A completely green approach to the synthesis of dendritic silver nanostructures starting from white grape pomace as a potential nanofactory

A simple, eco-friendly, cost-effective and rapid microwave-assisted method has been developed to synthetize dendritic silver nanostructures, composed of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), using white grape pomace aqueous extract (WGPE) as both reducing and capping agent. With this aim, WGPE and AgNO3 (1 mM) were mixed at different ratio, and microwave irradiated at 700 W, for 40 s. To understand the role of bioactive compounds involved in the green synthesis of AgNPs, preliminary chemical characterization, FT-IR analysis and 1H NMR metabolite profiling of WGPE were carried out. The effects of bioactive extract concentration and stability over time on AgNPs formation were also evaluated. WGPE-mediated silver nanostructures were then characterized by UV–vis, FTIR analyses, and scanning electron microscopy. Interestingly, the formation of dendritic nanostructures, originated from the self-assembly of Ag rounded nanoparticles (average diameter of 33 ± 6 nm), was observed and ascribed to the use of microwave power and the presence of organic components within the used WGPE, inducing an anisotropic crystal growth and promoting a diffusion-limited aggregation mechanism. The bio-dendritic synthetized nanostructures were also evaluated for potential applications in bio-sensing and agricultural fields. Cyclic voltammetry measurements in 0.5 M phosphate + 0.1 M KCl buffer, pH 7.4 showed that green AgNPs possess the electroactive properties typical of AgNPs produced using chemical protocol. The biological activity of synthetized AgNPs was evaluated by in-vitro antifungal activity against F. graminearum. Additionally, a phytotoxicity evaluation of synthetized green nanostructures was carried out on wheat seed germination. Results highlighted the potential of WGPE as green agent for bio-inspired nanomaterial synthesis, and of green Ag nanostructures, which can be used as antifungal agent and in biosensing applications

Plasma Inflammatory Cytokines Are Elevated in ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease which leads to death in a median time of 2–3 years. Inflammation has been claimed important to the ALS pathogenesis, but its role is still not well-characterized. In the present study, a panel of five cytokines (IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, IFN-gamma, and TNF-alpha)measured in plasma has been investigated in ALS. These biomarkers of inflammation were measured in a population-based cohort of 79 patients with ALS and 79 age- and sex-matched healthy controls using the Bio-Plex technology (Bio-Rad). All the five cytokines were significantly increased in plasma samples of patients compared with controls (p < 0.0001), with IL-6 having the highest median concentration (10.11 pg/ml) in the ALS group. Furthermore, IL-6 was the plasma cytokine with the highest discrimination ability between patients and controls according to the receiver operating characteristic analysis (area under the curve = 0.93). At a cut-off point of 5.71 pg/ml, it was able to classify patients and controls with 91% of sensitivity and 87% of specificity. In the ALS group, plasma IL-6 concentration correlated with demographic (age: rs = 0.25, p = 0.025) and clinical (revised ALS Functional Rating Scale at evaluation: rs = −0.32, p = 0.007; Manual Muscle Testing: rs =−0.33, p=0.004; progression: rs=0.29, p=0.0395) parameters. In line with previous studies, our results confirm that inflammatory cytokines are elevated in ALS, supporting a possible role of inflammation in disease mechanism and progression. However, the precise role of inflammation in ALS needs to be further investigated on larger samples and with more mechanistic studies

proNGF Measurement in Cerebrospinal Fluid Samples of a Large Cohort of Living Patients With Alzheimer's Disease by a New Automated Immunoassay

The discovery of new biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is essential for an accurate diagnosis, to conceive new strategies of treatments, and for monitoring the efficacy of potential disease-modifying therapies in clinical trials. proNGF levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) represent a promising diagnostic biomarker for AD, but its validation was hampered by the absence of a reliable immunoassay. In the literature, proNGF is currently measured in postmortem brain tissue by semiquantitative immunoblot. Here we describe the development and validation of a new method to measure proNGF in the CSF of living patients. This method, based on molecular size separation by capillary electrophoresis, is automated and shows a 40-fold increase in sensitivity with respect to the proNGF immunoblot, largely used in literature, and is robust, specific, and scalable to high-throughput. We have measured proNGF in the cerebrospinal fluid of 84 living patients with AD, 13 controls, and 15 subjective memory complaints (SMC) subjects. By comparing the proNGF levels in the three groups, we found a very significant difference between proNGF levels in AD samples compared with both controls and SMC subjects, while no significant difference was found between SMC and controls. Because of the development of this new immunoassay, we are ready to explore the potentiality of proNGF as a new biomarker for AD or subgroups thereof, as well as for other neurodegenerative diseases

Telemedicine for Delivery of Care in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration during COVID-19 Pandemic: Results from Southern Italy

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is changing clinical practice in neurology, after the governments decided the introduction of social distancing and interruption of medical non-emergency services in many countries. Teleneurology is an effective tool for the remote evaluation of patients but its adoption for frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTD) is in a preliminary stage. Objective: We evaluated multidisciplinary assessment of patients with FTD using telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: All patients received a diagnosis of FTD during 2018-2019 according to international criteria. A structured questionnaire and Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR)-FTD were used by the neurologist with patients and/or caregivers. Index symptoms of COVID-19 infection were searched. Results: Twenty-eight clinical interviews were completed with caregivers and four with both patients/caregivers. Most patients and caregivers were satisfied with the neurological interview and expressed their willingness to continue to be included in remote evaluation programs (90%). Fifty percent of patients experienced significant worsening of clinical picture and quality of life since the start of social distancing. The CDR-FTD scale revealed a significant worsening of behavior (p = 0.01) and language functions (p = 0.009), compared to the last in-person evaluation at the center. One patient presented index symptoms of COVID-19 infection and was confirmed to be positive for COVID-19 with pharyngeal swab. Conclusion: The study was conducted in Italy, one of the countries hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with interruption of all non-emergency medical services. Our study indicates that telemedicine is a valid tool to triage patients with FTD to increase practice outreach and efficiency

Radiomics feature similarity: A novel approach for characterizing brain network changes in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

Network modeling is increasingly used to study brain alterations in neurological disorders. In this study, we apply a novel modeling approach based on the similarity of regional radiomics feature to characterize gray matter network changes in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) using MRI data. In this cross-sectional study, we assessed structural 3 T MRI data from twenty patients with bvFTD and 20 cognitively normal controls. Radiomics features were extracted from T1-weighted MRI based on cortical and subcortical brain segmentation. Similarity in radiomics features between brain regions was used to construct intra-individual structural gray matter networks. Regional mean connectivity strength (RMCS) and region-toregion radiomics similarity were compared between bvFTD patients and controls. Finally, associations between network measures, clinical data, and biological features were explored in bvFTD patients. Relative to controls, patients with bvFTD showed higher RMCS values in the superior frontal gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus and right inferior parietal gyrus (FDR-corrected p |0.7|, p < 0.005). Our study provides new insights into frontotemporal network changes associated with bvFTD, highlighting specific associations between network measures and clinical/biological features. Radiomics feature similarity analysis could represent a useful approach for characterizing brain changes in patients with frontotemporal dementia

Correlation Between Irisin and Cognitive Functions in Alzheimer Dementia

Objective: The myokine irisin, a recent positive mediator of exercise in the brain, shows neuroprotective functions against Alzheimer's disease (AD). The association between irisin and cognition has never been explored in a biologically defined cohort of patients. Thus, in the present study, we investigated the association of irisin with multidomain cognition in patients showing dementia-related symptomatology. Methods: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum irisin levels were evaluated using enzyme-linked immunoassays in a cohort of subjects with a confirmed biomarker evidence of AD, including AD (n = 82), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 44), and subjective memory complaint (SMC, n = 20) patients. The results of this analysis were correlated with global cognitive efficiency assessed by Mini-Mental State Examination, and multidomain cognition evaluated by a battery of psychometric tests. Results: Decreased CSF and serum irisin levels were observed in AD and MCI patients compared to SMC. A significant correlation has been found between irisin in the CSF and global cognitive efficiency, as well as with specific cognitive domains such as memory, executive functions, attention, visuospatial abilities, and language. For serum irisin, the correlation analysis evidenced similar results to those observed for the CSF. Interpretation: Our results highlight the key involvement of irisin in multidomain cognition, indicating its potential role as a cognitive biomarker of AD progression

Effectiveness of the GAEC cross-compliance standard Ploughing in good soil moisture conditions in soil structure protection

Researches have been carried out within the framework on the EFFICOND Project, focused at evaluating the effectiveness of the standards of Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) established for Cross Compliance implementation under EC Regulation 1782/2003. In particular the standard 3.1b deals with soil structure protection through appropriate machinery use, with particular reference to ploughing in good soil moisture conditions. The study deals with the evaluation of soil structure after tillage in tilth and no-tilth conditions at soil moisture contents other than the optimum water content for tillage. The Mean Weight Diameter (MWD) of water stable aggregates was used as an indicator of tillage effectiveness. The study was carried out in the period 2008-2009 at six experimental farms belonging to Research Centres and Units of the Italian Agricultural Research Council (CRA) with different pedo-climatic and cropping conditions. Farm management and data collection in the different sites were carried out by the local CRA researchers and technicians. The comparison of MWD values in tilth and no tilth theses showed statistically significant differences in most cases, depending on topsoil texture. On clay, clay loam, silty clay, and silty clay loam topsoils a general and significant increase of MWD values under no tilth conditions were observed. No significant differences were observed in silt loam and sandy loam textures, probably due to the weak soil structure of the topsoils. Moreover, ploughing in good soil moisture condition determined higher crop production and less weed development than ploughing in high soil moisture conditions

Effectiveness of the GAEC standard of cross compliance Crop rotations in maintaining organic matter levels in soils

Our study was conducted in the framework of EFFICOND project, with the aim of evaluating the environmental effectiveness of GAEC (Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions) standards with particular focus to the maintenance of soil organic matter (SOM) levels through the appropriate crop rotation. The study analyzed the effect of crop rotation on the build-up of soil organic matter in three different areas of Italy, located in the North (Lodi), Centre (Fagna, Firenze) and South (Foggia) of Italy, characterized by different climate, soil, and cropping systems. In the two experiments conducted in the South of Italy, in a dry Mediterranean climate, the stock of C was kept steady in most of the rotations compared with the monoculture of durum wheat. In such environment, with very dry and hot summers, introducing a year of fallow seems to improve SOM content, but these data need further investigation. In the Centre of Italy (Fagna), with less extreme climate than in Foggia, the effect of rotation compared to the monoculture of maize is negligible, but investigation on the soil organic matter composition, showed that in the rotation the SOM appeared to be more stable and, in the long term, probably more resistant to degradation. Eventually, experiments conducted in the North of Italy, showed that the monoculture, despite the application of FYM (Farm Yard Manure) or semi-liquid manure, led to a decrease of SOM. To an increase of the rotation complexity, corresponded an increase in the stock of C in soil. Summarizing, results showed that crop rotation could guarantee the maintenance of SOM level, given that the input of C to the soil is maintained at a good level or, in other word, that productivity of the system is high. Other practices such as conservation tillage, appropriate management of residues, and manure application could enhance the positive effect of rotations. Moreover, preliminary investigation of soil microbial diversity, suggests the positive effect of rotations on soil biological fertility