Key epidemiological indicators and spatial autocorrelation patterns across five waves of COVID-19 in Catalonia.

This research studies the evolution of COVID-19 crude incident rates, effective reproduction number R(t) and their relationship with incidence spatial autocorrelation patterns in the 19 months following the disease outbreak in Catalonia (Spain). A cross-sectional ecological panel design based on n = 371 health-care geographical units is used. Five general outbreaks are described, systematically preceded by generalized values of R(t) > 1 in the two previous weeks.

Evaluating approaches for constructing polygenic risk scores for prostate cancer in men of African and European ancestry.

Genome-wide polygenic risk scores (GW-PRSs) have been reported to have better predictive ability than PRSs based on genome-wide significance thresholds across numerous traits. We compared the predictive ability of several GW-PRS approaches to a recently developed PRS of 269 established prostate cancer-risk variants from multi-ancestry GWASs and fine-mapping studies (PRS). GW-PRS models were trained with a large and diverse prostate cancer GWAS of 107,247 cases and 127,006 controls that we previously used to develop the multi-ancestry PRS.

Neural crest-related NXPH1/α-NRXN signaling opposes neuroblastoma malignancy by inhibiting organotropic metastasis.

Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer that can present as low- or high-risk tumors (LR-NBs and HR-NBs), the latter group showing poor prognosis due to metastasis and strong resistance to current therapy. Whether LR-NBs and HR-NBs differ in the way they exploit the transcriptional program underlying their neural crest, sympatho-adrenal origin remains unclear. Here, we identified the transcriptional signature distinguishing LR-NBs from HR-NBs, which consists mainly of genes that belong to the core sympatho-adrenal developmental program and are associated with favorable patient prognosis and with diminished disease progression.

Signaling-specific inhibition of the CB receptor for cannabis use disorder: phase 1 and phase 2a randomized trials.

Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is widespread, and there is no pharmacotherapy to facilitate its treatment. AEF0117, the first of a new pharmacological class, is a signaling-specific inhibitor of the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB-SSi). AEF0117 selectively inhibits a subset of intracellular effects resulting from Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) binding without modifying behavior per se.

A multicentre study on grey matter morphometric biomarkers for classifying early schizophrenia and parkinson's disease psychosis.

Psychotic symptoms occur in a majority of schizophrenia patients and in ~50% of all Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Altered grey matter (GM) structure within several brain areas and networks may contribute to their pathogenesis. Little is known, however, about transdiagnostic similarities when psychotic symptoms occur in different disorders, such as in schizophrenia and PD.

Assessing the implementation of nurse practitioner-led huddles in long-term care using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic created major challenges in long-term care (LTC) homes across Canada and globally. A nurse practitioner-led interdisciplinary huddle intervention was developed to support staff wellbeing in two LTC homes in Ontario, Canada. The objective of this study was to identify the constructs strongly influencing the process of implementation of huddles across both sites, capturing the overall barriers and facilitators and the intervention's intrinsic properties.

Effects of a Mediterranean Diet Intervention on Maternal Stress, Well-Being, and Sleep Quality throughout Gestation-The IMPACT-BCN Trial.

Stress and anxiety are frequent occurrences among pregnant women. We aimed to evaluate the effects of a Mediterranean diet intervention during pregnancy on maternal stress, well-being, and sleep quality throughout gestation. In a randomized clinical trial, 1221 high-risk pregnant women were randomly allocated into three groups at 19-23 weeks' gestation: a Mediterranean diet intervention, a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program, or usual care.

Genetic, vascular and amyloid components of cerebral blood flow in a preclinical population.

Aging-related cognitive decline can be accelerated by a combination of genetic factors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular dysfunction, and amyloid-β burden. Whereas cerebral blood flow (CBF) has been studied as a potential early biomarker of cognitive decline, its normal variability in healthy elderly is less known. In this study, we investigated the contribution of genetic, vascular, and amyloid-β components of CBF in a cognitively unimpaired (CU) population of monozygotic older twins.

Experiences of insecurity among non-standard workers across different welfare states: A qualitative cross-country study.

In recent decades, economic crises and political reforms focused on employment flexibilization have increased the use of non-standard employment (NSE). National political and economic contexts determine how employers interact with labour and how the state interacts with labour markets and manages social welfare policies. These factors influence the prevalence of NSE and the level of employment insecurity it creates, but the extent to which a country's policy context mitigates the health influences of NSE is unclear.

Dissecting the genetic heterogeneity of gastric cancer.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is clinically heterogenous according to location (cardia/non-cardia) and histopathology (diffuse/intestinal). We aimed to characterize the genetic risk architecture of GC according to its subtypes. Another aim was to examine whether cardia GC and oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) and its precursor lesion Barrett's oesophagus (BO), which are all located at the gastro-oesophageal junction (GOJ), share polygenic risk architecture.

Regions of homozygosity confer a worse prognostic impact in myelodysplastic syndrome with normal karyotype.

Half of the myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) have normal karyotype by conventional banding analysis. The percentage of true normal karyotype cases can be reduced by 20-30% with the complementary application of genomic microarrays. We here present a multicenter collaborative study of 163 MDS cases with a normal karyotype (≥10 metaphases) at diagnosis.

Differential effects of sleep on brain structure and metabolism at the preclinical stages of AD.

Introduction: Poor sleep quality is associated with cognitive outcomes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We analyzed the associations between self-reported sleep quality and brain structure and function in cognitively unimpaired (CU) individuals.

Methods: CU adults (N = 339) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging, lumbar puncture, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire.

Clinical relevance of interictal dysphoric disorder and its impact on quality of life in drug-resistant epilepsy.

Objective: This study aims to assess the prevalence of Interictal Dysphoric Disorder (IDD) in drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) and to describe its clinical and psychopathological profile, including personality, as well as its impact on quality of life (QOL).

Method: A retrospective cross-sectional study from an Epilepsy Unit from January 2007 to December 2017. All patients were diagnosed with DRE.

Alcohol-related liver disease phenotype impacts survival after an acute variceal bleeding episode.

Background & Aims: Alcohol-related hepatitis (AH) encompasses a high mortality. AH might be a concomitant event in patients with acute variceal bleeding (AVB). The current study aimed to assess the prevalence of AH in patients with AVB and to compare the clinical outcomes of AH patients to other alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) phenotypes and viral cirrhosis.

Eigenvector centrality dynamics are related to Alzheimer's disease pathological changes in non-demented individuals.

Amyloid-β accumulation starts in highly connected brain regions and is associated with functional connectivity alterations in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. This regional vulnerability is related to the high neuronal activity and strong fluctuations typical of these regions. Recently, dynamic functional connectivity was introduced to investigate changes in functional network organization over time.

Jejunal gist simulating a uterine myoma: A case report.

Introduction: A small bowel gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is a rare neoplasm of the gastrointestinal tract. The manifestation of bleeding is a diagnostic challenge and could present as a life-threatening situation that needs urgent intervention.

Presentation Of Case: 64-year-old woman consulted for episodes of melena and anemia.

Mitochondrial cannabinoid receptors gate corticosterone impact on novel object recognition.

Corticosteroid-mediated stress responses require the activation of complex brain circuits involving mitochondrial activity, but the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms are scantly known. The endocannabinoid system is implicated in stress coping, and it can directly regulate brain mitochondrial functions via type 1 cannabinoid (CB) receptors associated with mitochondrial membranes (mtCB). In this study, we show that the impairing effect of corticosterone in the novel object recognition (NOR) task in mice requires mtCB receptors and the regulation of mitochondrial calcium levels in neurons.

Effect of walnut consumption on neuropsychological development in healthy adolescents: a multi-school randomised controlled trial.

Background: Omega-3 fatty acids are critical for neuropsychological functioning. Adolescence is increasingly believed to entail brain vulnerability to dietary intake. The potential benefit on adolescent neurodevelopment of consuming walnuts, a source of omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), remains unclear.

A meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies on pregnancy vitamin B12 concentrations and offspring DNA methylation.

Circulating vitamin B12 concentrations during pregnancy are associated with offspring health. Foetal DNA methylation changes could underlie these associations. Within the Pregnancy And Childhood Epigenetics Consortium, we meta-analysed epigenome-wide associations of circulating vitamin B12 concentrations in mothers during pregnancy ( = 2,420) or cord blood ( = 1,029), with cord blood DNA methylation.

The natural history of QTc interval and its clinical impact in coronavirus disease 2019 survivors after 1 year.

Background And Objective: Prolonged QTc interval on admission and a higher risk of death in SARS-CoV-2 patients have been reported. The long-term clinical impact of prolonged QTc interval is unknown. This study examined the relationship in COVID-19 survivors of a prolonged QTc on admission with long-term adverse events, changes in QTc duration and its impact on 1-year prognosis, and factors associated with a prolonged QTc at follow-up.

Illuminating the Chemical Space of Untargeted Proteins.

According to the Illuminating the Druggable Genome (IDG) initiative, 90% of the proteins encoded by the human genome still lack an identified active ligand, that is, a small molecule with biologically relevant binding potency or functional activity in an assay. Under this scenario, there is an urgent need for new approaches to chemically address these yet untargeted proteins. It is widely recognized that the best starting point for generating novel small molecules for proteins is to exploit the expected polypharmacology of known active ligands across phylogenetically related proteins following the paradigm that similar proteins are likely to interact with similar ligands.