Novel sigma 1-antagonists with -(+)-normetazocine scaffold: synthesis, molecular modeling, and antinociceptive effect.

Inflammatory pain represents one of the unmet clinical needs for patients, as conventional therapies cause several side effects. Recently, new targets involved in inflammatory pain modulation have been identified, including the sigma-1 receptor (σ1R). Selective σ1R antagonists have demonstrated analgesic efficacy in acute and chronic inflammatory pain models.

Predictors of Early Death in Patients With Wild-Type Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis.

Background: For the time being, tafamidis is the only approved treatment for wild-type transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis. However, benefits on all-cause death only emerge after ≈18 months. The current available staging systems are unable to specifically discriminate patients at high risk of death within 18 months from diagnosis, and the selection of patients who are expected to benefit from tafamidis is left to the clinical judgment of treating physicians, being often based primarily (and sometimes only) on age.

Synthesis, Characterisation, and In Vitro Evaluation of Biocompatibility, Antibacterial and Antitumor Activity of Imidazolium Ionic Liquids.

In recent decades, ionic liquids (ILs) have garnered research interest for their noteworthy properties, such as thermal stability, low or no flammability, and negligible vapour pressure. Moreover, their tunability offers limitless opportunities to design ILs with properties suitable for applications in many industrial fields. This study aims to synthetise two series of methylimidazolium ILs bearing long alkyl chain in their cations (C9, C10, C12, C14, C16, C18, C20) and with tetrafluoroborate (BF) and the 1,3-dimethyl-5-sulfoisophthalate (DMSIP) as counter ions.

Expanding the phenotype of Brunner syndrome from childhood to adulthood: Description of the second pediatric patient and his mother.

Brunner syndrome is a recessive X-linked disorder caused by pathogenic variants in the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA). It is characterized by distinctive aggressive behavior, mild intellectual disability, sleep disturbances, and typical biochemical alterations deriving from the impaired monoamine metabolism. We herein describe a 5-year-old boy with developmental delay, autistic features, and myoclonic epilepsy, and his mother, who had mild intellectual disability and recurrent episodes of palpitations, headache, abdominal pain, and abdominal bloating.

Towards measuring effective coverage: critical bottlenecks in quality- and user-adjusted coverage for major depressive disorder in São Paulo metropolitan area, Brazil.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) contributes to a significant proportion of disease burden, disability, economic losses, and impact on need of treatment and health care in Brazil, but systematic information about its treatment coverage is scarce. This paper aims to estimate the gap in treatment coverage for MDD and identify key bottlenecks in obtaining adequate treatment among adult residents in the São Paulo Metropolitan area, Brazil.

Methods: A representative face-to-face household survey was conducted among 2942 respondents aged 18+ years to assess 12-month MDD, characteristics of 12-month treatment received, and bottlenecks to deliver care through the World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview.

Polymer Blends Based on 1-Hexadecyl-3-methyl Imidazolium 1,3-Dimethyl 5-Sulfoisophthalate Ionic Liquid: Thermo-Mechanical, Surface Morphology and Antibacterial Properties.

In this study, antibacterial polymer blends based on Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and Polystyrene-Ethylene-Butylene-Styrene (SEBS), loaded with the ionic liquid (IL) 1-hexadecyl-3-methyl imidazolium 1,3-dimethyl 5-sulfoisophthalate (HdmimDMSIP) at three different concentrations (1%, 5%, and 10%), were produced. The IL/blends were characterized by their thermo-mechanical properties, surface morphology, and wettability. IL release from the blends was also evaluated.

Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Tacrolimus-Personalized Therapy in Heart Transplantation: New Strategies and Preliminary Results in Endomyocardial Biopsies.

Tacrolimus (TAC) is an immunosuppressant drug approved both in the US and in the EU, widely used for the prophylaxis of organ rejection after transplantation. This is a critical dose drug: low levels in whole blood can lead to low exposure and a high risk of acute rejection, whereas overexposure puts patients at risk for toxicity and infection. Both situations can occur at whole-blood concentrations considered to be within the narrow TAC therapeutic range.

Evaluation of the hypochromic erythrocyte and reticulocyte hemoglobin content provided by the Sysmex XE-5000 analyzer in diagnosis of iron deficiency erythropoiesis.

Background: Iron deficiency represents the most frequent cause of anemia. To diagnose iron deficiency some biochemical tests such as serum ferritin and the transferring saturation percent (TSAT%) are usually used. Recently, some hematological parameters such as mean reticulocyte hemoglobin content (CHr or Ret-He) and percentage of hypochromic RBCs (Hypo% or %Hypo-He) were proposed as alternative to biochemical tests.

Precision performance at low levels and 99th percentile concentration of the Access AccuTnl assay on two different platforms.

Background: Cardiac troponins currently represent the preferred biomarkers for the detection of myocardial necrosis. The objective of the present study was to compare the performance of the Access AccuTnl assay (Beckman Coulter) measured on two different platforms, the UniCel Dxl 800 and the Access 2 (Beckman Coulter). In particular, the serum cardiac troponin I (cTnl) concentration corresponding to 10% coefficient of variation (CV), the cTnl assay minimum detectable concentration (MDC), and the serum cTnl 99th percentile in healthy subjects were calculated.

Creatine-kinase MB mass: age and sex-associated reference limits in two different platforms that use the same method.

Background: Recent updated NACB guidelines suggest that troponins are the biomarker of choice for the detection of myocardial necrosis, but the CK-MB mass is still considered an effective and alternative indicator when troponin assays are not available. The aim of the present study was to compare the reliability of two different analytical platforms in establishing the gender-specific 99th percentile for the CK-MB mass.

Methods: Serum samples collected from healthy subjects were investigated in two different laboratories, LAB 1 (354 subjects: 222 men, 132 women; median age, 40 years, range 19-64 years) and LAB 2 (330 subjects: 224 men, 106 women; median age, 41 years, range 18-71 years), in order to determine the CK-MB mass (microg/L) using the Access((R)) CKMB method (Beckman Coulter), a two-site immunoenzymatic sandwich assay, on UniCel DxI 800 (LAB 1) and Access((R)) 2 (LAB 2) analyzers (Beckman Coulter).

Analytical and clinical performance of a fully automated cardiac multi-markers strategy based on protein biochip microarray technology.

Objectives: The analytical and clinical performance of the Evidence Cardiac Panel were evaluated.

Design And Methods: The Evidence Cardiac Panel, an automated protein biochip microarray system, allows the simultaneous determination of creatine kinase MB (CK-MB), myoglobin (MYO), glycogen phosphorylase BB (GPBB), heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP), carbonic anhydrase III (CA III), cardiac troponin I (cTnI). Precision: 3 levels of quality control (QC) and 2 in house pools (P) were assayed.

New biochemical markers: from bench to bedside.

Background: Evaluation of patients presenting to hospital with chest pain or other signs or symptoms suggesting acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is problematic, time-consuming and sometimes expensive, even if new biochemical markers, such as troponins, have improved the ability to detect cardiac injury. However, patients with normal troponin values are not necessarily risk-free for major cardiac events.

Methods: Recent investigations indicate that the overall patient risk may be assessed earlier than before, thanks to new knowledge acquired concerning the pathobiology of atherosclerosis and molecular events involved in the progression of disease, thus allowing the development of new biochemical markers.

Analytical and clinical evaluation of a new heart-type fatty acid-binding protein automated assay.

Background: The accurate and rapid recognition of myocardial injury in patients presenting in the emergency department (ED) with chest pain continues to be a clinical challenge. Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) appears to be one of the best candidates among the new early cardiac markers studied.

Methods: We evaluated the analytical characteristics of a new quantitative and fully automated H-FABP assay (Randox Laboratories Ltd.

[Immunoglobulinic fragments of urinary proteins in patients affected by acute pneumonopathies, lung cancer and tuberculosis (author's transl)].

This study reports the immunoelectrophoretic analysis performed on 95 samples of urinary proteins. This analysis shows that in the majority of cases the migrant proteins in gamma position are F(ab) and Fc fragments, and free light chains with a molecular weight between 70,000 and 10,000. There is evidence of an increase in the immunoglobulinic fragments during inflammatory processes and their disappearance afterwards.

[Role of alpha 1-antitrypsin and alpha-2 macroglobulin in hepatopathies].

Two pictures of alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, one associated with alpha 2-macroglobulin deficiency and one isolated case of the latter deficiency have been observed in three patients suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and/or hepatoma. On the basis of these cases, the literature on the subject is reviewed. The unusually high incidence of such anti-enzymatic deficiencies (three cases in the first eleven patients studied) in severe liver pathology, calls for a reassessment of such research and suggests that these tests should be carried out on a routine basis in cases of cryptogenetic cirrhosis and probably for long-term prognosis in cases of viral hepatitis.

[Local synthesis of immunoglobulins in pleural effusions. II].

A report is given about the synthesis of IgG immunoglobulins in the pleural infiltrations. The quantity of immunoglobulins locally yielded is estimated through the ratio IgG/Albumin in the blood and in the infiltration. Evidence is given that the mechanic and neoplastic transudates are easily detectable on account of the failed local synthesis of immunoglobulins of IgG type.

[Advantages of the combination of the technics of double arc precipitation analysis and of scaled dilutions in the study of asymptomatic monoclonal gammopathies].

A report is given about the opportunity and the advantages of combining the traditional scheme for the study of the pathological immunoglobulins with the analysis of the uncoupling of the bow of precipitation against IgG and the isolation of the pathological immunoglobulin through a diluition of the serum such as to bring the fraction electrophoretically dispersed to not detectable levels and make it detectable the monoclonae portion electrophoretically homogeneous.

[Proposal for an organic scheme for the survey of the proteins in the spinal fluid (author's transl)].

A simple technique of electroimmunodiffusion is described, which is fit for identifying the variations in the ratio IgG/Albumin in the spinal fluid (liquor). Furthermore a general scheme for the survey of the proteic situation in the spinal fluid is also proposed.

[Introduction to a study of the hydrosoluble proteins of the sputum (author's transl)].

Synthesis of a study of the proteins outline of the bronchial secretion with the qualitative and quantitative determination of six protein fractions (albumin, Alfa-antitrypsin, acid Alfa-glycoprotein, haptoglobin, transferrin); comparation of the concentration of these fractions of the expectoration with those of the serum of the patient himself.

[Bidimensional I.E.F. of proteins in the bronchial secretion (author's transl)].

Qualitative and quantitative determination of the proteins in the bronchial secretions (of about 50 patients suffering from chronic bronchitis) after extraction.

[Contributions to the interpretation of the immunoglobulins's variations in the bronchial secretions (author's transl)].

Study of the relationships between the variations of the connections between the components of the bronchial secretion and the viscosity of the sputum, with particular regard to the role of the IgA IIS and to the secretory piece.