Chronic stress is associated with a higher risk for carcinogenesis as well as age-related diseases and immune dysfunction. There is evidence showing that psychological stress can contribute to premature immunosenescence. Therefore, the question arose whether chronic exposure to catecholamine could drive immune cells into senescence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlcohol use disorder (AUD) is a multifactorial disorder arising from a complex interplay of various genetic, environmental, psychological, and social factors. Environmental factors influence alcohol misuse and can lead to AUD. While stress plays a crucial role in the onset and progression of this disorder, environmental enrichment (EE) also influences ethanol-induced behavioral and neurobiological responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlcohol use disorder (AUD) remains a critical public health issue worldwide, characterized by high relapse rates often triggered by contextual cues. This research investigates the neural mechanisms behind context-induced reinstatement of alcohol-seeking behavior, focusing on the nucleus accumbens and its interactions with the prelimbic cortex, employing Male Long-Evans rats in an ABA renewal model. In our experimental setup, rats were trained to self-administer 10 % ethanol in Context A, followed by extinction of lever pressing in the presence of discrete cues in Context B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study investigated the concentrations and profiles of 19 perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the muscle and liver of four freshwater species from Lake Trasimeno (Italy): (European eel), (goldfish), (European perch), and (red swamp crayfish). In livers, the amount of PFASs ranged from 3.1 to 10 µg kg, significantly higher than that in muscle (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlcohol Use Disorder (AUD) presents a significant and challenging public health concern, marked by a dearth of effective pharmacological treatments. Understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of AUD is of paramount importance for the development of efficacious interventions. The process of addiction entails the acquisition of associative behaviors, prominently engaging the dorsal region of the hippocampus for encoding these associative memories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCocaine use disorder (CUD) is a worldwide public health problem, associated with severe psychosocial and economic impacts. Currently, no FDA-approved treatment is available for CUD. However, an emerging body of evidence from clinical and preclinical studies suggests that biperiden, an M1 muscarinic receptor antagonist, presents potential therapeutic use for CUD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEthanol is the most consumed substance of abuse in the world, and its misuse may lead to the development of alcohol use disorder (AUD). High relapse rates remain a relevant problem in the treatment of AUD. Exposure to environmental cues previously associated with ethanol intake could trigger ethanol-seeking behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAstrocytic-secreted matricellular proteins have been shown to influence various aspects of synaptic function. More recently, they have been found altered in animal models of psychiatric disorders such as drug addiction. Hevin (also known as Sparc-like 1) is a matricellular protein highly expressed in the adult brain that has been implicated in resilience to stress, suggesting a role in motivated behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn vitro mechanistic research is mostly performed without taking into consideration the potential influence of cell culture media and/or their supplements and therefore, interactions between compounds of interest and medium ingredients may be overlooked. Isoproterenol (isoprenaline) is a synthetic catecholamine used as sympathomimetic drug that stimulates β-adrenergic receptors and is widely used in biomedical research. Clinical studies have shown that isoproterenol is rapidly metabolized in the human body with a plasma half-life of about 2-5 min.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaternal separation (MS) stress is a predictive animal model for evaluating the effects of early stress exposure on alcohol use disorders (AUD). The extended amygdala (AMY) is a complex circuit involved in both stress- and ethanol-related responses. We hypothesized that MS stress may increase ethanol consumption in adulthood, as well as augment neuronal activity in extended AMY, in a sex-dependent manner.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous studies suggest that muscarinic cholinergic receptors might act upon the dopamine release in the mesolimbic system and alter drug-reinforcing values related to drug craving.
Aims: We examined the effects of systemic biperiden administration, a muscarinic cholinergic (M1/M4) receptor antagonist, on ethanol (dose of 2 g/Kg) conditioned place preference (CPP), neuronal activation, dopamine and its metabolites levels in the nucleus accumbens.
Methods: Thirty minutes before the ethanol-induced CPP test, mice received saline or biperiden at doses of 1.
In 2008-2018, 1458 georeferenced samples of clams and 343 of mussels were harvested in Italy from classified areas along Marche coast and analyzed within food-safety monitoring plans. Pb, Cd, V, Ni, Cr, and As median levels (mg kg) were 0.09, 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrug addiction is a chronic mental disorder characterized by frequent relapses. Contextual cues associated with drug use to play a critical causal role in drug-seeking behavior. The hippocampus has been implicated in encoding drug associative memories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Alcohol abuse is a health concern worldwide. Studies have associated alcohol abuse with cardiovascular impairments. In this study, we investigated differences in the effects of chronic alcohol vapor exposure on cardiovascular function between male and female rats by using the alcohol vapor chamber method to induce alcohol addiction-like behaviors in rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Burns Fire Disasters
December 2017
Scarring after a burn injury remains the greatest unmet challenge in the treatment of functional and psychosocial sequelae of burns. The hypertrophic scar represents the most common type of cicatrix after burns, and it has a prevalence of up to 70%. We present a case of upper and lower extremity partial-thickness burns in a female patient treated in two different modalities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The high rate of relapse to drug use remains a central challenge to treating drug addiction. In human and rat models of addiction, environmental stimuli in contexts associated with previous drug use can provoke a relapse of drug seeking. Pre-clinical studies have used the ABA renewal procedure to study context-induced reinstatement of drug seeking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychological stress has been associated with DNA damage, thus increasing the risk of numerous diseases including cancer. Here, we investigate the effect of acute and chronic stress on poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1), a sensor of DNA damage and DNA repair initiator. In order to mimic the chronic release of epinephrine, human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were treated repeatedly with the sympathomimetic drug isoproterenol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: in hemodialysis (HD) patients, poor health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) is prevalent and associated with adverse outcomes. HR-QoL is strictly linked to nutritional status of HD patients. Hemodiafiltration with endogenous reinfusion (HFR) is an alternative dialysis technique that combines diffusion, convection and absorption.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn mammals, biological rhythms synchronize physiological and behavioral processes to the 24-h light-dark (LD) cycle. At the molecular level, self-sustaining processes, such as oscillations of transcription-translation feedback loops, control the circadian clock, which in turn regulates a wide variety of cellular processes, including gene expression and cell cycle progression. Furthermore, previous studies reported circadian oscillations in the repair capacity of DNA lesions specifically repaired by nucleotide excision repair (NER).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Boi Cerbus lagoon, facing a mining and industrial site in Sardinia (Italy), is an important fishing area for the local population. Previous studies showed high concentrations of total arsenic (As) in fish, molluscs and crustaceans sampled in the lagoon, and a possible exceeding of the provisional tolerable weekly intake set by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives by some local consumer groups. However, the percentage of inorganic As (As) should be known for a correct assessment of potential risk, as its toxicity is much higher than that of the organic forms.
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