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1.
Nat Rev Dis Primers ; 10(1): 16, 2024 Mar 07.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38453957

RESUMO

Alkaptonuria is a rare inborn error of metabolism caused by the deficiency of homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase activity. The consequent homogentisic acid (HGA) accumulation in body fluids and tissues leads to a multisystemic and highly debilitating disease whose main features are dark urine, ochronosis (HGA-derived pigment in collagen-rich connective tissues), and a painful and severe form of osteoarthropathy. Other clinical manifestations are extremely variable and include kidney and prostate stones, aortic stenosis, bone fractures, and tendon, ligament and/or muscle ruptures. As an autosomal recessive disorder, alkaptonuria affects men and women equally. Debilitating symptoms appear around the third decade of life, but a proper and timely diagnosis is often delayed due to their non-specific nature and a lack of knowledge among physicians. In later stages, patients' quality of life might be seriously compromised and further complicated by comorbidities. Thus, appropriate management of alkaptonuria requires a multidisciplinary approach, and periodic clinical evaluation is advised to monitor disease progression, complications and/or comorbidities, and to enable prompt intervention. Treatment options are patient-tailored and include a combination of medications, physical therapy and surgery. Current basic and clinical research focuses on improving patient management and developing innovative therapies and implementing precision medicine strategies.


Assuntos
Alcaptonúria , Ocronose , Masculino , Humanos , Feminino , Alcaptonúria/complicações , Alcaptonúria/diagnóstico , Alcaptonúria/terapia , Qualidade de Vida , Ocronose/complicações , Ocronose/diagnóstico , Rim/metabolismo , Ácido Homogentísico/metabolismo
2.
Algorithms Mol Biol ; 18(1): 13, 2023 Sep 16.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37717003

RESUMO

BACKGROUND: Combining a set of phylogenetic trees into a single phylogenetic network that explains all of them is a fundamental challenge in evolutionary studies. Existing methods are computationally expensive and can either handle only small numbers of phylogenetic trees or are limited to severely restricted classes of networks. RESULTS: In this paper, we apply the recently-introduced theoretical framework of cherry picking to design a class of efficient heuristics that are guaranteed to produce a network containing each of the input trees, for practical-size datasets consisting of binary trees. Some of the heuristics in this framework are based on the design and training of a machine learning model that captures essential information on the structure of the input trees and guides the algorithms towards better solutions. We also propose simple and fast randomised heuristics that prove to be very effective when run multiple times. CONCLUSIONS: Unlike the existing exact methods, our heuristics are applicable to datasets of practical size, and the experimental study we conducted on both simulated and real data shows that these solutions are qualitatively good, always within some small constant factor from the optimum. Moreover, our machine-learned heuristics are one of the first applications of machine learning to phylogenetics and show its promise.

3.
Metabolites ; 13(7)2023 Jun 24.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37512494

RESUMO

Cellular purine nucleotides derive mainly from de novo synthesis or nucleic acid turnover and, only marginally, from dietary intake. They are subjected to catabolism, eventually forming uric acid in humans, while bases and nucleosides may be converted back to nucleotides through the salvage pathways. Inborn errors of the purine salvage pathway and catabolism have been described by several researchers and are usually referred to as rare diseases. Since purine compounds play a fundamental role, it is not surprising that their dysmetabolism is accompanied by devastating symptoms. Nevertheless, some of these manifestations are unexpected and, so far, have no explanation or therapy. Herein, we describe several known inborn errors of purine metabolism, highlighting their unexplained pathological aspects. Our intent is to offer new points of view on this topic and suggest diagnostic tools that may possibly indicate to clinicians that the inborn errors of purine metabolism may not be very rare diseases after all.

4.
J Endovasc Ther ; 30(1): 91-97, 2023 Feb.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35098764

RESUMO

PURPOSE: Patients with a hyperangulated (>60°) proximal aortic neck and at high risk of open surgery have been treated with endovascular aortic repair (EVAR). However, long-term outcomes are not well reported. The aim of this study is to compare the technical and clinical success of EVAR in angulated (45°-60°) and hyperangulated (>60°) proximal neck angulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data of all consecutive patients undergoing EVAR treated between November 2007 and February 2020 were collected. A retrospective analysis of this prospective database was performed. The primary measure outcome was technical and clinical success. In addition, we evaluated sack evolution, type IA endoleak, secondary procedures, aneurysm rupture, mortality, aneurysm-related mortality, and migration. RESULTS: In all, 246 of 1353 EVAR patients presented with an angulation of the proximal neck >45°, 130 patients presented with an infrarenal angulation >60°, while 116 patients had an angulation between 45° and 60°. Patients with a hyperangulated infrarenal aortic neck were significantly more often women (8.6% vs 26.9%), older (73.9 vs 76.7 years), and had less often diabetes mellitus (20.7% vs 10.8%). Suprarenal neck angulation and reversed tapered neck were significantly more frequent in the hyperangulated group so that propensity scores were generated using these anatomical parameters to create a matched cohort group. No significant differences in technical (87.9% vs 94.8%) and clinical success (66.4% vs 69.8%) were observed. After a mean clinical follow-up of 58.9 months significantly more secondary procedures were performed in the hyperangulated group (23.3% vs 12.9% p=0.04); however, neck-related secondary procedures were comparable (1.7% vs 6.0%; p=0.09). Also, all-cause and aneurysm-related mortality, sack evolution, type IA endoleak, aneurysm rupture, and migration were comparable for both groups. CONCLUSION: Compared with less angulated proximal aortic neck, hyperangulated neck anatomy did not reduce the technical and clinical success of EVAR but increased the risk of secondary procedures. In patients who are not good candidates for open surgery, EVAR is a reasonable alternative.


Assuntos
Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal , Implante de Prótese Vascular , Procedimentos Endovasculares , Humanos , Feminino , Prótese Vascular/efeitos adversos , Implante de Prótese Vascular/efeitos adversos , Estudos Retrospectivos , Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal/diagnóstico por imagem , Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal/cirurgia , Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal/complicações , Correção Endovascular de Aneurisma , Endoleak/diagnóstico por imagem , Endoleak/etiologia , Stents/efeitos adversos , Resultado do Tratamento , Fatores de Risco , Procedimentos Endovasculares/efeitos adversos , Aortografia/métodos , Fatores de Tempo
5.
J Endovasc Ther ; 30(3): 433-440, 2023 06.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35403499

RESUMO

INTRODUCTION: Antegrade wire-catheter crossing remains the primary approach for femoropopliteal interventions. Nonetheless, data reporting on crossing failure are limited. Aim of this study is to identify risk factors for antegrade crossing failure in patients with femoropopliteal chronic total occlusions (CTOs). METHODS: This is a single-center, retrospective analysis. Patients with femoropopliteal CTOs treated between May 2018 and February 2020 were included into this study. Primary endpoint of this analysis was primary crossing success defined as successful antegrade crossing without the use of retrograde access, crossing or re-entry devices. The assisted crossing success was additionally analyzed. A logistic regression analysis identified risk factors for failed primary antegrade crossing. RESULTS: Data from 300 patients were analyzed. The majority (n=183, 61%) presented with lifestyle limiting claudication. The mean lesion length was 180 mm [interquartile range (IQR) 100-260 mm], whereas the median CTO length was 100 mm (IQR=50-210 mm). A chronic total occlusion crossing approach based on plaque morphology (CTOP) type I configuration was observed in 9% (n=26) of the lesions, type II in 61% (n=183), type III in 8% (n=25), and type IV in 66 CTOs (n= 66, 22%). Severe calcification based on the Peripheral Arterial Calcium Scoring Scale (PACSS), Peripheral Academic Research Consortium (PARC), and 360° grading systems was identified in 17%, 24%, and 28% of the lesions, respectively. A contralateral femoral access was used in 278 cases (93%). The primary crossing success amounted to 70% (n=210). The use of a re-entry device in 28 patients (9%) or of a combined antegrade-retrograde approach in 11% (n=34) of the cases increased the assisted crossing success to 89% (n=267). The presence of calcification (odds ratio [OR]=4.2, 95% CI=1.7-10.2) or of circumferential calcium (OR=2.5, 95% CI=1.3-4.9), a CTOP class ΙΙΙ or ΙV (OR=1.9, 95% CI=1.4-2.6), a proximal superficial femoral artery (SFA) occlusion (OR=3.5, 95% CI=1.7-7.4) and a CTO at P3 (OR=4.1, 95% CI=1.5-10.8) were associated with an increased risk for antegrade crossing failure. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, chronic total occlusions (CTO) morphology, calcification burden, and lesion's location were identified as independent risk factors for failed antegrade crossing. Nonetheless, the use of alternative crossing strategies significantly increased the overall crossing success.


Assuntos
Artéria Femoral , Doença Arterial Periférica , Humanos , Artéria Femoral/diagnóstico por imagem , Estudos Retrospectivos , Cálcio , Resultado do Tratamento , Fatores de Risco , Cateteres , Doença Arterial Periférica/diagnóstico por imagem , Doença Arterial Periférica/terapia , Doença Crônica
6.
Cells ; 11(22)2022 11 18.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36429096

RESUMO

Nitisinone (NTBC) was recently approved to treat alkaptonuria (AKU), but there is no information on its impact on oxidative stress and inflammation, which are observed in AKU. Therefore, serum samples collected during the clinical studies SONIA1 (40 AKU patients) and SONIA2 (138 AKU patients) were tested for Serum Amyloid A (SAA), CRP and IL-8 by ELISA; Advanced Oxidation Protein Products (AOPP) by spectrophotometry; and protein carbonyls by Western blot. Our results show that NTBC had no significant effects on the tested markers except for a slight but statistically significant effect for NTBC, but not for the combination of time and NTBC, on SAA levels in SONIA2 patients. Notably, the majority of SONIA2 patients presented with SAA > 10 mg/L, and 30 patients in the control group (43.5%) and 40 patients (58.0%) in the NTBC-treated group showed persistently elevated SAA > 10 mg/L at each visit during SONIA2. Higher serum SAA correlated with lower quality of life and higher morbidity. Despite no quantitative differences in AOPP, the preliminary analysis of protein carbonyls highlighted patterns that deserve further investigation. Overall, our results suggest that NTBC cannot control the sub-clinical inflammation due to increased SAA observed in AKU, which is also a risk factor for developing secondary amyloidosis.


Assuntos
Alcaptonúria , Humanos , Alcaptonúria/tratamento farmacológico , Alcaptonúria/complicações , Alcaptonúria/metabolismo , Produtos da Oxidação Avançada de Proteínas/metabolismo , Produtos da Oxidação Avançada de Proteínas/uso terapêutico , Qualidade de Vida , Biomarcadores/metabolismo , Proteína Amiloide A Sérica/metabolismo , Inflamação/metabolismo , Estresse Oxidativo
7.
Methods Mol Biol ; 2493: 247-256, 2022.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35751819

RESUMO

The discovery and characterization of sequence variations in human populations are crucial in genetic studies. Standard methods for addressing this problem are computationally expensive and highly time consuming, thus impractical for clinical applications, where time is often an issue. When the task is to genotype variations that have been previously annotated, alignment-free methods come to the aid. Here, we describe MALVA, an alignment-free approach for genotyping a set of known variations. MALVA is the first mapping-free tool which is able to genotype multi-allelic SNPs and indels, even in high-density genomic regions, and to effectively handle a huge number of variations.


Assuntos
Malva , Genômica/métodos , Genótipo , Técnicas de Genotipagem/métodos , Sequenciamento de Nucleotídeos em Larga Escala , Humanos , Mutação INDEL , Polimorfismo de Nucleotídeo Único , Análise de Sequência de DNA/métodos
8.
J Agric Food Chem ; 70(23): 6963-6981, 2022 Jun 15.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35652597

RESUMO

The serendipitous discovery of the HPPD inhibitors from allelopathic plants opened the way for searching new and effective herbicidal agents by application of classical hit-to-lead optimization approaches. A plethora of active and selective compounds were discovered that belong to three major classes of cyclohexane-based triketones, pyrazole-based diketones, and diketonitriles. In addition, to enhance inhibitory constant and herbicidal activity, many efforts were also made to gain broader weed control, crop safety, and eventual agricultural applicability. Moreover, HPPD inhibitors emerged as therapeutic agents for inherited and metabolic human diseases as well as vector-selective insecticides in the control of hematophagous arthropods. Given the large set of experimental data available, structure-activity relationship analysis could be used to derive suggestions for next generation optimized compounds.


Assuntos
4-Hidroxifenilpiruvato Dioxigenase , Herbicidas , Inibidores Enzimáticos/química , Inibidores Enzimáticos/farmacologia , Herbicidas/química , Herbicidas/farmacologia , Humanos , Cetonas/química , Cetonas/farmacologia , Estrutura Molecular , Relação Estrutura-Atividade , Controle de Plantas Daninhas
9.
PLoS One ; 17(2): e0264327, 2022.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35202427

RESUMO

OBJECTIVES: A growing number of abdominal aortic aneurysms with severe angulated neck anatomy is treated by endovascular means. However, contradictory early and late outcomes have been reported. Our review and outcome analysis attempted to evaluate the available literature and provide clinicians with a base for clinical implementation and future research. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was undertaken to identify the outcomes of endovascular aneurysm repair in patients with severe infrarenal neck angulation (SNA ≥ 60°) vs non-severe neck angulation (NSNA). Outcome measures included perioperative complications, type 1a endoleak, neck-related secondary procedures, stent graft migration, aneurysm rupture, increase (>5mm) in sac diameter, all-cause and aneurysm-related mortality (PROSPERO Nr.: CRD42021233253). RESULTS: Six observational studies reporting on 5981 patients (1457 with SNA and 4524 with NSNA) with a weighted mean follow-up period of 1.8 years were included. EVAR in SNA compared with NSNA was associated with a higher rate of type 1a endoleak at 30 days (4.0% vs 1.8%; p< 0.00001), at 1 year (2.8% vs 1.9%; p<0.03), at 2 years (4.9% vs 2.1%; p< 0.0002), at 3 years (5.6% vs 2.6%; p< 0.0001). The rate of neck-related secondary procedures was significantly higher at 1 year (6.6% vs 3.9%; p<0.05) and at 3 years (13.1% vs 9%; p<0.05). Graft migration, aneurysm sack increase, aneurysm rupture and all-cause mortality were not statistically different at mid-term. CONCLUSIONS: The use of EVAR in severely angulated infrarenal aortic necks is associated with a high rate of early and mid-term complications. However, aortic related and all-causes mortality are not higher compared to patients with NSNA. Therefore, EVAR should be cautiously used in patients with SNA.


Assuntos
Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal/cirurgia , Procedimentos Endovasculares , Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal/mortalidade , Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal/patologia , Procedimentos Endovasculares/efeitos adversos , Procedimentos Endovasculares/mortalidade , Humanos , Complicações Pós-Operatórias , Resultado do Tratamento
10.
Mar Pollut Bull ; 174: 113272, 2022 Jan.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35090267

RESUMO

In case of offshore oil spills, the success of emergency response largely depends on the meteorological and oceanographic conditions during and after the spill, which are expressed by a set of different environmental factors. A "gap" in the response may be caused by unfavourable environmental factors that could limit its effectiveness or even impede it. In this context, Response Gap Analysis (RGA) studies identify the environmental factors negatively influencing the emergency response in a given sea area and aim at assessing the percentage of time during which the response would be without success or impossible to deploy. In the present study, a new RGA methodology is described, based on 11 environmental factors. Different oil spill response strategies are considered: mechanical recovery, application of dispersants by vessel and by aircraft, and in-situ burning. A case-study is presented to demonstrate the methodology and discuss the outcomes obtained by its application.


Assuntos
Poluição por Petróleo
11.
Arch Biochem Biophys ; 717: 109137, 2022 03 15.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35090868

RESUMO

Alkaptonuria (AKU) is an ultra-rare genetic disease caused by a deficient activity of the enzyme homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase (HGD) leading to the accumulation of homogentisic acid (HGA) on connective tissues. Even though AKU is a multi-systemic disease, osteoarticular cartilage is the most affected system and the most damaged tissue by the disease. In chondrocytes, HGA causes oxidative stress dysfunctions, which induce a series of not fully characterized cellular responses. In this study, we used a human chondrocytic cell line as an AKU model to evaluate, for the first time, the effect of HGA on autophagy, the main homeostasis system in articular cartilage. Cells responded timely to HGA treatment with an increase in autophagy as a mechanism of protection. In a chronic state, HGA-induced oxidative stress decreased autophagy, and chondrocytes, unable to restore balance, activated the chondroptosis pathway. This decrease in autophagy also correlated with the accumulation of ochronotic pigment, a hallmark of AKU. Our data suggest new perspectives for understanding AKU and a mechanistic model that rationalizes the damaging role of HGA.


Assuntos
Alcaptonúria/prevenção & controle , Autofagia/efeitos dos fármacos , Biomarcadores/metabolismo , Homogentisato 1,2-Dioxigenase/metabolismo , Ácido Homogentísico/metabolismo , Alcaptonúria/metabolismo , Apoptose/efeitos dos fármacos , Cartilagem Articular/efeitos dos fármacos , Linhagem Celular , Condrócitos/citologia , Ácido Homogentísico/farmacologia , Humanos , Ocronose/metabolismo , Estresse Oxidativo/efeitos dos fármacos , Transdução de Sinais
12.
J Endovasc Ther ; 29(3): 361-369, 2022 06.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34622699

RESUMO

PURPOSE: We hypothesized that extending the proximal landing zone with the chimney technique could be beneficial in patients with a hyperangulated proximal aortic neck, defined as more > 60 degrees. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the outcome of prospectively collected data of patients treated by endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for infrarenal aortic aneurysm with a hyperangulated proximal aortic neck. In all, 104 out of 130 patients were treated without (Group A) and 24 with the chimney endovascular aortic repair (ChEVAR, Group B). Primary outcome was technical and clinical success according to the reporting standards of the Society of Vascular Surgery. RESULTS: The use of the chimney technique was associated with a significantly longer operation duration (167 vs. 93 min, p < .001), longer fluoroscopy time (44 vs.30 min, p = < .001), and larger amount of contrast medium used (149 vs. 127 ml, p = .03) but did not significantly improve technical (79.2% vs. 87.7%) and clinical success (54.2% vs. 68.9%). Aneurysm-related mortality was higher in group B (8.3% vs. = 0%, p < .001). Type IA endoleak was high in both groups at completion angiography (11.3% in Group A vs. 12.5% in Group B) and at follow-up (10.4% in Group A vs. 4.5% in Group B) without significant difference between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our data did not show a benefit of the primary use of the chimney technique in patients with a hyperangulated and short neck, although more studies are required to support this conclusion. Other strategies or new technologies are required for improving EVAR results in aneurysm patients with severe angulated proximal and short neck.


Assuntos
Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal , Implante de Prótese Vascular , Procedimentos Endovasculares , Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal/diagnóstico por imagem , Aneurisma da Aorta Abdominal/cirurgia , Prótese Vascular , Endoleak/cirurgia , Humanos , Estudos Retrospectivos , Fatores de Risco , Resultado do Tratamento
13.
Expert Rev Proteomics ; 18(4): 315-327, 2021 04.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33861161

RESUMO

Introduction: The term 'orphan diseases' includes conditions meeting prevalence-based or commercial viability criteria: they affect a small number of individuals and are considered an unviable market for drug development. Proteomics is an important technology to study them, providing information on mechanisms and evolution, biomarkers, and effects of therapeutic interventions.Areas covered: Herein, we review how proteomics and bioinformatic tools could be applied to the study of rare diseases and discuss pitfalls and potential.Expert opinion: Research in the field of rare diseases has to face many challenges, and implementation plans should foresee highly specialized collaborative consortia to create multidisciplinary frameworks for data sharing, advancing research, supporting clinical studies, and accelerating drug development. The integration of different technologies will allow better knowledge of disease pathophysiology, and the inclusion of proteomics and other omics technologies in this context will be pivotal to this aim.Several aspects of rare diseases, often perceived as limiting factors, might actually be advantages for a precision medicine approach: the limited number of patients, the collaboration with patient societies, and the availability of curated clinical registries could allow the development of homogeneous clinical databases and ultimately a better control over the data to be analyzed.


Assuntos
Proteômica , Doenças Raras , Biomarcadores , Biologia Computacional , Humanos , Medicina de Precisão
14.
Bioinformatics ; 37(2): 178-184, 2021 04 19.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32730595

RESUMO

MOTIVATION: The latest advances in cancer sequencing, and the availability of a wide range of methods to infer the evolutionary history of tumors, have made it important to evaluate, reconcile and cluster different tumor phylogenies. Recently, several notions of distance or similarities have been proposed in the literature, but none of them has emerged as the golden standard. Moreover, none of the known similarity measures is able to manage mutations occurring multiple times in the tree, a circumstance often occurring in real cases. RESULTS: To overcome these limitations, in this article, we propose MP3, the first similarity measure for tumor phylogenies able to effectively manage cases where multiple mutations can occur at the same time and mutations can occur multiple times. Moreover, a comparison of MP3 with other measures shows that it is able to classify correctly similar and dissimilar trees, both on simulated and on real data. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: An open source implementation of MP3 is publicly available at https://github.com/AlgoLab/mp3treesim. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Assuntos
Algoritmos , Árvores , Evolução Biológica , Filogenia , Análise de Sequência , Software
16.
Int J Mol Sci ; 21(15)2020 Jul 23.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32717819

RESUMO

Osteosarcomas (OSs) are bone tumors most commonly found in pediatric and adolescent patients characterized by high risk of metastatic progression and recurrence after therapy. Effective therapeutic management of this disease still remains elusive as evidenced by poor patient survival rates. To achieve a more effective therapeutic management regimen, and hence patient survival, there is a need to identify more focused targeted therapies for OSs treatment in the clinical setting. The role of the OS tumor stroma microenvironment plays a significant part in the development and dissemination of this disease. Important components, and hence potential targets for treatment, are the tumor-infiltrating macrophages that are known to orchestrate many aspects of OS stromal signaling and disease progression. In particular, increased infiltration of M2-like tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) has been associated with OS metastasis and poor patient prognosis despite currently used aggressive therapies regimens. This review aims to provide a summary update of current macrophage-centered knowledge and to discuss the possible roles that macrophages play in the process of OS metastasis development focusing on the potential influence of stromal cross-talk signaling between TAMs, cancer-stem cells and additional OSs tumoral microenvironment factors.


Assuntos
Neoplasias Ósseas , Osteossarcoma , Transdução de Sinais/imunologia , Microambiente Tumoral/imunologia , Macrófagos Associados a Tumor , Neoplasias Ósseas/imunologia , Neoplasias Ósseas/metabolismo , Neoplasias Ósseas/patologia , Neoplasias Ósseas/terapia , Humanos , Metástase Neoplásica , Osteossarcoma/imunologia , Osteossarcoma/metabolismo , Osteossarcoma/patologia , Osteossarcoma/terapia , Macrófagos Associados a Tumor/imunologia , Macrófagos Associados a Tumor/metabolismo , Macrófagos Associados a Tumor/patologia
17.
Antibiotics (Basel) ; 9(5)2020 May 11.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32403331

RESUMO

Treatment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is a challenge for clinicians. The large increase in drug-resistant strains makes the formulation of new therapeutic strategies fundamental. The frequent onset of side effects during antibiotic treatment (mainly due to intestinal dysbiosis) should not be underestimated as it may cause the interruption of treatment, failure of H. pylori eradication and clonal selection of resistant bacteria. Probiotic integration during antibiotic treatment can exert a dual function: a direct antagonistic effect on H. pylori and a balancing effect on dysbiosis. Therefore, it fulfills the definition of a new therapeutic strategy to successfully treat H. pylori infection. Data reported in literature give promising but discrepant results. AIM: To assess in vitro bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity of probiotic strains against H. pylori. MATERIALS AND METHODS: L. casei, L. paracasei, L. acidophilus, B. lactis and S. thermophilus strains were used. Agar well diffusion and time-kill curves were carried out to detect bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity, respectively. RESULTS: All probiotic strains showed both bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity vs. H. pylori. CONCLUSIONS: Such findings prompted us to plan a protocol of treatment in which probiotics are given to infected patients in association with antibiotic therapy.

18.
Orphanet J Rare Dis ; 15(1): 46, 2020 02 12.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32050984

RESUMO

BACKGROUND: Alkaptonuria (AKU) is an ultra-rare autosomal recessive disease caused by a mutation in the homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase (HGD) gene. One of the main obstacles in studying AKU, and other ultra-rare diseases, is the lack of a standardized methodology to assess disease severity or response to treatment. Quality of Life scores (QoL) are a reliable way to monitor patients' clinical condition and health status. QoL scores allow to monitor the evolution of diseases and assess the suitability of treatments by taking into account patients' symptoms, general health status and care satisfaction. However, more comprehensive tools to study a complex and multi-systemic disease like AKU are needed. In this study, a Machine Learning (ML) approach was implemented with the aim to perform a prediction of QoL scores based on clinical data deposited in the ApreciseKUre, an AKU- dedicated database. METHOD: Data derived from 129 AKU patients have been firstly examined through a preliminary statistical analysis (Pearson correlation coefficient) to measure the linear correlation between 11 QoL scores. The variable importance in QoL scores prediction of 110 ApreciseKUre biomarkers has been then calculated using XGBoost, with K-nearest neighbours algorithm (k-NN) approach. Due to the limited number of data available, this model has been validated using surrogate data analysis. RESULTS: We identified a direct correlation of 6 (age, Serum Amyloid A, Chitotriosidase, Advanced Oxidation Protein Products, S-thiolated proteins and Body Mass Index) out of 110 biomarkers with the QoL health status, in particular with the KOOS (Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score) symptoms (Relative Absolute Error (RAE) 0.25). The error distribution of surrogate-model (RAE 0.38) was unequivocally higher than the true-model one (RAE of 0.25), confirming the consistency of our dataset. Our data showed that inflammation, oxidative stress, amyloidosis and lifestyle of patients correlates with the QoL scores for physical status, while no correlation between the biomarkers and patients' mental health was present (RAE 1.1). CONCLUSIONS: This proof of principle study for rare diseases confirms the importance of database, allowing data management and analysis, which can be used to predict more effective treatments.


Assuntos
Alcaptonúria , Qualidade de Vida , Gerenciamento de Dados , Humanos , Aprendizado de Máquina , Doenças Raras
19.
J Cell Physiol ; 235(10): 6808-6816, 2020 10.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31989660

RESUMO

Alkaptonuria (AKU) is a rare disease correlated with deficiency of the enzyme homogentisate 1,2 dioxygenase, which causes homogentisic acid (HGA) accumulation. HGA is subjected to oxidation/polymerization reactions, leading to the production of a peculiar melanin-like pigmentation (ochronosis) after chronic inflammation, which is considered as a triggering event for the generation of oxidative stress. Clinical manifestations of AKU are urine darkening, sclera pigmentation, early severe osteoarthropathy, and cardiovascular and renal complication. Despite major clinical manifestations of AKU being observed in the bones and skeleton, the molecular and functional parameters are so far unknown in AKU. In the present study, we used human osteoblasts supplemented with HGA as a AKU cellular model. We observed marked oxidative stress, and for the first time, we were able to correlate HGA deposition with an impairment in the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway, opening a range of possible therapeutic strategies for a disease still lacking a known cure.


Assuntos
Ácido Homogentísico/farmacologia , Osteoblastos/efeitos dos fármacos , Estresse Oxidativo/efeitos dos fármacos , Via de Sinalização Wnt/efeitos dos fármacos , beta Catenina/metabolismo , Alcaptonúria/metabolismo , Osso e Ossos/efeitos dos fármacos , Osso e Ossos/metabolismo , Células Cultivadas , Humanos , Inflamação/metabolismo , Melaninas/metabolismo , Ocronose/metabolismo , Osteoblastos/metabolismo , Oxirredução/efeitos dos fármacos , Pigmentação/efeitos dos fármacos , Transdução de Sinais/efeitos dos fármacos
20.
FASEB J ; 33(11): 12696-12703, 2019 11.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31462106

RESUMO

Alkaptonuria (AKU) is an ultrarare autosomal recessive disorder (MIM 203500) that is caused byby a complex set of mutations in homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenasegene and consequent accumulation of homogentisic acid (HGA), causing a significant protein oxidation. A secondary form of amyloidosis was identified in AKU and related to high circulating serum amyloid A (SAA) levels, which are linked with inflammation and oxidative stress and might contribute to disease progression and patients' poor quality of life. Recently, we reported that inflammatory markers (SAA and chitotriosidase) and oxidative stress markers (protein thiolation index) might be disease activity markers in AKU. Thanks to an international network, we collected genotypic, phenotypic, and clinical data from more than 200 patients with AKU. These data are currently stored in our AKU database, named ApreciseKUre. In this work, we developed an algorithm able to make predictions about the oxidative status trend of each patient with AKU based on 55 predictors, namely circulating HGA, body mass index, total cholesterol, SAA, and chitotriosidase. Our general aim is to integrate the data of apparently heterogeneous patients with AKUAKU by using specific bioinformatics tools, in order to identify pivotal mechanisms involved in AKU for a preventive, predictive, and personalized medicine approach to AKU.-Cicaloni, V., Spiga, O., Dimitri, G. M., Maiocchi, R., Millucci, L., Giustarini, D., Bernardini, G., Bernini, A., Marzocchi, B., Braconi, D., Santucci, A. Interactive alkaptonuria database: investigating clinical data to improve patient care in a rare disease.


Assuntos
Alcaptonúria , Biologia Computacional , Bases de Dados Genéticas , Medicina de Precisão , Doenças Raras , Alcaptonúria/metabolismo , Alcaptonúria/patologia , Alcaptonúria/terapia , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Doenças Raras/metabolismo , Doenças Raras/patologia , Doenças Raras/terapia
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