Research and Innovation for and with Adolescent Young Carers to Influence Policy and Practice—The European Union Funded “ME-WE” Project

Young carers are children and adolescents who provide care to other family members or friends, taking over responsibilities that are usually associated with adulthood. There is emerging but still scarce knowledge worldwide about the phenomenon of young carers and the impact of a caring role on their health, social and personal development spheres. This paper provides an overview of the main results from the ME-WE project, which is the first European research and innovation project dedicated to adolescent young carers (AYCs) (15–17 years). The project methods relied on three main activities: (1) a systematization of knowledge (by means of a survey to AYCs, country case studies, Delphi study, literature review); (2) the co-design, implementation and evaluation of a primary prevention intervention addressing AYCs’ mental health (by means of Blended Learning Networks and a clinical trial in six European countries); (3) the implementation of knowledge translation actions for dissemination, awareness, advocacy and lobbying (by means of national and international stakeholder networks, as well as traditional and new media). Project results substantially contributed to a better understanding of AYCs’ conditions, needs and preferences, defined tailored support intervention (resilient to COVID-19 related restrictions), and significant improvements in national and European policies for AYCs

A View from the Past Into our Collective Future: The Oncofertility Consortium Vision Statement

Today, male and female adult and pediatric cancer patients, individuals transitioning between gender identities, and other individuals facing health extending but fertility limiting treatments can look forward to a fertile future. This is, in part, due to the work of members associated with the Oncofertility Consortium. The Oncofertility Consortium is an international, interdisciplinary initiative originally designed to explore the urgent unmet need associated with the reproductive future of cancer survivors. As the strategies for fertility management were invented, developed or applied, the individuals for who the program offered hope, similarly expanded. As a community of practice, Consortium participants share information in an open and rapid manner to addresses the complex health care and quality-of-life issues of cancer, transgender and other patients. To ensure that the organization remains contemporary to the needs of the community, the field designed a fully inclusive mechanism for strategic planning and here present the findings of this process. This interprofessional network of medical specialists, scientists, and scholars in the law, medical ethics, religious studies and other disciplines associated with human interventions, explore the relationships between health, disease, survivorship, treatment, gender and reproductive longevity. The goals are to continually integrate the best science in the service of the needs of patients and build a community of care that is ready for the challenges of the field in the future

NO production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa cd1 nitrite reductase.

The structural and catalytic properties of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cd1 nitrite reductase, a key enzyme in bacterial denitrification, are reviewed in this paper. The mechanism of reduction of nitrite to NO is discussed in detail with special attention to the structural interpretation of function. The ability to stabilize negatively charged molecules, such as the substrate (nitrite) and other ligands (hydroxide and cyanide), is a key feature of catalysis in cd1NIRs. The positive potential in the active site is largely due to the presence of the two conserved distal histidines, which are involved in both substrate binding and product release

Critical role of His369 in the reactivity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cytochrome cd1 nitrite reductase with oxygen

In the denitrification pathway, Pseudomonas aeruginosa cytochrome cd1 nitrite reductase catalyzes the reduction of nitrite to nitric oxide; in vitro, this enzyme is also competent in the reduction of O2 to 2H2O. In this article, we present a comparative kinetic study of the O2 reaction in the wild-type nitrite reductase and in three site-directed mutants (Tyr10-->Phe, His369-->Ala and His327-->Ala/His369-->Ala) of the amino acid residues close to the d1 heme on the distal side. The results clearly indicate that His369 is the key residue in the control of reactivity, as its substitution with Ala, previously shown to affect the reduction of nitrite, also impairs the reaction with O2, affecting both the properties and lifespan of the intermediate species. Our findings allow the presentation of an overall picture for the reactivity of cytochrome cd1 nitrite reductase and extend our previous conclusion that the conserved distal histidines are essential for the binding to reduced d1 heme of different anions, whether a substrate such as nitrite, a ligand such as cyanide, or an intermediate in the O2 reduction. Moreover, we propose that His369 also exerts a protective role against degradation of the d1 heme, by preventing the formation and adverse effects of the reactive O2 species (never present in significant amounts in wild-type cytochrome cd1 nitrite reductase), a finding with clear physiological implications

Heme d1 Nitrosyl Complex of cd1 Nitrite Reductase Studied by High-Field-Pulse Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

W-band (95 GHz) HYSCORE and pulse ENDOR are used to characterize the nitrosyl d(1) heme complex (d(1)NO) of cd(1) nitrite reductase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the wild type and the Y10F mutant. The spectra and the derived (14)N hyperfine and quadrupole interactions were found to be the same for wt and Y10F. This suggests that Tyr10 does not influence the NO ligand orientation in the reduced state in solution. This study is the first application of HYSCORE at high fields and shows its potential for characterizing low gamma nuclei with large hyperfine couplings

Impact of vaccination on electrocardiograms of hospitalized patients for Covid-19

Introduction: We sought to assess the impact of SarsCov-2 vaccination on admission12-lead electrocardiogram of hospitalized patients. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed and compared admission 12-lead electrocardiograms of all patients hospitalized in dedicated Internal Medicine Unit for Covid-19 both in pre-vaccination period (PV) and after vaccination (V). Results: 667 consecutive Covid-19 in-patients were enrolled in the study: PV hospitalized patients were older (68vs57 years, p < 0.01), had higher rates of atrial fibrillation/flutter (13%vs2.5%, p < 0.01), any arrhythmia (26%vs8%, p < 0.01), and ST-T abnormalities (22%vs7.4%, p < 0.01). Mortality rates in hospitalized Covid-19 patients were higher before vaccination period (20%vs4%, p < 0.01). Minimal vaccination coverage of population (V period) was inversely and independently associated with in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 0.09, 95%CI 0.01–0.68, p < 0.05). Conclusions: SarsCov-2 vaccination campaign and even partial coverage of local population was associated with less frequent abnormalities at admission ECG in hospitalized non-critically hill Covid-19 patients and lower mortality