Rational design, synthesis and characterization of potent, drug-like monomeric Smac mimetics as pro-apoptotic anticancer agents

A set of phenyl-substituted Smac mimetics/IAP inhibitor analogs of lead compd. I [R = H] was synthesized, aiming to retain its strong cell-free potency while increasing its bioavailability. Seventeen compds. were prepd. and characterized in vitro, using cell-free and cellular assays. Among them, I [R = CF3] showed the best permeability through cell membranes, and was selected for further in vitro and in vivo studies due to its strong, sub-micromolar cellular potency

A Preliminary Study on Quantitative Assessment of Functional Tasks on Stroke Patients Using A Novel Wearable Platform

This work presents a novel accelerometer-based platform, designed to answer to the increasing request from the clinical practice of new tools to objectively quantify movement quality and patient performances during the execution of functional rehabilitation tasks. Inertial data from a first cohort of stroke patients performing upper and lower limbs rehabilitation exercises have been collected using the new platform. The aim of this preliminary study is to correlate well-known metrics obtained from the data, with subjective scores given by therapists. The goal is to figure out if some of the metrics has the potential to reflect the visual inspection of trained and skilled therapists. Preliminary results show that energy expenditure, smoothness and acceleration variability appear to match therapists’ evaluations. Additionally, energy expenditure could have the potential to reveal rehabilitation progresses. Future analyses on a larger dataset are already planned for stronger evidence of these early results