Increasing Iron and Zinc in Pre-Menopausal Women and Its Effects on Mood and Cognition: A Systematic Review.

Iron and zinc are essential minerals often present in similar food sources. In addition to the adverse effects of frank iron and zinc-deficient states, iron insufficiency has been associated with impairments in mood and cognition. This paper reviews current literature on iron or zinc supplementation and its impact on mood or cognition in pre-menopausal women. Searches included MEDLINE complete, Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE), psychINFO, psychARTICLES, pubMED, ProQuest Health and Medical Complete Academic Search complete, Scopus and ScienceDirect. Ten randomized controlled trials and one non-randomized controlled trial were found to meet the inclusion criteria. Seven studies found improvements in aspects of mood and cognition after iron supplementation. Iron supplementation appeared to improve memory and intellectual ability in participants aged between 12 and 55 years in seven studies, regardless of whether the participant was initially iron insufficient or iron-deficient with anaemia. The review also found three controlled studies providing evidence to suggest a role for zinc supplementation as a treatment for depressive symptoms, as both an adjunct to traditional antidepressant therapy for individuals with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder and as a therapy in its own right in pre-menopausal women with zinc deficiency. Overall, the current literature indicates a positive effect of improving zinc status on enhanced cognitive and emotional functioning. However, further study involving well-designed randomized controlled trials is needed to identify the impact of improving iron and zinc status on mood and cognition

Dietary intake and sources of sodium and potassium among Australian schoolchildren: results from the cross-sectional Salt and Other Nutrients in Children (SONIC) study.

OBJECTIVES: To examine sodium and potassium urinary excretion by socioeconomic status (SES), discretionary salt use habits and dietary sources of sodium and potassium in a sample of Australian schoolchildren. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Primary schools located in Victoria, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: 666 of 780 children aged 4-12 years who participated in the Salt and Other Nutrients in Children study returned a complete 24-hour urine collection. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: 24-hour urine collection for the measurement of sodium and potassium excretion and 24-hour dietary recall for the assessment of food sources. Parent and child reported use of discretionary salt. SES defined by parental highest level of education. RESULTS: Participants were 9.3 years (95% CI 9.0 to 9.6) of age and 55% were boys. Mean urinary sodium and potassium excretion was 103 (95% CI 99 to 108) mmol/day (salt equivalent 6.1 g/day) and 47 (95% CI 45 to 49) mmol/day, respectively. Mean molar Na:K ratio was 2.4 (95% CI 2.3 to 2.5). 72% of children exceeded the age-specific upper level for sodium intake. After adjustment for age, sex and day of urine collection, children from a low socioeconomic background excreted 10.0 (95% CI 17.8 to 2.1) mmol/day more sodium than those of high socioeconomic background (p=0.04). The major sources of sodium were bread (14.8%), mixed cereal-based dishes (9.9%) and processed meat (8.5%). The major sources of potassium were dairy milk (11.5%), potatoes (7.1%) and fruit/vegetable juice (5.4%). Core foods provided 55.3% of dietary sodium and 75.5% of potassium while discretionary foods provided 44.7% and 24.5%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: For most children, sodium intake exceeds dietary recommendations and there is some indication that children of lower socioeconomic background have the highest intakes. Children are consuming about two times more sodium than potassium. To improve sodium and potassium intakes in schoolchildren, product reformulation of lower salt core foods combined with strategies that seek to reduce the consumption of discretionary foods are required.This work was supported by a Heart Foundation of Australia Grantin-Aid (G10M5021) and a Helen MacPherson Smith Trust Fund Project Grant (6002). During this work, CAG was supported by a Heart Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship (PP08M4074) and a Heart Foundation of Australia Postdoctoral Fellowship (Award ID: 100155). During this work, JRB was supported by a National Heart Foundation of Australia Postgraduate Scholarship (Award ID: PP11M6172)

Social marketing and healthy eating : Findings from young people in Greece

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12208-013-0112-xGreece has high rates of obesity and non-communicable diseases owing to poor dietary choices. This research provides lessons for social marketing to tackle the severe nutrition-related problems in this country by obtaining insight into the eating behaviour of young adults aged 18–23. Also, the main behavioural theories used to inform the research are critically discussed. The research was conducted in Athens. Nine focus groups with young adults from eight educational institutions were conducted and fifty-nine participants’ views towards eating habits, healthy eating and the factors that affect their food choices were explored. The study found that the participants adopted unhealthier nutritional habits after enrolment. Motivations for healthy eating were good health, appearance and psychological consequences, while barriers included lack of time, fast-food availability and taste, peer pressure, lack of knowledge and lack of family support. Participants reported lack of supportive environments when deciding on food choices. Based on the findings, recommendations about the development of the basic 4Ps of the marketing mix, as well as of a fifth P, for Policy are proposedPeer reviewe

Point-of-care testing and treatment of sexually transmitted and genital infections during pregnancy in Papua New Guinea (WANTAIM trial): protocol for an economic evaluation alongside a cluster-randomised trial

INTRODUCTION: Left untreated, sexually transmitted and genital infections (henceforth STIs) in pregnancy can lead to serious adverse outcomes for mother and child. Papua New Guinea (PNG) has among the highest prevalence of curable STIs including syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhoea, trichomoniasis and bacterial vaginosis, and high neonatal mortality rates. Diagnosis and treatment of these STIs in PNG rely on syndromic management. Advances in STI diagnostics through point-of-care (PoC) testing using GeneXpert technology hold promise for resource-constrained countries such as PNG. This paper describes the planned economic evaluation of a cluster-randomised cross-over trial comparing antenatal PoC testing and immediate treatment of curable STIs with standard antenatal care in two provinces in PNG. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Cost-effectiveness of the PoC intervention compared with standard antenatal care will be assessed prospectively over the trial period (2017-2021) from societal and provider perspectives. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios will be calculated for the primary health outcome, a composite measure of the proportion of either preterm birth and/or low birth weight; for life years saved; for disability-adjusted life years averted; and for non-health benefits (financial risk protection and improved health equity). Scenario analyses will be conducted to identify scale-up options, and budget impact analysis will be undertaken to understand short-term financial impacts of intervention adoption on the national budget. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis will be conducted to account for uncertainty in key model inputs. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has ethical approval from the Institutional Review Board of the PNG Institute of Medical Research; the Medical Research Advisory Committee of the PNG National Department of Health; the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of New South Wales; and the Research Ethics Committee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Findings will be disseminated through national stakeholder meetings, conferences, peer-reviewed publications and policy briefs. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN37134032

"I don't eat a hamburger and large chips every day!" A qualitative study of the impact of public health messages about obesity on obese adults

BackgroundWe are a society that is fixated on the health consequences of \u27being fat\u27. Public health agencies play an important role in \u27alerting\u27 people about the risks that obesity poses both to individuals and to the broader society. Quantitative studies suggest people comprehend the physical health risks involved but underestimate their own risk because they do not recognise that they are obese.MethodsThis qualitative study seeks to expand on existing research by exploring obese individuals\u27 perceptions of public health messages about risk, how they apply these messages to themselves and how their personal and social contexts and experiences may influence these perceptions. The study uses in depth interviews with a community sample of 142 obese individuals. A constant comparative method was employed to analyse the data.ResultsPersonal and contextual factors influenced the ways in which individuals interpreted and applied public health messages, including their own health and wellbeing and perceptions of stigma. Individuals felt that messages were overly focused on the physical rather than emotional health consequences of obesity. Many described feeling stigmatised and blamed by the simplicity of messages and the lack of realistic solutions. Participants described the need for messages that convey the risks associated with obesity while minimising possible stigmatisation of obese individuals. This included ensuring that messages recognise the complexity of obesity and focus on encouraging healthy behaviours for individuals of all sizes.ConclusionThis study is the first step in exploring the ways in which we understand how public health messages about obesity resonate with obese individuals in Australia. However, much more research - both qualitative and quantitative - is needed to enhance understanding of the impact of obesity messages on individuals

Transduction of SIV-Specific TCR Genes into Rhesus Macaque CD8+ T Cells Conveys the Ability to Suppress SIV Replication

The SIV/rhesus macaque model for HIV/AIDS is a powerful system for examining the contribution of T cells in the control of AIDS viruses. To better our understanding of CD8(+) T-cell control of SIV replication in CD4(+) T cells, we asked whether TCRs isolated from rhesus macaque CD8(+) T-cell clones that exhibited varying abilities to suppress SIV replication could convey their suppressive properties to CD8(+) T cells obtained from an uninfected/unvaccinated animal.We transferred SIV-specific TCR genes isolated from rhesus macaque CD8(+) T-cell clones with varying abilities to suppress SIV replication in vitro into CD8(+) T cells obtained from an uninfected animal by retroviral transduction. After sorting and expansion, transduced CD8(+) T-cell lines were obtained that specifically bound their cognate SIV tetramer. These cell lines displayed appropriate effector function and specificity, expressing intracellular IFNγ upon peptide stimulation. Importantly, the SIV suppression properties of the transduced cell lines mirrored those of the original TCR donor clones: cell lines expressing TCRs transferred from highly suppressive clones effectively reduced wild-type SIV replication, while expression of a non-suppressing TCR failed to reduce the spread of virus. However, all TCRs were able to suppress the replication of an SIV mutant that did not downregulate MHC-I, recapitulating the properties of their donor clones.Our results show that antigen-specific SIV suppression can be transferred between allogenic T cells simply by TCR gene transfer. This advance provides a platform for examining the contributions of TCRs versus the intrinsic effector characteristics of T-cell clones in virus suppression. Additionally, this approach can be applied to develop non-human primate models to evaluate adoptive T-cell transfer therapy for AIDS and other diseases

Building Disease-Specific Drug-Protein Connectivity Maps from Molecular Interaction Networks and PubMed Abstracts

The recently proposed concept of molecular connectivity maps enables researchers to integrate experimental measurements of genes, proteins, metabolites, and drug compounds under similar biological conditions. The study of these maps provides opportunities for future toxicogenomics and drug discovery applications. We developed a computational framework to build disease-specific drug-protein connectivity maps. We integrated gene/protein and drug connectivity information based on protein interaction networks and literature mining, without requiring gene expression profile information derived from drug perturbation experiments on disease samples. We described the development and application of this computational framework using Alzheimer's Disease (AD) as a primary example in three steps. First, molecular interaction networks were incorporated to reduce bias and improve relevance of AD seed proteins. Second, PubMed abstracts were used to retrieve enriched drug terms that are indirectly associated with AD through molecular mechanistic studies. Third and lastly, a comprehensive AD connectivity map was created by relating enriched drugs and related proteins in literature. We showed that this molecular connectivity map development approach outperformed both curated drug target databases and conventional information retrieval systems. Our initial explorations of the AD connectivity map yielded a new hypothesis that diltiazem and quinidine may be investigated as candidate drugs for AD treatment. Molecular connectivity maps derived computationally can help study molecular signature differences between different classes of drugs in specific disease contexts. To achieve overall good data coverage and quality, a series of statistical methods have been developed to overcome high levels of data noise in biological networks and literature mining results. Further development of computational molecular connectivity maps to cover major disease areas will likely set up a new model for drug development, in which therapeutic/toxicological profiles of candidate drugs can be checked computationally before costly clinical trials begin

Women Have Higher Protein Content of β-Oxidation Enzymes in Skeletal Muscle than Men

It is well recognized that compared with men, women have better ultra-endurance capacity, oxidize more fat during endurance exercise, and are more resistant to fat oxidation defects i.e. diet-induced insulin resistance. Several groups have shown that the mRNA and protein transcribed and translated from genes related to transport of fatty acids into the muscle are greater in women than men; however, the mechanism(s) for the observed sex differences in fat oxidation remains to be determined. Muscle biopsies from the vastus lateralis were obtained from moderately active men (N = 12) and women (N = 11) at rest to examine mRNA and protein content of genes involved in lipid oxidation. Our results show that women have significantly higher protein content for tri-functional protein alpha (TFPα), very long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (VLCAD), and medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD) (P<0.05). There was no significant sex difference in the expression of short-chain hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (SCHAD), or peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARα), or PPARγ, genes potentially involved in the transcriptional regulation of lipid metabolism. In conclusion, women have more protein content of the major enzymes involved in long and medium chain fatty acid oxidation which could account for the observed differences in fat oxidation during exercise