Unsuspected Hyoid Bone Fracture Following a Sport Laryngeal Trauma

A years old man sustained a fracture of the hyoid bone following closed neck injury while weight lifting in the gym Though commonly occurring in association of other neck fractures of the laryngeal skeleton the fracture was isolated Isolated hyoid bone fractures resulting from trauma other than strangulation are very rare and occur more frequently in young men more than in women These fractures are usually managed conservatively with good results as indeed our case wa

Preparation and characterization of 3D hyaluronic-acid-based scaffolds with controlled optical properties for biomedical applications

Optical techniques are increasingly employed for monitoring cell-matrix interactions and the availability of 3D scaffolds with controlled optical properties can be extremely useful in this field. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a glycosaminoglycan found in extracellular tissue in many parts of the body which is becoming more and more popular in biomaterials science as key material for the creation of new tissues using scaffolds. In this frame, a crosslinked hyaluronic acid-lys scaffold has been prepared and characterized. The peculiar optical properties of this scaffold make it a good candidate for exploiting optical techniques for monitoring cell-matrix interactions. Its optical and physico-chemical properties have been investigated by means of UV-VIS and FT-IR spectroscopy. In particular, transmittance and fluorescence measurements have shown low levels of background signals coming from the scaffold itself. In addition the optical quality of 3D scaffolds has been preliminarily tested by two-photon microscopy imaging of embedded fluorescent microbeads and labelled human keratinocites cells at different depths from the scaffold surface

Niclosamide as a Repurposing Drug against Corynebacterium striatum Multidrug-Resistant Infections

Corynebacterium striatum (C. striatum) is an emerging multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogen associated with nosocomial infections. In this scenario, we screened the antimicrobial activity of the anthelmintic drugs doramectin, moxidectin, selamectin and niclosamide against 20 C. striatum MDR clinical isolates. Among these, niclosamide was the best performing drug against C. striatum. Niclosamide cytotoxicity was evaluated by a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay on immortalized human keratinocyte cells (HaCaT). After 20 h of treatment, the recorded 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50) was 2.56 μg/mL. The antibacterial efficacy was determined via disc diffusion, broth microdilution method and time-killing. Against C. striatum, niclosamide induced a growth inhibitory area of 22 mm and the minimum inhibitory concentration that inhibits 90% of bacteria (MIC90) was 0.39 μg/mL, exhibiting bactericidal action. The biofilm biomass eradicating action was investigated through crystal violet (CV), MTT and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Niclosamide affected the biofilm viability in a dose-dependent manner and degraded biomass by 55 and 49% at 0.39 μg/mL and 0.19 μg/mL. CLSM images confirmed the biofilm biomass degradation, showing a drastic reduction in cell viability. This study could promote the drug-repurposing of the anthelmintic FDA-approved niclosamide as a therapeutic agent to counteract the C. striatum MDR infections