Le reazioni di ipersensibilità ai composti del platino

I composti del platino (cisplatino, carboplatino ed oxaliplatino) sono una categoria di chemioterapici ampiamente utilizzata nella terapia dei tumori ginecologici per la loro elevata efficacia e tollerabilità. I casi di reazioni di ipersensibilità a tali composti sono aumentati negli ultimi decenni per il loro frequente utilizzo (soprattutto del carboplatino). Nel nostro studio abbiamo valutato: 1) la frequenza di reazioni di ipersensibilità immediate e ritardate al carboplatino e cisplatino in pazienti in terapia per tumore ginecologico; 2) l’utilità dei test cutanei nella diagnosi di tali reazioni e 3) il valore dei test nell’identificazione dei pazienti sensibilizzati prima di sviluppare la reazione. Abbiamo identificato un’alta percentuale di reazioni di ipersensibilità immediate al carboplatino, incluse reazioni severe anafilattiche. I test cutanei hanno permesso di identificare un meccanismo IgE-mediato nella maggior parte delle reazioni di ipersensibilità immediate con un alto valore predittivo positivo nei pazienti valutati entro i 6 mesi dalla reazione. Abbiamo inoltre identificato le pazienti che si sono sensibilizzate ad uno dei due composti, prevenendo successive reazioni di ipersensibilità in corso di nuovo trattamento con lo stesso chemioterapico. In conclusione, questo studio dimostra come la diagnostica allergologica sia fondamentale per la corretta diagnosi delle reazioni di ipersensibilità immediata ai composti del platino e per identificare i pazienti sensibilizzati. Nelle pazienti che devono essere sottoposte a nuova terapia con platino è consigliabile eseguire i test entro i 6 mesi successivi all’ultima infusione, o in alternativa dopo 2-3 settimane dal primo ciclo della nuova chemioterapia

The ALICE Electromagnetic Calorimeter EMCAL: its Status and its Physics Capabilities

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at LHC is designed to carry out comprehensive measurements of high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions, in order to study QCD matter under extreme conditions and to explore the phase transition between confined matter and the QuarkGluon Plasma. The Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCAL), fully installed in January 2011, significantly enhances ALICE's capabilities for jet measurements. In this contribution a brief description of the EMCAL with its characteristics will be given, together with the status of EMCAL commissioning and performance. Moreover, first results from data taking will be presented and an extension of EMCAL for jet-jet and γ-jet physics will be discussed

Spinska fizika na HERMESU: nedavni rezultati

The HERMES experiment at DESY has been designed to study the spin structure of the nucleon. Impressive results have been obtained not only from inclusive processes but also for semi-inclusive and exclusive processes in deep-inelastic lepton scattering, helping to clarify the spin puzzle of the nucleon.Eksperiment HERMES u DESY bio je postavljen radi proučavanja spinske strukture nukleona. Dojmljivi rezultati postignuti su ne samo inkluzivnim procesima, već i polu-inkluzivnima i ekskluzivnima u duboko-neelastičnom raspršenju leptona, što pomaže rasvjetljavanju spinske zagonetke nukleona

SNARC-like compatibility effects for physical and phenomenal magnitudes: A study on visual illusions

Both numerical and non-numerical magnitudes elicit similar Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effects, with small magnitudes associated with left hand responses and large magnitudes associated with right hand responses (Dehaene, Bossini, Giraux, 1993). In the present study, we investigated whether the phenomenal size of visual illusions elicits the same SNARC-like effect revealed for the physical size of pictorial surfaces. Four experiments were conducted by using the Delboeuf illusion (Experiment 1) and the Kanizsa triangle illusion (Experiments 2, 3 & 4). Experiment 1 suggests the presence of a SNARC-like compatibility effect for the physical size of the inducers, while this effect was not revealed for the phenomenal size of the induced elements, possibly masked by a stronger effect of the inducers. A SNARC-like effect for the phenomenal size of the Kanizsa triangle was revealed when participants directly compared the size of the triangles (Experiment 4). Conversely, when participants performed an indirect task (orientation judgment), the SNARC-like effect was present neither for the illusory nor for the physical displays (Experiments 2 & 3). The effect revealed for the size of illusory triangles was comparable to that of real triangles with physical contours, suggesting that both phenomenal and physical magnitudes similarly elicit SNARC-like effects

Therapeutic Peptides Targeting PPI in Clinical Development: Overview, Mechanism of Action and Perspectives

Targeting protein-protein interactions (PPIs) has been recently recognized as an emerging therapeutic approach for several diseases. Up today, more than half a million PPI dysregulations have been found to be involved in pathological events. The dynamic nature of these processes and the involvement of large protein surfaces discouraged anyway the scientific community in considering them promising therapeutic targets. More recently peptide drugs received renewed attention since drug discovery has offered a broad range of structural diverse sequences, moving from traditionally endogenous peptides to sequences possessing improved pharmaceutical profiles. About 70 peptides are currently on the marked but several others are in clinical development. In this review we want to report the update on these novel APIs, focusing our attention on the molecules in clinical development, representing the direct consequence of the drug discovery process of the last 10 years. The comprehensive collection will be classified in function of the structural characteristics (native, analogous, heterologous) and on the basis of the therapeutic targets. The mechanism of interference on PPI will also be reported to offer useful information for novel peptide desig

HIV and SARS-CoV-2 Co-Infection: From Population Study Evidence to In Vitro Studies

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have caused two major viral outbreaks during the last century. Two major aspects of HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 co-infection have been extensively investigated and deserve attention. First, the impact of the co-infection on the progression of disease caused by HIV-1 or SARS-CoV-2. Second, the impact of the HIV-1 anti-retroviral treatment on SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this review, we aim to summarize and discuss the works produced since the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic ranging from clinical studies to in vitro experiments in the context of co-infection and drug development

Beam test of ALPIDE Sensor

The Alice Pixel Detector (ALPIDE) is developed for the upgrade of the Inner Tracking System of the ALICE experiment at CERN, which will take place during second Long Shutdown in 2019-2020. ALPIDE is a Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS), manufactured in a 180 nm CMOS Imaging Process of TowerJazz. Forecoming tracking detectors, based on this technology, will see strong advantages with the application of these sensors as they provide the highest capabilities in spatial resolution and utmost potential for being thin. In this work, the results of the ALPIDE sensor beam test, which took place at the Beam Test Facility of Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, are presented

Fast MacMillan's Imidazolidinone-Catalyzed Enantioselective Synthesis of Polyfunctionalized 4-Isoxazoline Scaffolds

The enantioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrones and arylpropionaldehydes to generate highly functionalized scaffolds for application in drug discovery was herein investigated. The use of a second-generation MacMillan catalyst as hydrochloride salt consistently accelerated the reaction speed, allowing a decrease in the reaction time up to >100 times, still affording 4-isoxazolines with good to excellent enantiomeric ratios at room temperature. As a proof of concept, further functionalization of the isoxazoline core through Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling was performed, generating differently functionalized chemical architectures in high yield