Preterm Newborn Adaptive Responses to Daily Nursing during Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Stay, Associate with Neurodevelopment, 2 Years Later.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate if adaptive responses of very preterm newborns to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) daily nursing, specifically bathing and weighing procedures are associated with their neurodevelopment after 2 years. STUDY DESIGN: Twenty-six very preterm newborns, with a gestational age <32 weeks, were enrolled. Infants' adaptive responses to daily nursing were evaluated, at 30 to 32 to 35 postmenstrual age (PMA) weeks by an observational sheet. Neurodevelopment was assessed at 24 months of corrected age by the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, third edition. Autonomic, motor, and self-regulatory responses to NICU nursing were analyzed by Spearman's correlation coefficient and multivariate linear regression with Bayley's cognitive, language, and motor scales. RESULTS: Significant (p < 0.05) positive correlations of self-regulatory and autonomic responses to nursing with all Bayley's scales were found at 30- and 32-week PMA. At 35-week PMA, only self-regulatory responses had significant positive correlations with all Bayley's scales. When adjusted for birth weight and sex, the significant associations were confirmed only at 30- and 32-week PMA. CONCLUSION: Very preterm newborn adaptive responses to NICU daily nursing reveal to be positively related to forthcoming neurodevelopment 2 years later, as early as the 30-week PMA. Helping preterm babies to adapt to daily NICU nursing may promote their future neurobehavior. KEY POINTS: · Preterm adaptation to nursing was studied.. · Adaptation positively relates to neurodevelopment.. · Such relation is detected since 30-week PMA..

Conformational landscape and low lying excited states of imatinib.

The conformational changes of imatinib (IMT) are crucial for understanding the ligand-receptor interaction and its mechanism of action [Agofonov et al. (2014) Nature Struct Mol Biol 21:848-853]. Therefore, here we investigated the free energy conformational landscape of the free IMT base, aiming to describe the three-dimensional structures and energetic stability of its conformers. Forty-five unique conformers, within an energy window of 4.8 kcal mol(-1) were identified by a conformational search in gas-phase, at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) theoretical level. Among these, the 20 most stable, as well as 4 conformers resulting from optimization of experimental structures found in the two known polymorphs of IMT and in the c-Abl complex were further refined using the 6-31+G(d,p) basis set and the polarizable continuum solvation model. The most stable conformers in gas-phase and water exhibit a V-shaped structure. The major difference between the most stable free conformers and the bioactive conformers consists in the relative orientation of the pyrimidine-pyridine groups responsible for hydrogen bonding interactions in the ATP-binding pocket. The ratio of mole fractions corresponding to the two known (α and ß) polymorphic forms of IMT was estimated from the calculated thermochemical data, in quantitative agreement with the existing experimental data related to their solubility. The electronic absorption spectrum of this compound was investigated in water and explained based on the theoretical TD-DFT results, considering the Boltzmann population-averaged computed data at CAM-B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level of theory for the nine most stable conformers.