Abstract
The large-scale honey bee colony losses are a big problem of global importance. The reduced survival of honey bees is due to a syndrome induced by a number of interacting stress factors, including the neurotoxic pesticides. These compounds used in agriculture and beekeeping practices may contaminate plants and beehives, thus exposing bees to sublethal doses which may negatively affect insect physiology. Indeed, field-realistic doses of one of the most discussed class of neurotoxic compounds, neonicotinoids, can interfere with development, reproduction and behavior. Moreover, these competitive modulators of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor are able to reduce honey bee immunocompetence indicating a mechanism of cross-modulation between nervous and immune systems, which in insect has been poorly investigated. NEUROIMMUNITY aims to pursue the following objective: define the mechanisms involved in the cross-modulation between the nervous and insect immune systems and their alteration by neurotoxic pesticides to provide a conceptual frame for future development of risk assessment.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Giovanni Perini
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Farmacia e Biotecnologie
Coordinatore:
Università degli Studi di NAPOLI Federico II(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 94.398,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
30/11/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
