Clinical features associated with self-reported food insecurity in people with cystic fibrosis.

Background: Food insecurity (FI) is more prevalent in people with cystic fibrosis (PwCF) than the reported national prevalence, but there are limited data on the relationship between FI and health outcomes in PwCF. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between FI in PwCF and pulmonary and nutritional status.

Methods: We leveraged an electronic cross-sectional survey that ascertained FI status and gave participants the option to link their survey data to their records in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Patient Registry (CFFPR).

Examining the effects of race/ethnicity and other factors on outcomes of care for complex regional pain syndrome type 1 in the United States.

Complex regional pain syndrome is a chronic pain disorder marked by symptoms such as swelling, impaired motor function, and sympathetic dysfunction. Our primary objective was to determine the total number of complex regional pain syndrome type 1 (CRPS-1) emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations by race/ethnicity, as well as to assess sex and age distributions by race/ethnicity. Secondary objectives were to examine whether race/ethnicity, as well as select characteristics, are associated with hospitalization and longer length of stay.

Impact of Anticholinergic Burden and Clinical-Demographic Characteristics on Incident Dementia in Parkinson Disease.

Purpose: Anticholinergic medication use measured via the Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden (ACB) scale has been associated with an increased dementia incidence in older adults but has not been explored specifically for Parkinson disease dementia (PDD). We used adjusted Cox models to estimate the risk of incident PDD associated with demographic factors, clinical characteristics, and time-varying total ACB in a longitudinal, deeply-phenotyped prospective PD cohort.

Major Findings: 56.

Strategies to improve recruitment in mental health clinical trials: a scoping review (RE-MIND study).

Background: Lower-than-expected recruitment continues to be one of the major causes of trial delays, and trials to improve mental health are no exception. Indeed, recruitment challenges in trials of vulnerable populations, such as those living with mental health illness, can even be exacerbated. To address this, researchers are turning to digital and online recruitment strategies, e.

Let's (P-s)talk about specialized ribosomes.

In a recent study in Cell, Dopler et al. show that a subpopulation of P-stalk-containing ribosomes (PSRs) are generated following exposure to cytokines, and the data suggest that PSRs are central mediators of translational reprogramming during the cytokine- and immune-response.

Cross-Sex Hormone Therapy Is Associated With Loss of Circadian Rhythm in the Male Rat.

Background: Transgender women are individuals born male but identify as female. Many transgender women undergo gender-affirming hormone therapy to alleviate the distress that can occur due to gender incongruence. For transgender women, gender-affirming hormone therapy includes 17β-estradiol (E2) combined with an antiandrogen therapy (AA) or surgical intervention.

Host DNA depletion on frozen human respiratory samples enables successful metagenomic sequencing for microbiome studies.

Most respiratory microbiome studies use amplicon sequencing due to high host DNA. Metagenomics sequencing offers finer taxonomic resolution, phage assessment, and functional characterization. We evaluated five host DNA depletion methods on frozen nasal swabs from healthy adults, sputum from people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF), and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from critically ill patients.

Defining key deprescribing measures from electronic health data: A multisite data harmonization project.

Background: Stopping or reducing risky or unneeded medications ("deprescribing") could improve older adults' health. Electronic health data can support observational and intervention studies of deprescribing, but there are no standardized measures for key variables, and healthcare systems have differing data types and availability. We developed definitions for chronic medication use and discontinuation based on electronic health data and applied them in a case study of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs in five diverse US healthcare systems.

Serum protein and imaging biomarkers after intermittent steroid treatment in muscular dystrophy.

Weekly Steroids in Muscular Dystrophy (WSiMD) was a pilot study to evaluate once weekly prednisone in patients with Limb Girdle and Becker muscular dystrophy (LGMD and BMD, respectively). At study endpoint, there were trends towards increased lean mass, reduced fat mass, reduced creatine kinase and improved motor function. The investigation was motivated by studies in mouse muscular dystrophy models in which once weekly glucocorticoid exposure enhanced muscle strength and reduced fibrosis.

Using a behaviour-change approach to support uptake of population genomic screening and management options for breast or prostate cancer.

As the possibility of implementing population genomic screening programs for the risk of developing hereditary cancers in health systems increases, understanding how to support individuals who wish to have genomic screening is essential. This qualitative study aimed to link public perceived barriers to a) taking up the offer of population genomic screening for breast or prostate cancer risk and b) taking up risk-management options following their result, with possible theory-informed behaviour-change approaches that may support implementation. Ten focus groups were conducted with a total of 25 members of the Australian public to identify and then categorise barriers within the behaviour-change Capability, Opportunity, Motivation - Behaviour (COM-B) model.

Cell Therapy and the Skin: Great Potential but in Need of Optimization.

Cell therapy is rapidly growing owing to its therapeutic potential for diseases with currently poor outcomes. Cell therapy encompasses both nonengineered and engineered cells and possesses unique abilities such as sense-and-respond functions and long-term engraftment for persistent curative potential. Cell therapy capabilities have expanded to address a wide spectrum of diseases, and our review is focused on dermatological applications.

Prevalence of Antibodies against Adeno-Associated Viruses (AAVs) in Göttingen Minipigs and Its Implications for Gene Therapy and Xenotransplantation.

Adeno-associated viruses (AAV) are widely used as delivery vectors in clinical trials for in vivo gene therapy due to their unique features. Göttingen minipigs are a well-established animal model for several diseases and can be used for the efficacy and safety testing of AAV-based gene therapy. Pre-existing antibodies against AAV may influence the results of testing and, therefore, the animals should be tested for the presence of antibodies against relevant AAV serotypes.

Hypertension and diabetes control: faith-based centres offer a promise for expanding screening services and linkage to care in Ghana.

Background: Hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are important contributors to noncommunicable disease related morbidity and mortality. Health systems could benefit from exploring the use of Faith-Based Centres (FBC) to screen and link suspected cases for further care in order to help achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3. The study investigated the role of faith-based screening for T2DM and hypertension and the linkage of cases to the healthcare system and examined the care cascade in the Kassena Nankana Districts of Northern Ghana.

Differences in biological motion perception associated with hearing status and age of signed language exposure.

This study investigates how American Sign Language (ASL) fluency and hearing status influence the perception of biological motion, using three point-light display (PLD) tasks. Prior research indicates that early exposure to ASL among deaf signers results in more rapid and effortless recognition of biological motion than hearing nonsigners, potentially due to the expertise in deciphering complex human movements or possibly due to neuroplasticity in deaf brains. However, it remains uncertain whether this advantage stems from signed language proficiency or the experience of being deaf.

Time to STEP UP: methods and findings from the development of guidance to help researchers design inclusive clinical trials.

Background: It is important to design clinical trials to include all those who may benefit from the intervention being tested. Several frameworks have been developed to help researchers think about the barriers to inclusion of particular under-served groups when designing a trial, but there is a lack of practical guidance on how to implement these frameworks. This paper describes the ACCESS project, the findings from each phase of the project and the guidance we developed (STEP UP) on how to design more inclusive trials.

Effective interventions to increase representation of under-served groups in randomised trials in UK and Ireland: a scoping literature review.

Background: Participants in clinical trials often do not reflect the populations that could benefit from the treatments being investigated. There are known barriers to trial participation for under-served groups, but limited evidence on strategies to alleviate these barriers to improve representation. This scoping review aimed to identify effective interventions and design features that improve the representation `of under-served groups in trials, focusing on the UK and Ireland.

Comments, suggestions, and criticisms of the Pragmatic Explanatory Continuum Indicator Summary-2 design tool: a citation analysis.

Introduction: The pragmatic explanatory continuum indicator summary (PRECIS) tool, initially published in 2009 and revised in 2015, was created to assist trialists to align their design choices with the intended purpose of their randomised controlled trial (RCT): either to guide real-world decisions between alternative interventions (pragmatic) or to test hypotheses about intervention mechanisms by minimising sources of variation (explanatory). There have been many comments, suggestions, and criticisms of PRECIS-2. This summary will be used to facilitate the development of to the next revision, which is PRECIS-3.

Overexpression of Igf2-derived Mir483 inhibits Igf1 expression and leads to developmental growth restriction and metabolic dysfunction in mice.

Mir483 is a conserved and highly expressed microRNA in placental mammals, embedded within the Igf2 gene. Its expression is dysregulated in a number of human diseases, including metabolic disorders and certain cancers. Here, we investigate the developmental regulation and function of Mir483 in vivo.

Mapping of Some Further Alkylation-Initiated Pathways to Polyheterocyclic Compounds from Indigo and Indirubin.

The reaction of indigo with two equivalents of the electrophile ethyl bromoacetate with caesium carbonate as a base result in the formation of structurally complex polyheterocyclics, including a fused spiroimidazole and a spiro[1,3]oxazino derivative, together with a biindigoid-type derivative, through a convenient one-pot reaction. Further assessment of the reaction using five equivalents of the electrophile gave rise to other molecules incorporating the 2-(7,13,14-trioxo-6,7,13,14-tetrahydropyrazino[1,2-:4,3-']diindol-6-yl) scaffold. The reaction of ethyl bromoacetate with the less reactive indirubin resulted in the synthesis of three derivatives of a new class of polyheterocyclic system via a cascade process, although yields were low.