Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Disorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021. Methods: We estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined. Findings: Globally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer. Interpretation: As the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The association of MYNN and TERC gene polymorphisms and bladder cancer in a Turkish population

PubMed ID: 30120764Purpose: Researchers reported that, MYNN rs10936599 polymorphism is in strong or moderate linkage disequilibrium with SNPs within the 3q26.2 chromosomal regions that also include the TERC gene. In addition, it has been reported that MYNN rs10936599 had a strong cumulative association with bladder cancer risk, and TERC gene suppresses cell growth in bladder cancer cell lines. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether polymorphisms of MYNN rs10936599 and TERC rs2293607 play any roles for bladder cancer in the Turkish population in this study. Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 70 patients and 150 controls were investigated. Genotyping analysis was performed by polymerase chain reaction, restriction fragment length polymorphism and DNA sequencing techniques. Results: Genotype distribution between study groups for MYNN rs10936599 SNP was significantly different (P = .001); although there was no difference in genotype distribution for TERC rs2293607 SNP. In addition, patients with CT genotype and CT+TT genotype combination of MYNN SNP have a decreased risk for bladder cancer. Two times increased risk ratio on development of bladder cancer was obtained for CC genotype of the SNP (P = .001). Besides, it was found that genotype combination of GG+AG/CC versus AA/CC genotypes (TERC/MYNN) showed stronger correlation. We observed that statistically significant relationship between the C-G haplotypes of two polymorphisms and bladder cancer risk (P = .0001). Conclusion: At the end of the study, we suggested that there may exist an association between a combination of MYNN rs10936599 and TERC rs2293607 polymorphisms and development of bladder cancer in Turkish population. © 2017,Urology and Nephrology Research Centre

T-786C, G894T, and intron 4 VNTR (4a/b) polymorphisms of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene in bladder cancer cases

PubMed ID: 25824737The aim of the present study was to determine whether endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene polymorphisms play a role in development of bladder cancer in the Turkish population. The study was performed on 75 patients (64 men, 11 women) with bladder cancer and 143 healthy individuals (107 men, 36 women) with any kind of cancer history. Three eNOS gene polymorphisms (T-786C promoter region, G894T and intron 4 VNTR 4a/b) were determined with polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment lenght polymorphism methods. In our study, GT and TT genotypes for eNOS G894T polymorphism were found to significantly vary among patients with bladder cancer and control group (OR: 0.185, CI: 0.078-0.439, p=0.0001 and OR: 0.324, CI: 0.106-0.990, p=0.026). Also, the frequency of the 894T allele was significantly higher in patients with bladder cancer (51%). No association was identified for eNOS T-786C and intron 4 VNTR 4a/b polymorphisms between patients with bladder cancer and control groups in our Turkish population

The Silicon Vertex Detector of the Belle II experiment

International audienceThe Belle II experiment located at KEK, Japan takes data from asymmetric e+e− collision provided by the SuperKEKB accelerator. The Silicon Vertex Detector (SVD), which is part of the Belle II Vertex Detector (VXD), has been operating smoothly and reliably since the start of data taking in March 2019. In this article, we report on the performance of the SVD in terms of the large signal-to-noise ratio, the good hit position resolution as well as the good hit-time resolution. New algorithms based on hit-time information are under development to improve robustness of tracking performance within the anticipated high background environment. The Background situation of the SVD has been constantly monitored and no degradation in performance is observed so far. To investigate the SVD performance at high luminosity runs in the future, simulation as well as an irradiation campaign are launched and their results are summarized. During the first long shutdown of the Belle II experiment, which starts from June 2022, the VXD has been refurbished with a new two-layer DEPFET pixel detector located inside the SVD. All the delicate phases of the disassembly, re-assembly and installation of the new VXD have been successfully completed. The new VXD commissioning phase began in Sept 2023 to get ready for beam operation starting in early 2024

The Silicon Vertex Detector of the Belle II Experiment

International audienceThe silicon vertex detector (SVD) is installed at the heart of the Belle II experiment, taking data at the high-luminosity $B$-Factory SuperKEKB since 2019. The detector has shown a stable and above-99% hit efficiency, with a large signal-to-noise in all sensors since the beginning of data taking. Cluster position and time resolution have been measured with 2020 and 2022 data and show excellent performance and stability. The effect of radiation damage is visible, but not affecting the performance. As the luminosity increases, higher machine backgrounds are expected and the excellent hit-time information in SVD can be exploited for background rejection. In particular, we have recently developed a novel procedure to select hits by grouping them event-by-event based on their time. This new procedure allows a significant reduction of the fake rate, while preserving the tracking efficiency, and it has therefore replaced the previous cut-based procedure. We have developed a method that uses the SVD hits to estimate the track time (previously unavailable) and the collision time. It has a similar precision to the estimate based on the drift chamber but its execution time is three orders of magnitude smaller, allowing a faster online reconstruction that is crucial in a high luminosity regime. The track time is a powerful information provided to analysis that allows, together with the above-mention grouping selection, to raise the occupancy limit above that expected at nominal luminosity, leaving room for a safety factor. Finally, in June 2022 the data taking of the Belle II experiment was stopped to install a new two-layer DEPFET detector (PXD) and upgrade components of the accelerator. The whole silicon tracker (PXD+SVD) has been extracted from Belle II, the new PXD installed, the detector closed and commissioned. We briefly describe the SVD results of this upgrade

Measurement of the cluster position resolution of the Belle II Silicon Vertex Detector

International audienceThe Silicon Vertex Detector (SVD), with its four double-sided silicon strip sensor layers, is one of the two vertex sub-detectors of Belle II operating at SuperKEKB collider (KEK, Japan). Since 2019 and the start of the data taking, the SVD has demonstrated a reliable and highly efficient operation, even running in an environment with harsh beam backgrounds that are induced by the world’s highest instantaneous luminosity. In order to provide the best quality track reconstruction with an efficient pattern recognition and track fit, and to correctly propagate the uncertainty on the hit’s position to the track parameters, it is crucial to precisely estimate the resolution of the cluster position measurement. Several methods for estimating the position resolution directly from the data will be discussed