Has the COVID 19 Virus Changed Adherence to Hand Washing among Healthcare Workers?

The aim of the study was to assess adherence to hand washing by healthcare workers (HCWs) and its variations over time in hospital wards. We wanted to check whether the pandemic had changed the behavior of HCWs. The study was conducted between 1 January 2015, and 31 December 2020. The HCWs were observed to assess their compliance with the Five Moments for Hand Hygiene. We described the percentage of adherence to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines stratified per year, per specialty areas, per different types of HCWs. We also observed the use of gloves. Descriptive data were reported as frequencies and percentages. We observed 13,494 hand hygiene opportunities. The majority of observations concerned nurses who were confirmed as the category most frequently involved with patients. Hospital's global adherence to WHO guidelines did not change in the last six years. During the pandemic, the rate of adherence to the procedure increased significantly only in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). In 2020, the use of gloves increased in pre-patient contact. The hand-washing permanent monitoring confirmed that it is very difficult to obtain the respect of correct hand hygiene in all opportunities, despite the ongoing pandemic and the fear of contagion.

A computational model to predict the immune system activation by citrus-derived vaccine adjuvants.

MOTIVATION: Vaccines represent the most effective and cost-efficient weapons against a wide range of diseases. Nowadays new generation vaccines based on subunit antigens reduce adverse effects in high risk individuals. However, vaccine antigens are often poor immunogens when administered alone. Adjuvants represent a good strategy to overcome such hurdles, indeed they are able to: enhance the immune response; allow antigens sparing; accelerate the specific immune response; and increase vaccine efficacy in vulnerable groups such as newborns, elderly or immuno-compromised people. However, due to safety concerns and adverse reactions, there are only a few adjuvants approved for use in humans. Moreover, in practice current adjuvants sometimes fail to confer adequate stimulation. Hence, there is an imperative need to develop novel adjuvants that overcome the limitations of the currently available licensed adjuvants. RESULTS: We developed a computational framework that provides a complete pipeline capable of predicting the best citrus-derived adjuvants for enhancing the immune system response using, as a target disease model, influenza A infection. In silico simulations suggested a good immune efficacy of specific citrus-derived adjuvant (Beta Sitosterol) that was then confirmed in vivoAvailability: The model is available visiting the following URL: http://vaima.dmi.unict.it/AdjSim CONTACT: francesco.pappalardo@unict.it; fp@francescopappalardo.net.

Deep sequencing and analysis of small RNAs in sweet orange grafted on sour orange infected with two citrus tristeza virus isolates prevalent in Sicily.

Two representative isolates of a citrus tristeza virus population in Sicily, SG29 (aggressive) and Bau282 (mild), were sequenced via viral small RNAs (vsRNA) produced in budlings of sweet orange grafted on sour orange. Phylogenetic relationships with Mediterranean and exotic isolates revealed that SG29 clustered within the "VT-Asian" subtype, whereas Bau282 belonged to the cluster T30. The study confirms that molecular data need to be integrated with bio-indexing in order to obtain adequate information for risk assessment.

A knowledge base for Vitis vinifera functional analysis.

BACKGROUND: Vitis vinifera (Grapevine) is the most important fruit species in the modern world. Wine and table grapes sales contribute significantly to the economy of major wine producing countries. The most relevant goals in wine production concern quality and safety. In order to significantly improve the achievement of these objectives and to gain biological knowledge about cultivars, a genomic approach is the most reliable strategy. The recent grapevine genome sequencing offers the opportunity to study the potential roles of genes and microRNAs in fruit maturation and other physiological and pathological processes. Although several systems allowing the analysis of plant genomes have been reported, none of them has been designed specifically for the functional analysis of grapevine genomes of cultivars under environmental stress in connection with microRNA data. DESCRIPTION: Here we introduce a novel knowledge base, called BIOWINE, designed for the functional analysis of Vitis vinifera genomes of cultivars present in Sicily. The system allows the analysis of RNA-seq experiments of two different cultivars, namely Nero d'Avola and Nerello Mascalese. Samples were taken under different climatic conditions of phenological phases, diseases, and geographic locations. The BIOWINE web interface is equipped with data analysis modules for grapevine genomes. In particular users may analyze the current genome assembly together with the RNA-seq data through a customized version of GBrowse. The web interface allows users to perform gene set enrichment by exploiting third-party databases. CONCLUSIONS: BIOWINE is a knowledge base implementing a set of bioinformatics tools for the analysis of grapevine genomes. The system aims to increase our understanding of the grapevine varieties and species of Sicilian products focusing on adaptability to different climatic conditions, phenological phases, diseases, and geographic locations.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of combretastatin analogs as cell cycle inhibitors of the G1 to S transition in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A series of Z and E combretastatin A-4 analogs bearing different substituents (OH, F, NO(2), NH(2), B(OH)(2)) in the 3' position were synthesized. These derivatives and Z and E combretastatin A-1 were analysed by monitoring their ability to inhibit cell growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Combretastatin A-1 (2a), A-4 (2b) and compound 2c were found to inhibit yeast growth. Moreover, combretatstatin A-4 (2b) and compound 2c induced a G1 arrest by affecting the synthesis of Clb5 protein, the principal S-phase cyclin. The G1 arrest is coincident with the activation of the stress activated kinase Snf1.

Regulation of polyhydroxyalkanoate synthases (phaC1 and phaC2) gene expression in Pseudomonas corrugata.

In this study we examined polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthases phaC1 and phaC2 gene expression in two strains of Pseudomonas corrugata (Pc) grown in a minimum mineral medium with related (oleic acid and octanoate) or unrelated (glucose) carbon sources. Analysis of transcription was performed by Northern blot and conventional reverse transcriptase (RT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In addition, we developed a RT-real-time PCR method to quantitatively evaluate phaC1 (Pc) and phaC2 (Pc) gene expression. Primers and a TaqMan probe were designed for the specific detection of both synthase transcripts as well as of the housekeeping 16S rRNA, and the relative expression of target genes was calculated. We showed that phaC1 (Pc) and phaC2 (Pc) were not cotranscribed and, on the contrary, were independently regulated. In cultures grown with oleic acid as the sole carbon source, only the expression of phaC1 (Pc) was induced (a tenfold increase after 72 h of culture), whereas that of phaC2 (Pc) remained unchanged. In cultures grown with glucose or sodium octanoate, the expression of both phaC1 (Pc) and phaC2 (Pc) was upregulated but at different rates. Cellular PHA content was compared to the gene expression of the PHA synthases and significant correlations were found between PHA production and phaC1 (Pc)/phaC2 (Pc) expression.