Is COVID-19 All That Glitters?

Over the last three years, the Coronavirus-19 disease has been a global health emergency, playing a primary role in the international scientific community. Clinical activity and scientific research have concentrated their efforts on facing the pandemic, allowing the description of novel pathologies correlated to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), such as the Multisystemic Inflammatory Syndrome in Children and Adults (MIS-C, MIS-A). Conversely, this shift of attention to COVID-19 disease and its complications could, in some cases, have delayed and underestimated the diagnosis of diseases not associated with SARS-CoV-2, including rare diseases. Here we describe the diagnostic process that led to the definition of a rare vasculitis in a young woman with a recent clinical history of SARS-CoV-2.

New treatment in advanced thyroid cancer

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine tumor. Thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine, and TSH suppression represent the standard treatment for differentiated thyroid cancer. Since chemotherapy has been shown to be unsuccessful in case of advanced thyroid carcinomas, the research for new therapies is fundamental. In this paper, we reviewed the recent literature reports (pubmed, medline, EMBASE database, and abstracts published in meeting proceedings) on new treatments in advanced nonmedullary and medullary thyroid carcinomas. Studies of many tyrosine kinase inhibitors as well as antiangiogenic inhibitors suggest that patients with thyroid cancer could have an advantage with new target therapy. We summarized both the results obtained and the toxic effects associated with these treatments reported in clinical trials. Reported data in this paper are encouraging, but further trials are necessary to obtain a more effective result in thyroid carcinoma treatment.

Cigarette smoke extract immobilizes human spermatozoa and induces sperm apoptosis

Cigarette smoking by the male partner adversely affects assisted reproductive techniques, suggesting that it may damage sperm chromatin/DNA and consequently embryo development. The effects of graded concentrations of research cigarettes smoke extract (CSE) on motility, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), chromatin integrity and apoptosis were evaluated in spermatozoa obtained from 13 healthy, non-smoking men with normal sperm parameters, by flow cytometry. CSE suppressed sperm motility in a concentration- and time-dependent manner and increased the number of spermatozoa with low MMP, the main source of energy for sperm motility. In addition, CSE had a detrimental effect on sperm chromatin condensation and apoptosis. Indeed, it increased the number of spermatozoa with phosphatidylserine externalization, an early apoptotic sign, and fragmented DNA, a late apoptotic sign, in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. These effects of CSE were of similar or even greater magnitude to those obtained following incubation with tumour necrosis factor-alpha, a cytokine known for its negative impact on sperm function, used as positive control. Since transmission of smoking-induced sperm DNA alterations has been found in pre-implantation embryos, and this may predispose offspring to a greater risk of malformations, cancer and genetic diseases, men seeking to father a child are recommended to give up smoking.