The new outbreak of coronavirus from december 2019 has brought attention to an old viral enemy and has raised concerns as to the ability of current protection measures and the healthcare system to handle such a threat. It has been known since the 1960s that coronaviruses can cause respiratory infections in humans; however, their epidemic potential was understood only during the past two decades.

Protein kinase B (Akt), similar to many other protein kinases, is at the crossroads of cell death and survival, playing a pivotal role in multiple interconnected cell signaling mechanisms implicated in cell metabolism, growth and division, apoptosis suppression and angiogenesis. Akt protein kinase displays important metabolic effects, among which are glucose uptake in muscle and fat cells or the suppression of neuronal cell death. Disruptions in the Akt-regulated pathways are associated with cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and neurological diseases. The regulation of the Akt signaling pathway renders Akt a valuable therapeutic target. The discovery process of Akt inhibitors using various strategies has led to the identification of inhibitors with great selectivity, low side-effects and toxicity. The usefulness of Akt emerges beyond cancer therapy and extends to other major diseases, such as diabetes, heart diseases, or neurodegeneration. This review presents key features of Akt structure and functions, and presents the progress of Akt inhibitors in regards to drug development, and their preclinical and clinical activity in regards to therapeutic efficacy and safety for patients.

No abstract

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is an umami substance widely used as flavor enhancer. Although it is generally recognized as being safe by food safety regulatory agencies, several studies have questioned its long‐term safety. The purpose of this review was to survey the available literature on preclinical studies and clinical trials regarding the alleged adverse effects of MSG. Here, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the reported possible risks that may potentially arise following chronic exposure. Preclinical studies have associated MSG administration with cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, neurotoxicity, low‐grade inflammation, metabolic disarray, and premalignant alterations, along with behavioral changes. However, in reviewing the available literature, we detected several methodological flaws, which led us to conclude that these studies have limited relevance for extrapolation to dietary human intake of MSG risk exposure. Clinical trials have focused mainly on MSG effects on food intake and energy expenditure. Besides its well‐known impact on food palatability, MSG enhances salivary secretion and interferes with carbohydrate metabolism, while the impact on satiety and post‐meal recovery of hunger varied in relation to meal composition. Reports on MSG hypersensitivity or links of its use to increased pain sensitivity and atopic dermatitis were found to have little supporting evidence. Many of the reported negative health effects of MSG have little relevance for chronic human exposure and are poorly informative as they are based on excessive dosing that does not meet with levels normally consumed in food products. We conclude that further clinical and epidemiological studies are needed, with an appropriate design, accounting for both added and naturally occurring dietary MSG.

italy is currently one of the countries seriously affected by the coVid-19 pandemic. as per 10 april 2020, 147,577 people were found positive in a total of 906,864 tests performed and 18,849 people lost their lives. among all cases, 70.2% of positive, and 79.4% of deaths occurred in the provinces of northern italy (lombardi, emilia romagna, Veneto and Piemonte), where the outbreak first started. Originally, it was considered that the high number of positive cases and deaths in italy resulted from coVid-19 initially coming to italy from china, its presumed country of origin. However, an analysis of the factors that played a role in the extent of this outbreak is needed. Evaluating which factors could be specific for a country and which might contribute the most is nevertheless complex, with accompanying high uncertainty. The purpose of this work is to discuss some of the possible contributing factors and their possible role in the relatively high infection and death rates in northern italy compared to other areas and countries.

Autoimmune diseases (ADs) are rapidly increasing worldwide and accumulating data support a key role of disrupted metabolism in ADs. This study aimed to identify an improved combination of Total Fatty Acids (TFAs) biomarkers as a predictive factor for the presence of autoimmune diseases. A retrospective nested case-control study was conducted in 403 individuals. In the case group, 240 patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease, multiple sclerosis, vitiligo, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, and other AD were included and compared to 163 healthy individuals. Targeted metabolomic analysis of serum TFAs was performed using GC-MS, and 28 variables were used as input for the predictive models. The primary analysis identified 12 variables that were statistically significantly different between the two groups, and metabolite-metabolite correlation analysis revealed 653 significant correlation coefficients with 90% level of significance (p < 0.05). Three predictive models were developed, namely (a) a logistic regression based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA), (b) a straightforward logistic regression model and (c) an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model. PCA and straightforward logistic regression analysis, indicated reasonably well adequacy (74.7 and 78.9%, respectively). For the ANN, a model using two hidden layers and 11 variables was developed, resulting in 76.2% total predictive accuracy. The models identified important biomarkers: lauric acid (C12:0), myristic acid (C14:0), stearic acid (C18:0), lignoceric acid (C24:0), palmitic acid (C16:0) and heptadecanoic acid (C17:0) among saturated fatty acids, Cis-10-pentadecanoic acid (C15:1), Cis-11-eicosenoic acid (C20:1n9), and erucic acid (C22:1n9) among monounsaturated fatty acids and the Gamma-linolenic acid (C18:3n6) polyunsaturated fatty acid. The metabolic pathways of the candidate biomarkers are discussed in relation to ADs. The findings indicate that the metabolic profile of serum TFAs is associated with the presence of ADs and can be an adjunct tool for the early diagnosis of ADs.

Telomere length, a marker of cellular aging, decreases with age and it has been associated with aging-related diseases. environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle factors, affect the rate of telomere shortening which can be reversed by telomerase. Telomerase activation by natural molecules has been suggested to be an anti-aging modulator that can play a role in the treatment of aging-related diseases. This study aimed to investigate the effect of natural compounds on telomerase activity in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMcs). The tested compounds included Centella asiatica extract formulation (08aGTlF), astragalus extract formulation (nutrient 4), Ta-65 (containing Astragalus membranaceus extract), oleanolic acid (oa), maslinic acid (Ma), and 3 multi-nutrient formulas (nutrients 1, 2 and 3) at various concentrations. The mean absorbance values of telomerase activity measured following treatment with some of the above-mentioned formulations were statistically significantly higher compared to those of the untreated cells. in particular, in order of importance with respect to telomerase activation from highest to lowest, 08aGTlF, oa, nutrient 4, Ta-65, Ma, nutrient 3 and nutrient 2, triggered statistically significant increase in telomerase activity compared to the untreated cells. 08aGTlF reached the highest levels of telomerase activity reported to date, at least to our knowledge, increasing telomerase activity by 8.8 folds compared to untreated cells, while nutrient 4 and oa were also potent activators (4.3-fold and 5.9-fold increase, respectively). on the whole, this study indicates that the synergistic effect of nutrients and natural compounds can activate telomerase and produce more potent formulations. Human clinical studies using these formulations are required to evaluate their mode of action. This would reveal the health benefits of telomerase activation through natural molecules and would shed new light onto the treatment of aging-related diseases.

Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.