No abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2) global pandemic is a devastating event that is causing thousands of victims every day around the world. One of the main reasons of the great impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on society is its unexpected spread, which has not allowed an adequate preparation. The scientific community is fighting against time for the production of a vaccine, but it is difficult to place a safe and effective product on the market as fast as the virus is spreading. Similarly, for drugs that can directly interfere with viral pathways, their production times are long, despite the great efforts made. For these reasons, we analyzed the possible role of non-pharmacological substances such as supplements, probiotics, and nutraceuticals in reducing the risk of Sars-CoV-2 infection or mitigating the symptoms of COVID-19. These substances could have numerous advantages in the current circumstances, are generally easily available, and have negligible side effects if administered at the already used and tested dosages. Large scientific evidence supports the benefits that some bacterial and molecular products may exert on the immune response to respiratory viruses. These could also have a regulatory role in systemic inflammation or endothelial damage, which are two crucial aspects of COVID-19. However, there are no specific data available, and rigorous clinical trials should be conducted to confirm the putative benefits of diet supplementation, probiotics, and nutraceuticals in the current pandemic.

Our results strongly support the hypothesis of a pivotal role of innate immunity in type-A Stanford AAD.

Cellular cardiomyoplasty (myogenic cell grafting) is actively being explored as a novel method to regenerate damaged myocardium. The adult human heart contains small populations of indigenous committed cardiac stem cells or multipotent cardiac progenitor cells, identified by their cell-surface expression of c-kit (the receptor for stem cell factor), P-glycoprotein (a member of the multidrug resistance protein family), and Sca-1 (stem cell antigen 1, a mouse hematopoietic stem cell marker) or a Sca-1-like protein. Cardiac stem cells represent a logical source to exploit in cardiac regeneration therapy because, unlike other adult stem cells, they are likely to be intrinsically programmed to generate cardiac tissue in vitro and to increase cardiac tissue viability in vitro. Cardiac stem cell therapy could, therefore, change the fundamental approach to the treatment of heart disease.

These results suggest that ELF-EMFs tuned at Ca2+-ICR could be used to drive cardiac-specific differentiation in adult cardiac progenitor cells without any pharmacological or genetic manipulation of the cells that will be used for therapeutic purposes.