Ibuprofen and lipoic acid conjugate neuroprotective activity is mediated by Ngb/Akt intracellular signaling pathway in Alzheimer's disease rat model

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a frequent form of senile dementia. Neuroglobin (Ngb) has a neuroprotective role and decreases Aβ peptide levels. Ngb, promoting Akt phosphorylation, activates cell survival involving cyclic-nucleotide response element-binding protein (CREB). A new molecule (IBU-LA) was synthetized and administered to an AD rat model to counteract AD progression. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the IBU-LA-mediated induction of Ngb neuroprotective and antiapoptotic activities. METHODS: Brain morphology was analyzed through Bielschowsky staining, Aβ(1-40) and Ngb expression by immunohistochemistry. Akt, p-Akt, CREB and p-CREB expression was evaluated by Western blot, apoptosis through cytochrome C/Apaf 1 immunocomplex formation, and TUNEL analysis. RESULTS: Bielschowsky staining and Aβ(1-40) expression show few nerve connections and Aβ(1-40) expression in an Aβ sample, preserved neuronal cells and Aβ(1-40) expression lowering in an IBU sample, mostly in IBU-LA. The Ngb level decreases in Aβ samples, compared to control and IBU-LA samples. p-Akt/Akt and p-CREB/CREB ratios reveal a reduction in Aβ sample, going back to the basal level in control and IBU-LA samples. Cytochrome C/Apaf 1 co-immunoprecipitate occurs and TUNEL-positive nuclei percentage decreases in Aβ sample. Probe test performance shows an increased spatial reference memory in the IBU-LA compared to the Aβ sample; no significant differences were seen between the IBU-LA and IBU samples. CONCLUSION: This evidence reveals that IBU-LA administration has the capability to maintain a high Ngb level allowing Ngb to perform a neuroprotective and antiapoptotic role, representing a valid tool in the therapeutic strategy of AD progression

Loan loss provisions and macroeconomic shocks: some empirical evidence for Italian banks during the crisis

© 2017 The Authors. This paper uses data from a panel of more than 400 Italian banks for the period 2001 – 2015 to examine the main determinants of loan loss provision (LLP), which are classified as either discretionary (income smoothing, capital management, signalling) or non-discretionary (related to the business cycle). The possible effects of the double-dip recession of 2008-9 and 2011-15 are also examined. The results suggest that LLP in Italian banks is countercyclical, with non-discretionary components and macroeconomic shocks playing a significant role. Moreover, LLP is less cyclical in the case of local banks, since their loans are more collateralized and their behaviour is more strongly affected by supervisory activity

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

The distributional impact of local banking. Evidence from the financial and sovereign-debt crises

This paper investigates whether local cooperative banks played a role in mitigating income inequality within Italian municipalities following the main crises that marked the European landscape from 2008 to 2015, namely the financial and sovereign-debt crises. Our empirical findings indicate that, despite the overall rise in income inequality during the post-crisis periods, municipalities hosting at least one cooperative bank branch experienced a comparatively smaller increase. This mitigating effect on income inequality is not observed in the case of non-cooperative banks. Furthermore, the size of the cooperative banking sector emerged as a significant factor in shaping income distribution: municipalities characterized by larger amounts of cooperative banks loans and deposits displayed lower levels of income inequality. The distributional impact of cooperative banks following the two crises was particularly pronounced in smaller municipalities, and where the degree of financial and industrial development was higher