Giuseppe Tagarelli

Casimir Funk: His Discovery of the Vitamins and Their Deficiency Disorders

The history of the discovery of vitamins is the history of their deficiency disorders. Their discoverer was Casimir Funk, who is considered the ‘father of vitamin therapy’. In his experimental research, Funk studied the interrelationships in the human body of those elements that Eijkman had demonstrated in animals, particularly in birds. In his experimental research, Funk identified the dietetic factors whose lack caused the ‘deficiency disorders’, as he called human beri-beri, scurvy, rickets and pellagra. In 1911, he designated these factors ‘vitamins’ (‘vita’ = life, and ‘amine’ = a nitrogenous substance essential for life); this name was accepted by the scientific community in 1912.

Linking Italy and the Balkans. A Y-chromosome perspective from the Arbereshe of Calabria

Background: The Arbereshe are an Albanian-speaking ethno-linguistic minority who settled in Calabria (southern Italy) about five centuries ago. Aim: This study aims to clarify the genetic relationships between Italy and the Balkans through analysis of Y-chromosome variability in a peculiar case study, the Arbereshe. Subject and methods: Founder surnames were used as a means to identify a sample of individuals that might trace back to the Albanians at the time of their establishment in Italy. These results were compared with data of more than 1000 individuals from Italy and the Balkans. Results: The distributions of haplogroups (defined using 31 UEPs) and haplotypes (12 STRs) show that the Italian and Balkan populations are clearly divergent from each other. Within this genetic landscape, the Arbereshe are characterized by two peculiarities: (a) they are a clear outlier in the Italian genetic background, showing a strong genetic affinity with southern Balkans populations; and (b) they retain a high degree of genetic diversity. Conclusion: These results support the hypothesis that the surname-chosen Arbereshe are representative of the Y-chromosome genetic variability of the Albanian founder population. Accordingly, the Arbereshe genetic structure can contribute to the interpretation of the recent biological history of the southern Balkans. Intra-haplogroup analyses suggest that this area may have experienced important changes in the last five centuries, resulting in a marked increase in the frequency of haplogroups I2a and J2.

Treating epilepsy in Italy between XIX and XX century

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder which has been recognized since antiquity. This paper evaluates the prophylactic and therapeutic remedies used by folk medicine to cure epilepsy in Italy. The data has been collected by reviewing written sources of physicians, ethnographers, folklorists between the late nineteenth and mid twentieth century. This approach leads to unearthing of 78 heterogeneous healing methods that have been divided into 16 (20%) magical, 20 (26%) religious and 42 (54%) natural remedies. The latter has been subdivided into 18 (43%) animal remedies, 17 (40%) plant remedies and 7 (17%) other remedies. Religious and magical remedies were used with the conviction that they would be able to provide recovery from epilepsy and to ward off evil spirits which had taken possession of the sick. Interestingly, the herbal remedies highlighted 12 (70%) plants that play or might play an important role with respect to the mechanisms that generate the epileptic seizures. This leads us to reconsider the historical significance of folk medicine, too often it is underestimated owing to its use of ineffective remedies, born of incompetence and superstition.

Identification of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency in a population with a high frequency of thalassemia

High frequencies of both thalassemia trait (5.2%) and glucose 6‐phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency for only males (1.3%) have been observed in the Calabrian population. The G6PD activity measurement was carried out on 1239 samples of whole blood from Calabrian subjects of both sexes (age range 10–55) by a differential pH‐metry technique which was quite suitable to determine the G6PD deficiency in mass screenings. The analyzed subjects showed: only the thalassemia trait; or only the G6PD deficiency; or only the total iron serum deficiency; or G6PD deficiency associated with the thalassemia trait or with the total iron serum deficiency. The G6PD heterozygous subjects have an enzymatic activity which is masked by both the thalassemia trait and the total iron serum deficiency. In a population showing high frequencies of both thalassemia trait and G6PD deficiency, the comparison of G6PD activity of heterozygous subjects also affected with the thalassemia trait is more reliable if referred to the enzymatic activity of the carriers of the latter inherited anomaly rather than to G6PD activity of normal subjects.

Karl Landsteiner: a hundred years later.

A hundred years after the publication of his first work on the human blood groups, we celebrate Karl Landsteiner (Fig. 1), recognizing his role as father of the science of blood transfusion (1, 2), and one of the fathers of the population genetics (3), the tissue transplantation (4), and immunology (5). He was a man who, without funds or assistance, developed a deep understanding of the individual differences in human blood. Landsteiner was so averse to praise, so honest and so good, that he never achieved complete happiness in his personal life, finding his greatest satisfaction in his solitary scientific work. Indeed, he was so sad and melancholy that Hans Zinsser, a famous colleague in immunology who taught at the Harvard Medical School, told him repeatedly: “Karl, you are always crabby, always complaining.” Karl Landsteiner was born on 14 June 1868, son of the enterprising reporter Leopold Landsteiner, from whom he inherited great self-control, a notable fondness for logical thought, and a strong tenacity. Karl Landsteiner, however, maintained that his father’s seriousness and methodical habits were irritating. However, Landsteiner inherited from his mother, Fanny Hess, great modesty and reserve, attributes that ought to distinguish all great and famous men. Although it is usually recorded that Karl Landsteiner was born in the city of Vienna, he was actually born in the Jewish quarter, referred to as Baden bei Wien. His Jewish origin caused many difficulties for him during his scientific career. He was a precocious and model student. After completing primary school and the first 4 years of secondary school, in 1880 he attended the Staatsgymnasium in Linz as an “honours student”. During these studies he developed a great interest in the natural sciences and mathematics. Landsteiner entered the University of Vienna in 1885 and studied under the most famous scientists of the day: Langer, with whom he studied anatomy; Claus, who specialized in zoology; and Schenk, from whom he learned histology. He also studied hematological chemistry and the metabolism of the blood with Mauthner and Ernst von Fleishl. However, organic chemistry remained his first love, and his experimental work was conducted in the footsteps of Professor Ernst Ludwig. All his publications in this field anticipated his subsequent serological studies. On February 21, 1891, Landsteiner took a degree in medicine. He then began work in the laboratory of the medical clinic directed by Otto Kahler, who discovered and described the Kahler syndrome, today called “multiple myeloma.” From 1891 to 1893 Landsteiner completed his apprenticeship under two experts in the field of organic chemistry. First, in Würzberg, he studied under Emil Hermann Fischer (6), who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1902 for his works about the organic synthetic approaches to glucose, oligopeptides, and caffeine. Later, in Munich, Landsteiner worked with Eugen von Bamberger in the laboratory of the Academy of Sciences and published jointly with him a treatise on the reaction of diazobenzol to calium permanganate. It was during this period that Karl 1 Address correspondence to: Antonio Tagarelli, Istituto di Medicina Sperimentale e Biotecnologie-CNR, Contrada Burga 87050 Mangone (CS), Italy.

Paul Ehrlich: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1908

We wish to commemorate Paul Ehrlich on the centennial of his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1908. His studies are now considered as milestones in immunology: the morphology of leukocytes; his side-chain theory where he defined the cellular receptor for first time; and his clarification of the difference between serum therapy and chemotherapy. Ehrlich also invented the first chemotherapeutic drug: compound 606, or Salvarsan. We have used some original documents from the Royal Society of London, where Ehrlich was a fellow, and from Leipzig University, where he took a degree in medicine.

Shared language, diverging genetic histories: high-resolution analysis of Y-chromosome variability in Calabrian and Sicilian Arbereshe

The relationship between genetic and linguistic diversification in human populations has been often explored to interpret some specific issues in human history. The Albanian-speaking minorities of Sicily and Southern Italy (Arbereshe) constitute an important portion of the ethnolinguistic variability of Italy. Their linguistic isolation from neighboring Italian populations and their documented migration history, make such minorities particularly effective for investigating the interplay between cultural, geographic and historical factors. Nevertheless, the extent of Arbereshe genetic relationships with the Balkan homeland and the Italian recipient populations has been only partially investigated. In the present study we address the genetic history of Arbereshe people by combining highly resolved analyses of Y-chromosome lineages and extensive computer simulations. A large set of slow- and fast-evolving molecular markers was typed in different Arbereshe communities from Sicily and Southern Italy (Calabria), as well as in both the putative Balkan source and Italian sink populations. Our results revealed that the considered Arbereshe groups, despite speaking closely related languages and sharing common cultural features, actually experienced diverging genetic histories. The estimated proportions of genetic admixture confirm the tight relationship of Calabrian Arbereshe with modern Albanian populations, in accordance with linguistic hypotheses. On the other hand, population stratification and/or an increased permeability of linguistic and geographic barriers may be hypothesized for Sicilian groups, to account for their partial similarity with Greek populations and their higher levels of local admixture. These processes ultimately resulted in the differential acquisition or preservation of specific paternal lineages by the present-day Arbereshe communities.

Italian folk plant-based remedies to heal headache (XIX-XX century)

BACKGROUND Headache has been recognized since antiquity. From the late nineteenth to the early to mid-twentieth century, Italian folk remedies to treat headache were documented in a vast corpus of literature sources. AIM The purpose of this paper is to bring to light the plant-based treatments utilized by Italian folk medicine to heal headache in an attempt to discuss these remedies from a modern pharmacological point of view. Moreover, we compare the medical applications described by Hippocrates, Pliny the Elder, Dioscorides, Galen and Serenus Sammonicus with those utilized by Italian folk medicine to check if they result from a sort of continuity of use by over two thousand years. RESULTS A detailed search of the scientific data banks such as Medline and Scopus was undertaken to uncover recent results concerning the anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive and analgesic activities of the plants. Fifty-eight (78.4%) plant-based remedies have shown in vivo, in vitro or in human trials a large spectrum of anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive and analgesic activities. Moreover, thirty-one of remedies (41.9%) were already included in the pharmacopoeia between the 5th century BC and the 2nd century AD. CONCLUSION Italian folk medicine could be a promising source of knowledge and could provide evidences for active principles that have not as of yet been fully used for their potential.

From Disease to Holiness: Religious-based health remedies of Italian folk medicine (XIX-XX century).

BackgroundThe relationship between spirituality, religion and medicine has been recognized since antiquity. Despite large differences in their history, society, economy and cultures human communities shared a common belief that spirituality and religion played an important role in the healing of diseases.MethodsThe study of religious remedies used by Italian folk medicine in order to treat diseases was based on a review of literature sources compiled between the late nineteenth century and the early to mid twentieth century.ResultsThis approach lead to the unearthing of heterogeneous healing methods that have been divided into different categories: Saints, Pilgrimages, Holy Water/Blessed Oil, Blessings, Religious Objects, Contact, Signs, Formulas and The Religious Calendar.Some of these practices, partly still performed in Italy, are a part of the landscape of the official Catholic Church, others come out of a process of syncretism between the Catholic Religion, the magic world and pre-Christian rituals.ConclusionsThe vastus corpus of religious remedies, highlighted in the present work, shows the need for spirituality of the sick and represent a symbolic framework, that works as a filter, mediates, containing the pain that constantly fills everyone’s lives in remote ages even in the third millennium. All of this confirms how important the health-workers know and interpret these existential needs from anthropological and psychological points of view.

Genetic characterization of the historical Albanian ethnic minority of Calabria (Southern Italy)

Three historical ethnic minorities are present in Calabria: Albanians, Greeks, and Occitans. The Albanian ethnic minority is the more populous, having settled in Calabria between the 15th and 17th centuries, and these populations are now located in the provinces of Cosenza and Catanzaro. In the present study the Albanian population structure is analyzed based on the allele frequencies of six classic genetic markers: ACP, GC, PGM1, AK, ADA, and 6PGD. The results show a significant heterogeneity between the Albanian population in Calabria and the population in Molise. Therefore the cultural and reproductive isolation of the Albanian ethnic minority of Calabria is related to a great genetic peculiarity. Moreover, the frequencies of some alleles, particularly those of the PGM*1W31 variant, and the analysis of the R matrix still show the actual peculiar genetic structure of the Albanians of Calabria, although the genetic flow is evident in the decrease of endogamy and in the increase in the degree of mixing.