Doping yesterday, today, tomorrow: A challenge for the clinical laboratory.

This work highlights the role of the clinical laboratory, in the early detection of the use of substances prohibited for doping. This is because most people who practice sports today are non-professional athletes and amateurs, in particular young kids. These persons are not subjected to anti-doping controls but are at risk for their health.

Nebulized myo-inositol increases mucus clearance in patients with Bronchiectasis: a retrospective study.

Objective: This retrospective study aimed at ascertaining the clinical usefulness of nebulized myo-inositol in the management of patients affected by bronchiectasis.

Patients And Methods: 19 patients, aged between 63 and 73 years old, with bronchiectasis, were treated for 15 days with nebulized myo-inositol or placebo. Lung functionality [forced expiratory volume in the 1st second (FEV1)], solid content of expectorate, and surfactant tension were analyzed.

Myo-Inositol and D-Chiro-Inositol as Modulators of Ovary Steroidogenesis: A Narrative Review.

Myo-inositol is a natural polyol, the most abundant among the nine possible structural isomers available in living organisms. Inositol confers some distinctive traits that allow for a striking distinction between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, the basic clusters into which organisms are partitioned. Inositol cooperates in numerous biological functions where the polyol participates or by furnishing the fundamental backbone of several related derived metabolites, mostly obtained through the sequential addition of phosphate groups (inositol phosphates, phosphoinositides, and pyrophosphates).

From alchemy to personalised medicine: the journey of laboratory medicine.

This review summarises the long period in which man has approached nature to understand its powers, and has tried to control it through physical and chemical, and also magical, practices. From the attempt to manage nature to the development of primordial drugs and medical practices and later to achieve modern biomedical science, laboratory practices always played a pivotal role. Over the years and centuries, the laboratory has acquired more and more importance in the improvement of health.

Paradoxical Behavior of Oncogenes Undermines the Somatic Mutation Theory.

The currently accepted theory on the influence of DNA mutations on carcinogenesis (the Somatic Mutation Theory, SMT) is facing an increasing number of controversial results that undermine the explanatory power of mutated genes considered as "causative" factors. Intriguing results have demonstrated that several critical genes may act differently, as oncogenes or tumor suppressors, while phenotypic reversion of cancerous cells/tissues can be achieved by modifying the microenvironment, the mutations they are carrying notwithstanding. Furthermore, a high burden of mutations has been identified in many non-cancerous tissues without any apparent pathological consequence.