Borderline personality in patients with poly-diagnoses treated for a Bipolar Disorder

Some patients with dysphoria, explosive behaviour, or suicidal ideation, may receive a diagnosis of, and treatment for Bipolar Disorder (BD) and, not infrequently. The coexistence of these two diagnoses has been explained in different ways. Some authors include the BPD in the bipolar spectrum; others are sceptical about the existence of real comorbidity, suggesting a misdiagnosis. This study aimed to assess the personality of this group of poly-diagnosed patients (PolyD) and hypothesised they had a pathological borderline organisation. Via the administration of the Schedler Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200), we compared PolyD patients with those suffering from BPD or BD only. We performed two different MANCOVAs to test PolyD, BPD and BD patients' differences in PD-factors, Q-traits and age. The sample comprised 45 patients (Mean age=43.3, SD=15.7; Females 57.7%, N=26). BD patients (N=15) did not present any personality disorder, they had a higher functioning and Obsessive Q-traits, and a lower Histrionic PD-factor than both PolyD (N=20) and BPD (N=10) patients. Compared to PolyD patients, BD had inferior PD-Borderline, PD-Antisocial factor and Dependent-Masochistic Q-traits, but there were no other differences with BPD patients. PolyD did not differ from BPD patients in any of the PD-factors and Q-traits. Our results suggest that PolyD patients are different from BD patients and propose to consider the pathological borderline personality as a central core of their disease

1-Phenyl-3-azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane derivatives as new ligands for sigma receptors

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Microfluidic tools for enhanced characterization of therapeutic stem cells and prediction of their potential antimicrobial secretome

Antibiotic resistance is creating enormous attention on the development of new antibiotic-free therapy strategies for bacterial diseases. Mesenchymal stromal stem cells (MSCs) are the most promising candidates in current clinical trials and included in several cell-therapy protocols. Together with the well-known immunomodulatory and regenerative potential of the MSC secretome, these cells have shown direct and indirect anti-bacterial effects. However, the low reproducibility and standardization of MSCs from different sources are the current limitations prior to the purification of cell-free secreted antimicrobial peptides and exosomes. In order to improve MSC characterization, novel label-free functional tests, evaluating the biophysical properties of the cells, will be advan-tageous for their cell profiling, population sorting, and quality control. We discuss the potential of emerging microfluidic technologies providing new insights into density, shape, and size of live cells, starting from heterogeneous or 3D cultured samples. The prospective application of these technologies to studying MSC populations may contribute to developing new biopharmaceutical strategies with a view to naturally overcoming bacterial defense mechanisms

Leaves and spiny burs of castanea sativa from an experimental chestnut grove: Metabolomic analysis and anti-neuroinflammatory activity

Castanea sativa cultivation has been present in Mediterranean regions since ancient times. In order to promote a circular economy, it is of great importance to valorize chestnut groves’ by-products. In this study, leaves and spiny burs from twenty-four Castanea trees were analyzed by1 H NMR metabolomics to provide an overview of their phytochemical profile. The Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) performed on these data allowed us to distinguish ‘Marrone’ from ‘Castagna’, since the latter were generally more enriched with secondary metabolites, in particular, flavonoids (astragalin, isorhamnetin glucoside, and myricitrin) were dominant. Knowing that microglia are involved in mediating the oxidative and inflammatory response of the central nervous system, the potential anti-inflammatory effects of extracts derived from leaves and spiny burs were evaluated in a neuroinflammatory cell model: BV-2 microglia cells. The tested extracts showed cytoprotective activity (at 0.1 and 0.5 mg/mL) after inflammation induction by 5 µg/mL lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In addition, the transcriptional levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, and NF-kB expression induced by LPS were significantly decreased by cell incubation with spiny burs and leaves extracts. Taken together, the obtained results are promising and represent an important step to encourage recycling and valorization of chestnut byproducts, usually considered “waste”

Validity of self-reported history of Chlamydia trachomatis infection

BACKGROUND: Chlamydia trachomatis infection is common and largely asymptomatic in women. If untreated, it can lead to sequelae such as pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility. It is unknown whether a patient's self-reported history of Chlamydia trachomatis infection is a valid marker of past infection. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to evaluate the validity of women's self-reported history of Chlamydia trachomatis infection compared with Chlamydia trachomatis serology, a marker for previous infection. STUDY DESIGN: We analyzed data from the Fertility After Contraception Termination study. We compared participants' survey responses with the question, "Have you ever been told by a health care provider that you had Chlamydia?" to serological test results indicating the presence or absence of antibodies to Chlamydia trachomatis as assessed by a microimmunofluorescence assay. Prevalence of past infection, sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and likelihood ratios were calculated. The Cohen's kappa statistic was computed to assess agreement between self-report and serology. RESULTS: Among 409 participants, 108 (26%) reported having a history of Chlamydia trachomatis infection, whereas 146 (36%) had positive serological test results. Relative to positive microimmunofluorescence assay, the sensitivity and specificity of self-reported history of Chlamydia trachomatis infection were 52.1% (95% confidence interval, 43.6-60.4%) and 87.8% (95% confidence interval, 83.3-91.5%), respectively. The positive predictive value of the self-report was 70.4% (95% confidence interval, 60.8-78.8%), and the negative predictive value was 76.7% (95% confidence interval, 71.6-81.4%). The likelihood ratio was found to be 4.28. Agreement between self-report and serology was found to be moderate (kappa = 0.42, P < .001). CONCLUSION: Self-reported history of Chlamydia trachomatis infection commonly yields false-negative and false-positive results. When definitive status of past Chlamydia trachomatis infection is needed, serology should be obtained

By-Product Extracts from Castanea sativa Counteract Hallmarks of Neuroinflammation in a Microglial Model

Castanea sativa is very common in Italy, and the large amount of waste material generated during chestnut processing has a high environmental impact. Several studies demonstrated that chestnut by-products are a good source of bioactive compounds, mainly endowed with antioxidant properties. This study further investigates the anti-neuroinflammatory effect of chestnut leaf and spiny bur extracts, together with the deepest phytochemical characterisation (by NMR and MS) of active biomolecules contained in leaf extracts, which resulted in being more effective than spiny bur ones. BV-2 microglial cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were used as a model of neuroinflammation. In BV-2 cells pre-treated with chestnut extracts, LPS signalling is partially blocked via the reduced expression of TLR4 and CD14 as well as the expression of LPS-induced inflammatory markers. Leaf extract fractions revealed the presence of specific flavonoids, such as isorhamnetin glucoside, astragalin, myricitrin, kaempferol 3-rhamnosyl (1-6)(2″-trans-p-coumaroyl)hexoside, tiliroside and unsaturated fatty acids, all of which could be responsible for the observed anti-neuroinflammatory effects. Interestingly, the kaempferol derivative has been identified in chestnut for the first time. In conclusion, the exploitation of chestnut by-products is suitable for the achievement of two goals: satisfaction of consumers’ demand for new, natural bio-active compounds and valorisation of by-products

Mucinous breast cancer: A narrative review of the literature and a retrospective tertiary single-centre analysis

We reviewed literature and our data to find out mucinous breast cancer's overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS) and if there are differences between pure mucinous breast cancer and mixed mucinous breast cancer in terms of OS and DFS