Antioxidant, Nutraceutical Properties, and Fluorescence Spectral Profiles of Bee Pollen Samples from Different Botanical Origins

Bee pollen is made by honey bees (Apis Mellifera) from the pollen of plants and flowers and represents an apiary product enriched in essential amino acids, polyphenols, omega-3, and omega-6 fatty acids. This study investigated the botanical origin, micronutrient profile, and antioxidant activity of bee pollen samples (n = 10) harvested in Lucca and Massa Carrara (Tuscany, Italy) between 2016 and 2017. The palynological analysis showed that bee pollen samples were composed of nine botanical families. Front-face fluorescence spectroscopy was performed on bee pollen samples in bulk, without any treatment, and in ethanol extracts to determine the characteristic fluorescent profile and, to identify the main chemical compounds with biological activity. The main chemical compounds detected were polyphenols (mainly flavonoids and phenolic acids), hydro-soluble vitamins (B2, B3, B6, and B9), amino acids, and pigments. Furthermore, the antioxidant activity was investigated, and one of the two Viburnum pollens resulted in the highest polyphenols and flavonoids content (20.15 ± 0.15 mg GAE/g fw and 23.46 ± 0.08 mg CE/g fw, respectively). However, Prunus and Eucalyptus families showed the highest in vitro (190.27 ± 8.30 µmol Fe2+/g) and ex vivo (54.61 ± 8.51 CAA unit) antioxidant capacity, respectively. These results suggested that Tuscan bee pollen, depending on the botanical family, is rich in essential nutrients and potential nutraceutical product

HDAC1 inhibition by MS-275 in mesothelial cells limits cellular invasion and promotes MMT reversal

Peritoneal fibrosis is a pathological alteration of the peritoneal membrane occurring in a variety of conditions including peritoneal dialysis (PD), post-surgery adhesions and peritoneal metastases. The acquisition of invasive and pro-fibrotic abilities by mesothelial cells (MCs) through induction of MMT, a cell-specific form of EMT, plays a main role in this process. Aim of this study was to evaluate possible effects of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, key components of the epigenetic machinery, in counteracting MMT observed in MCs isolated from effluent of PD patients. HDAC inhibitors with different class/isoform selectivity have been used for pharmacological inhibition. While the effect of other inhibitors was limited to a partial E-cadherin re-expression, MS-275, a HDAC1-3 inhibitor, promoted: (i) downregulation of mesenchymal markers (MMP2, Col1A1, PAI-1, TGFβ1, TGFβRI) (ii) upregulation of epithelial markers (E-cadherin, Occludin), (iii) reacquisition of an epithelial-like morphology and (iv) marked reduction of cellular invasiveness. Results were confirmed by HDAC1 genetic silencing. Mechanistically, MS-275 causes: (i) increase of nuclear histone H3 acetylation (ii) rescue of the acetylation profile on E-cadherin promoter, (iii) Snail functional impairment. Overall, our study, pinpointing a role for HDAC1, revealed a new player in the regulation of peritoneal fibrosis, providing the rationale for future therapeutic opportunities

Pediatric tuberculosis in Italian children: Epidemiological and clinical data from the Italian register of pediatric tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Over the last decades, TB has also emerged in the pediatric population. Epidemiologic data of childhood TB are still limited and there is an urgent need of more data on very large cohorts. A multicenter study was conducted in 27 pediatric hospitals, pediatric wards, and public health centers in Italy using a standardized form, covering the period of time between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2012. Children with active TB, latent TB, and those recently exposed to TB or recently adopted/immigrated from a high TB incidence country were enrolled. Overall, 4234 children were included; 554 (13.1%) children had active TB, 594 (14.0%) latent TB and 3086 (72.9%) were uninfected. Among children with active TB, 481 (86.8%) patients had pulmonary TB. The treatment of active TB cases was known for 96.4% (n = 534) of the cases. Overall, 210 (39.3%) out of these 534 children were treated with three and 216 (40.4%) with four first-line drugs. Second-line drugs where used in 87 (16.3%) children with active TB. Drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were reported in 39 (7%) children. Improving the surveillance of childhood TB is important for public health care workers and pediatricians. A non-negligible proportion of children had drug-resistant TB and was treated with second-line drugs, most of which are off-label in the pediatric age. Future efforts should concentrate on improving active surveillance, diagnostic tools, and the availability of antitubercular pediatric formulations, also in low-endemic countries

Il primo Stato a decretare l’obbligatorietà vaccinale contro il vaiolo:

Vaccination practices represent a fundamental achievement of modern medicine and have made it possible to eradicate once devastating and deadly pathologies. Thanks to vaccines, diseases that in the past caused millions of deaths and serious disabilities have been completely eliminated such smallpox, or almost, such as polio and diphtheria, so much so that we have almost forgotten them. Too often today we take vaccines for granted, paradoxically because they are victims of their own success. Immunization practices and the use of vaccines from the very beginning have created an infinity of controversies: vaccination hesitation, declared opposition for possible complications, fake news, mandato-ry vaccination are topics that are still current today. As a paradigmatic model of many diatribes, what has happened over time with regard to immunization against smallpox can be considered. The history of vaccinations constitutes a fascinating and extraordinary chapter of scientific progress, a chapter in which the Principality of Lucca and Piombino wrote an important page. It was, in fact, the first state in the world to decree the mandatory vaccination against smallpox in 1806, only seven years after Edward Jenner discovery. A reflection on the subject can be useful for interpreting many contemporary dinamics.Le pratiche vaccinali rappresentano una conquista fonda-mentale della medicina moderna e hanno consentito di debellare patologie un tempo devastanti e mortali. Grazie ai vaccini, malattie che in passato hanno causato milioni di morti e di gravi disabilità sono state eliminate completamente come il vaiolo. Altre, come la poliomielite e la difterite, le abbiamo quasi dimenticate. Troppo spesso oggi diamo i vaccini per scontati, paradossalmente perché vittime del proprio successo. Le pratiche di immunizzazione e l’uso dei vaccini fin dagli inizi hanno creato un’infinità di controver-sie: esitazione vaccinale, opposizione dichiarata per le pos-sibili complicanze, fake news, obbligatorietà della vaccinazione sono argomenti ancora oggi attuali. Come modello paradigmatico di tante diatribe può essere considerato quanto è successo nel tempo a proposito della immunizzazione contro il vaiolo. La storia delle vaccinazioni costituisce un capitolo affascinante e straordinario del progresso scientifico, del quale ha scritto una pagina importante il Principato di Lucca e Piombino. Fu, infatti, il primo Stato al mondo a decretare l’obbligatorietà della vaccinazione antivaiolosa nel 1806, solo sette anni dopo la scoperta di Edward Jenner. Una riflessione sull’argomento può tornare utile per interpretare tante dinamiche contemporanee

Exclusive Breastfeeding and Vitamin D Supplementation: A Positive Synergistic Effect on Prevention of Childhood Infections?

Human milk is the best food for infants. Breastfeeding has been associated with a reduced risk of viral and bacterial infections. Breast milk contains the perfect amount of nutrients needed to promote infant growth, except for vitamin D. Vitamin D is crucial for calcium metabolism and bone health, and it also has extra-skeletal actions, involving innate and adaptive immunity. As exclusive breastfeeding is a risk factor for vitamin D deficiency, infants should be supplemented with vitamin D at least during the first year. The promotion of breastfeeding and vitamin D supplementation represents an important objective of public health

Use of Electronic Noses in Seawater Quality Monitoring: A Systematic Review

Electronic nose (eNose) systems are particularly appreciated for their portability, usability, relative low cost, and real-time or near real-time response. Their application finds space in several domains, including environmental monitoring. Within this field, marine monitoring is of particular scientific relevance due to the fragility of this specific environment, daily threatened by human activities that can potentially bring to catastrophic and irreversible consequences on marine wildlife. Under such considerations, a systematic review, complying with the PRISMA guidelines, was conducted covering the period up to 15 October 2018, in PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. Despite the relatively low number of articles published on this specific topic and the heterogeneity of the technological approaches employed, the results obtained by the various groups highlight the positive contribution eNose has given and can provide in near future for the monitoring and safeguarding of this delicate environment

The effect of sourdough fermentation on Triticum dicoccum from Garfagnana: 1H NMR characterization and analysis of the antioxidant activity

The fermentation of Triticum dicoccum with sourdough enhances the nutritional aspects of the final product by the enrichment of several compounds with potential medical and biological activity, hence, could improve the health of consumers. This study analyzed the chemical composition of fermented spelt flour from Garfagnana (Province of Lucca, Tuscany) by 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy and its in vitro antioxidant properties by FRAP and DPPH tests. Beyond this, the ex vivo CAA-RBC assay determined the cellular antioxidant activity on human erythrocytes under oxidative condition. Carbohydrate reduction was observed, while amino acids, organic acids and aromatic compounds with potential antioxidant activity increased during the fermentation time. Moreover, both in vitro and ex vivo outcomes showed an improved antioxidant profile. As a possible industrial application, the fermentation process adopted in this research could be reproduced on a large scale for the commercialization of the products by the food industry

Electronic Nose as a Novel Method for Diagnosing Cancer: A Systematic Review

Cancer is fast becoming the most important cause of death worldwide, its mortality being mostly caused by late or wrong diagnosis. Novel strategies have been developed to identify early signs of cancer in a minimally obtrusive way, including the Electronic Nose (E-Nose) technology, user-friendly, cost- and time-saving alternative to classical approaches. This systematic review, conducted under the PRISMA guidelines, identified 60 articles directly dealing with the E-Nose application in cancer research published up to 31 January 2020. Among these works, the vast majority reported successful E-Nose use for diagnosing Lung Cancer, showing promising results especially when employing the Aeonose tool, discriminating subjects with Lung Cancer from controls in more than 80% of individuals, in most studies. In order to tailor the main limitations of the proposed approach, including the application of the protocol to advanced stage of cancer, sample heterogeneity and massive confounders, future studies should be conducted on early stage patients, and on larger cohorts, as to better characterize the specific breathprint associated with the various subtypes of cancer. This would ultimately lead to a better and faster diagnosis and to earlier treatment, possibly reducing the burden associated to such conditions

An Innovative, Unobtrusive Approach to Investigate Smartphone Interaction in Nonaddicted Subjects Based on Wearable Sensors: A Pilot Study

Background and objectives: Smartphones are playing a pivotal role in everyday life, due to the opportunity they grant in terms of simplifying communication, entertainment, education and many other daily activities. Against such positive characteristics, smartphone interaction can result, in particular cases, in dangerous smartphone addiction patterns, possibly leading to several long-term detrimental psychophysiological conditions. Therefore, this pilot aims at assessing the feasibility of using an innovative approach, based on unobtrusive wearable sensors, used for the first time in this specific topic, and psychological questionnaires, to investigate the links between stress and emotions in a group of young, nonaddicted individuals performing smartphone interaction. Materials and methods: 17 volunteers were enrolled for the present study. The study protocol was divided into three phases, with an initial resting state (baseline) of three minutes, a smartphone interaction session (task) of the same length, and a final resting state (recovery), lasting three minutes. In the overall procedure, electrocardiogram (ECG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) measurements, both monitored by wearable sensors, were acquired in order to assess the functioning of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Results: A significant decrease was seen in pNN50 during the smartphone interaction with respect to the baseline (Z = −2.675, p = 0.007), whereas the Low-to-High Frequency (LF/HF) ratio at task was somewhat correlated with phubbing behaviors (r = 0.655, p = 0.029), assessed through dedicated questionnaires. Conclusions: Taken together with the slight changes in GSR data, such results suggest the feasibility of this approach to characterize the ANS activation during smartphone interaction among young individuals. Further studies should enlarge the study population and involve smartphone-addicted subjects in order to increase the scientific and clinical relevance of such findings

POLY(I:C) INDUCES MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES AND TYPE I INTERFERON-MEDIATED INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE IN MESOTHELIAL CELLS FROM PERITONEUM

Abstract Background and Aims Peritonitis is a major cause of morbidity and discontinuation of the therapy in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. Most of peritonitis episodes during PD may be imputed to bacterial infection, although in about 20% of the cases a viral origin may be hypothesized. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a critical role in innate immune responses by specifically recognizing molecular patterns from different microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (Poly(I:C)) is a synthetic analogue of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that mimics the anti-viral immune response by activating TLR3. Upon activation, TLR3 signaling pathway leads to the induction of NF-ΚB pathway and the interferon response (IRF3 activation). The aim of this work is to study the ex vivo and in vivo effect of Poly(I:C) treatment in primary human mesothelial cells (MCs) and mice peritoneum. Methods MCs were collected from effluent fluids of 8 clinically stable PD patients and amplified for ex vivo experiments. MCs were treated with Poly(I:C) (2 ng/μl) or TGFβ1 (2 ng/ml). After 48 hours of stimulation, samples were collected for RNA subsequent analysis. Poly(I:C) was intraperitoneally delivered to mice daily for 10 days, using two different doses: 30 mg/kg (n = 6) and 90 mg/kg (n = 4) of weight. Non-treated mice were used as control (n = 6). Mice were euthanized and peritoneal tissue was collected for the subsequent RNA, protein, and histological experiments. Gene expression analyses of TLRs, interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), and other inflammatory markers were performed by qPCR. Protein analysis from cell lysates was performed by western blot and cytokine and chemokine levels from cell supernatants were detected by ELISA assay. Results MCs from PD patients expressed a specific subset of TLRs, which were modulated by stimulation with Poly(I:C), being TLR3 the most induced receptor. Additionally, Poly(I:C) induced a bona fide mesothelial to mesenchymal transition (MMT), characterized by the acquisition of a spindle-like morphology, increased expression of mesenchymal markers such as SNAIL, TGFB1, FN1, MMP9, and MMP14, and decreased expression of the epithelial markers ECAD and CALB2. Moreover, Poly(I:C) increased mRNA and protein levels of several cytokines and chemokines, such as TNFα, IL-6, IL-1β, IFNβ, CXCL8, and CXCL9; and ISGs, including CXCL10, MX1, IFIT1, and IFITM1. In vivo, Poly(I:C) administration in mice induced peritoneal inflammation, characterized by increased gene expression of proinflammatory response-related factors, including Ccl5, Arg1, and the ISGs Cxcl10 and Ifit1, in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion Treatment with Poly(I:C) is sufficient to induce a profibrotic/proinflammatory response in MCs in ex vivo and in vivo settings. These discoveries highlight the role of viral infections in peritoneum damage and may provide insight for further studies aimed at specifically counteracting the effect of viral infections in peritonitis in PD patients