Dietary supplements in neurological diseases and brain aging

A healthy diet shapes a healthy mind. Diet quality has a strong association with brain health. Diet influences the onset and consequences of neurological diseases, and dietary factors may influence mental health at individual and population level. The link between unhealthy diet, impaired cognitive function and neurodegenerative diseases indicates that adopting a healthy diet would ultimately afford prevention and management of neurological diseases and brain aging. Neurodegenerative diseases are of multifactorial origin and result in progressive loss of neuronal function in the brain, leading to cognitive impairment and motoneuron disorders. The so-called Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) with its healthy ingredients rich in antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immune, neuroprotective, antidepressant, antistress and senolytic activity plays an essential role in the prevention and management of neurological diseases and inhibits cognitive decline in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. The MedDiet also modulates the gut-brain axis by promoting a diversity of gut microbiota. In view of the importance of diet in neurological diseases management, this review focuses on the dietary components, natural compounds and medicinal plants that have proven beneficial in neurological diseases and for brain health. Among them, polyphenols, omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins and several ayurvedic herbs have promising beneficial effects

Nutraceuticals and Diet Supplements in Crohn's Disease: A General Overview of the Most Promising Approaches in the Clinic

: Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal disorder requiring lifelong medications. The currently approved drugs for CD are associated with relevant side effects and several studies suggest an increased use of nutraceuticals among CD patients, seeking for what is perceived as a more "natural" approach in controlling this highly morbid condition. Nutraceuticals are foods or foods' components with beneficial health properties that could aid in CD treatment for their anti-inflammatory, analgesic and immunoregulatory activities that come along with safety, high tolerability, easy availability and affordability. Depending on their biological effect, nutraceuticals' support could be employed in different subsets of CD patients, both those with active disease, as adjunctive immunomodulatory therapies, and/or in quiescent disease to provide symptomatic relief in patients with residual functional symptoms. Despite the increasing interest of the general public, both limited research and lack of education from healthcare professionals regarding their real clinical effectiveness account for the increasing number of patients turning to unconventional sources. Professionals should recognize their widespread use and the evidence base for or against their efficacy to properly counsel IBD patients. Overall, nutraceuticals appear to be safe complements to conventional therapies; nonetheless, little quality evidence supports a positive impact on underlying inflammatory activity

A Frontline Approach With Peripherally Inserted Versus Centrally Inserted Central Venous Catheters for Remission Induction Chemotherapy Phase of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Randomized Comparison

BACKGROUND: The incidence of peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC)-related adverse events has been uncertain in the setting of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) compared with the incidence of centrally inserted central catheter (CICC) adverse events. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a monocentric, randomized trial of patients with previously untreated AML. Of the 93 patients, 46 had received a PICC and 47 had received a CICC as frontline intravascular device. Thereafter, all patients underwent intensive chemotherapy for hematologic remission induction. The primary endpoint was catheter-related (CR)-bloodstream infection (BSI) and venous thrombosis (VT) rate. The secondary endpoints catheter malfunction, catheter removal, and patient overall survival. RESULTS: The CR-BSI and CR-VT rate in the PICC and CICC groups was 13% and 49%, respectively, with a difference of 36 percentage points (relative risk for CR-BSI or CR-VT, 0.266; P = .0003). The CR-BSI incidence was 1.4 and 7.8 per 1000 catheters daily in the PICC and CICC groups, respectively. Among the CR thromboses, the symptomatic VT rate was 2.1% in the PICC group and 10.6% in the CICC group. In the CICC group, 16 of the 47 patients (34%) had the catheter removed for BSI (n = 5), septic thrombophlebitis (n = 4), VT (n = 2), or malfunction (n = 5) a median of 7 days after insertion. In the PICC group, only 6 of the 46 patients (13%) required catheter removal for VT (n = 2) or malfunction (n = 4). At a median follow-up of 30 days, 6 patients in the CICC group died of CR complications versus none of the patients in the PICC group (P = .012). Using PICCs, the reduction in BSI and symptomatic VT decreased mortality from CR infection and venous thromboembolism. In contrast, the CICC approach led to early catheter removal mostly for difficult-to-treat infectious pathogens. CONCLUSION: Our data have confirmed that BSI and symptomatic VT are the major complications affecting frontline central intravascular device-related morbidity in the leukemia setting. The use of a PICC is safer than that of a CICC and maintains the effectiveness for patients with AML undergoing chemotherapy, with an approximate fourfold lower combined risk of infection or thrombosis at 30 days

Diagnostic Value of Endotracheal Aspirates Sonication on Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Microbiologic Diagnosis

Microorganisms are able to form biofilms within respiratory secretions. Methods to disaggregate such biofilms before utilizing standard, rapid, or high throughput diagnostic technologies may aid in pathogen detection during ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) diagnosis. Our aim was to determine if sonication of endotracheal aspirates (ETA) would increase the sensitivity of qualitative, semi-quantitative, and quantitative bacterial cultures in an animal model of pneumonia caused by Pseudomonasaeruginosa or by methicillin resistant Staphylococcusaureus (MRSA). MATERIAL AND METHODS: P.aeruginosa or MRSA was instilled into the lungs or the oropharynx of pigs in order to induce severe VAP. Time point assessments for qualitative and quantitative bacterial cultures of ETA and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples were performed at 24, 48, and 72 h after bacterial instillation. In addition, at 72 h (autopsy), lung tissue was harvested to perform quantitative bacterial cultures. Each ETA sample was microbiologically processed with and without applying sonication for 5 min at 40 KHz before bacterial cultures. Sensitivity and specificity were determined using BAL as a gold-standard. Correlation with BAL and lung bacterial burden was also determined before and after sonication. Assessment of biofilm clusters and planktonic bacteria was performed through both optical microscopy utilizing Gram staining and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy utilizing the LIVE/DEAD®BacLight kit. RESULTS: 33 pigs were included, 27 and 6 from P.aeruginosa and MRSA pneumonia models, respectively. Overall, we obtained 85 ETA, 69 (81.2%) from P.aeruginosa and 16 (18.8%) from MRSA challenged pigs. Qualitative cultures did not significantly change after sonication, whereas quantitative ETA cultures did significantly increase bacterial counting. Indeed, sonication consistently increased bacterial burden in ETAs at 24, 48, and 72 h after bacterial challenge. Sonication also improved sensitivity of ETA quantitative cultures and maintained specificity at levels previously reported and accepted for VAP diagnosis. CONCLUSION: The use of sonication in ETA respiratory samples needs to be clinically validated since sonication could potentially improve pathogen detection before standard, rapid, or high throughput diagnostic methods used in routine microbial diagnostics

Metabolomics application for the design of an optimal diet

Precision nutrition is an emerging branch of nutrition science that aims to use modern omics technologies (genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) to assess an individual’s response to specific foods or dietary patterns and thereby determine the most effective diet or lifestyle interventions to prevent or treat specific diseases. Metabolomics is vital to nearly every aspect of precision nutrition. It can be targeted or untargeted, and it has many applications. Indeed, it can be used to comprehensively characterize the thousands of chemicals in foods, identify food by-products in human biofluids or tissues, characterize nutrient deficiencies or excesses, monitor biochemical responses to dietary interventions, track long- or short-term dietary habits, and guide the development of nutritional therapies. Indeed, metabolomics can be coupled with genomics and proteomics to study and advance the field of precision nutrition. Integrating omics with epidemiological and clinical data will begin to define the beneficial effects of human food metabolites. In this review, we present the metabolome and its relationship to precision nutrition. Moreover, we describe the different techniques used in metabolomics and present how metabolomics has been applied to advance the field of precision nutrition by providing notable examples and cases

Sistema per l’identificazione di difetti su una superficie di almeno una porzione di una scocca e relativo metodo

La presente invenzione riguarda un sistema e un metodo per l’identificazione, la classificazione e la successiva rimozione di difetti di fabbricazione presenti sui componenti di veicoli

Ventilator-Induced Lung injury: a preliminary morphological study

In this study we aimed at characterizing by morphological methods the effect of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) on lung structure, and we analyzed collagen and elastin content to understand the possible role of the main components of lung connective tissue in the development of VILI. For this purpose four female piglets (21.7±4.5 kg) were sedated, intubated and mechanically ventilated with high pressure to induce VILI. After death, lungs were excised inflated; each lung was divided in four regions, and lung fragments were obtained from each region of both lungs: three samples from subpleural regions, one sample from the medial portion of the lung. Lung fragments were immediately fixed in 4% formalin in 0.1M phosphate buffered saline (PBS), pH 7.4, routinely dehydrated, paraffin embedded, and serially cut (thickness 5 μm). Lung structure was analyzed in haematoxylin-eosin stained sections using a semiquantitative grading scale to assess the injury grade. To study collagen and elastin content, sections were stained by Sirius red and Weigert’s resorcin-fuchsin, respectively, and analyzed by a specific software. Collagen and elastin content were expressed as a percent of the stained area relative to the lung tissue. Light microscopy analysis of hematoxylin-eosin stained sections revealed that VILI induced several lung injuries such as hyaline membranes, interstitial and septal infiltrate, vascular congestion and intra-alveolar hemorraging, alveoli rupturing and basophilic material deposition. These lesions were diffuse and involved the whole lung parenchyma without any preferential localization. Image analysis of Sirius red and Weigert’s resorcin-fuchsin stained sections showed that lung injury was more evident where elastin was less abundant, but was also evident where elastin content was high and collagen was concomitantly less abundant. These preliminary data suggest that lung extracellular matrix could influence the response to damaging ventilation, and that bot

Segni e metafore dell’Infinito nell’epoca classicistico-romantica

Nel contesto dell’ampio rivolgimento politico e culturale che caratterizza il tardo Settecento europeo, il concetto di infinito, nella sua riconsiderazione in ambito matematico-scientifico, estetico-filosofico e poetologico, emerge come argomento particolarmente significativo all’interno di un dibattito che riguarda più in generale la crisi del principio basilare della filosofia settecentesca, ossia la fiducia nel principio regolativo della ragione. I saggi raccolti nel presente volume affrontano alcuni nodi tematici di questo dibattito, sulla base dell’analisi del concetto di infinito in autori particolarmente rappresentativi della cultura filosofica e letteraria francese, tedesca e italiana

Nutraceuticals and Diet Supplements in Crohn’s Disease: A General Overview of the Most Promising Approaches in the Clinic

Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal disorder requiring lifelong medications. The currently approved drugs for CD are associated with relevant side effects and several studies suggest an increased use of nutraceuticals among CD patients, seeking for what is perceived as a more “natural” approach in controlling this highly morbid condition. Nutraceuticals are foods or foods’ components with beneficial health properties that could aid in CD treatment for their anti‐inflammatory, analgesic and immunoregulatory activities that come along with safety, high tolerability, easy availability and affordability. Depending on their biological effect, nutraceuticals’ support could be employed in different subsets of CD patients, both those with active disease, as adjunctive immunomodulatory therapies, and/or in quiescent disease to provide symptomatic relief in patients with residual functional symptoms. Despite the increasing interest of the general public, both limited research and lack of education from healthcare professionals regarding their real clinical effectiveness account for the increasing number of patients turning to unconventional sources. Professionals should recognize their widespread use and the evidence base for or against their efficacy to properly counsel IBD patients. Overall, nutraceuticals appear to be safe complements to conventional therapies; nonetheless, little quality evidence supports a positive impact on underlying inflammatory activity