Publications by authors named "R Cappai"

Article Synopsis
  • West Nile Virus (WNV) can cause severe neurological diseases like meningitis and encephalitis, particularly affecting vulnerable populations such as the elderly.
  • A case study of a 65-year-old woman reveals rapid worsening of her condition, leading to death within 10 days, despite receiving supportive treatment.
  • The diagnosis was confirmed using nucleic acid amplification testing, and the study highlights the usefulness of nasopharyngeal swabs for virus sampling, emphasizing the need to monitor WNV outbreaks, particularly in areas with known circulation among birds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Given the recognized major problem of microbial drug resistance for human health, new metal-based drugs have been currently explored for their antimicrobial properties, including gallium-based compounds as potential metallophores that could perturb Fe's interactions with proteins. Herein we have designed and synthesized two bis-kojate ligands (named L4 and L6) and studied their Ga(III) complexes for their physico-chemical and biological properties. In particular a detailed study of their complexation properties in aqueous solution, showed equilibrium models with formation of quite stable dinuclear 2:3 metal:ligand complexes, though with different stability.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Because of their capacity to bind metals, metal chelators are primarily employed for therapeutic purposes, but they can also find applications as colorimetric reagents and cleaning solutions as well as in soil remediation, electroplating, waste treatment, and so on. For instance, iron-chelation therapy, which is used to treat iron-overload disorders, involves removing excess iron from the blood through the use of particular molecules, like deferoxamine, that have the ability to chelate the metal. The creation of bioinspired and biodegradable chelating agents is a crucial objective that draws inspiration from natural products.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the kinetics of response against SARS-CoV-2 elicited by vaccination and/or breakthrough infection (occurred after 3 doses of BNT162b2) in a cohort CVID patients.

Methods: We measured humoral and cellular immunity using quantitative anti-spike antibody (anti-S-IgG) and neutralization assay and specific interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) before and after the third or fourth dose of BNT162b2 and/or after COVID-19.

Results: In CVID, 58.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The present work analyzes the complex formation ability towards Pb and Cd of a series of kojic acid derivatives that join the chelating properties of the pyrone molecules and those of polyamines, with the aim of evaluating how the different effects of oxygen and nitrogen coordinating groups act on the stability of metal complexes. Experimental research is carried out using potentiometric and spectrophotometric techniques supported by H and C NMR spectroscopy and DFT calculations. Actually, a different coordination mechanism toward Pb and Cd was proved: in the case of Pb, coordination takes place exclusively via the oxygen atoms, while the contribute of the nitrogen atoms appears relevant in the case of Cd.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF