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G-quadruplexes are nucleotide sequences present in the promoter region of numerous oncogenes, having a key role in the suppression of gene transcription. Recently, the binding of anthraquinones from Aloe vera to G-quadruplex structures has been studied through various physico-chemical techniques. Intrigued by the reported results, we investigated the affinity of aloe emodin, aloe emodin-8-glucoside, and aloin to selected G-quadruplex nucleotide sequences by NMR spectroscopy. The structural determinants for the formation of the ligand/nucleotide complexes were elucidated and a model of the interactions between the tested compounds and C-Kit and c-Myc G-quadruplex DNA structures was built by integrated NMR and molecular modeling studies...

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) represents an electrokinetic approach for discriminating and separating suspended cells based on their intrinsic dielectric characteristics without the need for labeling procedure. A good practice, beyond the physical and engineering components, is the selection of a buffer that does not hinder cellular and biochemical parameters as well as cell recovery. In the present work the impact of four buffers on biochemical, morphological, and mechanical parameters was evaluated in two different cancer cell lines (Caco-2 and K562)...

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is set to become the fifth-leading global cause of death by 2040. This illustrates the many unknowns regarding its pathogenesis and therapy. A key unknown relates to the therapeutic impact of the interaction between CKD and the gut microbiome. The normal gut microbiome is essential for body homeostasis. There is evidence for multiple interactions between the microbiota and CKD-its causes, comorbidities and therapeutic interventions-that are only starting to be unraveled. Thus uremic retention products, such as urea itself, modify the gut microbiota biology and both dietary and drug prescriptions modify the composition and function of the microbiota...

Although previous studies seemed to recognize negative associations between self-esteem and bullying/cyberbullying and victimization/cybervictimization behaviours, the findings are controversial. The current study tried to shed light on this issue by using a person-oriented approach among Italian adolescents. Participants included 936 students aged 13-16 years. Different domains of self-esteem and bullying/cyberbullying and victimization/cybervictimization behaviour during the previous 2-3 months were assessed through a self-administered questionnaire...

The aim of the current scoping review was to explore the associations between religious and spiritual factors and the health-related outcomes of adolescents with chronic illnesses, as well as to investigate possible mechanisms accounting for these relationships. In total, 20 studies meeting the eligibility criteria were reviewed after performing a search of the Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. The results suggested that religious and spiritual beliefs, thoughts, and practices (e.g., spiritual coping activities) might have both beneficial and deleterious effects on the way adolescents deal with their medical condition, on their psychosocial adjustment, on their mental and physical health, and on their adherence to treatments...

This study investigated the associations between parental monitoring, peer pressure, and motivations for responsible drinking, while also taking the mediating role of positive alcohol expectancies into account. The participants were 579 Italian adolescents, aged 14-20 years ( M  = 16.39 years, SD  = 1.27; 55.3% females), involved in a cross-sectional survey. They were administered online self-report questionnaires. Structural equation modeling revealed both direct and indirect positive associations between study variables...

PURPOSE: In this study, we aimed to identify prognostic factors of cancer mortality in patients who received radical cystectomy and to identify genomic alterations in a sub-cohort of patients with locally advanced (pT3-4) and/or positive lymph nodes bladder cancer (BC). METHODS: We collected 101 BC samples from 2010 to 2018 who previously received radical cystectomy. Immunohistochemical slides were evaluated for PPAR, cAMP, IMP3, Ki67, CDK4, POU5F1, Cyclin E and MDM2, p65, CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20, CD68, CD163, FOXP3, PD-1 and PD-L1 expression...

Nocturia is the complaint that an individual has to wake up at night one or more times to urinate. It is a frequent condition among older adults and entails detrimental effects with regard to sleeping, sexual activity, comfort, depression, mental function and vitality. It is clinically important to distinguish it from global polyuria, defined as a urinary rate ≥ 125 ml/h (3000 ml/day), as well as from nocturnal polyuria, which is an abnormally large volume of urine during sleep associated with a decreased daytime urine production...

The enzyme PARP1 is an attractive target for cancer therapy, as it is involved in DNA repair processes. Several PARP1 inhibitors have been approved for clinical treatments. However, the rapid outbreak of resistance is seriously threatening the efficacy of these compounds, and alternative strategies are required to selectively regulate PARP1 activity. A noncanonical G-quadruplex-forming sequence within the PARP1 promoter was recently identified. In this study, we explore the interaction of known G-quadruplex binders with the G-quadruplex structure found in the PARP gene promoter region...

Organ crosstalk allows the interaction between systems to adapt to a constant changing environment, maintaining homeostasis. The process of placentation and the new hormonal environment during pregnancy trigger physiological changes that modulate kidney function to control extracellular volume, acid-base balance and filtration of metabolic waste products. The bidirectional communication means that acute or chronic dysfunction of one organ can compromise the other. Abnormal placentation in pregnancy-related hypertensive disorders such as pre-eclampsia and HELLP (haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count) syndrome leads to the release of antiangiogenic factors that may cause kidney injury (thrombotic microangiopathy, glomeruloendotheliosis, mesangiolysis and vasoconstriction of peritubular vessels)...

Emerging technologies now allow for mass spectrometry-based profiling of thousands of small molecule metabolites ('metabolomics') in an increasing number of biosamples. While offering great promise for insight into the pathogenesis of human disease, standard approaches have not yet been established for statistically analyzing increasingly complex, high-dimensional human metabolomics data in relation to clinical phenotypes, including disease outcomes. To determine optimal approaches for analysis, we formally compare traditional and newer statistical learning methods across a range of metabolomics dataset types...

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Cirrhotic patients can develop acute kidney injury (AKI), and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Therefore, renal functional evaluation is crucial in cirrhotic patients. However, serum creatinine and urea levels, as well as measured or estimated glomerular filtration rate is not reliable renal functional markers in these patients compared to other patient groups. In the present study, four original equations are designed and tested for screening chronic kidney disease (CKD) and chronic kidney insufficiency (CKI) in stable cirrhotic patients...

G-quadruplexes are secondary structures originating from nucleic acid regions rich in guanines, which are well known for their involvement in gene transcription and regulation and DNA damage repair. In recent studies from our group, kynurenic acid (KYNA) derivative 1 was synthesized and found to share the structural features typical of G-quadruplex binders. Herein, structural modifications were conducted on this scaffold in order to assist the binding with a G-quadruplex, by introducing charged hydrophilic groups...

This paper describes the main characteristics of coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) patients suffering from acute kidney injury (AKI) assisted at a high complexity clinic in Barranquilla, Colombia. The patients included in this study (n = 48) were those with a positive diagnosis of COVID-19 confirmed by polymerase chain reaction detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, who had developed AKI during their hospital stay. Serum and urine parameters, as well as patient's viral load and clinical frailty scale (CFS) were recorded...

Background : In recent decades, the application of machine learning technologies to medical imaging has opened up new perspectives in neuro-oncology, in the so-called radiomics field. Radiomics offer new insight into glioma, aiding in clinical decision-making and patients' prognosis evaluation. Although meningiomas represent the most common primary CNS tumor and the majority of them are benign and slow-growing tumors, a minor part of them show a more aggressive behavior with an increased proliferation rate and a tendency to recur...

INTRODUCTION: SARS-CoV-2 infection can affect other organs aside from those of respiratory system, particularly the kidney, heart, blood, digestive tract, and nervous system. COVID-19 renal compromise consists of different syndromes since proteinuria, hematuria, and acute kidney injury (AKI), until chronic kidney disease. Since COVID-19-induced renal tubular damage has been described as a potential antecedent condition to AKI installation, it was decided to evaluate how COVID-19 affects tubular function...

The human gut microbiota has co-evolved with humans by exchanging bidirectional signals. This study aims at deepening the knowledge of this crucial relationship by analyzing phenotypic and interactive responses of the probiotic Enterococcus faecium NCIMB10415 ( E. faecium SF68) to the top-down signals norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (5HT), two neuroactive molecules abundant in the gut. We treated E. faecium NCIMB10415 with 100 µM NE and 50 µM 5HT and tested its ability to form static biofilm (Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy), adhere to the Caco-2/TC7 monolayer, affect the epithelial barrier function (Transepithelial Electrical Resistance) and human dendritic cells (DC) maturation, differentiation, and cytokines production...

BACKGROUND: The SARS-CoV-2 virus has assumed considerable importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its mutation rate is high, involving the spike (S) gene and thus there has been a rapid spread of new variants. Herein, we describe a rapid, easy, adaptable, and affordable workflow to uniquely identify all currently known variants through as few analyses. Our method only requires two conventional PCRs of the S gene and two Sanger sequencing reactions, and possibly another PCR/sequencing assay on a N gene portion to identify the B...

Starting in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic is a global threat that is difficult to monitor. SARS-CoV-2 is known to undergo frequent mutations, including SNPs and deletions, which seem to be transmitted together, forming clusters that define specific lineages. Reverse-Transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) has been used for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis and is still considered the gold standard method. Our Eukaryotic Host Pathogens Interaction (EHPI) laboratory received six SARS-CoV-2-positive samples from a Sicilian private analysis laboratory, four of which showed a dropout of the E gene...