Nrf2-interacting nutrients and COVID-19: time for research to develop adaptation strategies.

There are large between- and within-country variations in COVID-19 death rates. Some very low death rate settings such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, the Balkans and Africa have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods whose intake is associated with the activation of the Nrf2 (Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2) anti-oxidant transcription factor. There are many Nrf2-interacting nutrients (berberine, curcumin, epigallocatechin gallate, genistein, quercetin, resveratrol, sulforaphane) that all act similarly to reduce insulin resistance, endothelial damage, lung injury and cytokine storm. They also act on the same mechanisms (mTOR: Mammalian target of rapamycin, PPARγ:Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, NFκB: Nuclear factor kappa B, ERK: Extracellular signal-regulated kinases and eIF2α:Elongation initiation factor 2α). They may as a result be important in mitigating the severity of COVID-19, acting through the endoplasmic reticulum stress or ACE-Angiotensin-II-AT1R axis (AT1R) pathway. Many Nrf2-interacting nutrients are also interacting with TRPA1 and/or TRPV1. Interestingly, geographical areas with very low COVID-19 mortality are those with the lowest prevalence of obesity (Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia). It is tempting to propose that Nrf2-interacting foods and nutrients can re-balance insulin resistance and have a significant effect on COVID-19 severity. It is therefore possible that the intake of these foods may restore an optimal natural balance for the Nrf2 pathway and may be of interest in the mitigation of COVID-19 severity

Nrf2-interacting nutrients and COVID-19: time for research to develop adaptation strategies

There are large between- and within-country variations in COVID-19 death rates. Some very low death rate settings such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, the Balkans and Africa have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods whose intake is associated with the activation of the Nrf2 (Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2) anti-oxidant transcription factor. There are many Nrf2-interacting nutrients (berberine, curcumin, epigallocatechin gallate, genistein, quercetin, resveratrol, sulforaphane) that all act similarly to reduce insulin resistance, endothelial damage, lung injury and cytokine storm. They also act on the same mechanisms (mTOR: Mammalian target of rapamycin, PPARγ:Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, NFκB: Nuclear factor kappa B, ERK: Extracellular signal-regulated kinases and eIF2α:Elongation initiation factor 2α). They may as a result be important in mitigating the severity of COVID-19, acting through the endoplasmic reticulum stress or ACE-Angiotensin-II-AT1R axis (AT1R) pathway. Many Nrf2-interacting nutrients are also interacting with TRPA1 and/or TRPV1. Interestingly, geographical areas with very low COVID-19 mortality are those with the lowest prevalence of obesity (Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia). It is tempting to propose that Nrf2-interacting foods and nutrients can re-balance insulin resistance and have a significant effect on COVID-19 severity. It is therefore possible that the intake of these foods may restore an optimal natural balance for the Nrf2 pathway and may be of interest in the mitigation of COVID-19 severity

Impact assessment of vehicular exhaust emissions by microscale simulation using automatic traffic flow measurements

In order to assess the impact of traffic on local air quality a microscale simulation of pollutant concentration fields was produced for two busy intersections, in Reggio Emilia and in Modena, Italy. The simulation was performed by the model suite Micro-Swift-Spray, a Lagrangian particle dispersion model accounting for buildings. Direct measurements of traffic flow were continuously collected in Reggio Emilia over the period January 13–24, 2014 by a two channel radar traffic counter and in Modena from October 28 to November 8, 2016 by four single channel radar traffic counters and used for the hourly modulation of vehicular emissions. Combining radar counts with vehicular fleet composition for each municipality, specific emission factors were obtained. For both cities, simulated concentration fields were compared to local air quality measurements at the nearest urban traffic and urban background sites. The simulated NOx showed large correlation with the observations, notwithstanding some underestimation. The results proved the reliability of the procedure and provided a fair estimate of the NO2 mass fraction of total NOx (primary NO2) due to vehicular emissions in the investigated traffic sites

Correction to: Is diet partly responsible for differences in COVID-19 death rates between and within countries?

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article

Next-generation ARIA care pathways for rhinitis and asthma : a model for multimorbid chronic diseases

Background In all societies, the burden and cost of allergic and chronic respiratory diseases are increasing rapidly. Most economies are struggling to deliver modern health care effectively. There is a need to support the transformation of the health care system into integrated care with organizational health literacy. Main body As an example for chronic disease care, MASK (Mobile Airways Sentinel NetworK), a new project of the ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) initiative, and POLLAR (Impact of Air POLLution on Asthma and Rhinitis, EIT Health), in collaboration with professional and patient organizations in the field of allergy and airway diseases, are proposing real-life ICPs centred around the patient with rhinitis, and using mHealth to monitor environmental exposure. Three aspects of care pathways are being developed: (i) Patient participation, health literacy and self-care through technology-assisted "patient activation", (ii) Implementation of care pathways by pharmacists and (iii) Next-generation guidelines assessing the recommendations of GRADE guidelines in rhinitis and asthma using real-world evidence (RWE) obtained through mobile technology. The EU and global political agendas are of great importance in supporting the digital transformation of health and care, and MASK has been recognized by DG Sante as a Good Practice in the field of digitally-enabled, integrated, person-centred care. Conclusion In 20 years, ARIA has considerably evolved from the first multimorbidity guideline in respiratory diseases to the digital transformation of health and care with a strong political involvement.Peer reviewe

Efficient Feature Extraction Method Applied to the OCR of Persian Digits

In this paper, a method will be described for reduction of an n-dimensional feature vector into a 2-dimensional feature vector. Reaching for this goal, a structure is introduced, referred to as the chaining structure (CS), which is generated from the initial n-dimensional feature vector. The proposed technique can be thought as a feature extraction method. The simplicity and the consistency of the technique beside the fact that the resulted feature set is of 2-dimension, are the main advantages of the proposed method. It will also be illustrated how a specially designed neural network can be used to implement the proposed method. The efficiency of the proposed feature extraction algorithm will be illustrated by applying the method to the OCR of handwritten Persian digits. Finally, it will be compared with principal component analysis

Handling of allergen immunotherapy in the COVID-19 pandemic: An ARIA-EAACI statement

The current COVID-19 pandemic influences many aspects of personal and social interaction, including patient contacts with health care providers and the manner in which allergy care is provided and maintained. Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) is one of the most important treatment options for IgE-mediated allergies and is based on inducing an appropriate immune response in the allergic patient. This manuscript outlines the EAACI recommendations regarding AIT during the COVID-19 pandemic and aims at supporting allergists and all physicians performing AIT in their current daily practice with clear recommendations on how to perform treatment during the pandemic and in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients.Peer reviewe

Aligning the Good Practice MASK With the Objectives of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing

The reference sites of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) were renewed in 2019. The DG Santé good practice Mobile Airways Sentinel networK was reviewed to meet the objectives of the EIP on AHA. It included 1) Management of care process, 2) Blueprint of digital transformation, 3) EIP on AHA, innovation to market, 4) Community for monitoring and assessment framework, 5) Political, organizational, technological and financial readiness, 6) Contributing to European co-operation and transferability, 7) Delivering evidence of impact against the triple win approach, 8) Contribution to the European Digital Transformation of Health and Care and 9) scale of demonstration and deployment of innovation