A desk review on institutional and non-institutional organizations active in the field of migrant’s health in the WHO European Region

Background Migrants have problematic access to health-care; non-institutional organizations (NGOs), as well as institutional bodies may play a role facilitating their access to mainstream health care. Aim Our research reviews actions that address migrant’s need to understand how, where, and who participates to this effort. Method Data were from desk or web research, declaration from organisations and their websites, information from WHO Country offices.  Results 154 NGO were identified in the WHO EURO region. 58% were direct health care providers while the remaining provided either mediation services or belong to umbrella organization. 173 National Institutes (GOVs) were found; less than the 20% were directly or indirectly involved in health care, whereas the majority was involved in research, policy development, international relations and human rights. Conclusion and recommendation Some gaps and duplications were identified. WHO can play an overarching role in the exchange of expertise and harmonisation of the efforts in this field

Tolerability of vortioxetine compared to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in older adults with major depressive disorder (VESPA): a randomised, assessor-blinded and statistician-blinded, multicentre, superiority trial.

BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder (MDD) is prevalent and disabling among older adults. Standing on its tolerability profile, vortioxetine might be a promising alternative to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in such a vulnerable population. METHODS We conducted a randomised, assessor- and statistician-blinded, superiority trial including older adults with MDD. The study was conducted between 02/02/2019 and 02/22/2023 in 11 Italian Psychiatric Services. Participants were randomised to vortioxetine or one of the SSRIs, selected according to common practice. Treatment discontinuation due to adverse events after six months was the primary outcome, for which we aimed to detect a 12% difference in favour of vortioxetine. The study was registered in the online repository clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03779789). FINDINGS The intention-to-treat population included 179 individuals randomised to vortioxetine and 178 to SSRIs. Mean age was 73.7 years (standard deviation 6.1), and 264 participants (69%) were female. Of those on vortioxetine, 78 (44%) discontinued the treatment due to adverse events at six months, compared to 59 (33%) of those on SSRIs (odds ratio 1.56; 95% confidence interval 1.01-2.39). Adjusted and per-protocol analyses confirmed point estimates in favour of SSRIs, but without a significant difference. With the exception of the unadjusted survival analysis showing SSRIs to outperform vortioxetine, secondary outcomes provided results consistent with a lack of substantial safety and tolerability differences between the two arms. Overall, no significant differences emerged in terms of response rates, depressive symptoms and quality of life, while SSRIs outperformed vortioxetine in terms of cognitive performance. INTERPRETATION As opposed to what was previously hypothesised, vortioxetine did not show a better tolerability profile compared to SSRIs in older adults with MDD in this study. Additionally, hypothetical advantages of vortioxetine on depression-related cognitive symptoms might be questioned. The study's statistical power and highly pragmatic design allow for generalisability to real-world practice. FUNDING The study was funded by the Italian Medicines Agency within the "2016 Call for Independent Drug Research"

Natural humoral immune response to ribosomal P0 protein in colorectal cancer patients

Tumor associated antigens are useful in colorectal cancer (CRC) management. The ribosomal P proteins (P0, P1, P2) play an important role in protein synthesis and tumor formation. The immunogenicity of the ribosomal P0 protein in head and neck, in breast and prostate cancer patients and the overexpression of the carboxyl-terminal P0 epitope (C-22 P0) in some tumors were reported

Disease-specific and general health-related quality of life in newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients: The Pros-IT CNR study

Background: The National Research Council (CNR) prostate cancer monitoring project in Italy (Pros-IT CNR) is an observational, prospective, ongoing, multicentre study aiming to monitor a sample of Italian males diagnosed as new cases of prostate cancer. The present study aims to present data on the quality of life at time prostate cancer is diagnosed. Methods: One thousand seven hundred five patients were enrolled. Quality of life is evaluated at the time cancer was diagnosed and at subsequent assessments via the Italian version of the University of California Los Angeles-Prostate Cancer Index (UCLA-PCI) and the Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). Results: At diagnosis, lower scores on the physical component of the SF-12 were associated to older ages, obesity and the presence of 3+ moderate/severe comorbidities. Lower scores on the mental component were associated to younger ages, the presence of 3+ moderate/severe comorbidities and a T-score higher than one. Urinary and bowel functions according to UCLA-PCI were generally good. Almost 5% of the sample reported using at least one safety pad daily to control urinary loss; less than 3% reported moderate/severe problems attributable to bowel functions, and sexual function was a moderate/severe problem for 26.7%. Diabetes, 3+ moderate/severe comorbidities, T2 or T3-T4 categories and a Gleason score of eight or more were significantly associated with lower sexual function scores at diagnosis. Conclusions: Data collected by the Pros-IT CNR study have clarified the baseline status of newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients. A comprehensive assessment of quality of life will allow to objectively evaluate outcomes of different profile of care

Repair of Isopeptide Bonds by Protein Carboxymethyl Transferase: Seminal RNase as a Model System

Previous work has shown that in the peptide segment 62-76 of naturally deamidated a subunit of bovine seminal ribonuclease (BS-RNase) the a-carboxyl group of iso- Asp67 is selectively methylated by S-adenosy1methionine:protein carboxyl 0-methyltransferase. In the present study this reaction has been characterized, by using the tryptic segment 62-76 of the protein chain (peptide a16). The peptide is stoichiometrically methyl esterified with a KM of 6.17 pM and a Vmax of 19.56 nmol min-1 mg-1, and the product of demethylation has been identified as the cyclic succinimidyl derivative of iso-Asp67-Gly68. The cleavage of the succinimidyl ring yields two isomeric peptides containing an aspartyl residue (peptide a17) and an isoaspartyl residue (peptide a16). On the basis of these results conditions were defined in which repeated cycles of methylation-demethylation led to an effective conversion of peptide a16 into peptide a17, a process that can be interpreted as the repair of an altered isopeptide bond. When the methyl esterification reaction was studied on the native dimeric isoenzymes of seminal RNase and on catalytically active monomeric derivatives, including a stabilized alfa-type subunit, the results of these experiments showed that none of the protein forms were substrates for the methyltransferase. Only the unfolded alfa-type subunit was methylated to a stoichiometric extent. These results indicate that the repair of altered isopeptide bonds is chemically feasible in peptides but is hindered in the case of seminal RNase by its three-dimensional structure

Does Enzymatic Methyl Esterification Represent a "Repair" Mechanism of Isopeptide Bonds in Proteins?

The possibility that methyl esterification mighr represent a repair mechanism to repair deamidated residues in protein is discusse

A practical identification procedure for unmanned underwater vehicles - From modeling to experiments

The need of defining suitable dynamical models for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) is of absolute importance for the sake of a precise motion estimation (needed due the slow rate and low precision measurement usually provided by acoustic devices) and guidance & control system design, where regulation scheme and parameter setting have to be defined and evaluated on the basis of a reliable dynamical model