In view of the broad potential biomedical applications of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) different studies were performed to assess their effect on the immune system. However, the work performed to date was able to give a restricted view looking only at some activation markers and cytokine expression. The immune system is rarely limited to few molecule interactions being instead always a balance of switching several genes on and off. Whole genome expression (microarray) is a technology able to give the full picture on genome expression. Here we describe a microarray genome-wide study on Jurkat cells, a T lymphocyte cell line, and THP1, a monocytic cell line, representative of both types of immune response, the adaptive and innate, respectively. Since any structure or molecule modification may lead to very different immune reactions, we treated the two cell lines with four types of functionalized multi-walled CNTs that differ in terms of functionalization and diameter. After having assessed the internalization and the lack of toxicity of CNTs in both cell types, we used the Affymetrix technology to analyze the expression of about 32,000 transcripts. Three of the tested nanotubes (i.e., ox-MWCNT-1, ox-MWCNT-NH3(+)-1, and ox-MWCNT-NH3(+)-2) activated immune-related pathways in monocytes but not in T cells. In view of these charateristics they were named as monocyte activating CNTs (MA-CNTs). Molecular pathways upregulated by MA-CNTs included IL6, CD40, dendritic cell maturation, tumor necrosis factor-(TNF)-α/TNFR1-2, NFKB signaling and T helper 1 chemokine pathways (CXCR3 and CCR5 ligand pathways). These pathways are commonly activated during acute inflammatory processes as those associated with immune-mediated tumor rejection and pathogen clearance. One of them (i.e., ox-MWCNT-2) downregulated genes associated with ribosomal proteins in both monocytes and T cells. We validated our findings at gene expression level by performing real-time PCR assessing the most highly modulated genes in monocytes. To confirm the results at protein level, the secretion of IL1β, TNFα, IL6 and IL10 by THP1 and primary monocytes was assessed by ELISA, corroborating gene-expression data. Our results provide new insights into the whole gene expression modulation by different CNTs on immune cells. Considering the well known drug carrier ability of CNTs, our findings demonstrate that MA-CNTs here behave as cell specific immunostimulatory systems, giving very interesting future perspectives for their application also as immunotherapeutic agents and/or vaccine adjuvants.

BackgroundHuman papillomavirus (HPV) has been associated with several disorders of the genital tract, skin and oropharynx. The aims of our study were to evaluate the prevalence of HPV infection in women between 15 and 54 years of age in North Sardinia, Italy, to identify the prevalence of High Risk - Human papillomaviruses (HR-HPV) genotypes and to establish a correlation between molecular and cytological results.MethodsFrom 2007 to 2009 we consecutively enrolled women aged 15-54 years admitted to public and private outpatient settings. All the participants filled in a questionnaire about the socio-cultural state, sexual activity and awareness about HPV. 323 cervical specimens were tested for HPV-DNA and HPV genotypes with INNO-LiPA HPV Genotyping CE Amp kit. Samples showing positivity to some HPV genotypes were re-tested using "in house" quantitative Real-Time PCR assays.ResultsOverall HPV-DNA positivity was detected in 35.9% of the women. The prevalence of HR-HPV infection among HPV positive samples was 93.1% with a specific prevalence of HPV 16, 51, 31, 53 and 18 of 54.3%, 37.9%, 10.3%, 6.9% and 5.2%, respectively. Co-infection with any HPV, HR-HPV, LR-HPV and HR/LR-HPV type was 18.3%, 14.9%, 0.9% and 2.5%, respectively; HPV 16/51 co-infection was detected in 64.6% of the HR-HPV co-infection group. The most frequent HPV-genotypes detected were 16 (32.5%) and 51 (22.7%). Among the 57 patients harboring mono-infection the most prevalent HPV genotypes were 16 (38.6%) and 31(10.5%). A multivariate analysis identified a statistical significant association between HPV infection and age and between HPV infection and previous sexual transmitted diseases. A statistically significant association between cytological cervical lesions and generic HPV exposure was identified.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first survey evaluating the prevalence of HPV infection in Northern Sardinia and drawing attention to the unusual high proportion of genotype HPV 51. Given the recent implementation of a widespread immunization program with vaccines not containing HPV 51, it has been relevant to prove the high prevalence of this HPV genotype from the start of the vaccination campaign, in order to avoid in the future attributing to the vaccination program a possible selection effect (HPV replacement).

Chlamydia pneumoniae infection is a common event in neurological patients and recovery of C. pneumoniae DNA in the cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients could represent an epiphenomenon. We assessed the relevance of C. pneumoniae infection in 62 CSF samples from 32 MS patients and 30 neurological controls by means of PCR, immunofluorescence microscopy, enzyme-linked fluorescence and antibody detection. Multiple sclerosis (9.3%) and neurological controls (13.3) had similar percentage of anti-C. pneumoniae antibodies. However, C. pneumoniae DNA was only detectable in MS patients' CSF (9.3%). Our data support the hypothesis that C. pneumoniae persistence in some MS patients may be the result of an impaired clearance within the central nervous system.

Background: In the last years, international traffic volume has significantly increased, raising the risk for acquisition of infectious diseases. Among travel-associated infections, increased incidence of legionellosis has been reported among travellers.

The analysis of students satisfaction for their university experience is important within the educational evaluation. In this study was explored the satisfaction of students to identify which aspects of teaching may be cause of dissatisfaction. A survey questionnaire contains items on motivations, teaching quality and services was compiled in anonymous by the students that attending the courses of the Faculty of Science (University of Sassari, Sardinia) during the second semester of the 2009/2010 academic year. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach’s Alpha. A preliminary chi square test at stepwise logistic regression analysis was applied to evaluate the association between student satisfaction and motivation, quality of teacher and services, at a 0.05 significance level. Only 403 questionnaires were considered good with a response rate of 82.6%. The student’s satisfaction is significant different by gender (p = .009). Significant are the items on the interest for scientific studies, the acquisition of the degree as social prestige and future work (p < .05); also, the ability of teacher to stimulate and attract the student, the encouragement, the advice to the students and the his professionality are significantly associated with the students satisfaction (p < .05). In males the main factor associated to the satisfaction is to have achieved always good results in school (OR = 2.84, p = .036); instead, in females, the interest in science (OR = 4.75, p = .023), the title of degree to acquire a social prestige (OR = 2.00, p = .033) and the possibility of a future work (OR = 2.09, p = .028). Although good judgments made by students, however, require further attention, such as such as the abandonment of the university, the time of graduation degree, the future career, for better analysis of aspects related to the satisfaction of the quality of teaching. (Abstract