The residue of chestnut processing generates a large amount of waste material, a resource not adequately exploited. The antioxidant and antitumoral properties of cold and hot water extracts from ...discarded pericarp of four chestnut Sardinian accessions and one marron variety were studied. The antioxidant capacity of the extracts was determined by spectrophotometric and electrochemical tests. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-pic-rylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) results were highly correlated with each other; likewise, a good correlation was found between Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) values, both based on the direct transfer of electrons. The antiproliferative effect on normal cells (fibroblasts), and on colon (RKO and SW48) and breast (MCF7) cancer cells was evaluated. Additionally, this paper marks the first application of chestnut extracts to investigate their effects on melanoma (B16F10) cells. The MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) test demonstrated that temperature and different extraction times significantly influenced the growth of cells, both normal and tumor. The fibroblast growth was significantly inhibited by moderate doses of cold extracts, while the GI50 values calculated for hot extracts were high, regardless of the accession or cultivar. An even more marked inhibitory action of the cold extracts was observed both on the growth of RKO and SW48 cells and on B16F10 melanoma cells. Otherwise, an extract concentration, both cold and hot, of no less than 243 µg mL−1 is required to achieve a 50% inhibition of MCF7 cell growth.
Background
The frequency of Huntington’s disease (HD) may vary considerably, with higher estimates in non-Asian populations. We have recently examined the prevalence of HD in the southern part of ...Sardinia, a large Italian Mediterranean island that is considered a genetic isolate. We observed regional microgeographic differences in the prevalence of HD across the study area similar to those recently reported in other studies conducted in European countries. To explore the basis for this variability, we undertook a study of the incidence of HD in Sardinia over a 10-year period, 2009 to 2018.
Methods
Our research was conducted in the 5 administrative areas of Sardinia island. Case patients were ascertained through multiple sources in Sardinia and Italy.
Results
During the incidence period 53 individuals were diagnosed with clinically manifested HD. The average annual incidence rate 2009–2018 was 2.92 per 10
6
persons-year (95% CI, 2.2 to 3.9). The highest incidence rate was observed in South Sardinia (6.3; 95% CI, 4.2–9.5). This rate was significantly higher (
p
<0.01) than the rates from Cagliari, Oristano, and Sassari provinces but did not significantly differ (
p
= 0.38) from the Nuoro rate.
Conclusions
The overall incidence of HD in Sardinia is close to the correspondent estimates in Mediterranean countries. Our findings highlight also the possibility of local microgeographic variations in the epidemiology of HD that might reflect several factors, including a possible founder effect in the rural areas of South Sardinia and Nuoro.
Purpose
To study for the first time the incidence of adult-onset CNS tumors in Southern Sardinia, Italy.
Methods
Clinical records of patients > 18 years old who were diagnosed with primary CNS tumors ...during 2016–2019 in the study area were reviewed. Meningiomas, cranial/paraspinal nerve tumors, lymphomas, and pituitary tumors were excluded. Cases were classified according to the 2016 WHO classification of CNS tumors and to the morphology codes from the International Classification of Diseases—Oncology, third edition. Age-adjusted incidence rates were calculated by the direct method to the 2011–2020 European standard population. Kulldorff’s spatial scan statistic was used to identify geographic clusters of patients who shared increased/decreased tendency to develop CNS tumors.
Results
CNS tumors were diagnosed in 234 incident patients, but histological diagnosis was available in 222/234 patients (95%) aged 64.3 ± 13.5 years at diagnosis. Crude incidence rate was 7.1 per 100,000 persons-year (95% CI, 6.2–8.1), 6.2 per 100,000 persons-year (95% CI, 5.4–7.0) when age-adjusted. CNS tumors were more frequent in men and after age 40. Glioblastoma accounted for 76% of the total (adjusted rate, 4.7 per 100,000 persons-year; 95% CI, 4.0–5.4). Spatial analysis revealed geographic variations of glioblastoma incidence within the study area.
Conclusion
Although the distribution of tumor diagnoses in Sardinia reflects expected age and gender-related patterns in western populations, our findings would indicate a slightly higher incidence of glial tumors, glioblastoma in particular, in Sardinia than in other European countries. The identification of spatial clusters of high/low risk will serve as a resource for etiological research.
Drug resistance is a critical issue in the treatment of epilepsy, contributing to clinical emergencies and increasing both serious social and economic burdens on the health system. The wide variety ...of potential drug combinations followed by often failed consecutive attempts to match drugs to an individual patient may mean that this treatment stage may last for years with suboptimal benefit to the patient. Given these challenges, it is valuable to explore the availability of new methodologies able to shorten the period of determining a rationale pharmacologic treatment. Metabolomics could provide such a tool to investigate possible markers of drug resistance in subjects with epilepsy.
Blood samples were collected from (1) controls (C) (
= 35), (2) patients with epilepsy "responder" (R) (
= 18), and (3) patients with epilepsy "non-responder" (NR) (
= 17) to the drug therapy. The samples were analyzed using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, followed by multivariate statistical analysis.
A different metabolic profile based on metabolomics analysis of the serum was observed between C and patients with epilepsy and also between R and NR patients. It was possible to identify the discriminant metabolites for the three classes under investigation. Serum from patients with epilepsy were characterized by increased levels of 3-OH-butyrate, 2-OH-valerate, 2-OH-butyrate, acetoacetate, acetone, acetate, choline, alanine, glutamate, scyllo-inositol (C < R < NR), and decreased concentration of glucose, lactate, and citrate compared to C (C > R > NR).
In conclusion, metabolomics may represent an important tool for discovery of differences between subjects affected by epilepsy responding or resistant to therapies and for the study of its pathophysiology, optimizing the therapeutic resources and the quality of life of patients.
INTRODUCTION. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that dental loss replacements induce changes in neuroplasticity as well as in correlated connectivity between brain networks. However, as the typical ...temporal delay in detecting brain activity by neuroimaging cannot account for the influence one neural system exerts over another in a context of real activation (“effective” connectivity), it seems of interest to approach this dynamic aspect of brain networking in the time frame of milliseconds by exploiting electroencephalographic (EEG) data. MATERIAL AND METHODS. The present study describes one subject who received a new prosthodontic provisional implant in substitution for previous dental repairs. Two EEG sessions led with a portable device were recorded before and after positioning the new dental implant. By following MATLAB-EEGLAB processing supported by the plugins FIELDTRIP and SIFT, the independent component analysis (ICA) derived from EEG raw signals was rendered as current density fields and interpolated with the dipoles generated by each electrode for a dynamic study of the effective connectivity. One more recording session was undertaken six months after the placement of the final implant. RESULTS. Compared to the baseline, the new prosthodontic implant induced a novel modulation of the neuroplasticity in sensory-motor areas which was maintained following the definitive implant after six months, as revealed by changes in the effective connectivity from the basal strong enslavement of a single brain area over the others, to an equilibrate inter-related connectivity evenly distributed along the frontotemporal regions of both hemispheres. CONCLUSIONS. The rapid shift of the effective connectivity after positioning the new prosthodontic implant and its substantial stability after six months suggest the possibility that synaptic modifications, induced by novel sensory motor conditions, modulate the neuroplasticity and reshape the final dynamic frame of the interarea connectivity. Moreover, given the viability of the EEG practice, this approach could be of some interest in assessing the association between oral pathophysiology and neuronal networking.
Abstract
Introduction
Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) represent a severe neuro-traumatic occurrence and an excruciating social burden. Though the hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) has been credited as a first ...line therapeutic resource for SCIs, its mechanism of action in the spine is only partially known, while the impingement upon other areas of the nervous system deserves additional investigation. In this study we deem to describe a novel effect of HBO2 in a subject affected by SCI who, along with the clinical improvement, showed a reshaped connectivity in cortical sensory-motor areas.
Case presentation
A 45 years male presenting severe sensory-motor symptoms following a spinal lesion partially involving the C1 segment was successfully treated with HBO2 cycles. After the dramatic improvement reflected by an excellent optimization of the single performances, it has been investigated whether this result would reveal not only an intrinsic effect upon the spinal cord, but also a better connectivity strength in sensory-motor cortical regions. The results obtained by implementing EEG recordings with EEGLAB auto regressive vector plugins indeed suggest a substantial reshaping of cortico-cortical connectivity after HBO2.
Discussion
These results show a correlation between positive clinical evolution and a new modulation of cortical connectivity. Though further clinical investigations would clarify as to whether HBO2 might be directly or epiphenomenally involved in this aspect of the network architecture, our report suggests that a comparison between clinical results and the study of brain connectivity represent a holistic approach in investigating the physiopathology of SCIs and in monitoring the treatment.
Status epilepticus in Hashimoto’s encephalopathy Ercoli, Tommaso; Defazio, Giovanni; Muroni, Antonella
Seizure (London, England),
August 2019, 2019-Aug, 2019-08-00, 20190801, Letnik:
70
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
•Status epilepticus may be a manifestation of Hashimoto’s encephalopathy.•Status epilepticus was not associated with specific clinical/laboratory findings.•Status epilepticus did not respond to ...anti-epileptic drugs.•Status epilepticus remitted under steroid/immunomodulatory therapy in 75% of patients.
Hashimoto’s encephalopathy is a non-infectious, probably autoimmune encephalitis, characterized by varied signs coupled with elevated levels of anti-thyroid antibodies and, often, good response to corticosteroid therapy. Seizures, namely focal and generalized tonic-clonic seizures, myoclonus, and status epilepticus, are frequent manifestations of Hashimoto’s encephalopathy. Typically, seizures in these patients respond poorly to anti-epileptic drugs. Although cases of Hashimoto’s encephalopathy with status epilepticus have been reported in literature, they vary in demographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics. We could not identify any systematic review summarizing the evidence in regard to factors predicting the occurrence of status epilepticus in Hashimoto’s encephalopathy and the responsiveness of status epilepticus to anti-epileptic drugs, steroids and other immunomodulatory medication. Therefore, we performed an extensive review of the literature to identify and compare Hashimoto’s encephalopathy patients presenting with and without status epilepticus. In 31 patients with status epilepticus and 104 patients without status epilepticus, thyroid status, anti-thyroid antibodies, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, brain MRI/CT/SPECT scan did not predict occurrence of status epilepticus of variable phenomenology. Status epilepticus did not respond to anti-epileptic drugs but completely remitted under steroid treatment, alone or in combination with other immunomodulatory medication, in about three quarter of patients. Generalized convulsive status epilepticus might be a factor negatively influencing outcome.
Summary Seizures induced by musical stimulation are usually correlated to temporal epilepsy, although the precise localization of their epileptogenic networks are not well characterized. Brain ...imaging studies show that regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) recorded during musicogenic seizures is increased in putative epileptogenic foci, as well as in other brain regions not directly related to seizure activity. These studies, however, afford only a virtual temporal relation between ictal discharges and rCBF changes, given that brain images are correlated with off-line EEG recordings. To obviate this problem, the simultaneous multimodal recording of the episode of musicogenic epilepsy is mandatory. The present study describes the EEG-fMRI co-recording of musicogenic elicited seizures in a case of simple partial epilepsy. Our results show that EEG features recorded in epileptogenic areas are largely coupled with rCBF increase. Furthermore, rCBF modifications in other regions suggest that additional aspects of musical processing are also elicited during musicogenic seizures.
Thyroid disorders, including hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism and Hashimoto encephalopathy, are considered the most common cause of cerebellar dysfunction due to hormonal imbalance. Typically, ...cerebellar impairment occurs in the course of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto encephalopathy. Information about demographic, clinical and laboratory features of cerebellar disease associated with thyroid disorders is poor. Our review of the literature (1965 to 2018) identified 28 cases associated with hypothyroidism and 37 cases associated with Hashimoto encephalitis. Both patients with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto encephalopathy presented with signs of ataxia that were similarly distributed in the two groups and were mostly predictive of vermis involvement and frequent impairment of cerebellar hemispheres. Additional neurological signs, like dystonia, psychiatric symptoms, ocular disturbances and myoclonus, could be found in the Hashimoto encephalopathy group alone. When present, atrophy of vermis and often of both cerebellar hemispheres was the main imaging abnormality in both hypothyroidism and Hashimoto encephalopathy. Anti-thyroid antibodies could be detected in three quarters of patients with hypothyroidism and in all patients with Hashimoto encephalopathy. In the patients with hypothyroidism, thyroid replacement therapy yielded complete or partial remission of ataxia. In the Hashimoto encephalopathy group, immunosuppressive treatment provided complete remission of ataxia in about 60% of patients, partial remission in the remaining cases. Owing to the treatable nature of the condition and the high prevalence of thyroid disease among general population, cerebellar syndrome associated with thyroid disorders should be considered an important clinical entity. Information from this review will hopefully stimulate and strengthen awareness of thyroid-associated ataxia among clinicians.
PDF
