The Role of microRNAs in Development of Colitis-Associated Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most deadly cancer worldwide, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is one of the critical factors in CRC carcinogenesis. IBD is responsible for an unphysiological and sustained chronic inflammation environment favoring the transformation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) belong to a class of highly conserved short single-stranded segments (18–25 nucleotides) non-coding RNA and have been extensively discussed in both CRC and IBD. However, the role of miRNAs in the development of colitis-associated CRC (CAC) is less clear. The aim of this review is to summarize the major upregulated (miR-18a, miR-19a, miR-21, miR-31, miR-155 and miR-214) and downregulated (miR-124, miR-193a-3p and miR-139-5p) miRNAs in CAC, and their roles in genes’ expression modulation in chronic colonic-inflammation-induced carcinogenesis, including programmed cell-death pathways. These miRNAs dysregulation could be applied for early CAC diagnosis, to predict therapy efficacy and for precision treatment.     

Oxidative Stress and Low-Grade Inflammation in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Controversies and New Insights

The pathophysiology of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is quite complex and different mechanisms could contribute to hyperandrogenism and anovulation, which are the main features of the syndrome. Obesity and insulin-resistance are claimed as the principal factors contributing to the clinical presentation; in normal weight PCOS either, increased visceral adipose tissue has been described. However, their role is still debated, as debated are the biochemical markers linked to obesity per se. Oxidative stress (OS) and low-grade inflammation (LGI) have recently been a matter of researcher attention; they can influence each other in a reciprocal vicious cycle. In this review, we summarize the main mechanism of radical generation and the link with LGI. Furthermore, we discuss papers in favor or against the role of obesity as the first pathogenetic factor, and show how OS itself, on the contrary, can induce obesity and insulin resistance; in particular, the role of GH-IGF-1 axis is highlighted. Finally, the possible consequences on vitamin D synthesis and activation on the immune system are briefly discussed. This review intends to underline the key role of oxidative stress and low-grade inflammation in the physiopathology of PCOS, they can cause or worsen obesity, insulin-resistance, vitamin D deficiency, and immune dyscrasia, suggesting an inverse interaction to what is usually considered.     

Synergistic antimycobacterial activity between ethambutol and the beta-lactam drug cefepime

The contributions of (+/-)-alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA[A]) receptors in the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) have been studied in the CA1 region of the rat hippocampus. The results suggest that: (1) in physiological conditions, AMPARs are necessary for the induction of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-dependent LTP since LTP cannot be elicited in the presence of the AMPAR antagonist, 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX). Although a NMDAR-dependent LTP occurs in the presence of a GABA(A) antagonist and high concentrations of divalents cations, blockade of AMPARs leads to a voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCC)-dependent LTP since its induction is blocked by nifedipine and not by APV. (2) The bicarbonate-induced GABA(A) receptor-mediated depolarizing response is not necessary in the induction of NMDAR-dependent or VDCC-dependent LTP since induction of these two types of LTP were not blocked by acetazolamide or in a nominally bicarbonate-free solution.     

Removal of fulvic acid from aqueous media by adsorption onto modified vermiculite

Clay minerals are low cost materials that can be structurally modified and exploited for removal of natural organic matter from freshwaters. The present study shows that vermiculites modified by ion exchange with hexadecyltrimethylammonium or intercalation with poly(hydroxy iron) cations are potential adsorbents for removal of fulvic acid, whereas the adsorption on the raw clay mineral is negligible. The efficiency of the modified vermiculite was evaluated by measuring adsorption isotherms by the batch technique using initial fulvic acid concentrations between 2.5 and 50.0 mg L^− 1, with one hour of contact time. At least 94% of the fulvic acid initially present in a 20 mg L^− 1 solution was sorbed onto either the intercalated poly(hydroxy iron) cations or the organically modified vermiculite. Up to an initial concentration of 5.0 mg L^− 1 the adsorption is irreversible, and no quantifiable fulvic acid was measured in the desorption experiments. For initial fulvic acid concentrations between 10.0 and 50.0 mg L^− 1, desorption was between 2.3% and 4.9% for Fe(III) intercalated vermiculite, and between 1.4% and 9.2% for the organoclay. The adsorption percentages on intercalated poly(hydroxy iron) cations increased upon lowering pH and increasing the ionic strength, indicating the occurrence of strong binding mechanisms such as ligand exchange. Adsorption percentage of fulvic acid onto the organoclay also increased with lowering of pH, but in this case the adsorption percentages showed a small decrease at high ionic strength, suggesting that electrostatic attraction plays an important role in the adsorption process.     

Foreign bodies in the gastrointestinal tract. Our cases and a review of the literature

The ingestion or introduction of foreign bodies is a common situation in emergency surgery. The patients who usually ingest foreign bodies for different reasons are children, psychotics, alcoholics, prisoners and old people. The authors analyzed 65 cases observed in the I Institute of Surgery of the University of Rome "La Sapienza": 45 males and 20 females. Both the anal introduction and ingestion may be accidental or voluntary. The incidence of complications is estimated about 5 to 7%. The authors underline the opportunity of a conservative removal through endoscopic procedures especially for intraesophageal corps. This procedure is recommended to reduce morbidity and mortality rates, as well as hospitalization and social costs.     

Numerical inversion of multidimensional Laplace transforms by the Laguerre method

Numerical transform inversion can be useful to solve stochastic models arising in the performance evaluation of telecommunications and computer systems. We contribute to this technique in this paper by extending our recently developed variant of the Laguerre method for numerically inverting Laplace transforms to multidimensional Laplace transforms. An important application of multidimensional inversion is to calculate time-dependent performance measures of stochastic systems. Key features of our new algorithm are: (1) an efficient FFT-based extension of our previously developed variant of the Fourierseries method to calculate the coefficients of the multidimensional Laguerre generating function, and (2) systematic methods for scaling to accelerate convergence of infinite series, using Wynn's ε-algorithm and exploiting geometric decay rates of Laguerre coefficients. These features greatly speed up the algorithm while controlling errors. We illustrate the effectiveness of our algorithm through numerical examples. For many problems, hundreds of function evaluations can be computed in just a few seconds.     

A polyfluoroalkyl imidazolium ionic liquid as iodide ion source in dye sensitized solar cells

We report on the use of a fluorinated imidazolium ionic liquid as a source of iodide ions in solvent-based electrolytes for DSSCs. Efficient dye regeneration and fast charge transport in the fluorinated electrolyte result in an overall improvement of the device performances compared to conventional hydrogenated ionic liquids.     

Dependency solving: A separate concern in component evolution management

Maintenance of component-based software platforms often has to face rapid evolution of software components. Component dependencies, conflicts, and package managers with dependency solving capabilities are the key ingredients of prevalent software maintenance technologies that have been proposed to keep software installations synchronized with evolving component repositories. We review state-of-the-art package managers and their ability to keep up with evolution at the current growth rate of popular component-based platforms, and conclude that their dependency solving abilities are not up to the task.We show that the complexity of the underlying upgrade planning problem is NP-complete even for seemingly simple component models, and argue that the principal source of complexity lies in multiple available versions of components. We then discuss the need of expressive languages for user preferences, which makes the problem even more challenging.We propose to establish dependency solving as a separate concern from other upgrade aspects, and present CUDF as a formalism to describe upgrade scenarios. By analyzing the result of an international dependency solving competition, we provide evidence that the proposed approach is viable.     

Elucidation of chemical structures of pink-red pigments responsible for ‘pinking’ in macerated onion (Allium cepa L.) using HPLC-DAD and tandem mass spectrometry

The chemical structures of pink-red pigments responsible for ‘pinking’ in macerated onion were tentatively elucidated using HPLC with a diode array detector and tandem mass spectrometry. All pigments were produced in conditions that approximated the natural process as closely as possible, using mixtures of onion thiosulphinates, the enzyme alliinase, and free amino acids. The isotopic distribution of protonated molecules of pink-red pigments produced from individual amino acids indicated the absence of sulphur, with the exception of pigment produced from cystine. The pigments had a basic polymethine framework containing two pyrrole rings (3,4-dimethyl-1H-pyrrole and 3,4-dimethyl-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrole) bridged by methines. The side chains attached to the nitrogen of the pyrrole rings were derived from the reacting amino acid. The simplest pink-red pigment, produced from glycine, was identified as 2-(2-(3-(1-(carboxymethyl)-3,4-dimethyl-1H-pyrrol-2(5H)-ylidene)prop-1-en-1-yl)-3,4-dimethyl-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)acetic acid. The pigment from alanine was identified as 2-(2-(3-(1-(carboxymethyl)-3,4-dimethyl-1H-pyrrol-2-yl)allylidene)-3,4-dimethyl-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrol-1-yl)propanoic acid. The chemical structures of pink-red pigments from leucine, asparagine, glutamine, tyrosine, and cystine also were determined.