The combination of oral and topical photoprotection with a standardized Polypodium leucotomos extract is beneficial against actinic keratosis

IntroductionThis study describes a prospective, multicentre, randomized controlled, open-label study with three arms aimed at studying the differences between: [Cnt], self-administered sun protection; [T], topical treatment; and [TO], topical + oral treatment; for the management of Actinic Keratosis (AK) in a cohort of subjects of advanced age displaying severe actinic damage (SAD). MethodsTreatments administered to groups [T] and [TO] had a common component, which is a botanical extract, Fernblock, with demonstrated photoprotective activity. ResultsIn total, 131 subjects were distributed randomly in the three groups, and followed up clinically at three separate time points, beginning of the study (t = 0) and after 6 and 12 months. Analysis of clinical data and examination using reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) revealed that group [T] and [TO] displayed decreased clinical AK and field cancerization parameters, including the number of new lesions, and reduced the need for additional interventions in these patients. RCM revealed normalization of the keratinocyte layer. Improvements in AK and field cancerization parameters were greatest in the group [TO], suggesting that topical and oral photoprotection improves the clinical and anatomical outcome compared to control conditions. ConclusionsThe combination of topical and oral immune photoprotection provides an advantage compared to topical photoprotection alone

Aridity modulates belowground bacterial community dynamics in olive tree

Aridity negatively affects the diversity and abundance of edaphic microbial communities and their multiple ecosystem services, ultimately impacting vegetation productivity and biotic interactions. Investigation about how plant-associated microbial communities respond to increasing aridity is of particular importance, especially in light of the global climate change predictions. To assess the effect of aridity on plant associated bacterial communities, we investigated the diversity and co-occurrence of bacteria associated with the bulk soil and the root system of olive trees cultivated in orchards located in higher, middle and lower arid regions of Tunisia. The results indicated that the selective process mediated by the plant root system is amplified with the increment of aridity, defining distinct bacterial communities, dominated by aridity-winner and aridity-loser bacteria negatively and positively correlated with increasing annual rainfall, respectively. Aridity regulated also the co-occurrence interactions among bacteria by determining specific modules enriched with one of the two categories (aridity-winners or aridity-losers), which included bacteria with multiple PGP functions against aridity. Our findings provide new insights into the process of bacterial assembly and interactions with the host plant in response to aridity, contributing to understand how the increasing aridity predicted by climate changes may affect the resilience of the plant holobiont

Environmental micro-niche filtering shapes bacterial pioneer communities during primary colonization of a Himalayas' glacier forefield

The pedogenesis from the mineral substrate released upon glacier melting has been explained with the succession of consortia of pioneer microorganisms, whose structure and functionality are determined by the environmental conditions developing in the moraine. However, the microbiome variability that can be expected in the environmentally heterogeneous niches occurring in a moraine at a given successional stage is poorly investigated. In a 50 m2 area in the forefield of the Lobuche glacier (Himalayas, 5050 m above sea level), we studied six sites of primary colonization presenting different topographical features (orientation, elevation and slope) and harbouring greyish/dark biological soil crusts (BSCs). The spatial vicinity of the sites opposed to their topographical differences, allowed us to examine the effect of environmental conditions independently from the time of deglaciation. The bacterial microbiome diversity and their co-occurrence network, the bacterial metabolisms predicted from 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing, and the microbiome intact polar lipids were investigated in the BSCs and the underlying sediment deep layers (DLs). Different bacterial microbiomes inhabited the BSCs and the DLs, and their composition varied among sites, indicating a niche-specific role of the micro-environmental conditions in the bacterial communities' assembly. In the heterogeneous sediments of glacier moraines, physico-chemical and micro-climatic variations at the site-spatial scale are crucial in shaping the microbiome microvariability and structuring the pioneer bacterial communities during pedogenesis

The stage of soil development modulates rhizosphere effect along a High Arctic desert chronosequence

In mature soils, plant species and soil type determine the selection of root microbiota. Which of these two factors drives rhizosphere selection in barren substrates of developing desert soils has, however, not yet been established. Chronosequences of glacier forelands provide ideal natural environments to identify primary rhizosphere selection factors along the changing edaphic conditions of a developing soil. Here, we analyze changes in bacterial diversity in bulk soils and rhizospheres of a pioneer plant across a High Arctic glacier chronosequence. We show that the developmental stage of soil strongly modulates rhizosphere community assembly, even though plant-induced selection buffers the effect of changing edaphic factors. Bulk and rhizosphere soils host distinct bacterial communities that differentially vary along the chronosequence. Cation exchange capacity, exchangeable potassium, and metabolite concentration in the soil account for the rhizosphere bacterial diversity. Although the soil fraction (bulk soil and rhizosphere) explains up to 17.2% of the variation in bacterial microbiota, the soil developmental stage explains up to 47.7% of this variation. In addition, the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) co-occurrence network of the rhizosphere, whose complexity increases along the chronosequence, is loosely structured in barren compared with mature soils, corroborating our hypothesis that soil development tunes the rhizosphere effect

Neurocognitive Disorders in Post and Long Covid Patients: Preliminary Data, Gender Differences and New Diabetes Diagnosis

The research is based on a clinical observation of the neurological and neuro-cognitive status of 300 patients, belonging to the Partinico Hospital and the Post-Long Covid clinic, which had contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the period between April 2021 and May 2022. In this paper, we present the analysis of the first 100 patients subjected to a neurocognitive screening protocol. The procedure consists of tests that examine the mechanism of different brain domains to check for the presence of cognitive deficits that arose after the negativization of the viral infection. Through a neurocognitive protocol, the research aims to investigate different brain areas and mental functioning. This allowed us to raise the possibility that the presence of cognitive alterations may be related to the evidence of point-like brain alterations (from the cortex to the trunk) visible through neuroimaging techniques. In the article, we highlight the hypothesis that SARS-covid 2, as stated in recently published studies, can produce an alteration of executive functions such as to configure a real dysexecutive syndrome. This research evaluates the symptomatic gender variability within the sample, the presence of important differences in the affective state, and provides a first observation of the impact of SARS-CoV-2 in diabetic pathology as well

Long-term efficacy and safety of daylight photodynamic therapy with methyl amninolevulinate for actinic keratosis of the face and scalp

No abstrac

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic in a cohort of Italian psoriatic patients treated with biological therapies

Background The beginning of 2020 has been marked by COVID-19 pandemic, with a strong impact on several national health systems worldwide. Objective To describe the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in a cohort of Italian psoriatic patients treated with biologics. Methods A telephone survey was conducted in May 4–10 2020 about the Italian lockdown period (March 9–May 3 2020) in a cohort of psoriatic patients treated with biologics, asking about any exposure to COVID-19, disease status, continuation of therapy, work activity and psychological status through Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Results 226 patients were interviewed, with no COVID-19 positive cases. Sixty-three of 226 (27.9%) described worsening of the disease with a correlation to drug withdrawal [43/226 (19%)]. Correlation was also found between the worsening of psoriasis and HADS anxiety, HADS depression, BRS and PSS abnormal scores considered both as categorical and continuous variables. No correlation was found between worsening of psoriasis and work activity. Conclusion Uncertainty about whether biologics could increase the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection led to drug withdrawal with subsequent worsening of psoriasis. Moreover, psychological status also had a direct influence on the clinical course of the disease

Real-life efficacy and safety of ingenol mebutate for the treatment of actinic keratosis of the face and scalp: A single arm retrospective study

BACKGROUND: The efficacy and safety of ingenol mebutate versus placebo have been proven in four randomized controlled trials (RCTs), although there is a lack of real-life studies corroborating such promises in routine clinical practices. In our study, we sought to describe real-life effectiveness, safety and regimen adherence among patients with multiple AKs on the face treated with ingenol mebutate and evaluate correlates of clinical outcomes in this population. METHODS: We reviewed the clinical charts of adult patients with multiple ( 653) AK grade I and II of the face and scalp, treated with ingenol mebutate from April 2014 to April 2015. All subjects received the medication according to ingenol mebutate standard of care. RESULTS: We enrolled 88 patients during the study period and carried out 122 treatment cycles. The unadjusted lesion clearance rate per treated field was 81.3% and the average local skin reactions score at day 4 was 6.0\u2009\ub1\u20092.8 (range: 0-18). CONCLUSIONS: We observed an excellent rate (>99%) of adherence to ingenol mebutate. This was mirrored by the fact that our clinical outcomes broadly confirmed results obtained in RTCs. Our study showed that the efficacy and safety of ingenol mebutate observed in RCTs can be reliably translated in real-world practice