Gezondheidseffecten van biologische voeding: Ervaringsverhalen

In een kwalitatief onderzoek, waarin de consument van biologische producten als ervaringsdeskundige bij uitstek, is gevraagd zijn/haar ervaring met biologische voeding te beschrijven, is onderzocht of mensen die zijn omgeschakeld van reguliere voeding naar biologische voeding een effect op hun gezondheid hebben ervaren. Deelname kon door het invullen van een online vragenlijst. In totaal hebben 565 mensen hun ervaring met biologische voeding beschreven. Van deze groep had een kwart geen duidelijk effect bemerkt, terwijl de overigen allemaal 1 of meerdere effecten beschreven hebbe

Biocrystallisations: Milk treatments

Following two milk studies performed by the Louis Bolk Instituut, the hypothesis that processing of milk has an important effect on bio crystallisation pictures was investigated. Two raw whole milk tank samples, coded A and B, and 5 treatments performed on these samples (in total A/B 1-6) were offered for analysis. Evaluation was performed Visually and by means of computerized Texture analysis. Conclusions: Processing of milk has a strong effect on the crystallisation pictures. Especially homogenisation of milk had a large impact on the crystallisation picture. Surprisingly, this influence is higher than the treatment with ultra high temperatures at 140C

Koemelk: Effecten van bewerkingen op gezondheid

A small percentage of the milk consumed in the Netherlands is raw, unprocessed milk. All milk distributed through shops and supermarkets are at least standardized and heat treated (e.g. pasteurized), and most of the consumption milk is homogenized. Yet, some consumers prefer to drink unprocessed, raw milk, because of its taste or expected positive health effect. In this report, the results of a literature research are presented. The changes in the milk as a result of processing and the potential effect of these changes on the health of humans are investigated

Zijn gezondheidsclaims op biologische eieren mogelijk : Deskstudie

Op verzoek van de Bioconnect productwerkgroep Pluimveevlees & Eieren heeft het Louis Blok Instituut een literatuurstudie verricht naar het onderscheidend vermogen, en de mogelijkheid voor het maken van gezondheidsclaims, van biologische eieren ten opzichte van gangbare productiesystemen. Op basis van beschikbare informatie zijn alleen claims te maken, die betrekking hebben op de voedingswaarde van eieren in het algemeen, dus zowel gangbaar als biologisch. Er is geen openbaar beschikbare informatie voor handen over de chemische samenstelling van biologische eieren of vrije uitloop eieren. Daarmee kan geen uitspraak worden gedaan dat deze typen eieren meer of minder van bepaalde stoffen bevatten dan gangbare eieren. De enige stof waarvoor deze informatie wel beschikbaar is, is de gezondheidsondermijnende stof dioxine, waarvan via meerdere (literatuur) bronnen duidelijk wordt dat dit juist meer voorkomt in biologische en vrije uitloop eieren

Low-density lipoprotein oxidation, antioxidants and risk of atherosclerosis

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in most industrialized countries. In the Netherlands, it is responsible for 40% of all deaths. Major risk factors for CVD are identified such as smoking, high cholesterol level and hypertension. Other important determinants of cardiovascular risk are nutrition, physical activity and body weight. However, these known risk factors cannot fully explain individual differences in cardiovascular risk. An intriguing hypothesis has been postulated in which the known beneficial effect of a diet high in flUit and vegetables is combined with the known harmful effect of high cholesterol levels or, more specifically, high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. This hypothesis describes a high level of LDL cholesterol as a promoting factor in atherosclerosis after LDL has been chemically altered by free radical compounds. The uptake of cholesterol in macrophages is increased and foam cells are formed. These foam cells can cluster just beneath the intima of the vessel wall which is the beginning of the fatty streak and of the atherogenic process. Antioxidants can playa role in protecting LDL from oxidation by scavenging free radicals. Several lines of evidence have indicated that oxidation occurs in vivo and that antioxidants may have a preventive effect. Epitopes of oxidized LDL are found in atherosclerotic lesions.Further, supplementation with vitamin E has been reported to decrease susceptibility of LDL to oxidation. Evidence for direct relations between susceptibility to oxidation and risk of cardiovascular diseases, however, is scarce. To investigate susceptibility of LDL to oxidation and the preventive role of antioxidants in relation to atherosclerosis, we performed the studies described in this thesis

Autoantibodies against MDA-LDL in subjects with severe and minor atherosclerosis and healthy population controls

Autoantibodies against oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) have been reported to be associated with atherosclerosis. However, data are not consistent. We compared the titres of autoantibodies to malondialdehyde-modified LDL in three groups, a case group with angiographically documented severe coronary stenosis (> 80% stenosis in at least 1 vessel, n = 47), a hospital control group with minor stenosis on the coronary angiography (< 50% stenosis in all three major vessels, n = 47) and a healthy population control group with no history of coronary heart disease (n = 49). Age ranged from 26 to 68 years. Subjects were frequency-matched for gender distribution and storage time of the blood samples. No relevant differences in autoantibody titre between case and control groups were found. The mean autoantibody titres (± S.D.) were 1.44 ± 1.82, 1.46 ± 1.40 and 1.62 ± 1.95 for cases, hospital controls and population controls, respectively. No correlations were found between autoantibody titre and age, number of cigarettes smoked and LDL or total cholesterol. Autoantibody titres were correlated wit

Health benefits, costs, and cost-effectiveness of earlier eligibility for adult antiretroviral therapy and expanded treatment coverage: a combined analysis of 12 mathematical models.

BACKGROUND: New WHO guidelines recommend ART initiation for HIV-positive persons with CD4 cell counts ≤500 cells/µL, a higher threshold than was previously recommended. Country decision makers must consider whether to further expand ART eligibility accordingly. METHODS: We used multiple independent mathematical models in four settings-South Africa, Zambia, India, and Vietnam-to evaluate the potential health impact, costs, and cost-effectiveness of different adult ART eligibility criteria under scenarios of current and expanded treatment coverage, with results projected over 20 years. Analyses considered extending eligibility to include individuals with CD4 ≤500 cells/µL or all HIV-positive adults, compared to the previous recommendation of initiation with CD4 ≤350 cells/µL. We assessed costs from a health system perspective, and calculated the incremental cost per DALY averted ($/DALY) to compare competing strategies. Strategies were considered 'very cost-effective' if the$/DALY was less than the country's per capita gross domestic product (GDP; South Africa: $8040, Zambia:$1425, India: $1489, Vietnam:$1407) and 'cost-effective' if $/DALY was less than three times per capita GDP. FINDINGS: In South Africa, the cost per DALY averted of extending ART eligibility to CD4 ≤500 cells/µL ranged from$237 to $1691/DALY compared to 2010 guidelines; in Zambia, expanded eligibility ranged from improving health outcomes while reducing costs (i.e. dominating current guidelines) to$749/DALY. Results were similar in scenarios with substantially expanded treatment access and for expanding eligibility to all HIV-positive adults. Expanding treatment coverage in the general population was therefore found to be cost-effective. In India, eligibility for all HIV-positive persons ranged from $131 to$241/DALY and in Vietnam eligibility for CD4 ≤500 cells/µL cost $290/DALY. In concentrated epidemics, expanded access among key populations was also cost-effective. INTERPRETATION: Earlier ART eligibility is estimated to be very cost-effective in low- and middle-income settings, although these questions should be revisited as further information becomes available. Scaling-up ART should be considered among other high-priority health interventions competing for health budgets. FUNDING: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and World Health Organization

HRDetect is a predictor of BRCA1 and BRCA2 deficiency based on mutational signatures.

Approximately 1-5% of breast cancers are attributed to inherited mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 and are selectively sensitive to poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. In other cancer types, germline and/or somatic mutations in BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 (BRCA1/BRCA2) also confer selective sensitivity to PARP inhibitors. Thus, assays to detect BRCA1/BRCA2-deficient tumors have been sought. Recently, somatic substitution, insertion/deletion and rearrangement patterns, or 'mutational signatures', were associated with BRCA1/BRCA2 dysfunction. Herein we used a lasso logistic regression model to identify six distinguishing mutational signatures predictive of BRCA1/BRCA2 deficiency. A weighted model called HRDetect was developed to accurately detect BRCA1/BRCA2-deficient samples. HRDetect identifies BRCA1/BRCA2-deficient tumors with 98.7% sensitivity (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.98). Application of this model in a cohort of 560 individuals with breast cancer, of whom 22 were known to carry a germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, allowed us to identify an additional 22 tumors with somatic loss of BRCA1 or BRCA2 and 47 tumors with functional BRCA1/BRCA2 deficiency where no mutation was detected. We validated HRDetect on independent cohorts of breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancers and demonstrated its efficacy in alternative sequencing strategies. Integrating all of the classes of mutational signatures thus reveals a larger proportion of individuals with breast cancer harboring BRCA1/BRCA2 deficiency (up to 22%) than hitherto appreciated (∼1-5%) who could have selective therapeutic sensitivity to PARP inhibition

Processed pseudogenes acquired somatically during cancer development

Cancer evolves by mutation, with somatic reactivation of retrotransposons being one such mutational process. Germline retrotransposition can cause processed pseudogenes, but whether this occurs somatically has not been evaluated. Here we screen sequencing data from 660 cancer samples for somatically acquired pseudogenes. We find 42 events in 17 samples, especially non-small cell lung cancer (5/27) and colorectal cancer (2/11). Genomic features mirror those of germline LINE element retrotranspositions, with frequent target-site duplications (67%), consensus TTTTAA sites at insertion points, inverted rearrangements (21%), 5′ truncation (74%) and polyA tails (88%). Transcriptional consequences include expression of pseudogenes from UTRs or introns of target genes. In addition, a somatic pseudogene that integrated into the promoter and first exon of the tumour suppressor gene, MGA, abrogated expression from that allele. Thus, formation of processed pseudogenes represents a new class of mutation occurring during cancer development, with potentially diverse functional consequences depending on genomic context