Vincenza Frisardi

IRCCS AOUBO policlinico sant'orsola

Introduction: Approximately 2 million people in Italy are currently living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 4 million are involved as family members or caregivers. Considering the significant impact of dementia, the Italian Ministry of Health entrusted the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) with...

Background/Objectives: The unmet needs of individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and hematologic malignancies are often overlooked, despite the increasing prevalence of both conditions among older adults. This dual challenge underscores the need for healthcare professionals to better address the complex needs of this vulnerable population...

Even during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic health professionals were facing mental health challenges. The aim of this study was to examine the mental health of doctors, nurses and other professional groups in Europe and to identify differences between the professional groups. We conducted a cross-sectional online survey in 8 European count...

Even during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic health professionals were facing mental health challenges. The aim of this study was to examine the mental health of doctors, nurses and other professional groups in Europe and to identify differences between the professional groups. We conducted a cross-sectional online survey in 8 European count...

In the original article [...]

Lactate represents the main product of pyruvate reduction catalyzed by the lactic dehydro-genase family of enzymes. Cancer cells utilize great quantities of glucose, shifting toward a glycolytic metabolism. With the contribution of tumor stromal cells and under hypoxic conditions, this leads toward the acidification of the extracellular matrix. The...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected everyday life and working conditions for most Europeans, particularly health care professionals (HCPs). Over the past 3 years, various policies have been implemented in various European countries. Studies have reported on the worsening of mental health, work-related stress, and helpful coping strat...

Context: The assessment of decision-making ability of older adults with cognitive impairment is a complex challenge that geriatricians often face in relation to risk-taking situations (driving, aging in place, financial decisions, etc.). However, there are no clear and consensual practice guidelines. An overview of current practices and needs seem...

Aging is a heterogeneous process characterized prevalently by multimorbidity. Neurocognitive disorders (NCDs) are organic brain diseases with psychiatric symptoms, often comorbid with the exacerbation of chronic physical illnesses, especially in pulmonary disease. Noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) plays a crucial role in treating patients w...

Supporting Mental Health for young people , increasing resilience against new stressors in a digital fast society, by co-creation of OKP and gamfication tools.

Background: Older adults with mood disorders constitute a heterogeneous group in a complex spectrum interlinked with physical comorbidities. Worldwide, Bipolar disorders in older people (OABD) remain underestimated and underdiagnosed. OABD is challenging in the clinical setting and is associated with adverse outcomes (increased risk of anti-social...

Objective To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on first and follow-up visits for cancer outpatients. Methods This is a multicenter retrospective observational study involving three Comprehensive Cancer Care Centers (CCCCs): IFO, including IRE and ISG in Rome, AUSL-IRCCS of Reggio Emilia, and IRCCS Giovanni Paolo II in Bari) and one onco...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has so far shown a wave-like course with a significant increase in the number of cases, the associated number of deaths, and the burden on the health system. After the start of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, a third major wave occurred in Europe during autumn and winter 2021/2022, leading to stress related men...

BACKGROUND COVID-19 has affected everyday life and working conditions for most European people, particularly health care professionals (HCP). The worsening of mental health, work-related stressors, and helpful coping strategies within HCP have been studied by various quantitative surveys for all waves of infection. However, longitudinal comparisons...

Background: COVID-19 has affected everyday life and working conditions for most European people, particularly health care professionals (HCP). The worsening of mental health, work-related stressors, and helpful coping strategies within HCP have been studied by various quantitative surveys for all waves of infection. Longitudinal comparisons of stre...

Background/rationale: Despite mounting evidence about delirium, this complex geriatric syndrome is still not well managed in clinical contexts. The aging population creates a very demanding area for innovation and technology in healthcare. For instance, an outline of an aging-friendly healthcare environment and clear guidance for technology-support...

The outbreak of the coronavirus 2 disease 2019 (COVID-19) puts an enormous burden on healthcare systems worldwide. This may worsen outcomes in patients with severe chronic diseases such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, and immune deficiencies. In this critical situation, only a few available data exist, which do not allow us to provide practical gui...

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) affects the population worldwide and results from several factors such as genetic background, environment and lifestyle. In recent years, an interplay among autophagy, metabolism, and metabolic disorders has become apparent. Defects in the autophagy machinery are associated with the dysfunction of many tissues/organs regul...

Background The death toll of COVID-19 topped 170,000 in Europe by the end of May 2020. COVID-19 has caused an immense psychological burden on the population, especially among doctors and nurses who are faced with high infection risks and increased workload. Objective The aim of this study was to compare the mental health of medical professionals w...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder with no cure and no effective diagnostic criteria. The greatest challenge in effectively treating AD is identifying biomarkers specific for each patient when neurodegenerative processes have not yet begun, an outcome that would allow the design of a personalised therapeutic approa...

BACKGROUND The death toll of COVID-19 topped 170,000 in Europe by the end of May 2020. Covid-19 has caused an immense psychological burden on the population, especially doctors and nurses were faced with a high infection risk and increased workload. OBJECTIVE To compare the mental health of medical professionals with non-medical professionals in d...

In the older population, one of the serious health concerns associated with negative outcomes such as comorbidity, loss of physical autonomy, excessive use of health care resources, and increased mortality is the onset of mood disorder [1]. Late-life depression (LLD) is an umbrella term to define depressed mood in people older than 65 years. It can...

Risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), the most prevalent dementia, is partially driven by genetics. To identify LOAD risk loci, we performed a large genome-wide association meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed LOAD (94,437 individuals). We confirm 20 previous LOAD risk loci and identify five new genome-wide loci (IQCK, ACE, ADAM10, ADAMT...

Risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), the most prevalent dementia, is partially driven by genetics. To identify LOAD risk loci, we performed a large genome-wide association meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed LOAD (94,437 individuals). We confirm 20 previous LOAD risk loci and identify five new genome-wide loci (IQCK, ACE, ADAM10, ADAMT...

Risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), the most prevalent dementia, is partially driven by genetics. To identify LOAD risk loci, we performed a large genome-wide association meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed LOAD (94,437 individuals). We confirm 20 previous LOAD risk loci and identify five new genome-wide loci (IQCK, ACE, ADAM10, ADAMT...

Risk for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), the most prevalent dementia, is partially driven by genetics. To identify LOAD risk loci, we performed a large genome-wide association meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed LOAD (94,437 individuals). We confirm 20 previous LOAD risk loci and identify five new genome-wide loci (IQCK, ACE, ADAM10, ADAMT...

Introduction Late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD, onset age > 60 years) is the most prevalent dementia in the elderly ¹ , and risk is partially driven by genetics ² . Many of the loci responsible for this genetic risk were identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) 3–8 . To identify additional LOAD risk loci, the we performed the largest...

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been found to be a risk factor for dementia, mild cognitive impairment, and its associated states. However, a definitive conclusion cannot be drawn from the available data. Discrepancies between the results are due to several factors, e.g., study design, heterogeneity of the population enrolled, reliability and sensiti...

Midlife elevated blood pressure and hypertension contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and overall dementia. We sought to estimate whether angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-Is) reduced the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in cognitively normal individuals. In the Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging,...

Background: Frailty is a clinical syndrome generally associated with a greater risk for adverse outcomes such as falls, disability, institutionalization, and death. Cognition and dementia have already been considered as components of frailty, but the role of frailty as a possible determinant of dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and vascular deme...

Objective: In several longitudinal studies, light-to-moderate drinking of alcoholic beverages has been proposed as being protective against the development of age-related changes in cognitive function, predementia syndromes, and cognitive decline of degenerative (Alzheimer's disease, AD) or vascular origin (vascular dementia). However, contrasting...

Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) represents the gold standard therapy for focal spasticity after stroke, with low prevalence of complications, reversibility, and efficacy in reducing spastic hypertonia. Current guidelines suggest the employment of a dosage up to 600 units (U) of BTX-A to treat spasticity after stroke, to avoid important adverse effec...

Some patients receiving botulinum toxin type A therapy develop immunological resistance due to the production of neutralizing antibodies against the neurotoxin, thus partially or completely reducing the therapeutic effect. We report here neurophysiological and clinical findings for a 58-year-old man treated with botulinum toxin type A for spasticit...

Frequency rhythmic electrical modulation system (FREMS) is an innovative type of transcutaneous electrotherapy used in a rehabilitation setting for the treatment of pain, especially in diabetic patients. In a randomized clinical trial, we tested the hypothesis that FREMS is effective in the treatment of chronic and painful venous leg ulcers in 20 o...

Apolipoprotein E [ApoE, APOE (gene)] is a multifunctional protein of the lipid and lipoprotein transport system mainly involved in metabolism of dietary lipids. Its polymorphic variants are considered a genetic risk factor of cognitive impairment in several neurodegenerative disorders such as Lewy body dementia, Huntington's disease, and Alzheimer'...

The effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) has been recognized in national and international guidelines and highlighted by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence as one of the six key priorities for improving the care of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. PR is likely to be effective in bronchiectasis as it is in...

Amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) have been reported in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) treated with bapineuzumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting β-amyloid (Aβ). The spectrum of ARIA includes signal hyperintensities on fluid attenuation inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequences thought to represent "vasogenic edema" and/or sulcal effu...

The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of common pathologies: abdominal obesity linked to an excess of visceral fat, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and hypertension. At the molecular level, metabolic syndrome is accompanied not only by dysregulation in the expression of adipokines (cytokines and chemokines), but also by alterations in levels of lept...

Midlife hypertension is a risk factor for late onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) and it is one of the components of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Observational studies and some cardiovascular disease-related clinical trials suggest that antihypertensive treatment reduced the incidence and progression of AD. Calcium channel blockers (CCBs), one of the mor...

Solanezumab (LY2062430) is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds to the central region of β-amyloid, a peptide believed to play a key role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Eli Lilly & Co is developing an intravenous formulation of solanezumab for the treatment of mild-to-moderate AD. Acute and subchronic treatment with solanezu...

The exact mechanisms leading to Alzheimer's disease (AD) are largely unknown, limiting the identification of effective disease-modifying therapies. The two principal neuropathological hallmarks of AD are extracellular β-amyloid (Aβ), peptide deposition (senile plaques) and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles containing hyperphosphorylated tau pro...

Introduction: In an attempt of altering the natural history of Alzheimer's disease (AD), several compounds have been developed with the aim of inhibiting γ-secretase, the enzymatic complex generating β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides (Aβ(1 - 40) and Aβ(1 - 42)), from amyloid precursor protein (APP). APP is believed to be involved in the pathophysiological c...

Drugs currently used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) produce limited clinical benefits, and there is no disease-modifying therapy yet available. Compounds that inhibit or modulate γ-secretase, the pivotal enzyme that generates β-amyloid (Aβ), are potential therapeutics for AD. This article briefly reviews the profile of γ-secretase in...

Obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance have been associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment or dementia. Together, these risk factors cluster as metabolic syndrome (MetS). The first aim of this systematic review was to identify and critically review studies assessing associations between MetS and cognition, with...

There are no drugs available for slowing down the rate of deterioration of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). With the aim of altering the natural history of the disease, the pharmaceutical industry has designed and developed several compounds inhibiting g-secretase, the enzymatic complex generating b-amyloid (Ab) peptides (Ab1–40 and Ab1–42),...

Dementia is an increasingly common disease in the aging population, and the numbers are expected to rise exponentially in coming years. Therefore, there is a critical need to potentially individualize new strategies able to prevent and to slow down the progression of predementia and dementia syndromes. Despite a substantial increase in the epidemio...

Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in dementia, previously denominated as behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, are often more distressing, impairing, and costly than cognitive symptoms, representing a major health burden for older adults. These symptoms are common features of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and are one of the major risk facto...

Late-life depressive syndromes often arise in the context of predementia, dementia syndromes, and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Conversely, patients with a history of mood disorders are at higher risk of developing cognitive impairment. The high rate of co-occurrence of these two disorders is becoming a major health problem in older subjects for both t...

An increasing body of evidence suggested that intracellular lipid metabolism is dramatically perturbed in various cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases with genetic and lifestyle components (e.g., dietary factors). Therefore, a lipidomic approach was also developed to suggest possible mechanisms underlying Alzheimer's disease (AD). Neural m...

Low back pain (LBP) is a common musculoskeletal disorder that is highly prevalent in the general population. Management of this pathology includes numerous interventions depending on pain severity: analgesic, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroid injections. However, the effect size and duration of symptom relief are limited. Physical thera...

Several second-generation active β-amyloid (Aβ) vaccines and passive Aβ immunotherapies are under clinical investigation with the aim of boosting Aβ clearance from the brain of the Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. However, the preliminary cognitive efficacy of bapineuzumab, a humanized anti-Aβ monoclonal antibody, appears uncertain. Moreover, the...

There is a critical need to potentially individualize new strategies able to prevent and to slow down the progression of predementia and dementia syndromes. Only recently higher adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet was associated with decreased cognitive decline although the Mediterranean diet (MeDi) combines several foods, micro- and macronutrie...

At present, the search for preventive strategies for cognitive decline and dementia appears to be of crucial importance, given that the therapeutic options currently available have demonstrated limited efficacy. Cumulative epidemiological evidence suggested that vascular and vascular-related factors may be important for the development of age-relat...

Recent advances in our understanding of the neurobiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have led to the development of putative disease-modifying treatments. The most revolutionary of these approaches consists in the removal of brain β-amyloid (Aβ) via anti-Aβ antibodies. Brain imaging and neuropathological studies have shown the ability of both activ...

Preventing or postponing the onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and delaying or slowing its progression would lead to a consequent improvement of health status and quality of life in older age. Elevated saturated fatty acids could have negative effects on age-related cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Furthermore, at present, epi...

Cognition has already been considered as a component of frailty, and it has been demonstrated that it is associated with adverse health outcomes. We estimated the prevalence of frailty syndrome in an Italian older population and its predictive role on all-cause mortality and disability in nondemented subjects and in demented patients. We evaluated...

Neuropsychiatric symptoms, previously denominated as behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, are common features of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and are one of the major risk factors for institutionalization. At present, the role of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene in the development of neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD patients is unclear. I...

Introduction: Compounds that inhibit or modulate γ-secretase, the pivotal enzyme which generates β-amyloid (Aβ), are potential therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Areas covered: This article briefly reviews the profile of γ-secretase inhibitors that have reached the clinic and discusses the clinical issues surrounding this new class of an...

Dementia is an age-related progressive disorder with an enormous unmet medical need. It is characterized by relatively slow but progressive and chronic impairment in cognition, behaviour, and functionality. In several longitudinal studies, light to moderate drinking of alcoholic beverages has been proposed as being protective against the developmen...

As the therapeutic options currently available have demonstrated limited efficacy, the search for preventive strategies for cognitive decline and dementia are mandatory. A possible role of lifestyle-related factors was recently proposed for age-related changes of cognitive function, predementia syndromes, and the cognitive decline of degenerative (...

In recent years, interest in the potential role of metals in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has grown considerably. In particular, aluminium (Al) neurotoxicity was suggested after its discovery in the senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that represent the principal neuropathological hallmarks of AD. Al is omnipresent in everyda...

In an aging world, maintaining good health and independence for as long as possible is essential. Instead of hospitalization or institutionalization, the elderly with chronic conditions, especially those with cognitive impairment, can be assisted in their own environment with numerous 'smart' devices that support them in their activity of daily liv...

Previous studies examining the association between the glutathione S-transferase omega-1 (GSTO1) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and Alzheimer disease (AD) have yielded conflicting results. Furthermore, an effect of GSTO1 rs4925 on the age-at-onset (AAO) of AD was found in different studies on sporadic and familial AD cases, but with contras...

Recent prospective studies provided evidence that higher adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet could be associated with slower cognitive decline, reduced risk of progression from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease (AD), reduced risk of AD, and decreased mortality in AD patients. Furthermore, the Mediterranean diet (MeDi) combines sev...

In the last decade, new therapeutic approaches targeting β-amyloid (Aβ) have been discovered and developed with the hope of modifying the natural history of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The most revolutionary of these approaches consists in the removal of brain Aβ via anti-Aβ antibodies. After an active vaccine (AN1792) was discontinued in 2002 due to...

Drugs currently used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) partially stabilize patients' symptoms without modifying disease progression. Brain accumulation of oligomeric species of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides, the principal components of senile plaques, is believed to play a crucial role in the development of AD. Based on this hypothesis, huge...

A few studies have reported the use of botulinum toxin injections after spinal cord injury, as this is the gold standard to treat focal spasticity. We report such a case here. A 38-year-old woman who had become paraplegic and care-dependent secondary to cervico-thoracic intramedullary ependymoma, presented 8 months later with painful lower limb spa...

Gu and colleagues1 recently reported important results from the community-based Washington Heights–Inwood Columbia Aging Project (WHICAP), which involved 2148 individuals without dementia in New York. In this study, in an analysis of food combination, a dietary pattern that explained variations in Alzheimer disease (AD)–related nutrients and was st...

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is recognized as a prodromal phase of dementing disorders, and it has been suggested that oxidative stress may play a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and in predicting progression of MCI to AD. In the present article, on the basis of an increasing body of evidence from cross-sectional and longit...