MicroRNA-mediated Ets1 repression in retinal endothelial cells: A novel anti-angiogenic mechanism in nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy.

Aims: This study aimed to discover the regulatory mechanisms contributing to angiogenesis in nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR).

Materials And Methods: This study employed a case-control design involving type 2 diabetes patients with and without NPDR. We utilised microRNA sequencing to analyse plasma and retina samples from T2D patients, to identify both existing and novel microRNAs relevant to retinal health.

Critically-ill COVID-19 susceptibility gene CCR3 shows natural selection in sub-Saharan Africans.

The prevalence of COVID-19 critical illness varies across ethnicities, with recent studies suggesting that genetic factors may contribute to this variation. The aim of this study was to investigate natural selection signals of genes associated with critically-ill COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africans. Severe COVID-19 SNPs were obtained from the HGI website.

Associations between dietary fatty acid patterns and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in typical dietary population: A UK biobank study.

Background And Aims: Dietary fatty acid composition is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Few evidence had identified a clear role of dietary fatty acid composition of typical diet in NAFLD. We aimed to investigate the relationship between dietary patterns and NAFLD in populations with typical diets and to explore the effect of fatty acid composition in dietary patterns on NAFLD.

Celiac Disease and the Susceptibility of COVID-19 and the Risk of Severe COVID-19: A Mendelian Randomization Study.

Introduction: Previous observational studies have found that the susceptibility of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the risk of severe COVID-19 are not increased in patients with celiac disease (CeD). However, the findings of observational studies are prone to bias due to reverse causation and confounding factors, especially in the case of a newly emerged disease. In this study, we aimed to further clarify the underlying relationship by both observational and Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.

Mendelian Randomization Analysis Reveals No Causal Relationship Between Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Severe COVID-19.

Background & Aims: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has witnessed more than 4.5 million deaths as of the time of writing. Whether nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) increases the risk for severe COVID-19 remains unclear.

Exploring the genetic correlation between obesity-related traits and regional brain volumes: Evidence from UK Biobank cohort.

Objective: To determine whether there is a correlation between obesity-related variants and regional brain volumes.

Methods: Based on a mixed linear model (MLM), we analyzed the association between 1,498 obesity-related SNPs in the GWAS Catalog and 164 regional brain volumes from 29,420 participants (discovery cohort N = 19,997, validation cohort N = 9,423) in UK Biobank. The statistically significant brain regions in association analysis were classified into 6 major neural networks (dopamine (DA) motive system, central autonomic network (CAN), cognitive emotion regulation, visual object recognition network, auditory object recognition network, and sensorimotor system).

Role of lateral amygdala calstabin2 in regulation of fear memory.

Calstabin2, also named FK506 binding protein 12.6 (FKBP12.6), is a subunit of ryanodine receptor subtype 2 (RyR2) macromolecular complex, an intracellular calcium channel.

Nociceptin impairs acquisition of novel object recognition memory in perirhinal cortex.

Nociceptin/Orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) plays an important role in the regulation of spatial, fear and recognition memories. N/OFQ receptors are highly distributed in the perirhinal cortex, which is a key brain area involved in modulating novel object recognition (NOR) memory. However, the role of N/OFQ in NOR memory in the perirhinal cortex was still unknown.