Analysis of PIK3CA Mutations and Activation Pathways in Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

Background: Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) accounts for 12-24% of all breast carcinomas, and shows worse prognosis compared to other breast cancer subtypes. Molecular studies demonstrated that TNBCs are a heterogeneous group of tumors with different clinical and pathologic features, prognosis, genetic-molecular alterations and treatment responsivity. The PI3K/AKT is a major pathway involved in the regulation of cell survival and proliferation, and is the most frequently altered pathway in breast cancer, apparently with different biologic impact on specific cancer subtypes.

Molecular typing of XDR Acinetobacter baumannii strains in an Italian ICU.

Objective: To investigate the antimicrobial susceptibility and clonal relationship of Acinetobacter baumannii strains isolated in an Italian ICU.

Design: Epidemiological, observational, retrospective, longitudinal study.

Setting And Participants: The ICU of the University Hospital of Sassari, Italy.

Evidence-based approach for continuous improvement of occupational health.

Introduction: It was recognized early on that an Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) approach could be applied to Public Health (PH), including the area of Occupational Health (OH). The aim of Evidence-Based Occupational Health (EBOH) is to ensure safety, health, and well-being in the workplace. Currently, high-quality research is necessary in order to provide arguments and scientific evidence upon which effective, efficient, and sustainable preventive measures and policies are to be developed in the workplace in Western countries.

Management of drug resistantTB in patients with HIV co-infection.

Introduction: Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR- and XDR-TB) are major public health concerns worldwide. Their association with HIV/AIDS infection has contributed to the slowing down of TB incidence decline over the last two decades, therefore representing one of the most important barriers to reach TB elimination.

Areas Covered: The aim of this manuscript is to critically review the recent scientific evidence on the management of drug-resistant TB (essentially MDR- and XDR-TB) in subjects coinfected with HIV, focusing on the two new recently-approved anti-TB drugs delamanid and bedaquiline.

Does Improving Exercise Capacity and Daily Activity Represent the Holistic Perspective of a New COPD Approach?

In COPD patients a reduced daily activity has been well documented, resulting from both respiratory and non-respiratory manifestations of the disease. An evaluation by multisensory armband has confirmed that daily physical activity is mainly associated with dynamic hyperinflation, regardless of COPD severity. This aspect is crucial, since exercise capacity is closely correlated to life expectancy.

Management of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection: WHO guidelines for low tuberculosis burden countries.

Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is characterised by the presence of immune responses to previously acquired Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection without clinical evidence of active tuberculosis (TB). Here we report evidence-based guidelines from the World Health Organization for a public health approach to the management of LTBI in high risk individuals in countries with high or middle upper income and TB incidence of <100 per 100 000 per year. The guidelines strongly recommend systematic testing and treatment of LTBI in people living with HIV, adult and child contacts of pulmonary TB cases, patients initiating anti-tumour necrosis factor treatment, patients receiving dialysis, patients preparing for organ or haematological transplantation, and patients with silicosis.

Methylene Blue Doped Films of Wool Keratin with Antimicrobial Photodynamic Activity.

In this work, keratin films doped with different amounts of methylene blue (MB) were developed in order to prepare new biodegradable and biocompatible materials for tissue engineering and wound healing, able to exert antimicrobial photodynamic activity upon irradiation with visible light. Preliminary results indicated that the swelling ratio, as well as the MB release, increases by increasing the pH. Moreover, the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and singlet oxygen can be easily triggered and controlled by a fine-tuning of the irradiation time and MB concentration in the films.

[Preliminary study on the expression of Toll-like receptors 7 and 8 in bladder urothelial tumors].

The aim of the study was to demonstrate the expression of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-8 and to confirm the expression of TLR-7 on bladder transitional cell carcinomas (TCCs) analyzing the changes in expression between low-grade (LG) and high-grade (HG) and between non-muscle invasive (NMIBC) and muscle-invasive (MIBC) bladder cancers. In our study, 25 patients who underwent transurethral resection (TURB) for bladder TCC have been selected. Thirteen of those had an LG form,while the other cases were classified as HG; the lesions were NMIBC in 18 patients and MIBC in the others seven.

Epidemiology of multiple sclerosis in the pediatric population of Sardinia, Italy.

Unlabelled: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Several authors report MS affecting not only young adults but also children and adolescents. Sardinia is one of the regions at the highest risk for MS worldwide in the adult population; to date, no definite data exist on the pediatric population.

Plasma Clusterin and Lipid Profile: A Link with Aging and Cardiovascular Diseases in a Population with a Consistent Number of Centenarians.

The role of Clusterin in attenuation of inflammation and reverse cholesterol transfer makes this molecule a potential candidate as a marker for cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome. In elderly subjects cardiovascular diseases represent the primary cause of death and different clinical studies have shown a positive correlation of these diseases with changes in the lipid pattern. This work aimed at evaluating the relationship between circulating clusterin and the biochemical parameters that characterize the lipid profile of a Sardinian population divided into five age groups including centenarians; the high frequency in Sardinia of these long-lived individuals gave us the opportunity to extend the range of the age groups to be analyzed to older ages and to better evaluate the changes in the lipid balance during ageing and its relationship with clusterin concentration in plasma.

Superior Sensitivity of Ex Vivo IFN-γ Release Assays as Compared to Skin Testing in Immunocompromised Patients.

Comparative assessment of the tuberculin skin testing (TST) and commercial IFN-γ release-assays (IGRAs) is hampered by the use of different antigens (tuberculin PPD in TST vs. ESAT-6/CFP-10 in IGRAs). Thus, PPD was used as a common stimulus to compare performance of the TST and three IGRAs in 72 controls, 101 hemodialysis patients and 100 renal transplant recipients.

Plasma concentrations of transthyretin in older Sardinians including centenarians.

Background And Aims: Plasma concentrations of transthyretin (TTR), a negative acute-phase protein, can be influenced by many factors including aging. Under physiological circumstances, TTR concentrations are very low in the fetus, increase slowly after birth up to the fifth decade and, then, decrease slowly. Some studies have shown sex-related differences up to about 70 years, when the differences disappear.

New anti-tuberculosis drugs and regimens: 2015 update.

Over 480 000 cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) occur every year globally, 9% of them being affected by extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of . The treatment of MDR/XDR-TB is unfortunately long, toxic and expensive, and the success rate largely unsatisfactory (<20% among cases with resistance patterns beyond XDR). The aim of this review is to summarise the available evidence-based updated international recommendations to manage MDR/XDR-TB, and to update the reader on the role of newly developed drugs (delamanid, bedaquiline and pretomanid) as well as repurposed drugs (linezolid and meropenem clavulanate, among others) used to treat these conditions within new regimens.

Effects of Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Patients with Non-Cystic Fibrosis Bronchiectasis: A Retrospective Analysis of Clinical and Functional Predictors of Efficacy.

Background: International guidelines recommend the inclusion of patients with bronchiectasis in pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) to improve exercise capacity and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). At present, the effect of PR in these patients has been poorly investigated.

Objective: The aim of our retrospective analysis was to evaluate the effects and predictors of success for a PR program in patients with bronchiectasis not related to cystic fibrosis (non-CF bronchiectasis).

Polymer nanoparticles with electrostatically loaded multicargo for combined cancer phototherapy.

We have developed a multifunctional polymer-based nanoplatform for bimodal cancer phototherapy. It was achieved by electrostatic entangling of two anionic photoactivable components, a commercial porphyrin and a tailored nitro-aniline derivative, within the cationic shell of polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) based on polymethyl methacrylate. The combination of steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic and photochemical techniques shows that the two photoresponsive agents do not interfere with each other while being in close proximity in the same polymeric scaffold and can thus operate in parallel under the exclusive control of light stimuli.

Tuberculosis transmission from healthcare workers to patients and co-workers: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at risk of becoming infected with tuberculosis (TB), and potentially of being infectious themselves when they are ill. To assess the magnitude of healthcare-associated TB (HCA-TB) transmission from HCWs to patients and colleagues, we searched three electronic databases up to February 2014 to select primary studies on HCA-TB incidents in which a HCW was the index case and possibly exposed patients and co-workers were screened.We identified 34 studies out of 2,714 citations.

Supporting clinical management of the difficult-to-treat TB cases: the ERS-WHO TB Consilium.

Multi-drug and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/XDR-TB) are considered a serious threat for TB control and elimination. The outcome of these patients is still largely unsatisfactory as of today, with treatment success rates being consistently below 50% at global level. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that management of MDR-TB cases is supported by a specialized team, including complementary medical professionals able to cover several perspectives (clinical, both for adults and children; surgical; radiological; public health; psychological; nursing, among others).

Tuberculosis control in prisons: current situation and research gaps.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) in penitentiary services (prisons) is a major challenge to TB control. This review article describes the challenges that prison systems encounter in TB control and provides solutions for the more efficient use of limited resources based on the three pillars of the post-2015 End TB Strategy. This paper also proposes research priorities for TB control in prisons based on current challenges.

Therapeutic drug monitoring: how to improve drug dosage and patient safety in tuberculosis treatment.

In this article we describe the key role of tuberculosis (TB) treatment, the challenges (mainly the emergence of drug resistance), and the opportunities represented by the correct approach to drug dosage, based on the existing control and elimination strategies. In this context, the role and contribution of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is discussed in detail. Treatment success in multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB cases is low (62%, with 7% failing or relapsing and 9% dying) and in extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB cases is even lower (40%, with 22% failing or relapsing and 15% dying).

Childhood BCG vaccination does not influence control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth by human bronchoalveolar lavage cells.

Background: Childhood vaccination with Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) reduces the risk of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the risk of severe forms of tuberculosis in children. The protection of adults from pulmonary tuberculosis is doubtful. This study evaluated the effect of the vaccination on the growth of M.