Publications by authors named "Valentino Costabile"

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries. Coronary artery disease (CAD) represents the most prevalent form of cardiovascular disease and remains a leading cause of morbidity, mortality, and long-term disability worldwide. Therefore, the identification of early biomarkers and clarification of the mechanism of action of pharmacological adjuvants is urgently needed.

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Immunocompromised children are at risk of developing severe COVID-19 infection. We conducted a pilot prospective study to evaluate the impact of cancer treatment and stem cell transplantation on immunogenicity of two doses of BNT162b2 vaccine in pediatric patients. Humoral, B- and T-cell responses to the BNT162b2 vaccine were assessed before, after the first and the second dose in patients aged 5-12 years (n = 35) and in a group of healthy donors (HD, n = 12).

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  • PATZ1-rearranged CNS tumors may or may not be a distinct tumor type, as researchers investigated a pediatric series of 7 cases using various advanced analysis techniques to understand their characteristics.* -
  • MRI results showed these tumors mainly occur in the occipital lobe and have two major types: one resembling glial cells (NET) and another showing spindle cell features (SM), both identified via histologic analysis.* -
  • Although both groups share molecular similarities, gene expression analysis revealed they form two distinct subgroups, with those in the SM group showing important genes related to tumor progression; most patients are disease-free following treatment.*
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is one of the pathogens most involved in health care-associated infections in recent decades. Known for its ability to accumulate several antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, it possesses the oxacillinase , a carbapenemase now endemic in Italy. species are not frequently observed in patients with cystic fibrosis, and multidrug-resistant is a rare event in these patients.

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Despite effective antiretroviral therapies (ARTs), a subset of people living with HIV (PLWH) still experience low-level viremia (LLV, i.e., 50-1,000 copies/mL).

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Background: The spread of carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs) is an increasingly serious threat globally, especially in vulnerable populations, such as intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Currently, the antibiotic options for CROs are very limited, particularly in pediatric settings. We describe a cohort of pediatric patients affected by CRO infections, highlighting the important changes in carbapenemase production in recent years and comparing the treatment with novel cephalosporins (N-CEFs) to Colistin-based regimens (COLI).

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  • * A 5-year-old boy with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia tested positive for Omicron BA.1.1 in December 2021, experienced mild symptoms, and cleared the virus within 30 days, but later got reinfected with BA.2 after 74 days.
  • * The case highlights the potential for reinfection with different Omicron sublineages and suggests that the immune response may not be sufficient to prevent subsequent infections, even in mildly symptomatic cases.
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Little is known about SARS-CoV-2 evolution under Molnupiravir and Paxlovid, the only antivirals approved for COVID-19 treatment. By investigating SARS-CoV-2 variability in 8 Molnupiravir-treated, 7 Paxlovid-treated and 5 drug-naïve individuals at 4 time-points (Days 0-2-5-7), a higher genetic distance is found under Molnupiravir pressure compared to Paxlovid and no-drug pressure (nucleotide-substitutions/site mean±Standard error: 18.7 × 10 ± 2.

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The rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has increased the need to identify additional rapid diagnostic tests for an accurate and early diagnosis of infection. Here, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of the cartridge-based reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test STANDARD M10 SARS-CoV-2 (SD Biosensor Inc., Suwon, South Korea), targeting the ORF1ab and E gene of SARS-CoV-2, and which can process up to eight samples in parallel in 60 min.

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Since the start of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, children aged ≤ 12 years have always been defined as underrepresented in terms of SARS-CoV-2 infections' frequency and severity. By correlating SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics with clinical and virological features in 612 SARS-CoV-2 positive patients aged ≤ 12 years, we demonstrated a sizeable circulation of different SARS-CoV-2 lineages over the four pandemic waves in paediatric population, sustained by local transmission chains. Age < 5 years, highest viral load, gamma and delta clades positively influence this local transmission.

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Owing to an increasing number of infections in adults, has gained recognition as an emerging human pathogen, causing bacteraemia and septicaemia. In September 2020, four paediatric onco-hematologic patients received a platelet concentrate from the same adult donor at Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital IRCCS, Rome. Three of four patients experienced sepsis one day after transfusion.

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Background: If analytical antiretroviral-treatment (ART) interruption (ATI) might significantly impact quantitative or qualitative peripheral-total HIV-DNA is still debated.

Methods: Six chronically HIV-1 infected patients enrolled in APACHE-study were analysed for peripheral-total HIV-DNA and residual viremia, major-resistance-mutations (MRMs) and C2-V3-C3 evolution at pre-ATI (T1), during ATI (T2) and at achievement of virological success after ART-resumption (post-ATI, T3). These data were obtained at three comparable time-points in five chronically HIV-1 infected patients on suppressive ART for ≥1 year, enrolled in MODAt-study.

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  • Lombardy, Italy had the highest SARS-CoV-2 cases globally from February to April 2020, leading to an analysis of 346 viral genomes.
  • Researchers identified seven distinct viral lineages in the region, with some likely emerging locally in Italy.
  • The study found evidence of community transmission occurring prior to the first official COVID-19 case report in Lombardy, along with specific genetic mutations in the virus sequences.
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  • * In a group of 55 patients, ddPCR identified the virus in 19 (34.5%), revealing a significant viral load and correlating with severe COVID-19 symptoms in the majority of those testing positive.
  • * The findings suggest that ddPCR provides a more reliable diagnosis for COVID-19 in cases where rtPCR results are negative, enhancing patient management and treatment strategies.
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TEMPOL spin-label has been used to identify surface exposure of protein nuclei from NMR analysis of the induced paramagnetic relaxation enhancements (PRE). The absence of linear dependence between atom depths and observed PRE reveals that specific mechanisms drive the approach of the paramagnet to the protein surface. RNase A represents a unique protein system to explore the fine details of the information offered by TEMPOL induced PRE, due to the abundance of previous results, obtained in solution and in the crystal, dealing with surface dynamics behavior of this protein.

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Synopsis of recent research by authors named "Valentino Costabile"

  • - Valentino Costabile's recent research focuses on the intersection of pediatric medicine and infectious diseases, emphasizing the characterization of rare tumors, the epidemiology of infections, and the response to antiviral treatments.
  • - Significant findings include the detailed profiling of PATZ1-rearranged tumors in pediatric patients, the identification of antibiotic-resistant pathogens in those with cystic fibrosis, and the implications of low-level viremia in HIV-positive individuals, reflecting a deep concern for vulnerable populations.
  • - His work also extends to evaluating diagnostic methods for SARS-CoV-2 and analyzing the genomic evolution of the virus in treated versus untreated patients, highlighting the ongoing challenges posed by emerging infections and resistance mechanisms.