Search

Introduction: There are reports that lung cancer in non-smokers (LCINS) is increasing in the United Kingdom (UK) and other high-income countries but evidence from large-scale cohort studies to support this claim is limited., Material and Methods: Using The Health Improvement Network (THIN) IQVIA™ Medical Research Data, we identified a cohort of 3,679,831 people from the UK self-reporting to their primary care physician as never or non-smokers. We estimated age-adjusted incidence rates for recorded lung cancer before (1998-2007) and after (2008-2018) the introduction of smoke-free legislation using multivariable Poisson regression. We also explored the impact of geographic location, social deprivation and urbanicity., Results: The analysis included 3,212 lung cancer events and 28 million person-years (PYs). Between 1998 and 2007, the age-adjusted rates in men declined by 9% per year (95 %CI: 7-11%) from an estimated 5.6 to 1.5 per 10,000 PYs and by 3% per year (95 %CI: 1-5%) between 2008 and 2018. These trends for men were similar across sociodemographic strata. Between 1998 and 2007, age-adjusted rates were stable for women at 1.5 per 10,000 PYs. However, there was evidence that time trends for women differed depending on levels of social deprivation with rates increasing by 5% per year (95 %CI: 2-9%) from an estimated 1.3-2.1 per 10,000 PYs for women living in the least socially deprived areas. Sex-specific time trends from 2008 to 2016 were broadly similar in a separate cohort of self-reported never smokers from UK Biobank with cancer events linked to national registries., Conclusion: In summary, the incidence of LCINS has reduced or remained stable for most of the UK with the possible exception of women living in the least socially deprived areas., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None declared., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Metal nanoparticle synthesis has been observed in several species of bacteria but the underlying mechanisms of synthesis are not well understood. Morganella psychrotolerans is a Gram-negative psychrophilic bacterium that is able to tolerate relatively high concentrations of Cu and Ag ions, and it is through the associated resistance pathways that this species is able to convert metal ions to nanoparticles. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism of nanoparticle synthesis, looking at the interaction of the metal binding protein SilE with metal ions using MicroScale Thermophoresis (MST). MST assays give a rapid and accurate determination of binding affinities, allowing for the testing of SilE with a range of environmentally significant metal ions. The binding affinities (K d ) of Ag + and Cu 2+ were measured as 0.17 mM and 0.13 mM respectively, consistent with the observations of strong binding reported in the literature, whereas the binding to Al 3+ and Co 2+ was measured as K d values of 4.19 mM and 1.35 mM respectively., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In nanoparticle production there are a number of important considerations that must be made. Producing nanoparticles of uniform size and shape is vital, but no less important is ensuring the production process is as efficient as possible in time, cost and energy. Traditional chemical and physical methods of nanoparticle production often involve high temperatures and pressures, as well as the use of toxic substrates; in contrast the bioproduction of nanoparticles is greener and requires a smaller input of energy resources. Here we outline a method for the straightforward bioproduction of stable, uniform elemental (zero-valent) copper nanoparticles at room temperature, and demonstrate how their size and shape can be modified by subsequent pH manipulation. We also highlight a potential application for these biogenic copper nanoparticles by demonstrating their potential to inhibit bacterial growth., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Desulfovibrio alaskensis G20 is an anaerobic sulfate reducing bacteria. While Desulfovibrio species have previously been shown to reduce palladium and platinum to the zero-state, forming nanoparticles in the process; there have been no reports that D. alaskensis is able to form these nanoparticles. Metal nanoparticles have properties that make them ideal for use in many industrial and medical applications, such as their size and shape giving them higher catalytic activity than the bulk form of the same metal. Nanoparticles of the platinum group metals in particular are highly sought after for their catalytic ability and herein we report the formation of both palladium and platinum nanoparticles by D. alaskensis and the biotransformation of solvated nickel ions to nanoparticle form., (Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The fields of metallic nanoparticle study and synthetic biology have a great deal to offer one another. Metallic nanoparticles as a class of material have many useful properties. Their small size allows for more points of contact than would be the case with a similar bulk compound, making nanoparticles excellent candidates for catalysts or for when increased levels of binding are required. Some nanoparticles have unique optical qualities, making them well suited as sensors, while others display para-magnetism, useful in medical imaging, especially by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Many of these metallic nanoparticles could be used in creating tools for synthetic biology, and conversely the use of synthetic biology could itself be utilised to create nanoparticle tools. Examples given here include the potential use of quantum dots (QDs) and gold nanoparticles as sensing mechanisms in synthetic biology, and the use of synthetic biology to create nanoparticle-sensing devices based on current methods of detecting metals and metalloids such as arsenate. There are a number of organisms which are able to produce a range of metallic nanoparticles naturally, such as species of the fungus Phoma which produces anti-microbial silver nanoparticles. The biological synthesis of nanoparticles may have many advantages over their more traditional industrial synthesis. If the proteins involved in biological nanoparticle synthesis can be put into a suitable bacterial chassis then they might be manipulated and the pathways engineered in order to produce more valuable nanoparticles., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have many comorbidities but experience inequities in access to health care. National Health Service England uses an opt-in incentive scheme to encourage annual health checks of patients with ID in primary care. We investigated whether the first 3 years of the programme had improved health care of people with ID., Methods: We did a longitudinal cohort study that used data from The Health Improvement Network primary care database. We did multivariate logistic regression to assess associations between various characteristics and whether or not practices had opted in to the incentivised scheme., Findings: We assessed data for 8692 patients from 222 incentivised practices and those for 918 patients in 48 non-incentivised practices. More blood tests (eg, total cholesterol, odds ratio [OR] 1·88, 95% CI 1·47-2·41, p<0·0001) general health measurements (eg, smoking status, 6·0, 4·10-8·79, p<0·0001), specific health assessments (eg, hearing, 24·0, 11·5-49·9, p<0·0001), and medication reviews (2·23, 1·68-2·97, p<0·0001) were done in incentivised than in non-incentivised practices, and more health action plans (6·15, 1·41-26·9, p=0·0156) and secondary care referrals (1·47, 1·05-2·05, p=0·0256) were made. Identification rates were higher in incentivised practices for thyroid disorder (OR 2·72, 95% CI 1·09-6·81, p=0·0323), gastrointestinal disorders (1·94, 1·03-3·65, p=0·0390), and obesity (2·49, 1·76-3·53, p<0·0001)., Interpretation: Targeted annual health checks for people with ID in primary care could reduce health inequities., Funding: National Institute for Health Research., (Copyright © 2014 Buszewicz et al. Open Access article distributed under the term of CC BY. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background/aims: Currently the diagnosis and severity of hepatic steatosis can be established accurately only by liver biopsy. Previous small studies found that steatosis measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and imaging (MRI) correlated with histological assessment of liver triglyceride content. However, the accuracy of MRS/MRI for grading the severity of steatosis has not been addressed. The aims of this study were (1) to determine whether MRS and MRI can discriminate grades of steatosis in a large cohort of consecutive patients with a wide spectrum of liver disease aetiology and severity (2) to evaluate the effect of hepatic fibrosis, inflammation and iron on quantitation of intrahepatocellular lipid (IHCL) by these techniques., Methods: Ninety-four sequential patients who underwent percutaneous liver biopsy or liver resection had MRS and MRI (Dixon in phase/out of phase (Dixon IP/OP) and with/without fat saturation (+/-FS) images) to determine IHCL. Histology was used as the reference standard., Results: Close relationships were observed between the percentage of steatosis estimated by histology and MRS/MRI (r(s)=0.88 p<0.001 for all techniques). However, separate equations were required for the percentage of steatosis to avoid underestimation by imaging for patients with moderate or advanced fibrosis. All techniques had good diagnostic accuracy for mild steatosis (AUROC > or =0.87) as well as moderate/severe steatosis (AUROC > or =0.89). Hepatic inflammation and mild iron deposition (Perls' grade 1 and 2) did not interfere with estimation of steatosis by imaging., Conclusions: MRS and MRI had good accuracy for grading the severity of steatosis in subjects with liver disease, provided that stage of fibrosis was considered.