PSYCHIATRIC CAREGIVER STRESS: CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS OF COMPASSION FATIGUE

The capacity to work productively is a key component of health and emotional well-being. People who work in health care can be exposed to the fatigue of care. Compassion fatigue has been described as an occupational hazard specific to clinical work related severe emotional distress. In our study, we have evaluated compassion fatigue in a mental health group (47 psychiatric staff) and its relationship with inpatients (237 inpatients) affected by some psychiatric disorders. At baseline, the more significant data indicate a high percentage of Job Burnout and Compassion Fatigue in psychiatric nurses (respectively, 39.28%, 28.57%). Significant Compassion Fatigue percentage is present also in psychologist group (36.36%). Finally, in psychiatrists, the exposure to patients increased vicarious trauma (28.57%), but not job burnout. After a year of participation in Balint Groups, the psychiatric staff presented an overall reduction in total mean score in any administered scale (CBI: p<0.0000045; sCFs: (Vicarious Trauma: p<0.0288; Job Burnout: p<0.000001)). Thus, compassion fatigue causes concern among mental health professionals, and Balint Groups may represent a therapeutic strategy to help health professionals to face difficulties in challenging work environments

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COGNITIVE REMEDIATION AND EVALUATION TOOLS IN CLINICAL ROUTINE

Many clinicians do not have adequate knowledge and interest in assessing cognitive deficits in psychiatric patients. However, these deficits are crucial and key symptoms, which can lead to impairment of quality of life, worsening of symptoms of disorders and difficulties in social, family and work relationships. Another limitation to the assessment of cognitive deficits is the poor maneuverability and practicality of the main cognitive assessment tools. Because there are no appropriate pharmacological approaches, new techniques have been developed to improve cognitive abilities in these patients. The most important techniques concern cognitive remediation (CR). In this article we summarize the main techniques of cognitive remediation

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COGNITIVE REMEDIATION AND EVALUATION TOOLS IN CLINICAL ROUTINE

Many clinicians do not have adequate knowledge and interest in assessing cognitive deficits in psychiatric patients. However, these deficits are crucial and key symptoms, which can lead to impairment of quality of life, worsening of symptoms of disorders and difficulties in social, family and work relationships. Another limitation to the assessment of cognitive deficits is the poor maneuverability and practicality of the main cognitive assessment tools. Because there are no appropriate pharmacological approaches, new techniques have been developed to improve cognitive abilities in these patients. The most important techniques concern cognitive remediation (CR). In this article we summarize the main techniques of cognitive remediation

CLOE: Identification of putative functional relationships among genes by comparison of expression profiles between two species

BACKGROUND: Public repositories of microarray data contain an incredible amount of information that is potentially relevant to explore functional relationships among genes by meta-analysis of expression profiles. However, the widespread use of this resource by the scientific community is at the moment limited by the limited availability of effective tools of analysis. We here describe CLOE, a simple cDNA microarray data mining strategy based on meta-analysis of datasets from pairs of species. The method consists in ranking EST probes in the datasets of the two species according to the similarity of their expression profiles with that of two EST probes from orthologous genes, and extracting orthologous EST pairs from a given top interval of the ranked lists. The Gene Ontology annotation of the obtained candidate partners is then analyzed for keywords overrepresentation. RESULTS: We demonstrate the capabilities of the approach by testing its predictive power on three proteomically-defined mammalian protein complexes, in comparison with single and multiple species meta-analysis approaches. Our results show that CLOE can find candidate partners for a greater number of genes, if compared to multiple species co-expression analysis, but retains a comparable specificity even when applied to species as close as mouse and human. On the other hand, it is much more specific than single organisms co-expression analysis, strongly reducing the number of potential candidate partners for a given gene of interest. CONCLUSIONS: CLOE represents a simple and effective data mining approach that can be easily used for meta-analysis of cDNA microarray experiments characterized by very heterogeneous coverage. Importantly, it produces for genes of interest an average number of high confidence putative partners that is in the range of standard experimental validation techniques

LA PIANIFICAZIONE STRATEGICA FAVORISCE LO SVILUPPO SOSTENIBILE DI AREA VASTA. UN CASO DI STUDIO A NORD DELL’AREA URBANA COSENTINA

Strategic planning responds in a sustainable manner to the requests coming from the territory and from the settled community. The work presented here is inspired by the processes of democratization and concertation that represent, in fact, the innovative character of planning as a whole. What is presented can be understood as a best practice carried out on the territory of the area to the right of the river Crati in the province of Cosenza and represents an applied experience of participation from below, between the public and private stakeholders, in the awareness of having triggered endogenous processes of sustainable development. The Kratos strategic plan becomes not only a substantial link for transnational development scenarios, but above all an example of self-sufficient self-governance, demonstrating that it has the capacity to manage its territory, through the awareness of its local potential and the ability to intervene in the phases successive territorial planning. DOI: http://dx.medra.org/10.19254/LaborEst.17.0

LA PIANIFICAZIONE STRATEGICA FAVORISCE LO SVILUPPO SOSTENIBILE DI AREA VASTA. UN CASO DI STUDIO A NORD DELL’AREA URBANA COSENTINA

Strategic planning responds in a sustainable manner to the requests coming from the territory and from the settled community. The work presented here is inspired by the processes of democratization and concertation that represent, in fact, the innovative character of planning as a whole. What is presented can be understood as a best practice carried out on the territory of the area to the right of the river Crati in the province of Cosenza and represents an applied experience of participation from below, between the public and private stakeholders, in the awareness of having triggered endogenous processes of sustainable development. The Kratos strategic plan becomes not only a substantial link for transnational development scenarios, but above all an example of self-sufficient self-governance, demonstrating that it has the capacity to manage its territory, through the awareness of its local potential and the ability to intervene in the phases successive territorial planning

IRF4 Mediates the Oncogenic Effects of STAT3 in Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphomas

Systemic anaplastic large cell lymphomas (ALCL) are a category of T-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas which can be divided into anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive and ALK negative subgroups, based on ALK gene rearrangements. Among several pathways aberrantly activated in ALCL, the constitutive activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is shared by all ALK positive ALCL and has been detected in a subgroup of ALK negative ALCL. To discover essential mediators of STAT3 oncogenic activity that may represent feasible targets for ALCL therapies, we combined gene expression profiling analysis and RNA interference functional approaches. A shRNA screening of STAT3-modulated genes identified interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) as a key driver of ALCL cell survival. Accordingly, ectopic IRF4 expression partially rescued STAT3 knock-down effects. Treatment with immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) induced IRF4 down regulation and resulted in cell death, a phenotype rescued by IRF4 overexpression. However, the majority of ALCL cell lines were poorly responsive to IMiDs treatment. Combination with JQ1, a bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) family antagonist known to inhibit MYC and IRF4, increased sensitivity to IMiDs. Overall, these results show that IRF4 is involved in STAT3-oncogenic signaling and its inhibition provides alternative avenues for the design of novel/combination therapies of ALCL

Efficacy and safety of the sofosbuvir/velpatasvir combination for the treatment of patients with early mild to moderate COVID-19

: SARS-CoV-2 is still a health problem worldwide despite the availability of vaccines. Therefore, there is a need for effective and safe antiviral. SARS-CoV-2 and HCV necessitate RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) for replication; therefore, it has been hypothesized that RdRp inhibitors used to treat HCV may be effective treating SARS-CoV-2. Accordingly, we evaluated the effect of the sofosbuvir/velpatasvir (SOF/VEL) combination in early SARS-CoV-2 infection. A multicenter case-control study was conducted, enrolling 120 patients with mild or moderate COVID-19, of whom 30, HCV coinfected or not, received SOF/VEL tablets (400/100&nbsp;mg) once daily for 9&nbsp;days within a median of 6&nbsp;days from the beginning of infection and 90 controls were treated with standard care. The primary endpoint was the effect on viral clearance, and the secondary endpoint was the improvement of clinical outcomes. Nasal swabs for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR were performed every 5-7&nbsp;days. Between 5-14&nbsp;days after starting SOF/VEL treatment, SAS-CoV-2 clearance was observed in 83% of patients, while spontaneous clearance in the control was 13% (p &lt; 0.001). An earlier SARS-CoV-2 clearance was observed in the SOF/VEL group than in the control group (median 14 vs 22&nbsp;days, respectively, p &lt; 0.001) also when the first positivity was considered. None of the patients in the SOF/VEL group showed disease progression, while in the control group, 24% required more intensive treatment (high flow oxygen or noninvasive/invasive ventilation), and one patient died (p &lt; 0.01). No significant side effects were observed in the SOF/VEL group. Early SOF/VEL treatment in mild/moderate COVID-19 seems to be safe and effective for faster elimination of SARS-CoV-2 and to prevent disease progression

Common variants at 21q22.3 locus influence MX1 and TMPRSS2 gene expression and susceptibility to severe COVID-19

The established risk factors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are advanced age, male sex and comorbidities, but they do not fully explain the wide spectrum of disease manifestations. Genetic factors implicated in the host antiviral response provide for novel insights into its pathogenesis. We performed an in-depth genetic analysis of chromosome 21 exploiting the genome-wide association study data, including 6,406 individuals hospitalized for COVID-19 and 902,088 controls with European genetic ancestry from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. We found that five single nucleotide polymorphisms within TMPRSS2 and near MX1 gene show associations with severe COVID-19. The minor alleles of the five SNPs correlated with a reduced risk of developing severe COVID-19 and high level of MX1 expression in blood. Our findings demonstrate that host genetic factors can influence the different clinical presentations of COVID-19 and that MX1 could be a potential therapeutic target