Publications by authors named "Manuela Pastore"

Background/objectives: Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is a curative treatment for various hematological diseases but can lead to complications which increase malnutrition risk, particularly in allogeneic transplantation patients. This study evaluates the nutritional status evolution of patients undergoing HCT during hospitalization and follow-up.

Methods: This retrospective observational study included 365 patients, divided into two groups: 134 underwent allogeneic HCT, while 231 underwent autologous transplantation or CAR-T therapy.

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Background: Nutritional interventions play a critical role in bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients. This review evaluates the effectiveness of nutritional strategies in mitigating post-transplant malnutrition and improving clinical outcomes.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and Embase.

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Background/aim: Nutrition is a key element of the prehabilitation process prior to surgery. The aim of this study was to identify the clinical pathways of nutritional prehabilitation before cystectomy.

Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted in PubMed, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Scopus and the Web of Science databases.

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Detection of disease biomarkers constitutes a major challenge for the development of personalized and predictive diagnostics as well as companion assays. Protein kinases (PKs) involved in the coordination of cell cycle progression and proliferation that are hyperactivated in human cancers constitute attractive pharmacological targets and relevant biomarkers. Although it is relatively straightforward to assess the relative abundance of PKs in a biological sample, there is not always a direct correlation with enzymatic activity, which is regulated by several posttranslational mechanisms.

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  • - The study aims to optimize the placement of Nasogastric Tubes (NGTs) for enteral nutrition by using pH testing with an electronic meter instead of chest X-rays, which can delay treatment and expose patients to radiation.
  • - Conducted as a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 150 participants, the research will compare NGTs and evaluate their placement reliability, along with patient tolerance and associated costs.
  • - By leveraging advanced technology, the study seeks to enhance the management of enteral nutrition, reduce errors, and ultimately improve resource efficiency in healthcare settings.
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  • Mitochondria are crucial for tissue health, stress responses, and disease monitoring, leading to a demand for technologies that can analyze their structure and function in various cells.
  • The study introduces a new computerized method called MitoTouch that quickly and cost-effectively analyzes mitochondrial shape and network architecture from confocal images, offering over thirty analytical features.
  • Using this tool, researchers identified a natural ingredient that helps protect mitochondria from damage caused by oxidative stress, while also demonstrating its effectiveness in distinguishing between different types of human cells, including cancerous ones.
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Background: People living with HIV (PLWH) are at risk of frailty, which is predictive for death. As an overactivity of the immune system is thought to fuel frailty, we characterized the immune activation profiles linked to frailty.

Methods: We quantified twenty-seven activation markers in forty-six virological responders (four females and forty-two males; median age, 74 years; median duration of infection, 24 years; median duration of undetectability, 13 years), whose frailty was determined according to the Fried criteria.

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  • Breast cancer is a common health issue for women, and researchers are studying how diet affects it.
  • This review looked at recent research (2013-2023) about the effects of sugar, dairy, and soy on breast cancer, analyzing 35 studies.
  • Results were mixed: high sugar intake had little evidence linking it to breast cancer, while dairy and soy may help protect against it, but many factors like menopause and cancer type can change the findings.
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  • - Hospital malnutrition is prevalent in elderly patients with neurological issues, with 46.34% at risk of malnutrition and 62.20% classified as malnourished according to screening tools.
  • - The study included 82 elderly patients, finding that only 45.12% were able to manage their food intake independently, which is linked to longer hospital stays.
  • - Recognizing malnutrition risks early, especially regarding food and water intake autonomy, is crucial for the proper care of these vulnerable patients.
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Background/scope: Malnutrition is a common problem among patients with head and neck cancer and can have adverse effects on overall health and treatment outcomes. Nutritional and physical prehabilitation are potential strategies to optimize the nutritional status of these patients. This systematic review aimed to identify and describe prehabilitative interventions that can promote an improvement in nutritional status.

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Mitochondria are essential organelles that play crucial roles in cellular energy metabolism, calcium signaling and apoptosis. Their importance in tissue homeostasis and stress responses, combined to their ability to transition between various structural and functional states, make them excellent organelles for monitoring cellular health. Quantitative assessment of mitochondrial morphology can therefore provide valuable insights into environmentally-induced cell damage.

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  • Malnutrition is rising globally, especially among older adults in hospitals, due to the unappealing nature of standard homogenised diets (HSD) that can lead to poor food intake.
  • A study in Italy compared a Standard Homogenised Diet (HSD) with a Modified Homogenised Diet (HMD) and found that patients on HMD had better caloric intake and significantly higher scores for taste and palatability.
  • Additionally, HMD was more cost-efficient, costing EUR 0.53 less per day, and produced less food waste compared to HSD, indicating that HMD improves patient satisfaction and sustainability in meal management.
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Background: HIV infection induces a 75% increase in the risk of developing neurocognitive impairment (NCI), which has been linked to immune activation. We therefore looked for immune activation markers correlating with NCI.

Method: Sixty-five people aged 55-70 years living with controlled HIV-1 infection were enrolled in the study and their neurocognitive ability was assessed according to the Frascati criteria.

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The low-bacterial diet (LBD) is a widely used dietary regimen to reduce the risk of food-borne infections in patients with neutropenic cancer, but its role is controversial due to its unclear benefits. The purpose of this study was to provide an updated analysis of the available evidence on the efficacy of the LBD to reduce the risk of infections, mortality rates, and quality of life (QoL) in neutropenic patients with cancer. A systematic literature search was conducted in the biomedical databases Cochrane Library, PubMed, CINHAL, and EMBASE.

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  • Recent research highlights the connection between patients' eating habits and their impact on breast cancer management and inflammation.*
  • The study involved 82 women with breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy, revealing correlations between inflammatory dietary habits and bowel FDG uptake.*
  • Results indicated that healthier diets (rich in fruits and vegetables) were associated with better treatment outcomes, suggesting that PET scans could help identify patients with poor dietary habits.*
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Background: Research in recent years firmly established that microglial cells play an important role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In parallel, a series of studies showed that, under both homeostatic and pathological conditions, microglia are a heterogeneous cell population. In AD, amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque-associated microglia (PAM) display a clearly distinct phenotype compared to plaque-distant microglia (PCM), suggesting that these two microglia subtypes likely differently contribute to disease progression.

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We tested the hypothesis that a particular immune activation profile might be correlated with insulin resistance in a general population. By measuring 43 markers of immune, endothelial, and coagulation activation, we have previously shown that five different immune activation profiles may be distinguished in 150 volunteers. One of these profiles, Profile 2, characterized by CD4+ T cell senescence, inflammation, monocyte, B cell, and endothelial activation, presented elevated insulinemia, glycemia, triglyceridemia, and γ-glutamyl transferase, a marker of liver injury, in comparison with other profiles.

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  • Depression is a known risk factor for recurrent cardiac events (RCEs), but the link between anxiety and RCEs is less clear; this study explored anxiety and depression's effects on RCEs using a time-dependent approach.
  • The research involved analyzing data from 595 heart disease patients over three years, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale to assess symptoms of anxiety, depression, and agitation.
  • Findings indicated that while both anxiety and depression contributed to RCE risk, anxiety was a more significant short-term predictor, suggesting that addressing anxiety could enhance cardiac disease prevention strategies.
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Latent infectious agents, microbial translocation, some metabolites and immune cell subpopulations, as well as senescence modulate the level and quality of activation of our immune system. Here, we tested whether various in vivo immune activation profiles may be distinguished in a general population. We measured 43 markers of immune activation by 8-color flow cytometry and ELISA in 150 adults, and performed a double hierarchical clustering of biomarkers and volunteers.

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Ubiquitin and the ubiquitin-like SUMO are covalently conjugated to thousands of proteins to modulate their function and fate. Many of the enzymes involved in their conjugation are dysregulated in cancers and involved in cancer cell response to therapies. We describe here the identification of biomarkers of the activity of these enzymes and their use to predict acute myeloid leukemias (AML) response to standard chemotherapy (daunorubicin-DNR and cytarabine-Ara-C).

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The orphan G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) GPR158 is expressed in the brain, where it is involved in the osteocalcin effect on cognitive processes, and at the periphery, where it may contribute to glaucoma and cancers. GPR158 forms a complex with RGS7-5, leading to the regulation of neighboring GPCR-induced Go protein activity. GPR158 also interacts with o, although no canonical Go coupling has been reported.

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  • Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a very low five-year survival rate of less than 6% and is linked to chronic pancreatitis (CP), which significantly raises PDAC risk.* -
  • The study investigated five genetic variants (SNPs) previously associated with CP to see if they contribute to PDAC risk, studying a large group of participants.* -
  • While one SNP showed a weak link to PDAC risk, the findings indicate that these specific variants are more closely associated with CP susceptibility rather than PDAC, suggesting no shared genetic risk factors between the two conditions.*
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Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) are rare neoplasms for which very little is known about either environmental or genetic risk factors. Only a handful of association studies have been performed so far, suggesting a small number of risk loci. To replicate the best findings, we have selected 16 SNPs suggested in previous studies to be relevant in PNET etiogenesis.

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  • * A study genotyped 13 SNPs in a large sample of 320 PNET cases and 4436 controls, finding a significant association between the minor allele of rs2518719 SNP and an increased risk of PNET (OR = 2.08).
  • * The research suggests that rs2518719 could impact genes related to tumor development, reinforcing the notion that certain genetic variants are linked to higher cancer risk, although the exact mechanisms are still under investigation.
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  • The CDKN2A (p16) gene is crucial in pancreatic cancer development, with common mutations linked to both familial and sporadic cases.
  • A study analyzed 13 SNPs in 2,857 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients and 6,111 controls, revealing that the A allele of rs3217992 significantly raises pancreatic cancer risk.
  • The findings suggest that the CDKN2A/B region may connect the risk of pancreatic cancer with diabetes, highlighting its importance in cancer susceptibility.
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