Amino acids, glucose metabolism and clinical relevance for phenylketonuria management

It is general knowledge that glycaemia is affected by digested nutrients.Amino acids intake appears to be an important regulator in this regard. Many questions need to be answered, such as the real mediators of this responseand the mechanisms underlying this metabolic behavior. Studies have been undertaken in order to investigate the role of amino acids on metabolic parameters. Their main fndings suggest that the ingestion of free aminoacids have a pivotal role in avoiding glycaemia excursions, improving glucosetolerance. In parallel, several important molecules for glucose metabolism have been exploited. Insulin and glucagon-like peptide - 1 (GLP-1) release seemto be the main triggers of this response. This insulinogenic effect is attributed to some amino acids, particularly the branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine). GLP-1 may exert its effects by activating its receptor inpancreas and enhancing insulin release by β-cells or through its extrapancreaticactions. The mechanisms that may justify the aforementioned effects remainto be answered, being the mTOR pathway activation a possible key. Thesemetabolic effects may have a special interest within the nutritional management of Phenylketonuria (PKU), an inborn metabolic disease of phenylalanine (Phe) catabolism. Since a Phe restricted diet is the mainstay of PKU treatment, a chronic supplementation with a Phe-free amino acid mixture is used. Although scientifc evidence is scarce, it is hypothesized whether this chronic ingestion may modulate glycaemia

ONLINE OXIDATION OF CR(III) TO CR(VI) FOR USE WITH THE FLOW-INJECTION ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE

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Topical Imiquimod Treatment of Lentigo Maligna

Lentigo maligna (LM) is the in situ phase of lentigo maligna melanoma, which may progress to invasive melanoma if left untreated. It mainly occurs on sun-exposed areas of elderly patients. The lesions can be large and conventional surgery can be difficult, particularly on the face. Recent reports indicate that topical imiquimod 5% cream is effective in the treatment of LM. It may be an alternative when surgery or other classical treatments are not possible in elderly patients. We describe an 80-year-old Caucasian woman with a 10-year history of a histologically verified extensive LM of the face. She was treated with imiquimod 5% cream once daily. After four months it showed complete clinical response. One year after the treatment the patient was still free from recurrence

Roesser model representation of 2D periodic behaviors: the (2,2)-periodic SISO case

In this paper we consider 2D single-input/single-output behaviors described by linear partial difference equations with (2,2)-periodically varying coefficients, and present a method to obtain 2D Roesser state-space representations (or realizations) for such behaviors. Since these cannot be obtained by separately realizing each shift-invariant system resulting from "freezing" the varying coefficients, we propose a method based on the realization of an invariant input/output behavior obtained by suitably "lifting" the trajectories of the original periodic behavior

Reconstructibility of time-invariant and periodic behavioural systems

In this article, the properties of behavioural reconstructibility and forward-observability for systems over the whole time axis Z are introduced. These properties are characterised in terms of appropriate rank conditions, for the time-invariant case. A comparison is made with the existing results in the behavioural setting as well as in the classical state space framework. In the particular case of a periodic system, it is shown that there exists an equivalence between the reconstructibility of the periodic system and its associated lifted system, which is time-invariant. Furthermore, we prove that, for a classical state space system, state reconstructibility is equivalent to behavioural reconstructibility, regardless of the time varying or time-invariant nature of the system. This allows deriving rank tests for the cases of time-invariant and of periodic systems, rediscovering the already known results for state reconstructibility from an alternative perspective. The obtained results contribute to establishing links between two different settings, thus providing a better insight into the considered systems properties

Comparing the cost-effectiveness of two screening strategies for latent tuberculosis infection in Portugal

Introduction and objectives: Screening for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in close contacts of infectious TB cases might include Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) and Interferon-Gamma Release Assays (IGRA), in combination or as single-tests. In Portugal, the screening strategy changed from TST followed by IGRA to IGRA-only testing in 2016. Our objective was to compare the cost-effectiveness of two-step TST/IGRA with the current IGRA-only screening strategy in immunocompetent individuals exposed to individuals with respiratory TB. Materials and methods: We reviewed clinical records of individuals exposed to infectious TB cases diagnosed in 2015 and 2016, in two TB outpatient centers in the district of Porto. We estimated medical, non-medical and indirect costs for each screening strategy, taking into account costs of tests and health care personnel, travel distance from place of residence to screening site and employment status. We calculated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) as the cost difference between the two screening strategies with the difference number of LTBI diagnosis as a measure of cost-effectiveness, assuming that treating LTBI is a cost-effective intervention. We also calculated adjusted odds-ratios to test the association between diagnosis of LTBI and screening strategy and estimated the total cost for averting a potential TB case. Results: We compared 499 contacts TST/IGRA screened with 547 IGRA-only. IGRA-only strategy yielded a higher screening effectiveness for diagnosing latent tuberculosis infection (aOR 2.12, 95%CI: 1.53 - 2.94). ICER was €106 per LTBI diagnosis, representing increased effectiveness with a slightly increased cost of IGRA-only screening strategy. Conclusions: Our data suggests that in Portugal LTBI screening with IGRA-only is more cost-effective than the two-step TST/IGRA testing strategy, preventing a higher number of cases of TB cases

Diet modifies the association between alcohol consumption and severe alcohol-related liver disease incidence

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024.It is elusive why some heavy drinkers progress to severe alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) while others do not. This study aimed to investigate if the association between alcohol consumption and severe ALD is modified by diet. This prospective study included 303,269 UK Biobank participants. Alcohol consumption and diet were self-reported. The diet score was created from 4 items selected using LASSO. Cox proportional hazard model showed that the diet score was monotonically associated with severe ALD risk, adjusted for sociodemographics, lifestyle factors, and alcohol consumption. Relative excess risk due to interaction analysis indicated that having a higher ALD diet score and a higher alcohol consumption simultaneously confers to 2.44 times (95% CI: 1.06-3.83) higher risk than the sum of excess risk of each factor. In this work, we show that people who have a poor diet might be more susceptible to severe ALD due to alcohol consumption

Wandering behaviour prevents inter and intra oceanic speciation in a coastal pelagic fish

Small pelagic fishes have the ability to disperse over long distances and may present complex evolutionary histories. Here, Old World Anchovies (OWA) were used as a model system to understand genetic patterns and connectivity of fish between the Atlantic and Pacific basins. We surveyed 16 locations worldwide using mtDNA and 8 microsatellite loci for genetic parameters, and mtDNA (cyt b; 16S) and nuclear (RAG1; RAG2) regions for dating major lineage-splitting events within Engraulidae family. The OWA genetic divergences (0-0.4%) are compatible with intra-specific divergence, showing evidence of both ancient and contemporary admixture between the Pacific and Atlantic populations, enhanced by high asymmetrical migration from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The estimated divergence between Atlantic and Pacific anchovies (0.67 [0.53-0.80] Ma) matches a severe drop of sea temperature during the Gunz glacial stage of the Pleistocene. Our results support an alternative evolutionary scenario for the OWA, suggesting a coastal migration along south Asia, Middle East and eastern Africa continental platforms, followed by the colonization of the Atlantic via the Cape of the Good Hope.Portuguese Foundation for Science & Technology (FCT) [SFRH/BD/36600/2007]; FCT [UID/MAR/04292/2013, SFRH/BPD/65830/2009]; FCT strategic plan [UID/Multi/04326/2013]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio