1,721,176 research outputs found
La terapia batterica orale nell’ infezione da SARS-CoV2: nuove sfide in corso di pandemia
Full text linkSARS-CoV-2 may impact on host microbiota and gut inflammation, infecting intestinal epithelial cells. Furthermore, some patients after the resolution of the disease, experience symptoms associated with a syndrome known as Long-Covid characterized by symptoms such as fatigue, "brain fog", similar diffuse pains. The aim of this study was to compare the rate of mortality, the need of ICU hospitalization and the length of hospitalization in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia who received the best available therapy (BAT) vs. patients treated with BAT and supplemented with oral bacteriotherapy. We also analyzed the effect of probiotic supplementation in preventing chronic fatigue.
Methods: We performed an observational cohort study included 200 adults with COVID-19 pneumonia. All patients received therapeutic regimens including low molecular weight heparin plus one or more between hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, antivirals, and Tocilizumab. Oral bacteriotherapy (OB) was used as complementary treatment. Subsequently, to evaluate the effect on chronic fatigue, a subgroup of 58 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 was analyzed. 24 (41.4%) received OB during hospitalization (OB+) while 34 (58.6%) taken only the standard treatment (OB–). Serum metabolomic profiling of patients has been performed at both hospital acceptance (T0) and discharge (T1). Six months after discharge, fatigue perceived by participants was assessed by administrating the Fatigue Assessment Scale.
Results: Out of the 200 patients, 112 received BAT without oral bacteriotherapy, and 88 BAT with oral bacteriotherapy. Crude mortality was 22%. In the group of patients treated with BAT plus oral bacteriotherapy 11% died as compared to 30% in the group of patients treated with BAT (p < 0.001). By multivariate analysis, age >65 years, C-Reactive Protein >41.8 mg/L, Platelets <150.000 mmc, and cardiovascular events were associated with the increased risk of mortality. Oral bacteriotherapy was associated with a reduced risk for death. From the group of 58 patients investigated for chronic fatigue, 70.7% reported fatigue while 29.3% were negative for such condition. The OB+ group showed a lower proportion of subjects reporting fatigue than the OB– one (p < 0.01). Furthermore, OB+ subjects were characterized by significantly increased concentrations of serum Arginine, Asparagine, Lactate opposite to lower levels of 3-Hydroxyisobutirate.
Discussion: this study suggests a possible role for oral bacteriotherapy in the management of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia and point out how the administration of probiotics may prevent the development of chronic fatigue by impacting key metabolites involved in the utilization energy pathways
Scelta dei genitori sulle fonti di informazione relative alle vaccinazioni infantili. Uno studio trasversale in due Asl italiane
Full text link“Vaccine hesitancy” has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “delay in acceptance of vaccine despite the availability of vaccination services”. This definition also recognizes that vaccine hesitancy is complex and context specific, varying across time, place and vaccines and it is influenced by factors such as complacency, convenience and confidence. When it comes to childhood vaccination campaigns, this issue can lead to very problematic outcomes in terms of public health. A factor playing a fundamental role in this dynamic is the source of information considered by parents in the decision-making progress that leads to the acceptance or refusal of childhood vaccinations. Previous studies show how selecting an alternative source of information, as opposed to a conventional and institutional one, can result into major skepticism or even refuse of childhood vaccinations. An online questionnaire was administered anonymously to the parents of students attending elementary, middle and high schools in Rome and Turin, through the electronic register of the schools they belong to. Two validated tools were used: the Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines Survey (PACVs), and the Health Literacy Vaccinale degli adulti in Italiano (HLVa- IT). In a third section, vaccination hesitancy in relation to COVID-19 was assessed. Univariate analysis and logistic regression models were built to identify predictors of the preferred sources of information on the topic. 2301 answers to the survey were collected from June to October 2021. 1127 came from parents in Rome (49%) and 1174 from parents based in Turin (51%). The majority of the respondents were mothers (81%), married (73%), with 2 or more children (70,5%). Most of the parents have a degree or post-degree education (59%) and have an employment (90%). The average age in the selected sample was 47.7 years (Std. dev. 6.4). Our logistic regression model showed that fathers were more prone than mothers to use alternative sources of information (p=0.001, OR 1.32 – 2.63). Moreover, a score >50 on the PACV scale (p=0.004, OR 1.4 – 5.6) was a strong predictor for choosing an alternative source of information. Other predictors that showed a statistical significance were the perceived quality of the healthcare system, the city parents were from, the child’s age, being atheist or agnostic and referring to be in need of more information about vaccinations. The HLVA-it filter questions showed that people who had never paid attention to information material about vaccination or that were never invited to get a vaccine were more inclined to use alternative sources of information
Subcellular localization of the pyoverdine biogenesis machinery of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: a membrane-associated "siderosome"
No full textThe peptidic siderophore pyoverdine is the primary iron uptake system of fluorescent pseudomonads, and a virulence factor in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Pyoverdine biogenesis is a co-ordinate process requiring several precursor-generating enzymes and large nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) in the cytoplasm, followed by extracytoplasmic maturation. By using cell fractionation, protein-protein interaction, and in vivo labeling assays we obtained evidence that, in P. aeruginosa, pyoverdine NRPSs assemble with precursor-generating enzymes into a membrane-bound multi-enzymatic complex, for which we propose the name "siderosome". The pyoverdine biogenetic complex represents a novel example of subcellular compartmentalization of a secondary metabolic pathway in prokaryotes
The response to stationary-phase stress conditions in Escherichia coli: role and regulation of the glutamic acid decarboxylase system
No full textInducible bacterial amino acid decarboxylases are expressed at the end of active cell division to counteract acidification of the extracellular environment during fermentative growth. It has been proposed that acid resistance in some enteric bacteria strictly relies on a glutamic acid-dependent system. The Escherichia coil chromosome contains distinct genes encoding two biochemically identical isoforms of glutamic acid decarboxylase, GadA and GadB, The gadC gene, located downstream of gadB, has been proposed to encode a putative antiporter implicated in the export of gamma-aminobutyrate, the glutamic acid decarboxylation product. In the present work, we provide in vivo evidence that gadC is cc-transcribed with gadB and that the functional glutamic acid-dependent system requires the activities of both GadA/B and GadC, We also found that expression of gad genes is positively regulated by acidic shock, salt stress and stationary growth phase. Mutations in hns, the gene for the histone-like protein H-NS, cause derepressed expression of the gad genes, whereas the rpoS mutation abrogates gad transcription even in the hns background. According to our results, the master regulators H-NS and RpoS are hierarchically involved in the transcriptional control of gad expression: H-NS prevents gad expression during the exponential growth whereas the alternative sigma factor RpoS relieves H-NS repression during the stationary phase, directly or indirectly accounting for transcription of gad genes
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Genome-assisted identification of putative iron-utilization genes in Acinetobacter baumannii and their distribution among a genotypically diverse collection of clinical isolates
No full textNew putative iron-uptake genes were identified in published genomes of the opportunistic human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii, and their occurrence was determined in a genotypically distinct collection of 50 clinical isolates by PCR and Southern blot assays. The results demonstrated that all A. baumannii isolates tested share the coding potential for two endogenous siderophores, a heme-acquisition and a ferrous iron-uptake system. A second heme-uptake cluster was detected in almost two thirds of isolates, without any apparent correlation with the clonal lineage of the strains. The wide distribution of multiple iron-acquisition systems among diverse A. baumannii clinical isolates argues for a contribution of iron uptake to the pathogenicity of this species. (C) 2010 Institut Pasteur. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved
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