On the 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown origin detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The infection spread ...first in China and then in the rest of the world, and on the 11th of March, the WHO declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic. Taking into consideration the mortality rate of COVID-19, about 5-7%, and the percentage of positive patients admitted to intensive care units being 9-11%, it should be mandatory to consider and take all necessary measures to contain the COVID-19 infection. Moreover, given the recent evidence in different hospitals suggesting IL-6 and TNF-α inhibitor drugs as a possible therapy for COVID-19, we aimed to highlight that a dietary intervention could be useful to prevent the infection and/or to ameliorate the outcomes during therapy. Considering that the COVID-19 infection can generate a mild or highly acute respiratory syndrome with a consequent release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-6 and TNF-α, a dietary regimen modification in order to improve the levels of adiponectin could be very useful both to prevent the infection and to take care of patients, improving their outcomes.
The Neurochemistry of Autism Marotta, Rosa; Risoleo, Maria C; Messina, Giovanni ...
Brain sciences,
03/2020, Letnik:
10, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to complex neurobehavioral and neurodevelopmental conditions characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, restricted and repetitive patterns ...of behavior or interests, and altered sensory processing. Environmental, immunological, genetic, and epigenetic factors are implicated in the pathophysiology of autism and provoke the occurrence of neuroanatomical and neurochemical events relatively early in the development of the central nervous system. Many neurochemical pathways are involved in determining ASD; however, how these complex networks interact and cause the onset of the core symptoms of autism remains unclear. Further studies on neurochemical alterations in autism are necessary to clarify the early neurodevelopmental variations behind the enormous heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorder, and therefore lead to new approaches for the treatment and prevention of autism. In this review, we aim to delineate the state-of-the-art main research findings about the neurochemical alterations in autism etiology, and focuses on gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate, serotonin, dopamine, N-acetyl aspartate, oxytocin and arginine-vasopressin, melatonin, vitamin D, orexin, endogenous opioids, and acetylcholine. We also aim to suggest a possible related therapeutic approach that could improve the quality of ASD interventions. Over one hundred references were collected through electronic database searching in Medline and EMBASE (Ovid), Scopus (Elsevier), ERIC (Proquest), PubMed, and the Web of Science (ISI).
Primary headache is an increasing phenomenon in pediatric age, and very often, it causes disabling limitations in children’s daily activities, negatively affecting family well-being. There are ...conflicting data in the literature on the impact of children’s migraines on parental experienced stress. This study aimed to evaluate maternal stress in a sample of school-aged children with a migraine without aura (MwoA) and its correlation with migraine intensity and frequency. A total of 474 mothers aged between 31 and 55 participated in the study: 237 were mothers of children with MwoA, and 237 were mothers of typical developing children. All participants were administered the Parent Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) for the assessment of parental stress; the Pediatric Migraine Disability Assessment (PedMIDAS) was administered to children with MwoA to assess the presence of a related disability migraine. The results showed a significantly higher rate of stress in mothers of MwoA children (p < 0.001) in all the domains explored by the PSI-SF and a statistically significant correlation between the maternal stress total score and the intensity and frequency of migraine attacks (p < 0.0001). This study highlights the need for the holistic contribution of the family to be considered in the clinical management of pediatric migraines.
Primary headaches (migraines and tension-types headaches) are very common in school-aged children. Ginkgolide B, a herbal constituent extract from
Ginkgo biloba
tree leaves, was considered as a ...promising pharmacological aid for the treatment of migraine in adult patients because of its modulation of the glutamatergic transmission in the CNS and on antiplatelet activating factor (PAF). The aim of study is to verify the effectiveness and safety of association of Ginkgolide B/Coenzyme Q10/Riboflavin/Magnesium complex for brief prophylaxis in a population of school-aged children with migraine. In our sample after 3 months of treatment with association of Ginkgolide B/CoenzymeQ10/Riboflavin/Magnesium complex, the mean frequency per month of migraine was significantly decreased (9.71 ± 4.33 vs. 4.53 ± 3.96 attacks;
p
< 0.001). Our findings suggest that in childhood headache management, the use of alternative treatments must be considered not to evoke a placebo effect, but as soft therapy without adverse reactions.
Motion sickness (MS) is a disabling condition dominated by disagreement between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement, with symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, and ...nausea, and other autonomic disabling symptoms. Preparations of Griffonia simplicifolia, containing high concentrations of 5-HTP, might be effective for serotonin-related disorders, including MS. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to assess the efficacy and safety of the G. simplicifolia/magnesium complex in a pediatric population with MS. The Griffonia/magnesium complex (50 and 200 mg, respectively) was orally administered as a prophylactic therapy for MS twice a day for 3 months to group A, and no therapy for MS was administered to group B. The MS clinical signs were recorded by parents or, where possible, directly from children by a specific module, which included validated questions for the diagnoses that were administered to all subjects and parents of both groups. Two study groups were matched for age (P=.224), sex (P=.801), and z-score body–mass index (P=.173). At T0, all recruited subjects in both groups complained about MS. After 3 months (T1), group A showed an MS prevalence of 36%, significantly lower than MS prevalence in group B (73%) (P<.001). The findings of the present study suggest the role of the Griffonia/magnesium complex as a potential treatment with middle-term efficacy even for MS.
Developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEE) are severe neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by recurrent, usually early-onset, epileptic seizures accompanied by developmental impairment ...often related to both underlying genetic etiology and abnormal epileptiform activity. Today, next-generation sequencing technologies (NGS) allow us to sequence large portions of DNA quickly and with low costs. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of whole-exome sequencing (WES) as a first-line molecular genetic test in a sample of subjects with DEEs characterized by early-onset drug-resistant epilepsies, associated with global developmental delay and/or intellectual disability (ID). We performed 82 WESs, identifying 35 pathogenic variants with a detection rate of 43%. The identified variants were highlighted on 29 different genes including, 3 new candidate genes (
,
,
) for DEEs never identified before. In total, 23 out of 35 (66%) de novo variants were identified. The most frequently identified type of inheritance was autosomal dominant de novo (60%) followed by autosomal recessive in homozygosity (17%) and heterozygosity (11%), autosomal dominant inherited from parental mosaicism (6%) and X-linked dominant de novo (6%). The most frequent mutations identified were missense (75%) followed by frameshift deletions (16%), frameshift duplications (5%), and splicing mutations (3%). Considering the results obtained in the present study we support the use of WES as a form of first-line molecular genetic testing in DEEs.
This book offers innovative constructs of knowledge and reasoning on autistic pathology according to the perspectives offered by functional neuroscience and neuroimaging data and considers new ...etiological perspectives and therapeutic strategies centered on the child and the family. Written by experts in the field, this book includes sixteen chapters organized into three sections on “Worldwide Epidemiology”, “Neural Perspectives and Etiology”, and “Therapeutic Strategies”.
The basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic system has an important role in attentive functions. The cholinergic system can be activated by different inputs, and in particular, by orexin neurons, whose cell ...bodies are located within the postero-lateral hypothalamus. Recently the orexin-producing neurons have been proved to promote arousal and attention through their projections to the BF. The aim of this review article is to summarize the evidence showing that the orexin system contributes to attentional processing by an increase in cortical acetylcholine release and in cortical neurons activity.
The impact of technology on human life is significant, touching various aspects such as communication, economy, education, medicine, industry, and even ecosystems ...
During child development, the psychophysiological state is influenced by factors such as family routine, school experiences, stressful life events, or, in general, the environmental context in which ...the child grows up ....
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