Nutrigenetic Interactions Might Modulate the Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Status in Mastiha-Supplemented Patients With NAFLD.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease with no therapeutic consensus. Oxidation and inflammation are hallmarks in the progression of this complex disease, which also involves interactions between the genetic background and the environment. Mastiha is a natural nutritional supplement known to possess antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This study investigated how a 6-month Mastiha supplementation (2.1 g/day) could impact the antioxidant and inflammatory status of patients with NAFLD, and whether genetic variants significantly mediate these effects. We recruited 98 patients with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) and NAFLD and randomly allocated them to either the Mastiha or the placebo group for 6 months. The anti-oxidative and inflammatory status was assessed at baseline and post-treatment. Genome-wide genetic data was also obtained from all participants, to investigate gene-by-Mastiha interactions. NAFLD patients with severe obesity (BMI > 35kg/m2) taking the Mastiha had significantly higher total antioxidant status (TAS) compared to the corresponding placebo group (P value=0.008). We did not observe any other significant change in the investigated biomarkers as a result of Mastiha supplementation alone. We identified several novel gene-by-Mastiha interaction associations with levels of cytokines and antioxidant biomarkers. Some of the identified genetic loci are implicated in the pathological pathways of NAFLD, including the lanosterol synthase gene (LSS) associated with glutathione peroxidase activity (Gpx) levels, the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier-1 gene (MPC1) and the sphingolipid transporter-1 gene (SPNS1) associated with hemoglobin levels, the transforming growth factor-beta-induced gene (TGFBI) and the micro-RNA 129-1 (MIR129-1) associated with IL-6 and the granzyme B gene (GZMB) associated with IL-10 levels. Within the MAST4HEALTH randomized clinical trial (NCT03135873, www.clinicaltrials.gov) Mastiha supplementation improved the TAS levels among NAFLD patients with severe obesity. We identified several novel genome-wide significant nutrigenetic interactions, influencing the antioxidant and inflammatory status in NAFLD. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT03135873.

Effect of Mastiha supplementation on NAFLD: The MAST4HEALTH Randomised, Controlled Trial.

SCOPE: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease with poor therapeutic strategies. Mastiha possesses antioxidant/anti-inflammatory and lipid-lowering properties. The authors investigate the effectiveness of Mastiha as a nonpharmacological intervention in NAFLD. METHODS AND RESULTS: Ninety-eight patients with NAFLD in three countries (Greece, Italy, Serbia) are randomly allocated to either Mastiha or Placebo for 6 months, as part of a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group clinical trial. The authors assess NAFLD severity via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning and LiverMultiScan technique and evaluate the effectiveness of Mastiha through medical, anthropometric, biochemical, metabolomic, and microbiota assessment. Mastiha is not superior to Placebo on changes in iron-corrected T1 (cT1) and Liver Inflammation Fibrosis score (LIF) in entire patient population; however, after BMI stratification (BMI ≤ 35 kg m-2 and BMI > 35 kg m-2 ), severely obese patients show an improvement in cT1 and LIF in Mastiha versus Placebo. Mastiha increases dissimilarity of gut microbiota, as shown by the Bray-Curtis index, downregulates Flavonifractor, a known inflammatory taxon and decreases Lysophosphatidylcholines-(LysoPC) 18:1, Lysophosphatidylethanolamines-(LysoPE) 18:1, and cholic acid compared to Placebo. CONCLUSION: Mastiha supplementation improves microbiota dysbiosis and lipid metabolite levels in patients with NAFLD, although it reduces parameters of liver inflammation/fibrosis only in severely obese patients.

Potential markers of healing from near infrared spectroscopy imaging of venous leg ulcer. A randomized controlled clinical trial comparing conventional with hyperbaric oxygen treatment.

The aim of this study is to ascertain whether the simultaneous measurement of hemoglobin O2 saturation (StO2 ) and dimension of venous leg ulcers (VLU) by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging can predict the healing course with protocols employing a conventional treatment alone or in combination with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). NIRS 2D images of wound region were obtained in 81 patients with hard-to-heal VLU that had been assigned, in a randomized controlled clinical trial, to the following protocols: 30 HBOT sessions, adjunctive to the conventional therapy, either twice daily over 3 weeks (group A) or once daily over 6 weeks (group B), and conventional therapy without HBOT (group C). Seventy-three patients completed the study with a total of 511 NIRS images being analyzed. At the end of treatment, wound area was significantly smaller in all three groups. However, at the 3-week mark the wound area reduction tended to be less evident in group A than in the other groups. This trend continued up to the 6-week end-point when a significantly greater area reduction was found with group B (65.5%) and group C (56.8%) compared to group A (29.7%) (P < .01). Furthermore, a higher incidence of complete healing was noted with group B (20%) than with group A (4.5%) and group C (3.8%). When using a final wound reduction in excess of 40% to distinguish healing from nonhealing ulcers, it was found that only the former present NIRS StO2 values abating over the study period both at center and edge of lesions. In conclusion, NIRS analysis of StO2 and wound area can predict the healing course of VLU. Adjunctive HBOT significantly facilitates VLU healing compared to the conventional treatment alone. This positive action, however, becomes manifest only with a longer and less intensive treatment schedule.

An innovative adaptive control strategy for sensorized left ventricular assist devices.

Nowadays advanced heart failure is mainly treated through heart transplantation. However, the low availability of donors makes the research of alternative therapies urgent. Continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are going to assume a more significant role in assisting the failing heart. A recent challenge in clinical practice is the possibility to use LVAD as long-term therapy rather than as a bridge to transplantation. For this reason, more comfortable devices, able to dynamically adapt to the physiological cardiac demand in relation to the patient activity level, are needed in order to improve the life quality of patients with implants. Nevertheless, no control system has been developed yet for this purpose. This work proposes an innovative control strategy for a novel sensorized LVAD, based on the continuous collection of physical and functional parameters coming from implantable sensors and from the LVAD itself. Thanks to the proposed system, both the patient and the LVAD conditions are continuously monitored and the LVAD activity regulated accordingly. Specifically, a Proportional Integrative (PI) and a threshold control algorithms have been implemented, respectively based on flow and pressure feedbacks collected from the embedded sensors. To investigate the feasibility and applicability of this control strategy, an on-bench platform for LVADs sensing and monitoring has been developed and tested.

A novel three-dimensional biosensor based on aluminum oxide: application for early-stage detection of human interleukin-10.

Immunosensors based on electrolyte-oxide-semiconductors (EOS) have been extensively researched over the last few decades. By electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) the specific molecular biorecognition of the antibody-antigen (Ab-Ag) can be detected providing an alternative quantitative system to immunoassay techniques. The electrochemical variations from a fabricated immunosensor can provide quantitative values for the analyte of interest at reduced costs and analysis time. In this context, a novel EOS substrate based on aluminum oxide (Al2O3) grown by atomic layer deposition on silicon was applied. The interaction between recombinant human (rh) interleukin-10 (IL-10) with the corresponding monoclonal antibody (mAb) for early cytokine detection of an anti-inflammatory response due to left ventricular assisted device implantation was studied. For this purpose, a 3D biosensor was composed of multi-walled carbon nanotubes with carboxylic acid functionalities (multi-walled carbon nanotubes-COOH) to increase the surface area for the range of human IL-10 detection. These were activated with N-hydroxysuccinimide and N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N'-ethyl-carbodiimide hydrochloride for the immobilization of the anti-human IL-10 mAb. First, the interaction between the Ab and Ag was observed by fluorescence patterning to ensure that the biorecognition event was achievable. Then, EIS is explained for the quantification of commercial human IL-10 on this capacitance-based EOS macroimmuno-FET sensor.