Screening for Asymptomatic Urinary Retention in Older Adult Men at Admission to the Internal Medicine Department: A Prospective Study.

Background: Screening for asymptomatic urinary retention (AUR) in older adult men at hospital admission to the internal medicine department has never been studied.

Objectives: To assess the incidence of AUR in older adult men at hospital admission, its risk factors, and its outcome.

Methods: The study comprised 111 older adult men aged ≥ 75 years who were admitted to three internal medicine departments.

[Prion Properties of Alpha-Synuclein].

The prion properties of alpha-synuclein, a key aggregating protein involved in the pathogenesis of so-called synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and its various conformers are discussed. It is shown that alpha-synuclein may be transferred between cells by prion-like propagation. Similarly to other prions, alpha-synuclein aggregation develops from the initial lag-phase (nucleation) to the subsequent growth phase (elongation), and to the stationary phase where the aggregates and monomers exist in equilibrium.

[Transmission of pathogenic protein aggregates in Alzheimer's disease].

Deposits of amyloid peptide Aβ and intracellular aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau protein in the brain of patients are major neuropathological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). For a long time, the possibility of horizontal transmission of Aβ aggregates from cell to cell and from person to person remained hypothetical, since there was no experimental evidence. However, in 1993, the formation of senile plaques was confirmed in the brains of animals after intracerebral injections of AD patient brain homogenates or homogenates of the brain of transgenic mice enriched with Aβ aggregates.

[Role of the ABC transporters A1 and G1, key reverse cholesterol transport proteins, in atherosclerosis].

Atherosclerosis is one of the most common causes of death worldwide. Epidemiology studies firmly established an inverse relationship between atherogenesis and distorted lipid metabolism, in particular, higher levels of total cholesterol, an accumulation of CH-laden macrophages (foam cells), and lower plasma levels of antiatherogenic high density lipoprotein (HDL). It is believed that the reverse cholesterol transport, a process that removes excess cholesterol from peripheral tissues/cells including macrophages to circulating HDL, is one of the main mechanisms responsible for anti-atherogenic properties of HDL.

Expression of human amyloid precursor protein in Drosophila melanogaster nerve cells causes a decrease in presynaptic gene mRNA levels.

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) is a key player in Alzheimer's disease. The proteolytic cleavage of APP results in various short peptide fragments including the toxic amyloid-beta peptide, which is a main component of senile plaques. However, the functions of APP and its processed fragments are not yet well understood.