GLP-1 receptor agonists significantly impair taste function.

Over 10 % of the US population are prescribed glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) to combat obesity. Although they decrease cravings for foods, their influence on chemosensory function is unknown. We employed state-of-the-art quantitative taste and smell tests to address this issue.

Non-monotonic psychometric functions for α-ionone in young adults.

The mathematical relationship between the ability to detect an odorant and its concentration appears for some odorants to be non-monotonic, with reversals ("notches") in performance appearing at points along the psychometric function. Like visual adaptation curves that reflect the differential sensitivities of cones and rods, such reversals may provide information about underlying olfactory receptor processes. However, the presence of such reversals is rarely acknowledged, few participants and odorants have been tested, and methodological concerns abound.

Sensory Dysfunction, Microbial Infections, and Host Responses in Alzheimer's Disease.

Sensory functions of organs of the head and neck allow humans to interact with the environment and establish social bonds. With aging, smell, taste, vision, and hearing decline. Evidence suggests that accelerated impairment in sensory abilities can reflect a shift from healthy to pathological aging, including the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurological disorders.

Functional connectivity differences of the olfactory network in Parkinson's Disease, mild cognitive impairment and cognitively normal individuals: A resting-state fMRI study.

Olfactory dysfunction is an early sign of such neurodegenerative diseases as Parkinson's (PD) and Alzheimer's (AD), and is often present in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a precursor of AD. Understanding neuro-temporal relationships, i.e.

Long COVID impacts: the voices and views of diverse Black and Latinx residents in Massachusetts.

Objective: To understand how Long COVID is impacting the health and social conditions of the Black and Latinx communities.

Background: Emerging research on Long COVID has identified three distinct characteristics, including multi-organ damage, persistent symptoms, and post-hospitalization complications. Given Black and Latinx communities experienced significantly higher COVID rates in the first phase of the pandemic they may be disproportionately impacted by Long COVID.

Head and neck complications of cancer therapies: taste and smell.

Sensory deficits affect awareness of the environment and information processing, leading to dysfunction that may have significant consequences. Deterioration of taste and/or smell sensation has been linked to impaired nutritional intake, and overall decreased quality of life (QoL). Recent data suggest that loss of these senses is also associated with cognitive decline and worse overall cancer treatment prognosis.

Self-Reported Hypersensitivity to Smells: Objective Evidence for Hyposmia, not Hyperosmia.

Objective: To compare, using state-of-the-art psychophysical tests, the olfactory function of patients complaining and not complaining of olfactory hypersensitivity.

Study Design: Retrospective cross-sectional.

Setting: The Smell and Taste Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Learning Through Experience: Analyzing the Impact of Short Study Abroad Programs from the Students' Own Words.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine what students participating in short study abroad program (SSAP) elective courses learned during their experiences and if they satisfied the course learning objectives.

Methods: University of Florida College of Pharmacy students who participated in an SSAP to Scandinavia in the years 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018 wrote digital journals describing their experiences. This study used inductive and deductive thematic analysis to analyze the journals and identify codes and themes.

Molecular mechanism of choline and ethanolamine transport in humans.

Human feline leukaemia virus subgroup C receptor-related proteins 1 and 2 (FLVCR1 and FLVCR2) are members of the major facilitator superfamily. Their dysfunction is linked to several clinical disorders, including PCARP, HSAN and Fowler syndrome. Earlier studies concluded that FLVCR1 may function as a haem exporter, whereas FLVCR2 was suggested to act as a haem importer, yet conclusive biochemical and detailed molecular evidence remained elusive for the function of both transporters.

Prevalence and Magnitude of Olfactory Dysfunction in Allergic Rhinitis.

Background: Although allergic rhinitis (AR) can negatively impact the ability to smell, the degree to which this occurs is not clear and prevalence estimates vary among studies. This study had 4 main objectives: (1) To estimate the prevalence and the degree of olfactory dysfunction in AR patients; (2) To compare olfactory perception between AR patients with different persistence and severity of symptoms and determine if olfactory testing may aid in differentiating among Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) groups; (3) To determine whether allergic reactions to different allergens differentially impact olfactory function, and (4) Verify possible changes in the olfactory epithelium (OE) caused by AR.

Methods: One hundred thirty-three patients with AR and one hundred controls were tested.

Nature and human well-being: The olfactory pathway.

The world is undergoing massive atmospheric and ecological change, driving unprecedented challenges to human well-being. Olfaction is a key sensory system through which these impacts occur. The sense of smell influences quality of and satisfaction with life, emotion, emotion regulation, cognitive function, social interactions, dietary choices, stress, and depressive symptoms.

GAGE-seq concurrently profiles multiscale 3D genome organization and gene expression in single cells.

The organization of mammalian genomes features a complex, multiscale three-dimensional (3D) architecture, whose functional significance remains elusive because of limited single-cell technologies that can concurrently profile genome organization and transcriptional activities. Here, we introduce genome architecture and gene expression by sequencing (GAGE-seq), a scalable, robust single-cell co-assay measuring 3D genome structure and transcriptome simultaneously within the same cell. Applied to mouse brain cortex and human bone marrow CD34 cells, GAGE-seq characterized the intricate relationships between 3D genome and gene expression, showing that multiscale 3D genome features inform cell-type-specific gene expression and link regulatory elements to target genes.

Long-Term Taste and Smell Outcomes After COVID-19.

Importance: Self-report surveys suggest that long-lasting taste deficits may occur after SARS-CoV-2 infection, influencing nutrition, safety, and quality of life. However, self-reports of taste dysfunction are inaccurate, commonly reflecting deficits due to olfactory not taste system pathology; hence, quantitative testing is needed to verify the association of post-COVID-19 condition with taste function.

Objective: To use well-validated self-administered psychophysical tests to investigate the association of COVID-19 with long-term outcomes in taste and smell function.

Taste and smell function in Wilson's disease.

Objective: Wilson's disease (WD) is a metabolic disorder associated with abnormal copper metabolism that results in hepatic, psychiatric, and neurologic symptoms. No investigation of taste function has been made in patients with WD, although olfactory dysfunction has been evaluated.

Methods: Quantitative taste and smell test scores of 29 WD patients were compared to those of 790 healthy controls.

Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis overlapping neuropathology start in the first two decades of life in pollution exposed urbanites and brain ultrafine particulate matter and industrial nanoparticles, including Fe, Ti, Al, V, Ni, Hg, Co, Cu, Zn, Ag, Pt, Ce, La, Pr and W are key players. Metropolitan Mexico City health crisis is in progress.

The neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are present in urban children exposed to fine particulate matter (PM), combustion and friction ultrafine PM (UFPM), and industrial nanoparticles (NPs). Metropolitan Mexico City (MMC) forensic autopsies strongly suggest that anthropogenic UFPM and industrial NPs reach the brain through the nasal/olfactory, lung, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and placental barriers. Diesel-heavy unregulated vehicles are a key UFPM source for 21.

Concurrent profiling of multiscale 3D genome organization and gene expression in single mammalian cells.

The organization of mammalian genomes within the nucleus features a complex, multiscale three-dimensional (3D) architecture. The functional significance of these 3D genome features, however, remains largely elusive due to limited single-cell technologies that can concurrently profile genome organization and transcriptional activities. Here, we report GAGE-seq, a highly scalable, robust single-cell co-assay that simultaneously measures 3D genome structure and transcriptome within the same cell.

The 8-item NHANES pocket smell test: Normative data.

This study provides normative data useful for interpreting scores from the Pocket Smell Test (PST), a brief "scratch & sniff" neuropsychological olfactory screening test comprised of 8 items from the 40-item University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). We combined 3,485 PST scores from the 2013 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) of persons 40 years of age and older with equivalent PST items extracted from an UPSIT database of 3,900 persons ranging in age from 5 to 99 years. Decade-related age- and gender-adjusted percentile normative data were established across the entire age spectrum.

The transcriptomic landscape of normal and ineffective erythropoiesis at single-cell resolution.

The anemias of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and Diamond Blackfan anemia (DBA) are generally macrocytic and always reflect ineffective erythropoiesis yet result from diverse genetic mutations. To delineate shared mechanisms that lead to cell death, we studied the fate of single erythroid marrow cells from individuals with DBA or MDS-5q. We defined an unhealthy (vs healthy) differentiation trajectory using transcriptional pseudotime and cell surface proteins.

Establishment of a consensus protocol to explore the brain pathobiome in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: Research outline and call for collaboration.

Microbial infections of the brain can lead to dementia, and for many decades microbial infections have been implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. However, a causal role for infection in AD remains contentious, and the lack of standardized detection methodologies has led to inconsistent detection/identification of microbes in AD brains. There is a need for a consensus methodology; the Alzheimer's Pathobiome Initiative aims to perform comparative molecular analyses of microbes in post mortem brains versus cerebrospinal fluid, blood, olfactory neuroepithelium, oral/nasopharyngeal tissue, bronchoalveolar, urinary, and gut/stool samples.

The Olfactory Dysfunction of COVID-19.

Until the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, much of the scientific community and the general public lacked an appreciation of the impact of decreased smell function on everyday life, including the importance of this sensory system for safety, nutrition, and overall quality of life. It is now well established that the SARS-CoV-2 virus inflicts measurable but frequently reversible smell loss during its acute phase. Indeed, in many studies such loss is the most common symptom of COVID-19.

Development of parallel forms of a brief smell identification test useful for longitudinal testing.

Although there are numerous brief odor identification tests available for quantifying the ability to smell, none are available in multiple parallel forms that can be longitudinally administered without potential confounding from knowledge of prior test items. Moreover, empirical algorithms for establishing optimal test lengths have not been generally applied. In this study, we employed and compared eight machine learning algorithms to develop a set of four brief parallel smell tests employing items from the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test that optimally differentiated 100 COVID-19 patients from 132 healthy controls.