BMI and recommended levels of physical activity in school children

Background: Physical activity (PA) and its health benefits are a continuous point of discussion. Recommendations for children's daily PA vary between guidelines. To better define the amount of PA necessary to prevent overweight and obesity in children, further research is needed. The present study investigates children's compliance to physical activity guidelines (PAGs) and the association between objectively measured PA and body mass index (BMI). Methods: Participating children were 11 years old (n = 419) and part of the European CHOP trial, which was conducted in Germany, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Italy. At least 2 days of PA measurements were collected from each child using a SenseWear\u2122 armband. BMI was calculated from children's height and weight. Thresholds of min\ub7day-1 in PA needed to differentiate between normal and excess weight (overweight/obesity) were determined with Receiver Operator Characteristics (ROC) analysis. Additionally, adjusted linear and logistic regressions models were calculated for group differences and effects of a 5, 15 and 60 min\ub7day-1 increases in PA on BMI. Results: Median time spent in total PA was 462 min\ub7day-1 (25th percentile; 75th percentile: 389; 534) and 75 min\ub7day-1 (41; 115) in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA). Girls spent 36 min\ub7day-1 less in MVPA than boys and overweight/obese children 24 min\ub7day-1 less than normal weight children (linear regression, p < 0.001). 63.2% of the children met PAGs of 60 min\ub7day-1 in MVPA. The optimal threshold for min\ub7day-1 in MVPA determined with ROC analysis was 46 min\ub7day-1. Comparing 5, 15 and 60 min\ub7day-1 increases in PA revealed that an additional 15 min\ub7day-1 of vigorous PA had the same effect as 60 min\ub7day-1 of MVPA. Sedentary time and light PA showed contrary associations to one another, with light PA being negatively and sedentary time being positively associated with excessive weight. Conclusions: Current PAGs are met by 2/3 of children and seem appropriate to prevent excess weight in children. An official recommendation of daily 15-20 min of vigorous PA and further reduction of sedentary time could help to fight youth overweight and thus be of potential public health importance

Transcriptional networks in at-risk individuals identify signatures of type 1 diabetes progression.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a disease of insulin deficiency that results from autoimmune destruction of pancreatic islet β cells. The exact cause of T1D remains unknown, although asymptomatic islet autoimmunity lasting from weeks to years before diagnosis raises the possibility of intervention before the onset of clinical disease. The number, type, and titer of islet autoantibodies are associated with long-term disease risk but do not cause disease, and robust early predictors of individual progression to T1D onset remain elusive. The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) consortium is a prospective cohort study aiming to determine genetic and environmental interactions causing T1D. Here, we analyzed longitudinal blood transcriptomes of 2013 samples from 400 individuals in the TEDDY study before both T1D and islet autoimmunity. We identified and interpreted age-associated gene expression changes in healthy infancy and age-independent changes tracking with progression to both T1D and islet autoimmunity, beginning before other evidence of islet autoimmunity was present. We combined multivariate longitudinal data in a Bayesian joint model to predict individual risk of T1D onset and validated the association of a natural killer cell signature with progression and the model's predictive performance on an additional 356 samples from 56 individuals in the independent Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention study. Together, our results indicate that T1D is characterized by early and longitudinal changes in gene expression, informing the immunopathology of disease progression and facilitating prediction of its course.The TEDDY Study is funded by U01 DK63829, U01 DK63861, U01 DK63821, U01 DK63865, U01 DK63863, U01 DK63836, U01 DK63790, UC4 DK63829, UC4 DK63861, UC4 DK63821, UC4 DK63865, UC4 DK63863, UC4 DK63836, UC4 DK95300, UC4 DK100238, UC4 DK106955, UC4 DK112243, UC4 DK117483, and Contract No. HHSN267200700014C from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and JDRF. This work supported in part by the NIH/NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Awards to the University of Florida (UL1 TR000064) and the University of Colorado (UL1 TR001082). KGCS is a Lister Prize fellow and is supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator award (200871/Z/16/Z). EFM is a Wellcome-Beit prize fellow (10406/Z/14/A) supported by the Wellcome Trust and Beit Foundation (10406/Z/14/Z) and by the National Institutes for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre (Cambridge). LPX’s affiliation changed after completion of the manuscript and is now Département d'informatique et de recherche opérationnelle, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada and Mila, Quebec Institute for Learning Algorithms, Montréal, Canada

Antibody recognition of the glycoprotein g of viral haemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) purified in large amounts from insect larvae

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There are currently no purification methods capable of producing the large amounts of fish rhabdoviral glycoprotein G (gpG) required for diagnosis and immunisation purposes or for studying structure and molecular mechanisms of action of this molecule (ie. pH-dependent membrane fusion). As a result of the unavailability of large amounts of the gpG from viral haemorrhagic septicaemia rhabdovirus (VHSV), one of the most dangerous viruses affecting cultured salmonid species, research interests in this field are severely hampered. Previous purification methods to obtain recombinant gpG from VHSV in <it>E. coli</it>, yeast and baculovirus grown in insect cells have not produced soluble conformations or acceptable yields. The development of large-scale purification methods for gpGs will also further research into other fish rhabdoviruses, such as infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), spring carp viremia virus (SVCV), hirame rhabdovirus (HIRRV) and snakehead rhabdovirus (SHRV).</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Here we designed a method to produce milligram amounts of soluble VHSV gpG. Only the transmembrane and carboxy terminal-deleted (amino acid 21 to 465) gpG was efficiently expressed in insect larvae. Recognition of G21-465 by ß-mercaptoethanol-dependent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (N-MAbs) and pH-dependent recognition by sera from VHSV-hyperimmunized or VHSV-infected rainbow trout (<it>Oncorhynchus mykiss</it>) was demonstrated.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Given that the purified G21-465 conserved some of its most important properties, this method might be suitable for the large-scale production of fish rhabdoviral gpGs for use in diagnosis, fusion and antigenicity studies.</p

The introduction of solid food and growth in the first 2 y of life in formula-fed children: analysis of data from a European cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Early introduction of solid food has been suspected to induce excessive infant energy intake and weight gain. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to test whether introduction of solid foods influences energy intake or growth. DESIGN: Healthy, formula-fed infants who were recruited in 5 European countries were eligible for study participation. Anthropometric measurements were taken at recruitment and at 3, 6, 12, and 24 mo. Time of introduction of solid foods and energy intake were determined by questionnaires and 3-d weighed food records at monthly intervals. Age at introduction of solid food was categorized into 4 groups: 6413 wk, 14-17 wk, 18-21 wk, and 6522 wk. RESULTS: Of 1090 recruited infants, 830 (76%) had data available for age at first introduction of solid food, and 671 (61%) completed the study until 24 mo of age. The median age at introduction of solid food was 19 wk. The time of introduction of solid foods was associated with country, sex, birth weight, parental education and marital status, and maternal smoking. Energy intake was higher in the first 8 mo of life in children with solid-food intake. Solid-food introduction did not predict anthropometric measures at 24 mo. Growth trajectories differed significantly: children with solid-food introduction in the first 12 wk experienced early catch-up growth, whereas those introduced to solid food at >22 wk of age grew more slowly and stayed on lower trajectories. CONCLUSIONS: Solid foods do not simply replace infant formula but increase energy intake. Time of introduction of solid food has little influence on infant growth. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00338689

The LifeCycle Project-EU Child Cohort Network : a federated analysis infrastructure and harmonized data of more than 250,000 children and parents

Early life is an important window of opportunity to improve health across the full lifecycle. An accumulating body of evidence suggests that exposure to adverse stressors during early life leads to developmental adaptations, which subsequently affect disease risk in later life. Also, geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic differences are related to health inequalities from early life onwards. To address these important public health challenges, many European pregnancy and childhood cohorts have been established over the last 30 years. The enormous wealth of data of these cohorts has led to important new biological insights and important impact for health from early life onwards. The impact of these cohorts and their data could be further increased by combining data from different cohorts. Combining data will lead to the possibility of identifying smaller effect estimates, and the opportunity to better identify risk groups and risk factors leading to disease across the lifecycle across countries. Also, it enables research on better causal understanding and modelling of life course health trajectories. The EU Child Cohort Network, established by the Horizon2020-funded LifeCycle Project, brings together nineteen pregnancy and childhood cohorts, together including more than 250,000 children and their parents. A large set of variables has been harmonised and standardized across these cohorts. The harmonized data are kept within each institution and can be accessed by external researchers through a shared federated data analysis platform using the R-based platform DataSHIELD, which takes relevant national and international data regulations into account. The EU Child Cohort Network has an open character. All protocols for data harmonization and setting up the data analysis platform are available online. The EU Child Cohort Network creates great opportunities for researchers to use data from different cohorts, during and beyond the LifeCycle Project duration. It also provides a novel model for collaborative research in large research infrastructures with individual-level data. The LifeCycle Project will translate results from research using the EU Child Cohort Network into recommendations for targeted prevention strategies to improve health trajectories for current and future generations by optimizing their earliest phases of life.Peer reviewe