Oral D-Aspartate enhances synaptic plasticity reserve in progressive multiple sclerosis.

Background: Synaptic plasticity reserve correlates with clinical recovery after a relapse in relapsing-remitting forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) and is significantly compromised in patients with progressive forms of MS. These findings suggest that progression of disability in MS is linked to reduced synaptic plasticity reserve. D-Aspartate, an endogenous aminoacid approved for the use in humans as a dietary supplement, enhances synaptic plasticity in mice.

Is Shouldice the best NON-MESH inguinal hernia repair technique? A systematic review and network metanalysis of randomized controlled trials comparing Shouldice and Desarda.

Background: Current guidelines state that the Shouldice technique has lower recurrence rates than other suture repairs and therefore is strongly recommended in non-mesh inguinal hernia repair. Recently a new tissue repair technique has been proposed by Desarda and studied in trials against Lichtenstein technique.

Methods: The present study was performed according to the PRISMA Statement for Network Meta-analysis and the AMSTAR 2 checklist.

Cognitive and neurobehavioral benefits of an enriched environment on young adult mice after chronic ethanol consumption during adolescence.

Binge drinking (BD) is a common pattern of ethanol (EtOH) consumption by adolescents. The brain effects of the acute EtOH exposure are well-studied; however, the long-lasting cognitive and neurobehavioral consequences of BD during adolescence are only beginning to be elucidated. Environmental enrichment (EE) has long been known for its benefits on the brain and may serve as a potential supportive therapy following EtOH exposure.

Are ultra-short heart rate variability features good surrogates of short-term ones? State-of-the-art review and recommendations.

Ultra-short heart rate variability (HRV) analysis refers to the study of HRV features in excerpts of length <5 min. Ultra-short HRV is widely growing in many healthcare applications for monitoring individual's health and well-being status, especially in combination with wearable sensors, mobile phones, and smart-watches. Long-term (nominally 24 h) and short-term (nominally 5 min) HRV features have been widely investigated, physiologically justified and clear guidelines for analysing HRV in 5 min or 24 h are available.

Structural connectome with high angular resolution diffusion imaging MRI: assessing the impact of diffusion weighting and sampling on graph-theoretic measures.

Purpose: Advances in computational network analysis have enabled the characterization of topological properties of human brain networks (connectomics) from high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) MRI structural measurements. In this study, the effect of changing the diffusion weighting (b value) and sampling (number of gradient directions) was investigated in ten healthy volunteers, with specific focus on graph theoretical network metrics used to characterize the human connectome.

Methods: Probabilistic tractography based on the Q-ball reconstruction of HARDI MRI measurements was performed and structural connections between all pairs of regions from the automated anatomical labeling (AAL) atlas were estimated, to compare two HARDI schemes: low b value (b = 1000) and low direction number (n = 32) (LBLD); high b value (b = 3000) and high number (n = 54) of directions (HBHD).

Celecoxib Prevents Cognitive Impairment and Neuroinflammation in Soluble Amyloid β-treated Rats.

Recent findings suggest that soluble forms of amyloid-β (sAβ) peptide contribute to synaptic and cognitive dysfunctions in early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). On the other hand, neuroinflammation and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme have gained increased interest as key factors involved early in AD, although the signaling pathways and pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying a link between sAβ-induced neurotoxicity and inflammation are still unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of selective COX-2 enzyme inhibition on neuropathological alterations induced by sAβ administration in rats.

Anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic and anti-invasive effect of EC/EV system in human osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma is the most common and aggressive bone tumor in children. The Endocannabinoid/Endovanilloid system has been proposed as anticancer target in tumor of different origins. This system is composed of two receptors (CB1 and CB2), the Transient Potential Vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) channel and their ligands and enzymes.

Early evidence for a virus-like agent infecting the pest snail Theba pisana (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) in Southern Italy.

The Mediterranean land snail Theba pisana (Mollusca: Helicidae) is an introduced agricultural pest in many countries around the world, including Australia, Israel, USA and South Africa. In addition, this snail is an intermediate host of parasites of importance in both human and veterinary medicine. In this study, a natural population of T.

Diatom communities on commercial biocidal fouling control coatings after one year of immersion in the marine environment.

Little is known about the effect of commercial biocidal fouling control coatings on fouling diatom communities and their growth forms after long periods of exposure in the marine tropical environment. The current study investigated the abundance and composition of fouling diatom communities developed on 11 commercially available biocidal antifouling coatings, covering the three main technology types in recent historic use (Self-Polishing Copolymers, Self-Polishing Hybrid and Controlled Depletion Polymers) after one year of static immersion at two locations in Muscat, Oman (Marina Shangri La and Marina Bandar Rowdha). Light microscopy demonstrated that the total abundance of diatoms and the relative abundance of growth forms were significantly affected by the choice of biocidal antifouling coating and experimental location.

Olanzapine, but not clozapine, increases glutamate release in the prefrontal cortex of freely moving mice by inhibiting D-aspartate oxidase activity.

D-aspartate levels in the brain are regulated by the catabolic enzyme D-aspartate oxidase (DDO). D-aspartate activates NMDA receptors, and influences brain connectivity and behaviors relevant to schizophrenia in animal models. In addition, recent evidence reported a significant reduction of D-aspartate levels in the post-mortem brain of schizophrenia-affected patients, associated to higher DDO activity.

The Role of Mifamurtide in Chemotherapy-induced Osteoporosis of Children with Osteosarcoma.

Background: Osteosarcoma is the most frequent malignant bone tumor in childhood and young adulthood. Long-term survivors of osteosarcoma patients show high prevalence of osteoporosis and fractures. The immunomodulatory mifamurtide, which modulates macrophages activity, improves disease outcome.

Scarce information about breast cancer screening: An Italian websites analysis.

Although the public should have complete and correct information about risk/benefit ratio of breast cancer screening, public knowledge appears generally scarce and oriented to overestimate benefits, with little awareness of possible disadvantages of the screening.We evaluated any document specifically addressed to the general female public and posted on internet by Italian public health services. The presence of false positive, false positive after biopsy, false negative, interval cancer, overdiagnosis, lead-time bias, exposure to irradiation, and mortality reduction was analyzed.

Cannabinoid Receptor 2 Functional Variant Contributes to the Risk for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Goals: We conducted a case-control association analysis to establish the role of a common CB2 functional variant, Q63R, in the susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Background: Endocannabinoids may limit intestinal inflammation through cannabinoid receptor 1 and/or 2 (CB1, CB2).

Study: We genotyped 217 pediatric IBD patients [112 Crohn's disease (CD), 105 ulcerative colitis (UC)] and 600 controls for the CB2-Q63R variant by Taqman assay.

Assessment of apathy independent of physical disability: validation of the Dimensional Apathy Scale in Italian healthy sample.

Apathy is well described in neurodegenerative diseases characterized by motor disability; therefore, assessment of apathy avoiding possible confounding effects of motor impairments is necessary in neurological diseases. Recently, the Dimensional Apathy Scale (DAS) was developed to assess apathy as multifaceted construct, independent of physical disability. We developed the Italian version of the Dimensional Apathy Scale (I-DAS) and explored its psychometric properties in a sample of 309 healthy individuals.

Can antenatal classes reduce the rate of cesarean section in southern Italy?

Background: Among European Countries, Italy has the highest rate of cesarean section (36.8%), and in the Campania region this rate reaches 60.0%.

Nociception modulation by supraspinal group III metabotropic glutamate receptors.

The modulatory actions of glutamate, the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS), are exerted through the activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). Of the eight known mGluRs (mGluR1-8), group III mGluRs (mGluR4, mGluR6, mGluR7, and mGluR8) are less understood because of the lack of selective ligands. Except for mGluR6, group III mGluRs are widely distributed throughout the CNS.

Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 7: From Synaptic Function to Therapeutic Implications.

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (mGluR7) is localized presynaptically at the active zone of neurotransmitter release. Unlike mGluR4 and mGluR8, which share mGluR7's presynaptic location, mGluR7 shows low affinity for glutamate and is activated only by high glutamate concentrations. Its wide distribution in the central nervous system (CNS) and evolutionary conservation across species suggest that mGluR7 plays a primary role in controlling excitatory synapse function.

Cannabinoid Receptor 2 as Antiobesity Target: Inflammation, Fat Storage, and Browning Modulation.

Context: Obesity is associated with a low-grade inflammatory state and adipocyte (ADP) hyperplasia/hypertrophy. Obesity inhibits the "browning" of white adipose tissue. Cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) agonists reduce food intake and induce antiobesity effect in mice.

D-Aspartate drinking solution alleviates pain and cognitive impairment in neuropathic mice.

D-Aspartate (D-Asp) is a free D-amino acid detected in multiple brain regions and putative precursor of endogenous N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) acting as agonist at NMDA receptors. In this study, we investigated whether D-Asp (20 mM) in drinking solution for 1 month affects pain responses and pain-related emotional, and cognitive behaviour in a model of neuropathic pain induced by the spared nerve injury (SNI) of the sciatic nerve in mice. SNI mice developed mechanical allodynia and motor coordination impairment 30 days after SNI surgery.

Genetic deletion of Rhes or pharmacological blockade of mTORC1 prevent striato-nigral neurons activation in levodopa-induced dyskinesia.

Ras homolog enriched in striatum (Rhes) is a small GTP-binding protein that modulates signal transduction at dopamine receptors, and also activates mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). Rhes binding to mTORC1 is hypothesized to play a role in motor disorders such as levodopa-induced dyskinesia. Here, we investigate the behavioral and in vivo neurocircuitry changes associated with genetic deletion of Rhes or inhibition of mTORC1 signaling in the mouse model of levodopa-induced dyskinesia.

CB(2) and TRPV(1) receptors oppositely modulate in vitro human osteoblast activity.

In the current study, we have investigated the effect of CB2 and TRPV1 receptor ligands on in vitro osteoblasts from bone marrow of human healthy donors. A pivotal role for the endocannabinoid/endovanilloid system in bone metabolism has been highlighted. We have demonstrated a functional cross-talk between CB2 and TRPV1 in human osteoclasts, suggesting these receptors as new pharmacological target for the treatment of bone resorption disease as osteoporosis.

Enhanced serotonin and mesolimbic dopamine transmissions in a rat model of neuropathic pain.

In humans, affective consequences of neuropathic pain, ranging from depression to anxiety and anhedonia, severely impair quality of life and are a major disease burden, often requiring specific medications. Depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors have also been observed in animal models of peripheral nerve injury. Dysfunctions in central nervous system monoamine transmission have been hypothesized to underlie depressive and anxiety disorders in neuropathic pain.