Immunology of human rickettsial diseases.

Among human rickettsial diseases caused by micro-organisms of the genus Rickettsia (Order Rickettsiales; Family Rickettsiaceae), transmitted to human hosts through arthropod vectors, Mediterranean Spotted Fever, or Boutonneuse Fever, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever are considered to be important infectious diseases due to continued prevalence in the developed world, and potentially fatal outcome in severe cases. Proliferation of rickettsiae, at the site of the tick bite, results in focal epidermal and dermal necrosis (tache noire). Rickettsiae then spread via lymphatic vessels to the regional lymph nodes, and, via the bloodstream, to skin, brain, lungs, heart, liver, spleen and kidneys. The pathogen invades and proliferates in the endothelial cells of small vessels, target cells of rickettsial infection, destroying them, and spreading the infection to the endothelia of the vascular tree. The damage of the endothelium, and the subsequent endothelia dysfunction, is followed by the activation of acute phase responses, with alteration in the coagulation and in the cytokine network, together with a transient immune dysregulation, characterized by the reduction in peripheral CD4+ T lymphocytes

PrP Gene Polymorphism in Medieval Remains of Sicilian Sheep

Encephalopathy in sheep was at first described in Ireland in 1732 and was called scrapie. Ancient DNA in archaeogenetics represents an effective method to evaluate the ancestral pedigree of living animals and track evolutionary changes occurred between the past and the present day. Since several point mutations are today widely described in modern scrapie, no data about both sequence and frequency are still available for the prion protein (PrP) gene in ancient breeds. In order to evaluate whether the haplotypes distribution in ancient sheep differed from those of the modern population we evaluated polymorphism at four well know codons of the Prp Open Reading Frame. In the present work, we collected 37 medieval sheep bone remains found at the Calathamet (n = 11), Palazzo Bonagia (n = 12) and Palazzo Steri (n = 14) Sicilians archeological sites and dated back between 9th - 15th century. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at codons 136, 141, 154 and 171 of the prion protein (PrP) were investigated using cycle sequencing. Sequenom Mass ARRAYiPLEX platform confirmed the results for 5 individuals out of 37. Cycle sequencing showed at all samples the AA136LL141RR154QQ171 (hereafter ALRQ/ALRQ) genotype except at 2 individuals showing the very susceptible genotype VLRQ/VLRQ (n = 1) and the resistant (ALRR/ ALRR) (n = 1) respectively. Supported by a high incidence of susceptible genotype to prion infection we concluded that presumably scrapie was already widespread enough in the medieval Sicily. Moreover, we described conceivable scenarios that could have underlain evolutionary changes in the medieval sheep population

The impact of puberty on the onset, frequency, location, and severity of attacks in hereditary angioedema due to C1-inhibitor deficiency: A survey from the Italian Network for Hereditary and Acquired Angioedema (ITACA)

Introduction. Hereditary angioedema due to C1-inhibitor deficiency is influenced by hormonal factors, with a more severe course of disease in women. Our study aims to deepen the impact of puberty on onset, frequency, location and severity of attacks.MethodsRetrospective data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire and shared by 10 Italian reference centers of the Italian Network for Hereditary and Acquired Angioedema (ITACA).ResultsThe proportion of symptomatic patients increased significantly after puberty (98.2% vs 83.9%, p=0.002 in males; 96.3% vs 68,4%, p<0.001 in females); the monthly mean of acute attacks was significantly higher after puberty, and this occurred both in females (median (IQR) = 0.41(2) in the three years before puberty vs 2(2.17) in the three years after, p<0.001) and in males (1(1.92) vs 1.25(1.56) respectively, p<0.001). The increase was greater in females. No significant differences were detected in attack location before and after puberty.DiscussionOverall, our study confirms previous reports on a more severe phenotype in the female gender. Puberty predisposes to increased numbers of angioedema attacks, in particular in female patients

in keeping with the spirit of the albertine statute constitutionalisation of the national unification

This chapter deals with the difficult process of constitutionalisation which characterised Italian Unification. Constitutionalisation is a long-term phenomenon which had the purpose of giving constitutional forms to the Nation. The promulgation of the Albertine Statute is more the start than the arrival of this phenomenon. The focus of this investigation is, therefore, to study the Constitution through its evolution paying particular attention to the process of legal integration within the structures of the Albertine Statute and to the amendment mechanisms of the constitutional text. The preamble of the Albertine Statute speaks of «perpetual and irrevocable fundamental law». The word «perpetual» meant the prohibition of revoking constitutional concession, while the word «irrevocable» was intended as a pact between the Sovereign and the Nation. Over the years, very few were the changes to the letter of the Albertine Statute. The interpretation and the practice represented the most important mechanisms of constitutional change (implicit constitutional changes). A primary role was acknowledged to non-written norms. In this perspective, it may well be said that the Italian Constitution consisted in something more than the written text and dwelt in the spirit and not in the letter of the Albertine Statute

Helical multi-walled carbon nanotube-coated fibers for SPME determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at ultra-trace levels in ice and snow samples

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) detected in polar environment are recognized tracers of anthro- pogenic pollution. High sensitivity and selectivity are required for their analysis in ice and snow samples due to the presence at ultra-trace levels. In this study a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method for simultaneous determination of the 16 US-EPA priority pollutant PAHs in polar snow and ice samples was developed and validated. Helical multiwalled carbon nanotubes (HMWCNTs) were proposed for the first time as novel SPME coating. For optimization purposes a Central Composite Design and the multicriteria method of the desirability functions were applied to investigate the influence of extraction parameters, i.e. time and temperature as main factors. The optimal values were 68 °C for the extraction temperature and 60 min for the extraction time. The developed SPME-GC-MS method exhibited detection limits of 16 PAHs in the 0.1–1.2 ng/L range, a repeatability and an intermediate precision within 15% and 22% relative standard deviation, respectively, and good recovery rates in the 93.7 ( ±0.1)–119.7 ( ±0.2)% range for real spiked water sample, showing better analytical performance compared to commercial PDMS fibers. Enrichment factors in the 2670 ( ±290)–142120 ( ±580) range were calculated and a long fiber shelf-life with the possibility to reuse the fiber more than 200 times was achieved. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of PAHs in surface snow sam- ples collected in April 2019 at Ny- ̊Alesund, Svalbard. Its application to the detection of PAHs in samples collected during monitoring campaigns in the polar regions is expected in the near futur