Early Home Therapies against Covid-19. An Italian Case of Politicisation of Science?

Since February 2020, strategies aimed at containing and managing the Covid-19 syndemic have been developed by the governments of European countries. Among these measures, the possibility of an early treatment of the disease has been considered of fundamental importance, both for curing the disease and governing the syndemic. Despite their potential, early therapies received a somehow unexpected treatment in Italy and the debate around them gave rise to a very evident conflict between proponents and opponents of those treatments, to the point that some of the former organised a properly political movement in order to promote the integration of early home therapies in the official health protocols. Not surprisingly, the issue of early therapies has been considered an exemplary case of politicisation of science. However, the assimilation of the early therapy controversy to the frame of politicisation of science cannot fully explain why these protocols were discarded by political and health authorities. Rather, the consideration of health protocols as socio-technical objects shifts the attention on the vast range of cultural, political and economic factors that contributed to the general resistance towards those treatments. Therefore, we aim to analyse the media coverage of the phenomenon, and investigate the protocols of home treatment of Covid-19, paying attention to the interaction of the factors that contributed to the exclusion of home therapies into national guidelines

Early Home Therapies against Covid-19. An Italian Case of Politicisation of Science?

Since February 2020, strategies aimed at containing and managing the Covid-19 syndemic have been developed by the governments of European countries. Among these measures, the possibility of an early treatment of the disease has been considered of fundamental importance, both for curing the disease and governing the syndemic. Despite their potential, early therapies received a somehow unexpected treatment in Italy and the debate around them gave rise to a very evident conflict between proponents and opponents of those treatments, to the point that some of the former organised a properly political movement in order to promote the integration of early home therapies in the official health protocols. Not surprisingly, the issue of early therapies has been considered an exemplary case of politicisation of science. However, the assimilation of the early therapy controversy to the frame of politicisation of science cannot fully explain why these protocols were discarded by political and health authorities. Rather, the consideration of health protocols as socio-technical objects shifts the attention on the vast range of cultural, political and economic factors that contributed to the general resistance towards those treatments. Therefore, we aim to analyse the media coverage of the phenomenon, and investigate the protocols of home treatment of Covid-19, paying attention to the interaction of the factors that contributed to the exclusion of home therapies into national guidelines

Perinatal Asphyxia Affects Rat Auditory Processing: Implications for Auditory Perceptual Impairments in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Perinatal asphyxia, a naturally and commonly occurring risk factor in birthing, represents one of the major causes of neonatal encephalopathy with long term consequences for infants. Here, degraded spectral and temporal responses to sounds were recorded from neurons in the primary auditory cortex (A1) of adult rats exposed to asphyxia at birth. Response onset latencies and durations were increased. Response amplitudes were reduced. Tuning curves were broader. Degraded successive-stimulus masking inhibitory mechanisms were associated with a reduced capability of neurons to follow higher-rate repetitive stimuli. The architecture of peripheral inner ear sensory epithelium was preserved, suggesting that recorded abnormalities can be of central origin. Some implications of these findings for the genesis of language perception deficits or for impaired language expression recorded in developmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders, contributed to by perinatal asphyxia, are discussed

Early Home Therapies against Covid-19. An Italian Case of Politicisation of Science?

Since February 2020, strategies aimed at containing and managing the Covid-19 syndemic have been developed by the governments of European countries. Among these measures, the possibility of an early treatment of the disease has been considered of fundamental importance, both for curing the disease and governing the syndemic. Despite their potential, early therapies received a somehow unexpected treatment in Italy and the debate around them gave rise to a very evident conflict between proponents and opponents of those treatments, to the point that some of the former organised a properly political movement in order to promote the integration of early home therapies in the official health protocols. Not surprisingly, the issue of early therapies has been considered an exemplary case of politicisation of science. However, the assimilation of the early therapy controversy to the frame of politicisation of science cannot fully explain why these protocols were discarded by political and health authorities. Rather, the consideration of health protocols as socio-technical objects shifts the attention on the vast range of cultural, political and economic factors that contributed to the general resistance towards those treatments. Therefore, we aim to analyse the media coverage of the phenomenon, and investigate the protocols of home treatment of Covid-19, paying attention to the interaction of the factors that contributed to the exclusion of home therapies into national guidelines.<br /

Behavior and Brain Gene Expression Changes in Mice Exposed to Preimplantation and Prenatal Stress.

Preimplantation culture of mouse embryos has been suggested to result in reduced anxiety-like behavior in adulthood. Here, we investigated the effects of in vitro fertilization (IVF), embryo culture, and different diets on anxiety-like behavior using the elevated plus maze (EPM). We hypothesized that exposure to suboptimal conditions during the preimplantation stage would interact with the suboptimal diet to alter behavior. The expression of genes related to anxiety was then assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in various brain regions. When fed a normal diet during gestation and a moderately high-fat Western diet (WD) postnatally, naturally conceived (NC) and IVF mice showed similar anxiety-like behavior on the EPM. However, when fed a low-protein diet prenatally and a high-fat diet postnatally (LP/HF), NC mice showed a modest increase in anxiety-like behavior, whereas IVF mice showed the opposite: a strongly reduced anxiety-like behavior on the EPM. The robust reduction in anxiety-like behavior in IVF males fed the LP/HF diets was, intriguingly, associated with reduced expression of MAO-A, CRFR2, and GABA markers in the hypothalamus and cortex. These findings are discussed in relation to the developmental origin of health and disease hypothesis and the 2-hit model, which suggests that 2 events, occurring at different times in development, can act synergistically with long-term consequences observed during adulthood

Impact of neonatal asphyxia and hind limb immobilization on musculoskeletal tissues and S1 map organization: Implications for cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a complex disorder of locomotion, posture and movements resulting from pre-, peri- or postnatal damage to the developing brain. In a previous study (Strata, F., Coq, J.O., Byl, N.N., Merzenich, M.M., 2004. Comparison between sensorimotor restriction and anoxia on gait and motor cortex organization: implications for a rodent model of cerebral palsy. Neuroscience 129, 141-156.), CP-like movement disorders were more reliably reproduced in rats by hind limb sensorimotor restriction (disuse) during development rather than perinatal asphyxia (PA). To gain new insights into the underpinning mechanisms of CP symptoms we investigated the long-term effects of PA and disuse on the hind limb musculoskeletal histology and topographical organization in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) of adult rats. Developmental disuse (i.e. hind limb immobilization) associated with PA induced muscle fiber atrophy, extracellular matrix changes in the muscle, and mild to moderate ankle and knee joint degeneration at levels greater than disuse alone. Sensorimotor restricted rats with or without PA exhibited a topographical disorganization of the S1 cortical hind limb representation with abnormally large, multiple and overlapping receptive fields. This disorganization was enhanced when disuse and PA were associated. Altered cortical neuronal properties included increased cortical responsiveness and a decrease in neuronal selectivity to afferent inputs. These data support previous observations that asphyxia per se can generate the substrate for peripheral tissue and brain damage, which are worsened by aberrant sensorimotor experience during maturation, and could explain the disabling movement disorders observed in children with CP

Peripheral and central changes combine to induce motor behavioral deficits in a moderate repetition task

International audienceRepetitive motion disorders, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and focal hand dystonia, can be associated with tasks that require prolonged, repetitive behaviors. Previous studies using animal models of repetitive motion have correlated cortical neuroplastic changes or peripheral tissue inflammation with fine motor performance. However, the possibility that both peripheral and central mechanisms coexist with altered motor performance has not been studied. In this study, w