Is there a role for dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitors for patients affected with lymphoma?

The activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway is a main driver of cell growth, proliferation, survival, and chemoresistance of cancer cells, and, for this reason, represents an attractive target for developing targeted anti-cancer drugs. There are plenty of preclinical data sustaining the anti-tumor activity of dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitors as single agents and in combination in lymphomas. Clinical responses, including complete remissions (especially in follicular lymphoma patients), are also observed in the very few clinical studies performed in patients that are affected by relapsed/refractory lymphomas or chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In this review, we summarize the literature on dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitors focusing on the lymphoma setting, presenting both the three compounds still in clinical development and those with a clinical program stopped or put on hold

Current updates on naturally occurring compounds recognizing sars-cov-2 druggable targets

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been identified in China as the etiologic agent of the recent COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Due to its high transmissibil-ity, this virus quickly spread throughout the world, causing considerable health issues. The scientific community exerted noteworthy efforts to obtain therapeutic solutions for COVID-19, and new scientific networks were constituted. No certified drugs to efficiently inhibit the virus were identified, and the development of de-novo medicines requires approximately ten years of research. Therefore, the repurposing of natural products could be an effective strategy to handle SARS-CoV-2 infection. This review aims to update on current status of the natural occurring compounds recognizing SARS-CoV-2 druggable targets. Among the clinical trials actually recruited, some natural compounds are ongoing to examine their potential role to prevent and to treat the COVID-19 infection. Many natural scaffolds, including alkaloids, terpenes, flavonoids, and benzoquinones, were investigated by in-silico, in-vitro, and in-vivo approaches. Despite the large data set obtained by a computational approach, experimental evidences in most cases are not available. To fill this gap, further efforts to validate these results are required. We believe that an accurate investigation of naturally occurring compounds may provide insights for the potential treatment of COVID-19 patients

Clan Properties in Parton Showers

By considering clans as genuine elementary subprocesses, i.e., intermediate parton sources in the Simplified Parton Shower model, a generalized version of this model is defined. It predicts analytically clan properties at parton level in agreement with the general trends observed experimentally at hadronic level and in Monte Carlo simulations both at partonic and hadronic level. In particular the model shows a linear rising in rapidity of the average number of clans at fixed energy of the initial parton and its subsequent bending for rapidity intervals at the border of phase space, and approximate energy independence of the average number of clans in fixed rapidity intervals. The energy independence becomes stricter by properly normalizing the average number of clans.Comment: (27 pages in Plain TeX plus 10 Postscript Figures, all compressed via uufiles) DFTT 7/9

Antibiotic de-escalation experience in the setting of emergency department: A retrospective, observational study

Background: Antimicrobial de-escalation (ADE) is a part of antimicrobial stewardship strategies aiming to minimize unnecessary or inappropriate antibiotic exposure to decrease the rate of antimicrobial resistance. Information regarding the effectiveness and safety of ADE in the setting of emergency medicine wards (EMW) is lacking. Methods: Adult patients admitted to EMW and receiving empiric antimicrobial treatment were retrospectively studied. The primary outcome was the rate and timing of ADE. Secondary outcomes included factors associated with early ADE, length of stay, and in-hospital mortality. Results: A total of 336 patients were studied. An initial regimen combining two agents was prescribed in 54.8%. Ureidopenicillins and carbapenems were the most frequently empiric treatment prescribed (25.1% and 13.6%). The rate of the appropriateness of prescribing was 58.3%. De-escalation was performed in 111 (33%) patients. Patients received a successful de-escalation on day 2 (21%), 3 (23%), and 5 (56%). The overall in-hospital mortality was 21%, and it was significantly lower among the de-escalation group than the continuation group (16% vs 25% p = 0.003). In multivariate analysis, de-escalation strategies as well as appropriate empiric and targeted therapy were associated with reduced mortality. Conclusions: ADE appears safe and effective in the setting of EMWs despite that further research is warranted to confirm these findings

Inside perspective of the synthetic and computational toolbox of JAK inhibitors: Recent updates

The mechanisms of inflammation and cancer are intertwined by complex networks of signaling pathways. Dysregulations in the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) pathway underlie several pathogenic conditions related to chronic inflammatory states, autoimmune diseases and cancer. Historically, the potential application of JAK inhibition has been thoroughly explored, thus triggering an escalation of favorable results in this field. So far, five JAK inhibitors have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of different diseases. Considering the complexity of JAK-depending processes and their involvement in multiple disorders, JAK inhibitors are the perfect candidates for drug repurposing and for the assessment of multitarget strategies. Herein we reviewed the recent progress concerning JAK inhibition, including the innovations provided by the release of JAKs crystal structures and the improvement of synthetic strategies aimed to simplify of the industrial scale-up