Publications by authors named "Monaco S"

Article Synopsis
  • * NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) is essential for understanding glycan properties due to their flexible nature, allowing researchers to analyze their geometry, dynamics, and internal motions.
  • * The review highlights the use of NMR to explore various natural glycans and their synthetic analogues, focusing on how these techniques can help understand glycan interactions with proteins, enhancing our knowledge for therapeutic applications.
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Among the intrathecal inflammatory niches where compartmentalized inflammation persists and plays a pivotal role in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), choroid plexus (CP) has recently received renewed attention. To better characterize the neuropathological/molecular correlates of CP in progressive MS and its potential link with other brain inflammatory compartments, such as perivascular spaces and leptomeninges, the levels, composition and phenotype of CP immune infiltration in lateral ventricles of the hippocampus were examined in 40 post-mortem pathologically confirmed MS and 10 healthy donors, using immunochemistry/immunofluorescence and in-situ sequencing. Significant inflammation was detected in the CP of 21 out of the 40 MS cases (52%).

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Introduction: Ancillary testing on cytopathology and other small biopsy specimens is crucial for diagnosis and provides critical information to clinicians. Testing is dependent on preanalytic factors and would benefit from standardization of specimen collection protocols across laboratories. To assess institutional practices and areas of need for evidence-based standards, we surveyed current practices across cytopathology laboratories.

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RgNanH is an intramolecular trans-sialidase expressed by the human gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus, to utilise intestinal sialylated mucin glycan epitopes. Its catalytic domain, belonging to glycoside hydrolase GH33 family, cleaves off terminal sialic acid residues from mucins, releasing 2,7-anhydro-Neu5Ac which is then used as metabolic substrate by R. gnavus to proliferate in the mucosal environment.

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With the increase in infertility cases recorded over the last 20 years, there is a considerable demand for assisted reproductive treatments (ART). However, there is significant variation in the availability of such treatments across different countries. Legislation on assisted reproduction is influenced by various cultural expressions, making it seemingly impossible to create a single representation adaptable to different contexts.

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Article Synopsis
  • Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is an important organosulfur compound involved in stress protection and the cycling of carbon and sulfur, while also contributing to climate-active gases.
  • Saltmarshes, particularly those with Spartina cordgrasses, are key areas for DMSP production, with Spartina anglica showing exceptionally high levels due to specific plant genes.
  • The study identifies critical enzymes for DMSP synthesis in Spartina anglica and suggests that increasing DMSP levels can enhance plant resistance to salinity and drought, paving the way for potential bioengineering applications in sustainable agriculture.
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This paper explores the processes of individual and collective subjectivation experienced by non-binary individuals living in contemporary Italy. Using qualitative methods, the study, which was conducted between July and September 2021, involved a sample of twenty-six young adults aged between eighteen and thirty years. Starting from participants' narratives, the thematic analysis revealed the significance of both physical and virtual support environments in the subjectivation process, taking into account the diverse micro-contexts in which people live.

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  • * Developing inhibitors poses challenges due to similarities among isoenzymes and redundancy among substrates, making specific targeting difficult.
  • * A new GalNAc-T2 inhibitor has been created that shows enhanced potency and selectivity, with a unique design that allows it to effectively bind to different parts of the enzyme, marking a significant advancement in targeting these enzymes for therapeutic purposes.
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Background And Aim: Inflammatory indices are promising indicators that can be used to evaluate inflammation in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). The present study aimed to investigate the test accuracy of several inflammatory indices to identify endoscopic, and histological activity in a cohort of IBD patients.

Study: All IBD patients who underwent colonoscopy and blood examination (within 4 weeks and without therapeutic change) were included.

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COVID-19 pandemic brought chemosensory impairment to the forefront of medicine, revealing gaps in the knowledge of pathophysiological mechanisms, true prevalence and preventive/therapeutic alternatives. This is a sub-study of the ORCHESTRA cohort focusing on post-COVID-19 chemosensory symptoms. Risk factors for neurosensorial cluster of post-COVID-19 syndrome (NSc-PCS) were assessed through multivariable analysis.

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Ustekinumab is a monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of IBD. This drug has a well-established efficacy; however, patients may not respond or lose response. The availability of other biological therapies prompts the need for comparative data between different agents to suggest first- or second-line strategies.

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  • * A study focused on 15 α-L-fucosidases from the GH29 family utilized sequence similarity network analysis to evaluate their specificities for various fucosylated sugars and established their structural basis through advanced imaging techniques.
  • * The research combined experimental data with machine-learning models to categorize over 34,000 GH29 sequences into similarity clusters, paving the way for future identification of novel glycoside hydrolases with tailored functionalities.
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  • Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is a vital marine compound involved in stress protection, nutrient cycling, and regulating the climate.
  • The enzyme DsyGD, found in certain bacteria and previously unrecognized cyanobacteria, plays a key role in DMSP biosynthesis via two distinct functional domains.
  • New findings reveal that algae with a variant protein called DSYE are significant DMSP producers, particularly highlighting the role of Pelagophyceae species in global sulfur cycling.
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Low-affinity protein-ligand interactions are important for many biological processes, including cell communication, signal transduction, and immune responses. Structural characterization of these complexes is also critical for the development of new drugs through fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD), but it is challenging due to the low affinity of fragments for the binding site. Saturation transfer difference (STD) NMR spectroscopy has revolutionized the study of low-affinity receptor-ligand interactions enabling binding detection and structural characterization.

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  • Intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) and endovascular therapy (EVT) are effective treatments for acute stroke, but their safety and efficacy in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are debated.
  • A study analyzed data from two multicenter studies to compare outcomes of AF patients with acute ischemic stroke treated with reperfusion therapies versus those who weren't.
  • Results showed that AF patients treated with reperfusion therapies had better functional outcomes and lower mortality rates compared to those who received conservative treatment.
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This study aims to explore the perspectives of Italian psychologists who work in assisted reproductive treatment (ART) centres regarding their roles within multidisciplinary teams. Twenty-eight psychologists were interviewed, recorded and their transcribed text was analysed using emotional text mining. The analysis revealed four clusters representing the psychologists' cultural symbolizations of their works: 'Clinical Practice with the patient', 'Placing Psychology within the Treatment', 'Psychologist's Loneliness' and; 'Collusion with Medicine'.

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In recent years, generative protein sequence models have been developed to sample novel sequences. However, predicting whether generated proteins will fold and function remains challenging. We evaluate a set of 20 diverse computational metrics to assess the quality of enzyme sequences produced by three contrasting generative models: ancestral sequence reconstruction, a generative adversarial network and a protein language model.

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Introduction: There has been an increase in endoscopic and bronchoscopic biopsies as minimally invasive methods to obtain specimens from gastrointestinal (GI) or pancreatobiliary lesions and thoracic or mediastinal lesions, respectively. As hospitals undertake more of these procedures, it is important to consider the staffing implications that this has on cytopathology laboratories with respect to support for rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE).

Materials And Methods: Volume and time data from endoscopic ultrasound and bronchoscopic procedures (including endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspirations and small biopsies with touch preparation) in the GI suite, bronchoscopy suite, or operating room were reviewed for 2 months at 2 different medical centers with ROSE services provided by cytologists or fellows physically present at the procedure and cytopathologists located remotely using telecytology.

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Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic is considered a collective traumatic event. Several studies have highlighted high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among the general population during the pandemic. The general aim of this research is to explore the role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), alexithymia, and anxiety and avoidance attachment dimensions as risk factors that are making individuals more vulnerable to PTSD-COVID-related symptoms.

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Rare genetic diseases affect 5-8% of the population but are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Electronic health records (EHR) contain large amounts of data, which provide opportunities for analysing and mining. Data mining, in the form of cluster analysis and visualisation, was performed on a database containing deidentified health records of 1.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Preprints, which are early versions of research papers, are becoming popular and might help change how peer review is done to be more helpful and friendly.
  • * The writers of this piece are asking everyone in the science community to get on board with sharing preprints and to support better peer reviews for them.
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