Alcuni dati emersi da linee di ricerca concernenti prevalentemente la neuroimmunologia sono stati confermati da Autori stranieri ed a volte colti come spunto per ulteriori approfondimenti. Qui di seguito sono riportate alcune delle principali menzioni apparse su riviste straniere. Il Prof. Vito Covelli, per gli studi sugli effetti delle benzodiazepine, è stato citato da Molly Finnerty, Thaddeus J. Marczynski, Harold J. Amirault, Minka Urbancic e Burton R. Andersen nel lavoro ‘Benzodiazepines inhibit neutrophil chemotaxis and superoxid production in a stimulus dependent manner; PK-11195 antagonizes these affects”, apparso sulla rivista Immunopharmacology , 22 (1991), pp . 185-194, dove si legge: …. diazepam (0.00001 M) has been shown to inhibit neutrophil phagocytosis and ki 11 ing of Candida (Covelli et al., 1989) … ed ancora … taken together with findings that diazepam inhibits neutrophil phagocytosis and killing (Covelli et al., 1989), our results indicate that benzodiazepines can interfere, in a stimulus specific manner, ^ith thè neutrophil immune responses….. Per gli studi condotti sull’aumentato livello plasmatico del TNF negli emicranici è stato menzionato su Cephalalgia 11 (1991) in “Plasma Interleukin-1, Tumor Necrosis Factor and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses during migraine attacks” di J.J. van Hilten, M.D. Ferrari, J.U.D. Van der Meer, H.J. Gijsman, B.J. Looij Jr dove si legge; … interestingly, an exaggerated spontaneous release of Tumor Necrosis Factor-alfa in patients with migraine mthout aura was recently reported (7) … ed ancora … because plasma concentrations of this cytokines were not compared with dose of normal subjects, we cannot confirm or contraddict the recently reported exaggerated spontaneous release of Tumor Necrosis Factor-alfa in patients with migraine (7) …. Inoltre, in riferimento al lavoro effettuato da Tom van der Poli, M.D., Harry R. Buller, M.D., Hugo Ten Cate, M.D., Cornelius H. Uortel, M.D., C. Erik Hack, M.D.5 Hans P. Sauer^ein, M.D., Robert D. Rosemberg, M.D. Ph. D. e Jan U. Ten Cate, M.D., apparso sul New England Journal of Medicine, 322 (1990), … Tumor Necrosis Factor induced severe headache and nausea in ali subjects, accompanied by vomiting in three subjects. The symptoms started as early as 10 minutes after thè injection and lasted several hours. No significant changes in hemodynamic indexes were observed, and all subjects had recovered fully by the end of the experiment. Each subject had a rise in body temperature, preceded by chills. Peak temperatures (38,7 ± 0,2 °C) were reached after three hours. None of these changes Nere noted during the control period, in which saline was administered . . . (pag. 1623) . A tal proposito si allega una lettera del Prof. Tom van der Poll al Prof. Covelli.
