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Inflammatory pouch disorders exhibit a heterogeneous clinical spectrum and therapeutic requirements have not been properly studied. This retrospective, multicentre study included ulcerative colitis patients with ileal pouch construction and were later diagnosed with an inflammatory pouch disorder between 1995 and 2020. Classifications, behaviour and therapies applied were recorded and compared in the long-term. Overall, 338 patients were recruited. The most common disorders were pouchitis (n = 258, 76%), Crohn's disease of the pouch (n = 55, 16%) and cuffitis (n = 25, 7%). Pouchitis presented mainly as chronic (65.2%) and recurrent (87%) forms. Crohn's disease manifested as stricturing/penetrating in 53% of cases and perianal disease in 42%. Patients received multiple therapies: 86% antibiotics, 42% steroids, 27% immunosuppressants, 43% biologics and 27% surgery. Compared with pouchitis, Crohn's disease of the pouch was characterised by a later diagnosis (99 vs. 55 months, p < 0.001) and greater needs for immunosuppressants (OR 3.53, 1.79–6.94, p < 0.0001), biologics (OR 5.45, 2.78–10.6, p < 0.0001) and surgeries (OR 2.65, 1.43–4.89, p < 0.001). Chronic pouchitis is the most common pouch disorder presentation. These entities have diverse therapeutics requirements, particularly for Crohn's disease of the pouch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) management in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is uncertain. The ECCO guidelines 2021 recommended HCV treatment but warn about the risk of IBD reactivation. We aimed to evaluate 1) the effectiveness and safety of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) in IBD; 2) the interaction of DAAs with IBD drugs. Multicentre study of IBD patients and HCV treated with DAAs. Variables related to liver diseases and IBD, as well as adverse events (AEs) and drug interactions, were recorded. McNemar's test was used to assess differences in the proportion of active IBD during the study period. We included 79 patients with IBD and HCV treated with DAAs from 25,998 IBD patients of the ENEIDA registry. Thirty-one (39.2 %) received immunomodulators/biologics. There were no significant differences in the percentage of active IBD at the beginning (n = 11, 13.9 %) or at the 12-week follow-up after DAAs (n = 15, 19 %) (p = 0.424). Sustained viral response occurred in 96.2 % (n = 76). A total of 8 (10.1 %) AEs occurred and these were unrelated to activity, type of IBD, liver fibrosis, immunosuppressants/biologics, and DAAs. We demonstrate a high efficacy and safety of DAAs in patients with IBD and HCV irrespective of activity and treatment of IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objective: Osteoporosis and osteoporotic fracture risk are extraintestinal manifestations of the inflammatory bowel disease, whose etiopathogenic mechanisms have not been determined yet. Anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α are used in treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but it is unknown if they play a role in osteoporotic fracture prevention. The objective of this study was to know if anti-TNF decreases fracture risk or modifies bone mineral density. To determine the possible risk factors associated with fractures, and assess the incidence of vertebral fractures in IBD patients. Methods: Longitudinal prospective cohort study (7 yr of follow-up); which included 71 IBD patients, 23 received anti-TNF-α; the remaining 48 received conventional treatment, constituted the control group. Patients participated in a questionnaire which gathered risk factors associated with the development of osteoporosis and fractures. Radiographs of the dorsolumbar-spine were performed and also a bone density measurement. Their biochemical and bone remodeling parameters were determined. Results: Although patients who did not receive anti-TNF-α, suffered more fractures but biologic therapy did not reduce the risk of new vertebral fractures. The increase of bone mass was significantly higher the group treated with anti-TNF-α. The increase in the lumbar spine was of 8% and in the femoral neck was of 6.7%. The only determinant factor for the incidence of vertebral fractures was a history of previous fractures (odds ratio of 12.8; confidence interval 95% 2.37–69.9; p = 0.003). The incidence of vertebral fractures in IBD patients was considerably high: 26.7/700 patient-yr. Conclusions: Anti-TNF-α, although increased bone mass in these patients, did not reduce the risk of new vertebral fractures. In this study, patients with IBD have a considerably high incidence of fractures. Only the existence of previous vertebral fractures was a predictive factor for consistent fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental pollution caused by the excess of human energy consumption and the foreseeable depletion of fossil fuels underline the need for new eco-friendly, sustainable and cost effective energy sources. Recent research works on microalgae have identified this new bio-material as a promising technology for bioenergy production, wastewater treatment, the development of high value added products and CO 2 capture. Microalgae can be used to produce biodiesel, bioethanol, methane or hydrogen. However, one of the newest applications of this bio-material is its use in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The resulting microalgae-MFC systems can produce electricity using the electrons released to the anode during microalgae degradation. Furthermore, microalgae can be grown in the cathode chamber, capturing the CO 2 therein and using light as power source. This critical review presents an overview of new applications of microalgae for bioenergy production. It includes as a novelty the use of microalgae for electricity generation in microalgae-MFCs and capturing the CO 2 emissions of these systems, their advantages, limitations and future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is one of the most promising technologies for bioenergy production from wastewater. The improvement of MFC efficiency requires the replacement of noble catalysts for the cathode reaction by low-cost and effective materials. Thus, this work aims at studying the use of transition spinel metal-based oxides as potential cathode catalysts in these devices. Several spinel cobalt-based oxides doped with copper and nickel were synthesized by thermal decomposition at different Cu:Co and Ni:Co atomic ratios and assessed mainly in terms of power performance and chemical oxygen removal (COD) in single-chamber MFCs. The particle size and chemical composition of these catalysts were characterized by TEM and XRD analyses prior to MFC set-up. Among the compounds tested, the nanostructured copper-doped cobalt oxide with chemical formula (Cu 0.30 Co 0.70 )Co 2 O 4 offered the highest maximum power output of 567.58 mW m −2 , which accounts for over 87% of the total power generated by Pt-sprayed cathodes. Cu 0.72 Co 2.28 O 4 also reached a significant power density of 354.92 mW m −2 . Spinel oxide-based MFCs achieved COD removal values of approximately 56% after 240 h of operation. Finally, this work compares the performance of the spinel oxides investigated with other transition metal based catalysts reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the by-product generated during the operation of cylindrical MFCs, made out of terracotta material, is investigated as a feasible means of degrading live microalgae for the first time. In addition to the low cost materials of this design, the reuse of the solution produced in the cathode renders the technology truly green and capable of generating bioenergy. In this study, the effect of a light/dark cycle or dark conditions only on the digestion of live microalgae with the catholyte is investigated. The results show that a combination of light/dark improves degradation and allows algae to be used as substrate in the anode. The addition of 12.5 mL of a 1:1 mix of catholyte and microalgae (pre-digested over 5 days under light/dark) to the anode, increases the power generation from 7 μW to 44 μW once all the organic matter in the anode had been depleted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]