Sex Disparity in Response to Hepatitis B Vaccine Related to the Age of Vaccination

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the major infectious hazards for health-care workers (HCWs) because of the frequency of percutaneous exposures to blood or body fluids. For this reason, all HCWs should be vaccinated, including students in medicine and health professional degree programs. The aim of this study was to assess the immune coverage to anti-HBV vaccine and long-lasting protective titres of anti-HBs antibodies in female and male students to evaluate gender-related differences in response to HBV vaccination. Data relative to anti-HBs antibody titre, sex, age, and age at vaccination were collected and analyzed from 5291 Italian students (1812 males and 3479 females) of the graduate courses at the School of Medicine, who underwent the mandatory health surveillance of workers exposed to biological risk. The results indicated that gender affects the immune response to HBV vaccine, particularly evident in the case of females vaccinated after one year of age who exhibited a statistically significant (p = 0.0023) 1.21-fold increase in median antibody titre with respect to males. Our findings could contribute to the optimization of HBV vaccination schedules in health surveillance of HCWs

Perturbation of specific transcripts in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in breast cancer: a case control pilot study

Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of diagnosed cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer death in women and it is the second most frequent cancer-causing mortality for women worldwide. Peripheral blood-based biopsy for BC could be a promising tool for risk prediction and diagnosis. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the gene expression profile of PBMCs in Italian patients with BC. Methods: In this case-control pilot study, we isolated PBMCs from 22 BC patients and 21 healthy controls and evaluated the expression of a panel of 52 target genes related to BC or circadian rhythm by a customized TaqMan Open Array Real-Time PCR panel. Results: Among the differentially expressed genes, 22 remained unchanged. These unchanged genes are mainly involved in cellular processes, including the circadian clock, cellular responses to stress/stimuli, the immune system, signal transduction, and metabolism. We found a total of 30 significantly de-regulated genes. In particular, 8 genes, including PARP6, IGFR1, EZH2, VEGFA, NOTCH1, CD44, BCAR1, and CD24A, resulted significantly down-regulated in patients with BC compared to Controls, while 22 genes were significantly up-regulated in BCs patients compared to Controls. We found several already reported BC-associated genes up-regulated in PBMCs of our BC patients, but FOXO3, ARNTL, and ADAM17 emerged as the most strongly up-regulated. The enrichment pathways analysis highlight that de-regulated genes are mainly involved in the regulation of gene expression and transcription, signal transduction, and immune system response. Discussion: The results of our pilot study demonstrated that the evaluation of PBMC gene signature could be a valuable tool for primary prevention and early diagnosis of BC in several high-risk settings, thus reducing the global mortality associated with this tumour. Take-home message: Non-invasive screening programs, particularly those adopted in workplaces, may have a great impact on early diagnosis and good prognosis for BC. Our study provided proof of concept that the development of a screening test based on PBMC-derived gene expression biomarkers could be a viable route

Blood cell gene expression profiles: A narrative review of biomarkers and effects of low-dose ionizing radiation exposure

Ionizing radiation (IR) is a ubiquitous environmental agent whose effects on organisms are well known. This review provides a summary about definitions and man-made low-dose ionizing radiation (LDIR) sources and dosimeters used in radiation protection. Moreover, the main purpose of this article was to overview the pro-oncogenic effects of LDIR, and to provide experimental evidence that reinforce the use of gene expression data as biomarkers of LDIR effects. Our review showed that basic studies on biological response to LDIR are considered priority. Further, understanding occupational exposure to LDIR may provide valuable information to organize the prevention and prevent from the onset of long-term health effects in radiation workers. Currently, the biodosimetry-based assessment in certain high risk occupational groups may be performed by using peripheral blood cells as samples for testing and validation of biomarkers specificity and sensitivity. Most of the studies on this topic are aimed at establishing new biomarkers and approaches to biological dosimetry, for allowing non-invasive monitoring of long-term health effects of LDIR. Analysis on changes in gene-expression, which is an early specific biological response to LDIR, could provide rapid estimates of individual dose in occupational cohorts, improving the management of periodical medical examination in subjects exposed to LDIR sources

Induction of immune response after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA BNT162b2 vaccination in healthcare workers

[no abstract available

Profili professionali e flussi procedurali organizzativi per la sorveglianza sanitaria nella popolazione universitaria di una facolt\ue0 di medicina e chirurgia

L'applicazione della sorveglianza sanitaria nelle Facolt\ue0 di medicina e chirurgia richiede la predisposizione di uno schema procedurale che codifichi obblighi e azioni da attivare nelle diverse fasi di definizione dei rischi e profili professionali, focalizzando attivit\ue0 e competenze correlate agli obblighi normativ

Seasonal influenza vaccination and absenteeism in health-care workers in two subsequent influenza seasons (2016/17 and 2017/18) in an Italian pediatric hospital

Background: Seasonal influenza in Health-Care Workers (HCWs) is a topic of growing interest in public health for its organizational implications. The study aims at measuring absenteeism due to influenza in HCWs of an Italian pediatric hospital. Research design and methods: A retrospective observational study on absenteeism for influenza and influenza-like illness was carried out on all hospital HCWs. Sickness absences up to 5 days and vaccination status of HCWs were recorded during the last two years (2016/2017, /2018). Average sickness absenteeism rate in vaccinated and unvaccinated HCWs and total working days lost were estimated. Daily mean cost for HCW was calculated in order to define the non-vaccination costs. Results: In this study, the authors analyzed the overlapping between the trend of weekly sickness absenteeism and the morbidity rate associated with influenza epidemics in adults living in the Lazio region, Italy. An excess of 0.38 (p = 0.03) and 0.46 (p = 0.01) of average days lost was recorded in unvaccinated HCWs in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 epidemic seasons. The total amount of days lost in unvaccinated HCWs is 1.485,4 with a total cost of € 252.060,54. Conclusions: Seasonal influenza vaccination confirms its key role in preventing outbreaks of influenza and promoting HCWs health