Il prof. Edoardo Cervi (Università di Brescia): “E’ problema di salute non solo femminile che può essere affrontato anche grazie all’uso di prodotti d’origine vegetale in grado d’agire sul tono venoso”

Roma, 20 gennaio 2021 – Le vene varicose non sono solo un problema femminile. Si calcola che interessano anche il 25% degli uomini adulti che nonostante il lockdown e la pandemia, hanno ripreso in tutta Italia a sottoporsi a interventi nei centri specializzati. “I problemi legati al microcircolo sono traversali e colpiscono entrambi i sessi – sottolinea il prof. Edoardo Cervi, docente dell’Università di Brescia e specialista in chirurgia vascolare e generale -. Tuttavia le donne sono sicuramente le più interessate da questi disturbi di salute ma i nostri trattamenti sono sempre più richiesti anche dagli uomini che ricorrono, per esempio, alla scleroterapia. Si tratta di un piccolo intervento chirurgico che riesce ad eliminare le vene varicose attraverso la somministrazione direttamente in loco di alcuni farmaci specifici”.

Scientists investigate the factors affecting the global land use impacts and CO2 emissions of plant-based plastics

Plastics made from crops such as maize or sugarcane instead of fossil fuels are generally considered sustainable. One reason is that plants bind CO2, which compensates for the carbon released into the atmosphere when plastics are disposed. However, there is a catch: With increasing demand for raw materials for bioplastic production, the areas under cultivation may not be sufficient. As a result, natural vegetation is often converted to agricultural land and forests are cut down. This in turn releases large amounts of CO2. The assumption that more bioplastics does not necessarily lead to more climate protection has now been confirmed by researchers at the University of Bonn (Germany) in a new study. They found that the sustainability of plant-based bioplastics depends largely on the country of origin, its trade relationships and the raw material processed. The study has been published in the journal "Resources, Conservation & Recycling".

In the canton of Bern, only 14% of the adult population were infected with the coronavirus and developed antibodies against SARS-Cov-2. These are the preliminary results of a seroprevalence study coordinated by the Swiss School of Public Health and carried out in Bern by the University of Bern in cooperation with the Inselspital, University Hospital of Bern.

In the canton of Bern, between December 2020 and the end of February 2021, a total of 400 participants will be tested for antibodies against the coronavirus in a random sample. 263 people have already been examined, which will give a representative estimate for the total population. The first results show that only 14% of the adult Bern population has been infected with the coronavirus and developed antibodies. The study was carried out by the Institute of Primary Health Care (BIHAM) in collaboration with the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), the Institute for Infectious Diseases (IFIK) at the University of Bern and the Inselspital. It is part of the“Corona Immunitas”research program of the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH +). This research program aims to understand the spread of Covid-19 at the national level. For this purpose, the Sars-CoV2 immunity in the Swiss population is determined using antibody tests; the antibody levels in the blood are measured in a random sample of the population. In this way, the percentage of people who have come into contact with the virus and the percentage of infected people without symptoms can be estimated.

 
Scientists in Portugal and the United Kingdom were able to confirm that an imaging technique that traces neuronal dopaminergic deficiency in the brain is able to differentiate, in vivo, Alzheimer’s disease from the lesser-known dementia with Lewy bodies. This could have important implications for the specific management and treatment of these conditions.

American actor Robin Williams had a neurodegenerative brain disease called dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB): a distressing disease, with symptoms in common with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). But unlike these two conditions, DLB also entails prominent mood and cognitive swings, sleep disorders, and vivid, sometimes terrifying, visual hallucinations. It is now thought that Robin Williams, whose diagnosis was only ascertained post-mortem, was likely driven to suicide, in 2014, by the terrifying hallucinatory experiences he suffered for years – and about which he never told anyone, not even his wife. Susan Schneider Williams recounted the tragic story in an editorial published in the journal Neurology, in 2016, under the title “The terrorist inside my husband's brain”.

DLB is a relative newcomer to the dementia landscape. It is frequently confused by doctors with Alzheimer’s disease, but also with Parkinson-related dementia (PDD), which may afflict a significant number of Parkinson’s patients, up to 80%, on average 10 years after the onset of Parkinson’s disease.

Dr Inga Szurgot, the study's first author. Photo: John Sennett.

It is necessary to develop additional COVID-19 vaccines, as different vaccine approaches have their advantages and disadvantages and may work synergistically. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now report that they have developed a prototype vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 using a DNA vaccine platform that is inexpensive, stable, easy to produce, and shows a good safety profile. A study published in Scientific Reports shows that the vaccine induces potent immune responses in mice.

The vaccine, called DREP-S, is administered as DNA and is based on a DNA-launched self-amplifying RNA (DREP) platform developed at Karolinska Institutet. This means that upon delivery into host cells, the vaccine will launch an RNA replicon, which is a self-amplifying RNA molecule that produces multiple copies of a selected RNA sequence.

Un equip d’investigació integrat per les universitats Jaume I de Castelló, Barcelona i València i els museus Soler Blasco de Xàbia i Prehistòria de València ha destacat el potencial del jaciment arqueològic de la Cova del Moro, situada en El Poble Nou de Benitatxell a Alacant, per a proporcionar dades significatives que servisquen per a avançar en la definició de la seqüència, les tecnologies i les economies de les societats paleolítiques en la Ibèria mediterrània. L’estudi ha estat publicat en el número 1 de 2021 de la Revista de Prehistòria i Antiguitat de la Mediterrània Occidental,PYRENAE.

El jaciment de la Cova del Moro va ser descobert científicament a finals del segle XIX pel geòleg i paleontòleg J. Vilanova i Piera, però mai ha sigut excavat amb metodologia arqueològica. En 2005, el director del Museu Soler Blasco de Xàbia, J. Bolufer, va elaborar els primers plànols d’emplaçament i alertà del perill de sobreexplotació urbana de la zona. L’equip d’investigació ha estudiat els materials recuperats fins ara (conservats en els museus de Xàbia i Arqueològic Nacional a Madrid) i han realitzat diverses anàlisis per a esbrinar el potencial d’aquest indret.

Il consumo sempre maggiore della pasta italiana nel mondo aumenta purtroppo la tendenza a commerciare prodotti contraffatti. Un team dell’Istituto di scienze delle produzioni alimentari del Cnr di Bari ne ha verificato l’autenticità grazie al metodo FT-NIR. In quasi tutti i casi i risultati hanno confermato l’autenticità della pasta in relazione all'origine geografica del grano riportata sulle confezioni dei marchi analizzati. Lo studio è pubblicato su Foods Recentemente, un team di ricerca dell’Istituto di scienze delle produzioni alimentari del Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche (Cnr-Ispa), guidato da Annalisa De Girolamo, ha condotto uno studio pubblicato sulla rivista Foods che prevede l’impiego della spettroscopia nel vicino infrarosso a trasformata di Fourier (FT-NIR), accoppiato ad analisi statistica multivariata, come strumento di autenticità della pasta prodotta con grano duro 100% italiano.