236 research outputs found
Chemoresistive gas sensors for colorectal adenomas screening through faecal analysis
No full textDue to the change in the metabolic activity of the intestine when affected by a colorectal adenoma/carcinoma and to the production of colorectal cancer (CRC) biomarkers, the odor of feces is altered in comparison with healthy samples. Our research team has developed a portable device for the preliminary and non-invasive screening of CRC at all stages, named SCENT A1 (realized by SCENT S.r.l.)
Non-covalent Activation of a Titanium(IV) Oxygen-Transfer Catalyst
No full textKinetic studies, in combination with theoretical calculations,
support a mechanism in which the coordination of one alcohol molecule activates a Ti pre-catalyst. The alcohol coordination has a twofold action: it switches the Ti peroxo complex to an active geometry, and it stabilises the reactive peroxo intermediate through hydrogen bonding
Revisiting the HammettρParameter for the Determination of Philicity: Nucleophilic Substitution with Inverse Charge Interaction
No full textIn oxygen transfer (OT) reactions the inversion of the ρ value is not representative of a change in mechanism. Substituents bonded to aromatic sulfoxides have the opposite effect on the rates of oxidation depending on whether the reaction is dominated by electrostatic or orbital-overlap effects
Hippocampal volumes in patients with bipolar-schizophrenic spectrum disorders and their unaffected first-degree relatives
No full textBACKGROUND: schizophrenic and bipolar disorders are complex and disabling psychiatric diseases whose classical nosography and classification are still under challenging debate aiming to overcome the traditional “Kraepelinian Dichotomy”. For the past hundred years most clinical work and research in psychiatry has proceeded under the assumption that schizophrenia and bipolar disorderaredistinctentities with separate underlying disease processes and treatments. In more recent years there has been increasing evidence for phenomenological, biological and genetic overlap between the two disorders (Potash and Bienvenu 2009). Nowadays, the categorical approach to psychiatric nosography is in contrast with the recent neurobiological, neuropsychological and genetic findings in affective and schizophrenic disorders. Further, symptoms and signs constituting bipolar and schizophrenic disorders are continuously, not dichotomously, distributed; there may be no point of “real cleavage” (Phelps et al. 2008). This recognition has led some clinicians and researchers to call for a diagnostic model that, moving to a “dimensional perspective”, formally recognizes a continuous spectrum from schizophrenic to bipolar (and recurrent depressive) disorders. Kelsoe argued that the existing data coming from various fields of research in bipolar and schizophrenic disorders may best fit a model in which different set of genes predispose to overlapping phenotypes in a continuum. Given the apparent overlap of regions of the genome implicated in bipolar disorder with those for schizophrenia (Kelsoe 1999; Berrettini 2000), the data suggest the possibility that a common polygenic background predisposes to both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, according to the so-called “multiple threshold model” (Kelsoe 2003). As highlighted by Craddock and Owen, the recent findings are compatible with a model of functional psychosis in which susceptibility to a spectrum of clinical phenotypes is under the influence of overlapping sets of genes, which, together with environmental and epigenetic factors, determine an individual’s expression of illness (Craddock and Owen 2005). A lot of interest is focusing on brain structural abnormalities in patients suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A huge amount of neuroimaging studies has been published so far, however the literature is heterogeneous and there is still some degree of uncertainty concerning what key regions are involved in the pathogenesis of such disorders. Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder have a number of overlapping symptoms and risk factors, but it is not yet clear if the disorders are characterized by similar deviations in brain morphometry or whether any such deviations reflect the impact of shared susceptibility genes on brain structure. To date there is no consensus about whether, and to what extent, gray matter loss in Schizophrenia is mirrored in Bipolar Disorder and what is the effect of medication or other confounding factors. Studies in family members of patients, who share the risk of the disease but not the confounding factors, may help elucidate whether abnormalities in brain structures are shared by both illnesses.
AIM OF THE STUDY: to investigate hippocampal gray matter volume differences in a group of patients with bipolar-schizophrenic spectrum disorders, a group of their unaffected first-degree relatives, and a group of healthy control subjects.
METHODS: a total of 104 subjects - 36 schizophrenic or schizoaffective (SZ), 27 bipolar (BP), 2 major depression, 8 unaffected relatives (UR), and 31 healthy controls (HC) - underwent 1,5 T MRI scanning, with volumetric T1 3D acquisition protocol, at the Neuroradiology Unit of Conegliano Hospital. We calculate bilateral hippocampal gray matter volume (HV) and total cerebral volume (TCV) in a sample of 31 SZ, 27 BP, 8 UR and 26 HC, with a stereological method using ANALYZE 10.0 software.
RESULTS: we found statistically significant reductions in bilateral HV in the BP-SZ patients compared to HC; the direct comparison between patient groups identified statistically significant reduction in the right HV of SZ, but no significant differences for left HV or TCV (however statistical significance was lost after normalization); statistically significant reduction in the left HV and a trend towards statistical significance for right HV in the UR compared to HC (a trend towards statistically significant reduction in bilateral HV persisted after normalization).
CONCLUSION: it might be speculated that the alterations of the gray matter volume in the hippocampus highlighted in our study could be interpreted as a possible structural “biological marker” in the schizophrenic-bipolar spectrum
Exploiting Chirality in Confined Nanospaces
No full text: Spatial organization using confinement has been of great interest since the early ages of supramolecular chemistry. Application such as sensing, catalysis and delivery are continuously emerging. This minireview highlights the evolution of chiral supramolecular cages (CSC) applications in the fields of catalysis, sensing and chiroptical properties. More in detail, beside the description of the strategies adopted for the preparation of chiral supramolecular cages, either of purely organic supramolecular architectures or prepared using metal-ligand coordination bonds, recent findings on their applications, with particular attention to stereodynamic systems, are presented to highlight the recent scientific interests and the future opportunities
Sensori per gas applicati alla diagnostica tumorale
No full textIl team del Laboratorio Sensori (LS) del Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra dell'Università di Ferrara si occupa da oltre un ventennio dello studio e della realizzazione di sensori per gas. Tali dispositivi sono basati su materiali semiconduttori sotto forma di piccoli grani di dimensioni nanometriche, capaci di variare la propria resistenza elettrica quando entrano in contatto con i gas. nel corso degli ultimi cinque anni, la ricerca del LS si è concentrata proprio sulla applicazione dei sensori per gas alla medicina preventiva. Grazie alla start-up SCENT S.r.l. sono stati realizzati due dispositivi, uno per la diagnosi preventiva del tumore al colon retto mediante l'odore delle feci, il secondo per il monitoraggio tumorale mediante le esalazioni prodotte da campioni di sangue
Detection of tumor markers on feces with nanostructured sensors
No full textDeath for tumors is a worldwide health problem, with colorectal cancer (CRC) in particular showing to be one of the malignant tumors with the highest incidence for both genders, and with high mortality rate if not treated in time. To gain advantage on the neoplasia, and being able to identify and remove CRC in his benignant stage, pre-screening protocols like fecal occult blood test (FOBT) have been developed, and high interest from the scientific community have been shown on electronic noses, able to detect particular tumor markers secreted from cancer cells, different from blood (which may not show up at all in some cases). The goal of this book is to show the results obtained, thanks to an ongoing and recognized research from the Laboratory of Sensors of the University of Ferrara, with a different kind of technological approach, starting from the laboratory setup gases tests to the patented threshold system, based on nanostructured chemoresistive sensors, to detect the presence of both benignant polyps and CCR from the samples of feces obtained from people willingly to monitor themselves with this brand new pre-screening test
Nanostructured sensors for colorectal cancer screening device
No full textAmong the major goals of medicine there is the preventive screening of tumors, in order to prevent their degeneration. Colorectal cancer (CRC) shows a curability rate up to 90%, if identified at stage I. The work presented here started in 2013 with the reproduction of an artificial intestine inside a laboratory set-up, in order to find the best sensor array capable of recognizing CRC-gaseous biomarkers produced by tumor cells inside a mixture of intestinal interferers. After that, the approach changed, moving towards the analysis of fecal exhalations. After a feasibility study, that lead to the foundation of the start-up SCENT in 2015, the most efficient sensors combination was chosen. This study was conducted in collaboration with Hospital S. Anna of Ferrara, that provided the stool samples of people affected by CRC during surgery. Controls were healthy volunteers. This passage was fundamental to proof the recognition capability of sensors inside a portable device (SCENT A1), patented in Europe, composed of a core of five chemoresistive sensors, a pneumatic system and a specific electronics. After having obtained the acceptance by the ethics committee, a clinical validation protocol started in May 2016, to demonstrate the capability of SCENT A1 of identifying the difference between fecal exhalation of healthy and CRC-affected subjects. The protocol will end in 2019 and involves the Hospital S. Anna and AUSL of Ferrara and Ospedale del Delta of Lagosanto. The tests are compared to the results of fecal occult blood test (FOBT) using colonoscopy as a gold standard. A specific algorithm of analysis has been realized for data classification. On 100 comparisons, the method correctly classified the 90% of healthy subjects, the 100% of CRC-affected and the 57% of low risk adenomas. If combined with FOBT, our test will considerably improve specificity, eliminating a huge number of non-operative colonoscopies
Tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amines as emerging scaffold in supramolecular chemistry
No full texttris-(2-Pyridylmethyl)amine (usually abbreviated as TPA or TPMA) are ligands which are emerging in many fields of chemistry because of their ability to form stable and catalytically active complexes with a wide variety of metals. While the applications in catalysis began soon after the synthesis of the first metal complexes, studies in supramolecular chemistry are more recent and they often take advantage from their stereodynamic nature. This review surveys TPMA applications as: i) anion sensors, ii) biochemical sensors, iii) molecular switches, iv) chiral probes and as v) building blocks in the synthesis of supramolecular cages
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