Predicting and preventing cardiotoxicity in the era of breast cancer targeted therapies. Novel molecular tools for clinical issues.

Treatment of breast cancer (BC) has changed over the last decade with the advent of targeted therapies. Whereas traditional chemotherapy was directed toward all rapidly dividing cells (cancerous or not), several new anti-cancer drugs are mainly tailored to specific genetic pathways of cancer cells. Ideally, the goal of these new therapies is to improve the management of cancer with a specific targeting of the malignant cell and fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy.

Polymorphisms in the NOS1AP gene modulate QT interval duration and risk of arrhythmias in the long QT syndrome.

Objectives: We investigated the role of nitric oxide 1 adaptor protein (NOS1AP) as a genetic modifier of long QT syndrome (LQTS).

Background: LQTS risk stratification is complicated by the phenotype variability that limits prediction of life-threatening arrhythmic events based on available metrics. Thus, the identification of new markers is desirable.

Prevalence of Bartonella henselae in Italian stray cats: evaluation of serology to assess the risk of transmission of Bartonella to humans.

Bartonella henselae is the major etiological agent of cat scratch disease in humans. Cats act as the natural reservoir of B. henselae and can transmit the infection to humans by a bite or scratch.

Development of a polymerase chain reaction and restriction typing assay for the diagnosis of bovine herpesvirus 1, bovine herpesvirus 2, and bovine herpesvirus 4 infections.

A multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method coupled with a restriction analysis of PCR products (PCR with restriction fragment length polymorphism) was developed for the simultaneous detection of bovine herpesvirus 1, bovine herpesvirus 2, and bovine herpesvirus 4 infections. The specificity, sensitivity, and practical diagnostic applicability of this method were evaluated. This assay may be also adapted to the diagnosis of suid herpesvirus 1 and equine herpesviruses 1 and 3 and could become a powerful diagnostic tool.

In vitro selection of human cytomegalovirus variants unable to transfer virus and virus products from infected cells to polymorphonuclear leukocytes and to grow in endothelial cells.

Four human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) isolates from different clinical sources were extensively propagated in human embryonic lung fibroblasts (HELF). Plaque isolates from each of the four virus strains were evaluated for their ability to be transferred to polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) and to grow in endothelial cells (EC). While all four of the clinical strains were found to be both PMNL- and EC-tropic, variants were identified from each of the four strains that lacked both biological properties, while three of the four parental strains lost their transfer capacity before passage 50 in HELF.