Damiana

Bergamot essential oil shows anxiolytic-relaxant effects devoid of sedative action and motor impairment typical of benzodiazepines. Considering the potential for clinical of these effects, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms of the phytocomplex. Modulation of glutamate group I and II metabotropic receptors is involved in stress and anxiety disorders, in cognition and emotions and increases locomotor activity and wakefulness. Interestingly, early data indicate that bergamot essential oil modulates glutamatergic transmission in specific manifestations of the central nervous system...

Thallium (Tl) and its two cationic species, Tl(I) and Tl(III), are toxic for most living beings. In this work, we investigated the effects of Tl (10-100 µM) on the viability and proliferation capacity of the adherent variant of PC12 cells (PC12 Adh cells). While both Tl(I) and Tl(III) halted cell proliferation from 24 h of incubation, their viability was ~ 90% even after 72 h of treatment. At 24 h, increased levels of γH2AX indicated the presence of DNA double-strand breaks...

(1) Background: Preexisting type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been shown in some studies as a risk factor and a severity factor for acute pancreatitis (AP). In this study, we aimed to demonstrate the link between T2DM and AP using data from a large retrospective epidemiological registry in a tertiary center. (2) Methods: We conducted a retrospective, large-cohort study of 1855 cases of AP and recurrent AP drawn from the seven-year consecutive hospitalization electronic health records of the largest acute-care tertiary teaching center in Romania...

BACKGROUND: Hepatic fibrosis is caused by various liver diseases and eventually develops into liver cancer. There is no specific drug approved for the treatment of hepatic fibrosis in the world. Acacetin (AC), a natural flavonoid, is widely present in nature in various plants, such as black locust, Damiana, Silver birch. It has been reported that acacetin can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells and induce apoptosis. PURPOSE: In this study, we investigated the effect of acacetin on hepatic stellate cell apoptosis, thereby improving hepatic fibrosis, and combined experimental validation and molecular docking to reveal the underlying mechanism...

The Journal of Clinical Medicine retracts the article "Vasopressin Receptor Antagonists for the Correction of Hyponatremia in Chronic Heart Failure: An Underutilized Therapeutic Option in Current Clinical Practice [...].

Sepsis is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite the remarkable advances in modern medicine throughout the last century, the mortality rates associated with sepsis have remained significantly elevated, both in high- and low-income countries. The main difficulty in the diagnosis and treatment of septic patients is the tremendous heterogeneity of this condition. The vast heterogeneity that characterizes sepsis ranges from the clinical presentation to the biological aspects of the disease...

Treatment response assessment of rectal cancer patients is a critical component of personalized cancer care and it allows to identify suitable candidates for organ-preserving strategies. This pilot study employed a novel multi-omics approach combining MRI-based radiomic features and untargeted metabolomics to infer treatment response at staging. The metabolic signature highlighted how tumor cell viability is predictively down-regulated, while the response to oxidative stress was up-regulated in responder patients, showing significantly reduced oxoproline values at baseline compared to non-responder patients (p-value < 10-4 )...

Many biogeochemical processes are modulated by dissolved organic matter (DOM), but the drivers influencing the chemodiversity of DOM compounds in Amazonian soils are poorly understood. It has also been theorized whether deforestation controls the decline of DOM. In this study, we collected soil samples from thirty sites across different regions of Brazil's Legal Amazon, and we investigated the trade-offs among soil physical-chemical properties and DOM chemodiversity. We employed optical spectroscopy, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance, and multivariate analysis...

This work reports the characterization of the lipidic fraction of seven species of marine organisms gathered along the shoreline of the Po Delta Park of Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy) and of the north Adriatic Sea. Two species of oysters (Crassostrea gigas and Ostrea edulis), two species of clams (Chamelea gallina and Ruditapes philippinarum), one species of mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis), one species of macroalgae (Ulva rigida), and one species of spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) were analyzed to characterize their fatty acids profile and related nutritional value...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy for cN+ breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is controversial because the false-negative rate (FNR) is high. Identification of three or more SLNs with a dual tracer improves these results, and inclusion of a clipped lymph node (CLN) (targeted axillary dissection [TAD]) may be even more effective. METHODS: A retrospective, single-institution analysis of consecutive cN+ patients undergoing NAC from 2019 to 2021 was performed...

Cyclic tetrapyrrole derivatives such as porphyrins, chlorins, corrins (compounds with a corrin core), and phthalocyanines are a family of molecules containing four pyrrole rings usually coordinating a metal ion (Mg, Cu, Fe, Zn, etc.). Here, we report the characterization of some representative cyclic tetrapyrrole derivatives by MALDI-ToF/ToF MS analyses, including heme b and c, phthalocyanines, and protoporphyrins after proper matrix selection. Both neutral and acidic matrices were evaluated to assess potential demetallation, adduct formation, and fragmentation...

INTRODUCTION: Achieving restorative sleep is crucial for overall well-being, yet sleep difficulties affect a substantial portion of the adult population. Sleep disturbances are associated with diminished quality of life, physical complaints, cognitive impairment, and emotional regulation challenges. OBJECTIVE: This study explores the influence of an innovative experimental bed designed to generate rocking motions on sleep parameters. METHODS: A prospective observational study enrolled 60 adult participants, assessing their sleep on a regular stationary bed and the Inoveris bed, providing gentle rocking movements...

The laboratory tests and identification of risk factors such as comorbidities are essential in the management, treatment and prognosis of patients with chronic respiratory diseases. Performing rigorous monitoring among patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome and early identification of risk factors associated with poor prognosis are crucial in improving patient outcomes. In the present study, 182 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and PCI during 2020-2022 were included. A clinical and epidemiological evaluation was performed for each patient...

Heart failure patients often experience respiratory symptoms due to diaphragmatic involvement, but the diaphragmatic motion in heart failure remains understudied. This research aimed to investigate the correlation between ultrasonographically assessed diaphragmatic motion and thickness with cardiac performance indexes in an emergency setting. Seventy-two acutely decompensated heart failure patients and 100 non-heart failure individuals were enrolled. Diaphragmatic motion and thickness were assessed via ultrasound...

Acacetin, one of the flavonoid compounds, is a natural product found in various plants, including Silver birch, and Damiana. Previous studies showed that acacetin has anti-cancer effects on many kinds of cancer cells, however, the role of and the mechanisms of actions of acacetin on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells is still not fully understood. Herein, we found that, in vitro, acacetin inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and migration of NSCLC cells, A549 and H460, in a dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile, flow cytometry assay results showed that acacetin induced G2/M phase cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis of NSCLC cells...

The social burden of dementia is remarkable since it affects some 57.4 million people all over the world. Impairment of autophagy in age-related diseases, such as dementia, deserves deep investigation for the detection of novel disease-modifying approaches. Several drugs belonging to different classes were suggested to be effective in managing Alzheimer's disease (AD) by means of autophagy induction. Useful autophagy inducers in AD should be endowed with a direct, measurable effect on autophagy, have a safe tolerability profile, and have the capability to cross the blood-brain barrier, at least with poor penetration...

The adult hippocampus generates new granule cells (aGCs) that exhibit distinct functional capabilities along development, conveying a unique form of plasticity to the preexisting circuits. While early differentiation of adult radial glia-like neural stem cells (RGL) has been studied extensively, the molecular mechanisms guiding the maturation of postmitotic neurons remain unknown. Here, we used a precise birthdating strategy to follow newborn aGCs along differentiation using single-nuclei RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq)...

(1) Background: Although obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity, the link between OSA and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is not completely elucidated. Thus, we aim to assess cardiovascular risk (CVR) using SCORE 2 and SCORE 2 for older persons (SCORE 2OP), and to evaluate the association between the endothelial biomarkers VCAM-1, ICAM-1, epicardial fat, and sleep study parameters in order to improve current clinical practices and better understand the short-and long-term CVRs in OSA patients...

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...