Tai Chi Enhances the Effects of Endurance Training in the Rehabilitation of Elderly Patients with Chronic Heart Failure

Purpose. To assess if Tai Chi added to endurance training (ET) is more effective than ET alone in improving exercise tolerance and quality of life (QOL) of elderly patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Design. Sixty CHF patients, age 73.8 ± 6 years, M/F 51/9, were enlisted. Thirty pts were randomized to combined training (CT) performing Tai Chi +ET and 30 patients to ET (ET only). Methods. At baseline and after 12 weeks all patients underwent 6-minute walking test (6MWT), assessment of amino terminal probrain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro BNP), quadriceps maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and peak torque (PT), QOL questionnaire (MacNewQLMI), blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR). All patients performed 4 sessions of exercise/week. Results. Distance at 6mwt improved in both groups with significant between-groups differences (P = .031). Systolic BP and NT-proBNP decreased significant in the CT group compared to ET (P = .025) and P = .015), resp.). CT group had a greater significant improvement in physical perception (P = .026) and a significant increase of PT compared to ET group. Conclusions. The association of Tai Chi and ET improves exercise tolerance and QOL of patients with CHF more efficiently than ET

MRE11 inhibition highlights a replication stress-dependent vulnerability of MYCN-driven tumors

MRE11 is a component of the MRE11/RAD50/NBS1 (MRN) complex, whose activity is essential to control faithful DNA replication and to prevent accumulation of deleterious DNA double-strand breaks. In humans, hypomorphic mutations in these genes lead to DNA damage response (DDR)-defective and cancer-prone syndromes. Moreover, MRN complex dysfunction dramatically affects the nervous system, where MRE11 is required to restrain MYCN-dependent replication stress, during the rapid expansion of progenitor cells. MYCN activation, often due to genetic amplification, represents the driving oncogenic event for a number of human tumors, conferring bad prognosis and predicting very poor responses even to the most aggressive therapeutic protocols. This is prototypically exemplified by neuroblastoma, where MYCN amplification occurs in about 25% of the cases. Intriguingly, MRE11 is highly expressed and predicts bad prognosis in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma. Due to the lack of direct means to target MYCN, we explored the possibility to trigger intolerable levels of replication stress-dependent DNA damage, by inhibiting MRE11 in MYCN-amplified preclinical models. Indeed, either MRE11 knockdown or its pharmacological inhibitor mirin induce accumulation of replication stress and DNA damage biomarkers in MYCN-amplified cells. The consequent DDR recruits p53 and promotes a p53-dependent cell death, as indicated by p53 loss- and gain-of-function experiments. Encapsulation of mirin in nanoparticles allowed its use on MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma xenografts in vivo, which resulted in a sharp impairment of tumor growth, associated with DDR activation, p53 accumulation, and cell death. Therefore, we propose that MRE11 inhibition might be an effective strategy to treat MYCN-amplified and p53 wild-type neuroblastoma, and suggest that targeting replication stress with appropriate tools should be further exploited to tackle MYCN-driven tumors

EFFECTS OF TWO 8-WEEK PHYSICAL TRAINING MODELS (TRADITIONAL AND SPECIFIC) ON IMPROVED MILITARY PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of eight weeks of traditional physical training (TPT) and military-specific physical training (MSPT) on the physical and operational performance of infantry cadets of the Brazilian Air Force (BAF). This study consisted of 27 male cadets (22.8±1.6 years, 76.0±9.2 kg, 1.77±0.05 m) stratified according to initial levels of physical fitness and randomly allocated in TPT (n= 13) or MSPT (n= 14) groups. The TPT group performed the basic military physical training provided for the military and the MSPT group conducted specific operational training. The variables were analyzed through two evaluations at the beginning and end of the eight-week training protocol. Anthropometric evaluations, physical fitness, and military operational physical tests were performed. Internal training load was determined through session rating of perceived exertion. Two-way (group and time) analysis of variance was used to compare groups and periods of training. Bonferroni test was used as a post-hoc when necessary. The effect sizes were presented by partial eta squared (ηp²) and Cohen dz. No group and time interaction was found for any variable. Regarding the time effect, there was a decrease in both groups in the anthropometric variables. The variables that increased over time for both groups were push-up and sit-up repetitions in 1 min, aerobic power, and squat jump height, whereas time in the military operational physical test decreased. Regarding the internal training load, no interaction between the group and period was observed. Therefore, both TPT and MSPT groups were effective in improving the physical and operational performance of military personnel after eight weeks of training.  Article visualizations

Human fibroblasts in vitro exposed to 2.45 GHz continuous and pulsed wave signals: Evaluation of biological effects with a multimethodological approach

The increasing exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF), especially from wireless communication devices, raises questions about their possible adverse health effects. So far, several in vitro studies evaluating RF-EMF genotoxic and cytotoxic non-thermal effects have reported contradictory results that could be mainly due to inadequate experimental design and lack of well-characterized exposure systems and conditions. Moreover, a topic poorly investigated is related to signal modulation induced by electromagnetic fields. The aim of this study was to perform an analysis of the potential non-thermal biological effects induced by 2.45 GHz exposures through a characterized exposure system and a multimethodological approach. Human fibroblasts were exposed to continuous (CW) and pulsed (PW) signals for 2 h in a wire patch cell-based exposure system at the specific absorption rate (SAR) of 0.7 W/kg. The evaluation of the potential biological effects was carried out through a multimethodological approach, including classical biological markers (genotoxic, cell cycle, and ultrastructural) and the evaluation of gene expression profile through the powerful high-throughput next generation sequencing (NGS) RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) approach. Our results suggest that 2.45 GHz radiofrequency fields did not induce significant biological effects at a cellular or molecular level for the evaluated exposure parameters and conditions

Human papillomavirus infection and risk factors in a cohort of Tuscan women aged 18-24: results at recruitment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is conclusive evidence that human papillomavirus (HPV) infections of the cervix are a necessary cause of cervical cancer. In Italy there are consistent data of HPV prevalence in women aged 25 - 64 years, but there is limited data for younger women. The objective of this on-going 3-year prospective cohort study is to investigate the prevalence, acquisition, clearance and persistence of HPV infections in young Tuscan women and the risk factors correlated with such events.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>One thousand and sixty-six women aged between 18 and 24 years were enrolled and received an initial HPV test. They were asked to return to the clinic over the study period for further tests every 12 months, if their HPV HR result was negative, or every 6 months, if positive. Additionally, women with an HPV positive result were given a cytological examination and if the cytological diagnosis was ASC-US or more severe, only women with HPV HR, were referred for colposcopy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present here data for the enrolment phase of the study. At baseline, within the study sample, just under 30% of women were infected by HPV and 19.3% of women were infected with oncogenic types. A relationship was highlighted between HPV infection, number of sexual partners (in particularly in the last 3 years) and the lifetime number of partner's partners. Condom use showed a slight protective effect in univariate analysis but these data were not statistically significant in multivariate analysis. The association between HPV infection and demographic and behavioural variables were tested by crude odds ratio (OR). Multivariate logistic regression was applied to compute the adjusted odds ratios.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The prevalence of oncogenic HPV types was high in young Tuscan women. The 3-year follow-up of this cohort may provide a better understanding of the processes of acquisition, clearance and persistence of infection and the correlated risk factors.</p

Synthesis, anticancer and antioxidant properties of new indole and pyranoindole derivatives

The indole scaffold has been recognized, over the years, as a model for the synthesis of compounds with anticancer activity by dint of its substantiated ability to act via multiple mechanisms, which also involves the inhibition of enzymes engaged in DNA replication. In this regard, a new series of indole and pyranoindole derivatives have been prepared, some of which showed good antitumor activity and proved their inhibitory effects on the tubulin target. The anticancer activity of the newly synthesized compounds has been evaluated on breast cancer cell lines, as MCF-7 and MDA-MB231, cervical cancer cells line HeLa and Ishikawa endometrial cancer cell line. Among the compounds under study, 7 exhibited a good antitumor activity on HeLa cell line (IC50 = 3.6 ± 0.5), leading to cell death by apoptosis due to the inhibition of tubulin polymerization, which demonstrated that the compound can explicate its function in a similar way to Vinblastine, a well-known inhibitor of tubulin polymerization. The data were also confirmed by in silico assays. No cytotoxicity against normal cells has been detected. Furthermore, in order to investigate the antioxidant properties, DPPH and ABTS tests were performed, together with fluorescence assays on 3T3-L1 cells. All our findings taken together led us to consider compound 7 a favourable candidate for the battle against cancer

Effects of charge doping on Mott insulator with strong spin-orbit coupling, Ba2Na1−xCaxOsO6

The effects of doping on the electronic evolution of the Mott insulating state have been extensively studied in efforts to understand mechanisms of emergent quantum phases of materials. The study of these effects becomes ever more intriguing in the presence of entanglement between spin and orbital degrees of freedom. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of charge doping in the double perovskite Ba2NaOsO6, a complex Mott insulator where such entanglement plays an important role. We establish that the insulating magnetic ground state evolves from canted antiferromagnet (cAFM) [Lu et al., Nat. Commun. 8, 14407 (2017)] to Neel order for dopant levels exceeding approximate to 10%. Furthermore, we determine that a broken local point symmetry (BLPS) phase, precursor to the magnetically ordered state, occupies an extended portion of the (H-T) phase diagram with increased doping. This finding reveals that the breaking of the local cubic symmetry is driven by a multipolar order, most likely of the antiferro-quadrupolar type [Khaliullin et al., Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 033163 (2021); Churchill and Kee, Phys. Rev. B 105, 014438 (2022)]. Future dynamical measurements will be instrumental in determination of the precise nature of the identified multipolar order

Cardiovascular Risk Perception and Knowledge among Italian Women: Lessons from IGENDA Protocol

A multicenter, cross-sectional observational study (Italian GENder Differences in Awareness of Cardiovascular risk, IGENDA study) was carried out to evaluate the perception and knowledge of cardiovascular risk among Italian women. An anonymous questionnaire was completed by 4454 women (44.3 ± 14.1 years). The 70% of respondents correctly identified cardiovascular disease (CVD) as the leading cause of death. More than half of respondents quoted cancer as the greatest current and future health problem of women of same age. Sixty percent of interviewed women considered CVD as an almost exclusively male condition. Although respondents showed a good knowledge of the major cardiovascular risk factors, the presence of cardiovascular risk factors was not associated with higher odds of identifying CVD as the biggest cause of death. Less than 10% of respondents perceived themselves as being at high CVD risk, and the increased CVD risk perception was associated with ageing, higher frequency of cardiovascular risk factors and disease, and a poorer self-rated health status. The findings of this study highlight the low perception of cardiovascular risk in Italian women and suggest an urgent need to enhance knowledge and perception of CVD risk in women as a real health problem and not just as a as a life-threatening threat

Lack of cross-reactivity between anti-A IgG isoagglutinins and anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies

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