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An integrated device, for real-time monitoring of glucose and phenols absorption, that consists of a sensors/biosensors system (SB) and a Caco-2TC7 human intestinal cell culture, is shown here. The SB was made of a glucose oxidase-based biosensor, a sentinel platinum sensor, a laccase/tyrosinase-based biosensor and a sentinel carbon sensor located in the basolateral compartment (BC) of a cell culture plate. This system was able to monitor the glucose absorption and the hypoglycemic effect induced by different polyphenols and could be proposed to provide an effective strategy to manage postprandial hyperglycemia with natural compounds.

Ethyl alcohol may be considered one of the most widespread central nervous system (CNS) depressants in Western countries. Because of its toxicological and neurobiological implications, the detection of ethanol in brain extracellular fluid (ECF) is of great importance. In a previous study, we described the development and characterization of an implantable biosensor successfully used for the real-time detection of ethanol in the brain of freely-moving rats. The implanted biosensor, integrated in a low-cost telemetry system, was demonstrated to be a reliable device for the short-time monitoring of exogenous ethanol in brain ECF. In this paper we describe a further in-vitro characterization of the above-mentioned biosensor in terms of oxygen, pH and temperature dependence in order to complete its validation. With the aim of enhancing ethanol biosensor performance, different enzyme loadings were investigated in terms of apparent ethanol Michaelis-Menten kinetic parameters, viz. IMAX, KM and linear region slope, as well as ascorbic acid interference shielding. The responses of biosensors were studied over a period of 28 days. The overall findings of the present study confirm the original biosensor configuration to be the best of those investigated for in-vivo applications up to one week after implantation.

Parkinson’s desease (PD) is characterized by a selective loss of neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta and a significant reduction of neostriatal content of dopamine (DA) and its major acidic metabolites DOPAC and homovanillic acid. MPTP is known to cause parkinsonism in human and this fact is a major incentive for using this toxin as an animal model of PD. In this study C57BL/6 mice were given MPTP in a sub-acute regimen, that induce tissue striatal DA depletion and nigral neuron death, and sub-chronic regimen, that induce in freely moving mice behavioural impairment and prolonged release of striatal DA. Such DA release may be considered the first step in MPTP-induced striatal DA depletion. Wistar rats were given MPTP for 3 consecutive days (respectively 25, 15, 10 mg/Kg/day) to study, by microdialysis, DA depletion, energetic metabolism and energy requirements during neuronal activation. Sistemically-administered MPTP induced a decrese in striatal glucose level and an increse in lactate and lactate/pyruvate (L/P) ratio levels in contrast with damphetamine that not affect L/P ratio. A new α-synuclein based model of PD in Wistar rats, more stable than MPTP model, has been proposed as a new frontier to evaluate the potential role of adult stem cells in an attempt of restorative therapy in PD.