Weight-loss interventions and gut microbiota changes in overweight and obese patients: a systematic review.

Imbalances in the gut microbiota, the bacteria that inhabit the intestines, are central to the pathogenesis of obesity. This systematic review assesses the association between the gut microbiota and weight loss in overweight/obese adults and its potential manipulation as a target for treating obesity. This review identified 43 studies using the keywords 'overweight' or 'obesity' and 'microbiota' and related terms; among these studies, 17 used dietary interventions, 11 used bariatric surgery and 15 used microbiota manipulation. The studies differed in their methodologies as well as their intervention lengths. Restrictive diets decreased the microbiota abundance, correlated with nutrient deficiency rather than weight loss and generally reduced the butyrate producers Firmicutes, Lactobacillus sp. and Bifidobacterium sp. The impact of surgical intervention depended on the given technique and showed a similar effect on butyrate producers, in addition to increasing the presence of the Proteobacteria phylum, which is related to changes in the intestinal absorptive surface, pH and digestion time. Probiotics differed in strain and duration with diverse effects on the microbiota, and they tended to reduce body fat. Prebiotics had a bifidogenic effect and increased butyrate producers, likely due to cross-feeding interactions, contributing to the gut barrier and improving metabolic outcomes. All of the interventions under consideration had impacts on the gut microbiota, although they did not always correlate with weight loss. These results show that restrictive diets and bariatric surgery reduce microbial abundance and promote changes in microbial composition that could have long-term detrimental effects on the colon. In contrast, prebiotics might restore a healthy microbiome and reduce body fat.

Toxicity of Secondary Metabolites from Meliaceae Against Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae).

The study was carried out to evaluate the bioactivity of secondary metabolites from Trichilia pallida, Trichilia pallens, and Toona ciliata against fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) larvae. The studied compounds included (+/-)-catechins, a triglyceride, and cedrelone isolated from T. ciliata branches, fruits, and stems, respectively; dammaradienol isolated from T. pallida leaves; and scopoletin isolated from T. pallens branches. The compounds' activity was evaluated through ingestion and topic treatment. Treated artificial diet was offered to first instar larvae to evaluate ingestion effect, while an application on the dorsal thoracic region of third instar larvae was used to evaluate the topic effect. Mortality was assessed daily, and larval weight was recorded after 7 days for ingestion and 5 days for topic application. Scopoletin and triglyceride caused low mortality rates and reduction in larval weight by ingestion, (+/-)-catechins caused larval weight reduction by ingestion, and scopoletin reduced survival by topic treatment. The most effective compound was cedrelone that affected larval survival and development mainly by ingestion. The estimated LC50, LC90, and EC50 for cedrelone were 0.0365, 0.0659, and 0.0095%, respectively. Further, cedrelone-treated corn leaf discs were offered to fourth instar larvae during 16 h in choice and no-choice tests. The deterrence indexes obtained in the choice tests were 23.5 and 36.3% at concentrations of 0.0365 and 0.0659, respectively. Consumption of cedrelone-treated leaf discs at the concentration of 0.0659% was lower compared to the control in the no-choice test. Thus, cedrelone caused lethal and sublethal effects and phagodeterrence on S. frugiperda and should be further studied.

Complete Genome Sequence of Porcine Parvovirus 2 Recovered from Swine Sera.

A complete genomic sequence of porcine parvovirus 2 (PPV-2) was detected by viral metagenome analysis on swine sera. A phylogenetic analysis of this genome reveals that it is highly similar to previously reported North American PPV-2 genomes. The complete PPV-2 sequence is 5,426 nucleotides long.

MPI-blastn and NCBI-TaxCollector: improving metagenomic analysis with high performance classification and wide taxonomic attachment.

Metagenomic sequencing technologies are advancing rapidly and the size of output data from high-throughput genetic sequencing has increased substantially over the years. This brings us to a scenario where advanced computational optimizations are requested to perform a metagenomic analysis. In this paper, we describe a new parallel implementation of nucleotide BLAST (MPI-blastn) and a new tool for taxonomic attachment of Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) results that supports the NCBI taxonomy (NCBI-TaxCollector). MPI-blastn obtained a high performance when compared to the mpiBLAST and ScalaBLAST. In our best case, MPI-blastn was able to run 408 times faster in 384 cores. Our evaluations demonstrated that NCBI-TaxCollector is able to perform taxonomic attachments 125 times faster and needs 120 times less RAM than the previous TaxCollector. Through our optimizations, a multiple sequence search that currently takes 37 hours can be performed in less than 6 min and a post processing with NCBI taxonomic data attachment, which takes 48 hours, now is able to run in 23 min.

[Role of intraprostatic stents in benign prostatic hypertrophy]. / Il ruolo degli stents endoprostatici nell'ipertrofia prostatica benigna.

We report our indications and experience in the use of intraprostatic endoprosthesis. We report also our preliminary experience in the use of a new intraprostatic endoprosthesis which has been developed at our institute. This prosthesis can be easily positioned, shows little invasiveness and does not require ultrasonic, radiological or endoscopical guidance.

[Our experience in surgery of metastases of parenchymal renal neoplasms: mean follow-up time results]. / Nostra esperienza nella chirurgia delle metastasi da neoplasia renale parenchimale: risultati a medio termine.

The Authors report their experience about surgical treatment of metastases from renal cell carcinoma. From January 1983 to December 1989, twenty eight patients, 19 males and 9 females, with a median age of 58 years (range 42-79), have been submitted to contemporary or subsequent metastasectomy. Metastases were synchronous in 10 cases, while they appeared after a free disease mean-time of 28 months after nephrectomy in 18 patients. Recovery period has always been normal and all the patients were controlled, every six months, with routine blood and urine examinations, Chest X-ray, abdominal CAT and bone scan. Among the 10 patients with synchronous metastases 5 died, 3 are in progression and 2 are NED after a mean-time follow up of 36 months. Among 18 patients who underwent surgery for metachronous metastases, 2 died, 4 are in progression and 12 NED (mean follow up of 36 months). In conclusion, while the presence of synchronous metastases is an unfavourable prognostic factor even after their surgical removal (8 out of 10 patients died or are in progression shortly after metastasectomy), results after metachronous metastases surgery are encouraging, but the real efficiency of this treatment is still to be confirmed.

[Comparison of prostatic biopsy guided or not guided by echography]. / Comparaison entre biopsie prostatique aveugle et sous échographie.

We studied 151 patients aged from 49 to 85 years (mean 71) with a clinical suspect of prostatic cancer. 104 underwent a transrectal digitally directed prostatic biopsy, while 47 an ultrasonically perineal guided prostatic biopsy. Transrectal fine needle aspiration was performed in the whole group. Both techniques showed a high cyto-histologic concordance: 83.6% with transrectal digitally directed biopsy, 78.7% with perineal ultrasonically guided biopsy. The ultrasound guided biopsy has been able to downset the rate of cytologic false negatives in comparison to the digitally guided biopsy. In case of pathological rectal examination, digitally directed prostatic biopsy is still available and those who haven't an ultrasound apparatus, can equally perform a traditional biopsy with a limited possibility of mistake.

Adjuvant medroxyprogesterone acetate to radical nephrectomy in renal cancer: 5-year results of a prospective randomized study.

From July 1, 1979 to June 30, 1983, 136 consecutive patients from 5 centers in Lombardy entered a prospective randomized study to compare 500 mg. adjuvant medroxyprogesterone acetate 3 times a week for 1 year to no treatment following radical nephrectomy for category M0 renal cancer. After a median followup of 5 years (range 42 to 90 months) 40 of 120 evaluable patients (33.3 per cent) experienced relapse after a median interval free of disease of 17 months (range 2 to 74 months). Relapses occurred in 19 of 58 evaluable patients in the adjuvant treatment group (32.7 per cent) and in 21 of the 62 evaluable controls (33.9 per cent). Sex steroid hormone receptors were studied in 102 of the 120 evaluable patients with the dextran-coated charcoal technique. No significant correlation could be found among receptors, relapses and treatment. On the other hand, 33 (56.9 per cent) of the 58 treated patients experienced 39 complications related to the long-term hormonal therapy. Three patients had to discontinue medroxyprogesterone acetate for severe toxicity after 2 to 3 months. Medroxyprogesterone acetate cannot be recommended as adjuvant therapy to radical nephrectomy in patients with renal cell carcinoma.

[Hormone receptors and endocrine therapy of renal carcinoma]. / Recettori ormonali ed endocrinoterapia nel carcinoma renale.

One hundred sixty-five consecutive patients with resectable renal cancer entered a cooperative study to evaluate hormone treatment and steroid receptors. Twenty-nine patients with concomitant distant metastases (category M1) received intramuscular medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) 500 mg/day for at least two months after the operation. No measurable remission was observed, but 8 of 24 evaluable patients (33%) had disease stabilization for a median duration of 6 months. One hundred thirty-six cases with category M0 cancer were randomly allocated to a control group or to a treatment group with MPA 500 mg/3 times a week for one year. After a median follow-up period of over 3 years, 30 of 121 evaluable patients (24.8%) had a relapse, usually in distant sites. Relapses and survival were independent from postoperative treatment and sex. Only the extent of the disease and the presence of steroid receptors in the tumor were related with prognosis, but no relation could be found between receptors and response to hormone treatment. The presence of low concentrations of hormone receptors in a proportion of renal cancers remains unclear. However, MPA is confirmed to be only marginally active in metastatic renal cancer and the drug cannot be recommended as adjuvant to radically resected patients because of significant toxicity and lack of therapeutic activity.

Hormone treatment and sex steroid receptors in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: report of a multicentric prospective study.

Twenty-eight patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma entered a multicentric prospective study to evaluate the response to high-dose medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) and testosterone in MPA failures in relation to sex steroid receptors. No objective remission was seen in the 24 evaluable patients, and only disease stabilizations of short duration were achieved in one-third of treated patients. Stabilizations achieved with second line testosterone were all seen in patients unresponsive to MPA. Receptor studies demonstrated that estrogen, progesterone, or androgen receptors were found in low concentrations and in only 6 of 23 tumors (26%) and 13 normal tissue samples (56%). Surprisingly, no disease stabilization was achieved in patients positive for receptors. It can be concluded that the occasional objective responses to hormone therapy reported in the literature may have been due to some cytotoxic effect of hormone therapy rather than to a true hormonal mechanism.

Adjunctive medroxyprogesterone acetate to radical nephrectomy in category M0 renal cell carcinoma. Preliminary report of a prospective randomized trial.

From July 1979 to December 1981, 83 patients from 6 centers in the Lombardy underwent radical nephrectomy for category M0 renal cell carcinoma. Postoperatively they were randomly allocated to adjunctive medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) or to a control group. After the first year of follow-up, the relapse rate was 13% in the controls (5 of 38 evaluable patients) versus 28% in the MPA treatment group (9 of 32). Sex steroid receptors were studied in both the tumor and in the surrounding healthy parenchyma by the dextran-coated charcoal technique in 52 of 70 clinically evaluable patients. There was no significant correlation between receptor studies and the relapse rate. Besides, receptors were more often detected in the healthy than in the neoplastic tissue, and values rarely exceeded 10 fmol/mg protein. Due to the negative trend in the MPA treatment group, the admittance of patients to this study was stopped after 120 patients had been accepted.