Work-Related Stress, Physio-Pathological Mechanisms, and the Influence of Environmental Genetic Factors

Work-related stress is a growing health problem in modern society. The stress response is characterized by numerous neurochemicals, neuroendocrine and immune modifications that involve various neurological systems and circuits, and regulation of the gene expression of the different receptors. In this regard, a lot of research has focused the attention on the role played by the environment in influencing gene expression, which in turn can control the stress response. In particular, genetic factors can moderate the sensitivities of specific types of neural cells or circuits mediating the imprinting of the environment on different biological systems. In this current review, we wish to analyze systematic reviews and recent experimental research on the physio-pathological mechanisms that underline stress-related responses. In particular, we analyze the relationship between genetic and epigenetic factors in the stress response

EFFECTS OF SHIFT WORK ON CARDIOVASCULAR ACTIVITY, SERUM CORTISOL AND WHITE BLOOD CELLS COUNT IN A GROUP OF ITALIAN FISHERMEN

We analyzed the effects of working activity and working shifts on the circadian rhythmicity and circadian phase relations of serum cortisol level, white blood cells count, resting heart rate and systolic/diastolic blood pressure in a group of italian fishermen. We observed a shift-induced displacement of cortisol secretion and a modification in leukocyte count. Moreover, systolic/diastolic blood pressure and resting heart rate were markedly influenced by the night shift, whereas no appreciable changes were observed after the morning and afternoon shifts, compared to pre-working values. These data suggest that the human circadian system is greatly influenced by shift work, and serum cortisol level, leukocyte count, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and resting heart rate are sensitive indicators of the biological responses to a stress workload in shift workers, especially after a night shif

Neurobiologia e terapia dei disturbi della sfera affettiva nell'autismo: conoscenze attuali

L’autismo è un disordine dello sviluppo del cervello che insorge in periodo perinatale ed è caratterizzato da disturbi del comportamento sociale, da difficoltà nelle interazioni con gli altri, da deficit del linguaggio, dalla presenza di atteggiamenti di tipo ripetitivo ed ossessivo, da alterazioni della sfera affettiva ed emozionale. L’incidenza dell’autismo ha ormai assunto le dimensioni di una vera e propria epidemia, per cui è prioritario avere a disposizione terapie realmente efficaci. Purtroppo attualmente non esiste alcun trattamento farmacologico che non sia puramente sintomatico. La carenza di farmaci efficaci è dovuto al fatto che i meccanismi neurobiologici alla base dell’autismo sono ancora poco conosciuti, e di conseguenza è particolarmente diff i c i l e ottenere farmaci che diano risultati soddisfacenti. Tuttavia, nel corso degli ultimi anni sono stati compiuti importanti progressi sui vari aspetti anatomici e funzionali del cervello dei soggetti autistici, che hanno permesso di comprendere, almeno in parte, i meccanismi neurobiologici che sono alla base di tale patologia. In questa breve rassegna sono analizzate le principali alterazioni neurobiologiche implicate nell’autismo ed i farmaci, anche se con modesti risultati, impiegati nella sua terapia.Autism is a disorder affecting the brain. It comes out in the prenatal period and is characterized by disorders of social behaviour, communicative difficulties, socialization, language, presence of obsessive and repetitive habits and disorders of the emotional field. It is a real epidemic, so we need to have real effective therapies for it. Unfortunately there are no pharmaco - logical treatments at the moment. This is due to the fact that neurobiological mechanisms of autism are still unknown, so it is difficult to obtain specific drugs for it. Nevertheless, over these last years important progresses have been made over the study of anatomic and functional brain aspects. These studies allowed us to understand, in part, the neurobiological mecha - nisms of this pathology. In the following report we have analy - zed the most important neurobiological alterations involved in autism and related drug therapy

Pregnenolone sulphate improves memory processing in early-handled female rats

Early life experiences lead to sex-specific behavioural and neurochemical changes in adulthood. Indeed, early handling enhances learning and memory in male rats (Cannizzaro et al., 2005), whereas it impairs learning performance in female adult rats, a finding that has been correlated to decreased nitric oxide (NO) production in the hippocampus (Noschang et al., 2010). Pregnenolone sulfate (PREGS) is considered as one of the most potent memory-enhancing neurosteroids, since its activity as a potent positive modulator of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) and a negative modulator of gamma-aminobutyric acid(A) receptors (GABA(A)Rs) (Vallée et al., 2001). Given these premises, this study aims at characterizing the effect of PREGS on cognitive processes in adult female rats, subject to early handling protocol, by using an object-place association learning task, the ''Can test'', a motivated, non-aversive, spatial/object discrimination test (Popovic´ et al., 2001). Female Wistar rats underwent daily, brief, maternal separation from postnatal day 2 until 21. Once in adulthood, the effect of PREGS administration (10 mg/kg, s.c.) on correct responses, reference memory and working memory was assessed. Results show that PREGS was able to significantly increase the number of correct responses, and consistently, to decrease reference and working memory errors, compared with vehicle. No statistically significant effect of PREGS administration was observed in non-handled, control group. These findings sustain the impact of neurosteroids in learning and memory processing, and suggest a particular role for PREGS in reversing conditions of altered functionality, likely due to the modulation of the glutamate-NO-cGMP pathway (Cauli et al., 2011), and thus neurobiological mechanisms underlying learning and memory. As a consequence, PREGS may represent an important therapeutic tool as memory-enhancer, in order to tackle cognitive deficit caused by stress in early lif

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER: A FREQUENT WORK-RELATED ILLNESS

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that results from exposure to a traumatic event, and is characterized by hypermnesia of the traumatic event with frequent re-experiencing of the tragic occurrence, hyperarousal, and avoidance behaviour. Depression, anxiety, sleep dysfunction and substance abuse are also commonly reported. PTSD is highly prevalent both in the general population and in certain occupations that are particularly exposed to life-threatening situations, physically and psychological demanding activities, and physical assault, such as rescue workers, firefighters and paramedics. Recent advances in the comprehension of the epidemiology, physiopathology and clinical presentation of PTSD could push toward increased identification of this common psychiatric disorder with significant reflections on the chances of successful treatmen

Occupational accidents and the use of PPE: a global meta-analysis

Occupational accidents, despite continuous safety updates, are still a scourge in the occupational and forensic spheres, constituting, among other things, the subject of a large share of litigation. Demographic data can help to understand the areas where the application of health surveillance is lacking. This meta-analysis sets out to analyse data from studies on accidents at work, focusing on the correlation between the areas in which accidents occur and whether or not personal safety equipment is used, in relation to the different regulations in force. For the selection of the data, a systematic review was carried out according to the PRISMA guidelines, with the primary objective of identifying the trend of occupational accidents in specific geographical areas, which differ in terms of the attention paid to preventive aspects. The data we highlighted showed, regarding the type of accident, substantial differences between low-income countries and industrialised countries (stratified according to the Human Development Index) and, an overall indifference as to whether or not individual safety devices were used, revealing that, despite the continuous normative evolution in the field of safety at work, even today, the investigative data on the actual application of the regulations, during accidents at work, is underestimated and little researched

Perinatal exposure to 5-metoxytryptamine, behavioural-stress reactivity and functional response of 5-HT1A receptors in the adolescent rat

Serotonin is involved in a wide range of physiological and patho-physiological mechanisms. In particular, 5-HT1A receptors are proposed to mediate stress-adaptation. The aim of this research was to investigate in adolescent rats: first, the consequences of perinatal exposure to 5- metoxytryptamine (5MT), a 5-HT1/5-HT2 serotonergic agonist, on behavioural-stress reactivity in elevated plus maze, open field and forced swim tests; secondly, whether the behavioural effects induced by perinatal exposure to 5MT on open field and forced swim tests were affected by the selective 5-HT1A receptor agonist LY 228729, a compound able to elicit a characteristic set of motor behaviours on these experimental models, and by the co-administration of the selective and silent 5-HT1A antagonist WAY 100635. Results indicate that a single daily injection of 5MT to, pregnant dams from gestational days 12 to 21 (1 mg/kg s.c.), and to the pups from postnatal days 2 to 18 (0.5 mg kg s.c.), induce in the adolescent rat offspring: an increase in the percentage of entries and time spent on the open arms in the elevated plus maze; a reduction in locomotor activity and rearing frequency, and an increase in the time spent on the central areas in the open field test; a decrease in immobility and an increase in swimming in the forced swim test. Acute administration of LY 228729 (1.5 mg/kg s.c.) strongly decreases rearing frequency and increases peripheral activity in the open field test, and decreases immobility and increases swimming in the forced swim test both in perinatally vehicle and 5MT-exposed offspring. Co-administration of WAY 100635 (0.25 mg/kg s.c.) abolishes the effects exerted by LY 228729. These results suggest that, in the adolescent rat, perinatal exposure to 5MT enhances the stress-related adaptive behavioural responses, presumably through a predominant action on presynaptic 5-HT1A receptors and does not deteriorate the functional response of 5-HT1A receptors to selective agonist and antagonist compounds

How the Heart Was Involved in COVID-19 during the First Pandemic Phase: A Review

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first observed in Wuhan, Hubei Province (China) in December 2019, resulting in an acute respiratory syndrome. Only later was COVID-19 considered a public health emergency of international concern and, on 11 March 2020, the WHO classified it as pandemic. Despite being a respiratory virus, the clinical manifestations are also characterized by cardiological involvement, especially in patients suffering from previous comorbidities such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus, its complications being potentially serious or fatal. Despite the efforts made by the scientific community to identify pathophysiological mechanisms, they still remain unclear. A fundamental role is played by the angiotensin 2 converting enzyme, known for its effects at the cardiovascular level and for its involvement in COVID-19 pathogenesis. The goal of this paper was to highlight the mechanisms and knowledge related to cardiovascular involvement during the first pandemic phase, as well as to emphasize the main cardiological complications in infected patients

Clinical observations and risk factors for tinnitus in a Sicilian cohort

The aims of this study were to determine the distribution of risk factors associated with tinnitus analysing their role in the development of tinnitus and the effects of their interaction; to evidence the importance of a suitable and adequate clinical and audiologic assessment to avoid those modifiable risk factors responsible for cochlear dysfunction and tinnitus onset. 46 subjects with tinnitus and 74 controls were studied according to: age, sex, Body Mass Index (BMI), neck circumference, tobacco smoking, feeling fatigue or headache, self reporting snoring, hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and/or hyperlipidemia, and laboratory finding as lipid profile and levels of reactive oxygen metabolites (d-ROM). Audiological assessment was performed by multi-frequency audiometry (PTA0.5–16 kHz) and transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE diagnostic). Univariate analysis was performed to examine the association between determinants and occurrence of tinnitus; Mantel–Haenszel test (G.or) was used to investigate the joint effect of determinants on tinnitus. Tinnitus was more frequent among males with age [50 years; BMI[30 kg/m2, neck circumference[40 cm, headache, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia resulted significant risk factors for tinnitus (P.0001). Tinnitus group had more comorbidity (P.0001) and worse audiometric thresholds (60.87 Vs 21.62 % hearing loss; P.0001) with respect to control group. The interaction between hypertension–BMI C 30 kg/m2 (G.or = 8.45) and smoking–hypercholesterolemia (G.or = 5.08) increases the risk of tinnitus (P.0001). Our results underline that several factors either individually or jointly contribute to tinnitus onset; a comprehensive knowledge about tinnitus risk factors and associated clinical conditions could contribute to minimizing this disorder