Browsing by Author "Guadagni, Veronica"

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    Circulating tumour cell gene expression and chemosensitivity analyses: predictive accuracy for response to multidisciplinary treatment of patients with unresectable refractory recurrent rectal cancer or unresectable refractory colorectal cancer liver metastases
    (2022-06-16) Guadagni, Stefano; Masedu, Francesco; Fiorentini, Giammaria; Sarti, Donatella; Fiorentini, Caterina; Guadagni, Veronica; Apostolou, Panagiotis; Papasotiriou, Ioannis; Parsonidis, Panagiotis; Valenti, Marco; Ricevuto, Enrico; Bruera, Gemma; Farina, Antonietta R.; Mackay, Andrew R.; Clementi, Marco
    Abstract Background Patients with unresectable recurrent rectal cancer (RRC) or colorectal cancer (CRC) with liver metastases, refractory to at least two lines of traditional systemic therapy, may receive third line intraarterial chemotherapy (IC) and targeted therapy (TT) using drugs selected by chemosensitivity and tumor gene expression analyses of liquid biopsy-derived circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Methods In this retrospective study, 36 patients with refractory unresectable RRC or refractory unresectable CRC liver metastases were submitted for IC and TT with agents selected by precision oncotherapy chemosensitivity assays performed on liquid biopsy-derived CTCs, transiently cultured in vitro, and by tumor gene expression in the same CTC population, as a ratio to tumor gene expression in peripheral mononuclear blood cells (PMBCs) from the same individual. The endpoint was to evaluate the predictive accuracy of a specific liquid biopsy precision oncotherapy CTC purification and in vitro culture methodology for a positive RECIST 1.1 response to the therapy selected. Results Our analyses resulted in evaluations of 94.12% (95% CI 0.71–0.99) for sensitivity, 5.26% (95% CI 0.01–0.26) for specificity, a predictive value of 47.06% (95% CI 0.29–0.65) for a positive response, a predictive value of 50% (95% CI 0.01–0.98) for a negative response, with an overall calculated predictive accuracy of 47.22% (95% CI 0.30–0.64). Conclusions This is the first reported estimation of predictive accuracy derived from combining chemosensitivity and tumor gene expression analyses on liquid biopsy-derived CTCs, transiently cultured in vitro which, despite limitations, represents a baseline and benchmark which we envisage will be improve upon by methodological and technological advances and future clinical trials.
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    Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury
    (2019-02-10) Guadagni, Veronica; Sarà, Marco; Conson, Massimiliano; Carolei, Antonio; Sacco, Simona; Vadini, Silvia; Pistarini, Caterina; Barbonetti, Arcangelo; Iaria, Giuseppe; Pistoia, Francesca
    Background. Empathy has been conceptualized as comprising a cognitive and an emotional component, the latter being further divided into direct and indirect aspects, which refer, respectively, to the explicit evaluation of the observer’s feelings while attending someone in an emotional situation and to the physiological response of the observer. Empathy has been previously investigated in several neurological disorders. Objective. This study is aimed at investigating empathy in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). We hypothesize that, due to deafferentation following their injury, SCI patients will display difficulty in the processing of emotional stimuli and blunted empathic responses as compared to healthy controls. Materials and Methods. 20 patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) (12 males and 8 females, mean , standard deviation years; mean , years) were included in the study and compared to 20 matched healthy subjects. Participants were investigated using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y) (STAI-Y), the Beck Depression Scale, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Moreover, participants were further evaluated by means of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), which explores both cognitive and emotional aspects of empathy, and through an experimental protocol based on the use of a modified version of the computerized Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) to evaluate emotional (direct and indirect) empathy and the ability to judge the valence of complex emotional scenes. Results. As compared to healthy controls, SCI patients reported higher scores on the Perspective-Taking subscale of the IRI, while, on the modified MET, they were less accurate in identifying the valence of neutral scenes, notwithstanding their spared direct and indirect emotional empathy ability. Furthermore, we found a significant negative correlation between the time interval since injury and the direct emotional empathy scores on the positive images, as well as a negative correlation with the indirect emotional empathy scores on both positive and neutral images, indicating a blunting of the empathic responses as time elapses. Conclusion. Results suggest that SCI patients, when analyzing the meaning of emotional stimuli, tend to rely on a cognitive empathy strategy rather than on emotion simulation.
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    Effects on Cognitive Functioning of Acute, Subacute and Repeated Exposures to High Altitude
    (Frontiers, https://www.frontiersin.org, 2018-08-21) Pun, Matiram; Guadagni, Veronica; Aitken, Julie; Furian, Michael; Lichtblau, Mona; Ulrich, Silvia; Bettauer, Kaitlyn M.; Drogos, Lauren L.; Hartmann, Sara E.; Bader, Patrick R.; Rawling, Jean M.; Protzner, Andrea B.; Bloch, Konrad Ernst; Giesbrecht, Barry L.; Poulin, Marc J.; Rawling, Jean M.
    Objective: Neurocognitive functions are affected by high altitude, however the altitude effects of acclimatization and repeated exposures are unclear. We investigated the effects of acute, subacute and repeated exposure to 5,050 m on cognition among altitude-naïve participants compared to control subjects tested at low altitude. Methods: Twenty-one altitude-naïve individuals (25.3 ± 3.8 years, 13 females) were exposed to 5,050 m for 1 week (Cycle 1) and re-exposed after a week of rest at sea-level (Cycle 2). Baseline (BL, 520 m), acute (Day 1, HA1) and acclimatization (Day 6, HA6, 5,050 m) measurements were taken in both cycles. Seventeen control subjects (24.9 ± 2.6 years, 12 females) were tested over a similar period in Calgary, Canada (1,103 m). The Reaction Time (RTI), Attention Switching Task (AST), Rapid Visual Processing (RVP) and One Touch Stockings of Cambridge (OTS) tasks were administered and outcomes were expressed in milliseconds/frequencies. Lake Louise Score (LLS) and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) were recorded. Results: In both cycles, no significant changes were found with acute exposure on the AST total score, mean latency and SD. Significant changes were found upon acclimatization solely in the altitude group, with improved AST Mean Latency [HA1 (588 ± 92) vs. HA6 (526 ± 91), p < 0.001] and Latency SD [HA1 (189 ± 86) vs. HA6 (135 ± 65), p < 0.001] compared to acute exposure, in Cycle 1. No significant differences were present in the control group. When entering Acute SpO2 (HA1-BL), Acclimatization SpO2 (HA6-BL) and LLS score as covariates for both cycles, the effects of acclimatization on AST outcomes disappeared indicating that the changes were partially explained by SpO2 and LLS. The changes in AST Mean Latency [ΔBL (-61.2 ± 70.2) vs. ΔHA6 (-28.0 ± 58), p = 0.005] and the changes in Latency SD [ΔBL (-28.4 ± 41.2) vs. ΔHA6 (-0.2235 ± 34.8), p = 0.007] across the two cycles were smaller with acclimatization. However, the percent changes did not differ between cycles. These results indicate independent effects of altitude across repeated exposures. Conclusions: Selective and sustained attention are impaired at altitude and improves with acclimatization.The observed changes are associated, in part, with AMS score and SpO2. The gains in cognition with acclimatization during a first exposure are not carried over to repeated exposures.
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    The effects of sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality on Emotional Empathy: the behavioral and neural mechanisms in healthy controls
    (2017) Guadagni, Veronica; Iaria, Giuseppe; Protzner, Andrea; Antle, Michael Christopher; Longman, Richard Stewart; Carrier, Julie
    This dissertation describes a series of experiments exploring the intricate relationship between sleep and Emotional Empathy, i.e., the ability to understand someone else’s emotions through vicarious sharing. First, I used a sleep deprivation protocol, in which sleep quality was experimentally manipulated, to test the hypothesis that sleep deprivation negatively affects the Emotional Empathy of healthy individuals (Chapter 3). The findings of this study revealed a blunting of Emotional Empathy responses across all valences for participants in the sleep deprivation group compared to participants in the control groups. I then tested the hypothesis that sleep quality accounts for variability in individuals’ empathic responses by looking at effects of natural occurring changes in sleep quality on Emotional Empathy (Chapter 4). In this study, I collected subjective (questionnaires) and objective (actigraphy) measures of sleep and used a sophisticated statistical analysis to reduce the number of collected sleep variables and generate independent factors that were then entered into a series of stepwise regressions. The results of this study showed that the subjective sleep quality factor best explained participants’ Emotional Empathy responses to negative images compared to neutral, while the total sleep duration factor best explained overall Empathy scores. Finally, to test the hypothesis of a modulatory role of sleep quality on the neural activity of areas identified as components of the Emotional Empathy network, I conducted a Region of Interest (ROI) analysis, and measured Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal change while participants performed an Emotional Empathy task. In addition, I tested the effects of sleep quality on the task based functional connectivity between the selected ROIs. The data revealed decreased BOLD signal change in a selective region within the left anterior insula for individuals with poor subjective sleep quality together with increased functional connectivity between subcomponents of the anterior insula, indicating lower functional specialization. Overall, these studies suggest a detrimental effect of poor sleep quality on Emotional Empathy and its underlying neural mechanisms. These findings could benefit individuals affected by sleep disorders but also bring insight on the importance of considering sleep loss in daily life as a detrimental factor when planning work schedules.