Selective targeting of melanoma by PEG-masked protein-based multifunctional nanoparticles

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Brain tumours in the time of COVID-19: An online survey on patients’ disease experience in one Italian region

BackgroundSince the outbreak, in 2019, of COVID-19, the world has experienced marked changes in daily habits, partly reflecting the exceptional social restrictions and health measures adopted to contain the disease. All these measures significantly affected not only peoples’s daily lives and psychological well-being but also the possibility for the healthcare system to function properly. In this setting, brain tumour patients were at risk due to their higher physical and mental fragility and their need for regular care. The aim of the present study was to assess, using a self-reported online questionnaire, the patients’s perceptions regarding their disease experience.Materials and methodsWe developed an online anonymous self-report survey to assess patients’s disease experience during the pandemic. We investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients’s cancer care schedules, their psychological distress and emotions felt during the pandemic, their levels of worry about COVID-19, and their oncological conditions.Results107 patients answered our survey, most of them suffering from a glioma. Less than one-third of the sample had their appointments cancelled, delayed or converted into online visits due to the pandemic. Of the patients who answered the survey, 95% declared they were satisfied with their Institute’s oncological management. The feelings reported most often were peacefulness or anxiety/worry; the majority of the sample reported high levels of loneliness, which tended to increase with age, whilst the psychological distress was correlated with age and with having a recurrence of the disease. Half of the sample declared severe worry about their oncological condition, in particular subjects with a recurrence or who were receiving adjuvant therapies. Patients with recurrence tended to worry more about the possibility of contracting COVID-19, and its effects.ConclusionOur findings illustrate how fragile and in need of care patients with a brain tumour may be, especially those with more severe clinical conditions. These data may help boost healthcare professionals’s knowledge about brain tumour patients’s needs and fears, so as to be able to offer them a better hospital experience and improve their clinical management, while possibly also reducing the psychological burden on patients and their families

A neuroanatomical account of mental time travelling in schizophrenia: A meta-analysis of functional and structural neuroimaging data

Mental time travel (MTT) abilities could be particularly compromised in schizophrenic patients due to a deficit of the cognitive processes at the basis of remembering the past and imaging the future: constructive processes, theory of mind and self-awareness. Accordingly, we assumed that the neural circuits typically associated with MTT in healthy people might be partially compromised in chronic schizophrenic patients. To quantitatively and anatomically test our hypothesis, we run two meta-analyses using the Activation Likelihood Estimate method: (i) a neurofunctional meta-analysis on MTT in healthy subjects, (ii) a morphometrical meta-analysis on chronic schizophrenia. The results of the two meta-analyses were overlapped in order to identify the candidate regions involved in MTT deficit in schizophrenia. A significant overlap was found in the vmPFC, in the precuneus, in the hippocampus and in the insular cortex. We assume that MTT deficits in schizophrenic patients may be the results of a complex dysfunctional interaction between the system underlying the creation of self-representation, the constructive system and the salience attribution network

The characterization of Thermotoga maritima ferritin reveals an unusual subunit dissociation behavior and efficient DNA protection from iron-mediated oxidative stress

Ferritin from the hyperthermophilic anaerobe Thermotoga maritima, a bacterium of ancient phylogenetic origin, is structurally similar to known bacterial and eukaryotic ferritins: 24 identical subunits assemble into a shell having octahedral symmetry and a Mr of about 460 kDa. T. maritima ferritin (TmFtn), purified to homogeneity as a recombinant protein, contains approximately 2-3 iron atoms and can incorporate efficiently up to 3,500 atoms in the form of a ferric oxy-hydroxide mineral at 80°C, the optimal growth temperature of the bacterium. The 24-mer unexpectedly dissociates reversibly into dimers at low ionic strengths. In turn, dimers re-associate into the native 24-mer assembly at high protein concentrations and upon incorporation of iron micelles containing at least 500 Fe(III). TmFtn uses O 2 as efficient iron oxidant. The reaction stoichiometry is 3-4 O 2:Fe(II) as in all bacterial ferritins. Accordingly no H 2O 2 is released into solution, a feature reflected in the in vitro ability of TmFtn to reduce significantly iron-mediated oxidative damage to DNA at 80°C. A similar TmFtn-mediated ROS detoxifying role likely occurs in the bacterium which lacks the SOD/catalase defense systems of the aerobic world. © 2011 Springer

Long term follow–up of neuropsychological functions in patients with high grade gliomas: can cognitive status predict patient’s outcome after surgery?

Background: Patients affected by a high-grade glioma (HGG) have a poor prognosis with a median survival of 12-16 months. Such poor prognosis affects the perception of the remaining life by patients and the neuropsychological status can strongly affect every-day functioning of these patients. Monitoring changes of neuropsychological functioning (NPF) over time may provide better clinical information and optimize the neuro-oncological management. Aims of our work were: 1) to investigate the feasibility of a complex neuropsychological battery in HGG patients before and during follow-up after surgery; 2) to study the neuropsychological profile of patients affected by HGGs and their relation with the disease status (relapse/death) across time after surgery. Methods: 102 patients who received surgery for HGG between 2011 and 2017 were studied. All clinical data were prospectively recorded. NPF was assessed during the neuro-oncological follow-up through the Milano-Bicocca Battery (MIBIB). Statistical analysis was performed on the neuropsychological results of the tests administered. Results: First, MIBIB proved to be suitable for patients with HGG tumors before and after surgery, and during long-term follow-up; it also showed a cluster structure representative of the principal cognitive domains. Second, we found a steep decline in the neuropsychological profile before death and/or tumor relapse for the 52% of the neuropsychological tests administered. Conclusion: Complex neuropsychological batteries can be administered to HGG patients before and during follow-up after surgery. There is a correlation between neuropsychological deterioration and tumor relapse and/or death, which may reflect a progressive damage to cognitive functions due to tumor infiltration and progression

In Vivo Targeting of Cutaneous Melanoma Using an Melanoma Stimulating Hormone-Engineered Human Protein Cage with Fluorophore and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Tracers

Nanoparticle (NP)-based materials are promising agents for enhancing cancer diagnosis and treatment. Once functionalized for selective targeting of tumor-expressed molecules, they can specifically deliver drugs and diagnostic molecules inside tumor cells. In the present work, we evaluated the in vivo melanoma-targeting ability of a nanovector (HFt-MSH-PEG) based on human protein ferritin (HFt), functionalized with both melanoma-targeting melanoma stimulating hormone (α-MSH) and stabilizing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) molecules. Independent and complementary techniques, such as whole-specimen confocal microscopy and magnetic resonance imaging, were used to detect in vivo localization of NP constructs with suitable tracers (i.e., fluorophores or magnetic metals). Targeted HFt-MSH-PEG NPs accumulated persistently at the level of primary melanoma and with high selectivity with respect to other organs. Melanoma localization of untargeted HFt-PEG NPs, which lack the α-MSH moiety, was less pronounced. Furthermore, HFt-MSH-PEG NPs accumulated to a significantly lower extent and with a different distribution in a diverse type of tumor (TS/A adenocarcinoma), which does not express α-MSH receptors. Finally, in a spontaneous lung metastasis model, HFt-MSH-PEG NPs localized at the metastasis level as well. These results suggest that HFt-MSH-PEG NPs are suitable carriers for selective in vivo delivery of diagnostic or therapeutic agents to cutaneous melanoma

Hierarchical self-assembly and optical disassembly for controlled switching of magnetoferritin nanoparticle magnetism

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