People living with HIV (PLWHIV) present an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events. We aimed to assess whether antiretroviral therapy (ART) pharmacologically enhances platelet reactivity and ...platelet activation intensity, and explore the potential association with underlying inflammatory status. This was a cross-sectional cohort study carried out among PLWHIV on diverse ART regimens. Platelet reactivity and activation intensity were assessed using the bedside point-of-care VerifyNow assay, in P2Y12 reaction units (PRU), measurements of monocyte-platelet complexes, and P-selectin and GPIIb/IIIa expression increase, following activation with ADP, respectively. Levels of major inflammatory markers and whole blood parameters were also evaluated. In total, 71 PLWHIV, 59 on ART and 22 healthy controls, were included in this study. PRU values were significantly elevated in PLWHIV compared to controls Mean; 257.85 vs. 196.67,
< 0.0001, but no significant differences were noted between ART-naïve or ART-experienced PLWHIV, or between TAF/TDF and ABC based regimens, similar to systemic inflammatory response. However, within-group analysis showed that PRUs were significantly higher in ABC/PI vs ABC/INSTI or TAF/TDF + PI patients, in line with levels of IL-2. PRU values did not correlate strongly with CD4 counts, viral load, or cytokine values. P-selectin and GPIIb/IIIa expression increased following ADP activation and were significantly more prominent in PLWHIV (
< 0.005). Platelet reactivity and platelet activation intensity were shown to be increased in PLWHIV, but they did not appear to be related to ART initiation, similar to the underlying systemic inflammatory response.
Although intestinal microbiota alterations (dysbiosis) have been described in heart failure (HF) patients, the possible mechanisms of intestinal barrier dysfunction leading to endotoxemia and ...systemic inflammation are not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the expression of the intestinal tight junction (TJ) proteins occludin and claudin-1 in patients with HF with reduced (HFrEF) or preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and their possible association with systemic endotoxemia and inflammation. Ten healthy controls and twenty-eight patients with HF (HFrEF (n = 14), HFpEF (n = 14)) underwent duodenal biopsy. Histological parameters were recorded, intraepithelial CD3+ T-cells and the expression of occludin and claudin-1 in enterocytes were examined using immunohistochemistry, circulating endotoxin concentrations were determined using ELISA, and concentrations of cytokines were determined using flow cytometry. Patients with HFrEF or HFpEF had significantly higher serum endotoxin concentrations (
< 0.001), a significantly decreased intestinal occludin and claudin-1 expression (in HfrEF
< 0.01 for occludin,
< 0.05 for claudin-1, in HfpEF
< 0.01 occludin and claudin-1), and significantly increased serum concentrations of IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 (for IL-6 and IL-10,
< 0.05 for HFrEF and
< 0.001 for HFpEF; and for IL-8,
< 0.05 for both groups) compared to controls. Occludin and claudin-1 expression inversely correlated with systemic endotoxemia (
< 0.05 and
< 0.01, respectively). Heart failure, regardless of the type of ejection fraction, results in a significant decrease in enterocytic occludin and claudin-1 expression, which may represent an important cellular mechanism for the intestinal barrier dysfunction causing systemic endotoxemia and inflammatory response.
We aimed to assess patterns of patient-reported outcomes (PRO) instruments' utilization in HIV clinical trials in relation to antiretroviral therapy (ART). PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and EMBASE were ...searched using the terms "Patient-Reported Outcomes" and "HIV/AIDS" or "Antiretroviral Treatment" or "ART" or "Antiretroviral Therapy" from 1 January 1990 until 1 December 2019. In total, 173 studies were identified and 26 were directly related to ART. Study population included treatment-naïve patients (n = 4), treatment-experienced (n = 20), or both (n = 2). Instruments were implemented to assess general experience with ART (n = 3), single-tablet regimens (STR) (n = 2), monotherapy (n = 4), regimen switch (n = 9), or regimen comparison (n = 8). The most commonly used instruments were Medical Outcomes Study-HIV Health Survey (MOS-HIV, n = 8), HIV Symptom Index (HIV-SI, n = 7) and unstructured self-reports (n = 5) followed by others. MOS-HIV was used mainly in comparative (n = 4) and monotherapy (n = 3) trials, HIV-SI in switch (n = 4) and STR (n = 2) trials, and self-reports in comparative trials (n = 3). Even though, the implementation of PRO tools is increasing with time, reporting of PRO in HIV clinical trials remains limited.
•TM meal was included up to 25% without negative effects on performance parameters.•Dietary inclusion of TM altered the fatty acid profile of fish whole body.•Dietary inclusion of TM increased ...protein and structural carbohydrate digestibility.•Proteases and carbohydrases supplementation did not improve TM digestibility.
Two trials were carried out on European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) juveniles to evaluate the effects of dietary inclusion of a full-fat Tenebrio molitor (TM) larvae meal. A first growth trail was performed on 450 European sea bass using three isonitrogenous and isolipidic experimental diets (3 tanks/diet, 50 fish/tank) formulated to contain increasing levels of TM meal inclusion and precisely: 0 (TM0), 25 (TM25) and 50% (TM50) as fed basis. The performances, proximate body composition and fatty acid (FA) profile of whole fish fed the experimental diets were evaluated. A digestibility trial was then conducted on 180 fish to evaluate the in vivo apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC) of diets having 25% of TM inclusion in absence (TMD) or presence of exogenous enzymes (Carbohydrases, TM-Carb; Proteases, TM-Prot) compared to a fish meal based control diet (CD). The growth trial results showed that the highest inclusion level (TM50) led to a worsening of final body weight, weight gain, specific growth rate, and feeding rate if compared to the control diet (TM0). Regarding the whole body composition, crude protein and ether extract were not significantly influenced by the use of TM, while changes were observed in the FA profile. In particular, C18:2 n6 increased (+91% and +173% in TM25 and TM50, respectively vs TM0) with the inclusion of TM while sharp decreases of C20:5 n3 (−30% and −58% in TM25 and TM50, respectively vs TM0) and C22:6 n3 (−35% and −67% respectively vs TM0) were highlighted. Consequently, the ∑ n3/∑ n6 FA ratio showed a significant decrease (−63% and −84% in TM25 and TM50, respectively vs TM0). As far as digestibility trial is concerned, the crude protein ADC of the fish fed TMD was significantly higher than that of the fish fed CD (92.31 vs 89.97, respectively). The supplementation of digestive enzymes did not improve the protein and ADF digestibility.
The focus on wastewater treatment is a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry, since pharmaceutical wastewater (PWW) contains a significant load of organic material, nutrients and toxic ...compounds. In this study, the biotreatment of raw PWW was studied (with different initial concentrations of Dissolved Chemical Oxygen Demand (d-COD), 600–6300 mg d-COD L−1), using a cyanobacteria-based cultivation system (under batch, semi batch and continuous mode operation) with Leptolyngbya sp. The aim was to develop an effective treatment process (evaluated in terms of Dissolved Chemical Oxygen Demand (d-COD) and nutrient removal efficiency) without adding external mechanical aeration, capable of generating simultaneously valuable biomass. In batch and semi-batch bioreactors high d-COD, NO3−-N and PO4−3 removal rates were achieved (up to about 71 %, 96 % and 86 %, respectively) with maximum biomass productivities between 55 and 234.8 mg L−1 d−1, while pH adjustment was not necessary. In continuous mode operation (using HRT of 5 and 2.5 d), d-COD, NO3−-N and PO4−3 removal was also significant (61 %, 90 %, and 62 %, respectively, for the feed concentration of 1550 mg d-COD L−1), while toxicity tests of the specific untreated and treated PWW revealed a significant attenuation of the toxic potential. The biomass produced also contained high carbohydrates, proteins, lipids chlorophyll-a and phycocyanin, up to 33.78 %, 41.40 %, 11.75 %, 10.33 ± 0.03 mg g DW−1 and 42.17 ± 3.56 mg g DW−1, respectively, with a methane yield of 479.19 ± 16.52 mLCH4 g TS−1.
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•Treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater using Leptolyngbya sp. was investigated.•Leptolyngbya sp. and wastewater-borne microbes removed COD and nutrients.•Batch (R1), semi-batch (R2) and continuous (R3) mode reactors have been examined.•High COD removal (61 %) coupled with lipid production (11.8 %) was achieved in R3.•The toxic potential of treated pharmaceutical wastewater was decreased.
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