1,721,063 research outputs found
Food Contamination: An Unexplored Possible Link between Dietary Habits and Parkinson’s Disease
Get PDFImportance of a healthy lifestyle in maintaining the population’s well-being and health, especially in terms of balanced nutrition, is well known. Food choice of and dieting habits could impact disease management, which is especially true for Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, nowadays, it is not that simple to maintain a balance in nutrition, and the idea of a healthy diet tends to fade as the consequence of a western lifestyle. This should not only be dealt with in the context of food choice, but also from an environmental point of view. What we put into our bodies is strictly related to the quality of ecosystems we live in. For these reasons, attention should be directed to all the pollutants, which in many cases, we unknowingly ingest. It will be necessary to explore the interaction between food and environment, since human activity also influences the raw materials destined for consumption. This awareness can be achieved by means of an innovative scientific approach, which involves the use of new models, in order to overcome the traditional scientific investigations included in the study of Parkinson’s disease
Cell Rearrangement and Oxidant/Antioxidant Imbalance in Huntington’s Disease
Get PDFHuntington’s Disease (HD) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of a CAG triplet repeat in the HTT gene, resulting in the production of an aberrant huntingtin (Htt) protein. The mutant protein accumulation is responsible for neuronal dysfunction and cell death. This is due to the involvement of oxidative damage, excitotoxicity, inflammation, and mitochondrial impairment. Neurons naturally adapt to bioenergetic alteration and oxidative stress in physiological conditions. However, this dynamic system is compromised when a neurodegenerative disorder occurs, resulting in changes in metabolism, alteration in calcium signaling, and impaired substrates transport. Thus, the aim of this review is to provide an overview of the cell’s answer to the stress induced by HD, focusing on the role of oxidative stress and its balance with the antioxidant system
Exenatide Reverts the High-Fat-Diet-Induced Impairment of BDNF Signaling and Inflammatory Response in an Animal Model of Alzheimer's Disease
No full textAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactorial condition in which, along with amyloid-beta (A beta) and tau-related pathology, the synergistic activity of co-morbidity factors promote the onset and progression of the disease. Epidemiological evidence indicates that glucose intolerance, deficits in insulin secretion, or type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) participate in increasing cognitive impairment or dementia risk. Insulin plays a pivotal role in the process as the hormone critically regulates brain functioning. GLP-1, the glucagon-like peptide 1, facilitates insulin signaling, regulates glucose homeostasis, and modulates synaptic plasticity. Exenatide is a synthetic GLP-1 analog employed in T2DM. However, exenatide has also been shown to affect the signaling of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), synaptic plasticity, and cognitive performances in animal models. In this study, we tested whether exenatide exerts neuroprotection in a preclinical AD model set to mimic the clinical complexity of the human disease. We investigated the effects of exenatide treatment in 3xTg-AD mice challenged with a high-fat diet (HFD). Endpoints of the study were variations in systemic metabolism, insulin and neurotrophic signaling, neuroinflammation, A beta and tau pathology, and cognitive performances. Results of the study indicate that exenatide reverts the adverse changes of BDNF signaling and the neuroinflammation status of 3xTg-AD mice undergoing HFD without affecting systemic metabolism or promoting changes in cognitive performances
The emerging role of probiotics in neurodegenerative diseases: new hope for Parkinson's disease?
No full textNeurodegenerative disease etiology is still unclear, but different contributing factors, such as lifestyle and genetic factors are involved. Altered components of the gut could play a key role in the gut-brain axis, which is a bidirectional system between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system. Variations in the composition of the gut microbiota and its function between healthy people and patients have been reported for a variety of human disorders comprising metabolic, autoimmune, cancer, and, notably, neurodegenerative disorders. Diet can alter the microbiota composition, affecting the gut-brain axis function. Different nutraceutical interventions have been devoted to normalizing gut microbiome dysbiosis and to improving biological outcomes in neurological conditions, including the use of probiotics. Preclinical and clinical investigations discussed in this review strengthen the correlation between intestinal microbiota and brain and the concept that modifying the microbiome composition may improve brain neurochemistry, modulating different pathways. This review will discuss the potential use of probiotics for Parkinson's disease prevention or treatment or as adjuvant therapy, confirming that gut microbiota modulation influences different pro-survival pathways. Future investigations in Parkinson's disease should consider the role of the gut-brain axis and additional comprehension of the underlying mechanisms is extremely necessary
MicroRNAs: A puzzling tool in cancer diagnostics and therapy
No full textMicroRNAs (miRNAs) constitute a dominating class of small RNAs that regulate diverse cellular functions. Due the pivotal role of miRNAs in biological processes, a deregulated miRNA expression is likely involved in human cancers. MicroRNAs possess tumor suppressor capability, as well as display oncogenic characteristics. Interestingly, miRNAs exist in various biological fluids as circulating entities. Changes in the profile of circulating miRNAs are indicative of pathophysiological conditions in human cancer. This concept has led to consider circulating miRNAs valid biomarkers in cancer diagnostics. Furthermore, current research promotes the use of miRNAs as a target in cancer therapy. However, miRNAs are an evolving research field. Although miRNAs have been demonstrated to be potentially valuable tools both in cancer diagnosis and treatment, a greater effort should be made to improve our understanding of miRNAs biology. This review describes the biology of microRNAs, emphasizing on the use of miRNAs in cancer diagnostics and therapy
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Mitochondria-Associated MicroRNAs: Emerging Roles in the Pathogenesis of Parkinson’s Disease
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