823 research outputs found

    Genome-wide association analysis of recurrent myocardial infarction in UK Biobank identifies suggestive evidence for association to twenty seven loci

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    Beyond the culture effect on credibility perception on microblogs

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    We investigated the credibility perception of tweet readers from the USA and by readers from eight Arabic countries; our aim was to understand if credibility was affected by country and/or by culture. Results from a crowd-sourcing experiment, showed a wide variety of factors affected credibility perception, including a tweet author's gender, profile image, username style, location, and social network overlap with the reader. We found that culture determines readers' credibility perception, but country has no effect. We discuss the implications of our findings for user interface design and social media systems

    Mastiha has efficacy in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases through a microRNA-155 Th17 dependent action

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    Mastiha is a natural nutritional supplement with known anti-inflammatory properties. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are immune mediated inflammatory diseases that share common pathophysiological features. Mastiha has shown beneficial effects in both diseases. MicroRNAs have emerged as key regulators of inflammation and their modulation by phytochemicals have been extensively studied over the last years. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether a common route exists in the anti-inflammatory activity of Mastiha, specifically through the regulation of miRNA levels. Plasma miR-16, miR-21 and miR-155 were measured by Real-Time PCR before and after two double blinded and placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials with Mastiha. In IBD and particularly in ulcerative colitis patients in relapse, miR-155 increased in the placebo group (p = 0.054) whereas this increase was prevented by Mastiha. The mean changes were different in the two groups even after adjusting for age, sex and BMI (p = 0.024 for IBD and p = 0.042). Although the results were not so prominent in NAFLD, miR-155 displayed a downward trend in the placebo group (p = 0.054) whereas the levels did not changed significantly in the Mastiha group in patients with less advanced fibrosis. Our results propose a regulatory role for Mastiha in circulating levels of miR-155, a critical player in T helper-17 (Th17) differentiation and function

    The mountainous Cretan dietary patterns and their relationship with cardiovascular risk factors: the Hellenic Isolated Cohorts MANOLIS study

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    Objective We carried out de novo recruitment of a population-based cohort (MANOLIS study) and describe the specific population, which displays interesting characteristics in terms of diet and health in old age, through deep phenotyping. Design Cross-sectional study where anthropometric, biochemical and clinical measurements were taken in addition to interview-based completion of an extensive questionnaire on health and lifestyle parameters. Dietary patterns were derived through principal component analysis based on a validated FFQ. Setting Geographically isolated Mylopotamos villages on Mount Idi, Crete, Greece. Subjects Adults (n 1553). Results Mean age of the participants was 61·6 years and 55·8 % were women. Of the population, 82·7 % were overweight or obese with a significantly different prevalence between overweight men and women (43·4 v. 34·7 %, P=0·002). The majority (70·6 %) of participants were married, while a larger proportion of women were widowed than men (27·8 v. 3·5 %, P<0·001). Smoking was more prevalent in men (38·7 v. 8·2 %, P<0·001), as 88·8% of women had never smoked. Four dietary patterns emerged as characteristic of the population; these were termed ‘local’, ‘high fat and sugar, ‘Greek café/tavern’ and ‘olive oil, fruits and vegetables’. Individuals more adherent to the local dietary pattern presented higher blood glucose (β=4·026, P<0·001). Similarly, individuals with higher compliance with the Greek café/tavern pattern had higher waist-to-hip ratio (β=0·012, P<0·001), blood pressure (β=1·015, P=0·005) and cholesterol (β=5·398, P<0·001). Conclusions Profiling of the MANOLIS elderly population identifies unique unhealthy dietary patterns that are associated with cardiometabolic indices

    The Transferability of Lipid-Associated Loci Across African, Asian and European Cohorts

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    Abstract: Most genome-wide association studies are based on samples of European descent. We assess whether the genetic determinants of blood lipids, a major cardiovascular risk factor, are shared across populations. Genetic correlations for lipids between European-ancestry and Asian cohorts are not significantly different from 1. A genetic risk score based on LDL-cholesterol-associated loci has consistent effects on serum levels in samples from the UK, Uganda and Greece (r = 0.23–0.28, p < 1.9 × 10−14). Overall, there is evidence of reproducibility for ~75% of the major lipid loci from European discovery studies, except triglyceride loci in the Ugandan samples (10% of loci). Individual transferable loci are identified using trans-ethnic colocalization. Ten of fourteen loci not transferable to the Ugandan population have pleiotropic associations with BMI in Europeans; none of the transferable loci do. The non-transferable loci might affect lipids by modifying food intake in environments rich in certain nutrients, which suggests a potential role for gene-environment interactions

    A comprehensive 1000 Genomes-based genome-wide association meta-analysis of coronary artery disease

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    Existing knowledge of genetic variants affecting risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) is largely based on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analysis of common SNPs. Leveraging phased haplotypes from the 1000 Genomes Project, we report a GWAS meta-analysis of 185 thousand CAD cases and controls, interrogating 6.7 million common (MAF>0.05) as well as 2.7 million low frequency (0.005<MAF<0.05) variants. In addition to confirmation of most known CAD loci, we identified 10 novel loci, eight additive and two recessive, that contain candidate genes that newly implicate biological processes in vessel walls. We observed intra-locus allelic heterogeneity but little evidence of low frequency variants with larger effects and no evidence of synthetic association. Our analysis provides a comprehensive survey of the fine genetic architecture of CAD showing that genetic susceptibility to this common disease is largely determined by common SNPs of small effect siz
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