Is a Genetic Diathesis for Poor Nutrition Becoming More Crucial Due to the Uniformity of COVID Social Stress?

The important role of nutrition in proper neural functioning and mental health has seen wider acceptance, but is still sadly under recognized given the existent body of research. This Special Issue was designed to unite authoritative information on this topic in one volume. This editorial provides an overview of the issue, and suggests that the combination of social isolation, lack of exercise, and remaining indoors that overtook industrialized societies during 2020 are specific factors expected to change the Gene × Environment interactions for anxiety and depression.

Optimizing ethyl cellulose-ethanol delivery towards enabling ablation of cervical dysplasia.

In low-income countries, up to 80% of women diagnosed with cervical dysplasia do not return for follow-up care, primarily due to treatment being inaccessible. Here, we describe development of a low-cost, portable treatment suitable for such settings. It is based on injection of ethyl cellulose (EC)-ethanol to ablate the transformation zone around the os, the site most impacted by dysplasia.

Is High Folic Acid Intake a Risk Factor for Autism?-A Review.

Folate is required for metabolic processes and neural development. Insuring its adequate levels for pregnant women through supplementation of grain-based foods with synthetic folic acid (FA) in order to prevent neural tube defects has been an ongoing public health initiative. However, because women are advised to take multivitamins containing FA before and throughout pregnancy, the supplementation together with natural dietary folates has led to a demographic with high and rising serum levels of unmetabolized FA.

Label-free analysis of tenofovir delivery to vaginal tissue using co-registered confocal Raman spectroscopy and optical coherence tomography.

Vaginally applied microbicide products offer a female-controlled strategy for preventing sexual transmission of HIV. Microbicide transport processes are central to their functioning, and there is a clear need for a better understanding of them. To contribute to that end, we developed an assay to analyze mass transport rates of microbicide molecules within the epithelial and stromal layers of polarized vaginal mucosal tissue during contact with a gel vehicle.

Speculations on vitamin K, VKORC1 genotype and autism.

Humans vary in the gene that encodes for Vitamin K epoxide reductase complex (VKORC1). Recent research has documented the protective effect of Vitamin K on neural cells and its role in maintaining normal neural development. Of interest, specific neural effects of Vitamin K overlap with key brain development aberrations, including those associated with autism.