Gingival overgrowth caused by Olmesartan Medoxomil: Observational study

Objective: Olmesartan Medoxomil is a type 1 receptor antagonist an antagonist of type 1 receptor (AT1) of angiotensin II (A-II) that inhibits numerous actions of A-II in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). A-II is a significant and multifunctional peptide involved in the pathophysiology of blood hypertension and for this reason it represents the main target in several classes of drugs used to treat and control arterial hypertension, such as angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-i), angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) and renin direct inhibitors. The aim of the study is to evaluate whether the two drugs that have as an active principle Olmesartan Medoxomil, with and without the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide, are able to determine gingival overgrowth. Study Design: 108 subjects were examined and divided into three groups: G1, subjects treated with Olmesartan Medoxomil and hydrochlorothiazide (n=60); G2, subjects received only Olmesartan Medoxomil (n=24); G3, control group without pharmacological therapies (n=24). The plaque index (IP) and the gingival overgrowth index (OI) were recorded, considering the vertical and horizontal components. Results: Vertical overgrowth averaged between 0.17 \ub1 0.15 (G3) and 0.34 \ub1 0.26 (G2) showing statistically significant differences (p <0.05) compared to the other groups. Horizontal overgrowth ranged from 0.18 \ub1 0.26 (G3) to 0.49 \ub1 0.35 (G2) showing statistically significant differences (p <0.05). Conclusions: antihypertensive agents as Olmesartan Medoxomil may result in mild gingival overgrowth in the upper and lower frontal dental elements not related to other etiological factors

N-Doped Carbon Dot Hydrogels from Brewing Waste for Photocatalytic Wastewater Treatment

The brewery industry annually produces huge amounts of byproducts that represent an underutilized, yet valuable, source of biobased compounds. In this contribution, the two major beer wastes, that is, spent grains and spent yeasts, have been transformed into carbon dots (CDs) by a simple, scalable, and ecofriendly hydrothermal approach. The prepared CDs have been characterized from the chemical, morphological, and optical points of view, highlighting a high level of N-doping, because of the chemical composition of the starting material rich in proteins, photo-luminescence emission centered at 420 nm, and lifetime in the range of 5.5-7.5 ns. With the aim of producing a reusable catalytic system for wastewater treatment, CDs have been entrapped into a polyvinyl alcohol matrix and tested for their dye removal ability. The results demonstrate that methylene blue can be efficiently adsorbed from water solutions into the composite hydrogel and subsequently fully degraded by UV irradiation

TEXTAROSSA: Towards EXtreme scale Technologies and Accelerators for euROhpc hw/Sw Supercomputing Applications for exascale

To achieve high performance and high energy efficiency on near-future exascale computing systems, three key technology gaps needs to be bridged. These gaps include: energy efficiency and thermal control; extreme computation efficiency via HW acceleration and new arithmetics; methods and tools for seamless integration of reconfigurable accelerators in heterogeneous HPC multi-node platforms. TEXTAROSSA aims at tackling this gap through a co-design approach to heterogeneous HPC solutions, supported by the integration and extension of HW and SW IPs, programming models and tools derived from European research.This work is supported by the TEXTAROSSA project G.A. n.956831, as part of the EuroHPC initiative.Peer ReviewedArticle signat per 51 autors/es: Giovanni Agosta, Daniele Cattaneo, William Fornaciari, Andrea Galimberti, Giuseppe Massari, Federico Reghenzani, Federico Terraneo, Davide Zoni, Carlo Brandolese (DEIB – Politecnico di Milano, Italy, [email protected]) | Massimo Celino, Francesco Iannone, Paolo Palazzari, Giuseppe Zummo (ENEA, Italy, [email protected]) | Massimo Bernaschi, Pasqua D’Ambra (Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo (IAC) - CNR, Italy, [email protected]) | Sergio Saponara, Marco Danelutto, Massimo Torquati (University of Pisa, Italy, [email protected]) | Marco Aldinucci, Yasir Arfat, Barbara Cantalupo, Iacopo Colonnelli, Roberto Esposito, Alberto R. Martinelli, Gianluca Mittone (University of Torino, Italy, [email protected]) | Olivier Beaumont, Berenger Bramas, Lionel Eyraud-Dubois, Brice Goglin, Abdou Guermouche, Raymond Namyst, Samuel Thibault (Inria - France, [email protected]) | Antonio Filgueras, Miquel Vidal, Carlos Alvarez, Xavier Martorell (BSC - Spain, [email protected]) | Ariel Oleksiak, Michal Kulczewski (PSNC, Poland, [email protected], [email protected]) | Alessandro Lonardo, Piero Vicini, Francesca Lo Cicero, Francesco Simula, Andrea Biagioni, Paolo Cretaro, Ottorino Frezza, Pier Stanislao Paolucci, Matteo Turisini (INFN Sezione di Roma - Italy, [email protected]) | Francesco Giacomini (INFN CNAF - Italy, [email protected]) | Tommaso Boccali (INFN Sezione di Pisa - Italy, [email protected]) | Simone Montangero (University of Padova and INFN Sezione di Padova - Italy, [email protected]) | Roberto Ammendola (INFN Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata - Italy, [email protected])Postprint (author's final draft

Role of STAT3 pathway in genitourinary tumors

The STAT3 is often dysregulated in genitourinary tumors. In prostate cancer, STAT3 activation correlates with Gleason score and pathological stage and modulates cancer stem cells and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. In addition, STAT3 promotes the progression from carcinoma in situ to invasive bladder cancer and modulates renal cell carcinoma angiogenesis by increasing the expression of HIF1α and VEGF. STAT3 is also involved in the response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors sunitinib and axitinib, in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, and to second-generation androgen receptor inhibitor enzalutamide in patients with advanced prostate cancer. In this review, we describe the role of STAT3 in genitourinary tumors, thus describing its potential for future therapeutic strategies

Prediction of vascular invasion using a 7-point scale computed tomography grading system in adrenal tumors in dogs

Background: Previous studies evaluating the accuracy of computed tomography (CT) in detecting caudal vena cava (CVC) invasion by adrenal tumors (AT) used a binary system and did not evaluate for other vessels. Objective: Test a 7-point scale CT grading system for accuracy in predicting vascular invasion and for repeatability among radiologists. Build a decision tree based on CT criteria to predict tumor type. Methods: Retrospective observational cross-sectional case study. Abdominal CT studies were analyzed by 3 radiologists using a 7-point CT grading scale for vascular invasion and by 1 radiologist for CT features of AT. Animals: Dogs with AT that underwent adrenalectomy and had pre- and postcontrast CT. Results: Ninety-one dogs; 45 adrenocortical carcinomas (50%), 36 pheochromocytomas (40%), 9 adrenocortical adenomas (10%) and 1 unknown tumor. Carcinoma and pheochromocytoma differed in pre- and postcontrast attenuation, contralateral adrenal size, tumor thrombus short- and long-axis, and tumor and thrombus mineralization. A decision tree was built based on these differences. Adenoma and malignant tumors differed in contour irregularity. Probability of vascular invasion was dependent on CT grading scale, and a large equivocal zone existed between 3 and 6 scores, lowering CT accuracy to detect vascular invasion. Radiologists' agreement for detecting abnormalities (evaluated by chance-corrected weighted kappa statistics) was excellent for CVC and good to moderate for other vessels. The quality of postcontrast CT study had a negative impact on radiologists' performance and agreement. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Features of CT may help radiologists predict AT type and provide probabilistic information on vascular invasion

Fiber Bragg Gratings for Medical Applications and Future Challenges: A Review

[EN] In the last decades, fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have become increasingly attractive to medical applications due to their unique properties such as small size, biocompatibility, immunity to electromagnetic interferences, high sensitivity and multiplexing capability. FBGs have been employed in the development of surgical tools, assistive devices, wearables, and biosensors, showing great potentialities for medical uses. This paper reviews the FBG-based measuring systems, their principle of work, and their applications in medicine and healthcare. Particular attention is given to sensing solutions for biomechanics, minimally invasive surgery, physiological monitoring, and medical biosensing. Strengths, weaknesses, open challenges, and future trends are also discussed to highlight how FBGs can meet the demands of next-generation medical devices and healthcare system.This work was supported in part by INAIL (the Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accident at Work), through the BRIC (Bando ricerche in collaborazione) 2018 SENSE-RISC (Sviluppo di abiti intelligENti Sensorizzati per prevenzione e mitigazione di Rischi per la SiCurezza dei lavoratori) Project under Grant ID10/2018, in part by the UCBM (Universita Campus Bio-Medico di Roma) under the University Strategic HOPE (HOspital to the PatiEnt) Project, in part by the EU Framework Program H2020-FETPROACT-2018-01 NeuHeart Project under Grant GA 824071, by FCT/MEC (Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia) under the Projects UIDB/50008/2020 - UIDP/50008/2020, and by REACT (Development of optical fiber solutions for Rehabilitation and e-Health applications) FCT-IT-LA scientific action.Lo Presti, D.; Massaroni, C.; Leitao, CSJ.; Domingues, MDF.; Sypabekova, M.; Barrera, D.; Floris, I.... (2020). Fiber Bragg Gratings for Medical Applications and Future Challenges: A Review. IEEE Access. 8:156863-156888. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3019138S156863156888

Functional reconstitution of HBV-specific CD8 T cells by in vitro polyphenol treatment in chronic hepatitis B.

Background & aims In chronic HBV infection, mitochondrial functions and proteostasis are dysregulated in exhausted HBV-specific CD8 T cells. To better characterise the potential involvement of deregulated protein degradation mechanisms in T cell exhaustion, we analysed lysosome-mediated autophagy in HBV-specific CD8 T cells. Bioactive compounds able to simultaneously target both mitochondrial functions and proteostasis were tested to identify optimal combination strategies to reconstitute efficient antiviral CD8 T cell responses in patients with chronic HBV infection. Methods Lysosome-mediated degradation pathways were analysed by flow cytometry in virus-specific CD8 T cells from patients with chronic HBV infection. Mitochondrial function, intracellular proteostasis, and cytokine production were evaluated in HBV-peptide-stimulated T cell cultures, in the presence or absence of the polyphenols resveratrol (RSV) and oleuropein (OLE) and their metabolites, either alone or in combination with other bioactive compounds. Results HBV-specific CD8 T cells from patients with CHB showed impaired autophagic flux. RSV and OLE elicited a significant improvement in mitochondrial, proteostasis and antiviral functions in CD8 T cells. Cytokine production was also enhanced by synthetic metabolites, which correspond to those generated by RSV and OLE metabolism in vivo, suggesting that these polyphenols may also display an effect after transformation in vivo. Moreover, polyphenolic compounds improved the T cell revitalising effect of mitochondria-targeted antioxidants and of programmed cell death protein 1/programmed cell death ligand 1 blockade. Conclusions Simultaneously targeting multiple altered intracellular pathways with the combination of mitochondria-targeted antioxidants and natural polyphenols may represent a promising immune reconstitution strategy for the treatment of chronic HBV infection. Lay summary In chronic hepatitis B, antiviral T lymphocytes are deeply impaired, with many altered intracellular functions. In vitro exposure to polyphenols, such as resveratrol and oleuropein, can correct some of the deregulated intracellular pathways and improve antiviral T cell function. This effect can be further strengthened by the association of polyphenols with antioxidant compounds in a significant proportion of patients. Thus, the combination of antioxidants and natural polyphenols represents a promising strategy for chronic hepatitis B therapy

Cabozantinib After a Previous Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Retrospective Multi-Institutional Analysis

Background: Angiogenesis has been recognized as the most important factor for tumor invasion, proliferation, and progression in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). However, few clinical data are available regarding the efficacy of cabozantinib following immunotherapy. Objective: To describe the outcome of cabozantinib in patients previously treated with immunotherapy. Patients and methods: Patients with mRCC who received cabozantinib immediately after nivolumab were included. The primary endpoint was to assess the outcome in terms of efficacy and activity. Results: Eighty-four mRCC patients met the criteria to be included in the final analysis. After a median follow-up of 9.4&nbsp;months, median overall survival was 17.3&nbsp;months. According to the IMDC criteria, the rates of patients alive at 12&nbsp;months in the good, intermediate, and poor prognostic groups were 100%, 74%, and 33%, respectively (p &lt; 0.001). The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 11.5&nbsp;months (95% CI 8.3-14.7); no difference was found based on duration of previous first-line therapy or nivolumab PFS. The overall response rate was 52%, stable disease was found as the best response in 25.3% and progressive disease in 22.7% of patients. Among the 35 patients with progressive disease on nivolumab, 26 (74.3%) patients showed complete/partial response or stable disease with cabozantinib as best response after nivolumab. The major limitations of this study are the retrospective nature and the short follow-up. Conclusions: Cabozantinib was shown to be effective and active in patients previously receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors. Therefore, cabozantinib can be considered a valid therapeutic option for previously treated mRCC patients, irrespective of the type and duration of prior therapies

Updated Italian Tetrapod Ichnology Reference List

We provide a list of contribution by Italian scientists to tetrapod ichnology with papers on both material from Italy and abroad. Foreign author’s contributions on tetrapod ichnology based on material from Italy are also considered. The list updates the previous one published by D’Orazi Porchetti et al. (2008) and, as a result, includes works from 1869 up to now. Following the previous reference list, papers of non-Italian researchers on foreign material are reported when the material was found on Italian territory at the time of publication