Tripeptides conjugated with thiosemicarbazones: new inhibitors of tyrosinase for cosmeceutical use.

The development of skin-care products is recently growing. Cosmetic formulas containing active ingredients with proven efficacy, namely cosmeceuticals, are based on various compounds, including peptides. Different whitening agents featuring anti-tyrosinase activity have been applied in the cosmeceutical field.

Codevelopment of delinquent and depressive symptoms across adolescence: time-invariant and time-varying effects of school and social failure.

The codevelopment of delinquent behaviors and depressive symptoms from Grade 9 to 11 was investigated on an Italian sample of 518 adolescents (399 male) after the transition to high school, evaluating the time-invariant effects of past school failure and social failure and the time-varying effects of school achievement and social problems. Bivariate latent growth model showed a positive correlation between the two intercepts and the two slopes, suggesting that during adolescence the two trajectories are reciprocally and causally related over time. Time-invariant predictors--past school failure and social failure--explain interindividual variability only for delinquent growth.

Optimizing pemetrexed-gemcitabine combination in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a pharmacogenetic approach.

Introduction: The pemetrexed-gemcitabine combination is effective in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Preclinical data suggest that pemetrexed may synergistically interact with gemcitabine by enhancing the expression of human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1) and deoxycytidine kinase (dCK), increasing the uptake and intracellular activation of gemcitabine. A pharmacogenetic approach was adopted to evaluate hENT1 and dCK expressions in humans and to identify the potential best time interval to administer gemcitabine after pemetrexed in patients with advanced NSCLC.

Pathology of the thoracic aorta: a morphologic review of 338 surgical specimens over a 7-year period.

A total of 338 surgical specimens of the thoracic aorta were studied morphologically. These were obtained from patients (238 males, 100 females) operated on for aortic aneurysm or dissection at the Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy, between January 1999 and June 2005. Medial degeneration was diagnosed in 299 cases (138 aneurysms, 161 dissections), atherosclerosis with extensive medial destruction was seen in 32 cases (26 aneurysms, 6 dissections), and giant cell arteritis (GCA) was found in 7 cases (all aneurysms).

An unusual case of cardiac tamponade.

A case of a 67-year-old woman with cardiac tamponade caused by toothpick ingestion is presented. At clinical presentation, it mimicked postinfarction ventricular free wall rupture and the diagnosis was not made until the operation. Ingested toothpicks have often been reported as a cause of intestinal injuries, but in this rare case the toothpick migrated into the pericardium and caused laceration of the right coronary artery.