Duration of Disease and Long-Term Outcomes in Patients With Difficult-To-Treat Recurrent Pericarditis: A Chronic Condition Treated With Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, Colchicine, Corticosteroids, and Anti-Interleukin-1 Agents.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the remission rate and disease duration in idiopathic or post-cardiac injury pericarditis and risk factors for disease duration and anti-interleukin-1 (IL-1) agent discontinuation.

Methods: This was a multicenter, longitudinal, observational study including 370 patients (51.4% female).

IONIC NANOMEDICINE STRATEGY TO DEVELOP EFFECTIVE CHEMO-PTT COMBINATION CANCER THERAPEUTICS.

Herein, a detailed investigation of nanodrugs derived by combining a chemotherapy (chemo) and photothermal therapy (PTT) approaches to enhance chemo drug efficacy is presented. Tamoxifen and its metabolite; N-desmethyltamoxifen are the selected chemo drugs that were electrostatically attached with a PTT agent, NaIR820, via a metathesis approach to develop two different ionic material (IM)-based chemo-PTT drugs. Ionic nanomaterials (INMs) were synthesized using reprecipitation method, and these carrier- free nanoparticles were characterized in detail.

Doxorubicin-Based Ionic Nanomedicines for Combined Chemo-Phototherapy of Cancer.

Synergistic combination therapy approach offers lots of options for delivery of materials with anticancer properties, which is a very promising strategy to treat a variety of malignant lesions with enhanced therapeutic efficacy. The current study involves a detailed investigation of combination ionic nanomedicines where a chemotherapeutic drug is coupled with a photothermal agent to attain dual mechanisms (chemotherapy (chemo) and photothermal therapy (PTT)) to improve the drug's efficacy. An FDA-approved Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX·HCl) is electrostatically attached with a near-infrared cyanine dye (ICG, IR783, and IR820), which serves as a PTT drug using ionic liquid chemistry to develop three ionic material (IM)-based chemo-PTT drugs.

FRET-based carbazole-fluorescein ionic nanoparticle for use as an effective bioimaging agent.

Fӧrster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based systems are widely applicable in many areas of interest. In this study, a novel FRET-based ionic material (IM) was synthesized by pairing carbazole imidazolium cation (CI) with fluorescein anion (Fl) through a simple ion-exchange method. The resulting IM ([CI][Fl]) was converted into an ionic nanoparticle (INP) in aqueous media for practical use for bioimaging application.

Cationic Porphyrin-Based Ionic Nanomedicines for Improved Photodynamic Therapy.

This study presents the synthesis and characterization of monosubstituted cationic porphyrin as a photodynamic therapeutic agent. Cationic porphyrin was converted into ionic materials by using a single-step ion exchange reaction. The small iodide counteranion was replaced with bulky BETI and IR783 anions to reduce aggregation and enhance the photodynamic effect of porphyrin.

Metabolic and molecular effects of dietary extra virgin olive oil in blood and placenta of women with GDM.

Unlabelled: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) increases the risks of maternal, placental, and neonatal complications. Previously, we found that a diet enriched in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) prevents increased maternal triglyceridemia and placental proinflammatory markers in a cohort of GDM patients. The aim of this work was to evaluate maternal circulating markers of insulin resistance, placental collagen, glycogen and lipid levels, and placental levels of proteins, mRNAs, and a microRNA involved in the endocytic pathway in the same cohort of control women and women with GDM who received or did not receive a diet enriched in EVOO (36 g/day) from weeks 24 to 28 of pregnancy until term.

Consensus Statement on Animals' Relationship with Pediatric Oncohematological Patients, on Behalf of Infectious Diseases and Nurse Working Groups of the Italian Association of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology.

Contact with animals in pediatric oncohematologic patients is associated with many benefits, but the risk of contracting zoonoses, even if low, must be considered by clinicians. In order to assess the awareness about this topic, we surveyed the Italian pediatric oncohematology centers, which resulted in heterogeneous responses. The Infectious Diseases Working Group and the Nurse Working Group of the Italian Association of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, together with veterinarians from the National Federation of Italian Veterinarians, drew up a consensus document to unify the indications to be given to families with the aim of guaranteeing a safe interaction between patients and animals and improving the collaboration of clinicians with veterinarians and families.

Transfusional Approach in Multi-Ethnic Sickle Cell Patients: Real-World Practice Data From a Multicenter Survey in Italy.

Unlabelled: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a worldwide distributed hereditary red cell disorder characterized by recurrent acute vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs and anemia). Gold standard treatments are hydroxycarbamide (HC) and/or different red blood cell (RBC) transfusion regimens to limit disease progression. Here, we report a retrospective study on 1,579 SCD patients (median age 23 years; 802 males/777 females), referring to 34 comprehensive Italian centers for hemoglobinopathies.

Understanding of Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) in Ionic Materials.

Herein, an ionic material (IM) with Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) characteristics is reported for the first time. The IM is designed by pairing a Nile Blue A cation (NBA) with an anionic near-infrared (NIR) dye, IR820, using a facile ion exchange reaction. These two dyes absorb at different wavelength regions.

Enhanced photothermal heating and combination therapy of NIR dye conversion to self-assembled ionic nanomaterials.

Combination nanodrugs are promising therapeutic agents for cancer treatment. However, they often require the use of complex nanovehicles for transportation into the tumor site. Herein, a new class of carrier-free ionic nanomaterials (INMs) is presented, which are self-assembled by the drug molecules themselves.

Improved Photophysical Properties of Ionic Material-Based Combination Chemo/PDT Nanomedicine.

Herein, a cost-effective and prompt approach to develop ionic material-based combination nanodrugs for cancer therapy is presented. A chemotherapeutic (phosphonium) cation and photodynamic therapeutic (porphyrin) anion are combined using a single step ion exchange reaction. Afterward, a nanomedicine is prepared from this ionic materials-based combination drug using a simplistic strategy of reprecipitation.

Tunable Cytotoxicity and Selectivity of Phosphonium Ionic Liquid with Aniline Blue Dye.

Ionic liquids are an interesting class of materials that have recently been utilized as chemotherapeutic agents in cancer therapy. Aniline blue, a commonly used biological staining agent, was used as a counter ion to trihexyltetradecylphosphonium, a known cytotoxic cation. A facile, single step ion exchange reaction was performed to synthesize a fluorescent ionic liquid, trihexyltetradecylphosphonium aniline blue.

[Management of the Covid-19 epidemic in Italian Pediatric Hematology and Oncology centers: a nurse-led AIEOP national survey].

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a global health emergency. Health systems are under extreme pressure because of the outbreak. Pediatric population seems to be less prone to develop a severe course of the disease.

Role of vitamin D serum levels in prevention of primary and recurrent melanoma.

Patients afflicted with melanoma show lower vitamin D serum levels (VDSL) than the healthy population. This hypothesis agrees with its well-known antiproliferative features. An observational study was carried out to collect VDSL in patients suffering from melanoma.

Effect of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Pandemic and Lockdown on Body Weight, Maladaptive Eating Habits, Anxiety, and Depression in a Bariatric Surgery Waiting List Cohort.

Purpose: On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a "public health emergency of international concern." The primary aim of the study was to evaluate weight and food habit changes during COVID-19 outbreak. The secondary endpoint was to explore the psychological factors, arising during the pandemic, influencing weight and dietary variations.

QCM Sensor Arrays, Electroanalytical Techniques and NIR Spectroscopy Coupled to Multivariate Analysis for Quality Assessment of Food Products, Raw Materials, Ingredients and Foodborne Pathogen Detection: Challenges and Breakthroughs.

Quality checks, assessments, and the assurance of food products, raw materials, and food ingredients is critically important to ensure the safeguard of foods of high quality for safety and public health. Nevertheless, quality checks, assessments, and the assurance of food products along distribution and supply chains is impacted by various challenges. For instance, the development of portable, sensitive, low-cost, and robust instrumentation that is capable of real-time, accurate, and sensitive analysis, quality checks, assessments, and the assurance of food products in the field and/or in the production line in a food manufacturing industry is a major technological and analytical challenge.

An extra virgin olive oil-enriched diet improves maternal, placental, and cord blood parameters in GDM pregnancies.

Aims: To address the effect of a diet enriched in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) on maternal metabolic parameters and placental proinflammatory markers in Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) patients.

Methods: Pregnant women at 24-28 weeks of gestation were enrolled: 33 GDM patients which were randomly assigned or not to the EVOO-enriched group and 17 healthy controls. Metabolic parameters were determined.

Kinetic and mechanistic study of dye sorption onto renewable resource-based doped carbon prepared by a microwave-assisted method.

Herein, a facile synthesis of heteroatom doped biochar is reported. The material is characterized and analyzed in detail for its application as a low-cost adsorbent for removal of a toxic dye pollutant, Methylene Blue (MB), from aqueous solution. Synthesized material showed enhanced surface area compared to parent biochar (458 to802 mg) The adsorbent's performance is investigated using batch adsorption methods with experiments conducted at varying conditions of adsorbent dosage, initial dye concentration (50-500 mg/L), and pH (3-11).

The role of Tat peptide self-aggregation in membrane pore stabilization: insights from a computational study.

It is widely accepted that endocytosis mediates the uptake of cationic cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) at relatively low concentrations (i.e. nano- to micromolar), while direct transduction across the plasma membrane comes into play at higher concentrations (i.