Search results for " Alan"
showing 10 items of 58 documents
Investigation of applicability of alanine pellets and films for dosimetry of proton clinical beams
2015
Laser-driven proton has recently gained a great interest as an alternative to conventional and more expensive acceleration techniques. These ion beams have desirable qualities such as small source size, high luminosity and small emittance to be used in different physics fields. This is very promising specially for the future perspective of a new concept of hadrontherapy based on laser-based devices could be developed, replacing traditional accelerating machines. ELIMED (Medical Applications at Extreme Light Infrastructure) is a task-force originally born by an idea of ELI-Beams (Prague) and INFN-LNS (Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics of Catania) researchers. ELIMED main goal is to perfo…
Hepatitis C in the elderly: a multicentre cross-sectional study by the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver
2012
Background: The prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection increases with advancing age, but elderly hepatitis C virus patients remain an understudied population. Aim: To define the virological, epidemiological and clinical profiles of Italian outpatients aged 65 years and over infected by hepatitis C virus. Methods: We evaluated 1544 anti-hepatitis C virus positive patients aged >=65 years referred to 34 Italian outpatient specialty clinics over a two-year period. Results: The study population included 1134 (73%) early elderly (65-74 years) and 410 (27%) late elderly patients (>=75 years). Late elderly subjects were less likely to have their virus genotyped, their viral load assessed or a h…
p42 MAPK phosphorylates 80 kDa MARCKS at Ser-113.
1996
Abstract It is demonstrated here that p42 MAPKinase (p42 MAPK) phosphorylates the M yristoylated A lanine- R ich C - K inase S ubstrate (MARCKS) at Ser-113. In permeabilised Swiss 3T3 cells activation of protein kinase C (PKC) leads to p42 MAPK activation, but only the protein kinase C sites in MARCKS become phosphorylated and not Ser-113. The mitogen platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) elicits the same response. These results demonstrate that while Ser-113 is a substrate for p42 MAPK in vitro and can be phosphorylated in vivo as shown by Taniguchi et al. [(1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 18299–18302], its phosphorylation is not subject to acute regulation by p42 MAPK in Swiss 3T3 cells.
Lack of Correlation between Liver Tests Abnormalities and Trabectedin Efficacy in the Treatment of Soft Tissue Sarcoma: A Retrospective Study
2015
AbstractElevation in liver transaminases is common in patients treated with the marine antitumor agent trabectedin. However, the impact of trabectedin-related transaminase elevations on treatment outcomes is unclear. This retrospective study investigated the correlation between liver tests abnormalities and treatment outcomes in patients with unresectable advanced or metastatic soft tissue sarcomas (STS) treated with trabectedin 1.5 mg/m2 once every 3 weeks at three reference centers in Italy. The effect of grade 3/4 elevations in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) during the first two cycles and at any time during trabectedin treatment on progression-free su…
Synthesis and Inhibitory Studies of Phosphonic Acid Analogues of Homophenylalanine and Phenylalanine towards Alanyl Aminopeptidases.
2020
A library of novel phosphonic acid analogues of homophenylalanine and phenylalanine, containing fluorine and bromine atoms in the phenyl ring, have been synthesized. Their inhibitory properties against two important alanine aminopeptidases, of human (hAPN, CD13) and porcine (pAPN) origin, were evaluated. Enzymatic studies and comparison with literature data indicated the higher inhibitory potential of the homophenylalanine over phenylalanine derivatives towards both enzymes. Their inhibition constants were in the submicromolar range for hAPN and the micromolar range for pAPN, with 1-amino-3-(3-fluorophenyl) propylphosphonic acid (compound 15c) being one of the best low-molecular inhibitors …
The Fatty Liver Assessment in Germany (FLAG) cohort study identifies large heterogeneity in NAFLD care
2020
Background & Aims NAFLD is a growing health concern. The aim of the Fatty Liver Assessment in Germany (FLAG) study was to assess disease burden and provide data on the standard of care from secondary care. Methods The FLAG study is an observational real-world study in patients with NAFLD enrolled at 13 centres across Germany. Severity of disease was assessed by non-invasive surrogate scores and data recorded at baseline and 12 months. Results In this study, 507 patients (mean age 53 years; 47% women) were enrolled. According to fibrosis-4 index, 64%, 26%, and 10% of the patients had no significant fibrosis, indeterminate stage, and advanced fibrosis, respectively. Patients with advanced fib…
Determining a healthy reference range and factors potentially influencing PRO-C3 – A biomarker of liver fibrosis
2021
Background & Aims Progressive fibrosis has been identified as the major predictor of mortality in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Several biomarkers are currently being evaluated for their ability to substitute the liver biopsy as the reference standard. Recent clinical studies in NAFLD/NASH patients support the utility of PRO-C3, a marker of type III collagen formation, as a marker for the degree of fibrosis, disease activity, and effect of treatment. Here we establish the healthy reference range, optimal sample handling conditions for both short- and long-term serum storage, and robustness for the PRO-C3 assay. Methods PRO-C3 was measured in 269 healthy volunteers…
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE GAMMA DOSE COMPONENT IN THE NEUTRON FIELD OF A BNCT IRRADIATION FACILITY
2017
At the University of Pavia, a neutron irradiation facility has been constructed for preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies for BNCT. The facility is a wide channel (40 x 20 x 100 cm3) inside the graphite Thermal Column of the 250 KW research reactor TRIGA Mark II. The neutron field consists in a thermal component ranging from about 1010 and 109 cm-2s-1 along the longitudinal axis of the channel and it is uniform within 10% along the transversal axes. The fast neutron contamination (En > 1.58 keV) is more than 2 orders of magnitude lower. The gamma background coming from the core has been reduced with a 20 cm thick bismuth shield, however in the facility a gamma component is still prese…
EPR/alanine dosimetry for two therapeutic proton beams
2016
Abstract In this work the analysis of the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) response of alanine pellets exposed to two different clinical proton beams employed for radiotherapy is performed. One beam is characterized by a passive delivery technique and is dedicated to the eyes treatment (OPTIS2 beam line). Alanine pellets were irradiated with a 70 MeV proton beam corresponding to 35 mm range in eye tissue. We investigated how collimators with different sizes and shape used to conform the dose to the planned target volume influence the delivered dose. For this purpose we performed measurements with varying the collimator size (Output Factor) and the results were compared with those obtai…