Direct and indirect healthcare costs of ocular diseases in Italy: a literature review on glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration.

Background: Glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration impose substantial economic burdens on healthcare systems due to their high prevalence and chronic nature. Nevertheless, comprehensive Italian data is limited. This study aims to collect Italian evidence on the economic impact of these conditions to support more effective healthcare planning.

Editorial: Climate change is a children's health hazard.

As temperatures defy heat records, it is difficult to ignore the implications of climate change for public health, including impacts on population health more specifically. In short, climate change is happening now and presents an immediate hazard to human health on a global scale. Age-related health effects are an inalienable truth; physiology is relatively universal, and so are the ways in which our bodies respond to different types and levels of exposures to environmental stressors at different lifestages.

Rituximab versus placebo for chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy: a randomized trial.

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) often requires prolonged ongoing treatment to prevent worsening. The efficacy of rituximab in preventing worsening after the discontinuation of immunoglobulin therapy in CIDP patients was assessed. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, conducted at seven Italian hospitals, CIDP patients under immunoglobulin therapy were assigned to receive either rituximab (1g on days 1, 15, and 180±7) or placebo.

Insights into the Hierarchical Assembly of a Chemically Diverse Peptide Hydrogel Derived from Human Semenogelin I.

A peptide corresponding to a 13-residue segment of the human protein semenogelin I has been shown to generate a hydrogel consisting of amyloid-like fibrils. The relative chemical diversity (compared to synthetic sequences) with 11 distinct amino acids makes this peptide (P0) an ideal candidate for investigating the role of individual residues in gelation. Herein, the terminal residues have been sequentially removed to furnish a series of truncated peptides, P1-P10, ranging from 12 to 3 residues in length.