Search

Background It is considered that serum uric acid (SUA), which may induce oxidative stress and vascular endothelial dysfunction, has a potential association with atherosclerosis, but it has not been fully clarified. Objective To investigate the association of high normal SUA level with the progression of carotid atherosclerosis. Methods A retrospective cohort design was used. Participants (n=7 074) were individuals who received two or more times of health examinations in Physical Examination Center, Hebei General Hospital from 2010 to 2019. All of them had no carotid atherosclerosis with normal SUA levels〔classified into quartiles of SUA: quartile 1 (n=1 794), quartile 2 (n=1 752), quartile 3 (n=1 785) and quartile 4 (n=1 743) 〕 at the enrolment. General information, physical examination, laboratory test indicators and carotid ultrasound indicators were collected. A follow-up was conducted with them until December 2019 with the prevalence of progression of carotid atherosclerosis〔defined as carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) greater than 1 mm or carotid atherosclerosis prevalence detected by carotid ultrasound〕 as the endpoint. Cox regression analysis was used to explore the association of SUA with carotid atherosclerosis. Results Among the participants, 1 476 (20.86%) showed progression of carotid atherosclerosis. The prevalence of carotid atherosclerosis progression in quartiles 1-4 was 17.50% (314/1 794), 21.12% (370/1 752), 21.79% (389/1 785) and 23.12% (403/1 743), respectively, demonstrating a trend of growth with the increase in SUA level (χ2trend=3.58, P

Background and purpose: Intestinal inflammation and gut microbiota dysbiosis contribute to Parkinson disease (PD) pathogenesis, and growing evidence suggests associations between inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and PD. Considered as markers of chronic gastrointestinal inflammation, elevated serum anti‐Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibody (ASCA) levels, against certain gut fungal components, are related to IBD, but their effect on PD is yet to be investigated. Methods: Serum ASCA IgG and IgA levels were measured using an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, and the gut mycobiota communities were investigated using ITS2 sequencing and analyzed using the Qiime pipeline. Results: The study included 393 subjects (148 healthy controls [HCs], 140 with PD, and 105 with essential tremor [ET]). Both serum ASCA IgG and IgA levels were significantly higher in the PD group than in the ET and HC groups. Combining serum ASCA levels and the occurrence of constipation could discriminate patients with PD from controls (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.76–0.86) and from patients with ET (AUC = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.79–0.89). Furthermore, the composition of the gut fungal community differed between the PD and HC groups. The relative abundances of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Aspergillus, Candida solani, Aspergillus flavus, ASV601_Fungi, ASV866_Fungi, and ASV755_Fungi were significantly higher in the PD group, and enriched Malassezia restricta was found in the HC group. Conclusions: Our study identified elevated serum ASCA levels and enriched gut Saccharomyces cerevisiae in de novo PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanosized Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 ferrite was prepared by chemical co-precipitation method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission transmission electron microscopy (FETEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and network analyzer. TEM analysis indicates that the diameter of as-prepared powder is about 20–30 nm. The saturation magnetization of nanosized Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 ferrite is 74.01 mA·m2·g−1. The complex permittivity and complex permeability of the Co–Zn ferrite were measured by vector network analyzer in the frequency range of 2.0–18.0 GHz, and the reflection loss (RL) was investigated according to the wave transmission theory. The results show that the maximum reflection loss reaches −13.7 dB at 6.8 GHz and the bandwidth of reflection loss less than −10 dB reaches 3.8 GHz. The as-prepared nanosized Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 ferrite can be potentially used as an excellent microwave absorber in the C-band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Growing evidence suggests important effects of body mass index (BMI) and metabolic status on neurodegenerative diseases. However, the roles of BMI and metabolic status on cognitive outcomes in Parkinson's disease (PD) may vary and are yet to be determined. Methods: In total, 139 PD patients from the whole PD cohort in Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative database underwent complete laboratory measurements, demographic and anthropometric parameters at baseline, and were enrolled in this study. Further, they were categorized into 4 different BMI-metabolic status phenotypes using Adult Treatment Panel-III criteria. Motor and cognition scales at baseline and longitudinal changes after a 48-month follow-up were compared among the 4 groups. Repeated-measure linear mixed models were performed to compare PD-related biomarkers among BMI-metabolic status phenotypes across time. Results: We found that PD patients in the metabolically unhealthy normal weight group showed more cognitive decline in global cognition and visuospatial perception after a 48-month follow-up than those in the other 3 groups (p < 0.05). No difference was found in motor scales among different BMI-metabolic status phenotypes. Finally, compared to the metabolically healthy normal weight group, the metabolically healthy obesity group had lower CSF Aβ42 and serum neurofilament levels in repeated-measure linear mixed models adjusting for age, gender, APOE e4 carrier status, and years of education (p = 0.031 and 0.046, respectively). Conclusion: The MUNW phenotype was associated with a rapid cognitive decline in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to summarize and quantitatively examine the available evidence on the effectiveness of anthocyanin supplementation on liver enzymes among patients with metabolic disorders, by employing a systematic review and meta‐analytic approach. Online databases including PubMed/Medline, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched up to June 2020 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that examined the effect of anthocyanin supplementation on serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) among patients with metabolic disorders. To estimate the overall effect of anthocyanin supplementation, we employed the random‐effects model. In total, 12 RCTs were included in the systematic review. Pooled analysis did not show any significant changes in ALT (WMD: ‐0.92 U/L, 95% CI: −4.19 to 2.35, p =.58; I2 = 91.3%) and AST (WMD: −1.22 U/L, 95% CI: −3.43 to 0.99, p =.28; I2 = 87.0) concentrations after supplementation with anthocyanin. The dose and duration of supplementation were the potential sources of heterogeneity among most of the trials. However, subgroup analysis showed that the effect is not statistically significant in all subgroups. Overall, in our study, anthocyanin does not have any effect on liver enzyme levels significantly. However, future high‐quality studies are still needed to confirm the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]