Minerva medica
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Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the newly discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We have plenty of data about the clinical features of the disease's acute phase, while little is known about the long-term consequences on survivors. ⋯ Current literature highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to Coronavirus Disease 19 since the sequelae appear to involve different organs and systems. Given the pandemic outbreak's size, this is a critical public health issue: a better insight on this topic should inform clinical decisions about the modalities of follow-up for COVID-19 survivors.
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Airway smooth muscle plays a pivotal role in modulating bronchomotor tone. Modulation of contractile and relaxation signaling is critical to alleviate the airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) associated with asthma. Emerging studies examining the phenotype of ASM in the context of asthma provide rich avenues to develop more effective therapeutics to attenuate the AHR associated with the disease.
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Asthma is a chronic airway disease consisting of usually variable airflow limitation and bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Many different phenotypes characterize the clinical expression of asthma, determined by heterogeneous inflammatory patterns driven by distinct cellular and molecular mechanisms known as endotypes. Inside the complex framework of asthma pathobiology, several molecules such as immunoglobulins E (IgE), pro-inflammatory cytokines and their receptors can be targeted by present and future biological treatments of severe asthma. ⋯ In particular, these drugs target IgE (omalizumab), IL-5 (mepolizumab and reslizumab), IL-5 receptor (benralizumab) and IL-4/IL-13 receptors (dupilumab), respectively. Moreover, other biological therapies are under evaluation in premarketing trials, mainly aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of monoclonal antibodies directed against innate cytokines such as IL-33 and thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP). Among current and perspective therapeutic approaches, clinicians can choose phenotype/endotype-driven tailored treatments, able to pursue an effective control of difficult to treat type-2 asthma.
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To explore the potential mechanism of curcumin in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and clarify the role of miR-146a in the neuroinflammatory response to AD. ⋯ miRNA-146a can be used as one of the potential biomarkers of AD. Low dose curcumin can significantly reduce the level of neuropro-inflammatory miR-146A, up-regulate the expression of CFH protein, inhibit the phenotype of M1 microglia, and play a role in the treatment of AD by promoting the phagocytosis and clearance mechanism of A β.
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Biomarkers may be diagnostic of asthma, they may predict or reflect response to therapy or they may identify patients at risk of asthma exacerbation. A biomarker is most often measured in biologic fluids that are sampled using relatively non-invasive sampling techniques such as blood, sputum, urine or exhaled breath. Biomarkers should be stable, readily quantifiable and their measurement should be reproducible and not confounded by other host factors, or the presence of comorbidities. ⋯ Analysis of urinary eicosanoids has identified eicosanoids related to type 2 and non-type 2 inflammation. Future clinical trials will be important in determining how exhaled VOCs or urinary eicosanoid profiles can be used to direct precision treatments. Their future clinical use will also depend on developing simplified instrumentation for biomarker analysis at the point-of-care.