Heart failure and diabetes mellitus: insight into comorbidity

Diabetes mellitus (DM) and heart failure (HF) are frequent comorbidities with a bidirectional relationship. Patients with HF have increased risk of developing DM, and those with DM are at greater risk of developing HF. HF does not fit clearly into the microangiopathy and macroangiopathy groups. It is known that coronary artery disease and arterial hypertension are the major causes of HF; however, it has been shown that DM can trigger functional and structural abnormalities in the myocardium via diabetic cardiomyopathy, a condition with either restrictive or dilated phenotype. While HF treatment is equally effective and safe in patients with and without DM, this statement is not applicable for antidiabetic treatment. Several antidiabetic drugs, such as rosiglitazone, pioglitazone and saxagliptin increase the risk of hospitalisation for HF, therefore these antidiabetic drugs are contraindicated in patients with DM and HF or patients at risk of developing HF. Despite a large number of clinical evidence, uncertainty about the safety of antidiabetic drugs in patients with HF always exists. In this review, the issues of DM treatment in patients with HF are addressed in detail

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM

Experience of using sibutramine in combination with microcrystalline cellulose in clinical practice

For many years, interest in the issue of obesity has not faded, as obesity is now one of the most common pathologies in the world that directly affects quality of life and lifespan. Even a slight weight loss (5-10% of baseline values) in obese patients is known to improve metabolism and reduce the risk of a range of comorbidities. The article reflects the importance of comprehensive treatment of obesity, presents positive experience of using Reduxin (sibutramine in combination with microcrystalline cellulose) to reduce body weight and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in a specific clinical example in a patient with exogenous-constitutional obesity and eating disorders. The case of obesity in a young man of 24 years old is presented, when other components of the metabolic syndrome (except for arterial hypertension) were not formed. Thus, following the results of 24-week complex treatment, clinically significant reduction of body weight (by 21.7% of initial values) was observed in the patient. The data of psychological researches have shown that the patient has no increase of anxiety and depression level during treatment, but at the same time the indicators of quality of life according to the results of health questionnaire testing have improved. This clinical case corresponds to the results of the PrimaVera program and demonstrates that weight loss during sibutramine therapy in combination with microcrystalline cellulose has a positive impact on the overall health and emotional status of patients and leads to improved quality of life. Therefore, successful treatment of obesity and the maintenance of other outcomes are key to preventing cardiovascular disease

Characteristics of the circadian profile of heart rate during genetically determined hypertension

Prevalence and importance of hypertension in the general incidence structure determines a wide range of research problems. Chronobiological indices are of great importance in the investigatory activity concerning mechanisms of essential hypertension. Our work was focused on the dynamics of HR circadian profile at different terms in male SHR rats with the use of telemetry monitoring. The obtained data showed considerable changes of cardiac rhythm in different time intervals which was understood as inhibition of the chronotropic function of the heart

Sitagliptin: the world’s first DPP-4 inhibitor

The prevalence of T2D is steadily increasing annually, which resulted in an active search for a way to control the disease. The last decade has seen a rise in the number of new groups of glucose-lowering drugs, which not only proved effective in the management of hyperglycemia and safe against hypoglycemia, but also joined the ranks of the drugs of the first-line therapy. Among them is incretin-active agents - type 4 dipeptidyl peptidases inhibitors (IDPP-4, glyptines). Sitagliptin was the world's first approved IDPP-4, and began to be used successfully in Russia since 2007. The review presents data on the efficacy, safety (including cardiac safety) of sitagliptin use and accumulated experience of its use in the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes

Efficient reductive amination of HMF with well dispersed Pd nanoparticles immobilized in a porous MOF/polymer composite

Aminated derivatives of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfural are critical intermediates for the pharmaceutical industry. The state-of-the-art catalysts currently used for these syntheses are mostly homogeneous in nature, motivating the design of recyclable, heterogeneous catalytic systems. As such, the present study illustrates a new method for the design of metal-organic framework (MOF)/polymer composites containing well-defined metal nanoparticles in a sustainable way. One such palladium functionalized MOF/polymer composite is then employed in the reductive amination of HMF under mild conditions. The catalyst shows excellent activity, including a high TON/TOF (h(-1)) of 604.8/302.4 and similar to 94% amine yield, which is maintained over a larger number of reaction cycles (up to 15) when compared to several state-of-the-art materials, such as a commercial Pd/C (3 cycles). It is thought that the origin of the improved catalyst recyclability is due to the added polymer, poly-para-phenylenediamine (PpPDA), which helps to prevent the aggregation and leaching of the palladium nanoparticles. The synthetic approach is further extended to design other potential catalysts with different metallic nanoparticles (NPs)

Thyroid cancer: retrospective study of patients with surgical treatment (a single-center experience)

Introduction. Nodular goiter is one of the most common endocrine disorder, and thyroid cancer takes a leading place among malignancy of the endocrine system. The aim of our study is to evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of thyroid cancer. Materials and methods: this is a retrospective case-control study that included 140 patients operated with suspected thyroid cancer according to a cytological study of fine needle aspirates in single center in 2018. All patients underwent preoperative cytological examination with interpretation of the results according to the Bethesda system, thyroid ultrasound examination, thyroid status assessment. The results of the cytological examination, as well as clinical and laboratory data were compared with the data of histological analysis. Results: According to the preoperative cytological study, 76 nodules were reported as Bethesda IV, 4 – Bethesda III, 32 – Bethesda VI, 28 – Bethesda V. According to the results of a histological examination, thyroid cancer was confirmed in 70% of patients: in 89,3% of Bethesda V and 100% in the Bethesda VI group, 52,6% of Bethesda IV, 25% of the Bethesda III. The risk of nodule malignancy was associated with such ultrasound signs as hypoechoicity, calcifications and irregular contours. Conclusions: the improvement of the methods of preoperative diagnosis of thyroid cancer should help to choose the optimal surgical strategy, reduce the number of diagnostic and repeated thyroidectomy

Understanding your support system: the design of a stable MOF/polyazoamine support for biomass conversion

Introducing oligomeric or polymeric units into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can result in composites that have significantly improved properties when compared to the individual MOF or polymer building blocks. With such synergy in mind, this work presents the design of a novel MOF/polyazoamine support that is used to stabilize Pd NPs. The resulting composite catalyst, tested in the reductive amination of levulinic acid, is found to have a markedly improved lifetime when compared to just the MOF or polymer support containing Pd. It is demonstrated, for the first time, that the lifetime enhancement stems directly from the polymer, which plays a dual role: i) the oligomer stabilizes the MOF support through the elimination of certain vibrational modes associated with the framework ligand and likely pore-filling effects in the largest MOF pore, and ii) the Lewis base functionality on the oligomer backbone binds to the surface of the Pd NPs, thus, increasing their activity and inhibiting their aggregation. Several complementary spectroscopic (IR, XPS, Raman spectroscopy) and computational tools (pore space and topology analysis, molecular mechanics, and density functional theory simulations) were used to describe the nature of the MOF-oligomer interaction and identify the most likely location of the polymer within the MOF pore

Chromosomal localization of the UBAP2Z and UBAP2W genes in chicken

Source/description: Ubiquitin-associated protein 2 (UBAP2) is a novel gene first isolated based on its expression in the human adrenal gland. The full-length protein encoded by this gene contains a ubiquitin-associated domain, a motif found in several proteins having connections to ubiquitin and the ubiquitination pathway. In birds, UBAP2 is represented in two copies located on the Z and W chromosomes. In the recent chicken genome sequence assembly, the GGAZ and especially the GGAW sequences were poorly represented and assembled, so additional evidence for the location of Z- and W-linked loci should help to address this situation. Here, we report the cytogenetic assignment of large-insert clones for the chicken UBAP2 genes..