Pesticides are used to ensure the mass production and quality of foods, depending on the environment where they are grown. Trace amounts of pesticides are ingested through diet and high ratios of its components have been detected in humans. Neonicotinoid insecticides are nicotine analogs that disrupt neurons, induce neural excitation, and cause behavioral abnormalities and chronic toxicity. The herbicide glyphosate causes behavioral disorders due to abnormalities in the balance of intestinal microflora. These abnormalities can be found in the F2-generation and beyond. Glyphosate decreases the number and size of experimental animal fetuses, possibly through abnormal deoxyribonucleic acid methylation in parental germ cells, resulting in transgenerational toxicity. It also causes the death of dopamine neurons, which are believed to be involved in the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The intestinal microflora is considerably altered by ingesting pesticides used in crops. Lactic acid bacteria and some other intestinal bacteria have gut-regulating and immunomodulatory effects that have recently been implicated in neurological disorders, such as depression and dementia. Therefore, a healthy diet should be traced back to crops. An agriculture-medicine partnership linking “agriculture” and “preventive medicine” has recently been considered important based on the hypothesis that agriculture and health sectors should collaborate to create a healthy environment for producing healthy food. Although food considerations tend to focus on the functionality of vegetable and fruit components, that of environmental bacteria should also be considered.

Background: The main objective of the study was to carry out a systematic literature review to investigate the beneficial role of antioxidants in obesity and diabetes and the association of antioxidants in neuro-gliopathies and gut microbiome on antioxidant production and enteric nervous system (ENS) protection.

Methods: A literature search was done electronically on 8 June 2022 in the databases Google Scholar, and PubMed, reviewing all the articles published in English. There were no limitations for the study (region, or any time frame). The study included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies on a human subject, primarily focusing on information such as a change in body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), fasting blood glucose level, glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), and other parameters that connected with diabetes and obesity. The search was also conducted for neuro-gliopathies and gut microbiome.

Results: The beginning database search picked out a total of 2,428 articles, 1,310 in PubMed, 876 in Google Scholar, and 242 records from other sources. A total of 2,040 (total duplicates 388) was found after removing the duplicated articles, and after reading the title and abstracts were further decreased to 139 full-text articles. These 139 studies went for full-text analysis, which resulted in the exclusion of 123 studies and generated a final 16 articles included for systemic analysis.

Discussion: This literature search of present studies shows the interconnection between antioxidant intake among obese and diabetes neuro-gliopathies. The findings indicate both obese and diabetic patients have a minimum content of antioxidants, especially carotenoids, retinol, ascorbic acid, tocopherol, magnesium, and zinc. While few research illustrated that ingestion of the abovementioned antioxidants was lowered among diabetes and obese subjects in contrast with their normal-weight population, this was not endorsed by every study.

Brain metastasis is the most prevalent neurologic problem of systemic cancer and it can increase the mortality rate in patients with cancer. It occurs more in patients with lung cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma. There are several molecular mechanisms in cancer cell progression, invasion, and location in new places during brain metastasis. Significant interactions between cancer cells, the brain microenvironment, and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) play a major role in brain metastasis. This study will focus on molecular mechanisms that contribute to cancer metastasis into the brain and finding new treatments with molecular research. Treatment strategies in patients with brain metastasis include surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy; however, the penetration of chemotherapy drugs beyond the BBB is limited. Studying molecular, cellular, and physical mechanisms in brain metastasis helps to improve new strategies in drug delivery across the BBB. There are significant impacts of ion channels in brain metastasis and cancer treatment failure. Targeting molecular mechanisms and ion channels in brain metastasis led to increasing the better response in these patients. In this way, nano-drugs have caused a revolution in effective targeting and drug delivery in cancer treatment. This review describes the advances to facilitate the penetration of drugs in the BBB by using nano-drugs especially those that are targeting ion channels.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to discuss the main features and first outcomes of a therapeutic platform proposed to implement a public health therapeutic service for patients suffering refractory epilepsy.

Methods: The proposal is a three-layer system composed by a new portable therapy device and two software applications. The therapy is transcutaneous electrical vagus nerve stimulation, known as tVNS. The primary layer is composed of tVNS devices, configured for each patient according to the instructions provided by the specialists. The middle layer is named “hospital data collector” (HDC), its main tasks are the patient enrollment, the device setup, and the database maintenance to store therapeutic parameters and session events together with the information cited previously. Each hospital center runs a HDC that is connected to a cloud application named “system cloud application (SCA)” which concentrates all the data supplied by the HDCs. Artificial intelligence methods are integrated in the SCA to predict the treatment effectiveness for every new patient based on the accumulated knowledge from the enrolled previously.

Results: A version of the proposed system is running at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery. The sensitivity of the therapeutic device with the proposed treatment protocol reaches 83.33% in the 18-patient pilot trial carried out.

Conclusions: The proposed approach seems a useful therapeutic tool based on the pilot trial outcomes. The developed device is comfortable and suitable for the intended use. The proposed system has created the essential conditions to feed and grow a knowledge, a basic element to predict the treatment effectiveness for each new patient. It is a promising option for a refractory epilepsy therapy service.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common mental disorder associated with significant suffering and disability. Recent evidence has highlighted the role of the gut-brain axis in the pathogenesis of MDD. Enteric glial cells are a structurally and functionally diverse population that plays a key role in regulating enteric nervous function and maintaining intestinal mucosal integrity. These cells may be implicated in the origin of several digestive and extra-digestive disorders, known as enteric neuro-gliopathies (ENG). This paper reviews the evidence that MDD may also belong to the category of ENG. Animal models suggest that environmental adversity can lead to enteric glial dysfunction and depressive-like behaviors. Conditions that are highly comorbid with MDD, both intestinal and extra-intestinal, have been linked to enteric glial alterations. Peripheral blood markers linked to glial integrity and function are altered in patients with MDD, and certain treatments for MDD may have beneficial effects on enteric glial functioning. Though much of this evidence is indirect and provisional, it suggests that MDD may belong to the group of ENG. Further investigation of enteric glial functioning in MDD may yield valuable insights into the pathophysiology and treatment of this disorder.