The Role of Nutrition During the COVID-19 Pandemic: What We Know.

Background: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) (COVID-19) infection provokes serious clinical consequences, which in many situations need hospitalization of the patient in Intensive Care Unit. Additionally, SARS-COV-2 infection can indirectly cause deaths in aged individuals as well as in patients with co-morbidities.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of nutrition during the COVID-19 pandemic in both hospitalized patients and the general population.

Taking Advantage of Plant Defense Mechanisms to Promote Human Health. Exploitation of Plant Natural Products for Preventing or Treating Human Disease: Second of Two Parts.

Background: Plants have been regarded as essential source of food for human beings, as confirmed by archeological studies that have revealed the presence of proteins from cereals and legumes on old pottery.

Specific Aims: In this review, major health effects derived from the consumption of plant fibers, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and polyphenols, respectively, will be described with special emphasis on their mechanisms of action, both at cellular and molecular levels. Dietary Compounds: Fibers exhibit a prevalent prebiotic effect, acting on the intestinal microbiota with the production of protective metabolites, such as short chain fatty acids.

Protective Effects of Eicosapentaenoic Acid Plus Hydroxytyrosol Supplementation Against White Adipose Tissue Abnormalities in Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet.

Objective: Obesity induced by high-fat diet (HFD) elicits white adipose tissue dysfunction. In this study, we have hypothesized that the metabolic modulator eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) combined with the antioxidant hydroxytyrosol (HT) attenuates HFD-induced white adipose tissue (WAT) alterations.

Methods: C57BL/6J mice were administered with a HFD (60% fat, 20% protein, 20% carbohydrates) or control diet (CD; 10% fat, 20% protein, 70% carbohydrates), with or without EPA (50 mg/kg/day), HT (5 mg/kg/day), or both for 12 weeks.

Molecular and Cellular Substrates for the Friedreich Ataxia. Significance of Contactin Expression and of Antioxidant Administration.

In this study, the neural phenotype is explored in rodent models of the spinocerebellar disorder known as the Friedreich Ataxia (FA), which results from mutations within the gene encoding the Frataxin mitochondrial protein. For this, the M12 line, bearing a targeted mutation, which disrupts the Frataxin gene exon 4 was used, together with the M02 line, which, in addition, is hemizygous for the human Frataxin gene mutation (Pook transgene), implying the occurrence of 82-190 GAA repeats within its first intron. The mutant mice phenotype was compared to the one of wild type littermates in regions undergoing differential profiles of neurogenesis, including the cerebellar cortex and the spinal cord by using neuronal (β-tubulin) and glial (Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein) markers as well as the Contactin 1 axonal glycoprotein, involved in neurite growth control.

Taking Advantage of Plant Defense Mechanisms to Promote Human Health. The Plant Immune System. First of Two Parts.

Despite the evidence that plants do not possess sessile cells, they are able to mount a vigorous immune response against invaders or under stressful conditions. Plants are endowed with pattern recognition receptors (PPRs) which perceive damage-associated molecular patterns and microbe- associated molecular patterns or pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), respectively. PPR activation leads to either the initiation of PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) (early response) or the effector-triggered immunity (ETI).

Exploitation of Some Natural Products for the Prevention and/or Nutritional Treatment of SARS-CoV2 Infection.

Dietary habits strongly influence our health status, mostly in terms of maintenance of the inflammatory/anti-inflammatory homeostasis. High fat and high sugar diets account for the development of a low-grade inflammation, which is the pathogenic common denominator of various chronic diseases. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS)-CoV2 (COVID-19) infection affects all ages and especially frail elderly people and a nutritional intervention seems to be crucial in the course of this pandemic.

Platelets: Angels and Demons Dancing on the Immune Stage. Nutrition Conducts the Orchestra.

Platelets are cellular fragments derived from bone-marrow megacaryocytes and they are mostly involved in the haemostasis and coagulation. However, according to recent data, platelets are able to perform novel immune functions. In fact, they possess a receptorial armamentarium on their membrane for interacting with innate and adaptive immune cells.

Worse progression of COVID-19 in men: Is testosterone a key factor?

Background: The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease 2019 (COVID-19) seems to have a worse clinical course among infected men compared with women, thus highlighting concerns about gender predisposition to serious prognosis. Therefore, androgens, particularly testosterone (T), could be suspected as playing a critical role in driving this excess of risk. However, gonadal function in critically ill men is actually unknown, mainly because serum T concentration is not routinely measured in clinical practice, even more in this clinical context.

Peripheral Immunosenescence and Central Neuroinflammation: A Dangerous Liaison - A Dietary Approach.

Background & Objectives: In old people, both innate and adaptive immune responses are impaired, thus leading to a condition of systemic inflamm-ageing, even including the involvement of the central nervous system (CNS).

Aims: Here, main mechanisms of the immune ageing and neuro-inflammation will be discussed along with the dietary approaches for the modulation of age related diseases.

Discussion: Neuroinflammation is caused by the passage of inflammatory mediators through the brain blood barrier to CNS.

Red Grape Polyphenol Oral Administration Improves Immune Response in Women Affected by Nickel-Mediated Allergic Contact Dermatitis.

Background: Our previous findings demonstrated that in vitro supplementation of polyphenols, extracted from seeds of red grape (Nero di Troia cultivar), to peripheral lymphomonocytes from patients affected by allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) to nickel (Ni) could reduce the release of proinflammatory cytokines and nitric oxide (NO), while increasing the levels of interleukin (IL)-10, an anti-inflammatory cytokine.

Objective: To assess whether an intervention with oral administration of polyphenols leads to a reduction of peripheral biomarkers in ACD patients.

Methods: At T0, 25 patients affected by ACD to Ni were orally administered with 300 mg polyphenols prodie extracted from seeds of red grape (Nero di Troia cultivar) (NATUR-OX®) for 3 months (T1).

Eosinophils, a Jack of All Trades in Immunity: Therapeutic Approaches for Correcting Their Functional Disorders.

Background And Objective: Eosinophils are primitive myeloid cells derived from bonemarrow precursors and require the intervention of interleukin (IL)-5 for their survival and persistence in blood and tissues. Under steady-state conditions, they contribute to immune regulation and homeostasis. Under pathological circumstances, eosinophils are involved in host protection against parasites and participate in allergy and inflammation.

Mast Cells as a Double Edged Sword in Immunity: Disorders of Mast Cell Activation and Therapeutic Management. Second of Two Parts.

Mast cells (MCs) bear many receptors that allow them to respond to a variety of exogenous and endogenous stimuli. However, MC function is dual since they can initiate pathological events or protect the host against infectious challenges. The role of MCs in disease will be analyzed in a broad sense, describing cellular and molecular mechanisms related to their involvement in auto-inflammatory diseases, asthma, autoimmune diseases and cancer.

Mast Cells as a Double-Edged Sword in Immunity: Their Function in Health and Disease. First of Two Parts.

Mast cells (MCs) have recently been re-interpreted in the context of the immune scenario in the sense that their pro-allergic role is no longer exclusive. In fact, MCs even in steady state conditions maintain homeostatic functions, producing mediators and intensively cross-talking with other immune cells. Here, emphasis will be placed on the array of receptors expressed by MCs and the variety of cytokines they produce.

Modulation of Nerve Cell Differentiation: Role of Polyphenols and of Contactin Family Components.

In this study the mechanisms are explored, which modulate expression and function of cell surface adhesive glycoproteins of the Immunoglobulin Supergene Family (IgSF), and in particular of its Contactin subset, during neuronal precursor developmental events. In this context, a specific topic concerns the significance of the expression profile of such molecules and their ability to modulate signaling pathways activated through nutraceuticals, in particular polyphenols, administration. Both and approaches are chosen.

Polyphenol Effects on Splenic Cytokine Response in Post-Weaning Contactin 1-Overexpressing Transgenic Mice.

Background: In mice, postnatal immune development has previously been investigated, and evidence of a delayed maturation of the adaptive immune response has been detected.

Methods: In this study, the effects of red grape polyphenol oral administration on the murine immune response were explored using pregnant mice (TAG/F3 transgenic and wild type (wt) mice) as the animal model. The study was performed during pregnancy as well as during lactation until postnatal day 8.