Selective targeting of pro-inflammatory Th1 cells by microRNA-148a-specific antagomirs in vivo.

In T lymphocytes, expression of miR-148a is induced by T-bet and Twist1, and is specific for pro-inflammatory Th1 cells. In these cells, miR-148a inhibits the expression of the pro-apoptotic protein Bim and promotes their survival. Here we use sequence-specific cholesterol-modified oligonucleotides against miR-148a (antagomir-148a) for the selective elimination of pro-inflammatory Th1 cells in vivo. In the murine model of transfer colitis, antagomir-148a treatment reduced the number of pro-inflammatory Th1 cells in the colon of colitic mice by 50% and inhibited miR-148a expression by 71% in the remaining Th1 cells. Expression of Bim protein in colonic Th1 cells was increased. Antagomir-148a-mediated reduction of Th1 cells resulted in a significant amelioration of colitis. The effect of antagomir-148a was selective for chronic inflammation. Antigen-specific memory Th cells that were generated by an acute immune reaction to nitrophenylacetyl-coupled chicken gamma globulin (NP-CGG) were not affected by treatment with antagomir-148a, both during the effector and the memory phase. In addition, antibody titers to NP-CGG were not altered. Thus, antagomir-148a might qualify as an effective drug to selectively deplete pro-inflammatory Th1 cells of chronic inflammation without affecting the protective immunological memory

Research needs in allergy: an EAACI position paper, in collaboration with EFA

Abstract In less than half a century, allergy, originally perceived as a rare disease, has become a major public health threat, today affecting the lives of more than 60 million people in Europe, and probably close to one billion worldwide, thereby heavily impacting the budgets of public health systems. More disturbingly, its prevalence and impact are on the rise, a development that has been associated with environmental and lifestyle changes accompanying the continuous process of urbanization and globalization. Therefore, there is an urgent need to prioritize and concert research efforts in the field of allergy, in order to achieve sustainable results on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this most prevalent chronic disease of the 21 st century. The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) is the leading professional organization in the field of allergy, promoting excellence in clinical care, education, training and basic and translational research, all with the ultimate goal of improving the health of allergic patients. The European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients' Associations (EFA) is a non-profit network of allergy, asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) patients' organizations. In support of their missions, the present EAACI Position Paper, in collaboration with EFA, highlights the most important research needs in the field of allergy to serve as key recommendations for future research funding at the national and European levels. Although allergies may involve almost every organ of the body and an array of diverse external factors act as triggers, there are several common themes that need to be prioritized in research efforts. As in many other chronic diseases, effective prevention, curative treatment and accurate, rapid diagnosis represent major unmet needs. Detailed phenotyping/endotyping stands out as widely required in order to arrange or re-categorize clinical syndromes into more coherent, uniform and treatment-responsive groups. Research efforts to unveil the basic pathophysiologic pathways and mechanisms, thus leading to the comprehension and resolution of the pathophysiologic complexity of allergies will allow for the design of novel patient-oriented diagnostic and treatment protocols. Several allergic diseases require well-controlled epidemiological description and surveillance, using disease registries, pharmacoeconomic evaluation, as well as large biobanks. Additionally, there is a need for extensive studies to bring promising new biotechnological innovations, such as biological agents, vaccines of modified allergen molecules and engineered components for allergy diagnosis, closer to clinical practice. Finally, particular attention should be paid to the difficult-to-manage, precarious and costly severe disease forms and/or exacerbations. Nonetheless, currently arising treatments, mainly in the fields of immunotherapy and biologicals, hold great promise for targeted and causal management of allergic conditions. Active involvement of all stakeholders, including Patient Organizations and policy makers are necessary to achieve the aims emphasized herein

Poly(Neopentyl Glycol Furanoate): A Member of the Furan-Based Polyester Family with Smart Barrier Performances for Sustainable Food Packaging Applications

In the last decade, there has been an increased interest from the food packaging industry toward the development and application of bioplastics, to contribute to the sustainable economy and to reduce the huge environmental problem afflicting the planet. In the present work, we focus on a new furan-based polyester, poly(neopentyl glycol 2,5-furanoate) (PNF) to be used for sustainable food packaging applications. The aromatic polyester was successfully synthesized with high molecular weight, through a solvent-free process, starting directly from 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid. PNF was revealed to be a material with good thermal stability, characterized by a higher Tg and Tm and a lower RAF fraction compared to poly(propylene 2,5-furanoate) (PPF), ascribable to the two methyl side groups present in PNF glycol-sub-unit. PNF’s mechanical characteristics, i.e., very high elastic modulus and brittle fracture, were found to be similar to those of PPF and PEF. Barrier properties to different gases, temperatures and relative humidity were evaluated. From the results obtained, PNF was showed to be a material with very smart barrier performances, significantly superior with respect to PEF’s ones. Lastly, PNF’s permeability behavior did not appreciably change after contact with food simulants, whereas it got worse with increasing RH, due to the polar nature of furan ring

How Stress Treatments Influence the Performance of Biodegradable Poly(Butylene Succinate)-Based Copolymers with Thioether Linkages for Food Packaging Applications

Biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) (PBS)-based random copolymers containing thioether linkages (P(BSxTDGSy)) of various compositions have been investigated and characterized from the gas barrier, thermal, and mechanical point of view, after food contact simulants or thermal and photoaging processes. Each stress treatment was performed on thin films and the results obtained have been compared to the same untreated film, used as a standard. Barrier properties with different gases (O2 and CO2) were evaluated, showing that the polymer chemical composition strongly influenced the permeability behavior. The relationships between the diffusion coefficients (D) and solubility (S) with polymer composition were also investigated. The results highlighted a correlation between polymer chemical structure and treatment. Gas transmission rate (GTR) mainly depending on the performed treatment, as GTR increased with the increase of TDGS co-unit amount. Thermal and mechanical tests allowed for the recording of variations in the degree of crystallinity and in the tensile properties. An increase in the crystallinity degree was recorded after contact with simulant liquids and aging treatments, together with a molecular weight decrease, a slight enhancement of the elastic modulus and a decrement of the elongation at break, proportional to the TDGS co-unit content

Poly(butylene succinate) and poly(butylene succinate-co-adipate) for food packaging applications: Gas barrier properties after stressed treatments

Aliphatic polyester resins present the versatility of common plastics and are characterized by a good stability under ordinary conditions. They have acquired significant interest as environmentally friendly thermoplastics for a wide range of application, like food packaging field. We have investigated the permeability behavior of commercial poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(butylene succinate-co-adipate) (PBSA) polymers after food contact simulants and photo and thermal-oxidative degradation processes. Each stressed treatment was applied on thin film. Barrier properties to different gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide) were evaluated, showing that the chemical composition of the polymer strongly influenced the permeability to the gasses. Further, the same samples were tested at different temperatures, from 5 \ub0C to 40 \ub0C, in order to understand the effect of the temperature on the permeability behavior, and to calculate the process activation energy. Relations that bind the diffusion coefficients (D) and solubility (S) with temperature were studied. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and FT-IR analyses were carried out in order to establish a correlation between permeability and sample structure/crystallinity. Negligible changes were evidenced in the polymers by means of DSC and FTIR measurements indicating structural stability of the polymers under process conditions. Gas barrier behavior, instead, resulted mainly affected by the process conditions, because mainly dependent on several chemical-physical factors. In both cases, no severe damage of the materials was observed

Toward a control and management system enabling cognitive optical networks

Cognition represents one of the ingredients to make up the future high-capacity heterogeneous optical networks. This paper provides three main contributions for a preliminary study of a Control and Management System (CMS) able to support the cognitive entity, named Cognitive Decision System (CDS). First of all, two architectural approaches to realize a cognitive optical network are presented. Secondly, the focus is set on the description of a centralized GMPLS-based CMS architecture and on the interactions between its modules and the CDS. In particular, the CDS decisions rely on a database updated by CMS protocols (i.e., by OSPF - TE) to grasp information about network configuration and resources availability. Unfortunately, OSPF - TE may not be able to timely update the CDS-database. To address this issue, the paper presents two CDS-database updating policies and compares their performance through simulations. Finally, a set of open issues and challenges is detailed in order to provide an input for a deep analysis of the presented CMS architecture

Novel Random Copolymers of Poly(butylene 1,4-cyclohexane dicarboxylate) with Outstanding Barrier Properties for Green and Sustainable Packaging: Content and Length of Aliphatic Side Chains as Efficient Tools to Tailor the Material’s Final Performance

The present paper describes the synthesis of novel bio-based poly(butylene 1,4-cyclohexane dicarboxylate)-containing random copolymers for sustainable and flexible packaging applications. On one side, the linear butylene moiety has been substituted by glycol subunits with alkyl pendant groups of different length. On the other side, copolymers with different cis/trans isomer ratio of cyclohexane rings have been synthesized. The prepared samples were subjected to molecular, thermal, diffractometric, and mechanical characterization. The barrier performances to O2, CO2, and N2 gases were also evaluated. The presence of side alkyl groups did not alter the thermal stability, whereas it significantly influences the formation of ordered phases that deeply affect the functional properties, mainly in terms of mechanical response and barrier performance. In particular, the final materials present higher flexibility and significantly improved barrier properties with respect to the homopolymer and most polymers widely employed for flexible packaging. The improvement due to copolymerization was more pronounced in the case of higher co-unit-containing copolymers and for the samples with cyclohexane rings in the trans conformation

NICER: A distributed dynamic shared-backup path-allocation procedure for transmission-impaired WDM optical networks

Survivability in transparent optical networks is a critical concern for network operators. Current survivability techniques for shared protection are mainly based on a centralized off-line pre-planning of the lightpaths. In addition, the presence of Physical Layer Impairments (PLIs) and multi-channel effects must be accurately considered. In this paper we propose a distributed on-line procedure called NICER to allocate shared backup capacity in transmission-impaired optical transparent networks. To this account, we present the on-line algorithms useful to setup the Label Switched Paths (LSPs) in a Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) controlled network and to choose the wavelengths to be eventually shared by the backup lightpaths, given the information about the PLIs distributed in the network. Furthermore, through some simulations we show the performance of the proposed survivability procedure