Covid-19 pandemic in north-west Italy: the potential role of meteorology, air pollution and pollens

Background

Italy was the first western country severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic attesting more than 16 million cases since the outbreak began. Po Valley regions have been most afflicted, with Piedmont ranking sixth at 25,899 cases/100,000 inhabitants. Within this area, air dispersion is hampered making Po Valley a recognised air pollution hotspot. We aimed to explore the potential association between the environment and Covid-19 incidence.

Methods

Daily key air pollutants (NO2, NO, CO, O3, PM10, and PM2.5), meteorological parameters (temperature, %humidity, wind speed and solar radiation), pollens and Covid-19 cases were collected from 01/01 to 31/12/2021 in Turin, Italy. This ecological study preliminarily tested correlations (Spearman) between air pollutants and Covid-19 cases.

Results

The Covid-19 pandemic followed a seasonal trend with the highest number of cases (/100,000 inhabitants) in winter and spring (3.1) followed by autumn (1.3) and summer (0.5) (KW test p < 0.0001). Likewise, all air pollutants showed peaks in winter and autumn and sensibly decreased during spring and summer apart from pollens and O3. O3 follows the photochemical processes reaching its peak in the sunniest periods, while pollens undergo their natural vegetative process. Daily Covid-19 cases were positively correlated with daily-averaged NO2 (0.50, p < 0.0001), NO (0.48, p < 0.0001), CO (0.81, p < 0.0001), PM10 (0.36, p < 0.0001), PM2.5 (0.39, p < 0.0001), pollens (0.15, p = 0.073) and inversely with O3 (-0.44, p < 0.0001). We plan future analyses to test the hypothesized association by enhanced models with lagged air pollution variables, with demographic characteristics and meteorological data as potential confounders.

Conclusions

Results from ecological studies may support researchers’ preliminary understanding of the interplay between environment and Public Health issues, including pandemics. A multidisciplinary approach is mandatory to deepen the complexity of this topic across European regions

Key messages

• The Covid-19 pandemic may be associated with environmental conditions and air pollution but further research is needed.

• Atmospheric particulate matter, including aeroallergens, can favour many airborne-related diseases by acting as immune suppressor and/or carrier, but these hypotheses deserve future research.

European larch phenology in the Alps: can we grasp the role of ecological factors by combining field observations and inverse modelling?

Vegetation phenology is strongly influenced by climatic factors. Climate changes may cause phenological variations, especially in the Alps which are considered to be extremely vulnerable to global warming. The main goal of our study is to analyze European larch (Larix decidua Mill.) phenology in alpine environments and the role of the ecological factors involved, using an integrated approach based on accurate field observations and modelling techniques. We present 2 years of field-collected larch phenological data, obtained following a specifically designed observation protocol. We observed that both spring and autumn larch phenology is strongly influenced by altitude. We propose an approach for the optimization of a spring warming model (SW) and the growing season index model (GSI) consisting of a model inversion technique, based on simulated look-up tables (LUTs), that provides robust parameter estimates. The optimized models showed excellent agreement between modelled and observed data: the SW model predicts the beginning of the growing season (B(GS)) with a mean RMSE of 4 days, while GSI gives a prediction of the growing season length (L(GS)) with a RMSE of 5 days. Moreover, we showed that the original GSI parameters led to consistent errors, while the optimized ones significantly increased model accuracy. Finally, we used GSI to investigate interactions of ecological factors during springtime development and autumn senescence. We found that temperature is the most effective factor during spring recovery while photoperiod plays an important role during autumn senescence: photoperiod shows a contrasting effect with altitude decreasing its influence with increasing altitude.

Occurrence of sialidase activity in two distinct and highly homogeneous populations of lysosomes prepared from the brain of developing mouse

Light and heavy lysosomes of mouse forebrain were separated from each other by centrifugation on a Percoll gradient. Light lysosomes were then freed from mitochondria and membranes by sucrose density gradient centrifugation and further purified by floatation-centrifugation on a sucrose gradient. The final preparations of light and heavy lysosomes, fairly homogenous, carried sialidase activity, assayed on MU-NeuAc. The optimal pH was 4.0 and 4.2, the apparent Km value 2.8 x 10(-5) M and 4.2 x 10(-5) M and the apparent Vmax value 0.11 and 0.47 mU.mg-1 protein, for the light and heavy lysosome sialidase, respectively. From 4 days to adulthood the specific activity of the light and heavy lysosome sialidase increased 3-fold and 1.7-fold, respectively.

Solubilization of the membrane-bound sialidase from pig brain by treatment with bacterial phosphatidylinositol phospholipase C

The total pellet from pig forebrain (from which the cytosolic sialidase was completely washed out) was treated with phosphatidylinositol phospholipase C (PIPLC) and centrifuged at high speed. The supernatant contained sialidase and 5'-nucleotidase activities. The greatest liberation of sialidase was obtained after incubation for 20 min with PIPLC at 37 degrees C using pH 6.0 and a ratio between PIPLC (as units) and protein of 1.6. Under these conditions, the release of sialidase, 5'-nucleotidase, and protein was 22, 50, and 18.5%, respectively. On treatment with PIPLC, a purified preparation of pig brain neuronal (synaptosomal) membranes released 28% of its sialidase whereas a purified preparation of pig brain lysosomes did not liberate any sialidase activity. The pH optimum of sialidase present in the supernatant obtained after PIPLC treatment of the total pellet was 4.2, the same as that of the enzyme embedded in the membrane. When this supernatant was subjected to ammonium sulfate fractionation, 88% of its sialidase, having a pH optimum of 4.2, was recovered in the fraction precipitated between 20 and 45% of salt saturation and subsequently dialyzed. Ammonium sulfate treatment caused the appearance of a second sialidase activity, having a pH optimum of 6.6 and behaving on fractionation similarly to the pH 4.2 sialidase. The Km and Vmax values of pH 4.2 and pH 6.6 sialidase were similar (1.48 x 10(-4) and 0.98 x 10(-4) M for Km and 1.6 and 1.4 mU/mg of protein for Vmax, respectively), whereas the stability on standing at 4 degrees C or exposure to freezing and thawing cycles was greater for pH 4.2 sialidase.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Occurrence in brain lysosomes of a sialidase active on ganglioside

A lysosomal preparation, obtained from brain homogenate of 17-day-old C57BL mice by centrifugation on a self-generating Percoll linear density gradient, showed relative specific activity (RSA) values for typical lysosomal enzymes of 40-120 and for mitochondria, plasma membrane, and cytosol markers of much lower than 1, a result indicating a high degree of homogeneity. The lysosomal preparation contained a sialidase activity that was assayed radiometrically with ganglioside [3H]GD1a and fluorimetrically with 4-methylumbelliferyl-1-alpha-D-N-acetylneuraminic acid (MUB-NeuAc). The properties of the lysosomal enzyme were compared with those of the plasma membrane-bound sialidase contained in a purified synaptosomal plasma membrane fraction that was prepared from the same homogenate and assayed with the same substrates. The optimal pH was 4.2 for the lysosomal and 5.1 for the plasma membrane-bound enzyme. The apparent Km values for GD1a and MUB-NeuAc were 1.5 X 10(-5) and 4.2 X 10(-5) M, respectively, for the lysosomal enzyme and 2.7 X 10(-4) and 6.3 X 10(-5) M for the plasma membrane-bound one. Triton X-100 had a predominantly inhibitory effect on the lysosomal enzyme, whereas it strongly activated the plasma membrane-bound one. The lysosomal enzyme was highly unstable on storage and freezing and thawing cycles, whereas the plasma membrane-bound one was substantially stable. The RSA value of the lysosomal sialidase in the lysosomal fraction closely resembled that of authentic lysosomal enzymes, whereas the RSA value of plasma membrane-bound sialidase in the plasma membrane fraction was very similar to that of typical plasma membrane markers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)