Antidiabetic treatment, obesity, and cancer risk in Algerian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

OBJECTIVE: Several studies have shown that antidiabetic drugs and obesity can modulate the risk of developing cancer. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of the use of antidiabetic drugs and obesity on the risk of developing cancers in type 2 diabetics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data for 1220 patients were collected from the processing of files and a pre-established questionnaire. The anthropobiological parameters and the associated treatment type have been unspecified. RESULTS: Women (OR=17.26; 95% CI=2.88-103.45, p<0.01), overweight individuals (OR=4.81; 95% CI=1.63-14.14, p<0.01) and hypertensive diabetic subjects (OR=3.82; 95% CI=1.39-10.49, p< 0.01) are more exposed to cancers. It is interesting to note that diabetic subjects treated with insulin have a reduced risk of developing cancer (OR=0.22; 95% CI=0.07-0.67, p<0.01). Diabetic subjects treated with metformin have a four and a half times higher risk of developing cancer (OR=4.61; 95% CI=1.48-14.37, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In type 2 diabetic subjects, cancer is significantly linked to overweight, to the presence of essential hypertension in individuals under hypotensive as well as in patients treated with metformin

24S‐hydroxycholesterol: cellular effects and variations in brain diseases

The adult brain exhibit a characteristic cholesterol homeostasis, with low synthesis rate and active catabolism. Brain cholesterol turnover is possible thanks to the action of the enzyme Cytochrome P450 46A1 (CYP46A1) or 24-cholesterol hydroxylase, that transforms cholesterol into 24S-hydroxycholesterol (24S-HC). But before crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB), this oxysterol that is the most abundant in the brain can act locally, affecting the functioning of neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and vascular cells. The first part of this review addresses different aspects of 24S-HC production and elimination from the brain. The second part concentrates in the effects of 24S-HC at the cellular level, describing how this oxysterol affects cell viability, amyloid beta production, neurotransmission, and transcriptional activity. Finally, the role of 24S-HC in Alzheimer, Huntington and Parkinson diseases, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, as well as the possibility of using this oxysterol as predictive and/or evolution biomarker in different brain disorders is discussed.Fil: Sodero, Alejandro Omar. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas; Argentin

Deficits of psychomotor and mnesic functions across aging in mouse lemur primates.

Owing to a similar cerebral neuro-anatomy, non-human primates are viewed as the most valid models for understanding cognitive deficits. This study evaluated psychomotor and mnesic functions of 41 young to old mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus). Psychomotor capacities and anxiety-related behaviors decreased abruptly from middle to late adulthood. However, mnesic functions were not affected in the same way with increasing age. While results of the spontaneous alternation task point to a progressive and widespread age-related decline of spatial working memory, both spatial reference and novel object recognition (NOR) memory tasks did not reveal any tendency due to large inter-individual variability in the middle-aged and old animals. Indeed, some of the aged animals performed as well as younger ones, whereas some others had bad performances in the Barnes maze and in the object recognition test. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed that declarative-like memory was strongly impaired only in 7 out of 25 middle-aged/old animals. These results suggest that this analysis allows to distinguish elder populations of good and bad performers in this non-human primate model and to closely compare this to human aging.journal article20142015 01 09importe