Velio Bocci's research while affiliated with Università degli Studi di Siena and other places
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Publications (96)
An unfavorable combination of factors such as a wrong dogma, the fact that ozone is one of the worst troposphere pollutants and past misuse of ozone have
led to a poor consideration of ozone therapy. However, basic and clinical work, developed during the last two decades,clarified both the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of action of ozone in...
Purpose:
In critically ill patient it is observed a severe oxidative stress, not only due to the acute pathology but also for some therapeutic treatments. The aim of the present study was to analyze the variations of non-enzymatic antioxidants in plasma during veno-venous ECMO-treatment in a homogeneous population of critical patients with ARDS....
The beneficial effect of low doses of ozone on wound healing has been well documented and attributed mainly to its bactericidal and pro-oxidant properties. Because ozone itself does not penetrate the cells but immediately reacts with polyunsaturated fatty acids, its effects are the results of oxidative mediators. Among the molecule produces by the...
Ozone is a very reactive gas and is toxic for the respiratory system but, under precise rules, it can be therapeutically useful for human disease with a chronic oxidative stress. An unfavorable combination of factors such as a wrong dogma, the fact that ozone is one of the worst troposphere pollutants and past misuse of ozone have led to a poor con...
The state-of-the-art of oxygen-ozone therapy is now clarified and all the mechanisms of action of medical ozone are within classical biochemistry and molecular biology. The outcomes of standard treatments in peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) and dry-form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have been compared with the documented the...
The aim of this review is to elucidate the biochemical, molecular, immunological, and pharmaceutical mechanisms of action of ozone dissolved in biological fluids. Studies performed during the last two decades allow the drawing of a comprehensive framework for understanding and recommending the integration of ozone therapy for spinal pain.
An in-dep...
A chronic increase of oxidative stress is typical of serious pathologies such as myocardial infarction, stroke, chronic limb ischemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), type II-diabetes, age-related macular degeneration leads to an epic increase of morbidity and mortality in all countries of the world. The initial inflammation followed...
The leading cause of death across the globe is due to cardiovascular diseases complicated by a chronic oxidative stress only partially corrected with orthodox drugs. About 80% of deaths occur in low and middle-income countries of every continent. In order to reduce the burden of these diseases, it appears indispensable to integrate orthodox drugs w...
We read the article written by Gregg et al. [2014] (1). It is an excellent paper and describes that rates of type-2 diabetes related complications have deeply declined during the last fifteen years in spite of a tripled increase of the number of diabetic patients. The reduction of acute myocardial infarction, stroke, amputation and end-stage renal...
Oxygen-Ozone therapy is a complementary approach less known than homeopathy and acupuncture because it has come of age only three decades ago. This book clarifies that, in the often nebulous field of natural medicine, the biological bases of ozone therapy are totally in line with classical biochemistry, physiological and pharmacological knowledge....
The dry form of ARMD is becoming a serious problem because of the rise in the number of old individuals. No effective therapy is available in dry ARMD except for the illusory oral administration of antioxidant vitamins. Despite scepticism in the medical community, the therapeutic effect of ozonetherapy had been evaluated since 1996. This evaluation...
This paper tries to emphasize two relevant concepts: the first is that type 2 diabetes is a chronic diseases characterized by both a dysmetabolism and a chronic oxidative stress. A variety of orthodox drugs are somewhat able to correct the metabolic alterations, but do not deal with the chronic inflammation. Consequently, as the validity of precise...
Aim:
To evaluate the effect of systemic ozonated major autohaemotherapy (O(3)-AHT) in patients affected by dry age related macular degeneration (AMD).
Methods:
This study was a randomized, controlled clinical study. One hundred and forty patients with the diagnosis of AMD in both eyes, with the study eye presenting dry AMD and soft drusen, were...
During the last decade, the need of an effective integrated medicine has been discussed because the patient is not simply a human body but possesses a cognitive capacity and, if appropriately stimulated, an intrinsic capacity of restoring health. The problem is that among several complementary medical approaches only two or three are qualified owin...
The intervention strategies in various types of skin wounds include several treatment programs that depend on the identified disease. Several factors such as aging, defective nutrition, traumatism, atherosclerosis, and diabetes may contribute to the formation of a wound that has no tendency to heal due to a defective and complicated repair process....
It is proposed to discuss how ozonetherapy acts on patients affected by vascular and degenerative diseases. Ozone is a strong oxidant but, if used in small dosages on human blood ex vivo, acts as an acceptable stressor. By instantly reacting with PUFA bound to albumin, ozone is entirely consumed but generates two messengers acting in an early and i...
This review aims to highlight the advantages and safety of oxygen-ozone therapy (OOT) and to suggest ways to enhance its acceptance.
The treatment of a herniated disk by injecting a gaseous oxygen-ozone mixture inside the nucleus pulposus is a great clinical success. However, the use of OOT lags for a number of reasons, including lack of standardiz...
Abstract Stroke is one of the most debilitating diseases, and it is unfortunate that only a small percentage of patients can be treated with thrombolytic agents. Consequently, there is an urgent need of finding an alternative procedure for reoxygenating the so-called penumbra at the earliest time as possible for reducing morbidity and disability. A...
The potential mechanisms of action of ozone therapy are reviewed in this paper. The therapeutic efficacy of ozone therapy may be partly due the controlled and moderate oxidative stress produced by the reactions of ozone with several biological components. The line between effectiveness and toxicity of ozone may be dependent on the strength of the o...
The aim of this paper is to analyze why ozone can be medically useful when it dissolves in blood or in other biological fluids. In reviewing a number of clinical studies performed in Peripheral Arterial Diseases (PAD) during the last decades, it has been possible to confirm the long-held view that the inverted U-shaped curve, typical of the hormesi...
Besides oxygen, several other gases such as NO, CO, H2, H2S, Xe and O3 have come to age over the past few years. With regards to O3, its mechanisms of action in medicine have been clarified during the last two decades so that now a comprehensive framework for understanding and recommending ozone therapy in various pathologies is available. O3 used...
It is now well established that hyperglycemia, present in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, causes a variety of biochemical derangements leading to a diffused vascular damage responsible for several pathologic manifestations. Although preclinical and clinical studies have been performed by an unreliable administration route, the correct approach of...
This review aims to focus attention on the bio-oxidative therapy from the very beginning to date. While ultraviolet blood irradiation is now hardly performed, oxygen-ozone therapy, after an empirical stage, has grown to be precise and safe. Meantime, there is a renewed interest in the infusion of a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide in infectious...
The reader may be eager to examine in which diseases ozonetherapy can be proficiently used and she/he will be amazed by the versatility of this complementary approach (Table 9 1). The fact that the medical applications are numerous exposes the ozonetherapist to medical derision because superficial observers or sarcastic sceptics consider ozonethera...
Ozone is well recognized as a bactericidal agent and its beneficial effect on wound healing could be a consequence of this property. Because ozone itself does not penetrate the cells but immediately reacts with polyunsaturated fatty acids, its effects should be the results of oxidative reaction. For this reason, ozonated oils could be a way to deli...
During the last century the lifespan of human beings has increased from about 49 to almost 80 years owing to the great advances of biomedical sciences. This fact has strongly stimulated the idea that it may be possible to prolong productive life for another twenty years but paradoxically the problem of both hyper- and hyponutrition severely jeopard...
HOT is better known than ozone therapy because it is considered an orthodox approach and is widely used in the USA. This explains why many physicians and the layman often ask me if ozone therapy is a sort of HOT.
Owing to ozone instability, it needs to be generated only when needed and used at once. Generation of ozone can be achieved by: (1) UV radiation, (2) an electrochemical process and (3) by corona discharge but it must be noted that the first two methods yield a low ozone output and a poor regulation of production The ozonetherapist must have an ozon...
In this final chapter, I will try to ponder on the future of ozone therapy. The potent disinfectant activity of ozone against anaerobic bacteria was utilized during the World War I but, for the next six decades, there was no progress, which came only thanks to a few clinicians, who believed in its usefulness. A major advance came with the work of D...
This is one of the most important chapters because I believe that, if the ozonetherapist understands how ozone reacts with body fluids and cells, he can achieve useful therapeutic results. The administration of ozone causes a number of biochemical, pharmacological and psycho-neuro-immunological reactions to take place in a patient who is an essenti...
Parenteral administration of ozone may represent the key to solve some medical problems when orthodox medicine has failed to do so. To the old procedures: major and minor ozonated autohaemotherapy (AHT) and rectal insufflation, our work has permitted the addition of three new options and all of them will be critically examined in this chapter.
Even if the reader has only browsed through the previous chapters, he ought to have received my feeling that ozone has an enormous therapeutic potential that, so far, has been either disregarded, if not obstructed by world medical authorities. Reasons for delaying the use of ozone are multiple: while quacks and inexpert ozonetherapists are at fault...
As I already mentioned, ozone (from the Greek means to give off a smell) is a natural but unstable molecule. The pure gas has a soft sky-blue colour with a pungent, acrid smell. The molecule is composed of three oxygen atoms (O3) and, the molecular weight, in comparison to the oxygen diatomic molecule (32.00) is of 48.00. Ozone has a cyclical struc...
In the world, there are millions of people affected by dirty traumatic lesions, infected wounds, chronic torpid ulcers, bed sores, burns, herpetic lesions, fungal infections and insect stings, who suffer for a long time because the conventional topical treatments based on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs are not sufficiently effective. Unfor...
One reason for the unpopularity of ozonetherapy in the medical field is that toxicity of ozone is considered equal to that of ROS. In fact, there are substantial differences because ozonetherapy is occasional and can be controlled whereas endogenous ROS formation goes on unperturbed throughout life (Farber et al., 1990; Ames et al., 1993).
A vaccine against HIV able to generate properly neutralizing antibodies and an efficacious cytotoxic T lymphocyte response is of paramount importance. We are proposing a novel approach based on the collection of thousand small HIV-infected human plasma samples for preparing a global vaccine, able to counteract HIV diversity and mutagenicity. The po...
Metabonomic characterization of the effects caused by ozone and other stressors on normal human blood was performed. Samples of blood obtained from healthy subjects were treated ex vivo with increasing concentrations of ozone and/or with UV radiation and heat. (1)H-NMR analysis of plasma samples after treatments showed the quantitative variation of...
Gaseous ozone chemically reacts with unsaturated triglyceride substrates leading to ozonated derivatives with a wide potential applications, ranging from the petrochemical to the pharmaceutical industry. To date, an ultimate understanding of the ozone reactivity during sesame oil ozonation process as well as detailed (1)H and (13)C NMR assignments...
A study aimed to compare the efficiency of the ozone transfer of four hydrophilic dialysis filters, and one hydrophobic gas-exchange device (GED) has been performed. Obviously, the former should be specifically used only for dialysis. Unfortunately, some clinicians incautiously use them as GEDs. It has been shown that: (i) dialysis filters present...
After a long initial stage obscured by empirism and misconceptions, oxygen-ozonetherapy has now become a scientific discipline where the reactions between ozone and human blood are within the realm of orthodox biochemistry, physiology and pharmacology. Most of the basic mechanisms of action have been clarified and ozone can be considered a pro-drug...
Oxygen-ozone therapy, initially started as an empirical approach, has now reached a stage where most of the biological mechanisms of action of ozone have been clarified, showing that they are in the realm of orthodox biochemistry, physiology and pharmacology. Here we have reviewed a few relevant clinical applications and have shown that ozone thera...
Orthodox medicine has been very active in the field of topical anti-infective agents and current chemotherapy has procured valid antibiotics, antivirals, vaccines, antibodies, and antiparasitic drugs to be parenterally and/or topically used. However, these drugs may cause side effects and sometimes provide unsatisfactory results because pathogens b...
In an aging population vascular disorders well exemplified by the chronic limb ischemia, chronic heart failure, cerebral ischemia and age-related macular degeneration represent a serious medical and socio-economical problem. While there is always a not easily identifiable first pathogenic noxa, all of these diseases are characterized by ischemia, c...
After five decades characterized by empiricism and several pitfalls, some of the basic mechanisms of action of ozone in pulmonary toxicology and in medicine have been clarified. The present knowledge allows to understand the prolonged inhalation of ozone can be very deleterious first for the lungs and successively for the whole organism. On the oth...
The hypothesis of an autovaccine for HIV is borne out by: (1) the present lack of a valid vaccine; (2) by a remarkable improvement of the HAART, which however does not prevent HIV mutagenicity and a consequent valid immunological response and (3) the persistence of a hidden infection ready to thrive again. The preparation of the autovaccine is desc...
Online Veröffentlicht am 3.März 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). Zusammenfassung: Nach fünf Jahrzehnten, gekennzeichnet durch Empirie und einige Fallstricke, sind einige der grundlegenden Mechanismen der Tätigkeit des Ozons in der Lungentoxikologie und in der Medizin geklärt. Das gegenwärtige Wissen ermöglicht es zu erkennen...
After five decades characterized by empiricism and several pitfalls, some of the basic mechanisms of action of ozone in pulmonary toxicology and in medicine have been clarified. The present knowledge allows to understand the prolonged inhalation of ozone can be very deleterious first for the lungs and successively for the whole organism. On the oth...
The excessive blood oxidation devised with the Celacade System does not procure any advantage in chronic heart failure's patients. The irrationality of the procedure delays a therapeutic advantage and ought to be fully revised.
Ozone treatment of commercially available vegetable oils gives rise to the formation of chemical species that are responsible for the therapeutic properties of ozonated oil derivatives in dermatological diseases. In the last years, these products have been successfully used as a topical disinfectant in a number of serious skin affections. The medic...
That an oxidant can act either as a useful physiological messenger or a death signal is exemplified by the behaviour of blood
treated with different ozone doses. Blood is an ideal tissue because is composed of plasma, which has a wealth of reductants,
which can be easily measured before and after ozonation as well as cells able to cooperate to modu...
Ozonation of either human whole blood or saline-washed erythrocytes causes considerable damage to the latter and this result has opened a controversy. With the benefit of hindsight, it appears logical that once erythrocytes are deprived of the potent antioxidants of plasma, they become very sensitive to the oxidant effects of ozone. The aim of the...
We have investigated the performance of a new gas exchange device (GED), named L001, specifically devised for the ozonation of human blood during extracorporeal circulation. This procedure, defined with the acronym "EBOO," means "extracorporeal blood oxygenation-ozonation." The innovative GED is made of microporous, ozone-resistant, polipropylene h...
There is a general consensus that continuous inhalation of air polluted with ozone is detrimental for the lungs and vital organs. Even if the concentration of tropospheric ozone is slightly above the tolerated dose, toxicity ensues owing to the cumulative dose inhaled for months. However, in medicine ozone is used as a real drug and a precise conce...
Heme oxygenase-I (HO-1) has emerged as one of the most protective enzymes and its pleiotropic activities have been demonstrated in a variety of human pathologies. Unpublished observations have shown that HO-1 is induced after the infusion of ozonated blood into the respective donors, and many other experimental observations have demonstrated the ef...
We have clarified the role of the ozone concentration in relation to the resistance of human erythrocytes in whole human blood or in blood diluted either in saline or in distilled water. Spectrophotometric data related to haemoglobin were evaluated by exposing samples of fresh human blood directly to ozone doses (ratio 1:1 volume), within the thera...
There are a number of good experimental studies showing that exposure by inhalation to prolonged tropospheric ozone damages the respiratory system and extrapulmonary organs. The skin, if extensively exposed, may also contribute to the damage. The undoubtful strong reactivity of ozone has contributed to establish the dogma that ozone is always toxic...
The aim of this review is to dispel misconceptions and skepticism regarding ozone therapy and to clarify the biochemical and pharmacological mechanisms of action of ozone dissolved in biological fluids. The work performed in the last decade in our laboratory allows drawing a comprehensive framework for understanding and recommending ozone therapy i...
Some biochemical effects determined on human blood after addition of a gas mixture composed of oxygen (approximately 96%) and ozone (approximately 4%) have been evaluated. Ozone was used in a mild concentration ranging between 0.21 and 1.68 mM. Within few minutes after rapid mixing of the equal gas-liquid volumes, the ozone was consumed because by...
In contrast to normal tissues, tumors thrive in hypoxic environments. This appears to be because they can metastasize and secrete angiopoietins for enhancing neoangiogenesis and further tumor spread. Thus, during chronic ischemia, normal tissues tend to die, while neoplasms tend to grow. During the past two decades, it has been shown in arteriopath...
Ozone is an intrinsically toxic gas and its hazardous employment has led to a poor consideration of ozone therapy. The aim of this review is to indicate that a wrong dogma and several misconceptions thwart progress: in reality, properly performed ozone therapy, carried out by expert physicians, can be very useful when orthodox medicine appears inad...
In order to clarify the immunomodulating properties of ozone, we have investigated: a) the effects of stimulation on isolated peripheral human blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from normal donors with either ozone or ozonated serum; b) the range (in terms of O3 concentrations) of the therapeutic window; c) the stimulatory and toxic effects and d) the...
Empirical observations have shown that ozonated autohemotherapy markedly improves the symptoms of chronic limb ischemia (muscular pain at rest, intermittent claudication, etc) in atherosclerotic patients, but mechanisms of action remain unclear.
Human endothelial cells (HUVECs) are known to release nitrogen monoxide (NO) and we investigated the bio...
In a previous work we have shown that heparin, in the presence of ozone (O3), promotes a dose-dependent platelet aggregation, while after Ca2+ chelation with citrate, platelet aggregation is almost negligible. These results led us to think that aggregation may enhance the release of platelet components. We have here shown that indeed significantly...
Human thrombin has been shown to stimulate monocyte chemotaxis, phagocytosis, and interleukin (IL8) production, but the mechanisms responsible for stimulation are not well defined. In some cells, thrombin stimulation of proliferation appears to require both cleavage of the proteolytically activated receptor for thrombin (PAR1) and activation of a n...
We have shown that hypoxia (2% O2 ≈ pO2 14 mmHg) as opposed to O2 atmospheric pressure (20.9% O2 ≈ pO2 140 mmHg) can deeply affect the production of cytokines in human peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMC) in the presence or absence of a specific T-cell activator such as phytohemagglutinin (PHA). In hypoxia, interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, and interferon (...
We have shown that hypoxia (2% O2 approximately pO2 14 mmHg) as opposed to O2 atmospheric pressure (20.9% O2 approximately pO2 140 mmHg) can deeply affect the production of cytokines in human peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMC) in the presence or absence of a specific T-cell activator such as phytohemagglutinin (PHA). In hypoxia, interleukin (IL)-2...
The role of the lungs in the catabolism of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) either in normal rats, or in rats subjected to an acute cigarette smoking episode has been evaluated by using isolated and perfused lung preparations. After administration of TNF-alpha into the lung perfusion medium, there was no clearance of the cytokine in both con...
The role of the lungs in the catabolism of rat recombinant interferon-gamma, either in normal rats or in rats subjected to an acute cigarette smoking episode, was evaluated using an isolated and perfused lung preparation. After administration of interferon-gamma into the lung perfusion medium, there was no clearance of the cytokine in either contro...
We studied the effects of pharmacologically attainable concentrations of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) and gamma (IFN-gamma) on the growth of cells incubated under hypoxic conditions (2% O2; approximately 14 mm Hg partial pressure) or exposed to oxygen at atmospheric pressure (21% O2; approximately 147 mm Hg). The cells were from four IFN-sensitive...
After birth, host defences must be recruited to manage the transition from an almost sterile to a normal environment. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between cytokine plasma levels and phagocyte burst in mothers and neonates during the peripartal period. Plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-1 IL-6, tumour necrosis factor...
It has been postulated that favouring the absorption of interleukin-2 via lymphatics rather than venous capillaries after subcutaneous adminstration may improve its therapeutic index. We have now evaluated in 12 cancer patients the plasma pharmacokinetic of interleukin-2 either dissolved in water or in 20% albumin solution with an internal cross-ov...
Autohaemotherapy, after a bland treatment ex vivo of blood with ozone, is a fairly unknown medical procedure claimed to have therapeutic value in viral diseases and neoplasms. Having already shown that ozone acts as a mild inducer of cytokines, we have undertaken an investigation in normal rabbits and in normal volunteers aiming to evaluate eventua...
WISH and Hep-2 cells were incubated in an environment with atmospheric oxygen (20% O2, approximately 140 mmHg partial pressure), and under hypoxic conditions (2% O2, approximately 14 mmHg). The oxygen tension greatly affected the metabolism of the cells and their response to interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) and IFN-gamma. Under hypoxic conditions, the...
Human α-thrombin, in addition to its procoagulant activity, is a mitogen for fibroblasts and endothelial cells and a chemotaclic agent for monocytes. To further understand the complex physiological functions of thrombin, we investigated whether thrombin has any immunoregulatory function with regard to T cell activation. Using highly purified human...
This review describes the distribution and metabolism of therapeutic proteins and peptides in patients and laboratory animals. Three crucial facts have been emphasized: first, these proteins, which normally are released and act in microenvironments, are today administered systemically; second, these proteins are rather unspecific and while in the c...
Human natural interferon-beta (HuIFN-beta) was administered through different routes (intravenous [i.v.], intramuscular [i.m.], and subcutaneous [s.c.]) and its distribution in lymph and plasma was evaluated. After i.v. (bolus) administration the lymph/plasma ratio was about 0.35 but it significantly increased (11-fold) after i.m. administration. A...
Since clinical trials with TNF as a therapeutic agent for cancer are in progress, in this study we have chosen to compare the metabolic characteristics of 125I-labeled and unlabeled RTNF after administration through IM, SC, IP and PO routes. Both RTNF and 125I-RTNF plasma concentration profiles showed an absorption phase and a biexponential decline...