Nevin Manimala

J Community Psychol. 2022 Mar 29. doi: 10.1002/jcop.22850. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

There exists a significant need of screening, measuring, and assessing phobic reactions to the negative effects and consequences of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) across the world. For this purpose, the C19P-S has been developed and adapted to several languages and cultures including Turkish, Russian, Arabic, English, Korean, and soforth. This study aimed to adapt the scale into Japanese. Convenience sampling was used in the recruitment of the participants. The sample involved 310 Japanese-speaking natives from different prefectures of the country (Mean_AGE = 49.97; SD = 13.07). The scale is a self-report instrument, which includes 20, 5-point Likert-type items. The scale assesses the levels of COVID-19 phobia in four areas: Psychological, Somatic, Economic, and Social. The validity (content, construct, convergent, and discriminant) and reliability (internal consistency) analyses were conducted. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used for group comparisons. MANOVA results show that women scored statistically higher in the psychological area. Furthermore, the participants with a lower educational level scored higher than those with a higher level in the somatic area. Among other scales measuring fear and anxiety, the C19P-S Japanese (C19P-SJ) is the first measurement tool specifically designed and adapted for evaluating coronaphobia. It is suggested that the individuals with psychiatric diagnoses be included to measure and support the construct validity of the scale.

PMID:35349737 | DOI:10.1002/jcop.22850

Nucleic Acids Res. 2022 Mar 29:gkac219. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac219. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Dimension reduction and (spatial) clustering is usually performed sequentially; however, the low-dimensional embeddings estimated in the dimension-reduction step may not be relevant to the class labels inferred in the clustering step. We therefore developed a computation method, Dimension-Reduction Spatial-Clustering (DR-SC), that can simultaneously perform dimension reduction and (spatial) clustering within a unified framework. Joint analysis by DR-SC produces accurate (spatial) clustering results and ensures the effective extraction of biologically informative low-dimensional features. DR-SC is applicable to spatial clustering in spatial transcriptomics that characterizes the spatial organization of the tissue by segregating it into multiple tissue structures. Here, DR-SC relies on a latent hidden Markov random field model to encourage the spatial smoothness of the detected spatial cluster boundaries. Underlying DR-SC is an efficient expectation-maximization algorithm based on an iterative conditional mode. As such, DR-SC is scalable to large sample sizes and can optimize the spatial smoothness parameter in a data-driven manner. With comprehensive simulations and real data applications, we show that DR-SC outperforms existing clustering and spatial clustering methods: it extracts more biologically relevant features than conventional dimension reduction methods, improves clustering performance, and offers improved trajectory inference and visualization for downstream trajectory inference analyses.

PMID:35349708 | DOI:10.1093/nar/gkac219

J Nutr. 2022 Mar 29:nxac077. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxac077. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: It is not feasible to determine the true ileal amino acid (AA) digestibility of protein sources in humans on a routine basis and the growing pig has been recommended as an animal model for this purpose but requires further validation.

OBJECTIVES: To determine and compare true ileal AA digestibility between adult human ileostomates and growing cannulated pigs for a range of food proteins.

METHODS: Seven protein sources (black beans, bread, collagen, pigeon peas, wheat bran, whey protein isolate and zein) that spanned the range of digestibilities typically seen in foods were evaluated. Six female growing pigs received each of the protein sources, as well as a protein-free diet, and digesta were collected via ileal T-cannula. Adult human ileostomates consumed the same protein sources (5 to 8 ileostomates, depending on the protein source), as well as a protein-free diet and digesta were collected. Titanium dioxide and celite were included in the diets as indigestible markers. True ileal AA digestibility coefficients were determined.

RESULTS: There was a significant effect of protein source (P ≤ 0.001) for all AAs. The effect of species was not significant (P > 0.05) except for total lysine (but not for available lysine). When analyzed within diets, the statistically significant species effect for true lysine digestibility was found for black beans only. Pig and human digestibility values were generally highly and significantly (P ≤ 0.05) correlated. A linear regression equation derived for true ileal AA digestibility (given as coefficients) determined in the human and pig for the overall mean of all AAs was (y = human, x = pig) y = 1.00x – 0.010, with the slope not statistically significant (P > 0.05) from unity and the intercept not different (P > 0.05) from zero.

CONCLUSIONS: True ileal AA digestibility values determined in the growing pig can be directly used for predicting digestibility in adult humans.

PMID:35349701 | DOI:10.1093/jn/nxac077

J Nutr. 2022 Mar 29:nxac072. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxac072. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Monitoring countries’ progress towards the achievement of their nutrition targets is an important task, but data sparsity makes monitoring trends challenging. Childhood stunting and overweight data in the European region over the last thirty years had low coverage and frequency, with most data only covering a portion of the complete age interval of 0-59 months.

OBJECTIVES: We implemented a statistical method to extract useful information on child malnutrition trends from sparse longitudinal data for these indicators.

METHODS: Heteroscedastic penalised longitudinal mixed models were used to accommodate data sparsity and predict region-wide, country-level trends over time. We leveraged prevalence estimates stratified by sex and partial age intervals (i.e., intervals that do not cover the complete 0-59 months) which expanded the available data (for stunting: from 84 sources and 428 prevalence estimates to 99 sources and 1,786 estimates), improving the robustness of our analysis.

RESULTS: Results indicated a generally decreasing trend in stunting and a stable, slightly diminishing rate for overweight, with large differences in trends between low- and middle-income countries versus high-income countries. No differences were found between age groups and between sexes. Cross-validation results indicated that both stunting and overweight models were robust in estimating the indicators for our data (root mean squared error 0.061 and 0.056; median absolute deviation 0.045 and 0.042 for stunting and overweight respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: These statistical methods can provide useful and robust information on child malnutrition trends over time, even when data are sparse.

PMID:35349691 | DOI:10.1093/jn/nxac072

J Nutr. 2022 Mar 29:nxac075. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxac075. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPM), synthesized from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), resolve inflammation and return damaged tissue to homeostasis. Thus, increasing metabolites of the SPM biosynthetic pathway may have potential health benefits for select clinical populations such as those with obesity that display dysregulation of SPM metabolism. However, bioavailability of SPMs and their metabolic intermediates in humans with obesity remains unclear.

OBJECTIVES: The primary objective was to determine if a marine oil supplement increased specific metabolites of the SPM biosynthetic pathway in adults with obesity. The second objective was to determine if the supplement changed the relative abundance of key immune cell populations. Finally, given the critical role of antibodies in inflammation, we determined if ex vivo CD19 + B cell antibody production was modified by marine oil intervention.

METHODS: Twenty-three subjects, median age of 56y and BMI of 33.1, consumed 2 g/d of a marine oil supplement for 28-30 days. The supplement was particularly enriched with 18-hydroxyeicosapentaenoic, 14-hydroxydocosahexaenoic, and 17-hydroxydocosahexaenoic acids. Blood was collected pre/post supplementation for plasma mass spectrometry oxylipin and fatty acid analyses, flow cytometry, and B cell isolation. Paired T-tests/Wilcoxon tests were used for statistical analyses.

RESULTS: Relative to pre-intervention, the supplement increased six different hydroxyeicosapentaenoic and hydroxydocosahexaenoic acids accompanied by changes in plasma PUFAs. Resolvin E1 and docosapentaenoic acid-derived maresin 1 levels were respectively increased 3.5 and 4.7-fold upon intervention. The supplement did not increase the concentration of D-series resolvins and had no effect on the abundance of immune cells. Ex vivo B cell IgG but not IgM levels were lowered post-supplementation.

CONCLUSIONS: A marine oil supplement increased select SPMs and their metabolic intermediates in adults with obesity. Additional studies are needed to determine if increased levels of specific SPMs control the resolution of inflammation in humans with obesity. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04701138).

PMID:35349683 | DOI:10.1093/jn/nxac075

Blood Adv. 2022 Mar 29:bloodadvances.2021006682. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2021006682. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Frontline arsenic trioxide (ATO)-based treatment regimens achieve high rates of long-term relapse-free survival in treating acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and form the current standard of care. Refining prognostic estimates for newly diagnosed patients treated with ATO-containing regimens remains important to continue to improve outcomes and identify patients achieving suboptimal outcomes. We performed a pooled analysis of exclusively ATO-treated patients at a single academic institution and from the ALLG APML4 and Alliance C9710 studies to determine the prognostic importance of additional cytogenetic abnormalities and/or complex karyotype. We demonstrate inferior event-free survival for patients harboring complex karyotype [hazard ratio (HR): 3.74, 95% confidence interval: 1.63-8.56, P = 0.002] but not for patients harboring additional cytogenetic abnormalities (HR 2.13, 95% CI: 0.78-5.82, P = 0.142). These data support the role for full karyotypic analysis for all patients with APL and indicate a need for novel treatment strategies to overcome this adverse effect for APL harboring complex karyotype.

PMID:35349669 | DOI:10.1182/bloodadvances.2021006682

Hum Mol Genet. 2022 Mar 29:ddac061. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddac061. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoporosis (OP) are two comorbid complex inflammatory conditions with evidence of shared genetic background and causal relationships. We aimed to clarify the genetic architecture underlying RA and various OP phenotypes whilst additionally considering an inflammatory component, C-reactive protein (CRP).

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Genome-wide association study summary (GWAS) statistics were acquired from the GEFOS consortium, CHARGE consortium, and UK Biobank. Mendelian randomization (MR) was used to detect the presence of causal relationships. Colocalization analysis was performed to determine shared genetic variants between CRP and OP phenotypes. Analysis of pleiotropy between traits due to shared causal SNPs was performed using pleiotropic analysis under composite null hypothesis (PLACO).

RESULTS: MR analysis was suggestive of horizontal pleiotropy between RA and OP traits. RA was a significant causal risk factor for CRP (β = 0.027, 95%CI = 0.016 to 0.038). There was no evidence of CRP → OP causal relationship, but horizontal pleiotropy was apparent. Colocalization established shared genomic regions between CRP and OP including GCKR and SERPINA1 genes. Pleiotropy arising from shared causal SNPs revealed through the colocalization analysis were all confirmed by PLACO. These genes were found to be involved in the same molecular function ‘protein binding’ (GO:0005515) associated with RA, OP and CRP.

DISCUSSION: We identified three major components explaining the epidemiological relationship among RA, OP and inflammation: (1) Pleiotropy explains a portion of the shared genetic relationship between RA and OP, albeit polygenically; (2) RA contributes to CRP elevation; (3) CRP, which is influenced by RA, demonstrated pleiotropy with OP.

PMID:35349660 | DOI:10.1093/hmg/ddac061

Diabetes Care. 2022 Apr 1;45(4):1013-1024. doi: 10.2337/dc21-1705.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Due to the rapidly increasing availability of metabolomics data in prospective studies, an update of the meta evidence on metabolomics and type 2 diabetes risk is warranted.

PURPOSE: To conduct an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of plasma, serum, and urine metabolite markers and incident type 2 diabetes.

DATA SOURCES: We searched PubMed and Embase until 6 March 2021.

STUDY SELECTION: We selected prospective observational studies where investigators used high-throughput techniques to investigate the relationship between plasma, serum, or urine metabolites and incident type 2 diabetes.

DATA EXTRACTION: Baseline metabolites per-SD risk estimates and 95% CIs for incident type 2 diabetes were extracted from all eligible studies.

DATA SYNTHESIS: A total of 61 reports with 71,196 participants and 11,771 type 2 diabetes cases/events were included in the updated review. Meta-analysis was performed for 412 metabolites, of which 123 were statistically significantly associated (false discovery rate-corrected P < 0.05) with type 2 diabetes risk. Higher plasma and serum levels of certain amino acids (branched-chain, aromatic, alanine, glutamate, lysine, and methionine), carbohydrates and energy-related metabolites (mannose, trehalose, and pyruvate), acylcarnitines (C4-DC, C4-OH, C5, C5-OH, and C8:1), the majority of glycerolipids (di- and triacylglycerols), (lyso)phosphatidylethanolamines, and ceramides included in meta-analysis were associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes (hazard ratio 1.07-2.58). Higher levels of glycine, glutamine, betaine, indolepropionate, and (lyso)phosphatidylcholines were associated with lower type 2 diabetes risk (hazard ratio 0.69-0.90).

LIMITATIONS: Substantial heterogeneity (I2 > 50%, τ2 > 0.1) was observed for some of the metabolites.

CONCLUSIONS: Several plasma and serum metabolites, including amino acids, lipids, and carbohydrates, are associated with type 2 diabetes risk.

PMID:35349649 | DOI:10.2337/dc21-1705

Brief Bioinform. 2022 Mar 30:bbac139. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbac139. Online ahead of print.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:35349641 | DOI:10.1093/bib/bbac139

Brain. 2022 Mar 10:awab365. doi: 10.1093/brain/awab365. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

At present, no research criteria exist for the diagnosis of prodromal behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), though early detection is of high research importance. Thus, we sought to develop and validate a proposed set of research criteria for prodromal bvFTD, termed ‘mild behavioural and/or cognitive impairment in bvFTD’ (MBCI-FTD). Participants included 72 participants deemed to have prodromal bvFTD; this comprised 55 carriers of a pathogenic mutation known to cause frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and 17 individuals with autopsy-confirmed frontotemporal lobar degeneration. All had mild behavioural and/or cognitive changes, as judged by an evaluating clinician. Based on extensive clinical workup, the prodromal bvFTD group was divided into a Development Group (n = 22) and a Validation Group (n = 50). The Development Group was selected to be the subset of the prodromal bvFTD group for whom we had the strongest longitudinal evidence of conversion to bvFTD, and was used to develop the MBCI-FTD criteria. The Validation Group was the remainder of the prodromal bvFTD group and was used as a separate sample on which to validate the criteria. Familial non-carriers were included as healthy controls (n = 165). The frequencies of behavioural and neuropsychiatric features, neuropsychological deficits, and social cognitive dysfunction in the prodromal bvFTD Development Group and healthy controls were assessed. Based on sensitivity and specificity analyses, seven core features were identified: apathy without moderate-severe dysphoria, behavioural disinhibition, irritability/agitation, reduced empathy/sympathy, repetitive behaviours (simple and/or complex), joviality/gregariousness, and appetite changes/hyperorality. Supportive features include a neuropsychological profile of impaired executive function or naming with intact orientation and visuospatial skills, reduced insight for cognitive or behavioural changes, and poor social cognition. Three core features or two core features plus one supportive feature are required for the diagnosis of possible MBCI-FTD; probable MBCI-FTD requires imaging or biomarker evidence, or a pathogenic genetic mutation. The proposed MBCI-FTD criteria correctly classified 95% of the prodromal bvFTD Development Group, and 74% of the prodromal bvFTD Validation Group, with a false positive rate of <10% in healthy controls. Finally, the MBCI-FTD criteria were tested on a cohort of individuals with prodromal Alzheimer’s disease, and the false positive rate of diagnosis was 11-16%. Future research will need to refine the sensitivity and specificity of these criteria, and incorporate emerging biomarker evidence.

PMID:35349636 | DOI:10.1093/brain/awab365