Oral and Fecal Microbiota in Lynch Syndrome Ferrarese, Roberto; Zuppardo, Raffaella Alessia; Puzzono, Marta ...
Journal of clinical medicine,
08/2020, Letnik:
9, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Background: The role of microbiota in Lynch syndrome (LS) is still under debate. We compared oral and fecal microbiota of LS saliva and stool samples with normal healthy controls (NHC). Methods: ...Total DNA was purified from feces and saliva to amplify the V3–V4 region of the 16s rRNA gene. Sequences with a high-quality score and length >250 bp were used for taxonomic analysis with QIIME software. Results: Compared to NHC, LS fecal samples demonstrated a statistically significant increase of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria and a significant decrease of Firmicutes at the phylum level and of Ruminococcaceae at the family level. Moreover, LS oral samples exhibited a statistically significant increase of Veillonellaceae and Leptotrichiaceae and a statistically significant decrease of Pasteurellaceae. A beta-diversity index allowed differentiation of the two groups. Conclusions: A peculiar microbial signature is associated with LS, similar to that of sporadic colorectal cancer and Crohn’s disease. These data suggest a possible role of proinflammatory bacteria in tumor development in a condition of genetic predisposition, such as LS.
The social construction of gender dictates the masculine and feminine roles deemed appropriate within a society. Society has traditionally socially constructed women to be mothers and the primary ...parent, leaving fathers much too often on the sidelines of parenthood. For example, if a parent is a man, they have fewer rights than a parent who is a woman. Gender biases in society are insidious problems. Such biases can lead to the development of adverse attitudes, beliefs and unfair treatment of members of these groups by both individuals and social institutions. This paper will demonstrate the need to investigate the possibility of a systemic male gender bias in CWS. The paper will include the statement of the problem, the rationale and the framework of how gender is socially constructed to help in the understanding of how it negatively impacts fathers. Next will be a discussion of avoiding fathers at all six principle phases of CWS, the lack of parent programs specific to fathers, direction for future research and potential research implications for fathers, children and child welfare workers.
A milder clinical course of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has been anecdotally reported over the latest phase of COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Several factors ...may contribute to this observation, including the effect of lockdown, social distancing, lower humidity, lower air pollution, and potential changes in the intrinsic pathogenicity of the virus. In this regard, the clinical severity of COVID-19 could be attenuated by mutations in SARS-CoV-2 genome that decrease its virulence, as well as by lower virus inocula.
In this pilot study, we compared the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification profile of 100 nasopharyngeal swabs consecutively collected in April, during the peak of SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, to that of 100 swabs collected using the same procedure in May.
The mean Ct value of positive samples collected in May was significantly higher than that of samples collected in the previous period (ORF 1a/b gene: 31.85 ± 0.32 vs. 28.37 ± 0.5, p<0.001; E gene: 33.76 ± 0.38 vs. 29.79 ± 0.63, p<0.001), suggesting a lower viral load at the time of sampling. No significant differences were observed between male and females in the two periods, whilst higher viral loads were found in (i) patients over 60-years old, and (ii) patients that experienced severe COVID-19 during the early stages of the pandemic.
This pilot study prompts further investigation on the correlation between SARS-CoV-2 load and different clinical manifestation of COVID-19 during different phases of the pandemic. Laboratories should consider reporting quantitative viral load data in the molecular diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 can evade serum antibody-mediated neutralization through cell-to-cell transmission mechanisms, which represent one of the central steps in disease ...reactivation. To address the role of humoral immunity in controlling HSV-1 and HSV-2 replication, we analyzed serum samples from 44 HSV-1 and HSV-2 seropositive subjects by evaluating (i) their efficiency in binding both the purified viral particles and recombinant gD and gB viral glycoproteins, (ii) their neutralizing activity, and (iii) their capacity to inhibit the cell-to-cell virus passage
All of the sera were capable of binding gD, gB, and whole virions, and all sera significantly neutralized cell-free virus. However, neither whole sera nor purified serum IgG fraction was able to inhibit significantly cell-to-cell virus spreading in
post-virus-entry infectious assays. Conversely, when spiked with an already described anti-gD human monoclonal neutralizing antibody capable of inhibiting HSV-1 and -2 cell-to-cell transmission, each serum boosted both its neutralizing and post-virus-entry inhibitory activity, with no interference exerted by serum antibody subpopulations.
Despite its importance in the physiopathology of HSV-1 and -2 infections, the cell-to-cell spreading mechanism is still poorly understood. The data shown here suggest that infection-elicited neutralizing antibodies capable of inhibiting cell-to-cell virus spread can be underrepresented in most infected subjects. These observations can be of great help in better understanding the role of humoral immunity in controlling virus reactivation and in the perspective of developing novel therapeutic strategies, studying novel correlates of protection, and designing effective vaccines.
Comprehensive characterization of the urinary and urothelium-bound microbiomes in bladder cancer (BCa) and healthy state is essential to understand how these local microbiomes may play a role in BCa ...tumorigenesis and response to therapy, as well as to explain sex-based differences in BCa pathobiology. Performing 16 s rDNA microbiome analysis on 166 samples (urine and paired bladder tissues) from therapy-naïve BCa patients undergoing radical cystectomy and healthy controls, we defined (1) sex-specific microbiome differences in the urine and bladder tissue, and (2) representativeness of the tissue microenvironment by the voided urinary microbiome. The genus Klebsiella was more common in the urine of female BCa patients versus healthy controls, while no clinically relevant bacteria were found differently enriched in men. In tissues, the genus Burkholderia was more abundant in the neoplastic versus the non-neoplastic tissue in both sexes, suggesting a potential role in BCa pathobiology. Lastly, we found that the urinary microbiome shares >80% of the bacterial families present in the paired bladder tissue, making the urinary microbiome a fair proxy of the tissue bacterial environment.
We identified specific bacteria present in the urine and tissues of male and female bladder cancer patients. These novel data represent a first step toward understanding the influence of the bladder microbiome on the development of bladder cancer and on the response to intravesical and systemic therapies.
The change of the diversity in the urinary bacterial community of bladder cancer patients is gender specific. This information paves the way for integrating the urinary microbiome in the context of personalized medicine.
Abstract
Background: Despite being actively investigated for several other malignancies, the impact of the microbiome on tumorigenesis, response to therapy, and patient outcomes has not been ...thoroughly assessed in urothelial bladder cancer (BCa). Of note, the relationship between urinary and bladder tissue microbiomes has not yet been investigated. Herein, we aimed to assess: i) the gender-specific microbiome differences in the urine and bladder tissue; ii) the extent to which paired urine samples mirror the bladder tissue-associated microbiome.
Methods: A total of 166 biologic samples were analyzed: morning, mid-stream voided urines from 49 therapy-naïve patients (36 males, 13 females) undergoing radical cystectomy for MIBC and from 59 age-matched healthy controls (34 males, 25 females), plus bladder tissue specimens (paired BCa/non-BCa tissues) of 29 patients (21 males, 8 females). Exclusion criteria included history of recurrent urinary tract infections, positive urine dipstick test at the time of sample collection, recent antibiotic therapy, history of intravesical or neoadjuvant treatment for BCa. Microbiome was analyzed by amplicon-based approach. Sequences with a high-quality score >Q30 and length >250bp were used for the taxonomic analysis and were processed using the QIIME (Quantitative Insights Into Microbial Ecology) software package (v1.9.1). Intra- and interdiversity between samples and identification of taxonomic biomarkers by using the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) were considered significant at p-value ≤0.05.
Results: Comparing neoplastic vs. non-neoplastic paired tissues, beta-diversity did not show distinct clustering of the samples. At the taxonomic level, the genus Burkholderia was enriched in the neoplastic specimens in both genders. When we compared urines of patients vs. controls, the male and female urinary microbiome was dominated by members of the three major bacterial phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes. At lower taxonomic levels, the bacterial taxa differently enriched in BCa vs. controls were gender-specific, with 18 and 36 bacterial taxa differentially represented in BCa and controls in men and women, respectively. Comparing paired urinary and tissue-associated microbiome, we defined the “common BCa microbiome,” representing 34 and 16 bacterial families (>80% of total relative abundance) shared in the urines and tissues of male and female patients, respectively.
Conclusions: We provide novel characterization of the gender-specific microbiome in the urines and paired bladder tissues of BCa patients. A gender-specific “common BCa microbiome” was detailed, highlighting potentially actionable bacterial taxa.
Citation Format: Filippo Pederzoli, Roberto Ferrarese, Virginia Amato, Irene Locatelli, Elisa Alchera, Roberta Lucianò, Manuela Nebuloni, Alberto Briganti, Andrea Gallina, Valentina Murdica, Renzo Colombo, Andrea Necchi, Massimo Clementi, Francesco Montorsi, Nicasio Mancini, Andrea Salonia, Massimo Alfano. Intratissutal and urinary microbiome in therapy-naive bladder cancer patients: Definition of a gender-specific common microbiome abstract. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on the Microbiome, Viruses, and Cancer; 2020 Feb 21-24; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(8 Suppl):Abstract nr A33.
Vaginal and seminal microbiomes have gained increasing interest for their involvement in reproductive health and fertility. However, their role in reproductive outcome is not fully understood yet. In ...this study, we aimed to correlate the vaginal and the seminal microbiome of 23 couples with idiopathic infertility to the clinical pregnancy rate after intrauterine insemination (IUI).
Vaginal swabs and seminal fluids were collected on the day of IUI procedure and analyzed through polymerase chain reaction amplification of variable regions 3 and 4 (V3-V4) of 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid genes and Illumina MiSeq sequencing. The taxonomic data were then correlated to IUI success.
Idiopathic infertile women showed a different average composition of vaginal microbiome compared with control sequences, whereas for seminal counterpart no relevant differences were observed. Furthermore, among idiopathic infertile women, different patterns of
species dominations were observed, with a predominance either of
, a marker of a healthy vaginal ecosystem, or of
and
, associated with a more dysbiosis-prone environment. More important, considering all investigated variables, vaginal
domination was the only factor strongly associated to IUI success (
= .0002).
Our results strengthen the potential role of
in promoting a favorable environment for pregnancy and suggest that microbiome characterization could be useful, together with standard clinical and laboratory assessments, in the pre-IUI evaluation of infertile couples.
The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of understanding and practice concerning brain research by instructors of young adolescents in educational settings. Data was collected through ...three focus group discussions consisting of current instructors of young adolescents from a public middle school in north Texas per group. All participants completed demographic surveys and discussions were audio taped and transcribed for analysis. Analysis of the data showed eight common themes, with seven of those themes found to be consistent with current research and personal communication with experts in the fields of brain research and education. The eighth theme of this study, brain development, was inconsistent with expert opinion regarding a lack of instructor knowledge of teen brain development. Further data analysis determined that instructor understanding of the young adolescent brain was limited and was gained from extensive personal experience and not current available research.
Chia seeds products: an overview de Falco, Bruna; Amato, Mariana; Lanzotti, Virginia
Phytochemistry reviews,
08/2017, Letnik:
16, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Chia
, Salvia hispanica
L., is a medicinal and dietary plant species used since ancient times by Mayan and Aztec. Its product is a dry indehiscent fruit which is commonly called seed. In recent ...times, there was an increasing attention and diffusion of the seeds of the plant for their health benefits and uses in cooking. In fact, seeds are a rich source of nutrients first of all the polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids that protect from inflammation, enhance cognitive performance and reduce the level of cholesterol. Seeds are also rich in polyphenols derived from caffeic acid that are antioxidant compounds protecting the body from free radicals, aging and cancer. In addition, carbohydrate based fibers, present at high concentration levels, are associated with reducing inflammation, lowering cholesterol and regulating bowel function. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the phytochemistry and pharmacological properties of the seeds of this plant, with special emphasis on the nutritional, and phytochemical analysis of the plant, including the recently developed metabolomic studies.
Introduction/Aims
Safety and outcomes data on eculizumab for generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) in clinical practice remain limited. Outcomes and concomitant medication use may differ in practice ...compared with clinical trials. We analyzed the clinical and safety outcomes of patients who received eculizumab at our institutions.
Methods
Patients with acetylcholine receptor antibody positive (AChR+) gMG, who received ≥1 dose of eculizumab and had ≥1 follow‐up before December 10, 2021, were identified. Data were ed by chart review. Outcomes included MG Foundation of America Post Intervention Status (MGFA‐PIS), Clinical Classification (MGFA‐CC), MG‐Activities of Daily Living (MG‐ADL), concurrent immunomodulatory therapy use, and adverse events.
Results
Twelve patients were included. Mean age at eculizumab initiation was 57.4 y (range, 21–77). Eight had refractory MG. Four had history of thymoma and thymectomy. A mean of 3.2 (range, 2–5) immunomodulatory therapies were previously tried. Mean follow‐up duration was 18 mo (range, 2–21.6). Clinical improvement occurred rapidly; MGFA‐PIS was improved in 80%, and MGFA‐CC improved in 83% at 1 mo. Mean MG‐ADL decreased from 8.7 to 2.8 at 1 mo, and remained ≤3.5 over 1.5 y. Mean daily prednisone dose decreased from 22.5 mg to 7.2 mg at 1.5 y. Five of 7 patients discontinued maintenance IVIG or PLEX. No patients had meningococcal infections and adverse events were mild.
Discussion
Clinical improvement occurred in most patients after eculizumab initiation, beginning as quickly as 1 mo. Steroids were tapered and maintenance IVIG and PLEX were discontinued in most. Eculizumab had a favorable safety profile even when combined with other immunosuppressants.
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