensive compositional and conformational variations. Despite impressive advances in structural knowledge, the mechanisms that regulate the dynamics of functional assemblies, their response to nucleotides, and their relevance for client remodeling are still elusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Clin Diabetes Healthc
November 2023
An emerging research niche has focused on the link between social determinants of health and diabetes mellitus, one of the most prevalent non-communicable diseases in modern society. The aim of the present mini-review is to explore and summarize current findings in this field targeting high-income countries. In the presence of disadvantaged neighborhood factors (including socioeconomic status, food environment, walkability and neighborhood aesthetics), diabetes prevention and care are affected at a multidimensional level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Biopsy remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of hepatic steatosis, the leading cause of pediatric chronic liver disease; however, its costs call for less invasive methods.
Objective: This study examined the diagnostic accuracy and reliability of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) for the assessment of liver fat content in a pediatric population, using magnetic resonance imaging proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF) as the reference standard.
Materials And Methods: We enrolled 36 patients.
Purpose: The aim of the study was to examine the effects of meal supervision, provided by health professionals, volunteers or family members, on anthropometric, nutritional, psychological, and behavioural outcomes in patients with eating disorders (EDs).
Methods: The present systematic review was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The last search was conducted in three databases (PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane library).
Thanks to the considerable research which has been undertaken in the last few years to improve our understanding of the biology and mechanism of action of SARS-CoV-2, we know how the virus uses its surface spike protein to infect host cells. The transmembrane prosthesis, serine 2 (TMPRSS2) protein, located on the surface of human cells, recognizes the cleavage site in the spike protein, leading to the release of the fusion peptide and entry of the virus into the host cells. Because of its role, TMPRSS2 has been proposed as a drug target to prevent infection by the virus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSARS-CoV-2 has evolved rapidly in the first 3 years of pandemic diffusion. The initial evolution of the virus appeared to proceed through big jumps in sequence changes rather than through the stepwise accumulation of point mutations on already established variants. Here, we examine whether this nonlinear mutational process reverberates in variations of the conformational dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein (S-protein), the first point of contact between the virus and the human host.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNutrient profiling and front-of-pack labeling (FOPL) have been developed to categorize food products as more or less healthy based on their nutrient content and to easily communicate this information to consumers. The goal is to change individual food choices toward a healthier diet. Since global climate change has recently become an urgent matter, this paper also aims to investigate the correlations between different food health scales, including some FOPLs currently adopted by one or more countries, and several sustainability indicators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccumulating evidence supports a connection between sarcopenic obesity (SO) and NAFLD. The extent to which fatty liver contributes to impaired muscle contractility is not yet well established. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of NAFLD on dynapenia in patients with SO.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe definition of metabolic syndrome (MetS) has undergone several changes over the years due to the difficulty in establishing universal criteria for it. Underlying the disorders related to MetS is almost invariably a pro-inflammatory state related to altered glucose metabolism, which could lead to elevated cardiovascular risk. Indeed, the complications closely related to MetS are cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and type 2 diabetes (T2D).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDigital anthropometry (DA) has been recently developed for body composition evaluation and for postural analysis. The aims of this review are to examine the current state of DA technology, as well as to verify the methods for identifying the best technology to be used in the field of DA by evaluating the reliability and accuracy of the available technologies on the market, and lay the groundwork for future technological developments. A literature search was performed and 28 studies met the inclusion criteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe designed and performed a participatory sensing initiative to explore the reliability and effectiveness of a distributed network of citizen-operated smartphones in evaluating the impact of environmental noise in residential areas. We asked participants to evaluate the comfort of their home environment in different situations and at different times, to select the most and least comfortable states and to measure noise levels with their smartphones. We then correlated comfort ratings with noise measurements and additional contextual information provided by participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGiven the enormous social and health impact of the pandemic triggered by severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the scientific community made a huge effort to provide an immediate response to the challenges posed by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). One of the most important proteins of the virus is an enzyme, called 3CLpro or main protease, already identified as an important pharmacological target also in SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome virus (MERS) viruses. This protein triggers the production of a whole series of enzymes necessary for the virus to carry out its replicating and infectious activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Occupational exposure to sunlight, in particular to blue light (wavelength of 380-550 nm), is a risk factor for several pathologies, including chronic retinal photochemical damage and, more specifically, age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Moreover, in addition to the effect of blue light, there is evidence about the role of near ultraviolet light (UV-A) as a risk factor for AMD since, given the wavelength, a precise "turning point" between effect and no effect is not definable.
Methods And Results: This work reports the case of a woman employed in the agricultural sector from 15 to 25 years of age, with no significant occupational exposure to other risk factors for AMD, who later developed this pathology.
Objectives: In physical rehabilitation, is diffused the skin irradiation with near infrared laser at a fluence below 140 J/cm2, achieving a bio-stimulating effect that is due to the absorption of radiation in mitochondria rather than the simple heating of tissues.
Methods: In order to deliver radiation without thermal damage of the skin, are used radiation pulses which duration does not allow heat accumulation and propagation far from the irradiated target; this requires laser sources with average power below 10 W implying a safety classification as "potentially dangerous for eye and skin", or "class 4" according to the applicable international standards. In this paper, 6 laser therapy devices, of 5 different manufactures and models have been analyzed from the point of view of actual radiation output and user safety.
Background: Treatment with infliximab is a common option for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Therapeutic drug monitoring could improve treatment management.
Aims: To test inter-test reliability of two commercially available diagnostic kits for infliximab trough levels and infliximab antibodies, and their association with treatment outcomes.
The recent postponement until 31 October 2013 of the deadline for transposition of the EU Directive 2004/40/EC, concerning the minimum health requirementsfor the exposure of workers to the risks arising from electromagnetic fields between 0 and 300 GHz, keeps on suspending the Italian law which was aimed to implement the EU regulations on the occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields, including those generated by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) units. Waiting for the revision of the exposure limits proposed by the EU Directive taking into account results from new studies and evolution of knowledge, the time-weighted values of static magnetic field proposed by the Italian Ministry of Health (D.M 02/08/91) still survive as limits for worker's exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe first solvent-free crystal structure of PCBM, an organic semiconductor widely used in solvent-free nanocrystalline films in plastic solar cells, is reported and its relevance to structure-property relationships discussed. The PCBM structure, obtained from o-dichlorobenzene solvates by solvent abstraction, was solved using powder diffraction, demonstrating this possibility for functionalized fullerenes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work, a method previously proposed in the literature (Sisto R, Pinto I, Stacchini N et al. Infrared radiation exposure in traditional glass factories. AIHAJ 2000; 61: 5-10) to evaluate the exposure to infrared (IR) radiation when the source can be approximated as a black body is implemented in a mathematical code developed in Matlab.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Severe sleep disruption is a well-documented problem in mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients during their time in the intensive care unit (ICU), but little attention has been paid to the period when these patients become clinically stable and are transferred to a step-down unit (SDU). We monitored the 24-h sleep pattern in 2 groups of patients, one on mechanical ventilation and the other breathing spontaneously, admitted to our SDU to assess the presence of sleep abnormalities and their association with mechanical ventilation.
Methods: Twenty-two patients admitted to an SDU underwent 24-h polysomnography with monitoring of noise and light.
J Colloid Interface Sci
August 2010
Oil-soluble calcium carbonate colloids are used as detergent additives in lubricating oils. They are colloidal dispersions of calcium carbonate particles stabilized by different surfactants; in this study alkyl-aryl-sulfonates and sulfurized alkyl-phenates, widely used in the synthesis of these additives, are considered. The physical properties of surfactant layers surrounding the surfaces of calcium carbonate particles were analyzed by using some nitroxide spin-probes (stable free radicals) and observing the corresponding ESR spectra.
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