The analytical scenario for determining contaminants in the food and feed sector is constantly prompted by the progress and improvement of knowledge and expertise of researchers and by the technical ...innovation of the instrumentation available. Mycotoxins are agricultural contaminants of fungal origin occurring at all latitudes worldwide and being characterized by acute and chronic effects on human health and animal wellness, depending on the species sensitivity. The major mycotoxins of food concern are aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A, the first for its toxicity, and the second for its recurrent occurrence. However, the European legislation sets maximum limits for mycotoxins, such as aflatoxin B1, ochratoxin A, deoxynivalenol, fumonisins, and zearalenone, and indicative limits for T-2 and HT-2 toxins. Due to the actual probability that co-occurring mycotoxins are present in a food or feed product, nowadays, the availability of reliable, sensitive, and versatile multi-mycotoxin methods is assuming a relevant importance. Due to the wide range of matrices susceptible to mycotoxin contamination and the possible co-occurrence, a multi-mycotoxin and multi-matrix method was validated in liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) with the purpose to overcome specific matrix effects and analyze complex cereal-based samples within the Italian Total Diet Study project.
•Feed safety.•2002/657/EC validation.•EDTA complexes.•Ion-pair chromatography.
A simple analytical method for the quantitative determination of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in feed and ...premix formulations was developed and validated. The method involves an extraction with an acidic ferric chloride solution, to quantitatively convert EDTA species in the samples into the Fe(III)–EDTA complex, and its subsequent detection by Ion-Pair-Reversed Phase-High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detection (IP-RP-HPLC-DAD). A robust validation procedure was performed according to the Decision 2002/657/EC at concentrations ranging from 25 to 100mgkg−1 on sample. Good recoveries (85.6–92.8%) were obtained; repeatability of the method was in the range of 1.3–8.0%, with an intermediate precision ranging from 6.0% to 8.6%, both of them expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD). No interfering species hindered the straightforward detection of EDTA. Hence, the proposed method can be adopted for an effective and rapid routine analysis of products for livestock.
The Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a marker of poor prognosis in hospitalized older patients with different diseases, but there is still no consensus on the optimal cut-off value to identify ...older patients at high-risk of in-hospital mortality. Therefore, in this study we aimed at both validating NLR as a predictor of death in older hospitalized patients and assess whether the presence of specific acute diseases can modify its predictive value.
This prospective cohort study included 5034 hospitalizations of older patients admitted to acute care units in the context of the ReportAge study. NLR measured at admission was considered as the exposure variable, while in-hospital mortality was the outcome of the study. ROC curves with Youden's method and restricted cubic splines were used to identify the optimal NLR cut-off of increased risk. Cox proportional hazard models, stratified analyses, and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to analyse the association between NLR and in-hospital mortality.
Both continuous and categorical NLR value (cut-off ≥ 7.95) predicted mortality in bivariate and multivariate prognostic models with a good predictive accuracy. The magnitude of this association was even higher in patients without sepsis, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia, and those with higher eGFR, albumin, and hemoglobin (p < 0.001). A negative multiplicative interaction was found between NLR and eGFR < 45 (p = 0.001).
NLR at admission is a readily available and cost-effective biomarker that could improve identification of geriatric patients at high risk of death during hospital stay independent of admitting diagnosis, kidney function and hemoglobin levels.
Impact of cellular senescence in aging and cancer Provinciali, Mauro; Cardelli, Maurizio; Marchegiani, Francesca ...
Current pharmaceutical design,
03/2013, Letnik:
19, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Cellular senescence is a response to nonlethal intrinsic or extrinsic stress that results in persistent growth arrest with a distinct morphological and biochemical phenotype. The engagement of ...senescence may represent a key component for therapeutic intervention in the eradication of cancer. Nevertheless, for many years, the role of senescence in opposing tumour growth in vivo had previously been underestimated. The potential role of cellular senescence in anti-cancer therapy may be particularly attractive in advanced age, because of the age-related changes occurring at the level of both tumor suppressor genes and immune functions. This review, which is focused on the impact of cellular senescence in aging and cancer, summarises the intrinsic pathways and the molecular and epigenetic changes involved in the induction of cellular senescence, and analyzes the changes occurring at the level of these pathways during aging and cancer.
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease and the leading cause of dementia among senile subjects. It has been proposed that AD can be caused by defects in mitochondrial ...oxidative phosphorylation. Given the fundamental contribution of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) for the respiratory chain, there have been a number of studies investigating the association between mtDNA inherited variants and multifactorial diseases, however no general consensus has been reached yet on the correlation between mtDNA haplogroups and AD.
We applied for the first time a high resolution analysis (sequencing of displacement loop and restriction analysis of specific markers in the coding region of mtDNA) to investigate the possible association between mtDNA-inherited sequence variation and AD in 936 AD patients and 776 cognitively assessed normal controls from central and northern Italy. Among over 40 mtDNA sub-haplogroups analysed, we found that sub-haplogroup H5 is a risk factor for AD (OR=1.85, 95% CI:1.04-3.23) in particular for females (OR=2.19, 95% CI:1.06-4.51) and independently from the APOE genotype. Multivariate logistic regression revealed an interaction between H5 and age. When the whole sample is considered, the H5a subgroup of molecules, harboring the 4336 transition in the tRNAGln gene, already associated to AD in early studies, was about threefold more represented in AD patients than in controls (2.0% vs 0.8%; p=0.031), and it might account for the increased frequency of H5 in AD patients (4.2% vs 2.3%). The complete re-sequencing of the 56 mtDNAs belonging to H5 revealed that AD patients showed a trend towards a higher number (p=0.052) of sporadic mutations in tRNA and rRNA genes when compared with controls.
Our results indicate that high resolution analysis of inherited mtDNA sequence variation can help in identifying both ancient polymorphisms defining sub-haplogroups and the accumulation of sporadic mutations associated with complex traits such as AD.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The biological bases of cellular and organismal aging are thought to involve, among others, basic stress response mechanisms. In this field an increasing amount of evidence, in recent years, point ...towards an important role of endogenous retroelements. During evolution these mobile genetic elements interpreted the dual role of selfish genomic parasites and useful "boosters" of genomic evolution. Similarly, in living cell these elements have an important role in stress response and in generating neuronal plasticity, but studies on in vitro cell cultures and animal models show that their excessive activation or misregulation may lead to DNA damage and cell senescence, and can trigger both innate immunity and a pro-inflammatory response. Being cell senescence, somatic DNA damage and inflammation three supposed key processes in human aging, and observing that several intracellular mechanisms normally controlling the activation of retroelements show a tendency to fade at late ages, a possible role of endogenous retroelements in organismal senescence is taken in consideration. A better knowledge of the basic mechanisms linking stress response, activation of endogenous retroelements and age-related cell/tissue alterations could not only help us gain a better understanding of the basic mechanisms of aging, but will also allow the experimentation of new therapeutic targets for different age-related diseases.
Herpesviridae reactivation such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) has been described in severe COVID-19 (COronaVIrusDisease-2019). This study aimed to understand if CMV reactivation in older COVID-19 patients ...is associated with increased inflammation and in-hospital mortality. In an observational single-center cohort study, 156 geriatric COVID-19 patients were screened for CMV reactivation by RT-PCR. Participants underwent a comprehensive clinical investigation that included medical history, functional evaluation, laboratory tests and cytokine assays (TNF-α, IFN-α, IL-6, IL-10) at hospital admission. In 19 (12.2%) of 156 COVID-19 patients, CMV reactivation was detected. Multivariate Cox regression models showed that in-hospital mortality significantly increased among CMV positive patients younger than 87 years (HR: 9.94, 95% CI: 1.66-59.50). Other factors associated with in-hospital mortality were C-reactive protein (HR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.05-1.30), neutrophil count (HR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.01-1.42) and clinical frailty scale (HR:1.54, 95% CI: 1.04-2.28). In patients older than 87 years, neutrophil count (HR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.05-1.21) and age (HR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.01-1.31) were independently associated with in-hospital mortality. CMV reactivation was also correlated with increased IFN-α and TNF-α serum levels, but not with IL-6 and IL-10 serum changes. In conclusion, CMV reactivation was an independent risk factor for in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients younger than 87 years old, but not in nonagenarians.
PURPOSE OF REVIEWChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by an abnormal persistent inflammatory response to noxious environmental stimuli, particularly cigarette smoke. The ...determinants of the dysregulated immune responses, which play a role both in the onset and continuation of COPD, are largely unknown. We examined several molecular mechanisms regulating the inflammatory pathway, such as cytokine polymorphisms, miRNA expression, and DNA methylation in COPD and aging, with the aim to provide evidence supporting the view that aging of the immune system may predispose to COPD.
RECENT FINDINGSThe incidence of COPD increases with age. The pathogenesis of the disease is linked to a chronic inflammation and involves the recruitment and regulation of innate and adaptive immune cells. A chronic systemic inflammation characterizes aging and has been correlated with many diseases, most of them age-related.
SUMMARYCOPD and aging are associated with significant dysregulation of the immune system that leads to a chronic inflammatory response. The similar molecular mechanisms and the common genetic signature shared by COPD and aging suggest that immunosenescence may contribute to the development of COPD.
Material Screening with Mass Spectrometry Marchegiani, Francesca; Ferella, Francesco; Nisi, Stefano
Physics (College Park, Md.),
03/2021, Letnik:
3, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical technique. Because of its sensitivity, accuracy, multielement capability, high throughput, rapid analysis times and low detection ...limits, it is able to determine simultaneously long-lived radionuclides at trace and ultra-trace levels as well as isotope ratios. It has been increasingly applied in the framework of rare events experiments like those investigating the nature of dark matter and neutrinos, where the screening and selection of extremely radiopure materials for the experimental apparatus is crucial. Here, the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) measurements of the chemical purity of a Cs2HfCl6 crystal scintillator used to study α decay of naturally occurring Hf isotopes and its own raw materials are reported. Moreover, in the framework of the GERDA/LEGEND experiment, an overview of the ICP-MS results to monitor the recycling process of enriched germanium scraps is shown. Significant outcomes, such as low detection limits despite the small amount of sample to analyze and fast ICP-MS results, have been achieved in response to the challenges required by modern low background experiments.
We present some results, obtained using a multi-scale approach, based on the employment of different and complementary techniques, i.e., Optical Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy ...Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman and µ-Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy equipped with Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) analyses, Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), and Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS), of an integrated activity focused on the characterization of micro-fragments of original and previously restored paintings of the pictorial cycle at the San Panfilo Church in Tornimparte, sampled from specific areas of interest. The study was aimed, on one hand, at the identification of the overlapping restoration materials used during previous conservation interventions (documented and not), and, on the other hand, at understanding the degradation phenomena (current or previous) of the painted surfaces and the architectural structures. The study of stratigraphy allowed us to evaluate the number of layers and the materials (pigments, minerals, and varnishes) present in each layer. As the main result, the identification of blue, black, yellow, and red pigments (both ancient and modern) was achieved. In the case of blue pigments, original (azurite and lazurite) and retouching (Prussian blue and phthalo blue) materials were recognized, together with alteration products (malachite and atacamite). Traces of yellow ochre were found in the yellow areas, and carbon black in the blue and brown areas. In the latter, hematite and red ochre pigments were also recognized. The obtained results are crucial to support the methodological choices during the restoration intervention of the site, and help to ensure the compatibility principles of the materials on which a correct conservative approach is based.
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