The Effect of Ramadan and COVID-19 on the Relationship between Physical Activity and Burnout among Teachers

The objective of this study was to explore the effect of COVID-19 and Ramadan on physical activity (PA) and burnout in teachers and the relationship between them. A total of 57 secondary school teachers from public education centers participated in the present study. They were aged between 29 and 52 years. To determine the effect of Ramadan and COVID-19 on PA and burnout, participants completed the online questionnaires before COVID-19, one week before Ramadan and during the second week of Ramadan. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire-BREF and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey were used to assess PA intensities and burnout, respectively. The data revealed that total PA (p < 0.001, p < 0.05, respectively) vigorous metabolic equivalent of task (MET) (p < 0.001, p < 0.05, respectively), moderate MET (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, respectively) were higher before COVID-19 and before Ramadan than during Ramadan. Regarding burnout subscales, emotional exhaustion (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, respectively) was higher before Ramadan than before COVID-19 and during Ramadan. A lower personal accomplishment was reported before Ramadan than before COVID-19 and during Ramadan (both p < 0.05). In addition, low to high correlations were observed between PA intensities and burnout subscales, except for the correlation between depersonalization and all PA intensities. In conclusion, Ramadan intermittent fasting along with PA was highly recommended for teachers and the general population to improve positive emotions and general health.     

Connecting aging biology and inflammation in the omics era

Aging is characterized by the accumulation of damage to macromolecules and cell architecture that triggers a proinflammatory state in blood and solid tissues, termed inflammaging. Inflammaging has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many age-associated chronic diseases as well as loss of physical and cognitive function. The search for mechanisms that underlie inflammaging focused initially on the hallmarks of aging, but it is rapidly expanding in multiple directions. Here, we discuss the threads connecting cellular senescence and mitochondrial dysfunction to impaired mitophagy and DNA damage, which may act as a hub for inflammaging. We explore the emerging multi-omics efforts that aspire to define the complexity of inflammaging — and identify molecular signatures and novel targets for interventions aimed at counteracting excessive inflammation and its deleterious consequences while preserving the physiological immune response. Finally, we review the emerging evidence that inflammation is involved in brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Our goal is to broaden the research agenda for inflammaging with an eye on new therapeutic opportunities.

Aging has been conceptualized as a continuous duel between damage accumulation — due to a combination of environmental and endogenous processes — and resilience mechanisms that cope with such stressors and resolve damage (1). With aging, resilience mechanisms become less effective at repairing or removing damage and preventing its deleterious effects on health (2). Persistent molecular and cellular damage due to exhausted resilience is ultimately expressed as phenotypes of aging, including inflammaging, susceptibility to chronic diseases, physical and cognitive impairments, and, ultimately, frailty and death.Atop the hierarchy of resilience is the immune system, the aggregate of cells, mediators, and signaling pathways that continuously patrol for pathogens or structural perturbations revealed as “unusual” molecular motifs. The immune system reacts to a variety of threats, such as symbiotic commensal and pathogenic microorganisms, pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) from endogenous and exogenous sources, and orchestrates defense responses aimed at eliminating the specific threat while minimizing damage to the host. While inflammation is important for tissue repair and regeneration, when abnormally intense or persistent, it can drive degeneration and chronic diseases.The immune system undergoes numerous and profound changes with aging, which are extensively reviewed elsewhere (3–5). Hallmarks of immune aging are (a) a state of proinflammatory activation characterized by high circulating levels of proinflammatory cytokines — such as IL-6 and TNF-α — and localized tissue inflammation, and (b) an aberrant response to antigens and pathogens that could either be blunted, such as in flu vaccination, or excessive, such as in response to SARS-CoV-2 (6).Considerable research in both animal models and humans has examined the causes and consequences of inflammaging (4). Although increased levels of inflammatory mediators (mostly IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α, and its receptors) are detected in all elderly individuals, higher levels of these biomarkers are associated with increased risk for many chronic conditions, including dementia, disability, and physical frailty. Inflammation’s causal role in cardiovascular disease was established by the CANTOS trial (Canakinumab Anti-Inflammatory Thrombosis Outcomes Study), which demonstrated that IL-1β inhibition reduced the risk of cardiovascular events versus the placebo, particularly in participants whose IL-6 levels were initially elevated (7).Mechanisms identified as hallmarks of aging biology and immune cell dysfunction have all been hypothesized as causes of inflammation (8). Aging researchers now recognize that measuring a few cytokines in circulation fails to capture the complexity and potential ramifications of inflammaging. Immune cells in tissues, particularly lymphocytes and resident macrophages, show tissue-specific age-related changes likely connected to specific pathological processes (9). By measuring hundreds or thousands of molecules in a few drops of blood, scientists are attempting to identify (a) signatures of accelerated aging that are both informative of the complexity and diversity of the response and predictive of health outcomes and (b) key molecules and molecular mechanisms that can be targeted for intervention (10).Given the extreme complexity of inflammaging, we focus herein on a few topics that have attracted considerable attention and controversy in the field. First, we discuss cellular senescence as a source of local and systemic inflammation. We highlight evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction is a nexus that binds impaired mitophagy with DNA damage and cellular senescence to ultimately foster a chronic inflammatory state. We then summarize efforts to identify circulating signatures of inflammation through “omics.” Finally, we review emerging data indicating that inflammation is involved in brain aging and dementia. Our intent is to discuss the causes and consequences of inflammaging and to enrich the research agenda toward the development of new therapeutic strategies.     

Adriamycin-induced histamine release from heart tissue in vitro

 It has been proven that the anthracyclines induce an important, noncytotoxic histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells. As mast cells derived from different tissues exhibit marked heterogeneity, the effect of Adriamycin in comparison with other antineoplastic agents was tested on fragments of the right heart auricle, which contain a great number of mast cells. In this experimental model, Adriamycin induced a dose-dependent histamine release that was significantly limited by the antiexocytotic drug sodium cromoglycate. The antineoplastic agents cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil, in contrast, did not provoke any comparable histamine release. In the formulation employed in clinical settings, paclitaxel was also capable of inducing a histamine release comparable with that of Adriamycin; the exocytotic activity, however, was also evident when the tissue fragments were treated with Cremophor EL alone, without the addition of paclitaxel, whereas treatment of samples with paclitaxel dissolved in ethanol did not induce any releasing action. These data thus suggest that the secretory activity should be ascribed to the solvent Cremophor EL and not to paclitaxel. The release of histamine induced by paclitaxel in Cremophor EL/ethanol was also limited by sodium cromoglycate. These results again indicate that histamine release from mast cells derived not only from the peritoneal cavity but also from the cardiac tissue could play a role in the cardiotoxicity of anthracyclines and of paclitaxel in the clinically employed formulation. Received: 18 August 1996 / Accepted: 22 December 1996     

The best approach for early prediction of fetal gender by using free fetal DNA from maternal plasma

OBJECTIVES: Detection of free fetal DNA (ffDNA) in maternal blood during pregnancy has given rise to the possibility of developing new noninvasive approaches for early prenatal diagnosis.On a large-scale study, two protocols of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were compared in order to establish which Y-specific locus, either multicopy DYS14 or single copy SRY sequence, was the most suitable for developing a test with high diagnostic efficiency for early fetal gender assessment. The second aim was to assess whether the combination of the two detection systems could increase the performance of the prenatal test. METHODS: We analyzed 145 plasma samples from healthy pregnant women between 11 and 12 weeks of singleton gestation. For each sample, fetal gender was determined by using both protocols (DYS14 and SRY) during the same real-time PCR run. RESULTS: The data obtained by the DYS14 and SRY assays showed an efficiency in fetal gender prediction of 97.9 and 80%, respectively. It is not advisable to combine the two protocols because this association does not help in further improvements in fetal gender prediction. CONCLUSIONS: DYS14 assay is the best approach for early fetal gender assessment because it is more sensitive, accurate, and efficient than the SRY assay.     

Management of uterine giant myoma

BACKGROUND: Giant myomas of the uterus are uncommon, particularly in developed countries. CASE: This report illustrates a case of a woman with a bilobated giant myoma of the uterus weighed in total 27.7 kg. The patient had an abdominal distension first noted 18 months before and the personal history evidenced difficulties in walking and tiredness. Abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy were carried out. CONCLUSIONS: The knowledge of the different clinical manifestation of these myomas may allow to face that with adequate perioperative care, in order to assure a carefully and successfully surgery, although sometimes a benign pathology may be not easy to suspect in a first time.