Publications by authors named "Maugeri L"

Article Synopsis
  • The larvae of Neuroptera, a group of insects, are predators that use specialized mouthparts to inject venom and suck fluids from their prey.
  • A new fossil larva found in Late Cretaceous Kachin amber, named Electroxipheus veneficus, was examined using advanced 3D imaging techniques to uncover its unique anatomical features.
  • Phylogenetic studies revealed that this larva is part of the Mantispoidea stem group, indicating that the basic structure of its venom-delivery system has remained consistent from the Cretaceous period to today, highlighting its active predatory nature compared to its less mobile relatives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We investigate the therapeutic potential of Aloin A and Aloin B, two natural compounds derived from Aloe vera leaves, focusing on their neuroprotective and anticancer properties. The structural differences between these two epimers suggest that they may exhibit distinct pharmacological properties. Our investigations revealed that both epimers are not stable in aqueous solution and tend to degrade rapidly, with their concentration decreasing by over 50% within approximately 12 h.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Zero-dimensional boron nitride quantum dots (BNQDs) have promising optical, chemical, and biochemical properties, especially when integrated with carbon, specifically phenolic groups for biomedical applications.
  • The first direct synthesis of water-dispersible BNQDs containing phenolic and carboxylic groups is accomplished through a single-step solvent-assisted reaction, and various characterization methods confirm their stability and unique luminescent properties.
  • The carbon-BNQDs show biocompatibility with cancer cells, offering protection against oxidative stress, and analyzing mRNA-seq expression provides insight into their protective molecular effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In an era marked by increasing anthropogenic pressure, understanding the relations between human activities and wildlife is crucial for understanding ecological patterns, effective conservation, and management strategies. Here, we explore the potential and usefulness of socio-economic variables in species distribution modelling (SDM), focusing on their impact on the occurrence of wild mammals in Poland. Beyond the environmental factors commonly considered in SDM, like land-use, the study tests the importance of socio-economic characteristics of local human societies, such as age, income, working sector, gender, education, and village characteristics for explaining distribution of diverse mammalian groups, including carnivores, ungulates, rodents, soricids, and bats.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Researchers developed a new multifunctional nanohybrid system (GO-Au-PNM) that combines graphene oxide, gold nanoparticles, and a polymer for biomedical applications like drug release and hyperthermia treatment.
  • The system showed effectiveness in converting light into heat, controlling drug release triggered by red light, and had a strong capacity for loading the drug curcumin.
  • Confocal microscopy confirmed that this system can be taken up by human cells without harming their viability, indicating its potential for safe medical use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A new point-of-care platform has been developed that combines reliability and user-friendliness for detecting phenylalanine in blood samples from patients with phenylketonuria (PKU).
  • The system includes a mobile app for data collection and visualization, an electronic unit, and a disposable sensor that utilizes enzymatic recognition and gold nanostructure formation for accurate measurements.
  • Clinical testing has shown that this "smart sensor" allows PKU patients to self-monitor their phenylalanine levels, enabling quick adjustments to their therapy and improving overall health management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The proximal caudal vertebrae and notochord in thick-toed geckos (TG) (, Gray, 1864) were investigated after a 30-day space flight onboard the biosatellite Bion-M1. This region has not been explored in previous studies. Our research focused on finding sites most affected by demineralization caused by microgravity (G0).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Snail mucus has been shown to promote healthy skin due to its emollient, regenerative, and protective properties, including antimicrobial effects and wound healing capabilities.
  • Researchers enhanced snail mucus by adding antioxidant compounds from edible flower waste, improving its benefits against UVB skin damage.
  • The study found that the combined treatment of snail mucus and flower extracts reduced oxidative stress in skin cells, suggesting this new formulation could be a promising sustainable option for natural UV protection in skincare products.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The accurate monitoring of phenylalanine concentration plays a prominent role in the treatment of phenylketonuria (PKU). In this study, we present an enzymatic assay based on Phenylalanine Dehydrogenase/NAD and tris (bipyridine) Ruthenium (II/III) as a colorimetric mediator for the detection of Phenylalanine concentration. The amount of amino acid was quantitatively recognized by optical absorption measurements at 452 nm through the conversion of Ru (byp) to Ru (byp) , which is induced by the neoformed NADH.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dance flies and relatives (Empidoidea) are a diverse and ecologically important group of Diptera in nearly all modern terrestrial ecosystems. Their fossil record, despite being scattered, attests to a long evolutionary history dating back to the early Mesozoic. Here, we describe seven new species of Empidoidea from Cretaceous Kachin amber inclusions, assigning them to the new genus Electrochoreutes gen.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Carbon-based nanostructures, known for low toxicity and excellent properties, are being developed as multifunctional treatments for cancer through a chemo-photothermal approach.
  • The study introduces a novel type of photoresponsive carbon-based polymer dots (CPDs-PNM) made from poly(-isopropylacrylamide) using a simple thermal process, showing high photothermal efficiency and good drug loading capabilities.
  • CPDs-PNM were shown to safely deliver the chemotherapy drug AraC and, when activated by green light, enhanced its toxicity against neuroblastoma cells, demonstrating a synergistic effect for cancer treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A striking example of the brain's complexity and continued plasticity is the addition of new neuronal components to a circuit in a process called neurogenesis. Two brain regions exhibit profound circuit remodeling through this process - the olfactory bulb and hippocampus. However, how local network changes in both regions influence global circuit rewiring and dynamic network features remain largely unexplored due to the lack of spatiotemporal resolution technology and large-scale electrophysiological activity recordings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Following a spinal cord injury (SCI), the extent of motor, sensory, and autonomic loss is linked to the damage of nervous tissue, but current imaging methods cannot fully capture the complexity of this damage.
  • A new technique, synchrotron X-ray phase-contrast tomography (SXPCT), provides high-resolution 3D imaging, allowing researchers to study neurovascular architecture and track changes in spinal cord tissues in mice during the acute and subacute phases post-SCI.
  • Findings showed that while SXPCT effectively visualized neuronal loss and blood-brain barrier breakdown, there was no significant additional loss of motor neurons between 30 minutes and 7 days after injury, indicating early tissue damage may not progress considerably in this time frame.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Core-shell nanocomposites are one of the most important achievements in the fast-growing field of nanotechnology. The combination of multi-responsive nano-shell with luminescent and photothermal core has led to promising applications in various fields such as optics, electronics and medicine. In this work, a nanosized core-shell system composed by carbonized dots core and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) shell was developed and the photothermal triggered release of doxorubicin was demonstrated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) presents a multifactorial etiology due to interactions between the immune host system and external agents. It can be classified into two phenotypes based on the presence or absence of polypoid neoformation (respectively CRSwNP and CRSsNP). According to EPOS2020, CRS is now classified into two endotypes, eosinophilic (ECRS) and non-eosinophilic (non-ECRS), based on eosinophil tissue count (more than 10 eosinophils per High Power Field, HPF).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The cellular mechanisms regulating dopamine (DA) release in the striatum have attracted much interest in recent years. By amperometric recordings in mouse striatal slices, we show that a brief (5 min) exposure to the metabotropic glutamate receptor agonist DHPG (50 μM) induces a profound depression of synaptic DA release, lasting over 1 h from DHPG washout. This long-term depression is sensitive to glycine, which preferentially inhibits local cholinergic interneurons, as well as to drugs acting on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and to the pharmacological depletion of released acetylcholine.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

sp. nov. is described from Late Cretaceous amber from Myanmar, integrating traditional observation techniques and X-ray phase contrast microtomography.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Discriminating between cardiac and pulmonary dyspnea is essential for patients' management. We investigated the feasibility and ability of forced oscillation techniques (FOT) in distinguishing between acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD), and acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) in a clinical emergency setting. We enrolled 49 patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) for dyspnea and acute respiratory failure for AECOPD, or ADHF, and 11 healthy subjects.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting motor neurons. Pre-clinical studies drive the development of animal models that well mimic ALS disorder and enable both the dissection of disease processes and an early assessment of therapy efficacy. A comprehensive knowledge of neuronal and vascular lesions in the brain and spinal cord is an essential factor to understand the development of the disease.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We report a qualitative study on central nervous system (CNS) damage that demonstrates the ability of X-ray phase contrast tomography (XPCT) to confirm data obtained with standard 2D methodology and permits the description of additional features that are not detected with 2D or other 3D techniques. In contrast to magnetic resonance or computed tomography, XPCT makes possible the high-resolution 3D imaging of soft tissues classically considered "invisible" to X-rays without the use of additional contrast agents, or without the need for intense processing of the tissue required by 2D techniques. Most importantly for studies of CNS diseases, XPCT enables a concomitant multi-scale 3D biomedical imaging of neuronal and vascular networks ranging from cells through to the CNS as a whole.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Peptide biosynthesis is performed by ribosomes and several other classes of enzymes, but a simple chemical synthesis may have created the first peptides at the origins of life. α-Aminonitriles-prebiotic α-amino acid precursors-are generally produced by Strecker reactions. However, cysteine's aminothiol is incompatible with nitriles.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pineal gland (PG) is a part of the human brain epithalamus that plays an important role in sleep, circadian rhythm, immunity, and reproduction. The calcium deposits and lesions in PG interfere with normal function of the organ and can be associated with different health disorders including serious neurological diseases. At the moment, the detailed mechanisms of PG calcifications and PG lesions formation as well as their involvement in pathological processes are not fully understood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF