Elusive Structural, Functional, and Immunological Features of Act d 5, the Green Kiwifruit Kiwellin.

Kiwellin (Act d 5) is an allergenic protein contained in kiwifruit pulp in high amounts. The aim of this study was to investigate the three-dimensional structure of the natural molecule from green kiwifruit and its possible function. Kiwellin was crystallized, and its structure, including post-translational modifications, was elucidated.

Structural features, IgE binding and preliminary clinical findings of the 7kDa Lipid Transfer Protein from tomato seeds.

Allergic reactions caused by 9kDa Lipid Transfer Proteins (9k-LTP), such as Pru p 3, have been widely investigated, whereas a possible contribution of components of 7kDa LTP (7k-LTP) sub-family in triggering allergic symptoms has been overlooked so far. With the aim to investigate the contribution of 7k-LTPs to the food allergies, we have identified, isolated and characterised a tomato seed 7k-LTP (Sola l 7k-LTP). The protein was purified by chromatographic separations, identified by direct protein sequencing and mass spectrometry and a molecular model was built.

A sonographic lesion index for Crohn's disease helps monitor changes in transmural bowel damage during therapy.

Background & Aims: Therapeutic antibodies against tumor necrosis factor α (anti-TNF) are effective in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). Mucosal healing is a surrogate marker of efficacy, but little is known about the effects of anti-TNF agents on structural damage in the intestine. Small-intestine contrast ultrasonography (SICUS) is a valuable tool for assessing CD lesions.

Estimates of cocaine use in Milan.

A comparative analysis of three different estimation methods of cocaine use in Milan, Italy, is carried out, including an analysis of the size and trends of the underlying reference population. The three cocaine use estimates are derived from wastewater analysis, a "street" survey and one-source capture-recapture analysis of administrative sanctions for drug possession. All three data sources span several years during the decade 2000-2010.

Detection of IgG and IgE reactivity to BP180 using the ISAC® microarray system.

Background: Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune skin disease in which patient autoantibodies react with BP180 and BP230 proteins. In addition to IgG, IgE has been shown to play a role in the disease.

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of detecting IgE and IgG against the immunodominant BP180 NC16A domain (BP180) using a microarray system.

Tolerability of a fully maturated cheese in cow's milk allergic children: biochemical, immunochemical, and clinical aspects.

Background: From patients' reports and our preliminary observations, a fully maturated cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano; PR) seems to be well tolerated by a subset of cow's milk (CM) allergic patients.

Objective And Methods: To biochemically and immunologically characterize PR samples at different maturation stage and to verify PR tolerability in CM allergic children. Seventy patients, with suspected CM allergy, were enrolled.

Efficacy and safety of infliximab and adalimumab in Crohn's disease: a single centre study.

Background: Infliximab and adalimumab are highly effective in Crohn's Disease (CD). This is supported by clinical trials and open-label studies using either infliximab or adalimumab, thus not allowing a proper comparison between these anti-TNFs in CD.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of infliximab and adalimumab in active CD.

Development of a numerical index quantitating small bowel damage as detected by ultrasonography in Crohn's disease.

Small intestine contrast ultrasonography (SICUS) has emerged as a valuable tool in the detection of intestinal damage in Crohn's disease (CD). Our aim was to develop a numerical index quantitating small bowel damage as detected by SICUS in patients with an established diagnosis of CD. One hundred and ten patients with ileal or ileocolonic CD were prospectively enrolled and followed up for one year.

Fistulizing pattern in Crohn's disease and pancolitis in ulcerative colitis are independent risk factors for cancer: a single-center cohort study.

Background & Aims: The combined role of immunomodulators (IMM) and clinical characteristics of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in determining the cancer risk is undefined. The aim was to assess whether clinical characteristics of IBD are independent risk factors for cancer, when considering thiopurines and anti-TNFs use.

Methods: In a single-center cohort study, clinical characteristics of IBD patients with IBD duration ≥1 year and ≥2 visits from 2000 to 2009 were considered.

Allergenic lipid transfer proteins from plant-derived foods do not immunologically and clinically behave homogeneously: the kiwifruit LTP as a model.

Background: Food allergy is increasingly common worldwide. Tools for allergy diagnosis measuring IgE improved much since allergenic molecules and microarrays started to be used. IgE response toward allergens belonging to the same group of molecules has not been comprehensively explored using such approach yet.

Small bowel capsule endoscopy vs conventional techniques in patients with symptoms highly compatible with Crohn's disease.

Background & Aims: The diagnostic role of Small Bowel Capsule Endoscopy (SBCE) in Crohn's Disease (CD) is under investigation. In a prospective study we investigated the diagnostic role of SBCE in patients with symptoms highly compatible with CD and undefined diagnosis after conventional techniques.

Methods: From September 2005 to May 2009, all patients with clinically suspected CD and not conclusive diagnosis after Ileocolonoscopy (IC), Small Bowel Follow Through (SBFT) and Small Intestine Contrast Ultrasonography (SICUS) were enrolled.

Radiowave dielectric properties of sodium maleate copolymers in aqueous solutions in light of a scaling approach.

The concentration dependence of the dielectric properties of aqueous solutions of sodium maleate copolymers with comonomers of different hydrophobicities have been investigated by means of frequency domain dielectric spectroscopy in the frequency range from 1 kHz to 2 GHz. The dielectric relaxation falling between the process at low frequencies (polarization involving the whole polymer chain) and the one at high frequencies (polarization of the bulk aqueous phase) has been analyzed in light of the scaling properties of polyelectrolyte solutions. Within this framework, the dielectric properties are governed by two characteristic lengths, the distance R(cm) between chains in the dilute regime and the correlation length xi in the semidilute regime.

Polyion-induced cluster formation in different colloidal polyparticle aqueous suspensions.

The formation of aggregates in polyion-induced charged colloidal particles in aqueous suspension is characterized, under appropriate conditions, by two complementary effects, known as re-entrant condensation and charge inversion, which are considered as proof for the existence of a cluster phase. In this paper, we extend our previous investigation to a set of aqueous colloidal particle suspensions, such as polystyrene spheres, colloidal gold particles, and polylactic acid particles. These systems are characterized by the evolution of the average size of the aggregates and their surface electrical charge (charge inversion) by means of dynamic light-scattering measurements and laser Doppler electrophoretic techniques.

Polyion-induced aggregation of lipidic-coated solid polystyrene spheres: the many facets of complex formation in low-density colloidal suspensions.

We have investigated the formation of a cluster phase in low-density colloidal systems formed by charged solid charged particles stuck together by an oppositely charged polyion. In analogy with what we have previously observed in the case of soft charged particles, also in this case the same basic phenomenology occurs, consisting of the presence of the two well-known characteristic phenomena of this class of colloids, that is, reentrant condensation and charge inversion. With the aim of comparing the cluster formation in both soft and solid charged particles, we have, in previous works, employed cationic liposomes (soft particles, lipidic vesicles built up by dioleoyltrimethylammonium propane [DOTAP] lipid) and, in the present work, polystyrene particles (solid particles) covered by the same lipidic bilayer as the one of the soft particles, so that the two classes of particles share electrostatic interactions of the same nature.

Influence of temperature on microdomain organization of mixed cationic-zwitterionic lipidic monolayers at the air-water interface.

The thermodynamic behavior of mixed DOTAP-DPPC monolayers at the air-water interface has been investigated in the temperature range from 15 to 45 degrees C, covering the temperature interval where the thermotropic phase transition of DPPC, from solid-like to liquid-like, takes place. Based on the regular solution theory, the miscibility of the two lipids in the mixed monolayer was evaluated in terms of the excess Gibbs free energy of mixing DeltaG(ex), activity coefficients f(1) and f(2) and interaction parameter omega between the two lipids. The mixed DOTAP-DPPC film was found to have positive deviations from ideality at low DOTAP mole fractions, indicating a phase-separated binary mixture.

Liposome-induced DNA compaction and reentrant condensation investigated by dielectric relaxation spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering techniques.

Interaction of DNA with oppositely charged objects, such as multivalent ions, cationic surfactants, cationic liposomes, basic proteins, and alcohols, up to nano- or mesoscopic particles, gives rise to a very interesting and fascinating phenomenology, where the shape, size, and stability of the resulting aggregates depend on a delicate balance between different driving forces, mainly of electrostatic origin. We have studied the cationic liposome-DNA complexes during the whole complexation process, below, close to, and above the isoelectric condition, where the number of cationic lipids equals the number of phosphate groups on the DNA chain. We took advantage of the combined use of dynamic light scattering, laser Doppler electrophoretic mobility, and radio-wave dielectric relaxation measurements in order to characterize both the structural parameters (hydrodynamic radius) and the electrical parameters (charge and counterion concentration) of the resulting structures.

Properties of mixed DOTAP-DPPC bilayer membranes as reported by differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic light scattering measurements.

We have investigated the effect of a cationic lipid [DOTAP] on both the thermotropic phase behavior and the structural organization of aqueous dispersions of dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine [DPPC] by means of high-sensitivity differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic light scattering measurements. We find that the incorporation of increasing quantities of DOTAP progressively reduces the temperature and the enthalpy of the gel-to-liquid crystalline transition. We are further showing that, in mixed DOTAP-DPPC systems, the reduction of the phase transition temperature is accompanied by a reduction of the average size of the structures present in the aqueous mixtures, whatever the DOTAP concentration is.

Dielectric scaling in polyelectrolyte solutions with different solvent quality in the dilute concentration regime.

In this note, we present a set of radiowave dielectric spectroscopy measurements of two dilute, differently-charged polyelectrolyte solutions, under different solvent conditions. We have found that both the dielectric strength, Delta epsilon, and the relaxation time, tau(ion), of the dielectric relaxation process associated with the counterion polarization along a length scale of the order of the correlation length obey the scaling laws with the polyion concentration, according to the Ito model. This is verified with good accuracy independently of the quality of the solvent, which has been varied from poor to good solvent conditions.

Solvent quality influence on the dielectric properties of polyelectrolyte solutions: a scaling approach.

The dielectric properties of polyelectrolytes in solvent of different quality have been measured in an extended frequency range and the dielectric parameters associated with the polarization induced by counterion fluctuation over some peculiar polyion lengths have been evaluated. Following the scaling theory of polyelectrolyte solutions and the recent models developed by Dobrynin and Rubinstein that explicitly take into account the quality of the solvent on the polyion chain conformation, we have reviewed and summarized a set of scaling laws that describe the dielectric behavior of these systems in the dilute and semidilute regime. Moreover, for poorer solvents, where theory of hydrophobic polyelectrolytes predicts, and computer simulation confirms, a particular chain structure consisting of partially collapsed monomers (beads) connected by monomer strings, we derived a scaling law.

Conductometric properties of linear polyelectrolytes in poor-solvent condition: the necklace model.

We present a set of low-frequency electrical conductivity measurements of solutions of differently charged, salt-free polyelectrolytes in poor- and in good-solvent conditions, in the semidilute concentration regime. The data have been analyzed and discussed in light of the necklace model for hydrophobic polyelectrolytes recently proposed by Dobrynin et al. [Macromolecules 29, 2974 (1996)] that predicts the chains to collapse into spheroidal cores connected by narrow strings.