Food and Food Waste Antioxidants: Could They Be a Potent Defence against Parkinson's Disease?

Oxidative stress, an imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and endogenous antioxidants, plays an important role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's. The human brain is vulnerable to oxidative stress because of the high rate of oxygen that it needs and the high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are substrates of lipid peroxidation. Natural antioxidants inhibit oxidation and reduce oxidative stress, preventing cancer, inflammation, and neurodegenerative disorders.

Energy drinks at adolescence: Awareness or unawareness?

Energy drinks (EDs) are beverages similar to soft drinks, characterized by high caffeine concentrations with additional ingredients like taurine and vitamins, marketed for boosting energy, reducing tiredness, increasing concentration, and for their ergogenic effect. The majority of consumers are children, adolescents, and young athletes. Although EDs companies claim about the ergogenic and remineralizing properties of their products, there is a serious lack of evidence at preclinical as well as clinical level to validate their benefits.

Quinoxaline derivatives as new inhibitors of coxsackievirus B5.

Enteroviruses are among the most common and important human pathogens for which there are no specific antiviral agents approved by the US Food and Drug Administration so far. Particularly, coxsackievirus infections have a worldwide distribution and can cause many important diseases. We here report the synthesis of new 14 quinoxaline derivatives and the evaluation of their cytotoxicity and antiviral activity against representatives of ssRNA, dsRNA and dsDNA viruses.

Acute restraint stress prevents nicotine-induced mesolimbic dopaminergic activation via a corticosterone-mediated mechanism: a microdialysis study in the rat.

Background: Stress affects the responsiveness to nicotine (NIC), by increasing drug use, facilitating relapse and reinstating NIC self administration even after prolonged abstinence. In turn, high corticosterone (CORT) blood levels induced by stress may alter the neurobiological properties of NIC by acting on the dopamine (DA) mesolimbic system.

Methods: In this study, we evaluated the effect of exposure to acute restraint stress on NIC-induced stimulation of the mesolimbic DA system of the rat, by studying extracellular DA levels in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAccs) with microdialysis.

L-cysteine prevents ethanol-induced stimulation of mesolimbic dopamine transmission.

Background: Acetaldehyde (ACD), the first metabolite of ethanol (EtOH) appears to be involved in many of the psychoactive effects of its parent compound, including EtOH-induced activation of the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system, thereby suggesting that ACD may participate in EtOH motivational properties. l-cysteine (Lcys), a thiol compound sequestering ACD, is able to prevent the behavioral effect of EtOH and ACD. Here we show that the stimulatory effect of both EtOH and ACD on the mesolimbic DA system is prevented by Lcys pretreatment.

Acetaldehyde sequestering prevents ethanol-induced stimulation of mesolimbic dopamine transmission.

Acetaldehyde (ACD) has been postulated to mediate some of the neurobehavioral effects of ethanol (EtOH). In this study we sought to evaluate whether the stimulatory effects of EtOH on mesolimbic dopamine (DA) transmission are affected by the administration of ACD-sequestering agent D-penicillamine (Dp). To this end we studied the effect of EtOH and ACD in the rat mesoaccumbens pathway by in vivo microdialysis in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAccs), and by single cell extracellular recordings from antidromically identified mesoaccumbens DA neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA).

Crucial role of acetaldehyde in alcohol activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system.

Ethyl alcohol (EtOH), the main psychoactive ingredient of alcoholic drinks, is widely considered responsible for alcohol abuse and alcoholism through its positive motivational properties, which depend, at least partially, on the activation of the mesolimbic dopaminergic system. On the other hand, acetaldehyde (ACD), EtOH's first metabolite, has been classically considered aversive and useful in the pharmacologic therapy of alcoholics. Here we show that EtOH-derived ACD is necessary for EtOH-induced place preference, a preclinical test with high predictive validity for reward liability.