Risk factors and control of hospital acquired infections: a comparison between Wikipedia and scientific literature

Background: nowadays Wikipedia is one of the main on-line sources of general information. It contains several items about nosocomial infections and their prevention, together of items on virtually every scientific topic. This study aims to assess whether Wikipedia can be considered a reliable source for professional updating, concerning Healthcare-associated Infections (HAI). Methods: Wikipedia has been searched in order to gather items on HAI. 387 items were found with a search string. The field of research was reduced at those articles (27 items) containing exhaustive information in relation to prevention of HAI. The messages contained in those articles were than compared with the recommendations of a selected guideline (NICE 2003), completed by a literature search, with the aim of testing their reliability and exhaustivity. Results: 15 Wiki items were found and 51 messages selected. NICE guidelines contained 119 recommendations and 52 more recommendations has been found in a further literature search. 45.1% of Wikipedia’s messages were even found in the guidelines. On this percentage, 21.6% completely agreed with the messages of the guidelines, 15.7% partially agreed, 3.9% disagreed and 3.9% showed different level of evidence in different articles. Moreover, 54.9% of Wikipedia’s messages were not included in the guidelines and 84.2% of the recommendations contained in the guidelines were not present in Wikipedia. Conclusions: Wikipedia should not be considered as a reliable source for professional updating on HAI

Extracellular vesicles from human plasma for biomarkers discovery: Impact of anticoagulants and isolation techniques

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolated from plasma are increasingly recognized as promising circulating biomarkers for disease discovery and progression, as well as for therapeutic drug delivery. The scientific community underlined the necessity of standard operative procedures for the isolation and storage of the EVs to ensure robust results. The understanding of the impact of the pre-analytical variables is still limited and some considerations about plasma anticoagulants and isolation methods are necessary. Therefore, we performed a comparison study between EVs isolated by ultracentrifugation and by affinity substrate separation from plasma EDTA and sodium citrate. The EVs were characterized by Nano Tracking Analysis, Western Blot, cytofluorimetric analysis of surface markers, and lipidomic analysis. While anticoagulants did not significantly alter any of the analyzed parameters, the isolation methods influenced EVs size, purity, surface markers expression and lipidomic profile. Compared to ultracentrifugation, affinity substrate separation yielded bigger particles highly enriched in tetraspanins (CD9, CD63, CD81), fatty acids and glycerolipids, with a predominant LDL- and vLDL-like contamination. Herein, we highlighted that the isolation method should be carefully evaluated prior to study design and the need of standardized operative procedures for EVs isolation and application to biomarkers discovery

Targeting lysine-specific demethylase 1 (KDM1A/LSD1) impairs colorectal cancer tumorigenesis by affecting cancer cells stemness, motility, and differentiation

: Among all cancers, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 3rd most common and the 2nd leading cause of death worldwide. New therapeutic strategies are required to target cancer stem cells (CSCs), a subset of tumor cells highly resistant to present-day therapy and responsible for tumor relapse. CSCs display dynamic genetic and epigenetic alterations that allow quick adaptations to perturbations. Lysine-specific histone demethylase 1A (KDM1A also known as LSD1), a FAD-dependent H3K4me1/2 and H3K9me1/2 demethylase, was found to be upregulated in several tumors and associated with a poor prognosis due to its ability to maintain CSCs staminal features. Here, we explored the potential role of KDM1A targeting in CRC by characterizing the effect of KDM1A silencing in differentiated and CRC stem cells (CRC-SCs). In CRC samples, KDM1A overexpression was associated with a worse prognosis, confirming its role as an independent negative prognostic factor of CRC. Consistently, biological assays such as methylcellulose colony formation, invasion, and migration assays demonstrated a significantly decreased self-renewal potential, as well as migration and invasion potential upon KDM1A silencing. Our untargeted multi-omics approach (transcriptomic and proteomic) revealed the association of KDM1A silencing with CRC-SCs cytoskeletal and metabolism remodeling towards a differentiated phenotype, supporting the role of KDM1A in CRC cells stemness maintenance. Also, KDM1A silencing resulted in up-regulation of miR-506-3p, previously reported to play a tumor-suppressive role in CRC. Lastly, loss of KDM1A markedly reduced 53BP1 DNA repair foci, implying the involvement of KDM1A in the DNA damage response. Overall, our results indicate that KDM1A impacts CRC progression in several non-overlapping ways, and therefore it represents a promising epigenetic target to prevent tumor relapse

Benedetto XVI Legislatore

Questo volume offre una serie di riflessioni sulla legislazione concepita da Benedetto XVI. La sua opera come legislatore, ispirata al principio della riforma nella continuità, mette in luce l’essenzialità del diritto nella vita della Chiesa. I temi giuridici qui affrontati sono tra i più importanti e dibattuti: la liturgia, il matrimonio, il diritto penale canonico, la riammissione di comunità anglicane, la prevenzione dei reati finanziari, il lavoro umano, la cittadinanza vaticana. Dalle riforme legislative del Pontefice emerge, in maniera limpida, la duplice funzione del diritto nella dimensione ecclesiale: da un lato, la giusta regolazione dei rapporti tra le persone e le istituzioni e, dall’altro, il suo orientamento al principio del perseguimento della salvezza delle anime

Being a top swimmer during the early career is not a prerequisite for success: A study on sprinter strokes

Objectives: To quantify the junior-to-senior successful transition rate in sprint swimming events in elite European performers. Design: Retrospective analysis of publicly available competition data collected between 2004 and 2019. Methods: The yearly performance of 6631 European swimmers (females = 41.8% of the sample) competing in 50 and 100 m freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly were included in the analysis. The junior-to-senior transition rate was determined as the number of elite junior athletes who maintained their elite status in adulthood. To investigate how the definition of elite may affect the calculation of the transition rate, we operationally defined elite athletes as those ranked in the all-time top 10, 25, 50, and 100 in their category. We also calculated the correlation between junior and senior performances. Results: The average transition rates ranged, depending on the age of reference, from 10 to 26% in males and from 23 to 33% in females. The transition rate for the top 100 junior swimmers was greater than that for the top 10 swimmers. In general, swimmers who swam 50 m showed a slightly lower transition rate compared with those that swam 100 m. Depending on the age of reference, low-to-moderate correlations were observed between junior and senior peak performances. Conclusions: Most elite junior athletes did not maintain the elite level in adulthood. Except for athletes in the last year of the junior category (18 years for males and 17 years for females), junior performances were poorly correlated with senior performances

External implantable defibrillator as a bridge to reimplant after explant for infection: Experience from two centers

Background: The management of patients explanted for implantable converter defibrillator (ICD) infections may be complex when anti-bradycardia pacing and tachyarrhythmia protection are needed. We aimed to test the efficacy and safety of a conventional ICD externally connected to a transvenous dual-coil lead as bridging therapy before the reimplantation. Methods and results: We enrolled seven patients explanted for ICD infections and needed prolonged antibiotic therapy in two high-volume hospitals in Italy and treated them with a passive-can external ICD for a mean of 13 (4\u201330) days before reimplant. One patient experienced an electrical storm, efficaciously recognized by the external ICD and treated with antitachycardia pacing and shocks. On-demand pacing was granted for all the patients. No device-related complications were reported. Conclusions: An external ICD seems safe and efficacious as a bridge to reimplant in patients explanted for ICD infections

Management of patients explanted for implantable cardioverter defibrillator infections: Bridge therapy with external temporary ICD

In case of cardiacimplantable electronicdevice (CIED)-related infections, it is mandatory to completely remove the device and administer prolonged antibiotic therapy. The management of patients explanted for an implantable defibrillator (ICD) infection is complex especially in patients needing anti-bradycardia pacing or tachyarrhythmia protection. We tested the efficacy and safety of a conventional ICD externally connected to a transvenous dual-coil lead as bridging therapy before the reimplant, comparing outcomes with a historical cohort of patients (N\ua0=\ua0113) treated with temporary transvenous pacing. We enrolled 18 patients explanted for ICD infection and needing prolonged antibiotic therapy in three high-volume Italian centers. They received an external ICD stand-by for a mean of 16.5 (4-30) days before the reimplant