"Early" and "definitive" taking charge of subjects positive to SARS-CoV2: the experience of an Italian Local Health Authority.

Abstract: During the second covid-19 pandemic wave in November-December 2021 Prevention Departments had to face a hardly-sustainable workload of contact tracing and taking charge of the sars-cov2 positive case and of his or her close contacts. Also laboratories have been stressed in their ability to process timely the extraordinary load of swabs performed. In this context of hazardous delays, the Prevention Department of Belluno (Italy) tested its resilience: a simple and effective method of taking charge was implemented, by initially phoning to the positive case and imposing the isolation measure on him or her and later on proceeding with the conventional contact tracing.

Antimicrobial evaluation of new metallic complexes with xylitol active against P. aeruginosa and C. albicans: MIC determination, post-agent effect and Zn-uptake.

Xylitol (xylH5) is metabolized via the pentose pathway in humans, but it is unsuitable as an energy source for many microorganisms where it produces a xylitol-induced growth inhibition and disturbance in protein synthesis. For this reason, xylitol is used in the prophylaxis of several infections. In the search of better antimicrobial agents, new copper and zinc complexes with xylitol were synthesized and characterized by analytical and spectrosco pic methods: Na2[Cu3(xylH−4)2]·NaCl·4.5H2O (Cu-xyl) and [Zn4(xylH−4)2(H2O)2]·NaCl·3H2O (Zn-xyl). Both copper and zinc complexes presented higher MIC against Pseudomona aeruginosa than the free xylitol while two different behaviors were found against Candida albicans depending on the complex. The growth curves showed that Cu-xyl presented lower activity than the free ligand during all the studied period. In the case of Znxyl the growth curves showed that the inhibition of the microorganism growth in the first stage was equivalent to that of xylitol but in the second stage (after 18 h) Zn-xyl inhibited more. Besides, the PAE (post agent effect)obtained for Zn-xyl and xyl showed that the recovery from the damage of microbial cells had a delay of 14 and 13 h respectively. This behavior could be useful in prophylaxis treatments for infectious diseases where it is important that the antimicrobial effect lasts longer. With the aim to understand the microbiological activities the analysis of the particle size, lipophilicity and Zn uptake was performed.

Copper complexes with heterocyclic sulfonamides: synthesis, spectroscopic characterization, microbiological and SOD-like activities: crystal structure of [Cu(sulfisoxazole)2(H2O)4] . 2H2O.

The synthesis, characterization and comparative biological study of a series of antibacterial copper complexes with heterocyclic sulfonamides were reported. Two kinds of complexes were obtained with the stoichiometries [Cu(L)2] . H2O and [Cu(L)2(H2O)4] . nH2O. They were characterized by infrared and electronic spectroscopies and the crystal structure of [Cu(sulfisoxazole)2(H2O)4] . 2H2O was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. It crystallized in the C2/c with Z = 8 monoclinic space group C2/c with Z = 8. The Cu(II) is in a slightly tetragonal distorted octahedron formed by four oxygen atoms from water molecules and two nitrogen atoms from two isoxazole rings. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated for all the synthesized complexes and ligands using the agar dilution test. The results showed that the complexes with five-membered heterocyclic rings were more active than the free sulfonamides while the pyrimidine, pyridine and pyridazine complexes had similar or less activity than the free ligands. In order to find an explanation for this behavior lipophilicity and superoxide dismutase-like activity were tested, showing that the [Cu(sulfamethoxazol)2(H2O)4] . 3H2O presented the highest antimicrobial potency and a superoxide dismutase-like activity comparable with pharmacological active compounds.

The lysine glycation 1. A preliminary investigation on the products arising from the reaction of protected lysine and D-glucose.

The nature of the products arising from a 10 days, sterile incubation at 37°C and pH 7.2 of a 1:1 mixture of N-α-(p-tosyl)-lysine-methylesterhydrochloride and anhydrous D-glucose was investigated by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry and(1)H and(13)C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies. Differently to the reactivity usually described on the basis of other analytical techniques, FAB mass spectrometric measurements indicate the occurrence of the reaction of protected lysine with more than one D-glucose molecule.