PABLOG: a Primer Analysis tool using a Bee-Like approach on Orthologous Genes.

RNA-seq data is currently generated in numerous non-model organisms that lack a reference genome. Nevertheless, the confirmation of gene expression levels using RT-qPCR remains necessary, and the existing techniques do not seamlessly interface with the omics pipeline workflow. Developing primers for many targets by utilising orthologous genes can be a laborious, imprecise, and subjective process, particularly for plant species that are not commonly studied and do not have a known genome. We have developed a primer design tool, named PABLOG, that analyses the alignments generated from long or short RNA-seq reads and a reference orthologous gene. PABLOG scans, much like a bee searching several flowers for pollen, and presents a sorted list of potential exon-exon junction locations, ranked according to their reliability. Through computational analysis across the whole genomes of several non-model species, we demonstrate that PABLOG performs more effectively than other methods in identifying exon-exon junctions since it generates significantly fewer false-positive results. Examination of candidate regions at the gene level, in conjunction with laboratory studies, shows that the suggested primers successfully amplified particular targets in non-model plants without any presence of genomic contamination. Our tool includes a consensus sequence feature that enables the complete process of primer design, from aligning with the target gene to determining amplification parameters. The utility can be accessed via the GitHub repository located at: https://github.com/tools4plant-omics/PABLOG.

Geriatric evaluation of oncological elderly patients.

Cancer has a high prevalence in older age. The management of cancer in the older aged person is an increasingly common problem. Age may be construed as a progressive loss of stress tolerance, due to decline in functional reserve of multiple organ systems, high prevalence of comorbid conditions, limited socioeconomic support, reduced cognition, and higher prevalence of depression. In the elderly, the comorbidities and physiological changes in the pharmacokinetics reduce the prospective for therapy and suggest the importance of a multidimensional assessment of cancer patients as well as the formulation of predictive models of risk, in order to estimate the life expectancy and tolerance to treatment. The pharmacological changes of age include decreased renal excretion of drugs and increased susceptibility to myelosuppression, mucositis, cardio toxicity and neurotoxicity. The chemotherapy in patients older than 75 years is very limited. The geriatric assessment is considered a valid tool in geriatric medical. It is important for two main reasons: first of all, for the need to distinguish the features linked to the geriatric syndromes from those ones which are strictly connected to the cancer pathology; secondly, for its potential prognostic value.

What is the frailty in elderly? Value and significance of the multidimensional assessments.

Authors perform a critical revision of the concept of frailty in elderly going back to its first indication (1978). It is a particular phenotypic condition, characterized by advanced age, clinically unstable polypathologies in evolution, with cognitive disturbances, often very severe, loss of auto sufficiency and the critical socio-economic conditions. The diagnostic validity, both in the definition of the deficits and in the evaluation of the declines in the fundamental functions should be underlined. The first ones are needed particularly for the epidemiological and population studies, and the second one, at the individual level. Today, first of all in the geriatric field, the method of multidimensional evaluation (MDE) is the first choice for the early diagnosis of "elderly frailty" (EF), in order to determine the biological, functional, cognitive and clinical aspects of the elderly subjects, and also for the application of adequate programs of intervention at the sanitary-assistential-social levels.

Depression in older breast cancer survivors.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among U.S. women .The 5-year survival rate for this tumour is nowadays 85%, and the 61% of these women are still alive at 15 years. When depression symptoms are present as a consequence of breast cancer treatments, they may interfere negatively with patients' quality of life. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of breast cancer treatment on the quality of life and the impact of depression on the health-related life. METHODS: We enrolled 173 women aged 65-75 years with early stage breast cancer diagnosed over the last 10 years, initially recruited to participate in a study examining heath-related quality of life in the first 5 years after breast cancer diagnosis. Participants were divided into four groups: 1) 46 breast cancer survivors (aged 65-70); 2) 62 women diagnosed with breast cancer (aged 65-69); 3) 32 women with recurrent breast cancer after 10 years (aged 66-75); 4) 30 women in good health status (aged 60-70). The Geriatric Depression Scale was used as a routine part of a comprehensive geriatric assessment. Collection of data for the application of instruments, such as sociodemographic variables (age, educational level, social state) and clinical date (stage and time of the disease and treatment), was carried out by trained researcher assistants. RESULTS: Our results demonstrated the correlation between depression and previous cancer experiences. In fact, in patients with cancer experience, the grade of depression was significantly higher compared to healthy subjects. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the patients with recurrent breast cancer were severely depressed compared to other groups. CONCLUSIONS: A high percentage of participants were identified as having emotional and/or well being problems. Further investigations on the cause of depression problems cancer-related are needed.

The role of diabetes and aging in the determinism of hypertension and the related cerebrovascular complications.

Epidemiological studies carried out on a large sample (3191 elderly and 640 centenarians) with identical criteria and applying the actual diagnostic standards, have evidenced a high, statistically significant prevalence of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2) (18.84%) in the elderly, as compared to the centenarians (7.50%). This aspect is correlated with the major frequency of maturity onset diabetes in elderly (MODE), compared to the centenarians, correlated also to the mortality of diabetes mellitus (DM) of long duration. The DMT2 and the aging interact in the determinism of vascular alterations, i.e., of the hypertension, and related cardio-cerebrovascular complications. The most frequently occurring hypertension in both the elderly and centenarians was always the systolic-isolated one. The prevalence of hypertension and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was statistically significantly higher in diabetics, compared to the normoglycemic patients, in both the elderly and the centenarians. In addition, in a group of 914 elderly patients, being diabetics or normoglycemic at the start of the studies, but having neither AMI nor stroke at the baseline studies, after 5 years, these complications were more prevalent, significantly in statistical terms, in the diabetic subjects, compared to the normoglycemic ones. The increase of life-span causes an increase of the age when the aging phenomena appear, resulting in that the equal-age elderly people today are of better clinical conditions, compared to the previous periods. The increased life span with a consequent progressive aging of the population causes a worse general clinical state of the elderly population, characterized by polypathologies, frailty, and appearance of cognitive deficits or incapabilities for performing manual or instrumental activities.

Losartan vs. amlodipine treatment in elderly oncologic hypertensive patients: a randomized clinical trial.

Elderly neoplastic patients frequently may show hypertension and hyperuricemia, before and after chemotherapeutic treatments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of losartan which is an antihypertensive drug with uricosuric properties vs. amlodipine in hypertensive neoplastic elderly patients. This was an open-labeled, randomized, comparative trial. The study was performed as a 30-day study. Seventy patients with cancer were randomly assigned to receive losartan or amlodipine. Blood pressure (BP), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels, creatinine, serum and urinary uric acid, creatinine and uric acid clearance were determined before and after chemotherapy. One day after chemotherapy in losartan group vs. amlodipine group we observed a significant difference in urinary uric acid (p<0.001) of 18 mg/24 h vs. 40 mg/24 h. Thirty days after chemotherapy we observed a significant difference in azotemia of 0.0 mg/dl vs. 3.8 mg/dl (p<0.001), serum uric acid of 0.05 mg/dl vs. 0.49 mg/dl (p<0.001), urinary uric acid (p<0.001) of 23 mg/24 h vs. 0.0 mg/24 h, GFR of 2 ml/min/1.73 m(2) vs. -8 ml/min/1.73 m(2) (p<0.05) and systolic BP (SBP) of 3.6 mmHg vs. 0.8 mmHg (p<0.05). The findings of the present study support the effective role of losartan compared to amlodipine in treating hypertension and hyperuricemia in elderly patients under chemotherapeutic treatment.