Huge Rhinolith in Adult

Objective:Rhinoliths in adult are rare and uncommon.Clinical Presentation and Intervention: We present two cases of rhinoliths in adult. The first case reports an interesting case of a healthy adult male who presented with symptoms of foul-smelling nasal discharge and nasal block. The second case report merely shows an adult with the same clinical symptoms in which a rhinolith was diagnosed. Both cases report incidental findings of huge rhinoliths in the right nasal cavity.Conclusion: Management of the rhinolith and possible genesis of the rhinolith are discussed

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of Parkinson?s disease

Although over 90 independent risk variants have been identified for Parkinson’s disease using genome-wide association studies, most studies have been performed in just one population at a time. Here we performed a large-scale multi-ancestry meta-analysis of Parkinson’s disease with 49,049 cases, 18,785 proxy cases and 2,458,063 controls including individuals of European, East Asian, Latin American and African ancestry. In a meta-analysis, we identified 78 independent genome-wide significant loci, including 12 potentially novel loci (MTF2, PIK3CA, ADD1, SYBU, IRS2, USP8, PIGL, FASN, MYLK2, USP25, EP300 and PPP6R2) and fine-mapped 6 putative causal variants at 6 known PD loci. By combining our results with publicly available eQTL data, we identified 25 putative risk genes in these novel loci whose expression is associated with PD risk. This work lays the groundwork for future efforts aimed at identifying PD loci in non-European populations

Multiancestry analysis of the HLA locus in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases uncovers a shared adaptive immune response mediated by HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes

Across multiancestry groups, we analyzed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations in over 176,000 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus controls. We demonstrate that the two diseases share the same protective association at the HLA locus. HLA-specific fine-mapping showed that hierarchical protective effects of HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes best accounted for the association, strongest with HLA-DRB1*04:04 and HLA-DRB1*04:07, and intermediary with HLA-DRB1*04:01 and HLA-DRB1*04:03. The same signal was associated with decreased neurofibrillary tangles in postmortem brains and was associated with reduced tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid and to a lower extent with increased Aβ42. Protective HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes strongly bound the aggregation-prone tau PHF6 sequence, however only when acetylated at a lysine (K311), a common posttranslational modification central to tau aggregation. An HLA-DRB1*04-mediated adaptive immune response decreases PD and AD risks, potentially by acting against tau, offering the possibility of therapeutic avenues

Neurogenic differentiation potential of human nasal mucosa obtained from the middle and inferior turbinates

Olfactory bulb and nasal mucosa are one of the sources for neural stem cell, including the superior and middle turbinates (MT). The middle and inferior turbinates (IT) provides the largest area of nasal mucosa which is technically easier to harvest the stem cell for future transplantation. The ability of nasal respiratory epithelial cells (RECs) and nasal fibroblasts (NFs) from both middle and inferior turbinates to differentiate into neural lineage (NL) cells were compared in this study. Six redundant human MT and IT from post-sinus surgery were digested and cultured. The RECs and NFs were separated and induced with neurotrophic factors of forskolin, human basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), platelet-derived growth factor-AA (PDGF-AA) and heregulin-β1-EGF-domain. Based on immunocytochemistry and quantitative PCR, the NL induced NFs of MT expressed GFAP, Nestin and P75 receptor. NL induced RECs from MT and IT expressed GFAP and Nestin but did not express the P75 receptor protein. Regarding the control, the non-induced RECs and fibroblasts expressed Nestin only. This study demonstrated that nasal mucosa cells from both IT and MT have the potential to differentiate into neural lineage cells even though the fibroblasts of MT are superior in term of quality. Hopefully, these tissues will provide better donor area with less morbidity for autologous or allograft transplantation in future neural regenerative medicine

Plant terpenoids as the promising source of cholinesterase inhibitors for anti-AD therapy

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Plant-derived terpenes have been a research interest in the recent years, as they are believed to possess the ability to function as a cholinesterase inhibitor. As the deficit of cholinergic activity is one of the factors that causes cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease patients, it serves as a great therapeutic target. It has been found that various terpenoids, such as diterpenoids, triterpenoids and sesquiterpenoids, do have the ability to inhibit cholinesterase activity, and their chemical structures do play a role in this. As terpenoids possess anti-cholinesterase properties, it is encouraged to have future research on drug discovery and development in treating Alzheimer’s disease. ABSTRACT: Plant-derived terpenes are the prolific source of modern drugs such as taxol, chloroquine and artemisinin, which are widely used to treat cancer and malaria infections. There are research interests in recent years on terpene-derived metabolites (diterpenes, triterpenes and sesquiterpenes), which are believed to serve as excellent cholinesterase inhibitors. As cholinesterase inhibitors are the current treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, terpene-derived metabolites will have the potential to be involved in the future drug development for Alzheimer’s disease. Hence, a bibliographic search was conducted by using the keywords “terpene”, “cholinesterase” and “Alzheimer’s disease”, along with cross-referencing from 2011 to 2020, to provide an overview of natural terpenes with potential anticholinesterase properties. This review focuses on the extraction, chemical structures and anti-cholinesterase mechanisms of terpenes, which support and encourage future research on drug discovery and development in treating Alzheimer’s disease

Mobile Polaronic States in α‑MoO₃: An ab Initio Investigation of the Role of Oxygen Vacancies and Alkali Ions

Some oxides have the ability to trap excess electrons in the form of small polarons. Here, using first-principles techniques, we investigate the interaction of excess electrons with α-MoO₃. Polarons are found to be about 0.6 eV more stable than delocalized electrons. They can propagate with a high degree of anisotropicity along different crystallographic directions with the lowest barrier found to be about 0.08 eV. In addition to the band gap photoexcited charge carriers that can populate such polaron states, we investigate the role of oxygen vacancies as an intrinsic source of electrons. We also investigate intercalated alkali ions that can form complexes with the created polarons in the lattice. The alkali–polaron complex (A_xMoO₆, A = alkali ion) binding energies are relatively low, making it easy for the complex to dissociate. This, coupled with the low polaron migration energies, can generate a non-negligible contribution to electronic conductivity even in the absence of illumination, which is experimentally verified. Combined, this light-induced intercalation of alkali ion in MoO₃ and its subsequent deintercalation (complex dissociation) processes lead to a novel self-photocharghing phenomenon

Head rotation improves airway obstruction, especially in patients with less severe obstructive sleep apnea without oropharyngeal collapse.

PurposeHead rotation is thought to have an effect on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity. However, keeping the head rotated fully during sleep is difficult to maintain, and the effect of head rotation is not the same in all OSA patients. Thus, this study aimed to identify whether less head rotation has an effect on airway patency and determine the responder characteristics to the head rotation maneuver (HRM).MethodsWe recruited 221 patients who underwent overnight polysomnography and drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) in a tertiary hospital from June 2019 to July 2020. Airway patency and the site of airway collapse were determined in the supine position with the head at 0, 30, and 60 degrees of rotation (HRM0°, HRM30°, and HRM60°, respectively) during DISE. The site of collapse was determined using the VOTE classification system: the velum (palate), oropharyngeal lateral walls, tongue base, and epiglottis. Each structure was labeled as 0, 1, or 2 (patent, partially obstructed, and completely obstructed, respectively). Airway response to the HRM30° and 60° and the clinical characteristics associated with airway opening were analyzed.ResultsThe study population had a median age of 52 (25-61) years, a body mass index of 26.7(24.6-29.4) kg/m2, and the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 28.2(13.7-71.9) events/h. HRM influenced airway patency positively not only with HRM60° (pConclusionHead rotation improved airway obstruction in OSA patients, even with a small degree of rotation, and should be further explored as a potential form of therapy in appropriately selected patients