0000000000095489
AUTHOR
C. Cannizzaro
Acetaldehyde effects in the brain
The effects of alcohol have been widely studied during the past century as alcohol abuse is a major health problem in Western society. In the last years, a growing body of evidence indicates that acetaldehyde, the first oxidation product of ethanol, is one of the mediators of peripheral and central effects of ethanol. Indeed, acetaldehyde has been recently taken into account as the mediator of the rewarding properties of alcohol. The role of acetaldehyde in ethanol-related properties has been proved by enzymatic manipulation studies in which the inactivation of acetaldehyde potentially synthesized in the brain produces the same results as blocking the formation of acetaldehyde by inhibiting…
Alcohol addiction: a role for acetaldehyde
Alcoholism is a chronically relapsing disorder characterized by cycles of repeated high alcohol intake and negative emotional consequences of withdrawal thought to contribute to excessive drinking and susceptibility to relapse. In the past years, the pharmacological and behavioural effects of alcohol, such us sedation, memory and learning impairment, were assigned to the main component of alcoholic drinks, ethanol. Recently acetaldehyde, the first metabolite of ethanol, seems to exert biological activity, besides its adverse effects. The aim of the present review is to elucidate the putative role of acetaldehyde in mediating the neuronal and behavioural features induced by ethanol intake.
PLASMA MEMBRANE REDOX SYSTEM IN THE ERYTHROCYTES OF ROWERS: PILOT STUDY
Background: The oxidative stress results from a change in the physiological balance between oxidant and antioxidant species. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to investigate the effects of long-term training in sports with high energy requirements on the redox balance which exists between the plasma vs. the erythrocytes; second, to study the activity of the PMRS (Plasma Membrane Redox System), which is a compensatory mechanism of cellular redox homeostasis, in the rowers’ erythrocytes in order to determine the rowers’ counteraction to oxidative stress. Methods: Venous blood samples was collected from rowers and control group; then FRAP (Ferric Reducing Activity Power) method has …
Emerging pharmacological treatments of tinnitus
Tinnitus is not a disease, but rather a symptom or condition characterized by a conscious perception of an unreal sound in the absence of external auditory stimulus. This ontological condition can modify everyday life in different ways: causing distress and annoyance, sleep disruption, anxiety and depression. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes tinnitus as a symptom of hearing disorder characterized by the sensation of buzzing, ringing, clicking, pulsations, grinding, hissing, roaring or other noises in the ear. Even if different treatments exist for âtinnitus-related abnormalitiesâ such as cognitive behavioural therapy and/or sound therapy, no effective pharmacological approa…
Pharmacological treatment of sensorineural hearing loss
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is a common and alarming symptom of about 360 million people that suffer from hearing impairment worldwide. The sudden sensorineural hearing loss usually arises unilaterally and it is habitually described as greater than 30dB hearing reduction, attributable to lesions of the cochlea, cranial nerve VIII, brainstem and temporal lobe. There are many factor that promote the onset of this lesions such us infections, circulatory diseases, inner ear neoplasia and neurological disorders. This pathology is characterized by primary symptoms such as the impairment of the comprehension of spoken language and the struggling to listen to music. Subsequently, secondary sy…
Role of cannabinoids in the treatment of tinnitus
Tinnitus is a frequent symptom in audiological clinical practice characterized by an abnormal noise perceived in one or both ears or in the head, in which a patient has a conscious hearing percept in absence of external sound. Tinnitus might be caused by a homeostatic response of central dorsal cochlear nucleus auditory neurons that makes them hyperactive in compensation to auditory input loss. One hypothesis suggests that tinnitus is a sensory form of epilepsy that involves the cochlear nucleus and the inferior colliculus, which display impairment in the electrical activity in the auditory system. This alteration determines a synaptic plasticity in the dorsal cochlear nucleus that becomes …
Voxel-Based Morphomerty study in patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: population-based data from the Zabùt Aging Project
Aims and objectives Methods and materials Results Conclusion Personal information References
Pharmacological therapy of newborn babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit
Newborn babies who need intensive medical care are often sheltered into a special area of the hospital called Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). In this structure, babies are regularly subject to conditions that would be considered harmful by older children and adults. In the last years, many clinical researches have paid particular attention to effectiveness of various pharmacological therapies, regularly used in neonatal intensive care that have sharply reduced mortality of newborn and preterm infants. Although there are many classes of drugs used for the treatment of different diseases (sepsis, pain, seizures, pulmonary hypertension and infection), the fledgling population is more diff…
Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis of the brain of pathological gamblers
Purpose . Gambling disorder has been recently reclassified under the category ‘‘substance-related and addictive disorders”. Recent studies performed through functional MRI (fMRI) have shown that the perseverance of some behaviors can alter brain activation [1,2]. In this work we aim at investigating functional connectivity changes in pathological gamblers (PGs) in comparison to healthy controls (HCs) by means of resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI). Methods and materials. Thirteen HCs and fourteen PGs were recruited (all right handed males; drugs free; mean age 36 ± 10 yrs). All acquisitions were performed through a 1,5 T MRI scanner using a 8-channels phased-array …