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β-Thalassaemia (BT) is a hereditary genetic blood disease caused by a mutation in the gene that encodes the haemoglobin protein. In the most severe forms, BT forces patients to undergo frequent blood transfusions, which has a significant impact on the quality of life. Classified as rare, BT is very common in the Mediterranean area, and is also found in the Middle East, Central Asia, India, South America, and North Africa. This disease does not currently have a definitive cure, although technological progress and new gene therapies are achieving promising results. This literature review was conducted with the aim to understand how BT affects patients' lives in various social contexts in which they are involved. The authors also aimed to understand which methods are used for this assessment and the possible social actions that can help in the management of the disease. Electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, were used to search for the articles. Related article titles were selected and reduced to the abstracts of the relevant articles, after which the selected full articles were reviewed. The reviewed articles showed consistent agreement in observing that the quality of life of patients with BT is considerably lower compared with the healthy population in terms of physical, emotional, social, and functioning at school. The negative results highlight the significance of the introduction of suitable programmes by healthcare providers, counsellors, and education authorities to provide psychosocial support, and improve academic performance. In addition, genetic counselling and intervention programmes would positively impact the lives of patients with thalassaemia.

Additional file 2.

The aim of the article is to identify themes, actors and mood of the tweets shared by users in the period from March 25 to April 3, 2020 in Italy. It seems an extremely delicate and complex period, because it corresponds to the first phase of the lockdown, introduced following the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a period characterized by emergency and crisis, with nuances related to fear and uncertainty. We assumed that this situation could have influenced and produced effects on the ideologically oriented digital language practice. Taking this background into consideration, we have scraped the messages containing the surnames of the Italian Premier and the one of the opposition leader from Twitter, in order to identify the debate connected to them and to the crisis. To achieve this goal, we performed a computational linguistic technique, Emotinal Text Mining. The first result reconstructs the landscape of the debate. Arising topics-scape drawn by: the leader, the players, the economy, the entertainment, the politic, the skill, and the guilt. Then, representations were identified and sentiments measured.

Objective: Variable rate intravenous insulin infusion (VRIII) is a high-risk medication that has a potential to cause significant patient harm if used in error. Complex preparation of VRIII in clinical areas and the need for frequent monitoring and adjustment increase the complexity of using VRIII. An emerging approach, called Resilient Health Care, proposes understanding complexity of work by exploring how work is assumed to be done and compare it with everyday work. This study aimed to explore how VRIIIs are perceived to be used by healthcare practitioners, focusing on one aspect of RHC: understanding how work is assumed to be done by using a method called Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA).\ud Design: A qualitative study using document analysis and focus groups. \ud Setting: A Vascular Surgery Unit in a UK tertiary, acute National Health Service (NHS) teaching hospital.\ud Participants: Various stakeholders/users in different professional roles involved in the process of using VRIIIs.\ud Results: The HTA showed the complexity of using VRIII and highlighted more than 115 steps required to treat elevated blood glucose. The process of producing hospital-specific guidelines was iterative. Careful consideration was taken to coordinate the development and implementation of guidelines. Documents provided detailed clinical instructions related to the use of VRIII but practitioners selectively used them, often in deference to senior colleagues. Intentional adaptations e.g. proactively asking for a VRIII prescription occurred and were acknowledged as part of providing individualised patient care.\ud Conclusion: Using VRIII to treat elevated blood glucose is a complex but necessary process mediated by a range of factors such as organisational influences. Adaptive strategies to mitigate errors were common and future research can build on insights from this study to develop a broader understanding of how VRIIIs are used and to understand how adaptations are made in relation to the use of VRIII.

Not applicable, Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene, Vol. 62 No. 2 (2021): 2021622

Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds of natural origin. They are extensively studied within drug discovery programmes due to their wide ranging biological activities such as anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-tumor, neuroprotective and cardioprotective properties. The ability of flavonoids to coordinate with metal atoms has provided new leads for drug discovery programmes, with better pharmacological activities and clinical profiles than the parent flavonoids. In this review, the enhanced anti-oxidant and anti-cancer activities of flavonoid metal complexes versus the parent flavonoids are discussed. Possible mechanisms of action for the metal complexes, such as DNA binding and apoptosis induction, are also presented alongside an overview of the synthesis of the metal complexes, and the different techniques used for their characterization.

Conjugation of small molecule agonists of Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) to proteins, lipids, or polymers is known to modulate potency, and the physical form or formulation of these conjugates is likely to have a major effect on their immunostimulatory activity. Here, we studied the effect of formulation on potency of a 1,2-di-(9Z-octadecenoyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DOPE) conjugated TLR7 agonist (DOPE-TLR7a) alongside assessing physical form using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Nanosight Particle Tracking (NTA) analysis and Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS). A very high potency of DOPE-TLR7a conjugate (EC50 around 9 nM) was observed either when prepared by direct dilution from DMSO or when formulated into 400-700 nm large multilamella liposomes containing dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide salt (DDA) and DOPE. When prepared by dissolution in DMSO followed by dilution in aqueous culture medium, 93 ± 5 nm nanoparticles were formed. Without dilution from solution in DMSO, no nanoparticles were observed, and no immunostimulatory activity could be detected without this formulation step. SAXS analysis of the conjugate after DMSO dissolution/water dilution revealed a lamellar order with a layer spacing of 68.7 Å, which correlates with arrangement in groups of 3 bilayers. The addition of another immunostimulatory glycolipid, trehalose-6,6-dibehenate (TDB), to DOPE:DDA liposomes gave no further increase in immunostimulatory activity beyond that provided by incorporating DOPE-TLR7a. Given the importance of nanoparticle or liposomal formulation for activity, we conclude a major mechanism for increase in potency when TLR7 agonists are conjugated to macromolecules is through alteration of physical form.

Transverse vaginal septum is a rare female genital tract anomaly, and little is described about its surgical treatment. We report the case of a patient who wished to preserve hymenal integrity due to social and cultural beliefs. We performed a vaginoscopic resection of the septum under laparoscopic view, followed by the introduction of a Foley catheter in the vagina, thus preserving the hymen. After 12 months of follow-up, no septal closure was present, and the menstrual flow was effective. Vaginoscopic hysteroscopy is an effectivemethod of vaginal septum resection, even in cases in which hymenal integrity must be preserved due to social and cultural beliefs.

The social representation of the infertility coming out from the national newspapers has been explored in relation to the enactment of the Law 40/2004 and the 2005 referendum. All the articles (n=731), published in the last 15 years by the highest circulation Italian newspapers, have been collected in a corpus (token=360345) that underwent a multivariate analysis of textual data. Results show a difficulty in complementing together the mind and the body. The “biologic” is represented as the place of the technical and medical intervention while the “psycho-social” is conceived as the place of the family storytelling of the personal experiences of infertility and the public ethical debate on it. Before the law, newspapers deal with the theme of the family experience probably supporting the law enactment. After the referendum this thematic is dismissed and the theme of infertility as a pathology to treat emerges, bringing back infertility to the medical issue., Rassegna di Psicologia, Vol 35, No 3 (2018)

The constant increase in cardiovascular disease rate coupled with significant drawbacks of existing therapies emphasise the necessity to improve therapeutic strategies. Natural flavonoids exert innumerable pharmacological effects in humans. Here, we demonstrate the effects of chrysin, a natural flavonoid found largely in honey and passionflower on the modulation of platelet function, haemostasis and thrombosis. Chrysin displayed significant inhibitory effects on isolated platelets, however, its activity was substantially reduced under physiological conditions. In order to increase the efficacy of chrysin, a sulfur derivative (thio-chrysin), and ruthenium-complexes (Ru-chrysin and Ru-thio-chrysin) were synthesised and their effects on the modulation of platelet function were evaluated. Indeed, Ru-thio-chrysin displayed a 4-fold greater inhibition of platelet function and thrombus formation in vitro than chrysin under physiologically relevant conditions such as in platelet-rich plasma and whole blood. Notably, Ru-thio-chrysin exhibited similar efficacy to chrysin in the modulation of haemostasis in mice. Increased bioavailability and cell permeability of Ru-thio-chrysin compared to chrysin were found to be the basis for its enhanced activity. Together, these results demonstrate that Ru-thio-coupled natural compounds such as chrysin may serve as promising templates for the development of novel anti-thrombotic agents.

A novel series of low molecular weight non-peptidic, biocompatible super-hydrogelators with both water purification and drug delivery properties have been developed. Linking the bis aromatic urea groups responsible for gelation together to form bi- and tri-armed gelators, affords good control over gelation and water purification properties. The use of the gels as\ud effective drug scavengers and delivery systems has been demonstrated with dye substrates, via pH inversion, as monitored by UV-vis spectroscopy. Finally, the systems’ abilities as both drug scavenging and delivery systems have been demonstrated with the clinically-approved drugs chlorpromazine and doxorubicin, respectively.