Pulmonary gas exchange and ventilatory efficiency during exercise in health and diseases.

Introduction: Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is nowadays used to study the exercise response in healthy subjects and in disease. Ventilatory efficiency is one of the main determinants in exercise tolerance, and its main variables are a useful tool to guide pathophysiologists toward specific diagnostic pathways, providing prognostic information and improving disease management, treatment, and outcomes.

Areas Covered: This review will be based on today's available scientific evidence, describing the main physiological determinants of ventilatory efficiency at rest and during exercise, and focusing also on how CPET variables are modified in specific diseases, leading to the possibility of early diagnosis and management.

Ventilatory efficiency in long-term dyspnoeic patients following COVID-19 pneumonia.

Background: Long COVID is defined as persistency of symptoms, such as exertional dyspnea, twelve weeks after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Objectives: To investigate ventilatory efficiency by the use of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) in patients with exertional dyspnea despite normal basal spirometry after 18 (T) and 36 months (T) from COVID-19 pneumonia.

Methods: One hundred patients with moderate-critical COVID-19 were prospectively enrolled in our Long COVID program.

Early Stage In Vitro Bioprofiling of Potential Low-Molecular-Weight Organoboron Compounds for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT)-Proposal for a Guide.

Given the renewed interest in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) and the intensified search for improved boron carriers, as well as the difficulties of coherently comparing the carriers described so far, it seems necessary to define a basic set of assays and standardized methods to be used in the early stages of boron carrier development in vitro. The selection of assays and corresponding methods is based on the practical experience of the authors and is certainly not exhaustive, but open to discussion. The proposed tests/characteristics: Solubility, lipophilicity, stability, cytotoxicity, and cellular uptake apply to both low molecular weight (up to 500 Da) and high molecular weight (5000 Da and more) boron carriers.

Stereoselective Shi-type epoxidation with 3-oxo-4,6--benzylidene pyranoside catalysts: unveiling the role of carbohydrate skeletons.

Asymmetric epoxidation represents a hot topic in organic synthesis. In recent years, organocatalysts based on sugar skeletons have been exploited in asymmetric epoxidation to achieve enantiomeric pure epoxides. In this work, two different endocyclic ketones derived from glucose and galactose protected with a 4,6--benzylidene group have been prepared and exploited for Shi-type epoxidation.

Effective treatment with oral Salbutamol on late onset respiratory impairment in a DOK7 Congenital Myasthenia Syndrome: a case report.

DOK7 gene deficiency is a neuromuscular disease with an alteration in post-synaptic neuromuscular junction, leading to progressive respiratory impairment. Although, the therapy is not standardized, adrenergic agonists are suggested as first-line treatment.  Case presentation: Our patient had an ambiguous late childhood-onset and had a generalized muscle weakness free of respiratory symptoms during the early phase of the disease.

Iodine-triphenylphosphine triggers an easy one-pot alpha stereoselective dehydrative glycosylation on hemiacetalic benzylated glycosyl donors.

The discovery of new glycosylation reactions is still a major challenge in carbohydrate chemistry. Traditional glycosylation reactions require the preparation of sugar donors with anomeric active or latent leaving groups. Dehydrative glycosylation is a fascinating alternative that enables the direct formation of the glycosidic bond from the hemiacetal, eliminating the need for (sometimes unstable) leaving groups, and allowing to reduce reaction, work-up, and purification times.

Unusual promoters and leaving groups in glycosylation reactions: The evolution of carbohydrate synthesis.

Glycosylation is the key reaction by which our body can produce and modify carbohydrates and their conjugates which are molecules essential for life. The study of the diversity of their functions is a current and ever-expanding topic that requires the ability to provide pure saccharides quickly, efficiently and in a controlled way which can be achieved by chemical synthesis. Although the influence of the donor and the promoter on the outcome of a glycosylation reaction is well documented, the search for new methodologies and new promoters/activators is constantly expanding.

Exploring glycosyl sulphates as donors for chemical glycosylation.

The preparation of anomeric tetrabutylammonium sulphates of glucose and galactose derivatives is reported and their role as donors in glycosylation reactions is studied. Metal triflates showed good performance in activating sulphate as a leaving group. Among them, ytterbium triflate in stoichiometric amounts gave the best results.

Theranostics in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy.

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) has the potential to specifically destroy tumor cells without damaging the tissues infiltrated by the tumor. BNCT is a binary treatment method based on the combination of two agents that have no effect when applied individually: B and thermal neutrons. Exclusively, the combination of both produces an effect, whose extent depends on the amount of B in the tumor but also on the organs at risk.

Gentianose: Purification and structural determination of an unknown oligosaccharide in grape seeds.

Grape seeds are among the main constituents of grape pomace, ranging between 20% and 30% of the wet matrix; however, their oligosaccharide composition has not been studied. This paper describes the purification and the identification of low molecular weight oligosaccharides contained in an EtOH/water extract of grape seeds. A sequential two-step purification by size exclusion chromatography was carried out to fractionate compounds according to molecular weights.

Carotid Thrombosis in a Crack Cocaine Smoker Woman.

Introduction: We report a case of stroke in a crack smoker with occlusion of the middle cerebral artery and a large thrombus in the carotid artery. . A 34-year-old female presented with left upper arm weakness, associated with paresthesia with onset of symptoms more than 24 hours before.

[Ictus dopo una seduta dal parrucchiere.].

Riassunto. Le dissecazioni delle arterie cervicali (DAC) sono una causa inusuale di ictus ma il loro tasso di prevalenza cresce fino al 20% nella fascia di età giovane-adulta. In molti casi le dissecazioni si associano a rare malattie connettivali come la sindrome di Ehlers-Danlos, di Marfan, la fibrodisplasia.

A versatile synthesis of αGalCer and its analogues exploiting a cyclic carbonate as phytosphingosine 3,4-diol protecting group.

A convenient synthetic strategy to αGalCer and some relevant analogues by using a handily protected phytosphingosine is reported here. The conversion of the phytosphingosine amino group to azide and the protection of 3,4-diol as cyclic carbonate group, cleavable in mild basic conditions but resistant to acidic treatment, afforded quickly an excellent glycosyl acceptor. Its glycosylation with a proper galactosyl donor, gave a versatile intermediate in high yield and excellent stereoselectivity.

Properties, metabolism and roles of sulfogalactosylglycerolipid in male reproduction.

Sulfogalactosylglycerolipid (SGG, aka seminolipid) is selectively synthesized in high amounts in mammalian testicular germ cells (TGCs). SGG is an ordered lipid and directly involved in cell adhesion. SGG is indispensable for spermatogenesis, a process that greatly depends on interaction between Sertoli cells and TGCs.

Optimizing adjuvants for intradermal delivery of MenC glycoconjugate vaccine.

Intradermal vaccine delivery is a promising alternative to the conventional intramuscular route. The skin layer is immunologically supported by a densely network of antigen presenting cells, while the skeletal muscle is loaded with a relatively sparse population of APCs. Nevertheless, the vaccine to be suitable for intradermal delivery needs a new formulation to facilitate either smaller injection volumes or the introduction into new delivery devises as micro-needles.

An improved neutron autoradiography set-up for (10)B concentration measurements in biological samples.

Aim: Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a binary hadrontherapy which exploits the neutron capture reaction in boron, together with a selective uptake of boronated substances by the neoplastic tissue. There is increasing evidence that future improvements in clinical BNCT will be triggered by the discovery of new boronated compounds, with higher selectivity for the tumor with respect to clinically used sodium borocaptate (BSH) and boronophenylalanine (BPA).

Background: Therefore, a (10)B quantification technique for biological samples is needed in order to evaluate the performance of new boronated formulations.

Antimicrobial host defence peptide, LL-37, as a potential vaginal contraceptive.

Study Question: Does antimicrobial peptide, LL-37, inhibit sperm fertilizing ability?

Summary Answer: Our results indicate that LL-37 inhibits mouse and human sperm fertilizing ability.

What Is Known Already: LL-37, a cationic antimicrobial peptide, exerts its microbicidal effects through the disruption of microbial cytoplasmic membranes following its interaction with microbial surface anionic phospholipids. ALL-38 (an LL-37 close analogue: LL-37 + Ala at the N-terminus) is produced in the vagina 2-6 h post-intercourse from its precursor hCAP-18, a seminal plasma component.

Protected sphingosine from phytosphingosine as an efficient acceptor in glycosylation reaction.

A convenient, simple, and high-yielding five-step synthesis of a sphingosine acceptor from phytosphingosine is reported, and its behavior in glycosylation reactions is described. Different synthetic paths to sphingosine acceptors using tetrachlorophthalimide as a protecting group for the sphingosine amino function and different glycosylation methods have been explored. Among the acceptors tested, the easiest accessible acceptor, unprotected on the two hydroxyl groups in positions 1 and 3, was regioselectively glycosylated on the primary position, the regioselectivity depending on the donor used.

Boron concentration measurements by alpha spectrometry and quantitative neutron autoradiography in cells and tissues treated with different boronated formulations and administration protocols.

The possibility to measure boron concentration with high precision in tissues that will be irradiated represents a fundamental step for a safe and effective BNCT treatment. In Pavia, two techniques have been used for this purpose, a quantitative method based on charged particles spectrometry and a boron biodistribution imaging based on neutron autoradiography. A quantitative method to determine boron concentration by neutron autoradiography has been recently set-up and calibrated for the measurement of biological samples, both solid and liquid, in the frame of the feasibility study of BNCT.