Trends of Phase I Clinical Trials in the Latest Ten Years across Five European Countries

Phase 1 clinical trials represent a critical phase of drug development because new candidate therapeutic agents are tested for the first time on humans. Therefore, international guidelines and local laws have been released to mitigate and control possible risks for human health in agreement with the declaration of Helsinki and the international Good Clinical Practice principles. Despite numerous scientific works characterizing the registered clinical trials on ClinicalTrials.gov, the main features and trends of registered phase 1 clinical trials in Europe have not been investigated. This study is aimed at assessing the features and the temporal trend of distribution of phase 1 clinical studies, carried out in the five largest European countries over a ten-year period (2012-2021), and to evaluate the impact of the Italian regulatory framework on the activation of such studies

Thinking Inside the Box: Concerns about Trolley Problems in the Ethics Classroom

This paper discusses the widespread use of trolley problems in the ethics classroom from a critical perspective. After tracing the enormous popularity of trolleyology in recent moral philosophy, differentiating various functions these hypotheticals are supposed to fulfill in ethical discourse and carving out the underlying conception of normative ethics as a quasi-scientific enterprise, I examine how they are constructed and how they affect their recipient. Against this background, I argue that despite their popularity, the use of trolley problems in the ethics classroom turns out to be questionable for a number of reasons, most of which have already been advanced in the philosophical debate but hardly been reflected upon in the didactic context. Finally, I argue that the deconstruction of trolleyesque scenarios would be a good educational use of them. When it comes to using cases for didactic purposes, I suggest we give trolley problems a rest and develop more realistic scenarios

Efficacy of sunlight-activatable porphyrin formulates on larvae of Anophelesgambiae M and S molecular forms and An. arabiensis: A potential novelbiolarvicide for integrated malaria vector control

Biolarvicides, such as microbial formulations based on Bacillus thuringiensis and B. sphaericus, have been found to be highly effective against mosquito larvae and are currently employed as eco-friendly alternatives to synthetic chemical insecticides for vector control. Recently, a porphyrin of natural origin has been suggested as a sunlight-activatable larvicide against the dengue vector Aedes aegypti. In order to validate the approach for the control of the malaria vector, we tested the photo-larvicidal activity of a novel porphyrin, namely meso-tri(N-methyl-pyridyl), mono(N-dodecyl-pyridyl)porphine, C12, associated with two specifically selected carriers, against Anopheles gambiae s.s. and An. arabiensis larvae, both laboratory reared and collected from malaria endemic sites in Burkina Faso. Both C12-porphyrin formulates, when administered to larvae at a 50 M porphyrin dose, were accumulated in the alimentary canal. Subsequent exposure of the porphyrin-loaded larvae to sunlight for short times (0.5–3 h) led to a complete mortality. The high efficacy exhibited by a “foodstuff” porphyrin formulate also in the presence of typical larval food particles opens promising perspectives for the development of an effective photocidal larvicide

Efficacy of sunlight-activatable porphyrin formulates on larvae of Anopheles gambiae M and S molecular forms and An. arabiensis: A potential novel biolarvicide for integrated malaria vector control

Biolarvicides, such as microbial formulations based on Bacillus thuringiensis and B. sphaericus, have been found to be highly effective against mosquito larvae and are currently employed as eco-friendly alternatives to synthetic chemical insecticides for vector control. Recently, a porphyrin of natural origin has been suggested as a sunlight-activatable larvicide against the dengue vector Aedes aegypti. In order to validate the approach for the control of the malaria vector, we tested the photo-larvicidal activity of a novel porphyrin, namely meso-tri(N-methyl-pyridyl), mono(N-dodecyl-pyridyl)porphine, C12, associated with two specifically selected carriers, against Anopheles gambiae s.s. and An. arabiensis larvae, both laboratory reared and collected from malaria endemic sites in Burkina Faso. Both C12-porphyrin formulates, when administered to larvae at a 50 M porphyrin dose, were accumulated in the alimentary canal. Subsequent exposure of the porphyrin-loaded larvae to sunlight for short times (0.5\u20133 h) led to a complete mortality. The high efficacy exhibited by a \u201cfoodstuff\u201d porphyrin formulate also in the presence of typical larval food particles opens promising perspectives for the development of an effective photocidal larvicide. \ua9 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V