Recreational football for disease prevention and treatment in untrained men: a narrative review examining cardiovascular health, lipid profile, body composition, muscle strength and functional capacity

Over the past 10 years, researchers have studied the effects of recreational football training as a health-promoting activity for participants across the lifespan. This has important public health implications as over 400 million people play football annually. Results from the first randomised controlled trial, published in the BJSM in January 2009, showed that football increased maximal oxygen uptake and muscle and bone mass, and lowered fat percentage and blood pressure, in untrained men, and since then more than 70 articles about football for health have been published, including publications in two supplements of the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports in 2010 and 2014, prior to the FIFA World Cup tournaments in South Africa and Brazil. While studies of football training effects have also been performed in women and children, this article reviews the current evidence linking recreational football training with favourable effects in the prevention and treatment of disease in adult men

Teknologiforståelse for alle? – fagdidaktisk analyse af erhvervsuddannel-sernes nye grundfag Erhvervsinformatik

Erhvervsinformatik er et nyt grundfag, der er målrettet erhvervsskole-elevers behov for udvikling af teknologiforståelse. Forskning i erhvervsuddannelsers forståelse og anvendelse af (digital) teknologi er yderst sparsom i Danmark. Formålet med denne artikel er at under-søge undervisningsfaget Erhvervsinformatik i forhold til, hvordan fag-et tilgodeser erhvervsuddannelsernes særkende og de intentioner, der er med faget for på denne måde at bidrage med ny viden til feltet. Me-todisk baserer artiklen sig på en fagdidaktisk analyse af fagets lære-planer, der er analyseret i forhold til fagets identitet, indhold og intenderede praksis. Gennem analyserne viser vi, at Erhvervsinfor-matik tager højde for erhvervsuddannelsernes særkende og lever op til de intentioner, der er med faget i denne kontekst, men vi finder også anledning til at problematisere en række forhold. Afslutningsvist peger vi på behov for yderligere empirisk forskning med henblik på at opnå en dybere forståelse af undervisningsfaget Erhvervsinformatik, og måden hvorpå det realiseres i praksis

Cellular uptake and intracellular phosphorylation of GS-441524:Implications for its effectiveness against COVID-19

GS-441524 is an adenosine analog and the parent nucleoside of the prodrug remdesivir, which has received emergency approval for treatment of COVID-19. Recently, GS-441524 has been proposed to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19, perhaps even being superior to remdesivir for treatment of this disease. Evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of GS-441524 requires understanding of its uptake and intracellular conversion to GS-441524 triphosphate, the active antiviral substance. We here discuss the potential impact of these pharmacokinetic steps of GS-441524 on the formation of its active antiviral substance and effectiveness for treatment of COVID-19. Available protein expression data suggest that several adenosine transporters are expressed at only low levels in the epithelial cells lining the alveoli in the lungs, i.e., the alveolar cells or pneumocytes from healthy lungs. This may limit uptake of GS-441524. Importantly, cellular uptake of GS-441524 may be reduced during hypoxia and inflammation due to decreased expression of adenosine transporters. Similarly, hypoxia and inflammation may lead to reduced expression of adenosine kinase, which is believed to convert GS-441524 to GS-441524 monophosphate, the perceived rate-limiting step in the intracellular formation of GS-441524 triphosphate. Moreover, increases in extracellular and intracellular levels of adenosine, which may occur during critical illnesses, has the potential to competitively decrease cellular uptake and phosphorylation of GS-441524. Taken together, tissue hypoxia and severe inflammation in COVID-19 may lead to reduced uptake and phosphorylation of GS-441524 with lowered therapeutic effectiveness as a potential outcome. Hypoxia may be particularly critical to the ability of GS-441524 to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 from tissues with low basal expression of adenosine transporters, such as alveolar cells. This knowledge may also be relevant to treatments with other antiviral adenosine analogs and anticancer adenosine analogs as well

Overlap between angina without obstructive coronary artery disease and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction with preserved ejection fraction

<div><p>Background</p><p>A link between angina with no obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart failure with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction has been proposed, but evidence in support of this is lacking. In a cross-sectional study, we investigated whether left ventricular diastolic function in women with angina pectoris and no obstructive CAD differed from a reference population.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We included 956 women with angina and <50% coronary artery stenosis at invasive coronary angiography. Women with cardiovascular risk factors, but no history of chest pain or cardiac disease served as controls (n = 214). Left ventricular diastolic function was assessed by transthoracic echocardiography.</p><p>Results</p><p>The women with angina were slightly older, had higher body mass index, higher heart rate, and more had diabetes compared with controls while systolic blood pressure was lower. In age-adjusted analyses, angina patients had significantly lower E/A (Estimated difference -0.13, 95% CI: -0.17; -0.08), higher left ventricular mass index (5.73 g/m², 95% CI: 3.71; 7.75), left atrial volume index (2.34 ml/m², 95% CI: 1.23; 3.45) and E/e’ (0.68, 95% CI: 0.30; 1.05) and a larger proportion had higher estimated left ventricular filling pressure (17% versus 6%, p = 0.001). No between group differences were seen for e’ or deceleration time. After adjustment for known cardiovascular risk factors, between group differences for echocardiographic parameters remained statistically significant.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Patients with angina and no obstructive CAD had a more impaired left ventricular diastolic function compared with an asymptomatic reference population. This suggests some common pathophysiological pathway between the two syndromes.</p></div