Advancing Craniopharyngioma Management: A Systematic Review of Current Targeted Therapies and Future Perspectives

Craniopharyngiomas present unique challenges in surgical management due to their proximity to critical neurovascular structures. This systematic review investigates genetic and immunological markers as potential targets for therapy in craniopharyngiomas, assessing their involvement in tumorigenesis, and their influence on prognosis and treatment strategies. The systematic review adhered to PRISMA guidelines, with a thorough literature search conducted on PubMed, Ovid MED-LINE, and Ovid EMBASE. Employing MeSH terms and Boolean operators, the search focused on craniopharyngiomas, targeted or molecular therapy, and clinical outcomes or adverse events. Inclusion criteria encompassed English language studies, clinical trials (randomized or non-randomized), and investigations into adamantinomatous or papillary craniopharyngiomas. Targeted therapies, either standalone or combined with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, were examined if they included clinical outcomes or adverse event analysis. Primary outcomes assessed disease response through follow-up MRI scans, categorizing responses as follows: complete response (CR), near-complete response (NCR), partial response, and stable or progressive disease based on lesion regression percentages. Secondary outcomes included treatment type and duration, as well as adverse events. A total of 891 papers were initially identified, of which 26 studies spanning from 2000 to 2023 were finally included in the review. Two tables highlighted adamantinomatous and papillary craniopharyngiomas, encompassing 7 and 19 studies, respectively. For adamantinomatous craniopharyngiomas, Interferon-2α was the predominant targeted therapy (29%), whereas dabrafenib took precedence (70%) for papillary craniopharyngiomas. Treatment durations varied, ranging from 1.7 to 28 months. Positive responses, including CR or NCR, were observed in both types of craniopharyngiomas (29% CR for adamantinomatous; 32% CR for papillary). Adverse events, such as constitutional symptoms and skin changes, were reported, emphasizing the need for vigilant monitoring and personalized management to enhance treatment tolerability. Overall, the data highlighted a diverse landscape of targeted therapies with encouraging responses and manageable adverse events, underscoring the importance of ongoing research and individualized patient care in the exploration of treatment options for craniopharyngiomas. In the realm of targeted therapies for craniopharyngiomas, tocilizumab and dabrafenib emerged as prominent choices for adamantinomatous and papillary cases, respectively. While adverse events were common, their manageable nature underscored the importance of vigilant monitoring and personalized management. Acknowledging limitations, future research should prioritize larger, well-designed clinical trials and standardized treatment protocols to enhance our understanding of the impact of targeted therapies on craniopharyngioma patients

Covalent triazine framework/carbon nanotube hybrids enabling selective reduction of CO2 to CO at low overpotential

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 provides a way to generate base chemicals from an abundant C1-source under mild conditions, whilst at the same time mitigating CO2 emissions. In this work, a novel class of tailorable, porous electrocatalysts for this process is proposed. Covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) are grown in situ onto functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Hydroxyl groups decorating the surface of the multiwalled carbon nanotubes facilitate intimate contact between the carbon nanotubes and CTF, thus promoting efficient electron transfer. The novel hybrid materials generate CO with a faradaic efficiency up to 81% at an overpotential of 380 mV. The selectivity of the electrocatalysts could be linked to the amount of nitrogen present within the framework

SETI in Sardinia: status of scientific and technological developments

Since 2013, several staff members of the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory have been involved with SETI activities, both from a technological and a scientific perspective. One major asset related to this research area is the presence, in the territory, of one of the most modern single-dish antennas: the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). In this paper, we outline all aspects of our initiatives in the framework of the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. We describe the development of SRT instrumentation for the purpose of receiving data that could potentially contain signs of life, as well as the directions that we are investigating for studying and analyzing these data, including in an international context

SETI scientific activities in Sardinia: Search for ET, pulsars and Fast Radio Bursts

The Sardinia Radio Telescope, which was inaugurated in 2013, is getting ready to participate in the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) observations. This involves, in collaboration with the SETI collaboration and the ``Breakthrough Listen initiative", the onsite installation of the SERENDIP VI setup for SETI observations. In parallel, a scientific team at the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory is becoming acquainted with SETI search algorithms: both standard algorithms using the Fast Fourier Transform; and more versatile algorithms using the Kahrunen-Loève Transform (KLT) as well as Wavelets. The team is also investigating the possibility to pursue, with the SERENDIP VI setup, the simultaneous search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, pulsars and Fast Radio Bursts

26th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS*2017): Part 3 - Meeting Abstracts - Antwerp, Belgium. 15–20 July 2017

This work was produced as part of the activities of FAPESP Research,\ud Disseminations and Innovation Center for Neuromathematics (grant\ud 2013/07699-0, S. Paulo Research Foundation). NLK is supported by a\ud FAPESP postdoctoral fellowship (grant 2016/03855-5). ACR is partially\ud supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)

A fatal case of self-poisoning through the ingestion of oleander leaves

Background: Benefits and even dangers of plants are known since time began. The ancients used plants and herbs because of their effects on the human body. Poisoning is a logical consequence of their use: history is full of episodes of plants and herbs poisoning, whether intentional or accidental. Aim: Oleander poisoning is generally accidental; an intentional assumption of its leaves to commit suicide is uncommon because the population is not aware of the harmfulness of its cardiotoxic glycosides, therefore we report a fatal case of self-poisoning through the voluntary ingestion of oleander leaves. Methods: A diagnosis of oleander self-poisoning was highly suspected on the basis of the circumstantial evidence and the autopsy findings. Toxicological investigations were performed on the samples collected during the autopsy and aimed at confirm the presence of oleandrin at a toxic level. Results: The autopsy revealed a piece of oleander leaf on the posterior third of the tongue’s body and several plant residues, similar to the one recovered on the tongue, into the gastric content; petechiae on the deep surface of the scalp, multi-organ congestion, and pulmonary edema were also observed. The histological study corroborated the pulmonary edema macroscopically observed but did not provide any other information. The detection of oleandrin in biological cadaveric samples revealed high, fatal, concentrations. Conclusions: Cases of voluntary ingestion of oleander with a suicidal intent prove to be uncommon: in the case reported the victim was aware about the possibility to commit suicide through the ingestion of oleander leaves

Creative Thinking and Dyscalculia: Conjectures About a Still Unexplored Link

Research on creativity showed enhanced creative thinking skills in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as dyslexia (Cancer et al., 2016; Manzoli et al., 2016; Cancer and Antonietti, 2019), autism spectrum disorder (Liu et al., 2011; Kasirer and Mashal, 2014, 2016), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (White and Shah, 2006, 2011, 2016). In this field the relationships between creativity and dyscalculia are somewhat unexplored. Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) is a specific learning disability affecting the acquisition of numerical-arithmetical abilities in children with normal intelligence and age-appropriate school education (WHO, 2010). It affects 3\u20136% of the population (Shalev et al., 2001)

Learning skills, creativity, and self-efficacy in vocational school students

The present study aimed to investigate the association between learning skills and creative thinking and to assess their relations with self-efficacy. In doing so, we used an approach that aimed to go beyond the dichotomous comparison between students with Specific Learning Disability (SLD) vs. students without SLD, which could potentially reduce complexity. Given that learning skills are distributed across a continuum, we considered them as continuous measures to study their association with creativity. Standardized reading, text comprehension, math tests, and creativity (TTCT) and creative problem-solving tasks, together with Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices and the General Self-Efficacy scale, were administered to 180 high school students, aged 14 to 17 years, attending a vocational school. Regression analyses showed that reading speed, comprehension, and multiplications skills were negative predictors of fluency and flexibility and positive predictors of elaboration in divergent thinking, whereas reading accuracy positively predicted fluency and flexibility and negatively elaboration. Creative problem-solving skills were positively predicted by reading speed and comprehension and negatively by reading accuracy. A negative correlation was found between fluency and self-efficacy, which resulted to be positively correlated with reading accuracy. These findings emphasize the possibility to compensate for learning difficulties by using creative potential as a protective factor contrasting the risk of abandoning school prematurely, thus supporting poor-achieving students in the decrease of self-efficacy and satisfaction in their school career