Mauro Ceccanti - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Mauro Ceccanti

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 2007

In Italy, little is known about the spectrum of adverse fetal effects related to maternal alcohol... more In Italy, little is known about the spectrum of adverse fetal effects related to maternal alcohol use during pregnancy. In this paper, we report on the phenotype of Italian children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). These data were gathered as part of a field study assessing the prevalence of FASD in children in an in-school study in a rural area near Rome. The purposes of this paper are: (1) to completely characterize the clinical phenotype of a large cohort of Italian children with FASD; (2) to correlate and contrast the phenotype of this population with that observed in other populations and reported in the medical literature; (3) to discuss the drinking habits of Italian women, before, during and after pregnancy; and (4) to suggest mechanisms for intervention and prevention of FASD based on data gathered from this study.

Antioxidants

Head and neck cancer (HNC) concerns more than 890,000 patients worldwide annually and is associat... more Head and neck cancer (HNC) concerns more than 890,000 patients worldwide annually and is associated with the advanced stage at presentation and heavy outcomes. Alcohol drinking, together with tobacco smoking, and human papillomavirus infection are the main recognized risk factors. The tumorigenesis of HNC represents an intricate sequential process that implicates a gradual acquisition of genetic and epigenetics alterations targeting crucial pathways regulating cell growth, motility, and stromal interactions. Tumor microenvironment and growth factors also play a major role in HNC. Alcohol toxicity is caused both directly by ethanol and indirectly by its metabolic products, with the involvement of the oral microbiota and oxidative stress; alcohol might enhance the exposure of epithelial cells to carcinogens, causing epigenetic modifications, DNA damage, and inaccurate DNA repair with the formation of DNA adducts. Long-term markers of alcohol consumption, especially those detected in t...

Riv Psichiatr 2013; 48(5): 359-369 359 SUMMARY. It is now known that exposure to alcohol in utero... more Riv Psichiatr 2013; 48(5): 359-369 359 SUMMARY. It is now known that exposure to alcohol in utero produces a wide spectrum of morphological and behavioural outcomes in the offspring, commonly referred as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). A large body of literature documents cognitive deficits and behavioural-emotional difficulties in children with FASD. Researchers have found that individuals with FASD often experience a range of adverse life outcomes, called secondary disabilities, which include disrupted school experience, troubles with the law, confinement, inappropriate sexual behaviours on repeated occasions, and alcohol/drug related problems. Additionally, despite considerable data published on cognitive and behavioural disabilities in children with FASD, relatively little information is available on behavioural or pharmacological interventions for alcohol affected children. This paper will provide a comprehensive review of the neuropsychological and behavioural effects...

Rivista di psichiatria, 2018

Background Clinical practice of mental health services changed in 1978 after the Basaglia Law was... more Background Clinical practice of mental health services changed in 1978 after the Basaglia Law was passed, and it is now characterized by usually voluntary treatments offered by community-based services. That broadened the interventions’ focus from the single subject to their environment. Dual diagnosis is defined by WHO as «the co-occurrence in the same individual of a psychoactive substance use disorder and another psychiatric disorder». It is considered to be a “border territory” since entails networking between different medical services. Materials and methods A literature search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar. Search terms were: “guidelines”, “treatment”, “comorbidity”, “substance abuse”, “alcohol”, “dual-diagnosis”, “psychiatric illness”, “outpatient”, “inpatient”, “health care service”, “clinical practice”. National and regional regulations about health and addiction were screened too. Out of 598 titles, 31 studies were included in this arti...

Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanita, 2006

In Italy, little is known about the problems related to alcohol drinking during pregnancy. In thi... more In Italy, little is known about the problems related to alcohol drinking during pregnancy. In this paper, the Italian literature about this subject is briefly reviewed. This first Italian experience of a field study, aimed to the assessment of the prevalence of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) in an area in the Rome province (Lazio region) is reported. This in-field study was performed in the school years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 in cooperation with American researchers, most from University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), and Italian researchers from University "la Sapienza" of Rome. First grade children (n(o) = 1,086) of primary school were contacted to enter in the in-school study for the detection of FAS and FASD and were examined by the experts team of clinicians, pediatrics, psychologists. Preliminary consideration and the implications of this study for FASD prevention are discussed.

Functional neurology, 2009

This paper highlights gender peculiarities in the neuroscience of alcohol effects and draws atten... more This paper highlights gender peculiarities in the neuroscience of alcohol effects and draws attention to emerging problems due to simultaneous exposure to alcohol and environmental factors. All the available gender studies on alcohol show greater severity of alcohol-related damage, including brain damage, in females compared with males. The differences are due to physiological peculiarities that make women more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol. Today the trend to start consuming alcohol at a younger age, together with the growing number of women drinking excessively, is increasing the alcohol-related risks to women's health and justifying the need for better, gender-based studies of alcohol use and abuse. A further aspect to consider in this context is the risk of the occurrence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders and foetal alcohol syndrome in the offspring of women who drink during pregnancy. Several lines of evidence indicate that prenatal ethanol exposure can influence ...

The European Union is the heaviest-drinking region in the world, with the highest proportion of t... more The European Union is the heaviest-drinking region in the world, with the highest proportion of total diseases and premature deaths due to alcohol. In Italy, this phenomenon involves about the 13% of the population over 18 years and more than the 25% of the patients admitted to the Italian Hospitals. Unfortunately, only the 5% of these admitted patients are recognized as people affected by Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Insufficient knowledge, lack of access to care and the few resources available in the management of the problem are major causes of delays in the diagnosis, finally contributing to significant clinical consequences much harder and costly to handle. In view of the above considerations, this special issue of the Rivista di Psichiatria is dedicated to a series of articles concerning the Italian Guidelines for the treatment of alcohol dependence. Developed in collaboration with many experts and esteemed scientific societies such as the Referral Center for Alcoholism of the ...

SUMMARY. It is now known that exposure to alcohol in utero produces a wide spectrum of morphologi... more SUMMARY. It is now known that exposure to alcohol in utero produces a wide spectrum of morphological and behavioural outcomes in the offspring, commonly referred as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). A large body of literature documents cognitive deficits and behavioural-emotional difficulties in children with FASD. Researchers have found that individuals with FASD often experience a range of adverse life outcomes, called secondary disabilities, which include disrupted school experience, troubles with the law, confinement, inappropriate sexual behaviours on repeated occasions, and alcohol/drug related problems. Additionally, despite considerable data published on cognitive and behavioural disabilities in children with FASD, relatively little information is available on behavioural or pharmacological interventions for alcohol affected children. This paper will provide a comprehensive review of the neuropsychological and behavioural effects of prenatal alcohol exposure, includin...

Understanding the risk for all addictive drug and non-drug behaviors, especially, in the unmyelin... more Understanding the risk for all addictive drug and non-drug behaviors, especially, in the unmyelinated Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) of adolescents, is important and complex. Many animal and human studies show the epigenetic impact on the developing brain in adolescents, compared to adults. Some reveal an underlying hyperdopaminergia that seems to set our youth up for risky behaviors by inducing high quanta pre-synaptic dopamine release at reward site neurons. In addition, altered reward gene expression in adolescents caused epigenetically by social defeat, like bullying, can continue into adulthood. In contrast, there is also evidence that epigenetic events can elicit adolescent hypodopaminergia. This complexity suggests that neuroscience cannot make a definitive claim that all adolescents carry a hyperdopaminergia trait. The primary issue involves the question of whether there exists a mixed hypo or hyper –dopaminergia in this population. Method: Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS®) test...

Ticchi C, Attilia ML, Prastaro A, Toppo L, Rotondo C, Mancinelli R, Stabene M, Nocente R, Ceccant... more Ticchi C, Attilia ML, Prastaro A, Toppo L, Rotondo C, Mancinelli R, Stabene M, Nocente R, Ceccanti M. Apo-E in chronic alcoholics: a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases [abstract]. Alcohol and alcoholism. 2005;40(Suppl 1):i36-i37. ... There are no files associated with this item.

Minerva Obstetrics and Gynecology

BACKGROUND Although women belonging to sexual and gender minorities are more at risk of gynecolog... more BACKGROUND Although women belonging to sexual and gender minorities are more at risk of gynecological and breast cancer, pieces of evidence have been provided that this population finds hardships getting involved in cancer screening programs. This happens because they tend to avoid clinical settings because of fear of discrimination, heteronormative assumptions, heterosexism, classism and homophobic slurs by healthcare professionals. On the other hand, medical programs that allow healthcare providers to have experience with LGBTQ people are scarce and there are no specific tools to assess sexual cancer risks in this population. METHODS Studies included were obtained searching MEDLINE with keywords "lesbians", "queer women", "trans women", "LGBTQ women", "cervical cancer screening", "pap test", "oncology screening", "mammogram" and "prevention". 1577 papers were found. After filtering for species, sex, language and time range, 820 papers were left. The number of works included was 24 after title screening and 20 after abstract screening and full-text screening. CONCLUSIONS More research will be needed to develop tools with an inclusive, non-judgmental and open language capable of engaging the LGBTQ community. Cancer screening programs involve a large variety of healthcare providers including midwives. Midwives are multifaceted healthcare professionals whose large competence spectrum includes a variety of knowledge and skills going from antenatal care to education and research and they may efficiently provide cancer screenings. Midwives have been asking for more specialistic roles and calling for specific instruction to face the complex and ever-changing reality.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Objective: Alcohol affects many human systems and is involved in the pathogenesis of other diseas... more Objective: Alcohol affects many human systems and is involved in the pathogenesis of other diseases. Particular attention must be paid to alcohol consumption among young people. It has been shown that 25% of young people’s deaths are attributable to alcohol, and around 35 million people aged over 11 had consumed at least one alcoholic beverage in 2015. Study Design: Young people aged 18–24 were the most vulnerable to binge drinking in Italy, and 50.6% of teenagers drunk alcohol. Only a few studies in the literature have investigated those habits in university students. This study aims to examine alcohol use habits in a population of university students in Italy. Methods: Between 2018 and 2019, an anonymous online questionnaire was randomly sent to university students from 17 different universities in a network of research centres to study alcohol use disorders. The survey included socio-demographic information, questions about alcohol use, knowledge about alcohol consumption, and re...

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Current Neurovascular Research

Lipoprotein disorders are a major risk factor for atherosclerotic neuro-cardiovascular disease (A... more Lipoprotein disorders are a major risk factor for atherosclerotic neuro-cardiovascular disease (ACVD) and are heavily influenced by lifestyle, including alcohol drinking. Moderate drinkers have a lower ACVD risk than abstainers due to their higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, an important protective factor against ACVD. On the contrary, heavy drinking increases ACVD risk. According to an extensive literature body, ethanol intoxication modifies lipid serum profile and induces endothelial dysfunction. Single nucleotide polymorphisms may influence the relationship between alcohol drinking, HDL cholesterol level, and atherosclerotic risk. The risk of ACVD in heavy drinkers seems enhanced in patients with apolipoprotein E4 allele, interleukin- 6-174 polymorphism, and cholesteryl ester transfer protein TaqIB polymorphism. Apolipoprotein E4 is a known risk factor for ACVD, while apolipoprotein E2 has mixed effects. Therefore, even if a “protective role” may be attr...

Current Neuropharmacology

: The nerve growth factor (NGF) belongs to the family of neurotrophic factors. Initially discover... more : The nerve growth factor (NGF) belongs to the family of neurotrophic factors. Initially discovered as a signaling molecule involved in the survival, protection, differentiation, and proliferation of sympathetic and peripheral sensory neurons, it also participates in the regulation of the immune system and endocrine system. NGF biological activity is due to the binding of two classes of receptors: the tropomyosin-related kinase A (TrkA) and the low-affinity NGF pan-neurotrophin receptor p75. Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD) are one of the most frequent mental disorders in developed countries, characterized by heavy drinking, despite the negative effects of alcohol on brain development and cognitive functions that cause individual’s work, medical, legal, educational, and social life problems. In addition, alcohol consumption during pregnancy disrupts the development of the fetal brain causing a wide range of neurobehavioral outcomes collectively known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). The rationale of this review is to describe crucial findings on the role of NGF in humans and animals, when exposed to prenatal, chronic alcohol consumption, and on binge drinking.

Journal of Functional Foods

Journal of Immunology Research

Down Syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal disorder. Although DS individuals are mostly pe... more Down Syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal disorder. Although DS individuals are mostly perceived as characterized by some distinct physical features, cognitive disabilities, and cardiac defects, they also show important dysregulations of immune functions. While critical information is available for adults with DS, little literature is available on the neuroinflammation in prepubertal DS children. We aimed to evaluate in prepubertal DS children the serum levels of nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), oxidative stress as free oxygen radicals defense (FORD), free oxygen radicals test (FORT), and cytokines playing key roles in neuroinflammation and oxidative processes as TNF-α, TGF-β, MCP-1, IL-1α, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-12. No differences were found in NGF between DS children and controls. However, BDNF was higher in DS subjects compared to controls. We also did not reveal changes in FORD and FORT. Quite interestingly, the serum of DS child...