Multi-organ imaging demonstrates the heart-brain-liver axis in UK Biobank participants.

Medical imaging provides numerous insights into the subclinical changes that precede serious diseases such as heart disease and dementia. However, most imaging research either describes a single organ system or draws on clinical cohorts with small sample sizes. In this study, we use state-of-the-art multi-organ magnetic resonance imaging phenotypes to investigate cross-sectional relationships across the heart-brain-liver axis in 30,444 UK Biobank participants.

First-principles structural, elastic and optoelectronics study of sodium niobate and tantalate perovskites.

The intensified quest for efficient materials drives us to study the alkali (Na)-based niobate (NaNbO) and tantalate (NaTaO) perovskites while exploiting the first-principles approach based on density functional theory, coded within WIEN2K. While using the Birch Murnaghan fit, we find these materials to be stable structurally. Similarly, the ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations (AIMD) at room temperature reveals that the compounds exhibit no structural distortion and are stable at room temperature.

Real-world effectiveness of repeated ketamine infusions for treatment-resistant bipolar depression.

Background: Clinical trials have demonstrated rapid antidepressant effects with intravenous (IV) ketamine for major depressive disorder, with relatively less research specifically for bipolar depression. Herein, we describe the real-world effectiveness of repeated ketamine infusions for treatment-resistant bipolar depression.

Methods: This study was conducted in a community clinic in Mississauga, Ontario (Canadian Rapid Treatment Centre of Excellence; Braxia Health).

Anti-microbial host factor HDAC6 is antagonised by the influenza A virus through host caspases and viral PA.

Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6), through the repertoire of its substrate proteins, plays a critical role in human physiology, and an aberrant function of HDAC6 contributes to various pathophysiological conditions. HDAC6 is also known to be an anti-microbial host factor and has been implicated in restricting or clearing the infection of various human viral and bacterial pathogens. However, the state and the mechanisms of its antagonism in infected cells are not understood.

Therapeutic uses of psychedelics for eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder.

Background: Clinical use of psychedelics has gained considerable attention, with promising benefits across a range of mental disorders. Current pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and eating disorders (EDs) have limited efficacy. As such, other treatment options such as psychedelic-assisted therapies are being explored in these clinical groups.

Dissociable behavioural signatures of co-existing impulsivity and apathy in decision-making.

Apathy and impulsivity are expressed in a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders, and, to a less severe extent, in healthy people too. Although traditionally considered to be opposite extremes of a single motivational spectrum, recent epidemiological questionnaire-based data suggest that both traits can in fact co-exist within the same individual. Here, we sought to investigate the relationship between these constructs in healthy people within a controlled task environment that examines the ability to make a decision under temporal uncertainty and measures the vigour of the response.

GLP-1 Receptor Agonists for the Reduction of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

Patients with type 2 diabetes are at high risk for development of cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, and cardiovascular death. Multiple large cardiovascular outcome trials with novel glucose-lowering agents, namely SGLT2i (SGLT2 inhibitors) and GLP-1 RA (GLP-1 receptor agonists), have demonstrated robust and significant reductions of major adverse cardiovascular events and additional cardiovascular outcomes, such as hospitalizations for heart failure. This evidence has changed the landscape for treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Early neurologic deterioration with symptomatic isolated internal carotid artery occlusion: a cohort study, systematic review, and meta-analysis.

Background: Acute endovascular revascularization for isolated internal carotid occlusion without tandem intracranial occlusion has been proposed to prevent early neurologic deterioration (END) and improve outcome, but has not been shown to be more effective than medical therapy. We aimed to evaluate prognosis with initial medical therapy alone, and also performed a systematic review to put these results in a broader context.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted over a 2-year period with acute stroke/TIA due to isolated internal carotid artery occlusion.

Impact of Technologic Innovation and COVID-19 Pandemic on Pediatric Cardiology Telehealth.

Purpose Of Review: Established telehealth practices in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology are evolving rapidly. This review examines several concepts in contemporary telemedicine in our field: recent changes in direct-to-consumer (DTC) pediatric telehealth (TH) and practice based on lessons learned from the pandemic, scientific data from newer technological innovations in pediatric cardiology, and how TH is shaping global pediatric cardiology practice.

Recent Findings: In 2020, the global pandemic of COVID-19 led to significant changes in healthcare delivery.

Quality of Life and Its Association with Effort-Reward Imbalance among Medical Officers Working in Government Hospitals in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Background: Medical officers (MOs) face multiple sources of work-related stress, including work system transition, job insecurity, dissatisfaction with income and intense working environments. This study aimed to examine the quality of life (QOL), effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and their association among MOs working in government hospitals in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among MOs from Sarawak General Hospital and Hospital Sentosa from May 2018 to March 2020.

Fluoroquinolones and the risk of aortic aneurysm or aortic dissection: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis including 53,651,283 patients.

Introduction: The association between fluoroquinolone use and the risk of aortic aneurysm as well as the risk of aortic dissections remains uncertain, primarily due to conflicting findings from observational studies. We sought to conduct a double-systematic review and meta-analysis of all observational studies to assess the existence and extent of both these associations. The aim of our study is to assess the role of Fluoroquinolone on aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection in comparison to other antibiotics.

A cross-sectional study of cognitive performance in bipolar disorder across the lifespan: the cog-BD project.

Background: Neuroprogressive models of the trajectory of cognitive dysfunction in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) have been proposed. However, few studies have explored the relationships among clinical characteristics of BD, cognitive dysfunction, and aging.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis in euthymic participants with the MATRICS Cognitive Consensus Battery, the Trail Making Test B, the Stroop Test, and the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading.

Culturally adapted psychoeducation for bipolar disorder in a low-resource setting: protocol for a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Background: Bipolar disorder is a source of marked disability, morbidity and premature death. There is a paucity of research on personalised psychosocial interventions for bipolar disorder, especially in low-resource settings. A pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) of a culturally adapted psychoeducation intervention for bipolar disorder (CaPE) in Pakistan reported higher patient satisfaction, enhanced medication adherence, knowledge and attitudes regarding bipolar disorder, and improvement in mood symptom scores and health-related quality of life measures compared with treatment as usual (TAU).

Examining computationally the structural, elastic, optical, and electronic properties of CaQCl (Q = Li and K) chloroperovskites using DFT framework.

This study presents the investigations of structural, elastic, optical, and electronic properties of CaQCl (Q = Li and K) chloroperovskites for the first time using the DFT framework. The WIEN2K and IRelast packages are used in which the exchange-correlation potential of the modified Becke-Johnson potential (TB-mBJ) is used for obtaining better results. The optimized crystal structural parameters comprising the lattice constant, optimum volume, ground state energy, bulk modulus, and the pressure derivative of bulk modulus are computed by fitting the primitive unit cell energy primitive unit cell volume using the Birch-Murnaghan equation of state.

Altered reward processing underpins emotional apathy in dementia.

Introduction: While apathy is broadly defined as a loss of motivation, it is increasingly recognised as a multidimensional syndrome spanning executive, emotional, and initiation domains. Emotional apathy is purportedly driven by deficits in using socioemotional rewards to guide behaviour, yet the link between these symptoms and reward processing, and their common neural correlates, has not been directly examined.

Methods: Sixty-four patients (33 behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia, 14 Alzheimer's disease, 8 semantic dementia, 6 progressive nonfluent aphasia, 3 logopenic progressive aphasia) were classified into high (HEA; n = 36) and low (LEA; n = 28) emotional apathy groups based on emotional apathy subscale scores on the Dimensional Apathy Scale.

Reward insensitivity is associated with dopaminergic deficit in rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder.

Idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) has now been established as an important marker of the prodromal stage of Parkinson's disease and related synucleinopathies. However, although dopamine transporter single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has been used to demonstrate the presence of nigro-striatal deficit in iRBD, quantifiable correlates of this are currently lacking. Sensitivity to rewarding stimuli is reduced in some people with Parkinson's disease, potentially contributing to aspects of the neuropsychiatric phenotype in these individuals.

RNA regulation of inflammatory responses in glia and its potential as a therapeutic target in central nervous system disorders.

A major hallmark of neuroinflammation is the activation of microglia and astrocytes with the induction of inflammatory mediators such as IL-1β, TNF-α, iNOS, and IL-6. Neuroinflammation contributes to disease progression in a plethora of neurological disorders ranging from acute CNS trauma to chronic neurodegenerative disease. Posttranscriptional pathways of mRNA stability and translational efficiency are major drivers for the expression of these inflammatory mediators.

Peripheral Arterial Diseases and Diabetes Mellitus: Associations With Quality of Health Measures in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Vascular Interventions.

Background: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is more prevalent and severe in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) compared with those without DM. Peripheral vascular intervention (PVI) is often used in patients failing conservative management. The association of PVI with health status in diabetic patients has yet to be determined.

Preferences for seeking effort or reward information bias the willingness to work.

Research suggests that the temporal order in which people receive information about costs and benefits whilst making decisions can influence their choices. But, do people have a preference for seeking information about costs or benefits when making effort-based decisions, and does this impact motivation? Here, participants made choices about whether to exert different levels of physical effort to obtain different magnitudes of reward, or rest for low reward. Prior to each effort-based choice, they also had to decide which information they wanted to see first: how much physical effort would be required, or how large the reward would be.

Astrocytes in the Neuropathology of Bipolar Disorder: Review of Current Evidence.

(1) Background: Approximately one-third of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) do not experience sustained remission with current treatments. Presently, astrocytes, i.e.

Brief App-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Symptoms in Psychiatric Inpatients: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Psychiatric inpatients often have limited access to psychotherapeutic education or skills for managing anxiety, a common transdiagnostic concern in severe and acute mental illness. COVID-19-related restrictions further limited access to therapy groups on inpatient psychiatric units. App-based interventions may improve access, but evidence supporting the feasibility of their use, acceptability, and effectiveness in psychiatric inpatient settings is limited.

Integrated network pharmacology and experimental analysis unveil multi-targeted effect of 18α- glycyrrhetinic acid against non-small cell lung cancer.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most malignant types of cancer with soaring incidence rates worldwide, attributed to its heterogeneity and complex etiology. Evidently, alternative anti-cancer therapies comprising traditional medicines and natural products have gained attention for their ability to act as chemopreventive agents with minimal toxicities, either alone or in combination. Accumulating studies have substantiated the inevitability of network pharmacology studies for effectively mapping molecular targets of natural products against multifaceted diseases, including cancer.

Investigating the plasma-liver-brain axis of omega-3 fatty acid metabolism in mouse knock-in for the human apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 allele.

The metabolism of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, is different in carriers of APOE4, the main genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. The brain relies on the plasma DHA pool for its need, but the plasma-liver-brain axis in relation to cognition remains obscure. We hypothesized that this relationship is compromised in APOE4 mice considering the differences in fatty acid metabolism between APOE3 and APOE4 mice.