A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus strain carrying the D222G mutation was identified in a severely ill man and was transmitted to a household contact. Only mild illness developed in the contact, despite his obesity and diabetes. The isolated virus reacted fully with an antiserum against the pandemic vaccine strain.

Avian influenza infections by high and low pathogenicity H7 influenza viruses have caused several outbreaks in European poultry in recent years, also resulting in human infections. Although in some cases the source of H7 strains from domestic poultry was shown to be the viruses circulating in the wild bird reservoir, a thorough characterization of the entire genome of H7 viruses from both wild and domestic Eurasian birds, and their evolutionary relationships, has not been conducted. In our study, we have analysed low pathogenicity H7 influenza strains isolated from wild and domestic ducks in Italy and southern China and compared them with those from reared terrestrial poultry such as chicken and turkey. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the H7 haemagglutinin genes were all closely related to each other, whereas the remaining genes could be divided into two or more phylogenetic groups. Almost each year different H7 reassortant viruses were identified and in at least two different years more than one H7 genotype co-circulated. A recent precursor in wild waterfowl was identified for most of the gene segments of terrestrial poultry viruses. Our data suggest that reassortment allows avian influenza viruses, in their natural reservoir, to increase their genetic diversity. In turn this might help avian influenza viruses colonize a wider range of hosts, including domestic poultry.

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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can often influence the way subjects process and cope with their emotional life. In spite of the huge amount of studies investigating facial emotion recognition in subjects with traumatic brain injury, none of them has examined if their emotional lexicon, i.e. the ability to express emotions through words, may be affected. In this case-control study, we investigated the emotional lexicon of a group of 16 severe TBI subjects, comparing their performances with an healthy control group. A set of 25 visual stimuli (10 single picture images, 5 cartoon story pictures and 10 video clips) were selected. All the stimuli were chosen for their high emotional content by ten blind judges. The participants were asked to describe the stimuli, focusing on their emotional content. To get a better understanding of the correlates of emotional lexicon, all the participants were administered with the backward version of the Digit Span test, the Ekman and Friesen 60 Faces, the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Empathy Quotient. Results pointed out a significant difference between TBI subjects and healthy controls only for cartoon story and video clip description. Conversely, TBI subjects performed similarly to controls when asked to describe the single picture images. A significant correlation was found in TBI subjects between the results of the Digit Span and number of emotional words, while no correlation was detected between emotional terms and the three scales used to assess TBI subjects' emotional profile. These outcomes highlight that, for more complex stimuli, difficulties in emotional lexicon may depend on factors other than empathy, alexythimia or emotion recognition. These difficulties seem to be related to reduced working memory capacity, which prevent the subjects from correctly processing the emotional content of stimuli.

Background In response to the COVID-19 health emergency, mass media widely spread guidelines to stop the virus transmission, leading to an excessive and unaware use of detergents and disinfectants. In Italy and in other countries this tendency caused a significant increase of exposures to these products in 2020. Evaluating data collected by the Italian Pavia Poison Centre (PPC), this study intends to examine the relationship between the COVID-19 lockdown and the variations of exposures to specific product categories possibly associated to the containment measures implemented. Simultaneously, this work shows the effectiveness of the European Product Categorisation System (EuPCS) in surveillance activities of dangerous chemicals. Methods Exposure cases managed by the PPC during March–May 2020 (lockdown) and during the same months of 2017–2018-2019 were compared. Differences in categorical variables were tested with the Chi-square test. The level of significance was set at Alpha = .05. The study included all EuPCS groups but specifically focused on cleaners, detergents, biocides and cosmetics. Results During the lockdown, calls from private citizens showed a highly significant increase (+ 11.5%, p < .001) and occupational exposures decreased (− 11.7%, p = .011). Among Cleaners, exposures to Bleaches slightly increased while Drain cleaning products went through a significant reduction (− 13.9%, p = .035). A highly significant increase of exposures to Disinfectants was observed (+ 7.7%, p = .007), particularly to those for surfaces (+ 6.8%, p = .039). Regarding Cosmetics, both handwashing soaps and gel products significantly increased (respectively: + 25.0, p = .016 and + 9.7%, p = .028). Among children 1–5 years, the statistical significance is reached with exposures to Dishwashing detergents (+ 13.1%, p = .032), handwashing soaps (+ 28.6%, p = .014) and handwashing gel products (+ 16.8%, p = .010). Contrarily, Liquid Laundry Detergent Capsules decreased in a highly significant manner (− 25%; p = .001). The general severity of exposures showed a highly significant decrease (Moderate: − 10.1%, p = .0002). Conclusions This study investigated the relationship between the COVID-19 lockdown and the variations of exposures to some product categories related to the containment measures. The results obtained support any action to be taken by Competent Authorities to implement measures for a safer use of cleaners/disinfectants. This paper shows the benefit in applying the EuPCS to categorize products according to their intended use, though an extension of this system to products not covered by CLP Regulation may be a further advantage.

A Pichia pastoris expression system has for the first time been successfully developed to produce rhEPO (recombinant human eosinophil peroxidase). The full-length rhEPO coding sequence was cloned into the pPIC9 vector in frame with the yeast alpha-Factor secretion signal under the transcriptional control of the AOX (acyl-CoA oxidase) promoter, and transformed into P. pastoris strain GS115. Evidence for the production of rhEPO by P. pastoris as a glycosylated dimer precursor of approx. 80 kDa was determined by SDS/PAGE and gel filtration chromatography. Recombinant hEPO undergoes proteolytic processing, similar to that in the native host, to generate two chains of approx. 50 and 20 kDa. A preliminary biochemical characterization of purified rhEPO demonstrated that the spectral and kinetic properties of the recombinant wild-type EPO are comparable with those of the native enzyme and are accompanied by oxidizing activity towards several physiological anionic substrates such as SCN-, Br- and Cl-. On the basis of the estimated K(m) and kcat values it is evident that the pseudohalide SCN- is the most specific substrate for rhEPO, consistent with the catalytic properties of other mammalian EPOs purified from blood.

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