Liver fibrosis markers and all cause mortality in people with type 2 diabetes:a population based study (The Ayrshire Diabetes Outcomes Cohort (ADOC) Study)

<br/

Highlights from the 24th conference on retroviruses and opportunistic infections, 13-16 February 2017, Seattle, Washington, USA

From the 13th to 16th February 2017, researchers from around the world convened for the 24th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington. The conference was organised by the International Antiviral Society-USA (IAS-USA) in partnership with the CROI Foundation. The conference included over 1000 oral and poster presentations of peer-reviewed original research as well as lectures and symposia featuring insights from leading basic, translational and clinical researchers. Highlighted here are key data presented at the conference

Comprehensive Assessment of Sleep Duration, Insomnia and Brain Structure within the UK Biobank Cohort

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To assess for associations between sleeping more than or less than recommended by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), and self-reported insomnia, with brain structure. METHODS: Data from the UK Biobank cohort were analysed (N between 9K and 32K, dependent on availability, aged 44 to 82 years). Sleep measures included self-reported adherence to NSF guidelines on sleep duration (sleeping between 7 and 9 hours per night), and self-reported difficulty falling or staying asleep (insomnia). Brain structural measures included global and regional cortical or subcortical morphometry (thickness, surface area, volume), global and tract-related white matter microstructure, brain age gap (difference between chronological age and age estimated from brain scan), and total volume of white matter lesions. RESULTS: Longer-than-recommended sleep duration was associated with lower overall grey and white matter volumes, lower global and regional cortical thickness and volume measures, higher brain age gap, higher volume of white matter lesions, higher mean diffusivity globally and in thalamic and association fibers, and lower volume of the hippocampus. Shorter-than-recommended sleep duration was related to higher global and cerebellar white matter volumes, lower global and regional cortical surface areas, and lower fractional anisotropy in projection fibers. Self-reported insomnia was associated with higher global grey and white matter volumes, and with higher volumes of the amygdala, hippocampus and putamen. CONCLUSIONS: Sleeping longer than recommended by the NSF is associated with a wide range of differences in brain structure, potentially indicative of poorer brain health. Sleeping less than recommended is distinctly associated with lower cortical surface areas. Future studies should assess the potential mechanisms of these differences and investigate long sleep duration as a putative marker of brain health

Screening for mental disorders in police custody settings

Mental disorders are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, and this applies equally to police custody. These environments are complex and often pressured, and the acuity of the situation, combined with underlying mental disorders, comorbid medical problems and substance misuse, can lead to behavioural disturbance and increased psychiatric risk. Police custody may also present an opportunity to identify and signpost people with mental disorders and vulnerabilities who are ordinarily hard to reach by standard health services. This article considers the purposes of mental health screening of detainees in police custody. It gives an overview of research into screening for a range of psychiatric disorders and vulnerabilities (including substance misuse and traumatic brain injury) and summarises data on deaths in and immediately following release from custody. Given the inadequacy of statutory screening procedures in some jurisdictions, the authors offer a pragmatic evidence-based protocol to guide screening for mental disorders in custody detainees

Perception of the Importance of Traditional Country Foods to the Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Health of Labrador Inuit

Country foods play an integral role in Inuit life by providing nutrition and a spiritual connection to the land. However, they can harbour foodborne pathogens, such as zoonotic parasites or bacteria, which can cause disease in humans who consume contaminated meat that has been inadequately cooked. Given the heavy reliance of Inuit on subsistence living, it is important to have a clear understanding of the relative safety of these foods and the role that they play in a changing Inuit society. This community-based participatory research project involved Inuit residents of Nain, Nunatsiavut, Canada. Data on Inuit perceptions of the role, importance, and safety of country foods were collected during a series of interviews with focus groups and key informants. Despite the extremely positive views they expressed about country foods and the connections they provide to the land, community, and past, participants had major concerns about human expansion in the North, mining operations, chemical contamination, and the impact of these issues on animals and the food harvested from those animals. Also of concern was a perceived decrease in the importance of country food in their community in general, and specifically among children. These findings provide an understanding of Nunatsiavut residents’ perceptions that is essential to planning effective, culturally appropriate dissemination of public health messages about the safe consumption of country foods.La nourriture de campagne revêt une grande importance dans la vie des Inuits car elle présente à la fois une source de nutrition de même qu’un attachement spirituel à la terre. Cependant, cette nourriture peut être assortie de pathogènes d’origine alimentaire prenant notamment la forme de parasites ou de bactéries zoonotiques qui peuvent entraîner des maladies chez l’être humain qui consomme de la viande contaminée dont la cuisson n’est pas adéquate. Étant donné la grande dépendance des Inuits par rapport à l’alimentation de subsistance, il est important de bien comprendre la salubrité relative de ces aliments et du rôle qu’ils jouent au sein de la société inuite en pleine évolution. Ce projet de recherche communautaire a fait appel à des habitants inuits de Nain, Nunatsiavut, au Canada. Des données relatives aux perceptions des Inuits sur le rôle, l’importance et la salubrité de la nourriture de campagne ont été recueillies dans le cadre d’une série d’entrevues réalisées auprès de groupes de discussion et d’intervenants-clés. Malgré les points de vue extrêmement positifs exprimés au sujet de la nourriture de campagne et de l’attachement qu’elle procure à la terre, à la collectivité et au passé, les participants ont exprimé de grandes préoccupations à propos de l’expansion humaine dans le Nord, de l’exploitation minière, de la contamination chimique et de l’incidence de ces enjeux sur les animaux et les sources de nourriture provenant de ces animaux. Par ailleurs, ils s’inquiétaient de la diminution perçue de l’importance de la nourriture de campagne au sein de leur communauté en général, plus précisément chez les enfants. Ces constatations permettent de comprendre les perceptions des habitants de Nunatsiavut, ce qui est essentiel à une planification efficace et à la dissémination culturellement appropriée des messages de santé publique au sujet de la consommation sécuritaire de la nourriture de campagne

Cyclic-AMP regulates postnatal development of neural and behavioral responses to NaCl in rats

During postnatal development rats demonstrate an age-dependent increase in NaCl chorda tympani (CT) responses and the number of functional apical amiloride-sensitive epithelial Na+channels (ENaCs) in salt sensing fungiform (FF) taste receptor cells (TRCs). Currently, the intracellular signals that regulate the postnatal development of salt taste have not been identified. We investigated the effect of cAMP, a downstream signal for arginine vasopressin (AVP) action, on the postnatal development of NaCl responses in 19–23 day old rats. ENaC-dependent NaCl CT responses were monitored after lingual application of 8-chlorophenylthio-cAMP (8-CPT-cAMP) under open-circuit conditions and under ±60 mV lingual voltage clamp. Behavioral responses were tested using 2 bottle/24h NaCl preference tests. The effect of [deamino-Cys1, D-Arg8]-vasopressin (dDAVP, a specific V2R agonist) was investigated on ENaC subunit trafficking in rat FF TRCs and on cAMP generation in cultured adult human FF taste cells (HBO cells). Our results show that in 19–23 day old rats, the ENaC-dependent maximum NaCl CT response was a saturating sigmoidal function of 8-CPT-cAMP concentration. 8-CPT-cAMP increased the voltage-sensitivity of the NaCl CT response and the apical Na+ response conductance. Intravenous injections of dDAVP increased ENaC expression and γ-ENaC trafficking from cytosolic compartment to the apical compartment in rat FF TRCs. In HBO cells dDAVP increased intracellular cAMP and cAMP increased trafficking of γ- and δ-ENaC from cytosolic compartment to the apical compartment 10 min post-cAMP treatment. Control 19–23 day old rats were indifferent to NaCl, but showed clear preference for appetitive NaCl concentrations after 8-CPT-cAMP treatment. Relative to adult rats, 14 day old rats demonstrated significantly less V2R antibody binding in circumvallate TRCs. We conclude that an age-dependent increase in V2R expression produces an AVP-induced incremental increase in cAMP that modulates the postnatal increase in TRC ENaC and the neural and behavioral responses to NaCl

Alzheimer disease genetic risk factor APOE e4, and cognitive abilities in 111,739 UK Biobank participants

Background: the apolipoprotein (APOE) e4 locus is a genetic risk factor for dementia. Carriers of the e4 allele may be more vulnerable to conditions that are independent risk factors for cognitive decline, such as cardiometabolic diseases. Objective: we tested whether any association with APOE e4 status on cognitive ability was larger in older ages or in those with cardiometabolic diseases. Subjects: UK Biobank includes over 500,000 middle- and older aged adults who have undergone detailed medical and cognitive phenotypic assessment. Around 150,000 currently have genetic data. We examined 111,739 participants with complete genetic and cognitive data. Methods: baseline cognitive data relating to information processing speed, memory and reasoning were used. We tested for interactions with age and with the presence versus absence of type 2 diabetes (T2D), coronary artery disease (CAD) and hypertension. Results: in several instances, APOE e4 dosage interacted with older age and disease presence to affect cognitive scores. When adjusted for potentially confounding variables, there was no APOE e4 effect on the outcome variables. Conclusions: future research in large independent cohorts should continue to investigate this important question, which has potential implications for aetiology related to dementia and cognitive impairment

Association between APOE e4 and white matter hyperintensity volume, but not total brain volume or white matter integrity

Apolipoprotein (APOE) e4 genotype is an accepted risk factor for accelerated cognitive aging and dementia, though its neurostructural substrates are unclear. The deleterious effects of this genotype on brain structure may increase in magnitude into older age. This study aimed to investigate in UK Biobank the association between APOE e4 allele presence vs. absence and brain imaging variables that have been associated with worse cognitive abilities; and whether this association varies by cross-sectional age. We used brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and genetic data from a general-population cohort: the UK Biobank (N = 8395 after exclusions). We adjusted for the covariates of age in years, sex, Townsend social deprivation scores, smoking history and cardiometabolic diseases. There was a statistically significant association between APOE e4 genotype and increased (i.e. worse) white matter (WM) hyperintensity volumes (standardised beta = 0.088, 95% confidence intervals = 0.036 to 0.139, P = 0.001), a marker of poorer cerebrovascular health. There were no associations with left or right hippocampal, total grey matter (GM) or WM volumes, or WM tract integrity indexed by fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD). There were no statistically significant interactions with age. Future research in UK Biobank utilising intermediate phenotypes and longitudinal imaging hold significant promise for this area, particularly pertaining to APOE e4’s potential link with cerebrovascular contributions to cognitive aging