The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Perinatal Mental Health: Preliminary Data on the Risk of Perinatal Depression/Anxiety from a National Survey in Italy

Increasing evidence suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety and depression during the perinatal period increased. The aim of the study is to estimate the prevalence of risk for both maternal depression and anxiety among women attending 18 healthcare centres in Italy during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic and to investigate the psychosocial risks and protective factors associated. It was divided into a retrospective phase (2019, 2020, and the first nine months of 2021) and a prospective phase (which began in November 2021 and it is still ongoing), which screened 12,479 and 2349 women, respectively, for a total of 14,828 women in the perinatal period. To evaluate the risk of anxiety and depression, the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and an ad hoc form were used to collect sociodemographic variables. In the prospective study, the average age of the women is 31 (range 18-52) years. Results showed that the percentage of women who had EPDS score ≥9 increased from 11.6% in 2019 to 25.5% in the period ranging from November 2021 to April 2022. In logistic regression models, the variables associated with the risk of depression at a level ≤0.01 include having economic problems (OR 2.16) and not being able to rely on support from relatives or friends (OR 2.36). Having the professional status of the housewife is a lower risk (OR 0.52). Those associated with the risk of anxiety include being Italian (OR 2.97), having an education below secondary school level (OR 0.47), having some or many economic problems (OR 2.87), being unable to rely on support from relatives or friends (OR 2.48), and not having attended an antenatal course (OR 1.41). The data from this survey could be useful to determine the impact of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic on women and to establish a screening program with common and uniformly applied criteria which are consistent with national and international women's mental health programs

HEX expression and localization in normal mammary gland and breast carcinoma

BACKGROUND: The homeobox gene HEX is expressed in several cell types during different phases of animal development. It encodes for a protein localized in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm. During early mouse development, HEX is expressed in the primitive endoderm of blastocyst. Later, HEX is expressed in developing thyroid, liver, lung, as well as in haematopoietic progenitors and endothelial cells. Absence of nuclear expression has been observed during neoplastic transformation of the thyroid follicular cells. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the localization and the function of the protein HEX in normal and tumoral breast tissues and in breast cancer cell lines. METHODS: HEX expression and nuclear localization were investigated by immunohistochemistry in normal and cancerous breast tissue, as well as in breast cancer cell lines. HEX mRNA levels were evaluated by real-time PCR. Effects of HEX expression on Sodium Iodide Symporter (NIS) gene promoter activity was investigated by HeLa cell transfection. RESULTS: In normal breast HEX was detected both in the nucleus and in the cytoplasm. In both ductal and lobular breast carcinomas, a great reduction of nuclear HEX was observed. In several cells from normal breast tissue as well as in MCF-7 and T47D cell line, HEX was observed in the nucleolus. MCF-7 treatment with all-trans retinoic acid enhanced HEX expression and induced a diffuse nuclear localization. Enhanced HEX expression and diffuse nuclear localization were also obtained when MCF-7 cells were treated with inhibitors of histone deacetylases such as sodium butyrate and trichostatin A. With respect to normal non-lactating breast, the amount of nuclear HEX was greatly increased in lactating tissue. Transfection experiments demonstrated that HEX is able to up-regulate the activity of NIS promoter. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that localization of HEX is regulated in epithelial breast cells. Since modification of localization occurs during lactation and tumorigenesis, we suggest that HEX may play a role in differentiation of the epithelial breast cell

Longitudinal Tracking of Human Fetal Cells Labeled with Super Paramagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles in the Brain of Mice with Motor Neuron Disease

Stem Cell (SC) therapy is one of the most promising approaches for the treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Here we employed Super Paramagnetic Iron Oxide nanoparticles (SPIOn) and Hoechst 33258 to track human Amniotic Fluid Cells (hAFCs) after transplantation in the lateral ventricles of wobbler (a murine model of ALS) and healthy mice. By in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo approaches we found that: 1) the main physical parameters of SPIOn were maintained over time; 2) hAFCs efficiently internalized SPIOn into the cytoplasm while Hoechst 33258 labeled nuclei; 3) SPIOn internalization did not alter survival, cell cycle, proliferation, metabolism and phenotype of hAFCs; 4) after transplantation hAFCs rapidly spread to the whole ventricular system, but did not migrate into the brain parenchyma; 5) hAFCs survived for a long time in the ventricles of both wobbler and healthy mice; 6) the transplantation of double-labeled hAFCs did not influence mice survival

Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

Modelling uncertainty in estimates of recharge to a shallow coastal aquifer.

Due to the difficulty of field characterization, one is often forced to employ hydrological models in order to determine estimates of aquifer recharge. A Geographical Information System (GIS) and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) may provide the basic support for such hydrological models. Unfortunately, despite the availability of these tools, the values of many parameters within distributed models remain uncertain for application to real world problems. Using the Bisagno basin (100km2) in the Liguria region of Italy, the role of model parameter uncertainty on estimates of recharge to the Bisagno Aquifer is demonstrated. Uncertainty estimation is achieved through Monte Carlo simulations with the aid of the Generalised Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation procedure of Beven & Binley (1992)

Characterization and In Vivo Antiangiogenic Activity Evaluation of Morin-Based Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complexes

Morin (MRN) is a natural compound with antiangiogenic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activity. However, it shows a very low water solubility (28 μg/mL) that reduces its oral absorption, making bioavailability low and unpredictable. To improve MRN solubility and positively affect its biological activity, particularly its antiangiogenic activity, in this work, we prepared the inclusion complexes of MNR with sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin (SBE-β-CD) and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD). The inclusion complexes obtained by the freeze-drying method were extensively characterized in solution (phase-solubility studies, UV–Vis titration, and NMR spectroscopy) and in the solid state (TGA, DSC, and WAXD analysis). The complexation significantly increased the water solubility by about 100 times for MRN/HP-β-CD and 115 times for MRN/SBE-β-CD. Furthermore, quantitative dissolution of the complexes was observed within 60 min, whilst 1% of the free drug dissolved in the same experimental time. 1H NMR and UV–Vis titration studies demonstrated both CDs well include the benzoyl moiety of the drug. Additionally, SBE-β-CD could interact with the cinnamoyl moiety of MRN too. The complexes are stable in solution, showing a high value of association constant, that is, 3380 M−1 for MRN/HP-β-CD and 2870 M−1 for MRN/SBE-β-CD. In vivo biological studies on chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) and zebrafish embryo models demonstrated the high biocompatibility of the inclusion complexes and the effective increase in antiangiogenic activity of complexed MRN with respect to the free drug