MicroRNAs alteration as early biomarkers for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases: New challenges in pesticides exposure.

This review summarizes the current knowledge linking cancer and neuro-degenerative diseases to dysregulation of microRNA network following pesticide exposure. Most findings revealed differential miRNA expression targeting biomolecules and pathways involved in various neoplastic localizations and neurodegenerative diseases. A growing body of evidence in recent literature indicates that alteration of specific miRNAs can represent an early biomarker of disease following exposure to chemical agents, including pesticides. Different miRNAs seem to regulate cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, and metastasis via many biological pathways through modulation of the expression of target mRNAs. The evaluation of miRNA expression levels may be used to develop new non-invasive strategies for the prediction and prognosis of many diseases, including cancer. However, the application of miRNAs as diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers in the clinical field is extremely challenging.

Biological risk for healthcare workers: current Italian law and guidelines on vaccination strategies.

The assessment and management of biological risk has always been a primary goal toward which occupational medicine has focused its efforts, in particular in healthcare workplaces. Healthcare professionals represent a category of workers at high risk for infections, many of which are vaccine-preventable diseases. There are various reasons for vaccinating healthcare workers, including to prevent illness among them so as to reduce absenteeism, to ensure an effective health service to users and to reduce social costs. Recently, the issue of vaccinations has been the subject of many debates. Vaccination is not always appreciated by health operators, and the reasons for low vaccination coverage are several and heterogeneous. This paper focuses on current Italian law and vaccination policies, along with the international background, evaluating the effectiveness of current policies and the consequences on public health. Overall, preventing infectious diseases means reducing costs, cases and outbreaks, shows responsibility toward third parties, and improves general welfare.

Occupational exposure to pesticides as a possible risk factor for the development of chronic diseases in humans (Review).

It is well known that pesticides are widely used compounds. In fact, their use in agriculture, forestry, fishery and the food industry has granted a huge improvement in terms of productive efficiency. However, a great number of epidemiological surveys have demonstrated that these toxic compounds can interact and exert negative effects not only with their targets (pests, herbs and fungi), but also with the rest of the environment, including humans. This is particularly relevant in the case of workers involved in the production, transportation, preparation and application of these toxicants. Accordingly, a growing body of evidence has demonstrated the correlation between occupational exposure to pesticides and the development of a wide spectrum of pathologies, ranging from eczema to neurological diseases and cancer. Pesticide exposure is often quite difficult to establish, as many currently used modules do not take into account all of the many variables that can occur in a diverse environment, such as the agricultural sector, and the assessment of the real risk for every single worker is problematic. Indeed, the use of personal protection equipment is necessary while handling these toxic compounds, but education of workers can be even more important: personal contamination with pesticides may occur even in apparently harmless situations. This review summarises the most recent findings describing the association between pesticide occupational exposure and the development of chronic diseases.

Serum levels of copper, selenium and manganese in forestry workers testing IgG positive for Brucella, Borrelia, and Rickettsia.

The aim of this study is to measure the alterations in the trace levels of serum copper (Cu), selenium (Se), and manganese (Mn) in forestry workers testing immunoglobulin G (IgG)-positive for Brucella, Borrelia, and Rickettsia. The study was conducted on a sample of 758 subjects (560 male and 198 female). All the subjects underwent medical examinations, which investigated particularly the presence of clinical signs compatible with zoonoses, and routine blood tests from venous blood sample, which tested previous immunisation versus cited microorganisms and serum concentration of Cu, Se, and Mn. The subjects were divided according to IgG positivity versus the cited microorganisms. The group of subjects with IgG positive versus Brucella showed statistically significant higher Cu levels than controls, while the Mn levels were not; the group of subjects with IgG positive versus Rickettsia showed higher levels of all three tested metals. The concentration of the examined metals did not show statistically significant difference between IgG-positive subjects versus subjects with Borrelia compared to controls. These data could confirm the role of both Cu and Se  in the regulation of immune response.