Landfill fire impact on bee health. Beneficial effect of dietary supplementation with medicinal plants and probiotics in reducing oxidative stress and metal accumulation

The honey bee is an important pollinator insect susceptible to environmental contaminants. We investigated the effects of a waste fire event on elemental content, oxidative stress, and metabolic response in bees fed different nutrients (probiotics, Quassia amara, and placebo). The level of the elements was also investigated in honey and beeswax. Our data show a general increase in elemental concentrations in all bee groups after the event; however, the administration of probiotics and Quassia amara help fight oxidative stress in bees. Significantly lower concentrations of Ni, S, and U for honey in the probiotic group and a general and significant decrease in elemental concentrations for beeswax in the probiotic group and Li in the Quassia amara group were observed after the fire waste event. The comparison of the metabolic profiles through pre- and post-event PCA analyses showed that bees treated with different feeds react differently to the environmental event. The greatest differences in metabolic profiles are observed between the placebo-fed bees compared to the others. This study can help to understand how some stress factors can affect the health of bees and to take measures to protect these precious insects

Real Time Marine Data Acquisition: The Coastal Oceanographic Observatory Network in the Adriatic sea.

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NMR-based metabolomics for investigating urinary profiles of metal carpentry workers exposed to welding fumes and volatile organic compounds

IntroductionMetal carpentry includes a wide range of work activities such as welding and cutting metallic components, use of solvents and paints. Therefore, the employees in these types of activities are mainly exposed to welding fumes and volatile organic solvents. Here, we present an NMR-based metabolomic approach for assessing urinary profiles of workers in the same company that are exposed to two different risk factors.MethodsThe study enrolled 40 male subjects exposed to welding fumes, 13 male subjects exposed to volatile organic compounds of a metal carpentry company, and 24 healthy volunteers. All samples were collected, in the middle of the working week at fast. Thirty-five urinary metabolites belonging to different chemical classes such as amino acids, organic acids and amines were identified and quantified. Results were processed by multivariate statistical analysis for identifying significant metabolites for each working group examined, compared to controls.ResultsWorkers exposed to welding fumes displayed urinary increase in glutamine, tyrosine, taurine, creatine, methylguanidine and pseudouridine associated to oxidative impairment, while workers exposed to volatile organic compounds showed higher urinary levels of branched chain aminoacids.ConclusionOur work identified specific urinary profile related to each occupational exposure, even if it is below the threshold limit values

Ultrasonography Tight Control and Monitoring in Crohn's Disease During Different Biological Therapies: A Multicenter Study

Background & Aims Bowel ultrasonography (BUS) is a noninvasive tool for evaluating bowel activity in Crohn's disease (CD) patients. Aim of our multicenter study was to assess whether BUS helps to monitor intestinal activity improvement/resolution following different biological therapies. Methods Adult CD patients were prospectively enrolled at 16 sites in Italy. Changes in BUS parameters [i.e. bowel wall thickening (BWT), lesion length, echo pattern, blood flow changes and transmural healing (TH: normalization of all BUS parameters)] were analyzed at baseline and after 3, 6 and 12 months of different biological therapies. Results One hundred eighty-eight out of 201 CD patients were enrolled and analyzed (116 males [62%]; median age 36 years). Fifty-five percent of patients were treated with adalimumab, 16% with infliximab, 13% with vedolizumab and 16% with ustekinumab. TH rates at 12 months were 27.5% with an NNT of 3.6. TH at 12 months after adalimumab was 26.8%, 37% after infliximab, 27.2% after vedolizumab and 20% after ustekinumab. Mean BWT improvement from baseline was statistically significant at 3 and 12 months (P Conclusions Data indicate that BUS is useful to monitor biologics-induced bowel activity improvement/resolution in CD

Hyperbaric exposure and oxidative Stress in occupational activities (HEOxS): the study protocol

Background: Hyperbaric exposure (HE) is proven to be a stressor to several mechanisms in living cells. Even if after homeostasis restoration, harmful effects are expected, in particular a presence of free radicals. These latter are the stimulus to negative phenomenon as inflammation or cancer. In Italy, with 7500 km of sea shores, a large quantity of workers is exposed to HE during occupational activities. A deep knowledge of HE and bodily effects is not well defined; hence a multidisciplinary assessment of risk is needed. To detect one or more indicators of HE a research group is organised, under the INAIL sponsorship. The research project focused on the oxidative stress (OxS) and this paper details on the possible protocol to estimate, with a large amount of techniques on several human liquids, the relationship between OxS and HE. Specific attention will be paid to identify confounding factors and their influence. Methods: Blood and urine will be sampled. Several lab techniques will be performed on samples, both targeted, to measure the level of well-known biomarkers, and untargeted. Regard the formers: products of oxidation of DNA and RNA in urine; inflammation and temperature cytokines and protein carbonyles in blood. Untargeted evaluation will be performed for a metabolomics analysis in urine. Confounding factors: temperature, body fat, fitness, allergies and dietary habits. These factors will be assessed, directly or indirectly, prior and after HE. The final scope of the project is to determine one or more indicators that relates to HE in hits twofold nature: depth and duration. Conclusion: The relationship between OxS and HE is not deeply investigated and literature proposes diverging results. The project aims to define the time dependence of biomarkers related to OxS, to rise knowledge in risk assessment in workers exposed to HE

“Metabolomics applied to the characterization of metabolic phenotypes in relation to positivity to Helicobacter pylori”

The aim of this study is to propose a new experimental approach, that, by using complementary analytical platforms, such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS), in association with mathematics and statistical mutivariate analyses (PCA and PLS), could provide a framework of the relationship Helicobacter Pylory – guest. The study was carried out of healthy a non healthy people, with two different metabolomic approaches, one aimed to determine the urine metabolic profile by means of NMR and the other to determine plasma content of vitamin A (retinol) and carotenoids, by means of LC/MS . The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility to individuate a metabolic profile in plasma and urine samples correlated with the positivity to Helicobacter Pylori infection as evaluated by Urea breath test. In this study we have examined eighty individuals, 40 negative and 40 positive matched for age PLS analyses has evidenced that this study fit well for female subjects, where we can find higher concentration of 3OH-Isovaleric acid, Alanine, Lysine and 4OH-Phenyl Acetic acid in comparison to negative subjects. The urinary metabolic profile of Hp positive female was characterized also by lower levels of ζ-carotene. Furthermore,Increased urinary excretion of 3OH-Isovaleric acid, in female subjects, has been found to be an early and sensitive indicator of biotin deficiency. Biotin is a covalently bound prosthetic group for 4 mammalian carboxylases; one of these, methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase that catalyzes an essential step in the intermediarymetabolism of the branched-chain amino acid leucine. Decreased activity of methylcrotonyl- CoA carboxylase shunts the substrate 3-methylcrotonyl CoA to an alternate metabolic pathway, producing 3OH-Isovaleric acid, which is then excreted in urine

Approccio metabolomico per la caratterizzazione del profilo urinario di lavoratori esposti in un’industria del comparto metallurgico tramite spettroscopia NMR: uno studio pilota.

Introduzione Il comparto industriale della carpenteria metallica prevede mansioni di impiego come cui taglio, piegatura, saldatura, verniciatura e zincatura di semilavorati metallici. Pertanto, i lavoratori operanti in tale settore risultano potenzialmente esposti a differenti categorie di sostanze pericolose: dai fumi di saldatura ai composti organici volatili (VOC). A tal riguardo lo scopo di questo studio è stato quello di valutare il profilo metabolomico urinario di lavoratori impiegati in differenti settori di un’azienda ponendolo in relazione con i complessi scenari di esposizione possibili. La ricerca ha coinvolto 40 soggetti del comparto saldature e 13 soggetti del comparto verniciatura; in confronto con 24 volontari sani esterni all’azienda costituenti il gruppo di controllo. Materiali e Metodi Da ciascun campione di urina, raccolto nel mezzo della settimana al termine del turno lavorativo, è stata prelevata un’aliquota di 1200 µL. I campioni sono stati centrifugati a 11,000 rpm per 15 min ad una temperatura di 4°C, successivamente a 1000 µL di surnatante sono stati aggiunti 100 µL di TSP (acido 3- trimetilsilil-propionico-2,2,3,3-d4) come standard interno, ed il pH è stato portato a pH 7 attraverso piccole aggiunte di NaOH o HCl. Infine 700 µL del campione sono stati trasferiti in cryovials e conservati a -80°C fino al giorno dell’analisi tramite spettroscopia di risonanza magnetica nucleare (NMR). Per ciascun campione è stato registrato lo spettro monodimensionale del protone ( 1 H-NMR) in aggiunta ad esperimenti bidimensionali di tipo omonucleare 1 H- 1 H (TOCSY), ed eteronucleare 1 H- 13 C (HSQC, HMBC). Risultati e discussione Dall’analisi degli spettri sono stati identificati e quantificati 35 metaboliti appartenenti a differenti classi chimiche quali acidi organici, amminoacidi lineari e ramificati ed ammine. Sulla matrice dei dati ottenuti in concentrazione e normalizzati per i valori di Creatinina urinaria, è stata poi effettuata un’analisi statistica multivariata, tramite la realizzazione di modelli PLS (Partial Least Squares regression), ed univariata allo scopo di individuare i metaboliti significativi per ciascun gruppo di lavoratori rispetto al gruppo di controllo. I profili metabolici caratterizzanti ciascuno dei due gruppi di lavoratori reclutati, risultano analoghi: le concentrazioni urinarie di metaboliti appartenenti ai pathways di purine (Ipoxantina) e pirimidine (Pseudouridina) così come quelli coinvolti nel pathway della Glicina-Serina-Treonina (glicina, taurina, colina) sono significativamente più alti nei lavoratori rispetto ai controlli. In accordo con dati di letteratura [1] tale aumento può essere correlato ad un incremento di specie reattive dell’ossigeno (ROS) mediatrici di danno ossidativo a carico dell’organismo e conseguenza diretta dell’esposizione. In aggiunta, al danno ossidativo, può essere collegato anche l’incremento della concentrazione di Metilguanidina, metabolita sintetizzato nei perossisomi epatici, e spesso associato al danno tissutale; nonché di creatina, essendo i ROS responsabili dell’inibizione dell’enzima creatin-chinasi, coinvolto nella trasformazione della creatina in creatinina. Conclusioni Nonostante si tratti di uno studio pilota, l’analisi effettuata mette in luce l’alterazione di diversi pathways metabolici nei lavoratori rispetto al gruppo di controllo suggerendo una probabile influenza dell’esposizione sul metabolismo epatico. L’approccio metabolomico descritto è dunque in grado di fornire informazioni utili su alterazioni metaboliche nel caso di esposizione a miscele complesse anche quando l’esposizione è ben al di sotto dei valori limite di soglia imposti dalla vigente legislatura

Landfill waste fire: oxidative stress and elements accumulation in bees

Landfill fires are relatively frequent incidents that can contribute significantly to air pollution and have environmental and health impacts (1). Various pollutants can be emitted during waste combustion, such as carbon monoxide and dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, persistent organic pollutants, aldehydes, and toxic or potentially toxic elements (1,2). Bees are important pollinating insects sensitive to environmental contaminants (3). Toxic elements, such as As, Cd, Hg, and Pb, can weaken their immune system and induce oxidative stress in these valuable insects (4,5). The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of air pollution from waste fires on bee health, in terms of oxidative stress and metal accumulation, as well as the possible beneficial effect of feeding probiotics and Quassia amara to bees. Six beehives were considered near the Malagrotta landfill, central Italy (41°51'49.9 N 12°19'46.5 E) before and after a landfill fire event on 15 June 2022. Bees, fed with different nutrients (placebo, probiotics, and Q. amara), were analyzed for elemental content by a quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (3,4), oxidative stress by hydrogen peroxide and protein carbonyl group contents (5), and metabolic profiles by 1H-NMR (4). Compared with control bees, lower concentrations of As, B, Ba, Cd, Co, Fe, Li, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, Ti, and U were found in probiotic-fed bees, and Ba, Be, Cd, Co, Fe, Li, Mn, Sn, Ti, and U in Q. amara-fed bees, indicating a possible protective action of probiotics and medicinal plants against the accumulation of toxic or potentially toxic elements (3,4). The administration of probiotics and Q. amara to bees has also shown a protective effect against the oxidative stress caused by the fire of landfill waste (4). The comparison of the metabolic profiles through pre- and postevent PCA analyses showed that bees treated with different feeds react differently to the environmental event. The greatest differences in metabolic profiles are observed between the placebo-fed bees compared to the others. This study can help to understand how some stress factors can affect the health of bees and to take measures to protect these precious insects. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Marco Papi, Marco Papi Azienda Agricola ed Apistica, Rome (Italy), for the study’s precious support and all the sampling stages. We acknowledge the Ph.D. programs on green topics, PON Research and Innovation 2014–2020 project, funded by FSE REACT-EU. 1. D. Dabrowska, W. Rykala, V. Nourani. Sustainability, 2023, 15(7), 5713, 10.3390/su15075713 2. EMEP/EEA air pollutant emission inventory guidebook 2023. EEA Report 06/2023. www.eea.europa.eu/ds_resolveuid/745f4e2e388147eba041d47727e3fa84 3. M. L. Astolfi, M. E. Conti, M. Messi, E. Marconi. Chemosphere, 2022, 308, 136261, 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136261 4. O. Giampaoli, M. Messi, T. Merlet, F. Sciubba, S. Canepari, M. Spagnoli, M.L. Astolfi. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2023, 1-17. 10.1007/s11356-023-31561-x 5. M. Alburaki, K. D. Smith, J. Adamczyk, S. Karim. Journal of insect physiology, 2019, 117, 103891. 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2019.10389