35 research outputs found
Asenapine in Clinical Practice: Responders Vs Non-responders
ntroduction Asenapine is a second-generation antipsychotic approved in Europe for the treatment of
manic or mixed episodes.
Objective To describe the clinical features of Asenapine responders and non-responders.
Methods A naturalistic, observational study is ongoing in patients treated with Asenapine. We have already
recruited 37 manic patients with a lifetime diagnosis of Bipolar I (BDI) or Schizoaffective Disorder referring
to our Psychiatric Ward. Patients are assessed with the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) at baseline
(T0), and after 1 (T1) and 4 weeks (T2) of treatment. According to YMRS scores, patients are classified as
responders and non-responders.
Results The preliminary results highlight a significant improvement of the YMRS score from T0 to T2 in
most patients. Asenapine seems particularly effective in patients with less severe manic symptoms, and
responders are more likely to have lower baseline YMRS score. No correlation has currently emerged
between responder status and diagnosis. Non-responders in our sample are females sharing some clinical
features: early onset BDI diagnosis, several previous treatments (antipsychotics, mood stabilizers), initial
cognitive impairment confirmed with the Mini Mental State Examination, Alzheimer Disease Assessment
Scale and neuroimaging.
Conclusions Elderly manic patients with neurological impairment and/or dementia may have poorer
therapeutic outcomes and poorer response to pharmacological treatment, which may prove effective in
reducing agitation but not mania ratings. Diagnosis (BDI or schizoaffective disorder) does not seem to have
a significant impact on Asenapine efficacy. The further recruitment and assessment of patients is expected
to support the results described above
Asenapine Effects On Peroxidation and Calcium Movements in HL-1 Cells
Introduction Bipolar patients are at higher risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality than their
counterparts in the general population. In a recent in vitro study, Asenapine, a new antipsychotic for the
treatment of mania/mixed mania, was found to keep physiological endothelial function by activation of
eNOS-related NO release and to protect endothelial cells against peroxidation by interference with
mitochondria, apoptosis and cell survival.
Objectives To examine the cardiac protective effects elicited by Asenapine against peroxidation and on the
Ca2+ movements.
Methods In HL-1 that had undergone oxidative stress by 20 min hydrogen peroxide the effects of 30 min
pre-treatment with Asenapine on survival and proliferation will be examined. In Fura-2AM loaded HL-1 we will
next analyze the effects of Asenapine on Ca2+ movements and the related involvement of cAMP/PKA and
PLC pathways, CaMKII, L and T type Ca2+ channels and 5HT1A receptors. The role of 'capacitative” Ca2+
entry, plasma-membrane Ca2+ pump inhibitor (PMCA) and Na+/Ca2+ exchanger will be analyzed.
Changes of membrane potential caused by interference with K+ channels will be examined, as well.
Results We expect to find a proliferative and anti-peroxidative effect of Asenapine in HL-1 cells. Asenapine
could also affect Ca2+ movements through cAMP/PKA and PLC-dependent signalling and the involvement
of 5HT1A receptors. The effects of Asenapine could also be related to changes of plasma membrane by
interference with K+ channels and the modulation of PMCA activity and Na+/Ca2+ exchanger.
Conclusions We expect to further confirm the protective effect of Asenapine against peroxidative
injuries.Implications will be discusse
Feeling Through the Body: Alexithymia and Eating Disorders
INTRODUCTION
Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties identifying and communicating feelings, and problems
differentiating between feelings and bodily sensations; its concrete cognitive style focused on the external
environment is typical of psychosomatic patients. Patients with eating disorders (EDs) have high levels of
alexithymia, particularly difficulties identifying and describing their feelings.
OBJECTIVE
The aims of our study are (1) to assess the alexythimia, emotional empathy, facial emotion identification
skills and social inference abilities in a sample of ED patients; (2) to compare these variables between ED
patients and healthy controls (HC); and (3) to correlate levels of alexithymia with the severity of the ED as
measured by the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 (EDI-3) EDRC score in the ED group.
METHODS
ED (N=42) and HC (N=42) were tested with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Eating Disorder
Inventory (EDI-3), Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT), The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT)
and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI).
RESULTS
Data collection is being completed and the results’ analysis is ongoing. We expect the ED sample to show
greater alexythimia and a poorer performance at FEIT and TASIT than HCs. We expect to find a linear
correlation between the TAS-20 and EDRC score.
CONCLUSION
A better understanding of the role of alexithymia in ED etiology and maintenance might allow the
development of targeted treatment approaches to help patients improve their skills in identifying and
expressing emotions
Il bilancio integrato per le PMI
Accanto ai capitali finanziario e produttivo, ogni impresa
fonda il proprio business e il proprio successo anche su
risorse intangibili, quali il capitale intellettuale, il capitale
umano, il capitale sociale e relazionale ed il capitale
naturale. Il tradizionale bilancio economico-finanziario,
però, non è adatto a valutare e rappresentare tali risorse,
poiché è stato concepito con riferimento ad un’economia
industriale fondata pressoché esclusivamente su capitali
tangibili; pertanto, anche avuto riguardo alla realtà delle
PMI, si rende oggi necessario introdurre nuovi strumenti
e nuovi indicatori per la misurazione e la rendicontazione,
che siano in grado di cogliere e valorizzare anche le
componenti immateriali del capitale aziendale. In questo
contesto, il bilancio integrato si pone come una forma
evoluta di comunicazione aziendale, finalizzata ad
illustrare come strategia, governance, modello di
business, rapporti con gli stakeholder, performance
passate e prospettive future, rischi e opportunità
consentano anche ad un’impresa di piccole e medie
dimensioni di creare valore nel breve, medio e lungo
termine
Multicentre harmonisation of a six-colour flow cytometry panel for naïve/memory T cell immunomonitoring
Background. Personalised medicine in oncology needs standardised immunological assays. Flow cytometry (FCM) methods represent an essential tool for immunomonitoring, and their harmonisation is crucial to obtain comparable data in multicentre clinical trials. The objective of this study was to design a harmonisation workflow able to address the most effective issues contributing to intra- and interoperator variabilities in a multicentre project. Methods. The Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanita, ISS) managed a multiparametric flow cytometric panel harmonisation among thirteen operators belonging to five clinical and research centres of Lazio region (Italy). The panel was based on a backbone mixture of dried antibodies (anti-CD3, anti-CD4, anti-CD8, anti-CD45RA, and anti-CCR7) to detect naive/memory T cells, recognised as potential prognostic/predictive immunological biomarkers in cancer immunotherapies. The coordinating centre distributed frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and fresh whole blood (WB) samples from healthy donors, reagents, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to participants who performed experiments by their own equipment, in order to mimic a real-life scenario. Operators returned raw and locally analysed data to ISS for central analysis and statistical elaboration. Results. Harmonised and reproducible results were obtained by sharing experimental set-up and procedures along with centralising data analysis, leading to a reduction of cross-centre variability for naive/memory subset frequencies particularly in the whole blood setting. Conclusion. Our experimental and analytical working process proved to be suitable for the harmonisation of FCM assays in a multicentre setting, where high-quality data are required to evaluate potential immunological markers, which may contribute to select better therapeutic options
Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities
Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Translational research on advanced therapies
Fostering translational research of advanced therapies has become a major priority of both scientific community and national governments. Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) are a new medicinal product category comprising gene therapy and cell-based medicinal products as well as tissue engineered medicinal products. ATMP development opens novel avenues for therapeutic approaches in numerous diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases. However, there are important bottlenecks for their development due to the complexity of the regulatory framework, the high costs and the needs for good manufacturing practice (GMP) facilities and new end-points for clinical experimentation. Thus, a strategic cooperation between different stakeholders (academia, industry and experts in regulatory issues) is strongly needed. Recently, a great importance has been given to research infrastructures dedicated to foster translational medicine of advanced therapies. Some ongoing European initiatives in this field are presented and their potential impact is discussed
Psychiatric disturbances in a patient with melas syndrome: A case report
Introduction
Mitochondrial disorders of energetic metabolism (MD) represent a heterogeneous group of diseases manifesting at any age and its one of a number of mitochondria syndromes that share the common characteristics of encephalopathy and myopathy. The clinical expression of MELAS (Mitochondrial Myopathy, Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis and Stroke-like episodes) is highly variable and ppsychiatric symptoms are rarely reported in literature even if are more common in MELAS syndrome than in the general population.
Objective
The first aim of the study is describing the clinically observed primary psychiatric symptoms in a patient affected by MELAS syndrome admitted to the Psychiatric ward. The second aim is to go back over the diagnostic process, which led, from the uncommon psychiatric symptoms and signs to the final genetic diagnosis of MD.
Methods and results
We report the case of a 44-year-old male with MELAS in whom psychiatric symptoms preceded the establishment of the clinical diagnosis for several months. Diagnosis was initially based on the neuroimaging and metabolic findings and subsequently confirmed with genetic analysis.
Conclusions
In case of aggressive and paranoid behaviour with delusions of persecution and disorganised behaviour mmitochondrial disorders deserve consideration as part of the differential diagnosis, especially if there is suspected involvement of other organ groups or positive family history of MD. There is no specific consensus approach for treating MELAS syndrome. Management is largely symptomatic and should involve a multidisciplinary team