Relationship between functional fitness, medication costs and mood in elderly people

Objective: to verify if functional fitness (FF) is associated with the annual cost of medication consumption and mood states (MSt) in elderly people. Methods: a cross-sectional study with 229 elderly people aged 65 years or more at Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Coimbra, Portugal. Seniors with physical and psychological limitations were excluded, as well as those using medication that limits performance on the tests. The Senior Fitness Test was used to evaluate FF, and the Profile of Mood States - Short Form to evaluate the MSt. The statistical analysis was based on Mancova, with adjustment for age, for comparison between men and women, and adjustment for sex, for comparison between cardiorespiratory fitness quintiles. The association between the variables under study was made with partial correlation, controlling for the effects of age, sex and body mass index. Results: an inverse correlation between cardiorespiratory fitness and the annual cost of medication consumption was found (p < 0.01). FF is also inversely associated with MSt (p < 0.05). Comparisons between cardiorespiratory fitness quintiles showed higher medication consumption costs in seniors with lower aerobic endurance, as well as higher deterioration in MSt (p < 0.01). Conclusion: elderly people with better FF and, specifically, better cardiorespiratory fitness present lower medication consumption costs and a more positive MSt

Validation of reference genes for expression analysis in the salivary gland and the intestine of Rhodnius prolixus (Hemiptera, Reduviidae) under different experimental conditions by quantitative real-time PCR

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Rhodnius prolixus </it>is a blood-feeding insect that can transmit <it>Trypanosoma cruzi </it>and <it>Trypanosoma rangeli </it>to vertebrate hosts. Recently, genomic resources for invertebrate vectors of human pathogens have increased significantly, and <it>R. prolixus </it>has been one of the main species studied among the triatomines. However, the paucity of information on many of the fundamental molecular aspects of this species limits the use of the available genomic information. The present study aimed to facilitate gene expression studies by identifying the most suitable reference genes for the normalization of mRNA expression data from qPCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The expression stability of five candidate reference genes (<it>18S </it>rRNA, <it>GAPDH</it>, β-actin, α-tubulin and ribosomal protein <it>L26</it>) was evaluated by qPCR in two tissues (salivary gland and intestine) and under different physiological conditions: before and after blood feeding and after infection with <it>T. cruzi </it>or <it>T. rangeli</it>. The results were analyzed with three software programs: geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper. All of the evaluated candidate genes proved to be acceptable as reference genes, but some were found to be more appropriate depending on the experimental conditions. <it>18S</it>, <it>GAPDH </it>and α-tubulin showed acceptable stability for studies in all of the tissues and experimental conditions evaluated. β-actin, one of the most widely used reference genes, was confirmed to be one of the most suitable reference genes in studies with salivary glands, but it had the lowest expression stability in the intestine after insect blood feeding. <it>L26 </it>was identified as the poorest reference gene in the studies performed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The expression stability of the genes varies in different tissue samples and under different experimental conditions. The results provided by three statistical packages emphasize the suitability of all five of the tested reference genes in both the crop and the salivary glands with a few exceptions. The results emphasise the importance of validating reference genes for qRT-PCR analysis in <it>R. prolixus </it>studies.</p