Human Exposure to Asbestos in Central Asian Countries and Health Effects: A Narrative Review.

The discovery of the detrimental effects of asbestos on human health came long after its widespread use, with the first scientific evidence of asbestos-related diseases emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite efforts to ban its use, asbestos continues to be mined and used in Central Asia (as well as in Russia, China, and other countries). To gain a deeper understanding of the situation in Central Asia, we have conducted a systematic review of scientific literature on the use of asbestos, exposure assessment, and health consequences of asbestos exposure in this geographic area.

Asbestos Burden in Lungs of Subjects Deceased From Mesothelioma Who Lived in Proximity to an Asbestos Factory: A Topographic Post-Mortem SEM-EDS Study.

Background: Asbestos exposure and its pathological consequences, especially malignant mesothelioma (MM) still represent a major public health problem on a global scale. After the ban of asbestos in most western countries, nonoccupational exposure plays an essential role in MM pathogenesis. However, few studies have quantified asbestos lung burden after environmental exposure.

Assessment of forensic medicine education impact on medical students' knowledge and specialisation attitudes: a multicenter analysis from Italian universities.

Introduction: This study aimed to assess students' knowledge, awareness, and attitudes regarding forensic-medicine concepts taught during a Medicine and Surgery degree program at eight Italian universities. Additionally, the study aimed to evaluate the impact of the course on students' knowledge and attitudes toward choosing medical residency.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted through an anonymous web-based survey of medical students at eight italian universities.

Accuracy of the Lombardy Mesothelioma Registry: comparison with the autopsy database of Pavia University (Lombardy Region, Northern Italy).

Objectives: to evaluate the accuracy (completeness of case recording and diagnostic quality) of the Lombardy Mesothelioma Registry (Registro Mesoteliomi Lombardia, RML) through a comparison with the autopsy database of Pavia University (years 2000-2016).

Design: validation study.

Setting And Participants: all mesothelioma records with incidence date between 01.

Deaths in jail: a retrospective analysis of autopsies performed at the Legal Medicine Unit of Pavia (1999-2022).

Introduction: The high rate of incarceration, now exceeding 11.5 million people worldwide, has raised concerns about the conditions within penal institutions, such as the consequences of incarceration on the person. This retrospective study aims to investigate the issue of death in custody, exploring the relationship between incarceration, health vulnerabilities, and death from the forensic pathologist's point of view.

Unraveling Novel Strategies in Mesothelioma Treatments Using a Newly Synthetized Platinum(IV) Compound.

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare tumor associated with asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma carcinogenesis is related to enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and iron overload. Despite the recent advances in biomedical sciences, to date the only available treatments include surgery in a small fraction of patients and platinum-based chemotherapy in combination with pemetrexed.

New perspectives on the role of biological factors in anorexia nervosa: Brain volume reduction or oxidative stress, which came first?

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder (ED) that has seen an increase in its incidence in the last thirty years. Compared to other psychosomatic disorders, ED can be responsible for many major medical complications, moreover, in addition to the various systemic impairments, patients with AN undergo morphological and physiological changes affecting the cerebral cortex. Through immunohistochemical studies on portions of postmortem human brain of people affected by AN and healthy individuals, and western blot studies on leucocytes of young patients and healthy controls, this study investigated the role in the afore-mentioned processes of altered redox state.

Asbestos burden in lungs of non-occupationally exposed women from Broni (Pavia, Italy): a postmortem SEM-EDS study.

Background: In Italy the incidence of malignant mesothelioma (MM) among women is remarkably high, due to the several contexts in which women had been exposed to asbestos. However, very few studies in literature focus on the inorganic lung content in women. The aim of this retrospective, observational study is to investigate the asbestos lung burden, in terms of concentration, dimensions and type of asbestos, in 42 women who died from MM and had been non-occupationally exposed to asbestos during the activity of the asbestos-cement plant located in Broni (Pavia, Northern Italy) where mainly chrysotile, crocidolite and amosite were used.

Asbestos burden in lungs of mesothelioma patients with pleural plaques, lung fibrosis and/or ferruginous bodies at histology: a postmortem SEM-EDS study.

The causal attribution of asbestos-related diseases to past asbestos exposures is of crucial importance in clinical and legal contexts. Often this evaluation is made based on the history of exposure, but this method presents important limitations. To assess past asbestos exposure, pleural plaques (PP), lung fibrosis and histological evidence of ferruginous bodies (FB) can be used in combination with anamnestic data.

A postmortem case control study of asbestos burden in lungs of malignant mesothelioma cases.

Background: Asbestos lung content is regarded as the most reliable tool for causal attribution of malignant mesothelioma (MM) to previous asbestos exposures. However, there is a lack of studies on asbestos burden in lungs of MM patients in comparison with healthy individuals. This study aims to provide such a comparison, investigating, as well, differences in asbestos lung burden with sex and time trends.

The role of single nucleotide polymorphisms related to iron homeostasis in mesothelioma susceptibility after asbestos exposure: a genetic study on autoptic samples.

Asbestos-related diseases still represent a major public health problem all over the world. Among them, malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a poor-prognosis cancer, arising from the serosal lining of the pleura, pericardium and peritoneum, triggered by asbestos exposure. Literature data suggest the key role of iron metabolism in the coating process leading to the formation of asbestos bodies, considered to be both protective and harmful.

COVID-19 and brain-heart-lung microbial fingerprints in Italian cadavers.

The fact that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that caused COVID-19, can translocate within days of infection to the brain and heart and that the virus can survive for months is well established. However, studies have not investigated the crosstalk between the brain, heart, and lungs regarding microbiota that simultaneously co-inhabit these organs during COVID-19 illness and subsequent death. Given the significant overlap of cause of death from or with SARS-CoV-2, we investigated the possibility of a microbial fingerprint regarding COVID-19 death.

A case of intrauterine fetal death related to furcate cord insertion: a brief review of the literature and professional liability considerations.

The furcate insertion of the umbilical cord is an uncommon abnormality, often asymptomatic, potentially dangerous, or lethal for the fetus and the mother. This report shows the case of a healthy 29-year-old patient, at 37 weeks of gestation, admitted to the hospital two days before the due date because of the appearance of uterine contractions; clinical exams were regular. The following day, no fetal movements were perceived, a cardiotocography was performed, showing the absence of fetal heartbeat.

COVID-19 Pathology in the Lung, Kidney, Heart and Brain: The Different Roles of T-Cells, Macrophages, and Microthrombosis.

Here, we aim to describe COVID-19 pathology across different tissues to clarify the disease's pathophysiology. Lungs, kidneys, hearts, and brains from nine COVID-19 autopsies were compared by using antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, macrophages-microglia, T-lymphocytes, B-lymphocytes, and activated platelets. Alzheimer's Disease pathology was also assessed.

Correlation between postmortem microbial signatures and substance abuse disorders.

The microbiota gut-brain-axis is a bidirectional circuit that links the neural, endocrine, and immunological systems with gut microbial communities. The gut microbiome plays significant roles in human mind and behavior, specifically pain perception, learning capacity, memory, and temperament. Studies have shown that disruptions in the gut microbiota have been associated with substance use disorders.

Reconstructing historical exposure to asbestos: the validation of 'educated guesses'.

Background: In both the epidemiological and legal context, the causal attribution of asbestos-related lung diseases requires retrospective exposure assessment (REA).

Aims: To assess the correlation between the retrospective assessment of occupational and anthropogenic environmental exposure to asbestos and its content in the lung tissue.

Methods: Based on the available exposure information, a team of occupational physicians retrospectively assessed cumulative exposure to asbestos in 24 subjects who died of asbestos-related diseases.

Aging of Pelvic Floor in Animal Models: A Sistematic Review of Literature on the Role of the Extracellular Matrix in the Development of Pelvic Floor Prolapse.

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) affects many women and contributes significantly to a decrease in their quality of life causing urinary and/or fecal incontinence, sexual dysfunction and dyspareunia. To better understand POP pathophysiology, prevention and treatment, many researchers resorted to evaluating animal models. Regarding this example and because POP affects principally older women, our aim was to provide an overview of literature on the possible biomechanical changes that occur in the vaginas of animal models and their supportive structures as a consequence of aging.

Genetic individual identification from dried urine spots: A complementary tool to drug monitoring and anti-doping testing.

The collection of liquid biological matrices onto paper cards (dried matrix spots [DMS]) is becoming an alternative sampling strategy. The stability over time of molecules of interest for therapeutic, sport drug monitoring, and forensic toxicology on DMS has been recently investigated representing a reliable alternative to conventional analytical techniques. When a tampering of a urine sample in drug monitoring or doping control cases is suspected, it could be relevant to know whether genetic profiles useful for individual identification could be generated from urine samples spotted onto paper (dried urine spot [DUS]).

The transcriptional profile of adipose-derived stromal cells (ASC) mirrors the whitening of adipose tissue with age.

Multipotent stem cells persist within the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of adipose tissue during adulthood. These cells, commonly referred to as adipose-derived stromal cells (ASC), have been extensively investigated over the past years as a promising therapeutic tool based on their regenerative and immunomodulatory properties. However, how ASC might mirror the age-related alteration of the fat they reside in remains unclear.

COVID-19 patients and Dementia: Frontal cortex transcriptomic data.

Since the association of SARS-Cov-2 infection with Nervous System (NS) manifestations, we performed RNA-sequencing analysis in Frontal Cortex of COVID-19 positive or negative individuals and affected or not by Dementia individuals. We examined gene expression differences in individuals with COVID-19 and Dementia compared to Dementia only patients by collecting transcript counts in each sample and performing Differential Expression analysis. We found eleven genes satisfying our significance criteria, all of them being protein coding genes.

Evaluation of Deposition and Clearance of Asbestos (Detected by SEM-EDS) in Lungs of Deceased Subjects Environmentally and/or Occupationally Exposed in Broni (Pavia, Northern Italy).

Biodurability is one of the main determinants of asbestos hazardousness for human health. Very little is known about the actual persistence of asbestos in lungs and its clearance, nor about differences in this regard between the different mineralogical types of asbestos. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the amount, the dimensional characteristics and the mineralogic kinds of asbestos in lungs (measured using SEM-EDS) of a series of 72 deceased subjects who were certainly exposed to asbestos (mainly crocidolite and chrysotile) during their life.

Reply to Mirabelli et al. Is Mesothelioma Unrelated to the Lung Asbestos Burden? Comment on "Visonà et al. Inorganic Fiber Lung Burden in Subjects with Occupational and/or Anthropogenic Environmental Asbestos Exposure in Broni (Pavia, Northern Italy): An SEM-EDS Study on Autoptic Samples. 2021, , 2053".

We appreciate very much the interest of Mirabelli et al. [..

COVID-19-related neuropathology and microglial activation in elderly with and without dementia.

The actual role of SARS-CoV-2 in brain damage remains controversial due to lack of matched controls. We aim to highlight to what extent is neuropathology determined by SARS-CoV-2 or by pre-existing conditions. Findings of 9 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and 6 matched non-COVID controls (mean age 79 y/o) were compared.

Interferon regulatory factor 7 impairs cellular metabolism in aging adipose-derived stromal cells.

Dysregulated immunity and widespread metabolic dysfunctions are the most relevant hallmarks of the passing of time over the course of adult life, and their combination at midlife is strongly related to increased vulnerability to diseases; however, the causal connection between them remains largely unclear. By combining multi-omics and functional analyses of adipose-derived stromal cells established from young (1 month) and midlife (12 months) mice, we show that an increase in expression of interferon regulatory factor 7 (IRF7) during adult life drives major metabolic changes, which include impaired mitochondrial function, altered amino acid biogenesis and reduced expression of genes involved in branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) degradation. Our results draw a new paradigm of aging as the 'sterile' activation of a cell-autonomous pathway of self-defense and identify a crucial mediator of this pathway, IRF7, as driver of metabolic dysfunction with age.

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 genome and whole transcriptome sequencing in frontal cortex of COVID-19 patients.

SARS-Cov-2 infection is frequently associated with Nervous System manifestations. However, it is not clear how SARS-CoV-2 can cause neurological dysfunctions and which molecular processes are affected in the brain. In this work, we examined the frontal cortex tissue of patients who died of COVID-19 for the presence of SARS-CoV-2, comparing qRT-PCR with ddPCR.