Liposome-based nanoparticles impact on regulatory and effector phenotypes of macrophages and T cells in multiple Sclerosis patients.

Current available treatments of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) reduce neuroinflammation acting on different targets on the immune system, but potentially lead to severe side effects and have a limited efficacy in slowing the progression of the disease. Here, we evaluated in vitro the immunomodulatory potential of a new class of nanoparticles - liposomes, constituted by a double-layer of phosphatidylserine (PSCho/PS), and double-faced, with an outer layer of phosphatidylserine and an inner layer of phosphatidic acid (PSCho/PA), either alone or in the presence of the myelin basic protein (MBP) peptide (residues 85-99) (PSCho/PS-MBP and PSCho/PA-MBP). Results showed that PSCho/PS are equally and efficiently internalized by pro- and anti-inflammatory macrophages (M1 and M2 respectively), while PSCho/PA were internalized better by M2 than M1.

A practical approach to the management of thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy.

Pregnancy has an important impact on the thyroid gland and its function. Thyroid activity changes as a consequence of the novel physiological state of pregnancy and requires a complex hormonal and metabolic adaptation, which is possible only in the presence of a perfectly functioning thyroid gland. In fact, thyroid function is crucial for the success of the implantation and the progression of pregnancy.

Chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis in children and adolescents: a systematic review.

Purpose: The present systematic review aims to describe the incidence and severity of chemotherapy-related oral mucositis in children and adolescents affected by hematologic and solid tumors.

Methods: An electronic search was performed on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and EBSCO up to the 8th November 2020. The PRISMA protocol was followed for the article selection and inclusion.

In Vitro Fertilisation with Reception of Oocytes from Partner: A Transnational Case of Female Shared Biological Motherhood.

The social evolution of the concept of "the family" and changes in attitudes towards homosexual couples have expanded the range of people permitted to gain access to assisted reproduction technologies, encouraging the creation of blended families. "Reception of Oocytes from Partner" (ROPA) is a treatment that permits female couples to become active participants in the reproductive process and have a biological connection to their child. This article reports a case of transnational shared motherhood, in which the Italian Supreme Court (Application no 19599, Supreme Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 2016), dealt for the first time with a same-sex couple's request concerning the recognition of a legal child-relationship with a child conceived through in vitro fertilisation with ROPA.

Serine and one-carbon metabolisms bring new therapeutic venues in prostate cancer.

Serine and one-carbon unit metabolisms are essential biochemical pathways implicated in fundamental cellular functions such as proliferation, biosynthesis of important anabolic precursors and in general for the availability of methyl groups. These two distinct but interacting pathways are now becoming crucial in cancer, the de novo cytosolic serine pathway and the mitochondrial one-carbon metabolism. Apart from their role in physiological conditions, such as epithelial proliferation, the serine metabolism alterations are associated to several highly neoplastic proliferative pathologies.

New immunological potential markers for triple negative breast cancer: IL18R1, CD53, TRIM, Jaw1, LTB, PTPRCAP.

Breast cancer (BC) is the second leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide, and settings of specific prognostic factors and efficacious therapies are made difficult by phenotypic heterogeneity of BC subtypes. Therefore, there is a current urgent need to define novel predictive genetic predictors that may be useful for stratifying patients with distinct prognostic outcomes. Here, we looked for novel molecular signatures for triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs).

Physical Restraint in Psychiatric Care: Soon to Fall Out of Use?

International directives all recommend that using restraints on psychiatric patients should be avoided, yet scientific literature shows that such practices are still largely in use. This article aims to lay out strategies that could be put in place in order to gradually discard the use of restraints, particularly through a "restraint-free" approach, nursing, logistic-environmental pathways, and locally centered health care provision. All such tools have proven valuable for the purpose of safeguarding the health of psychiatric patients.

Advanced computation in cardiovascular physiology: new challenges and opportunities.

Recent developments in computational physiology have successfully exploited advanced signal processing and artificial intelligence tools for predicting or uncovering characteristic features of physiological and pathological states in humans. While these advanced tools have demonstrated excellent diagnostic capabilities, the high complexity of these computational 'black boxes' may severely limit scientific inference, especially in terms of biological insight about both physiology and pathological aberrations. This theme issue highlights current challenges and opportunities of advanced computational tools for processing dynamical data reflecting autonomic nervous system dynamics, with a specific focus on cardiovascular control physiology and pathology.

Long-term (48 weeks) effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of erenumab in the prevention of high-frequency episodic and chronic migraine in a real world: Results of the EARLY 2 study.

Objective: To evaluate the long-term effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of erenumab in a real-world migraine population, looking for putative predictors of responsiveness.

Background: Erenumab proved to be effective, safe, and well tolerated in the prevention of episodic migraine (EM) and chronic migraine (CM) in long-term extension studies of double-blind, placebo-controlled trials in patients with no more than two (EM) or three (CM) prior preventive treatment failures.

Methods: A 48-week, multicenter, longitudinal cohort real-life study was conducted at 15 headache centers across eight Italian regions between December 20, 2018 and July 31, 2020.

Global mapping of cancers: The Cancer Genome Atlas and beyond.

Cancer genomes have been explored from the early 2000s through massive exome sequencing efforts, leading to the publication of The Cancer Genome Atlas in 2013. Sequencing techniques have been developed alongside this project and have allowed scientists to bypass the limitation of costs for whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of single specimens by developing more accurate and extensive cancer sequencing projects, such as deep sequencing of whole genomes and transcriptomic analysis. The Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes recently published WGS data from more than 2600 human cancers together with almost 1200 related transcriptomes.

Development Methodology of the Novel Endoscopic Stone Treatment Step 2/A Training/Assessment Curriculum and a Roadmap on Developing Hands-on Training Curriculums in Future: An International Collaborative Work by European Association of Urology Sections.

Basic simulation training in endourology was established with the endoscopic stone treatment step 1 (EST-s1), which is now recognized worldwide for training and examination. Following on from EST-s1, the endoscopic stone treatment step 2 (EST-s2) was started by the European Association of Urology (EAU) sections. We describe the methodology used in the development of EST-s2 assessment curriculum.

Speed agility trends in children according to growth.

Background: Speed agility is considered as the whole assessment of speed of movement, agility and coordination. The 10x4m test has been broadly used to evaluate physical fitness and overall health in children of developmental ages. A myriad of studies have investigated the ecology of speed agility (SA).

The Impact of Lockdown on Couples' Sex Lives.

Background: the aim of this study was to perform an Italian telematics survey analysis on the changes in couples' sex lives during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown.

Methods: a multicenter cross sectional study was conducted on people sexually active and in stable relationships for at least 6 months. To evaluate male and female sexual dysfunctions, we used the international index of erectile function (IIEF-15) and the female sexual function index (FSFI), respectively; marital quality and stability were evaluated by the marital adjustment test (items 10-15); to evaluate the severity of anxiety symptoms, we used the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale.

Molecular analysis of clinical isolates of ceftazidime-avibactam-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Objectives: To analyse the strains collected during a 1-year survey of ceftazidime-avibactam-resistant KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, in order to investigate the molecular mechanisms potentially responsible for their resistant phenotype.

Methods: Clinical KPC-producing K. pneumoniae isolates were collected from 31 patients in six different hospitals in Rome.

The translocator protein (TSPO) is prodromal to mitophagy loss in neurotoxicity.

Dysfunctional mitochondria characterise Parkinson's Disease (PD). Uncovering etiological molecules, which harm the homeostasis of mitochondria in response to pathological cues, is therefore pivotal to inform early diagnosis and therapy in the condition, especially in its idiopathic forms. This study proposes the 18 kDa Translocator Protein (TSPO) to be one of those.

Pharmacological advances in mitochondrial therapy.

Mitochondria play a vital role in cellular metabolism and are central mediator of intracellular signalling, cell differentiation, morphogenesis and demise. An increasingly higher number of pathologies is linked with mitochondrial dysfunction, which can arise from either genetic defects affecting core mitochondrial components or malfunctioning pathways impairing mitochondrial homeostasis. As such, mitochondria are considered an important target in several pathologies spanning from neoplastic to neurodegenerative diseases as well as metabolic syndromes.

Robotic Versus Laparoscopic Adrenalectomy: Pluriannual Experience in a High-Volume Center Evaluating Indications and Results.

Robotic adrenalectomy offers several clinical benefits if compared with laparoscopic adrenalectomy; however, its superiority is still under debate. The aim of this study was the investigation of differences between the two techniques, and a comparison when approaching right or left side adrenal lesions was further conducted. All patients undergoing laparoscopic and robotic unilateral adrenalectomy at our institution from January 2006 to December 2019 were collected and retrospectively analyzed.

Liquid biopsies and cancer omics.

The development of the sequencing technologies allowed the generation of huge amounts of molecular data from a single cancer specimen, allowing the clinical oncology to enter the era of the precision medicine. This massive amount of data is highlighting new details on cancer pathogenesis but still relies on tissue biopsies, which are unable to capture the dynamic nature of cancer through its evolution. This assumption led to the exploration of non-tissue sources of tumoral material opening the field of liquid biopsies.

MicroRNAs and target molecules in bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer (BC) is considered as one of the most common malignant tumors in humans with complex pathogenesis including gene expression variation, protein degradation, and changes in signaling pathways. Many studies on involved miRNAs in BC have demonstrated that they could be used as potential biomarkers in the prognosis, response to treatment, and screening before the cancerous phenotype onset. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate many cellular processes through their different effects on special targets along with modifying signaling pathways, apoptosis, cell growth, and differentiation.

Epidemiological transition and double burden of diseases in low-income countries: the case of Mozambique.

Epidemiological transition theory aims to describe changes in epidemiological scenarios at the global and national level. The assumption is the shift from infectious diseases (IDs) to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Some authors argue that this theory failed to describe epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa.

Pathophysiology of Crohn's disease inflammation and recurrence.

Chron's Disease is a chronic inflammatory intestinal disease, first described at the beginning of the last century. The disease is characterized by the alternation of periods of flares and remissions influenced by a complex pathogenesis in which inflammation plays a key role. Crohn's disease evolution is mediated by a complex alteration of the inflammatory response which is characterized by alterations of the innate immunity of the intestinal mucosa barrier together with a remodeling of the extracellular matrix through the expression of metalloproteins and increased adhesion molecules expression, such as MAcCAM-1.

Cancer predictive studies.

The identification of individual or clusters of predictive genetic alterations might help in defining the outcome of cancer treatment, allowing for the stratification of patients into distinct cohorts for selective therapeutic protocols. Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial childhood tumour, clinically defined in five distinct stages (1-4 & 4S), where stages 3-4 define chemotherapy-resistant, highly aggressive disease phases. NB is a model for geneticists and molecular biologists to classify genetic abnormalities and identify causative disease genes.

The immunomodulatory effects of mesenchymal stromal cell-based therapy in human and animal models of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic systemic autoimmune inflammatory disease with no absolute cure. Although the exact etiopathogenesis of SLE is still enigmatic, it has been well demonstrated that a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental factors trigger a disturbance in immune responses and thereby participate in the development of this condition. Almost all available therapeutic strategies in SLE are primarily based on the administration of immunosuppressive drugs and are not curative.

Italian real-life clinical setting: the persistence and adherence with mirabegron in women with overactive bladder.

Introduction And Hypothesis: The aims of this study were to evaluate the persistence, the adherence on treatment with mirabegron, the reasons for the interruption in patients with overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) and their satisfaction.

Methods: This was an Italian multicentre prospective study. Four tertiary urological centers were involved.