Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
July 2023
People with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience gait impairment that can lead to falls and poor quality of life. Here we investigate the feasibility of using smart socks to stimulate the lower limbs of people with PD to reduce excessive step time variability during walking. We hypothesised that rythmic excitation of lower limb afferents, matched to a participant's comfortable pace, would entrain deficient neuro-muscular signals resulting in improved gait.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince infrared reflectography was first applied in the 1960s to visualize the underdrawings of ancient paintings, several devices and scanning techniques were successfully proposed both as prototypes and commercial instruments. In fact, because of the sensors' small dimension, typically ranging from 0.1 to 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A critical factor in healing diabetic foot ulcers is patient adherence to offloading devices. We tested a smart offloading boot (SmartBoot) combined with a smartwatch app and cloud dashboard to remotely monitor patient adherence and activity. In addition, the impact of SmartBoot on balance, gait, and user experience was investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of women of reproductive age. Small bowel (SB) permeability and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) could play a role in the perduration of low grade inflammation status and the pathogenesis of endometriosis. To clarify this hypothesis, we measured SB permeability through plasma values of LPS and urinary secretion of lactulose (La), mannitol (Ma) and their ratio (L/M) in patients with endometriosis compared with healthy controls (HC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIrritable bowel syndrome and endometriosis are two diseases affecting a significant part of the female population, either together or individually, with remarkable consequences in the quality of life. Several studies suggest an epidemiological association between them. Their association may not be just an epidemiological phenomenon, but the manifestation of a pathophysiological correlation, which probably generates a mutual promotion phenomenon.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Diabetes Sci Technol
September 2017
Background: The lifetime risk of developing a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is at least 25%. A DFU carries a 50% risk for infection and at least 20% of those receive some form of amputation. The most significant parameter that prevents or delays ulcer healing is high plantar pressure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGastroenterol Hepatol Bed Bench
July 2016
Celiac disease is characterized by a gluten-induced damage of the small bowel in sensitive individuals that may cause malabsorption. Non-intestinal inflammatory diseases may trigger immunologic gluten intolerance in susceptible people and the HCV virus may be considered as a suitable candidate. Interferon therapy could precipitate symptom onset in subjects with silent celiac disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the standard of care for the treatment of patients with an intermediate (Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer [BCLC] B) hepatocellular carcinoma and to bridge patients with an early cancer to liver transplantation (LT). We explored the efficacy of TACE with drug-eluting beads (DEB) in BCLC A patients. Included are all BCLC A patients unsuitable for resection or locoregional ablation who underwent a DEB TACE between 2006 and 2012.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work we investigated the ability of AM251 to reverse schizophrenia-like symptoms produced by a neurodevelopmental animal model based on a social isolation procedure. First, we assessed the validity of our isolation-rearing protocol and, as expected, isolation-reared rats showed hyperlocomotion in a novel environment, cognitive impairment in the novel object recognition (NOR) test and a significant increase in the number of aggressive behaviours in the social interaction test compared to group-housed controls. This behavioural picture was associated with a reduction in CB₁ receptor/G protein coupling in specific brain areas as well as reduced c-Fos immunoreactivity in the prefrontal cortex and caudate putamen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have recently shown that chronic THC administration in adolescent female rats induces subtle but lasting alterations in the emotional circuit ending in depressive-like behaviour at adulthood. Here we describe other relevant depressive-like symptoms present in these animals. Adult female rats pretreated with THC display passive coping strategy towards acute stressful situations as demonstrated by their behaviours in the first session of the forced swim test, develop a profound anhedonic state as demonstrated by the reduced consumption of palatable food and present a decrease in social functioning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present review summarizes the latest information on the role and the pharmacological modulation of the endocannabinoid system in mood disorders and its potential implication in psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Reduced functionality might be considered a predisposing factor for major depression, so boosting endocannabinoid tone might be a useful alternative therapeutic approach for depressive disorders. The picture regarding endocannabinoids and anxiety is more complicated since either too much or too little anandamide can lead to anxiety states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClinical and laboratory studies suggest that the endocannabinoid system is involved in schizophrenia disorders. Recent evidence indicates that cannabinoid receptor (CB1) antagonists have a pharmacological profile similar to antipsychotic drugs. We investigated the behavioural and biochemical effects of the CB1 antagonist AM251 in a phencyclidine (PCP) animal paradigm modelling the cognitive deficit and some negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Drug Targets
April 2010
Recently, the presence of functional interaction between the opioid and cannabinoid system has been shown in various pharmacological responses. Although there is an increasing interest for the feasible therapeutic application of a co-administration of cannabinoids and opioids in some disorders (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Drugs targeting brain kappa-opioid receptors produce profound alterations in mood. In the present study we investigated the possible anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects of the kappa-opioid receptor agonist salvinorin A, the main active ingredient of Salvia divinorum, in rats and mice.
Experimental Approach: Experiments were performed on male Sprague-Dawley rats or male Albino Swiss mice.
We recently demonstrated that Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) chronic administration in female adolescent rats induces alterations in the emotional circuit ending in depressive-like behavior in adulthood. Since cognitive dysfunction is a major component of depression, we assessed in these animals at adulthood different forms of memory. Adolescent female rats were treated with THC or its vehicle from 35 to 45 post-natal days (PND) and left undisturbed until their adulthood (75 PND) when aversive and spatial memory was assessed using the passive avoidance and radial maze tasks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are pollutants detected in animal tissues and breast milk. The experiments described in the present paper were aimed at evaluating whether the four PCB congeners most abundant in animal tissues (PCB-138, -153, -180 and -126), administered since fetal life till weaning, can induce long-term alterations of GH-axis activity and bone mass in the adult rat. We measured PCB accumulation in rat brain and liver, somatic growth, pituitary GH expression and plasma hormone concentrations at different ages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMarijuana and hashish are the illicit drugs most frequently used by human adolescents. Given the continued neurodevelopment throughout adolescence, adolescents may be more vulnerable than adults to certain neural consequences of heavy marijuana use. This study aimed to assess whether an experimental model of adolescent chronic exposure to Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), may induce lasting effects on learning and memory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent advances in the neurobiology of cannabinoids have renewed interest in the association between cannabis and schizophrenia. Our studies showed that chronic-intermittent phencyclidine (PCP) treatment of rats, an animal model of schizophrenia-like cognitive deficit, impaired recognition memory in the novel object recognition (NOR) test and induced alterations in CB1 receptor functionality and in endocannabinoid levels mainly in the prefrontal cortex. In this region, we observed a significant reduction in GTPgammaS binding (-41%) accompanied by an increase in the levels of the endocannabinoid 2-AG (+38%) in PCP-treated rats, suggesting that a maladaptation of the endocannabinoid system might contribute to the glutamatergic-related cognitive symptoms encountered in schizophrenia disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFew and often contradictory reports exist on the long-term neurobiological consequences of cannabinoid consumption in adolescents. The endocannabinoid system plays an important role during the different stages of brain development as cannabinoids influence the release and action of different neurotransmitters and promote neurogenesis. This study tested whether long-lasting interference by cannabinoids with the developing endogenous cannabinoid system during adolescence caused persistent behavioral alterations in adult rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis review will discuss the latest knowledge of how the endocannabinoid system might be involved in treating addiction to the most common illicit drugs. Experimental models are providing increasing evidence for the pharmacological management of endocannabinoid signaling not only to block the direct reinforcing effects of cannabis, opioids, nicotine and ethanol, but also for preventing relapse to the various drugs of abuse, including opioids, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol and metamphetamine. Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that the endocannabinoid system can be manipulated by the CB1 receptor antagonist SR141716A, that might constitute a new generation of compounds for treating addiction across different classes of abused drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the present study we explored with a multidisciplinary approach, the role of anandamide (AEA) in the modulation of anxiety behavior at the level of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Low doses of the metabolically stable AEA analog, methanandamide, microinjected into the PFC, produced an anxiolytic-like response in rats, whereas higher doses induced anxiety-like behaviors. Pretreatment with the selective antagonist of CB1 or TRPV1 receptors (AM251 and capsazepine, respectively) suggested that the anxiolytic effect evoked by AEA might be due to the interaction with the CB1 cannabinoid receptor, whereas vanilloid receptors seem to be involved in AEA anxiogenic action.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is a general consensus that the effects of cannabinoid agonists on anxiety seem to be biphasic, with low doses being anxiolytic and high doses ineffective or possibly anxiogenic. Besides the behavioural effects of cannabinoids on anxiety, very few papers have dealt with the neuroanatomical sites of these effects. We investigated the effect on rat anxiety behavior of local administration of THC in the prefrontal cortex, basolateral amygdala and ventral hippocampus, brain regions belonging to the emotional circuit and containing high levels of CB1 receptors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study examines the effect of intravenous self-administration (SA) of either heroin or the cannabinoid receptor agonist WIN 55,212-2 on levels and functionality of mu-opioid (MOR) and CB1-cannabinoid receptors (CB1R) in reward-related brain areas, such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus accumbens (NAc), caudate putamen (CP), hippocampus (Hippo), amygdala (Amy), hypothalamus (Hypo) and ventral tegmental area (VTA). [3H]DAMGO and [3H]CP-55,940 autoradiography and agonist-stimulated [35S]GTPgammaS binding were performed on brain sections of rats firmly self-administering heroin or WIN 55,212-2. Animals failing to acquire heroin or cannabinoid SA behaviour as well as drug-naïve animals never exposed to experimental apparatus or procedure (home-control group) were used as controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated the effect of low doses of intraperitoneal Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on anxiety behavior in rats using the elevated plus maze (EPM). An anxiolytic effect was obtained in a range of doses between 0.075 and 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe focus of our study was to determine the role of G protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRKs) and beta-arrestins in agonist-induced CB1 receptor modulation during cannabinoid tolerance and their dependence from the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) cascade. In wild-type mice, chronic Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) exposure significantly activated specific GRK and beta- arrestin subunits in all the considered brain areas (striatum, cerebellum, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex), suggesting their involvement in the adaptive processes underlying CB1 receptor downregulation and desensitization. These events were ERK-dependent in the striatum and cerebellum, because they were prevented in the genetic (Ras-GRF1 knockout mice) and pharmacological (SL327-pretreated mice) models of ERK activation inhibition, whereas in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, they appeared to be mostly ERK-independent.
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