Genetic variability of and its targets and in frontotemporal dementia: A pilot study in a southern Italian population.

The Forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) is an evolutionary conserved transcription factor involved in the maintenance of neuronal networks, implicated in language disorders. Some evidence suggests a possible link between genetic variability and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) pathology and related endophenotypes. To shed light on this issue, we analysed the association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in and FTD in 113 patients and 223 healthy controls.

The Shortening of Leukocyte Telomere Length Contributes to Alzheimer's Disease: Further Evidence from Late-Onset Familial and Sporadic Cases.

Telomeres are structures at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes that help maintain genomic stability. During aging, telomere length gradually shortens, producing short telomeres, which are markers of premature cellular senescence. This may contribute to age-related diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), and based on this, several studies have hypothesized that telomere shortening may characterize AD.

Sex- and APOE-specific genetic risk factors for late-onset Alzheimer's disease: Evidence from gene-gene interaction of longevity-related loci.

Advanced age is the largest risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), a disease in which susceptibility correlates to almost all hallmarks of aging. Shared genetic signatures between LOAD and longevity were frequently hypothesized, likely characterized by distinctive epistatic and pleiotropic interactions. Here, we applied a multidimensional reduction approach to detect gene-gene interactions affecting LOAD in a large dataset of genomic variants harbored by genes in the insulin/IGF1 signaling, DNA repair, and oxidative stress pathways, previously investigated in human longevity.

Epigenetic-Based Regulation of Transcriptome in Escherichia coli Adaptive Antibiotic Resistance.

Adaptive antibiotic resistance is a transient metabolic adaptation of bacteria limiting their sensitivity to low, progressively increased, concentrations of antibiotics. Unlike innate and acquired resistance, adaptive resistance is dependent on the presence of antibiotics, and it disappears when the triggering factor is removed. Low concentrations of antibiotics are largely diffused in natural environments, in the food industry or in certain body compartments of humans when used therapeutically, or in animals when used for growth promotion.

Ketogenic diet ameliorates autism spectrum disorders-like behaviors via reduced inflammatory factors and microbiota remodeling in BTBR T Itpr3/J mice.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is increasing, but its complete etiology is still lacking. Recently, application of ketogenic diet (KD) has shown to reduce abnormal behaviors while improving psychological/sociological status in neurodegenerative diseases. However, KD role on ASD and underlying mechanism remains unknown.

Modulation of Gut Microbiota through Low-Calorie and Two-Phase Diets in Obese Individuals.

Different nutritional regimens have been reported to exert beneficial effects on obesity through the regulation of the composition and function of gut microbiota. In this context, we conducted in obese subjects two dietary interventions consisting of a low-calorie and two-phase (ketogenic plus low-calorie) diet for 8 weeks. Anthropometric and clinical parameters were evaluated at baseline and following the two diets, and gut microbiota composition was assessed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing.

Cognitive Cameras on the Edge for Crowd Physical Distancing Monitoring in the Covid-19 Era.

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) architectures and protocols, new video analytics systems and surveillance applications have been developed. In conventional systems, all the streams produced by cameras are sent to a centralized node where they can be seen by human operators whose task is to identify uncommon on abnormal situations. However, this way, much bandwidth is necessary for the system to work, and the number of necessary resources is proportional to the number of cameras and streams involved.

Automatic Stones Classification through a CNN-Based Approach.

This paper presents an automatic recognition system for classifying stones belonging to different Calabrian quarries (Southern Italy). The tool for stone recognition has been developed in the SILPI project (acronym of ""), financed by POR Calabria FESR-FSE 2014-2020. Our study is based on the (CNNs) that is used in literature for many different tasks such as speech recognition, neural language processing, bioinformatics, image classification and much more.

Impact of Nutrition on Age-Related Epigenetic RNA Modifications in Rats.

Nutrition plastically modulates the epigenetic landscape in various tissues of an organism during life via epigenetic changes. In the present study, to clarify whether this modulation involves RNA methylation, we evaluated global RNA methylation profiles and the expression of writer, reader, and eraser genes, encoding for enzymes involved in the RNA methylation. The study was carried out in the heart, liver, and kidney samples from rats of different ages in response to a low-calorie diet.

SCARE: A Novel Switching and Collision Avoidance pRocEss for Connected Vehicles Using Virtualization and Edge Computing Paradigm.

In this paper, some collision avoidance systems based on MEC in a VANET environment are proposed and investigated. Micro services at edge are considered to support service continuity in vehicle communication and advertising. This considered system makes use of cloud and edge computing, allowing to switch communication from edge to cloud server and vice versa when possible, trying to guarantee the required constraints and balancing the communication among the servers.

A Proposal of a Troposphere Model in a GNSS Simulator for VANET Applications.

Vehicle positioning is becoming an important issue related to Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs). Novel vehicles and autonomous vehicles need to be localized under different weather conditions and it is important to have a reliable positioning system to track vehicles. Satellite navigation systems can be a key technology in providing global coverage and providing localization services through many satellite constellations such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and so forth.

Pediatric Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Is Affected by Genetic Variants Involved in Lifespan/Healthspan.

Objectives: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease in both adults and children. Along with obesity and metabolic syndrome, genetic predisposition influences the progression of NAFLD. Here, we investigated the effect of lifespan/healthspan-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on metabolically associated fatty liver disease in children.

IP6K3 and IPMK variations in LOAD and longevity: Evidence for a multifaceted signaling network at the crossroad between neurodegeneration and survival.

Several studies reported that genetic variants predisposing to neurodegeneration were at higher frequencies in centenarians than in younger controls, suggesting they might favor also longevity. IP6K3 and IPMK regulate many crucial biological functions by mediating synthesis of inositol poly- and pyrophosphates and by acting non-enzymatically via protein-protein interactions. Our previous studies suggested they affect Late Onset Alzheimer Disease (LOAD) and longevity, respectively.

Telomere length as a function of age at population level parallels human survival curves.

Telomeres are subject to age related shortening which can be accelerated by oxidative stress and inflammation. Many studies have reported an inverse correlation between telomere length and survival, but such inverse correlation has not been always confirmed in different populations. We analyzed the trend of Leukocyte Telomere Length (LTL) as a function of age in a cohort of 516 subjects aged 65-106 years from Southern Italy.

Thyroid hormones and frailty in persons experiencing extreme longevity.

Context: The aging phenotype is quite heterogeneous, being the result of the capability of each individual to successfully or unsuccessfully response to stressors. The reduction of homeostatic reserve characterizing aging is accompanied by a remodeling of the endocrine system. Frailty has been indicated as a promising way for capturing the physiological decline as well as the biological aging of the individuals.

Erratum: Multi-Tissue DNA Methylation Remodeling at Mitochondrial Quality Control Genes According to Diet in Rat Aging Models.

The Nutrients Editorial Office would like to update the error in the original published version [...

Gut Microbiota as Important Mediator Between Diet and DNA Methylation and Histone Modifications in the Host.

The human gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem consisting of trillions of microorganisms that inhabit symbiotically on and in the human intestine. They carry out, through the production of a series of metabolites, many important metabolic functions that complement the activity of mammalian enzymes and play an essential role in host digestion. Interindividual variability of microbiota structure, and consequently of the expression of its genes (microbiome), was largely ascribed to the nutritional regime.

Multi-Tissue DNA Methylation Remodeling at Mitochondrial Quality Control Genes According to Diet in Rat Aging Models.

An adequate mitochondrial quality control system ensures the maintenance of a healthy mitochondrial pool so as to slow down the progressive accumulation of damage affecting mitochondrial function during aging and diseases. The amount and quality of nutrients availability were demonstrated to induce a process of bioenergetics adaptation by influencing the above system via epigenetic modifications. Here, we analyzed DNA samples from differently-aged rats fed a standard or low-calorie diet to evaluate tissue-specific changes in DNA methylation of CpG sites falling within , , , , and genes.

LAV-BPIFB4 associates with reduced frailty in humans and its transfer prevents frailty progression in old mice.

Background: There is an increasing concern about age-related frailty because of the growing number of elderly people in the general population. The Longevity-Associated Variant (LAV) of the human gene was found to correct endothelial dysfunction, one of the mechanisms underlying frailty, in aging mice whereas the variant induced opposite effects. Thus, we newly hypothesize that, besides being associated with life expectancy, polymorphisms can predict frailty.

An IoT Surveillance System Based on a Decentralised Architecture.

In the last few years, we witnessed numerous episodes of terrorist attacks and menaces in public crowded places. The necessity of better surveillance in these places pushed the development of new automated solutions to spot and notify possible menaces as fast as possible. In this work, we propose a novel approach to create a decentralized architecture to manage patrolling drones and cameras exploiting lightweight protocols used in the internet of things (IoT) domain.

Epigenetic signature: implications for mitochondrial quality control in human aging.

Maintenance of functional mitochondria is essential to prevent damage leading to aging and diseases. What is more, the research of biomarkers of aging is focusing on better predicting functional capability along the lifetime beyond chronological age. Aim of this study was to identify novel CpG sites the methylation of which might be correlated to the chronological and biological age.

Inositol Polyphosphate Multikinase (), a Gene Coding for a Potential Moonlighting Protein, Contributes to Human Female Longevity.

Biogerontological research highlighted a complex and dynamic connection between aging, health and longevity, partially determined by genetic factors. Multifunctional proteins with moonlighting features, by integrating different cellular activities in the space and time, may explain part of this complexity. Inositol Polyphosphate Multikinase (IPMK) is a potential moonlighting protein performing multiple unrelated functions.

Heterogeneity of Thyroid Function and Impact of Peripheral Thyroxine Deiodination in Centenarians and Semi-Supercentenarians: Association With Functional Status and Mortality.

Thyroid hormones (FT3, FT4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) were evaluated in a population of 672 well-characterized Italian subjects (age range: 52-113 years), including an unprecedented number of centenarians, semi-supercentenarians, as well as centenarian's offspring and age-matched elderly (CENT, 105+, CENTOFF, and CTRL, respectively). The results show that FT3 level and FT3/FT4 ratio decrease while FT4 and TSH increase in an age-dependent manner. In CENT/105+, higher FT4 level, and lower FT3/FT4 ratio are associated with an impaired functional status and an increased mortality.