P01-190 Predictors of mania in a sample of patients treated with antidepressants (preliminary results)

Aims:From 35% to 60% of cases the initial presentation of illness in bipolar disorder is different from mania or hypomania. So far the studies that have investigated predictors of (hypo)mania have been concentrated on samples suffering from depression. On one hand is well known that antidepressant drugs are commonly prescribed in a broad spectrum of disorders other than depression. On the other hand there are strong connections within bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders that have been reported to be a possible clinical onset of a subsequent bipolar disorder.In all these cases patients are likely to be treated with antidepressants drugs, the effects of which has been associated with a worsened course of bipolar illness, from switching to mania to a rapid cycling course. This is the reason that led to perform a research on predictors of bipolar evolution on an antidepressant treated sample of outpatients irrespective of the diagnosis.This study examines clinical features at the first presentation of the illness that can be considered predictive of the subsequent bipolar course of illness.Method:A sample of outpatients treated for the first time in their life with antidepressant drugs has been prospectively evaluated in order to assess the clinical features associated with the later onset of bipolar disorder

Editorial of special issue “the interplay of microbiome and immune response in health and diseases”

Increasing data suggests and supports the idea that the gut microbiota (GM) modulates different host pathways, playing a crucial role in human physiology and consequently impacting in the development of some pathologic conditions [...

T Cells and Adoptive Immunotherapy: Recent Developments and Future Prospects in Gastrointestinal Oncology

Gastrointestinal oncology is one of the foremost causes of death: the gastric cancer accounts for 10.4% of cancer deaths worldwide, the pancreatic cancer for 6%, and finally, the colorectal cancer for 9% of all cancer-related deaths. For all these gastrointestinal cancers, surgical tumor resection remains the primary curative treatment, but the overall 5-year survival rate remains poor, ranging between 20–25%; the addition of combined modality strategies (pre- or postoperative chemoradiotherapy or perioperative chemotherapy) results in 5-year survival rates of only 30–35%. Therefore, many investigators believe that the potential for making significant progress lies on understanding and exploiting the molecular biology of gastrointestinal tumors to investigate new therapeutic strategies such as specific immunotherapy. In this paper we will focus on recent knowledge concerning the role of T cells and the use of T adoptive immunotherapy in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers

Multidisciplinary of anti-COVID-19 battle: from immunological weapons to ecological interventions.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a medical and epidemiological problem. In fact, its impact concerns numerous aspects of human life (such as social and the political-economic dimension). This review aims at highlighting some crucial and neglected aspects of the pandemic in order to include them into a more general framework for the understanding of the phenomenon. Accordingly, it is structured as follows. First, after e brief recap of COVID-19 onset, it is argued the so-called proximate causes of the pandemic, i.e., the mechanisms by which viruses infect their hosts and the patterns of spread of the resulting pathologies, are not enough for a more adequate understanding of it. Second, it is shown how possible solutions to the risk of an upcoming pandemic involve studying the ultimate causes of this phenomenon. This means understanding not only how COVID-19 has become a global issue but also why it was possible for this to happen. Next, it is argued that is urgent to go to the root of the possible conditions: thus looking at the ecological dimension of diseases, the role of microorganisms in evolution, up to rethinking the organization of health systems. Third, to keep these very different perspectives together entails the study of COVID-19 from the point of view of the relationships between biological entities in a purely systemic dimension. Fourth, special attention is given to the symbiotic perspective offered by the study of the microbiota. It is argued how this perspective on microbiota provides an innovative interpretative lens with which to analyze various aspects (from the immunological to the ecosystemic one) of the pandemic. In conclusion, it is claimed that this field of study could perhaps offer not only elements that will be useful to make the treatment and containment strategies of the pandemic effective in its mechanisms, but also may suggest innovative elements for the solutions about the deep reasons that have made COVID-19 a global issue