Search results for "PHARMACOLOGY"
showing 10 items of 8885 documents
Effect of ABC transporter expression and mutational status on survival rates of cancer patients
2020
ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters mediate multidrug resistance in cancer. In contrast to DNA single nucleotide polymorphisms in normal tissues, the role of mutations in tumors is unknown. Furthermore, the significance of their expression for prediction of chemoresistance and survival prognosis is still under debate. We investigated 18 tumors by RNA-sequencing. The mutation rate varied from 27,507 to 300885. In ABCB1, three hotspots with novel mutations were in transmembrane domains 3, 8, and 9. We also mined the cBioPortal database with 11,814 patients from 23 different tumor entities. We performed Kaplan-Meier survival analyses to investigate the effect of ABC transporter expression …
Is Italian population protected from Poliovirus? Results of a seroprevalence survey in Florence, Italy
2018
ABSTRACT Objectives: Periodical assessments of population susceptibility to polioviruses (PV) is essential for evaluating population protection and planning appropriate vaccination strategies. The aim of the current work was to assess serological protective titers against all three polioviruses in the general population of Florence. Methods: A convenience sample of 328 sera, collected in 2009 in Florence (Central Italy) was analyzed. Samples were considered protective if neutralizing antibodies were detected at dilutions ≥1:8, according to the WHO protocols. Results: The immune coverage was 75.3%, 69.2% and 46% for PV1, PV2 and PV3, respectively. The protective titers of neutralizing antibo…
Sperm DNA fragmentation: An early and reliable marker of air pollution.
2017
Environmental factors could have a key role in the continuous and remarkable decline of sperm quality observed in the last decades. This study compared the seminal parameters and sperm DFI in men living in areas with different levels of air pollution. Results demonstrate that both steel plants workers and patients living in a high polluted area show a mean percentage of sperm DNA fragmentation above 30%, highlighting a clear sperm damage. In this work, two different techniques were used to measure sperm DNA damage in patientsâ groups, finding in both cases a high sperm DFI in patients living in polluted areas. We candidate sperm DNA fragmentation as a valuable early marker of the presence…
Epidemiology and Microbiology of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections: Preliminary Results of a National Registry
2018
Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) represent a wide range of clinical conditions characterized by a considerable variety of clinical presentations and severity. Their aetiology can also vary, with numerous possible causative pathogens. While other authors previously published analyses on several types of SSTI and on restricted types of patients, we conducted a large nationwide surveillance programme on behalf of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases to assess the clinical and microbiological characteristics of the whole SSTI spectrum, from mild to severe life-threatening infections, in both inpatients and outpatients. Twenty-five Infectious Diseases (ID) Centres throu…
Effect of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions associated with antituberculosis drug-induced hepatotoxicity.
2017
This study evaluated the association between environmental factors and genetic variations in enzymes that metabolize antituberculosis (anti-TB) drugs [arylamine N-acetyltransferase 2, cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1), glutathione S-transferase theta 1 (GSTT1), and glutathione S-transferase mu 1] with antituberculosis drug-induced hepatotoxicity (ATDH). We also investigated the potential gene-gene and gene-environment interactions as well as their association with ATDH development in a population of hospitalized TB patients from Buenos Aires.We investigated 364 TB patients who received anti-TB drugs. Physicians collected demographic and clinical data to identify environmental risk factors for AT…
Evolution of major non-HIV-related comorbidities in HIV-infected patients in the Italian Cohort of Individuals, Naïve for Antiretrovirals (ICONA) Fou…
2018
Objectives: The management of HIV disease is complicated by the incidence of a new spectrum of comorbid noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). It is important to document changes in the prevalence of NCDs over time. The aim of the study was to describe the impact of ageing on HIV markers and on the prevalence of NCDs in people living with HIV (PLWHIV) in the Italian Cohort of Individuals, Naïve for Antiretrovirals (ICONA) seen for care in 2004–2014. Methods: Analyses were conducted separately for a closed cohort (same people seen at both times) and an open cohort (all people under follow-up). We used the χ2 test for categorical factors and the Wilcoxon test for quantitative factors to compare pro…
Application of guidelines for the management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in three prospective cohorts of HIV-monoinfected patients
2020
Objectives: Current guidelines recommend use of a diagnostic algorithm to assess disease severity in cases of suspected nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We applied this algorithm to HIV-monoinfected patients. Methods: We analysed three prospective screening programmes for NAFLD carried out in the following cohorts: the Liver Disease in HIV (LIVEHIV) cohort in Montreal, the Modena HIV Metabolic Clinic (MHMC) cohort and the Liver Pathologies in HIV in Palermo (LHivPa) cohort. In the LIVEHIV and LHivPa cohorts, NAFLD was diagnosed if the controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) was ≥ 248 dB/m; in the MHMC cohort, it was diagnosed if the liver/spleen Hounsfield unit (HU) ratio on abdomin…
Mechanisms of action of metformin in type 2 diabetes: Effects on mitochondria and leukocyte-endothelium interactions.
2020
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a very prevalent, multisystemic, chronic metabolic disorder closely related to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. It is characterised by mitochondrial dysfunction and the presence of oxidative stress. Metformin is one of the safest and most effective anti-hyperglycaemic agents currently employed as first-line oral therapy for T2D. It has demonstrated additional beneficial effects, unrelated to its hypoglycaemic action, on weight loss and several diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disorders and metabolic diseases, including thyroid diseases. Despite the vast clinical experience gained over several decades of use, the mechanism of action of metformin i…
New approach to generating insights for aging research based on literature mining and knowledge integration.
2017
The proportion of the elderly population in most countries worldwide is increasing dramatically. Therefore, social interest in the fields of health, longevity, and anti-aging has been increasing as well. However, the basic research results obtained from a reductionist approach in biology and a bioinformatic approach in genome science have limited usefulness for generating insights on future health, longevity, and anti-aging-related research on a case by case basis. We propose a new approach that uses our literature mining technique and bioinformatics, which lead to a better perspective on research trends by providing an expanded knowledge base to work from. We demonstrate that our approach …
Aging-Related Disorders and Mitochondrial Dysfunction: A Critical Review for Prospect Mitoprotective Strategies Based on Mitochondrial Nutrient Mixtu…
2020
A number of aging-related disorders (ARD) have been related to oxidative stress (OS) and mitochondrial dysfunction (MDF) in a well-established body of literature. Most studies focused on cardiovascular disorders (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and neurodegenerative disorders. Counteracting OS and MDF has been envisaged to improve the clinical management of ARD, and major roles have been assigned to three mitochondrial cofactors, also termed mitochondrial nutrients (MNs), i.e., alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), and carnitine (CARN). These cofactors exert essential-and distinct-roles in mitochondrial machineries, along with strong antioxidant properties. Clinical trials have mostly…