Marche Polytechnic University

About: Marche Polytechnic University is a education organization based out in Ancona, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 5905 authors who have published 15769 publications receiving 382286 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitá Politecnica delle Marche & Universita Politecnica delle Marche.

The Molecular Basis of Lecithin:Cholesterol Acyltransferase Deficiency Syndromes: A Comprehensive Study of Molecular and Biochemical Findings in 13 Unrelated Italian Families

Abstract: Objective— To better understand the role of lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) in lipoprotein metabolism through the genetic and biochemical characterization of families carrying mutations in the LCAT gene. Methods and Results— Thirteen families carrying 17 different mutations in the LCAT gene were identified by Lipid Clinics and Departments of Nephrology throughout Italy. DNA analysis of 82 family members identified 15 carriers of 2 mutant LCAT alleles, 11 with familial LCAT deficiency (FLD) and 4 with fish-eye disease (FED). Forty-four individuals carried 1 mutant LCAT allele, and 23 had a normal genotype. Plasma unesterified cholesterol, unesterified/total cholesterol ratio, triglycerides, very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and pre-β high-density lipoprotein (LDL) were elevated, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, apolipoprotein A-I, apolipoprotein A-II, apolipoprotein B, LpA-I, LpA-I:A-II, cholesterol esterification rate, LCAT activity and concentration, and LDL and HDL 3 particle size were reduced in a gene–dose-dependent manner in carriers of mutant LCAT alleles. No differences were found in the lipid/lipoprotein profile of FLD and FED cases, except for higher plasma unesterified cholesterol and unesterified/total cholesterol ratio in the former. Conclusion— In a large series of subjects carrying mutations in the LCAT gene, the inheritance of a mutated LCAT genotype causes a gene–dose-dependent alteration in the plasma lipid/lipoprotein profile, which is remarkably similar between subjects classified as FLD or FED.

Lamivudine monotherapy in HIV-1-infected patients harbouring a lamivudine-resistant virus: a randomized pilot study (E-184V study).

Abstract: Objective We compared the immunological and clinical outcomes of lamivudine monotherapy and complete therapy interruption in the treatment of HIV-1-infected patients harbouring lamivudine-resistant virus. Methods This 48-week, open-label pilot study randomly assigned HIV-infected patients receiving lamivudine-containing HAART and harbouring the M184V mutation to monotherapy with lamivudine 300 mg once daily (lamivudine group) or the discontinuation of all antiretroviral drugs (TI group). The primary endpoint was the occurrence of immunological or clinical failure; immunological failure was defined as the first report of a CD4 T-cell count less than 350 cells/microl, and clinical failure as the occurrence of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grade B or C event. The data were analysed on the basis of the intention-to-treat principle. Results By week 48, 20 of 29 patients in the TI group (69%; 95% CI 51-83%) and 12 of 29 in the lamivudine group (41%; 95% CI 26-59%) had discontinued the study because of immunological or clinical failure, which was significantly delayed in the lamivudine group (P = 0.018). Only patients in the TI group (6/29, 20.7%) experienced grade 3-4 clinical adverse events at least possibly related to HIV-1 (P = 0.02). The mean decline in CD4 cell percentage, viral rebound and recovery of HIV-1 replication capacity were significantly lower in the lamivudine group. The 24-week virological and immunological response after therapy resumption in patients who prematurely discontinued the study was similar in the two groups. Conclusion In HIV-1-infected patients harbouring a lamivudine-resistant virus, lamivudine monotherapy may lead to a better immunological and clinical outcome than complete therapy interruption.

Quantitative PCR and RT-PCR in Virology

Abstract: In the last few years, molecular hybridization methods have been used extensively in basic and applied virology because of their technical flexibility and high specificity. Using these techniques, the detection of DNA and RNA viruses directly from clinical specimens, the analysis of the specific transcriptional activity of viral genes in vitro and in vivo, and the study of virus-host relationships have all been carried out at the molecular level. However, although these methods are efficient for many purposes, only development (~) and optimization (z) of PCR amplification have dramatically improved sensitivity. Currently, PCR is the method of choice for the detection of viral nucleic acids present at very low amounts in biological samples, and it allows the molecular study of most acute and persistent viral infections. Impressive achievements that are rap

Assessing the Behaviour of Non-Survey Methods for Constructing Regional Input–Output Tables through a Monte Carlo Simulation

Abstract: The paper aims to analyse the behaviour of a battery of non-survey techniques of constructing regional I-O tables in estimating impact. For this aim, a Monte Carlo simulation, based on the generation of ‘true’ multiregional I-O tables, was carried out. By aggregating multi-regional I-O tables, national I-O tables were obtained. From the latter, indirect regional tables were derived through the application of various regionalisation methods and the relevant multipliers were compared with the ‘true’ multipliers using a set of statistics. Three aspects of the behaviour of the methods have been analysed: performances to reproduce ‘true’ multipliers, variability of simulation error and direction of bias. The results have demonstrated that the Flegg et al. Location Quotient (FLQ) and its augmented version (AFLQ) represent an effective improvement of conventional techniques based on the use of location quotients in both reproducing ‘true’ multipliers and generating more stable simulation errors. In addition, the...

A New Analysis of the McEliece Cryptosystem Based on QC-LDPC Codes

Abstract: We improve our proposal of a new variant of the McEliece cryptosystem based on QC-LDPC codes. The original McEliece cryptosystem, based on Goppa codes, is still unbroken up to now, but has two major drawbacks: long key and low transmission rate. Our variant is based on QC-LDPC codes and is able to overcome such drawbacks, while avoiding the known attacks. Recently, however, a new attack has been discovered that can recover the private key with limited complexity. We show that such attack can be avoided by changing the form of some constituent matrices, without altering the remaining system parameters. We also propose another variant that exhibits an overall increased security level. We analyze the complexity of the encryption and decryption stages by adopting efficient algorithms for processing large circulant matrices. The Toom-Cook algorithm and the short Winograd convolution are considered, that give a significant speed-up in the cryptosystem operations.