Publications by authors named "Torrisi S"

Article Synopsis
  • Chronic low back pain (cLBP) often leads to avoidance or distraction strategies, but the Mind Your Pain (MyP) app shows promise as a mind-body intervention for relief.
  • A study with 29 participants assessed the app's effectiveness over 8 weeks, finding significant reductions in pain using the Pain, Enjoyment of Life and General Activity Scale (PEG).
  • Results indicated that participants who responded well to MyP displayed increased activation in specific brain areas related to pain, suggesting potential neural biomarkers for cLBP management through mind-body approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Dopamine D3 receptors (D3Rs) play a key role in modulating brain activity, particularly in the hippocampus, which is crucial for memory and learning.
  • Blocking or removing D3Rs in mice enhances synaptic activity and improves long-term memory formation by strengthening synaptic connections through the cAMP/PKA signaling pathway.
  • In aged mice, D3Rs show a decline in axon terminals but remain stable in dendrites, and blocking these receptors can reverse memory and synaptic deficits, highlighting their potential as a target for treating cognitive decline in older individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Exploratory synthesis has been the main generator of new inorganic materials for decades. However, our Edisonian and bias-prone processes of synthetic exploration alone are no longer sufficient in an age that demands rapid advances in materials development. In this work, we demonstrate an end-to-end attempt towards systematic, computer-aided discovery and laboratory synthesis of inorganic crystalline compounds as a modern alternative to purely exploratory synthesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder affecting the elderly population worldwide. Due to the multifactorial nature of the disease, involving impairment of cholinergic neurotransmission and immune system, previous attempts to find effective treatments have faced challenges. In such scenario, we attempted to investigate the effects of alpha-glyceryl-phosphoryl-choline (α-GPC), a cholinomimetic molecule, on neuroinflammation and memory outcome in the triple transgenic mouse model of AD (3xTg-AD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Forming a hetero-interface is a materials-design strategy that can access an astronomically large phase space. However, the immense phase space necessitates a high-throughput approach for an optimal interface design. Here we introduce a high-throughput computational framework, InterMatch, for efficiently predicting charge transfer, strain, and superlattice structure of an interface by leveraging the databases of individual bulk materials.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) acquired using echo planar sequences typically suffer from spatial distortions due to susceptibility induced off-resonance fields, which may cause geometric mismatch with structural images and affect subsequent quantification and localization of brain function. State-of-the art distortion correction methods (for example, using FSL's topup or AFNI's 3dQwarp algorithms) require the collection of additional scans - either field maps or images with reverse phase encoding directions (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Several studies have consistently reported a detrimental effect of chronic stress on recognition memory. However, the effects of acute stress on this cognitive ability have been poorly investigated. Moreover, despite well-documented sex differences in recognition memory observed in clinical studies, most of the preclinical studies in this field of research have been carried out by using solely male rodents.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia poses ongoing challenges, but studies suggest that the interaction between dysbindin (DYS) and dopamine receptor D3 may enhance cognitive function.
  • Research shows that NMDA receptors and the neurotrophin BDNF might play a crucial role in the complex network affected by this D3/DYS relationship, particularly in brain areas linked to schizophrenia.
  • Insights from mutant mice indicate that these interactions can influence gene expression related to neuroplasticity and inflammation, potentially uncovering new genetic mechanisms linked to the development of schizophrenia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Computational models of associative learning posit that negative prediction errors (PEs) arising from the omission of aversive outcomes weaken aversive Pavlovian associations during differential conditioning and extinction. It is possible that negative PEs may underlie exaggerated conditioned responses to the conditioned stimulus not paired with an aversitve outcome (CS-) during differential conditioning and to the conditioned stimulus originally paired with a aversive outcome (CS+) during extinction in patients with clinical anxiety disorders. Although previous research has demonstrated that manipulations of the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) interfere with extinction learning in animals, the role of the PAG in processing negative PEs within the human brain is presently unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Emerging evidence suggests that diets rich in plant-based foods and beverages may exert plausible effects on human health tackling the risk of chronic diseases. Although the data are promising for numerous outcomes, including cardiovascular diseases, the data on mental health are limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between individual polyphenol-rich beverages intake and mental health outcomes, such as perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and sleep quality, among adult individuals living in the Mediterranean area.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Stressful experiences early in life, especially in the prenatal period, can increase the risk to develop depression during adolescence. However, there may be important qualitative and quantitative differences in outcome of prenatal stress (PNS), where some individuals exposed to PNS are vulnerable and develop a depressive-like phenotype, while others appear to be resilient. PNS exposure, a well-established rat model of early life stress, is known to increase vulnerability to depression and a recent study demonstrated a strong interaction between transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) gene and PNS in the pathogenesis of depression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Biliary drainage with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) for tumoral jaundice fails in a certain percentage of patients. In these patients, endoscopic ultrasonography-guided lumen-apposing metal stents (LAMS) with electrocautery-enhanced (ECE) technology allows a single-step, radiation-free palliative treatment.

Methods: We reviewed the data of patients who underwent choledochoduodenostomy with placement of ECE-LAMS (Hot-SPAXUS stent) after ERCP failure in a single tertiary center.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mounting evidence suggests a link between gut microbiota abnormalities and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, whether and how the gut microbiota influences PTSD susceptibility is poorly understood. Here using the arousal-based individual screening model, we provide evidence for pre-trauma and post-trauma gut microbiota alterations in susceptible mice exhibiting persistent PTSD-related phenotypes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objective: The optimal management of unclassifiable Interstitial lung disease (ILD) remains a challenge. The aim of this study was to describe pulmonary function trajectories for patients treated with immunomodulatory therapy and for untreated patients.

Methods: Clinical information and treatment data were obtained retrospectively at two ILD centres.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Intestinal cell dysfunctions involved in obesity and associated diabetes could be correlated with impaired intestinal cell development. To date, the molecular mechanisms underlying these dysfunctions have been poorly investigated because of the lack of a good model for studying obesity. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effects of lipotoxicity on intestinal cell differentiation in small intestinal organoid platforms, which are used to analyze the regulation of cell differentiation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study clinically and histologically evaluated the new bone formation and soft tissue changes when an autogenous tooth-derived mineralized dentin matrix (DDM) graft covered with a free gingival graft (FGG) was used for alveolar ridge preservation, as compared to spontaneous healing. Using a split-mouth protocol, 14 consecutive patients who required two extractions of a single-rooted tooth in the maxillary arch were enrolled. In each patient, one extraction site was treated with DDM and FGG (test group), while the other extraction site was covered with FGG and healed spontaneously (control group).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this study, it was found that myositis-specific and myositis-associated antibodies (MSAs and MAAs) improved the recognition of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) in interstitial lung disease (ILD) patients. The objective of this study is to propose a clinical method to evaluate myalgia in respiratory settings as a possible tool for the recognition of MSA/MAA positivity in ILD patients. We prospectively enrolled 167 ILD patients with suspected myositis, of which 63 had myalgia evoked at specific points (M+ILD+).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The dopamine D3 receptor (D3R) is key in managing cognitive functions in both healthy individuals and those with neuropsychiatric disorders.
  • Blocking the D3R has shown promise in improving cognitive performance, but not all approaches targeting this receptor are effective since some can act as partial agonists that also help maintain dopamine levels.
  • The chapter explores various studies to emphasize the importance of D3R in cognition and suggests that drugs targeting this receptor could be effective treatments for cognitive issues in various disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Since late December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has spread across the world, which resulted in the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) presents a highly variable spectrum with regard to the severity of illness. Most infected individuals exhibit a mild to moderate illness (81%); however, 14% have a serious disease and 5% develop severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), requiring intensive care support.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Generally, anxiety is thought to impair ongoing cognitive operations. Surprisingly, however, anxiety has been shown to improve performance during the Go/NoGo task. Understanding how anxiety can facilitate task performance may shed light on avenues to address the cognitive deficits commonly associated with anxiety.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: The classification interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF) includes patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) associated with autoimmune characteristics insufficient to reach classification criteria for a specific autoimmune disease (SAD). These criteria are divided into three domains: clinical, serological and morphological. The latter domain does not include the usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern, which is deemed not to be significantly associated with SAD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF