Reconstruction and characterization of full-length begomovirus and alphasatellite genomes infecting pepper through metagenomics

In northwestern Argentina (NWA), pepper crops are threatened by the emergence of begomoviruses due to the spread of its vector, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius). The genus Begomovirus includes pathogens that can have a monopartite or bipartite genome and are occasionally associated with sub-viral particles called satellites. This study characterized the diversity of begomovirus and alphasatellite species infecting pepper in NWA using a metagenomic approach. Using RCA-NGS (rolling circle amplification-next generation sequencing), 19 full-length begomovirus genomes (DNA-A and DNA-B) and one alphasatellite were assembled. This ecogenomic approach revealed six begomoviruses in single infections: soybean blistering mosaic virus (SbBMV), tomato yellow spot virus (ToYSV), tomato yellow vein streak virus (ToYVSV), tomato dwarf leaf virus (ToDfLV), sida golden mosaic Brazil virus (SiGMBRV), and a new proposed species, named pepper blistering leaf virus (PepBLV). SbBMV was the most frequently detected species, followed by ToYSV. Moreover, a new alphasatellite associated with ToYSV, named tomato yellow spot alphasatellite 2 (ToYSA-2), was reported for the first time in Argentina. For the Americas, this was the first report of an alphasatellite found in a crop (pepper) and in a weed (Leonurus japonicus). We also detected intra-species and inter-species recombinationInstituto de VirologíaFil: Bornancini, Veronica Andrea. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Patología Vegetal; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); ArgentinaFil: Irazoqui, Jose Matias. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina.Fil: Flores, Ceferino Rene. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Yuto; ArgentinaFil: Vaghi Medina, Carlos Gaston. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Patología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Amadio, Ariel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina.Fil: Lopez Lambertini, Paola Maria. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Patología Vegetal; Argentin

ISYDE-2008 Study presentation The Italian Survey on cardiac rehabilitation: a snapshot of current cardiac rehabilitation programmes and provides in Italy

The Italian Society of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention (GICR) has developed the ISYDE-2008 survey with the purpose to take a detailed snapshot in terms of number, distribution, facilities, staffing levels, organization, and programme details of CR units in Italy and to compare actual provision with the recommendation of National GL for CR and secondary prevention.The study will be carried out with a web-based questionnaire running on the GICR website in 2 weeks from Jan. 28 to Feb. 10, 2008. The first part of the questionnaire is designed to collect information on the institutional organization of the CR unit, on its location and functional relationships within the hospital, on the number of beds for inpatient CR units and hours of activity for outpatient and home–based services, on the composition of the core and multidisciplinary teams, and finally on the components of CR programmes.In the second part of the survey, CR directors will be requested to report for each patient discharged during the 2 weeks of the study, indications for admission to CR, time of enrolment, comorbidity, complications, risk profile, diagnostic procedures, exercise and educational programme, discharge modalities, treatment at discharge and follow-up schedule.More than 2300 pts are expected to enter in the survey, whose results depicting the status of CR in Italy will be available within April 2008

COVID-19 in patients with Myasthenia Gravis: epidemiology and disease course

COVID-19, a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, has become a global pandemic. Patients with myasthenia gravis (MG), often treated with immunosuppressants, might be at higher risk of developing COVID-19 and of demonstrating a severe disease course. We aimed to study prevalence and describe features of COVID-19 in MG patients

ISYDE-Ψ* First step of the implementation of guidelines for psychology activities in cardiac rehabilitation and prevention *Italian SurveY on CarDiac REhabilitation – Psychology

The Italian SurveY on CarDiac REhabilitation – Psychology (ISYDE-Ψ) was developed, in line with the indications of the Italian National Guidelines Program, as part of a project to implement and apply the guidelines for psychology interventions in cardiac rehabilitation and prevention published in 2003. The Task Force on Psychological Interventions in Cardiac Rehabilitation conducted this pilot survey of the existing situation of Psychology in order to prepare the ground for implementation of the guidelines through interactive training. As part of the evaluation of training requirements a questionnaire was elaborated to gather information on the models of organization of and activities carried out by psychologists working in the surveyed cardiac rehabilitation facilities. Data collection for ISYDE-Ψ terminated at the end of March 2005, with replies from 68/107 (63.6%) structures. In the light of this response, the Task Force has developed a training project for psychologists working in cardiac rehabilitation, sponsored by the Italian Council of Psychologists, that will be implemented in different regions of the country with the aim of disseminating the guidelines and promoting their correct application despite the existing regional disparities in organization

Gender-related stress factors and emotional perception in migraine: a structured online questionnaire in migraine patients and controls

Background: While migraine is markedly prevalent in women, gender-related phenotype differences were rarely assessed. For this reason, we investigated, through a multicenter observational cross-sectional study, based on an online questionnaire, gender-related differences in stress factors, emotions, and pain perception in migraine patients and controls and their impact on migraine severity. Methods: The study was designed as an online questionnaire. The link was emailed to healthy subjects (C) and migraine patients (MIG) (age 18-75, education ≥ 13 years) recruited during the first visit in 8 Italian Headache Centers adhering to Italian Society for Headache Study (SISC). The questionnaire included personal/social/work information, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Romance Quality Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Body Perception Questionnaire, the pain perception, and a self-assessment of migraine severity in the last 3 months. Results: 202 MIG and 202 C completed the survey. Independently from gender, migraine was characterized by higher pain sensitivity and more severe partner relationships. The female gender, in MIG, exhibited higher anxiety scores, body awareness, and reduced emotional suppression. Body awareness and emotional suppression were discriminating factors between genders in control and migraine groups without relevant influence on disease features. Perceived perception of migraine severity was similar between genders. Conclusion: Gender-related emotional and stress factors did not contribute to delineate a distinct phenotype in migraine men and women. The possible impact of emotional and stress factors characterizing genders could be considered for a single case-tailored therapeutic approach

Nursing role in cardiac prevention

The lack of a multidisciplinary approach is certainly among the causes of the ineffectiveness of intervention in the field of cardiovascular secondary prevention. By multidisciplinary approach is meant involving cardiologists, nurses, rehabilitation therapists, dieticians as well as psychologists in the framing of interventions tailor made to patients needs. In particular, people working in the nursing area can play a very important role which can be summed up into three different levels: a technical level, aiming at the cooperation with cardiologists to carry out diagnostic examinations and give a portrait of patients in terms of risks; a second level consists in giving information, and helping to face the disease, as well as stepping in during its evolution, almost a health counsellor for the patients; finally the nurse can act as a psychological support both to the patient and his/her family during acute illnesses and reassure him/her that he/she is being treated properly and that successively will resume a good quality of life. Hospital represent an ideal place for secondary prevention, at least in the first phases of the intervention. The results collected during hospitalization would be rapidly lost if they were not followed and sustained in the medium- long term by structured follow-up programmes. The development of ambulatories might represent a link between hospitals and the territory, i.e. the specialist and one's personal physician. The staff of ambulatories should comprise a cardiologist and a trained professional nurse, this being specialized, specifically, in cardiology and cardiovascular prevention. Staff of the type described could work independently, co-ordinating ambulatories on the territory within the framework of standardized recognized protocols and relating information concerning patients, general practitioners and other surgeries. In this way, an essential link of the continuity in medical care would be guaranteed

Carriers of ADAMTS13 Rare Variants Are at High Risk of Life-Threatening COVID-19

Thrombosis of small and large vessels is reported as a key player in COVID-19 severity. However, host genetic determinants of this susceptibility are still unclear. Congenital Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura is a severe autosomal recessive disorder characterized by uncleaved ultra-large vWF and thrombotic microangiopathy, frequently triggered by infections. Carriers are reported to be asymptomatic. Exome analysis of about 3000 SARS-CoV-2 infected subjects of different severities, belonging to the GEN-COVID cohort, revealed the specific role of vWF cleaving enzyme ADAMTS13 (A disintegrin-like and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 motif, 13). We report here that ultra-rare variants in a heterozygous state lead to a rare form of COVID-19 characterized by hyper-inflammation signs, which segregates in families as an autosomal dominant disorder conditioned by SARS-CoV-2 infection, sex, and age. This has clinical relevance due to the availability of drugs such as Caplacizumab, which inhibits vWF-platelet interaction, and Crizanlizumab, which, by inhibiting P-selectin binding to its ligands, prevents leukocyte recruitment and platelet aggregation at the site of vascular damage

An explainable model of host genetic interactions linked to COVID-19 severity

We employed a multifaceted computational strategy to identify the genetic factors contributing to increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection from a Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) dataset of a cohort of 2000 Italian patients. We coupled a stratified k-fold screening, to rank variants more associated with severity, with the training of multiple supervised classifiers, to predict severity based on screened features. Feature importance analysis from tree-based models allowed us to identify 16 variants with the highest support which, together with age and gender covariates, were found to be most predictive of COVID-19 severity. When tested on a follow-up cohort, our ensemble of models predicted severity with high accuracy (ACC = 81.88%; AUCROC = 96%; MCC = 61.55%). Our model recapitulated a vast literature of emerging molecular mechanisms and genetic factors linked to COVID-19 response and extends previous landmark Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). It revealed a network of interplaying genetic signatures converging on established immune system and inflammatory processes linked to viral infection response. It also identified additional processes cross-talking with immune pathways, such as GPCR signaling, which might offer additional opportunities for therapeutic intervention and patient stratification. Publicly available PheWAS datasets revealed that several variants were significantly associated with phenotypic traits such as "Respiratory or thoracic disease", supporting their link with COVID-19 severity outcome.A multifaceted computational strategy identifies 16 genetic variants contributing to increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection from a Whole Exome Sequencing dataset of a cohort of Italian patients

Gain- and Loss-of-Function CFTR Alleles Are Associated with COVID-19 Clinical Outcomes

Carriers of single pathogenic variants of the CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) gene have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 and 14-day death. The machine learning post-Mendelian model pinpointed CFTR as a bidirectional modulator of COVID-19 outcomes. Here, we demonstrate that the rare complex allele [G576V;R668C] is associated with a milder disease via a gain-of-function mechanism. Conversely, CFTR ultra-rare alleles with reduced function are associated with disease severity either alone (dominant disorder) or with another hypomorphic allele in the second chromosome (recessive disorder) with a global residual CFTR activity between 50 to 91%. Furthermore, we characterized novel CFTR complex alleles, including [A238V;F508del], [R74W;D1270N;V201M], [I1027T;F508del], [I506V;D1168G], and simple alleles, including R347C, F1052V, Y625N, I328V, K68E, A309D, A252T, G542*, V562I, R1066H, I506V, I807M, which lead to a reduced CFTR function and thus, to more severe COVID-19. In conclusion, CFTR genetic analysis is an important tool in identifying patients at risk of severe COVID-19