Embedding Physical Activity into Community-Based Peer Support Groups for those Severely Affected by Mental Illness

Despite a growing evidence base on the effectiveness of community-based physical activity interventions for mental health, there is a lack of studies that focus on those affected by severe mental illness (SMI), who often experience poorer physical health, and are less physically active than the wider population. The use of peer support groups in this context is also understudied, despite benefits being documented in other contexts. This study examined the impact and process of a nationwide project to embed physical activity into peer support groups for those affected by SMI. Following the embedding of physical activity within peer support groups, interviews and focus groups were conducted to explore the experiences of those involved with the project and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The key findings related to: 1) the social aspects of embedding physical activity in the groups; 2) the focus on peer support and informal physical activity (rather than organised sport) being beneficial; 3) doing things differently and lessons to learn; and 4) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, we found that peer support is an important feature to include in projects encouraging those severely affected by mental illness to become more physically active

Regional microbial signatures positively correlate with differential wine phenotypes: evidence for a microbial aspect to terroir

Many crops display differential geographic phenotypes and sensorial signatures, encapsulated by the concept of terroir. The drivers behind these differences remain elusive, and the potential contribution of microbes has been ignored until recently. Significant genetic differentiation between microbial communities and populations from different geographic locations has been demonstrated, but crucially it has not been shown whether this correlates with differential agricultural phenotypes or not. Using wine as a model system, we utilize the regionally genetically differentiated population of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in New Zealand and objectively demonstrate that these populations differentially affect wine phenotype, which is driven by a complex mix of chemicals. These findings reveal the importance of microbial populations for the regional identity of wine, and potentially extend to other important agricultural commodities. Moreover, this suggests that long-term implementation of methods maintaining differential biodiversity may have tangible economic imperatives as well as being desirable in terms of employing agricultural practices that increase responsible environmental stewardship

Combined SSCP and heteroduplex analysis of the human plasma membrane Ca(2+)-ATPase isoform 1 in patients with essential hypertension.

In recent theories concerning the pathogenesis of essential hypertension, altered calcium homeostasis plays an important role. Increased intracellular Ca(2+) levels have repeatedly been reported in different cell types of hypertensive subjects. In vascular smooth muscle cells the plasma membrane Ca(2+)-ATPase (PMCA) represents the most important Ca(2+)-ejection system. Modifications of this pump therefore have been assumed to increase contractile tone of small vessels. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to determine if genetic alterations in the hPMCA1 gene might be associated with arterial hypertension. For detection of polymorphisms all 22 PMCA1 exons from 44 patients with essential hypertension (based on rigorous clinical data in addition to a positive family history) and from 40 normotensives without a family history of hypertension were PCR amplified and subsequently subjected to combined single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and heteroduplex (HTX) analysis. Despite the high sensitivity of almost 100%, differences could not be identified between hypertensives and normotensives within the two groups. These data indicate that at least in this population PMCA1 polymorphisms are presumably not related to common forms of essential hypertension. Furthermore, the high degree of evolutionary conservation of the PMCA1 gene underlines the pivotal role of this ATPase for cell physiology

Investigation of the Met-267 Arg exchange in isoform 1 of the human plasma membrane calcium pump in patients with essential hypertension by the amplification-created restriction site technique.

Alterations in Ca2+ homeostasis have been proposed to be a primary factor in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension. In this disease increased intracellular Ca2+ levels have repeatedly been reported in various cell types. Because of its prominent role in cellular calcium homeostasis in vascular smooth muscle cells, modifications of the plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase (PMCA) pump have been suggested to contribute to an increased contractile tone of small blood vessels. This pump is a calmodulin-dependent Ca2+-ATPase that ejects Ca2+ from the cytosol into the extracellular space. Recently a mutational thymidine (T)-->guanosine (G) transversion in isoform 1 of the PMCA has been identified resulting in the substitution of a methionine (Met) by an arginine (Arg) at amino acid position 267 in a highly conserved domain of the pump molecule. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of this polymorphism in the normal population and to investigate whether the Met-267 Arg occurs more frequently in patients with essential hypertension than in normotensives. To detect the mutational change we modified a method based on the technique of amplification-created restriction sites (ACRS) using three base exchanges in the diagnostic primer. Samples from 100 hypertensive and 60 normotensive subjects revealed a thymidine at nucleotide position 981. These data suggest that ACRS is feasible in spite of extensive primer modifications (e.g., three mismatched bases) in contrast to the previously used one or two and may therefore be conceptually suitable to detect almost any base changes in the genome. The described T-->G transversion is a rare polymorphism and is presumably not related to common forms of essential hypertension