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Introduction: Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). To date, few data on clinical features and risk factors for disease severity and death by gender are available., Aim: The current study aims to describe from a sex/gender perspective the characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 cases occurred in the Italian population from February 2020 until October 2021., Method and Results: We used routinely collected data retrieved from the Italian National Surveillance System. The highest number of cases occurred among women between 40 and 59 years, followed by men in the same age groups. The proportion of deaths due to COVID-19 was higher in men (56.46%) compared to women (43.54%). Most of the observed deaths occurred in the elderly. Considering the age groups, the clinical outcomes differed between women and men in particular in cases over 80 years of age; with serious or critical conditions more frequent in men than in women., Conclusions: Our data clearly demonstrate a similar number of cases in women and men, but with more severe disease and outcome in men, thus confirming the importance to analyse the impact of sex and gender in new and emerging diseases.

Informal caregivers are the unpaid persons who take care of a not self-sufficient family member, due to old age or chronic illness or disability. As in all the European countries, the demand for informal cares is further increased as a result of the ageing societies and the social and political fallout of informal caregiving is a very current and important issue. We have overviewed some international scientific literature, with the aim of understanding the key research objectives to be firstly pursued to address this problem. In particular, we focused on the psycho-physical health differences in informal caregivers, subjected to long lasting load and prolonged stress, as compared to non caregiver persons. We also underlined the relationship between caregiver health differences and stress, gender type, kind of the care recipient (autism) and social and political situation in Europe and Italy. The collected data indicate the necessity to prevent caregiver psychological and physical health by appropriate laws, especially supporting women, often most involved in care activities.

Consistent epidemiological and clinical evidence strongly indicates that chronic non-communicable diseases are largely associated with four lifestyle risk factors: inadequate diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol use. Notably, obesity, a worldwide-growing pathological condition determined by the combination between inadequate diet and insufficient physical activity, is now considered a main risk factor for most chronic diseases. Dietary habits and physical activity are strongly influenced by gender attitudes and behaviors that promote different patterns of healthy or unhealthy lifestyles among women and men. Furthermore, different roles and unequal relations between genders strongly interact with differences in social and economic aspects as well as cultural and societal environment. Because of the complex network of factors involved in determining the risk for chronic diseases, it has been promoting a systemic approach that, by integrating sex and gender analysis, explores how sex-specific biological factors and gender-related social factors can interact to influence the health status.

Polyphenols have been demonstrated to have clear antioxidant activities in vitro. However, in complex biological systems, they exhibit additional properties which are yet poorly understood. Apoptosis is a genetically controlled and evolutionarily conserved form of cell death of critical importance for the normal embryonic development and for the maintenance of tissue homeostasis in the adult organism. The malfunction of the death machinery may play a primary role in various pathologic processes, leading to proliferative or degenerative diseases. Polyphenols can directly interact with specific steps and/or proteins regulating the apoptotic process in different ways depending on their concentration, the cell system, the type or stage of the pathological process. A growing body of in vitro evidence has provided interesting insights in the comprehension of the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the modulation of apoptosis. However additional and harder studies are needed to better elucidate the mechanisms of action and the real in vivo effectiveness of polyphenols in order to propose them as potential candidates for chemoprevention and treatment of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Excessive inflammation is considered as a critical factor in many human diseases, including cancer, obesity, type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and aging. Compounds derived from botanic sources, such as phenolic compounds, have shown anti-inflammatory activity in vitro and in vivo. Recent data suggest that polyphenols can work as modifiers of signal transduction pathways to elicit their beneficial effects. These natural compounds express anti-inflammatory activity by modulation of pro-inflammatory gene expression such as cyclooxygenase, lipoxygenase, nitric oxide synthases and several pivotal cytokines, mainly by acting through nuclear factor-kappa B and mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling. This review will discuss recent data on the control of inflammatory signalling exerted by some dietary polyphenols contained in Mediterranean diet. A clear understanding of the molecular mechanisms of action of phenolic compounds is crucial in the valuation of these potent molecules as potential prophylactic and therapeutic agents.

Fruit and beverages such as tea and red wine represent the main sources of polyphenols. Despite their wide distribution, the healthy effects of dietary polyphenols have come to the attention of nutritionists only in the last years. The main factor responsible for the delayed research on polyphenols is the variety and the complexity of their chemical structure. Emerging findings suggest a large number of potential mechanisms of action of polyphenols in preventing disease, which may be independent of their conventional antioxidant activities. To establish evidence for the effects of polyphenol consumption on human health and to better identify which polyphenols provide the greatest effectiveness in disease prevention, it is first of all essential to determine the nature and the distribution of these compounds in our diet, and secondly to better know their bioavailability.

Among diet antioxidants, polyphenols, naturally occurring in vegetables, fruits and plant-derived beverages such as tea, red wine, and extra virgin olive oil, are the most abundant ones. In vitro cell culture experiments have shown that polyphenols possess antioxidant properties, and it is thought that these activities can contribute to the prevention of several oxidative stress-associated diseases. It has however become clear that the mechanisms of action of polyphenols go beyond their intrinsic reducing capabilities, being able to exert other additional effects that are as yet poorly understood. This article gives an overview of the most recent data on the subject and describe the additional functions that polyphenols can have in biological systems, focusing on their effects on glutathione and its related enzymes. Evidence is provided of a tight connection between exogenous and endogenous antioxidants that appear to act in a coordinated fashion. Experimental data indicate that polyphenols may offer an indirect protection by activating endogenous defense systems. It is reasonable to hypothesize that this is achieved, at least in part, through antioxidant responsive elements (ARE) present in the promoter regions of many of the genes inducible by oxidative and chemical stress. The latest studies strongly suggest that dietary polyphenols can stimulate antioxidant enzyme transcription through ARE.

A number of congenital conditions include oxidative stress as a phenotypic hallmark, in spite of very distinct genotypic assets. These disorders include some rare chromosomal instability syndromes and two frequent congenital conditions, Down's syndrome and cystic fibrosis. All of these disorders generate severe biomedical and social handicaps in their progression, resulting in neurological symptoms or malformations, early ageing and cancer proneness. The onset of oxidative stress has been related to excess formation or defective detoxification of reactive oxygen species. Investigations conducted so far have focussed on individual disorders and have utilised a range of different methodologies, so leading to a number of unanswered questions regarding the role(s) for oxidative stress in these disorders. Comparative studies are required, based on homogeneous methods, to provide insights into the pathogenesis of each individual condition, which may open up new avenues for studying ageing and cancer.