Predicting risk of school refusal: examining the incremental role of trait EI beyond personality and emotion regulation

Research has not yet been deepened in the link between personality factors and risk of school refusal. Furthermore, previous studies fail to verify the direct relation between trait EI and the risk of school refusal. The present study examined personality traits, emotion regulation and trait EI for the contributory role they may play in predicting the risk of school refusal. The sample consisted of 311 participants, 112 males (36%) and 199 females (64%) with an average age of 14.19 (SD = .60), from a high school in the city of Messina (Sicily, Italy). Results show that the risk of school refusal is positively related to neuroticism and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, while it is negatively related to the extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness and trait EI. Moreover, trait EI can be considered as a strong incremental negative predictor of risk of school refusal over and above personality traits and emotion regulation

Essential oil phytocomplex activity, a review with a focus on multivariate analysis for a network pharmacology-informed phytogenomic approach

Thanks to omic disciplines and a systems biology approach, the study of essential oils and phytocomplexes has been lately rolling on a faster track. While metabolomic fingerprinting can provide an effective strategy to characterize essential oil contents, network pharmacology is revealing itself as an adequate, holistic platform to study the collective effects of herbal products and their multi-component and multi-target mediated mechanisms. Multivariate analysis can be applied to analyze the effects of essential oils, possibly overcoming the reductionist limits of bioactivity-guided fractionation and purification of single components. Thanks to the fast evolution of bioinformatics and database availability, disease-target networks relevant to a growing number of phytocomplexes are being developed. With the same potential actionability of pharmacogenomic data, phytogenomics could be performed based on relevant disease-target networks to inform and personalize phytocomplex therapeutic application

Pharmacogenomic characterization in bipolar spectrum disorders

The holistic approach of personalized medicine, merging clinical and molecular characteristics to tailor the diagnostic and therapeutic path to each individual, is steadily spreading in clinical practice. Psychiatric disorders represent one of the most difficult diagnostic challenges, given their frequent mixed nature and intrinsic variability, as in bipolar disorders and depression. Patients misdiagnosed as depressed are often initially prescribed serotonergic antidepressants, a treatment that can exacerbate a previously unrecognized bipolar condition. Thanks to the use of the patient\u2019s genomic profile, it is possible to recognize such risk and at the same time characterize specific genetic assets specifically associated with bipolar spectrum disorder, as well as with the individual response to the various therapeutic options. This provides the basis for molecular diagnosis and the definition of pharmacogenomic profiles, thus guiding therapeutic choices and allowing a safer and more effective use of psychotropic drugs. Here, we report the pharmacogenomics state of the art in bipolar disorders and suggest an algorithm for therapeutic regimen choice

SERUM REFERENCE VALUES FOR LEPTIN IN HEALTHY INFANTS.

OBJECTIVE: Reports on leptin concentrations in pediatric populations lack reference values for infants in the first months of life. Our study was conducted on healthy full-term infants between 2002 and 2012 to determine serum leptin reference values in subjects less than 18 months old. METHODS: Routine outpatient blood tests for serum leptin were performed on 317 infants using a radioimmunoassay method. The median and 10th-90th percentiles were calculated to obtain reference values using quantile regression. Values established in this study were compared with another independent cohort of 110 infants. RESULTS: The median (IQR) serum leptin concentration in the infants was 2.37 (3.26) ng/ml (n = 317). The median leptin concentration was 2.81 (3.49) ng/ml (n = 202) in infants younger than 6 months of age, 1.44 (2.27) ng/ml (n = 59) in infants between 6-12 months of age and 1.77 (2.05) ng/ml (n = 56) in infants between 12-18 months of age. We obtained leptin reference values based on age by estimating the lower and upper percentiles. In the entire cohort, the median (IQR) leptin concentration was 2.22 (3.11) ng/ml in males (n = 168) and 2.60 (3.32) ng/ml in females (n = 149). According to the type of feeding median serum leptin concentration was higher in breast-fed infants (n = 188) than in formula-fed infants (n = 129) (2.63 (3.34) ng/ml vs. 2.12 (2.77) ng/ml; p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our data revealed no gender difference in leptin concentration in early infancy. After 6 months of life, leptin concentrations decreased slightly. We used a large cohort to confirm that breast-fed infants had significantly higher serum leptin levels than formula-fed infants during the first 6 months of life, although this difference disappeared later in life. In this study, we defined the leptin reference range in healthy infants in the first 18 months of life according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI)

Deregulated expression of aurora kinases is not a prognostic biomarker in papillary thyroid cancer patients.

Abstract A number of reports indicated that Aurora-A or Aurora-B overexpression represented a negative prognostic factor in several human malignancies. In thyroid cancer tissues a deregulated expression of Aurora kinases has been also demonstrated, butno information regarding its possible prognostic role in differentiated thyroid cancer is available. Here, weevaluated Aurora-A and Aurora-B mRNA expression and its prognostic relevance in a series of 87 papillary thyroid cancers (PTC), with a median follow-up of 63 months. The analysis of Aurora-A and Aurora-B mRNA levels in PTC tissues, compared to normal matched tissues, revealed that their expression was either up-or down-regulatedin the majority of cancer tissues. In particular, Aurora-A and Aurora-B mRNA levels were altered, respectively, in 55 (63.2%) and 79 (90.8%) out of the 87 PTC analyzed. A significant positive correlation between Aurora-A and Aurora-B mRNAswas observed (p=0.001). The expression of both Aurora genes was not affected by the BRAF(V600E) mutation. Univariate, multivariate and Kaplan-Mayer analyses documented the lack of association between Aurora-A or Aurora-B expression and clinicopathological parameterssuch as gender, age, tumor size, histology, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and BRAF status as well asdisease recurrences or disease-free interval. Only Aurora-B mRNA was significantly higher in T(3-4) tissues, with respect to T(1-2) PTC tissues. The data reported here demonstrate that the expression of Aurora kinases is deregulated in the majority of PTC tissues, likely contributing to PTC progression. However, differently from other human solid cancers, detection of Aurora-A or Aurora-B mRNAs is not a prognostic biomarker inPTC patients

Open Surgery for Sportsman’s Hernia a Retrospective Study

Sportsman’s hernia is a painful syndrome in the inguinal area occurring in patients who play sports at an amatorial or professional level. Pain arises during sport, and sometimes persists after activity, representing an obstacle to sport resumption. A laparoscopic/endoscopic approach is proposed by many authors for treatment of the inguinal wall defect. Aim of this study is to assess the open technique in terms of safety and effectiveness, in order to obtain the benefit of an open treatment in an outpatient management. From October 2017 to July 2019, 34 patients underwent surgery for groin pain syndrome. All cases exhibited a bulging of the inguinal posterior wall. 14 patients were treated with Lichtenstein technique with transversalis fascia plication and placement of a polypropylene mesh fixed with fibrin glue. In 20 cases, a polypropylene mesh was placed in the preperitoneal space. The procedure was performed in day surgery facilities. Early or late postoperative complications did not occur in both groups. All patients returned to sport, in 32 cases with complete pain relief, whereas 2 patients experienced mild residual pain. The average value of return to sport was 34.11 ± 8.44 days. The average value of return to play was 53.82 ± 11.69 days. With regard to postoperative pain, no substantial differences between the two techniques were detected, and good results in terms of the resumption of sport were ensured in both groups. Surgical treatment for sportsman’s hernia should be considered only after the failure of conservative treatment. The open technique is safe and allows a rapid postoperative recovery

Should the host reaction to anisakiasis influence the treatment? Different clinical presentations in two cases

Gastrointestinal anisakiasis is a parasitic infection occurring in people that consume raw or inadequately cooked fish or squid. It is frequently characterized by severe epigastric pain, nausea and vom iting caused by the penetration of the larvae into the gastric wall. Acute gastric anisakiasis with severe chest discomfort is rarely report ed in Italy. On the other hand, gastro-allergic anisakiasis with rash, urticaria and isolated angioedema or anaphylaxis is a clinical entity that has been described only recently. Also, if patients usually develop symptoms within 12 hours after raw seafood ingestion, not always endoscopic exploration can promptly identify the Anisakis larvae. Moreover, some authors consider the prevailing allergic reaction as a natural and effective defense against the parasitic attack. We report two cases of peculiar manifestations of anisakiasis in both acute and chronic forms (severe chest discomfort and anaphylactoid reaction)

Quali-Quantitative Analysis by LC/DAD and GPC of the Polyphenols ofUva Di Troia Canosina Grape Seeds for the Development of an IndustrialNutraceutical Product

The quali-quantitative determination of the principal components of "uva di Troia canosina" seed extracts by LC/ DAD analysis and the optimization of the extraction and purification processes for the development of an industrial nutraceutical product, are described. Two different fractions of seeds collected at different stages of fermentation were compared: "Tesi" 2 when there is a spontaneous stratification of the seeds at the bottom of the recipient and "Tesi" 4 at the end of fermentation. Percolation was applied and compared to maceration and the purification step carefully evaluated to obtain extracts free of contaminant species endowed with polyphenolic content comparable to commercial preparations such as Leucoselect® (Indena, SpA, Italy), Vitis Vinifera extract 95% (seeds), Vitis Vinifera dry extract 95%, Biovin grape seed and vinasse extract. (Farmalabor, Italy). In particular, "Tesi" 2 extract obtained by percolation and purified with a LLE extraction with ethyl acetate showed a polyphenolic content similar to Leucoselect®. From the quantitative analyses it was evident, as expected, that "Tesi"2 has a higher polyphenolic content compared to "Tesi" 4, because during vinification the must extracts polyphenols from the seeds. On the other hand, "Tesi" 4 is particularly convenient since it is easily obtained and very economical, being a waste product. The residual content of organic solvents (ethanol and ethyl acetate) and water was assessed in the grape extracts according to ICH rules by means respectively of HS/GC and Karl Fisher titration in order to meet the requirements for commercialization. Furthermore, the high molecular weight polyphenolic fraction of our extracts was investigated through gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and compared to that of Leucoselect®

New molecular approaches in the diagnosis and prognosis of thyroid cancer patients

Thyroid nodules are very common in the adult population, but only a minority of them harbor a malignant lesion. Therefore, the first aim in their clinical evaluation is to exclude malignancy. To date, the fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) represents the main diagnostic tool for the evaluation of thyroid nodules and cervical lymph nodes (CLN) suspected of metastatic disease. It has to be mentioned, however, that FNAC on thyroid nodules suffers from a major diagnostic limit represented by cellular atypias of indeterminate significance, which require the histological diagnosis. Also the FNAC performed on CLN may be a challenging diagnostic category as CLN could harbor metastases from a multiplicity of extrathyroidal malignancies or be affected by several non-tumoral diseases. In addition, inadequate cellularity obtained from both thyroid nodules or CLN prevents diagnosis in about 20% of specimens. Total thyroidectomy followed by adjuvant therapy with 131I is the treatment of choice for most patients affected by DTC. Although the prognosis of DTC patients is favorable, about 20% of them face the morbidity of disease recurrence and tumor-related deaths. Thus far, the prognosis of these patients still relies on clinic-pathological variables such as patient’s age, tumor size, histology, lymph node or distant metastasis, which are not accurate in predicting the long-term outcome. As a consequence, the identification of new molecular biomarkers strictly related to the risk of DTC relapse is highly needed. In the present review we’ll attempt to summarize the recent characterization of new molecular markers able to ameliorate the diagnosis and prognosis of thyroid cancer patients

CTLA-4 and PD-1 Ligand Gene Expression in Epithelial Thyroid Cancers

The dysregulation of PD-1 ligands (PD-L1 and PD-L2) and CTLA-4 ligands (CD80 and CD86) represents a tumor strategy to escape the immune surveillance. Here, the expression of PD-L1, PD-L2, CD80, and CD86 was evaluated at the mRNA level in 94 patients affected by papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and 11 patients affected by anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC). Variations in the mRNAs in PTC patients were then correlated with clinicopathological features. The expression of all genes was deregulated in PTC and ATC tissues compared to normal tissues. In particular, the downregulation of CD80 was observed above all in ATC. In addition, the increased expression of CD80 associated with longer disease-free survival in PTC. Higher expression of PD-L1 associated with the classical histological variant and with the presence of BRAFV600E mutation in PTC. The increased PD-L2 expression correlated with BRAFV600E mutation and lymph node metastasis, while its lower expression correlated with the follicular PTC variant. The latter was also associated with the CD80 downregulation, which was also related to the absence of lymph node metastasis. In conclusion, we documented the overall dysregulation of PD-1 and CTLA-4 ligands in PTC and ATC tissues and a possible prognostic value for CD80 gene expression in PTC