Search results for "ARS"
showing 10 items of 5947 documents
Determination of inmune response and inflammation mediators in tears: Changes in dry eye and glaucoma as compared to healthy controls
2017
Objective To determine the expression profile of immune response and inflammation (IRI) mediator molecules in tears from patients with dry eye (DE), and those suspected of having or have primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) under treatment and compare them with healthy controls. Methods A prospective observational cohort study including 107 participants sub-divided into: healthy controls (CG; n = 30), patients with DE (DEG; n = 41) and patients suspected of having or have POAG and on hypotensive treatment (POAG-G; n = 36). Tear samples were collected by capillary to be processed using a multi-immunoassay system based on flow cytometry (Luminex R-200®), in order to determine the interleukins (…
Symptomatic COVID-19 in advanced-cancer patients treated with immune-checkpoint inhibitors. Prospective analysis from a multicentre observational tri…
2020
Background:This prospective, multicentre, observational INVIDIa-2 study is investigating the clinical efficacy of influenza vaccination in advanced-cancer patients receiving immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), enrolled in 82 Italian centres, from October 2019 to January 2020. The primary endpoint was the incidence of influenza-like illness (ILI) until 30 April 2020. All the ILI episodes, laboratory tests, complications, hospitalizations and pneumonitis were recorded. Therefore, the study prospectively recorded all the COVID-19 ILI events.Patients and methods:Patients were included in this non-prespecified COVID-19 analysis, if alive on 31 January 2020, when the Italian government declared …
Does Evidence Exist to Blunt Inflammatory Response by Nutraceutical Supplementation during COVID-19 Pandemic? An Overview of Systematic Reviews of Vi…
2021
More than one year has passed since the first cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 coronavirus were reported in Wuhan (China), rapidly evolving into a global pandemic. This infectious disease has become a major public health challenge in the world. Unfortunately, to date, no specific antivirals have been proven to be effective against COVID-19, and although a few vaccines are available, the mortality rate is not decreasing but is still increasing. One therapeutic strategy has been focused on infection prevention and control measures. In this regard, the use of nutraceutical supports may play a role against some aspect of the i…
Famotidine inhibits toll-like receptor 3-mediated inflammatory signaling in SARS-CoV-2 infection
2021
Apart from prevention using vaccinations, the management options for COVID-19 remain limited. In retrospective cohort studies, use of famotidine, a specific oral H2 receptor antagonist (antihistamine), has been associated with reduced risk of intubation and death in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In a case series, nonhospitalized patients with COVID-19 experienced rapid symptom resolution after taking famotidine, but the molecular basis of these observations remains elusive. Here we show using biochemical, cellular, and functional assays that famotidine has no effect on viral replication or viral protease activity. However, famotidine can affect histamine-induced signaling processes i…
The genomic sequence of Exiguobacterium chiriqhucha str. N139 reveals a species that thrives in cold waters and extreme environmental conditions
2017
We report the genome sequence of Exiguobacterium chiriqhucha str. N139, isolated from a high-altitude Andean lake. Comparative genomic analyses of the Exiguobacterium genomes available suggest that our strain belongs to the same species as the previously reported E. pavilionensis str. RW-2 and Exiguobacterium str. GIC 31. We describe this species and propose the chiriqhucha name to group them. ‘Chiri qhucha’ in Quechua means ‘cold lake’, which is a common origin of these three cosmopolitan Exiguobacteria. The 2,952,588-bp E. chiriqhucha str. N139 genome contains one chromosome and three megaplasmids. The genome analysis of the Andean strain suggests the presence of enzymes that confer E. ch…
Lateral Habenula 5-HT2C Receptor Function Is Altered by Acute and Chronic Nicotine Exposures
2021
Serotonin (5-HT) is important in some nicotine actions in the CNS. Among all the 5-HT receptors (5-HTRs), the 5-HT2CR has emerged as a promising drug target for smoking cessation. The 5-HT2CRs within the lateral habenula (LHb) may be crucial for nicotine addiction. Here we showed that after acute nicotine tartrate (2 mg/kg, i.p.) exposure, the 5-HT2CR agonist Ro 60-0175 (5–640 µg/kg, i.v.) increased the electrical activity of 42% of the LHb recorded neurons in vivo in rats. Conversely, after chronic nicotine treatment (6 mg/kg/day, i.p., for 14 days), Ro 60-0175 was incapable of affecting the LHb neuronal discharge. Moreover, acute nicotine exposure increased the 5-HT2CR-immunoreactive (IR)…
De Novo Genome Assembly of the Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes Procyonoides)
2021
The raccoon dog, Nyctereutes procyonoides (NCBI Taxonomy ID: 34880, Figure 1a) belongs to the family Canidae, with foxes (genus Vulpes) being their closest relatives (Lindblad-Toh et al., 2005; Sun et al., 2019). Its original distribution in East Asia ranges from south-eastern Siberia to northern Vietnam and the Japanese islands. In the early 20th century, the raccoon dog was introduced into Western Russia for fur breeding and hunting purposes, which led to its widespread establishment in many European countries, Figure 1b. Together with the raccoon (Procyon lotor), it is now listed in Europe as an invasive species of Union concern (Regulation (EU) No. 1143/2014) and member states are requi…
Application of a portable instrument for rapid and reliable detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in any environment
2020
Abstract The ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection is creating serious challenges for health laboratories that seek to identify viral infections as early as possible, optimally at the earliest appearance of symptom. Indeed, there is urgent need to develop and deploy robust diagnostic methodologies not only to use in health laboratory environments but also directly in places where humans circulate and spread the virus such as airports, trains, boats, and any public aggregation places. The success of a reliable and sensitive asymptomatic diagnosis relies on the identification and measurement of informative biomarkers from human host and virus in a rapid, sensitive, …
Do genetic polymorphisms in angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) gene play a role in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)?
2020
Abstract Although some demographic, clinical and environmental factors have been associated with a higher risk of developing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and progressing towards severe disease, altogether these variables do not completely account for the different clinical presentations observed in patients with comparable baseline risk, whereby some subjects may remain totally asymptomatic, whilst others develop a very aggressive illness. Some predisposing genetic backgrounds can hence potentially explain the broad inter-individual variation of disease susceptibility and/or severity. It has been now clearly established that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2…
Microwear and isotopic analyses on cave bear remains from Toll Cave reveal both short-term and long-term dietary habits
2019
Dietary habits of the extinct Ursus spelaeus have always been a controversial topic in paleontological studies. In this work, we investigate carbon and nitrogen values in the bone collagen and dental microwear of U. spelaeus specimens recovered in Level 4 from Toll Cave (Moia, Catalonia, NE Iberian Peninsula). These remains have been dated to > 49,000 C-14 BP. The ability of both proxies to provide data on the diet of U. spelaeus at different times in the life-history (isotopes: average diet of life; microwear: last days/weeks before death), allows us to generate high-resolution and complementary data. Our results show lower values (delta C-13 & delta N-15) in cave bears than in strict herb…