Is There any Relationship Between the Type of Alcoholic Beverage and Oral Cancer? : Focus on Red Wine in an European Perspective

Since decades, it has been suggested that regular, moderate consumption of red wine, a major component of Mediterranean diet, at main meals, may contribute to explain the healthy properties attributed to this traditional dietary style. Despite preclinical in vitro/in vivo data have shown many significant pharmacological activities of grape phytochemicals, mostly polyphenols, evidence in humans is still debated. This lack of consensus may be due to the equilibrium between the two main components of wine relevant for health: alcohol and phytochemicals. Because ethanol is a major risk factor in oral carcinogenesis, in this commentary, we briefly discuss the relationship between the type of alcoholic beverage and oral cancer in European countries

Nanomedicine, an emerging therapeutic strategy for oral cancer therapy

Oral cavity and oropharyngeal carcinomas (oral cancer) represents a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Despite efforts in improving early diagnosis and treatment, the 5-year survival rate of advanced stage of the disease is less than 63%. The field of nanomedicine has offered promising diagnostic and therapeutic advances in cancer. Indeed, several platforms have been clinically approved for cancer therapy, while other promising systems are undergoing exploration in clinical trials. With its ability to deliver drugs, nucleic acids, and MRI contrast agents with high efficiency, nanomedicine platforms offer the potential to improve drug efficacy and tolerability. The aim of the present mini-review is to summarize the current preclinical status of nanotechnology systems for oral cancer therapy. The nanoplatforms for delivery of chemopreventive agents presented herein resulted in significantly higher anti-tumor activity than free forms of the drug, even against a chemo-resistant cell line. Impressive results have also been obtained using nanoparticles to deliver chemotherapeutics, resulting in reduced toxicity both in vitro and in vivo. Nanoparticles have also led to improvements in efficacy of photodynamic therapies through the development of targeted magnetic nanoparticles. Finally, gene therapy using nanoparticles demonstrated promising results specifically with regards to inhibition of gene expression. Of the few in vivo studies that have been reported, many of these used animal models with several limitations, which will be discussed herein. Lastly, we will discuss several future perspectives in oral cancer nanoparticle-based therapy and the development of appropriate animal models, distinguishing between oral cavity and oropharyngeal carcinoma

Cardioprotective effects of moderate red wine consumption : Polyphenols vs. ethanol

Since decades, it has been suggested that regular, moderate consumption of red wine, a major component of Mediterranean diet, at main meals, may contribute to explain the healthy properties attributed to this traditional dietary style. Despite preclinical in vitro/in vivo data have shown a significant cardioprotective activity of grape phytochemicals, mostly polyphenols, evidence in humans is still debated. This lack of consensus may be due to the equilibrium between the two main components of wine relevant for health: ethanol and bioactive compounds or phytochemicals, which include not only polyphenols, but also newly detected molecules, such as melatonin and phytosterols. The state of art related to this delicate equilibrium represents the starting point for designing future clinical trials, in perspective of clinical recommendations. A better comprehension of the wine chemistry complexity with its major components embodies a pivotal issue in biomedicine, involving the fields of diet-related environmental medicine as well as chronomedicine. In this paper, we briefly reviewed putative beneficial effects of moderate red wine intake in humans, focusing on the reduction of cardiovascular risk

Moving to the field: Plant innate immunity in crop protection

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Pulses, healthy, and sustainable food sources for feeding the planet

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Anti-inflammatory and wound healing effects of an essential oils-based bioadhesive gel after oral mucosa biopsies: preliminary results

Post-operative management of patients receiving oral biopsy includes the control of edema, pain, infection, and re-epithelization at the surgical site. This clinical study investigates the topical use of a bioadhesive gel, containing essential oils, to promote wound healing and prevent post-operative pain and infection, avoiding the need for surgical suture and chlorhexidine applications. Ten patients, who needed to receive oral biopsies ( 646 mm in diameter) for the diagnosis of mucosal oral lesions, were enrolled. The bioadhesive gel successfully controlled the post-surgical pain; at 1-week follow-up visit, no signs of infection nor side effects were reported and the surgical sites were completely healed. The bioadhesive gel resulted in a very promising agent for the post-operative management of oral biopsy site, without the need for surgical suture and chlorhexidine applications

Ethanol versus phytochemicals in wine : oral cancer risk in a light drinking perspective

This narrative review aims to summarize the current controversy on the balance between ethanol and phytochemicals in wine, focusing on light drinking and oral cancer. Extensive literature search included PUBMED and EMBASE databases to identify in human studies and systematic reviews (up to March 2015), which contributed to elucidate this issue. Independently from the type of beverage, meta-analyses considering light drinking ( 641 drinks/day or 6412.5 g/day of ethanol) reported relative risks (RR) for oral, oro-pharyngeal, or upper aero-digestive tract cancers, ranging from 1.0 to 1.3. One meta-analysis measured the overall wine-specific RR, which corresponded to 2.1. Although little evidence exists on light wine intake, phytochemicals seem not to affect oral cancer risk, being probably present below the effective dosages and/or due to their low bioavailability. As expected, the risk of oral cancer, even in light drinking conditions, increases when associated with smoking habit and high-risk genotypes of alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases

Antibacterial and antifungal activities of 2,3-pyrrolidinedione derivatives against oral pathogens

Among the novel approaches applied to antimicrobial drug development, natural product-inspired synthesis plays a major role, by providing biologically validated starting points. Tetramic acids, a class of natural products containing a 2,4-pyrrolidinedione ring system, have attracted considerable attention for their antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and anticancer activities. On the contrary, compounds with a 2,3-pyrrolidinedione skeleton have been considerably less investigated. In this work, we established chemical routes to the substituted 2,3-pyrrolidinedione core, which enabled the introduction of a wide range of diversity. In the perspective of a potential application for oral healthcare, a number of analogues with various substituents on the 2,3-pyrrolidinedione core were investigated for their antimicrobial and antifungal activities. The most promising compound showed a significant antimicrobial activity on Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans, comparable to that of chlorhexidine, the gold standard in oral healthcare

Local complications associated with labial salivary gland biopsy for diagnosis of Sjögren?s Syndrome : a retrospective cohort study

To describe local or systemic complications related to the labial salivary glands biopsy (LSGB) used as diagnostic tool for the diagnosis of Sjögren?s Syndrome (SS). Clinical databases from a cohort of patients, who underwent LSGB with provisional clinical diagnosis of Sjögren?s Syndrome, were retrospectively reviewed. Pain, assessed by registering the intake of analgesic drugs in the first week following the biopsy, and any further relevant clinical information regarding complications after biopsy were recorded. 50 patients received LSGB. 10 of them (9 women and 1 man) showed histopathological findings compatible with SS. Ten patient (20%) receiving labial biopsy developed local complications: three of them (6%) reported a sensory defect at the surgical site that lasted at most few weeks; three patients (6%) reported pain sensation needing the assumption of analgesic drugs, while one patient (2%) described a transient local burning sensation, which resolved in few days. Three patients (6%) showed cutaneous haematoma in the surgical area and two patients (4%) showed mild mucosal inflammation at the biopsy site. LSGB is associated with to few and mild complications and it is a useful tool in the diagnosis of SS. The complications usually resolved in few weeks after the biopsy

The impact of melatonin in research

Citation indexes represent helpful tools for evaluating the impact of articles on research. The aim of this study was to obtain the top-100 ranking of the most cited papers on melatonin, a relevant neurohormone mainly involved in phase-adjusting the biological clock and with certain sleep-promoting capability. An article search was carried out on the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science platform. Numbers of citations, names of authors, journals and their 2014-impact factor, year of publication, and experimental designs of studies were recorded. The ranking of the 100-most cited articles on melatonin research (up to February 2016) revealed a citation range from 1623 to 310. Narrative reviews/expert opinions were the most freqently cited articles, while the main research topics were oxidative stress, sleep physiology, reproduction, circadian rhythms and melatonin receptors. This study represents the first detailed analysis of the 100 top-cited articles published in the field of melatonin research, showing its impact and relevance in the biomedical field