Giancarlo Pesce

Certara

Background: Smoking is the main risk factor for most of the leading causes of death. Cessation is the single most important step that smokers can take to improve their health. With the aim of informing policy makers about decisions on future tobacco control strategies, we estimated time and age trends in smoking cessation in Europe between 1980 an...

Background Emerging evidence suggests that androgens and estrogens have a role in respiratory health, but it is largely unknown whether levels of these hormones can affect lung function in adults from the general population. This study investigated whether serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), a key precursor of both androgens and estrogen...

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a national lockdown was imposed in Italy, which dramatically changed the habits of the population with consequences on their mental well-being. We investigated if the individual context of the confinement - including the home and family setup, work and health conditions and lifestyle - have impacted...

Background Accumulating evidence suggests that in utero exposures can influence the development of the immune system and thus contribute to disease development. Studies investigating the association between prenatal exposures to heavy metals and atopic diseases, however, are scarce. Methods Children from the EDEN birth cohort were prospectively fo...

Despite experimental studies suggesting a disease-modifying role of oestrogens, results from epidemiological studies on the relation of reproductive characteristics and hormonal exposures with Parkinson disease in women are conflicting. We used the data from the E3N cohort study including 98,068 women aged 40-65y in 1990 followed until 2018. Parkin...

Maternal educational attainment (MEA) shapes offspring health through multiple potential pathways. Differential DNA methylation may provide a mechanistic understanding of these long-term associations. We aimed to quantify the associations of MEA with offspring DNA methylation levels at birth, in childhood and in adolescence. Using 37 studies from h...

Background: Prenatal caffeine exposure may influence offspring health via DNA methylation, but no large studies have tested this. Materials & methods: Epigenome-wide association studies and differentially methylated regions in cord blood (450k or EPIC Illumina arrays) were meta-analyzed across six European cohorts (n = 3725). Differential methylati...

Background Guidelines recommend anticoagulant (AC) extended treatment for patients with unprovoked VTE or VTE provoked by permanent risk factors (ESC 2019, CHEST 2021). A recent observational study has shown that apixaban extended treatment (>6 months) vs no extended treatment in patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE), regardless of risk factor...

Background: Seasonal variations in environmental exposures at birth or during gestation are associated with numerous adult traits and health outcomes later in life. Whether DNA methylation (DNAm) plays a role in the molecular mechanisms underlying the associations between birth season and lifelong phenotypes remains unclear. Methods: We carried...

Background Women are advised to limit caffeine consumption during pregnancy. To uncover the potential epigenetic effects of intrauterine caffeine exposure, we investigated the association of maternal caffeine consumption during pregnancy with genome-wide DNA methylation in cord blood. Methods We meta-analysed results from epigenome-wide methylatio...

Background Sleep is important for healthy functioning in children. Numerous genetic and environmental factors, from conception onwards, may influence this phenotype. Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation have been proposed to underlie variation in sleep or may be an early-life marker of sleep disturbances. We examined if DNA methylation at...

Background: The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea is higher in women after menopause. This is suggested to be a result of an altered sex hormone balance but has so far not been confirmed in a population-based study. Objective: To investigate whether serum concentration of estrogens and progesterone are associated with the prevalence of sleep...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an uncommon disease with a long prodromal period and higher incidence in men than women. Large cohort studies of women with a long follow-up are needed. Within the E3N French cohort study (98,995 women, 40–65 years at baseline), we identified 3,584 participants who self-reported PD or used anti-parkinsonian drugs over 27...

Cognitive skills are a strong predictor of a wide range of later life outcomes. Genetic and epigenetic associations across the genome explain some of the variation in general cognitive abilities in the general population and it is plausible that epigenetic associations might arise from prenatal environmental exposures and/or genetic variation early...

Introduction Si les données expérimentales suggèrent un effet neuro-protecteur des estrogènes, les résultats des études sur l’exposition hormonale et le risque de maladie de Parkinson (MP) chez les femmes sont contradictoires. Objectifs Évaluer l’influence des facteurs reproductifs et de l’utilisation d’hormones exogènes sur le risque de MP chez l...

Objective: Maternal glycemic dysregulation during pregnancy increases the risk of adverse health outcomes in her offspring, a risk thought to be linearly related to maternal hyperglycemia. It is hypothesized that changes in offspring DNA methylation (DNAm) underline these associations. Research design and methods: To address this hypothesis, we...

Mercury (Hg) is a ubiquitous heavy metal that originates from both natural and anthropogenic sources and is transformed in the environment to its most toxicant form, methylmercury (MeHg). Recent studies suggest that MeHg exposure can alter epigenetic modifications during embryogenesis. In this study, we examined associations between prenatal MeHg e...

Maternal anxiety during pregnancy is associated with adverse foetal, neonatal, and child outcomes, but biological mechanisms remain unclear. Altered foetal DNA methylation (DNAm) has been proposed as a potential underlying mechanism. In the current study, we performed a meta-analysis to examine the associations between maternal anxiety, measured pr...

Background Low income, a known prognostic indicator of various chronic respiratory diseases, has not been properly studied in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We hypothesize that a low income has an adverse prognostic impact on IPF. Methods Patients were selected from the French national prospective cohort COFI. Patients’ income was assessed t...

Background: Results regarding the association between hormonal exposure and risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) are heterogeneous. Objectives: To investigate the association of reproductive life characteristics with PD among postmenopausal women. Methods: The PARTAGE case-control included 130 female cases and 255 age-matched female controls. Info...

Objectives and Methods the current understanding of the interplay between cardiovascular (CV) risk and Covid-19 is grossly inadequate. CV risk-prediction models are used to identify and treat high risk populations and to communicate risk effectively. These tools are unexplored in Covid-19. The main objective is to evaluate the association between C...

Raising tobacco prices effectively reduces smoking, the main risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Using the Health Impact Assessment tool “DYNAMO-HIA”, this study quantified the reduction in COPD burden that would occur in Italy, England and Sweden over 40 years if tobacco prices were increased by 5%, 10% and 20% over curre...

Introduction La vaccination antigrippale est recommandée chaque année chez les patients atteints de fibrose pulmonaire idiopathique (FPI). Les infections virales sont reconnues comme des triggers d’exacerbation aiguë (EA). L’objectif de cette étude était d’étudier l’influence de la vaccination annuelle contre la grippe sur le risque d’EA. Méthodes...

Cognitive skills are a strong predictor of a wide range of later life outcomes. Genetic and epigenetic associations across the genome explain some of the variation in general cognitive abilities in the general population and it is plausible that epigenetic associations might arise from prenatal environmental exposures and/or genetic variation early...

Background Differential DNA methylation associated with allergy might provide novel insights into shared or unique etiology of asthma, rhinitis and eczema. Objective We sought to identify DNA methylation profiles associated with childhood allergy. Methods Within the European Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy (MeDALL) consortium, we perfor...

Altered maternal haemoglobin levels during pregnancy are associated with pre-clinical and clinical conditions affecting the fetus. Evidence from animal models suggests that these associations may be partially explained by differential DNA methylation in the newborn with possible long-term consequences. To test this in humans, we meta-analysed the e...

The aim of this study is the creation of a five-step ultrasound examination to evaluate and monitor Heart Failure (HF) patients during hospitalization and follow-up. "ABCDE" is the acronym of an Italian multicentre study composed of a consecutive sample of HF patients admitted from the Emergency to the Internal Medicine/Geriatric Departments of sev...

Investigating COPD trends may help healthcare providers to forecast future disease burden. We estimated sex- and smoking-specific incidence trends of pre-bronchodilator airflow obstruction (AO) among adults without asthma from 11 European countries within a 20-year follow-up (ECRHS and SAPALDIA cohorts). We also quantified the extent of misclassifi...

Background and objectives Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases can frequently coexist. Understanding their link may improve disease management. We aimed at assessing the associations of chronic bronchitis (CB), asthma and rhinitis with cardiovascular diseases and risk factors in the general population. Methods We used data collected in the Gene...

Introduction: Recent research focused on the interaction between land cover and the development of allergic and respiratory disease has provided conflicting results and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In particular, green space, which confers an overall positive impact on general health, may be significantly contributing to adv...

This review covers the role of ultrasonography as an essential non-invasive diagnostic approach when facing patients with anemia, a common clinical problem. Abdomen ultrasound is well recognized as a first-line examination in the setting of blood loss, both acute and chronic. Less is clear about the additional opportunities, given by ultrasound in...

In observational studies, early menopause is associated with lower FVC and a higher risk of spirometric restriction, but not airflow obstruction. It is however unclear if this association is causal. We therefore used a Mendelian randomisation (MR) approach, which is not affected by classical confounding, to assess the effect of age at natural menop...

BACKGROUND: Although many studies have highlighted the link between asthma/rhinitis and depression, it is still unclear which characteristics of these diseases are associated with the risk of depression. We aimed to explore the relationship between depression and asthma or rhinitis in a representative sample of the Italian general population. METH...

Observational studies suggest menopause, especially at an early age, is associated with lower lung function. This association may be causal or could be explained by residual confounding (e.g. smoking). We used Mendelian randomization (MR) to assess the causal effect of age at menopause on lung function. Using UK Biobank data of 94,742 naturally pos...

DHEA-S is the most abundant circulating steroid hormone in humans. Low concentrations of DHEA-S have been linked to several chronic diseases, but it is unclear if DHEA-S affects respiratory health. As part of the ALEC project [EU H2020 grant #633212], the associations of DHEA-S concentrations with lung function levels and decline were evaluated in...

Abstract Epidemiological studies suggest menopause, especially at an early age, is associated with lower lung function. This association may be causal or could be explained by residual confounding (e.g. smoking). We used a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach, which is not affected by classical confounding, to assess the causal effect of age at me...

Background Tobacco consumption is the largest avoidable health risk. Understanding changes of smoking over time and across populations is crucial to implementing health policies. We evaluated trends in smoking initiation between 1970 and 2009 in random samples of European populations. Methods We pooled data from six multicentre studies involved in...

Minimal data set to replicate the analyses. (CSV)

Distribution of the subjects by centre and study. a ECRHS, European Community Respiratory Health Survey; RHINE, Respiratory Health in Northern Europe study; GA2LEN, Global Allergy and Asthma Network of Excellence study; ISAYA, Italian Study on Asthma in Young Adults; GEIRD, Gene Environment Interactions in Respiratory Diseases study. (DOCX)

Number of samples, participation rates, and characteristics of participants by study. a original study samples, which correspond to centres (or centres crossed by age group in GEIRD); see S1 Table. b participation rates at the first wave (baseline) for studies with follow up data. In the case of ECRHS clinical, ECRHS Italy and RHINE, which were fol...

Cohort effects in males (blue dots) and females (red dots). a a APC modelling. The dots represent deviance residuals from Age-Period models according to Cohort (birth year). The fitting lines were obtained by local polynomial smoothing for a visual purpose. P-values are from Wald tests: the null hypothesis is that the regression coefficients for bi...

Comparison of age at smoking initiation reported at different study waves in ECRHS and ISAYA. (DOCX)

Supplementary information on the original studies. (DOCX)

Crude rates of smoking initiation per 1000/year (and person-years at risk) in males by region, age group, and period. a Countries represented are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom (North Europe); Estonia, Macedonia, Poland (East Europe); Italy, Portugal, Spain (South Europe); Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerlan...

Crude rates of smoking initiation per 1000/year (and person-years at risk) in females by region, age group, and period. a Countries represented are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom (North Europe); Estonia, Macedonia, Poland (East Europe); Italy, Portugal, Spain (South Europe); Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerl...

Distribution of participants by study and year. a a Grey boxes: subjects identified either in cross-sectional studies or at the first wave of cohort studies; hollow boxes: subjects with follow-up data. (DOCX)

Flow-chart showing the different stages and waves of the ECRHS study (in italics), and the three cohorts that stem from the ECRHS study (in bold). a data not used for the analysis (no information on smoking histories was available). b data not used for the analysis (the question on age at smoking initiation was different from the questions used in...

This study aims at assessing NF-kB activity in unstable angina (UA) patients free of symptoms after a 1 year follow-up (1YFU). Plasma oxidized low-density lipoproteins (oxLDL), circulating NF-kB, Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and Interleukin 1β (IL-1β), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), as markers of oxidative stress and inflammation and plasma...

Background It has been debated, but not yet established, whether increased airway responsiveness can predict COPD. Recognising this link may help in identifying subjects at risk. Objective We studied prospectively whether airway responsiveness is associated with the risk of developing COPD. Methods We pooled data from two multicentre cohort studi...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138570.].

Background: Patients with severe chronic diseases and advanced cancer receiving palliative care, have a complex range of pain and anxiety that can arise early in the course of illness. We studied two groups of patients with severe chronic diseases who participated in a nonrandomized clinical trial of early integration of clinical hypnosis in palli...

Introduction and Objective Smoking has a large health and economic burden on populations, much of which is through increased risk of COPD, a major cause of disease, disability and death. COPD is set to rise with population ageing, and smoking initiation rates are increasing in young adolescents across Europe. We used Health Impact Assessment (HIA)...

Background: A number of studies have highlighted that prenatal adverse events can affect the offspring's health status. We evaluated whether pregnancy complications might affect the respiratory health of the offspring during infancy and childhood. Methods: In 2006, all the children (3-14 years, N = 3,907) living in the Viadana district (Mantua, Ita...

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is a valid tool for the assessment of heart failure (HF) through the quantification of the B-lines. This study in HF patients aims to evaluate if LUS: (1) can accelerate the discharge time; (2) can efficiently drive diuretic therapy dosage; and (3) may have better performance compared to the amino-terminal portion of B type na...

Background: Pollen exposure has acute adverse effects on sensitized individuals. Information on the prevalence of respiratory diseases in areas with different pollen concentrations is scanty. Aim: We performed an ecologic analysis to assess whether the prevalence of allergic rhinitis and asthma in young adults varied across areas with different...

A package of the most effective tobacco control policies (MPOWER) was established in 2008 by the World Health Organization to strengthen global anti-smoking commitment. The Ageing Lungs in European Cohorts (ALEC) consortium includes multicentre studies (ECRHS, GA2LEN, RHINE, GEIRD) that collected data on smoking histories of 124,452 subjects survey...

Chronic lower respiratory diseases (CLRDs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The objectives of this study were to estimate the trends in CLRD mortality in Italy, and the specific contributions of age, time period and birth cohort in driving these trends. Population and cause-of-death data in Italy between 1979 and 2010 were c...

Background: Several studies highlighted a great variability, both between and within countries, in the prevalence of asthma and chronic airways diseases. Aim: To evaluate if geo-climatic variations can explain the heterogeneity in the prevalence of asthma and respiratory diseases in Italy. Methods: Between 2006 and 2010, a postal screening que...

Background: It is well known that asthma prevalence has been increasing all over the world in the last decades. However, few data are available on temporal trends of incidence and remission of asthma. Objective: To evaluate the rates of asthma incidence and remission in Italy from 1940 to 2010. Methods: The subjects were randomly sampled from...

We evaluated whether pregnancy complications might affect the respiratory health of the offspring during infancy and childhood. In 2006, all the children (3-14 years, n=3,907) living in the Viadana district (northern Italy) were surveyed through a parental questionnaire about perinatal life, early-life and current respiratory diseases: bronchitis,...

Background Studies on the prevalence of eczema and atopic dermatitis (AD), and on the factors associated with these diseases, have been mostly performed in children, whereas studies on adult populations are lacking.Objectives To determine the prevalence of eczema and AD in the Italian adult population, and to investigate risk factors associated wit...

Industrial air pollution is a public health hazard. Previous evidence documented increased respiratory symptoms and hospitalizations in children who live near the factories in the largest chipboard manufacturing district in Italy (Viadana). To evaluate the association of outdoor exposure to formaldehyde and NO2 with markers of early genotoxic damag...

Chronic inflammatory airway disorders have been reported to be associated with vascular diseases of the heart and central nervous system, but their association with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a high-prevalence vascular illness, has not been investigated. To evaluate the association of asthma and rhinitis with intermittent claudication, whic...

INTRODUZIONE L'asma e la broncopneumopatia cronica ostruttiva (BPCO) costituiscono un importante problema di salute pubblica (1, 2) per la loro prevalenza elevata e ancora in crescita (3), per la morbosità, la mortalità e i costi economici ad esse associati (4). Tali patologie innammatorie croniche dell'apparato respiratorio sono caratterizzate da...

Mounting evidence suggests that fetal exposures may exert long-term effects on the function of the skin and of the immune system. This study aimed at assessing whether maternal complications during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of eczema during childhood. The associations between hypertension/preeclampsia, febrile infections, or g...

Dusts are one of the main air pollutants emitted during cement manufacturing. A substantial part of these are breathable particles that are less than 10μm in diameter (PM10), which represent a potential threat for the health of the exposed population. This study aimed at evaluating the short-term effects of PM10 concentrations on the health of chil...

The joint distribution of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has not been well described. This study aims at determining the prevalence of self-reported physician diagnoses of asthma, COPD and of the asthma-COPD overlap syndrome and to assess whether these conditions share a common set of risk factors. A screening questionnaire...

Pollutants emitted from wood processing factories may be harmful to the health of the population. The aim of this prospective cohort study was to evaluate whether proximity to wood factories was associated with the risk of hospital admissions in children living in the Viadana district (Italy), where two big chipboard industries and other smaller wo...

Background: La storia naturale dell'asma e delle malattie atopiche comin-cia in utero. Mancano studi che indagano l'influenza dell'esposizione fetale a eventi stressanti durante la gravidanza (SLEP) sulla comparsa di asma e di ma-lattie atopiche. Obiettivo: Esaminare se i bambini di madri che hanno speri-mentato SLEP presentano un rischio maggiore...

Background: The natural history of asthma and atopic diseases begins in utero. Studies investigating the influence of foetal exposure to maternal stressful life events during pregnancy (SLEP) on asthma and atopic diseases are lacking. Aim: To test whether the children of mothers who had experienced SLEP are at an increased risk for asthma, atopi...

[This corrects the article on p. e30885 in vol. 7.].

A major challenge in the management of patients with prostate cancer is identifying those individuals at risk of developing metastatic disease, as in most cases the disease will remain indolent. We analyzed pooled serum samples from 4 groups of patients (n = 5 samples/group), collected prospectively and actively monitored for a minimum of 5 yrs. Pa...

Metacore pathway analysis of proteins differentially expressed between metastatic and progressing patient groups, showing proteins mapping to the classical immune response pathway. Proteins shown with a red thermometer symbol represent increased expression levels. (TIF)

Disease characteristics of the 20 patients comprising the 4 groups of patients analysed by iTRAQ. (DOC)

Full list of the 122 proteins identified by iTRAQ. (RTF)

Proteins differentially expressed between various cancer groups and BPH. (S3a) Proteins differentially expressed between the non-progressing and BPH group. (S3b), proteins differentially expressed between the progressing and BPH group. (S3c), proteins differentially expressed between the metastasis and BPH group. (RTF)

Representative tandem mass spectra for C-reactive protein and insert showing the peak area at the low mass/charge (m/z) region with the iTRAQ reporter ions. (TIF)

Proteins differentially expressed between the progressing versus non-progressing group. (RTF)