Cancer is fast becoming the most important cause of death worldwide, its mortality being mostly caused by late or wrong diagnosis. Novel strategies have been developed to identify early signs of cancer in a minimally obtrusive way, including the Electronic Nose (E-Nose) technology, user-friendly, cost- and time-saving alternative to classical approaches. This systematic review, conducted under the PRISMA guidelines, identified 60 articles directly dealing with the E-Nose application in cancer research published up to 31 January 2020. Among these works, the vast majority reported successful E-Nose use for diagnosing Lung Cancer, showing promising results especially when employing the Aeonose tool, discriminating subjects with Lung Cancer from controls in more than 80% of individuals, in most studies. In order to tailor the main limitations of the proposed approach, including the application of the protocol to advanced stage of cancer, sample heterogeneity and massive confounders, future studies should be conducted on early stage patients, and on larger cohorts, as to better characterize the specific breathprint associated with the various subtypes of cancer. This would ultimately lead to a better and faster diagnosis and to earlier treatment, possibly reducing the burden associated to such conditions.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a category of neurodevelopmental disturbances seriously affecting social skills, to which the scientific community has paid great attention in last decades. To date, their pathogenesis is still unknown, but several studies highlighted the relevance of gene-environment interactions in the onset of ASD. In addition, an immune involvement was seen in a wide number of ASD subjects, leading several researchers to hypothesize a possible common pathogenesis between ASD and immune disturbances, including Atopic Dermatitis (AD). In general, among potential contributing factors, microRNAs (miRNAs), small molecules capable of controlling gene expression and targeting mRNA transcripts, might represent one of the major circulating link, possibly unraveling the connections between neurodevelopmental and immune conditions. Under such premises, we conducted a systematic literature review, under the PRISMA guidelines, trying to define the panel of common miRNAs involved in both ASD and AD. The review retrieved articles published between January 1, 2005, and December 13, 2018, in PubMed, ScienceDirect, PsycARTICLES, and Google Scholar. We found a handful of works dealing with miRNAs in ASD and AD, with the most overlapping dysregulated miRNAs being miR-146 and miR-155. Two possible compounds are abnormally regulated in both ASD and AD subjects, possibly cross-contributing to the interactions between the two disorders, setting the basis to investigate more precisely the possible link between ASD and AD from another, not just clinical, perspective.

Phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA) are plasticizers used in many industrial products that can act as endocrine disruptors and lead to metabolic diseases. During the LIFE PERSUADED project, we measured the urinary concentrations of BPA and Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) metabolites in 900 Italian women representative of the Italian female adult population (living in the north, centre, and south of Italy in both rural and urban areas). The whole cohort was exposed to DEHP and BPA with measurable levels above limit of detection in more than 99% and 95% of the samples, respectively. The exposure patterns differed for the two chemicals in the three macro-areas with the highest urinary levels for DEHP in south compared to central and northern Italy and for BPA in northern compared to central and southern Italy. BPA levels were higher in women living in urban areas, whereas no difference between areas was observed for DEHP. The estimated daily intake of BPA was 0.11 μg/kg per day, about 36-fold below the current temporary tolerable daily intake of 4 μg/kg per day established by the EFSA in 2015. The analysis of cumulative exposure showed a positive correlation between DEHP and BPA. Further, the reduction of exposure to DEHP and BPA, through specific legislative measures, is necessary to limit the harmfulness of these substances.

Psychological stress is known to activate the autonomic nervous system (ANS), thus representing a useful target to be monitored to understand the physiological, unconscious effect of stress on the human body. However, little is known about how differently the ANS responds to cognitive and sensory stimulations in healthy subjects. To this extent, we enrolled 23 subjects and administered a stress protocol consisting of the administration of sensory (olfactory) and cognitive (mathematical) stressors. Autonomic parameters were unobtrusively monitored through wearable sensors for capturing electrocardiogram and skin conductance signals. The results obtained demonstrated an increase of the heart rate during both stress protocols, with a similar decrease of the heart rate variability. Cognitive stress test appears to affect the autonomic parameters to a greater extent, confirming its effects on the human body. However, olfactory stimulation could be useful to study stress in specific experimental settings when the administration of complex cognitive testing is not feasible.

Background and objectives: Smartphones are playing a pivotal role in everyday life, due to the opportunity they grant in terms of simplifying communication, entertainment, education and many other daily activities. Against such positive characteristics, smartphone interaction can result, in particular cases, in dangerous smartphone addiction patterns, possibly leading to several long-term detrimental psychophysiological conditions. Therefore, this pilot aims at assessing the feasibility of using an innovative approach, based on unobtrusive wearable sensors, used for the first time in this specific topic, and psychological questionnaires, to investigate the links between stress and emotions in a group of young, nonaddicted individuals performing smartphone interaction. Materials and methods: 17 volunteers were enrolled for the present study. The study protocol was divided into three phases, with an initial resting state (baseline) of three minutes, a smartphone interaction session (task) of the same length, and a final resting state (recovery), lasting three minutes. In the overall procedure, electrocardiogram (ECG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) measurements, both monitored by wearable sensors, were acquired in order to assess the functioning of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Results: A significant decrease was seen in pNN50 during the smartphone interaction with respect to the baseline (Z = −2.675, p = 0.007), whereas the Low-to-High Frequency (LF/HF) ratio at task was somewhat correlated with phubbing behaviors (r = 0.655, p = 0.029), assessed through dedicated questionnaires. Conclusions: Taken together with the slight changes in GSR data, such results suggest the feasibility of this approach to characterize the ANS activation during smartphone interaction among young individuals. Further studies should enlarge the study population and involve smartphone-addicted subjects in order to increase the scientific and clinical relevance of such findings.

Phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA), plasticizers used in several products of daily life, are considered as endocrine disrupters, therefore children exposure is particularly relevant. The LIFE PERSUADED project aims to define the following: (a) the evaluation of internal levels of DEHP’s metabolites and BPA in Italian children and their mothers, (b) the association of the exposure with puberty development and obesity diseases, and (c) the effects of exposure in juvenile in vivo model. The cross-sectional study has involved 2160 mother-child pairs, including males and females, children and adolescents, from urban and rural areas of North, Center, and South Italy. A structured questionnaire and a food diary are designed to evaluate the association between lifestyle variables potentially related to DEHP/BPA exposure and internal levels, through univariate and multivariate analyses. Two pilot case-control studies are carried out on idiopathic premature thelarche and precocious puberty (30 girls each group, aged 2–7 years) and idiopathic obesity (30 boys and 30 girls, aged 6–10 years), matched to healthy controls. BPA and DEHP’s metabolites are analyzed in urine samples from all recruited subjects. Clinical and toxicological biomarkers are evaluated in serum of case-control subjects. Moreover, the toxicity study is carried out in a juvenile rodent model exposed to mixtures of BPA and DEHP at dose levels recorded in children population. The scientific results of LIFE PERSUADED will contribute to risk assessment of BPA and DEHP.