Tacrolimus ointment in the management of atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, relapsing, highly pruritic inflammatory skin disease. AD long-term treatment is usually required to control and prevent flares, and patients need a treatment that is safe and efficacious when applied continuously or intermittently over a prolonged period of time. The treatment options should be chosen according to age, clinical features and severity of the disease in every single patient. For the treatment of a chronic disease like AD, sustained tolerability and efficacy of the applied medications are essential. A topical immunomodulator, tacrolimus ointment, provides an alternative to topical corticosteroids without the associated adverse events. Tacrolimus is a macrolide lactone with unique immunomodulatory properties and strong anti-inflammatory activities and can be used without increasing the risk of infection or other non-application site adverse events, and without loss of effectiveness, in patients with AD

Zoon's Balanitis: Benign or Premalignant Lesion?

Zoon's balanitis or balanitis circumscripta plasmacellularis is a chronic disease of unknown origin. This condition usually manifests in middle-aged or elderly uncircumcised men. Although of unknown etiology, different factors have been reported to be involved in its genesis (local infections, poor hygiene, heat, friction, and constant rubbing). It is generally considered to be a benign condition, and its association with malignancies has been rarely reported. We report the case of an uncircumcised man, who developed clinically and histopathologically evident squamous cell carcinoma of the penis in an area affected by Zoon's balanitis

Psoriatic Disease and Tuberculosis Nowadays

Psoriasis is a chronic, relapsing and remitting inflammatory skin and joint disease that has a prevalence of 2-3% in the world's population, whereas of 1–2% in Europe. The traditional concept of psoriasis as the “healthy people's” disease has been recently revised because of ever-increasing reports of associations with various pathological conditions (hypertension, Crohn's disease, type II diabetes mellitus, obesity, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome, infectious conditions). Particularly, advances in psoriasis therapies have introduced biologic agents. All the tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors are associated with an increased risk of developing active disease in patients with latent tuberculosis infection, because of TNF-α key role against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. For this reason, exclusion of active tuberculosis and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection are clinical imperatives prior to starting this therapy. Moreover active surveillance for a history of untreated or partially treated tuberculosis or latent form has already been shown to be effective in reducing the number of incident tuberculosis cases

Green synthesis of privileged benzimidazole scaffolds using active deep eutectic solvent

The exploitation and use of alternative synthetic methods, in the face of classical procedures that do not conform to the ethics of green chemistry, represent an ever-present problem in the pharmaceutical industry. The procedures for the synthesis of benzimidazoles have become a focus in synthetic organic chemistry, as they are building blocks of strong interest for the development of compounds with pharmacological activity. Various benzimidazole derivatives exhibit important activities such as antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic activities, and some of the already synthesized compounds have found very strong applications in medicine praxis. Here we report a selective and sustainable method for the synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted or 2-substituted benzimidazoles, starting from o-phenylenediamine in the presence of different aldehydes. The use of deep eutectic solvent (DES), both as reaction medium and reagent without any external solvent, provides advantages in terms of yields as well as in the work up procedure of the reaction.Fil: Gioia, Maria Luisa Di. Università della Calabria; ItaliaFil: Cassano, Roberta. Università della Calabria; ItaliaFil: Costanzo, Paola. Magna Græcia University. Department of Health Sciences; ItaliaFil: Herrera Cano, Natividad Carolina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Maiuolo, Loredana. Università della Calabria; ItaliaFil: Nardi, Monica. Magna Græcia University. Department of Health Sciences; ItaliaFil: Nicoletta, Fiore Pasquale. Università della Calabria; ItaliaFil: Oliverio, Manuela. Magna Græcia University. Department of Health Sciences; ItaliaFil: Procopio, Antonio. Magna Græcia University. Department of Health Sciences; Itali

Effectiveness and safety of secukinumab in Italian patients with psoriasis: an 84 week, multicenter, retrospective real-world study

Background: Long term data on the real-life use of secukinumab are scant. The aim of this study was to investigate the real-life effectiveness, safety and treatment persistence of secukinumab in patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis. Research design and methods: This 84-week, multicenter (n = 7) retrospective study analyzed data from patients who initiated and received at least 6 months of secukinumab treatment between June 2016 and June 2018 in the Campania region of Italy. Patient demographic and treatment characteristics, duration of treatment and reasons for discontinuation as well as Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), Body Surface Area (BSA), and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) scores were assessed. Results: 324 patients (63% male, mean age 50.2 years) were enrolled and received a mean 11.7 months of secukinumab treatment. Overall, 9.5% discontinued secukinumab, including 5.2% who discontinued due to secondary inefficacy and 1.8% due to adverse events. PASI, BSA and DLQI scores were significantly improved from baseline at every follow-up visit (p < 0.001) and mean PASI decreased from 15.3 ± 6.3 at baseline to 0.5 ± 1.0 at week 84. Secukinumab had comparable effectiveness in biologic naïve and non-naïve patients. Conclusions: This study confirmed the effectiveness and safety of secukinumab in real-world patients with psoriasis

The Italian National Project of Astrobiology-Life in Space-Origin, Presence, Persistence of Life in Space, from Molecules to Extremophiles

The \u2018\u2018Life in Space\u2019\u2019 project was funded in the wake of the Italian Space Agency\u2019s proposal for the development of a network of institutions and laboratories conceived to implement Italian participation in space astrobiology experiments

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters