Somatic CAG repeat expansion in blood associates with biomarkers of neurodegeneration in Huntington's disease decades before clinical motor diagnosis.

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease with the age at which characteristic symptoms manifest strongly influenced by inherited HTT CAG length. Somatic CAG expansion occurs throughout life and understanding the impact of somatic expansion on neurodegeneration is key to developing therapeutic targets. In 57 HD gene expanded (HDGE) individuals, ~23 years before their predicted clinical motor diagnosis, no significant decline in clinical, cognitive or neuropsychiatric function was observed over 4.

Association between herpes simplex virus infection and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers: analysis within the MAPT trial.

In vitro and animal studies have suggested that inoculation with herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) can lead to amyloid deposits, hyperphosphorylation of tau, and/or neuronal loss. Here, we studied the association between HSV-1 and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in humans. Our sample included 182 participants at risk of cognitive decline from the Multidomain Alzheimer Preventive Trial who had HSV-1 plasma serology and an amyloid PET scan.

Compositional data analysis enables statistical rigor in comparative glycomics.

Comparative glycomics data are compositional data, where measured glycans are parts of a whole, indicated by relative abundances. Applying traditional statistical analyses to these data often results in misleading conclusions, such as spurious "decreases" of glycans when other structures increase in abundance, or high false-positive rates for differential abundance. Our work introduces a compositional data analysis framework, tailored to comparative glycomics, to account for these data dependencies.

Development of a yeast-based sensor platform for evaluation of ligands recognized by the human free fatty acid 2 receptor.

Yeast-based sensors have shown great applicability for deorphanization of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and screening of ligands targeting these. A GPCR of great interest is free fatty acid 2 receptor (FFA2R), for which short-chain fatty acids such as propionate and acetate are agonists. FFA2R regulates a wide array of downstream receptor signaling pathways in both adipose tissue and immune cells and has been recognized as a promising therapeutic target, having been implicated in several metabolic and inflammatory diseases.

Outcomes after medical treatment for primary aldosteronism: an international consensus and analysis of treatment response in an international cohort.

Background: Primary aldosteronism can be treated medically but there is no standardised method to evaluate treatment outcomes. We aimed to develop criteria for assessing the outcomes of targeted medical treatment of primary aldosteronism, analyse outcomes across an international cohort, and identify factors associated with a complete treatment response.

Methods: An international panel of 31 primary aldosteronism experts used the Delphi method to reach consensus on the definition of complete, partial, or absent biochemical and clinical outcomes of medical treatment of primary aldosteronism.

Using Rasch analysis to assess the latent construct of the Capacity to Work Index in a Swedish working population sample.

Measurements of capacity to work (CTW) in relation to common mental disorders (CMD) are needed to improve research on determinants for maintained work participation (WP). The aim of this study was to assess the construct validity of the Capacity to Work Index (C2WI) in a heterogenous sample of the Swedish working population. Cross-sectional web survey data among Swedish employees (n = 8201) was used.

Programming of synthetic regulatory DNA for cell-type targeting in humans.

In a recent study in Nature, Gosai et al. introduce a framework to engineer and validate synthetic DNA regulatory elements showing cell-type-specific activity in human cell lines, closing the distance to the machine-driven design of functional regulatory sequences with therapeutic applications in humans.

Intentional weight reduction before surgery - A systematic review.

Introduction: Obesity may increase complexity of surgical procedures and increase the risk of perioperative complications. Weight reduction by the use of low energy diet (LED, ≤1200 kcal/day) or very low energy diet (VLED, ≤800 kcal/day) can reduce postoperative complications after bariatric surgery, but for most other types of surgery the evidence for its use remains uncertain. The aim of this systematic review was therefore to evaluate the scientific evidence in general for this routine.

4D flow cardiac magnetic resonance in pediatric congenital heart disease: Insights from over four years of clinical practice.

Background: Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are common birth defects. This work presents over four years of clinical experience of 4D flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), highlighting its value for pediatric CHD.

Methods: Children with various CHD diagnoses (n = 298) were examined on a 1.

Prognostic value of manual versus automatic methods for assessing extents of resection and residual tumor volume in glioblastoma.

Objective: The extent of resection (EOR) and postoperative residual tumor (RT) volume are prognostic factors in glioblastoma. Calculations of EOR and RT rely on accurate tumor segmentations. Raidionics is an open-access software that enables automatic segmentation of preoperative and early postoperative glioblastoma using pretrained deep learning models.

Food groups, macronutrient intake and objective measures of total carotenoids and fatty acids in 16-to-24-year-olds following different plant-based diets compared to an omnivorous diet.

Background: Knowledge about the diet quality among youth who follow different types of plant-based diets is essential to understand whether support is required to ensure a well-planned diet that meets their nutritional needs. This study aimed to investigate how food groups, macronutrient intake, and objective blood measures varied between Norwegian youth following different plant-based diets compared to omnivorous diet.

Methods: Cross-sectional design, with healthy 16-to-24-year-olds (n = 165) recruited from the Agder area in Norway, following a vegan, lacto-ovo-vegetarian, pescatarian, flexitarian or omnivore diet.

Low functional change despite high taxonomic turnover characterizes the microbiome across a 2000-km salinity gradient.

The green seaweed relies on associated bacteria for morphogenesis and is an important model to study algal-bacterial interactions. -associated bacteria exhibit high turnover across environmental gradients, leading to the hypothesis that bacteria contribute to the acclimation potential of the host. However, the functional variation of these bacteria in relation to environmental changes remains unclear.

The Importance of Olfaction for Mixed Paternity in Birds.

Olfaction can aid individuals in finding genetically compatible mates in many animals, while high levels of mixed paternity may result from a limited ability to evaluate their mate's genetic profile against their own before mating. To test this suggestion and explore if olfaction may indeed influence mating patterns in birds, we combined published measures of olfactory ability with data on genetic mating pattern in the same species, across a phylogenetically broad range of species. We used three measures of olfaction: (1) olfactory bulb diameter, (2) olfactory bulb volume and (3) number of olfactory receptor genes (148, 134 and 48 species, respectively).

Plasma biomarkers of amyloid, tau, astrogliosis, and axonal injury in a mixed memory clinic cohort.

Introduction: Studies have shown that blood biomarkers can differentiate dementia disorders. However, the diagnosis of dementia still relies primarily on cerebrospinal fluid and imaging modalities. The new disease-modifying treatments call for more widely applicable biomarkers.

Direct utilisation of impulse response data in reduction index assessment without intermediate reverberation time estimation (L).

An approach is proposed for reduction index measurement where impulse response data are utilised directly without relying on intermediate reverberation time estimation. The theoretical framework is presented and the main result is substantiated by shown equivalence to the conventional method for ideal exponential decay curves of acoustic energy. Additionally, the study introduces a formula for estimating effective reverberation time in cases of non-exponential decay curves.

Plasma N-terminal tau fragment is an amyloid-dependent biomarker in Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Novel fluid biomarkers for tracking neurodegeneration specific to Alzheimer's disease (AD) are greatly needed.

Methods: Using two independent well-characterized cohorts (n = 881 in total), we investigated the group differences in plasma N-terminal tau (NT1-tau) fragments across different AD stages and their association with cross-sectional and longitudinal amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques, tau tangles, brain atrophy, and cognitive decline.

Results: Plasma NT1-tau significantly increased in symptomatic AD and displayed positive associations with Aβ PET (positron emission tomography) and tau PET.

Efficacy of anifrolumab on systemic lupus erythematosus patients with serological manifestations: A post hoc analysis of the Japan subgroup of the TULIP-2 Trial.

Objectives: To describe the efficacy of anifrolumab vs. placebo in Japanese systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with low complement (C3 or C4) and/or who are positive for anti-double stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) antibodies.

Methods: This was a descriptive post hoc analysis of Japanese SLE patients with serological manifestations in the TULIP-2 trial who received either anifrolumab or placebo.

Maternal and perinatal outcomes after implementation of a more active management in late- and postterm pregnancies in Sweden: A population-based cohort study.

Background: The risk of perinatal death and severe neonatal morbidity increases gradually after 41 weeks of pregnancy. We evaluated maternal and perinatal outcomes after a national shift from expectancy and induction at 42+0 weeks to a more active management of late-term pregnancies in Sweden offering induction from 41+0 weeks or an individual plan aiming at birth or active labour no later than 42+0 weeks.

Methods And Findings: Women with a singleton pregnancy lasting 41+0 weeks or more with a fetus in cephalic presentation (N = 150,370) were included in a nationwide, register-based cohort study.

Postprandial glycaemic response and pain sensitivity in breast cancer survivors suffering from chronic pain: a double-blind, randomised controlled cross-over pilot experiment.

Introduction: The study's primary goal is to investigate differences in postprandial glycaemic response (PPGR) to beverages with varying glycaemic index (i.e. low and medium) between breast cancer survivors (BCS) with chronic pain and healthy pain-free controls (HC).

Clinical presentation, acute care management and discharge information of patients with thoracic trauma in South Africa and Sweden: a prospective multicenter observational study.

Purpose: Thoracic trauma causes pain and hospitalisation. Middle- and high-income countries have different trauma contexts and populations. To report patients' clinical presentation (pain and shortness of breath) and its influence on hospital length of stay (LOS), acute care management, and discharge destinations in South Africa (SA) and Sweden.

Loneliness and biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease, axonal damage, and astrogliosis: A coordinated analysis of two longitudinal cohorts.

Objectives: Loneliness is associated with an elevated risk of dementia. There is mixed evidence from imaging studies on whether loneliness is associated with neuropathology in dementia-free adults. This study tests whether loneliness is associated with plasma neurobiomarkers of amyloid (Aβ42/Aβ40), phosphorylated tau 181 (pTau181), neurofilament light chain (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and imaging measures of amyloid and tau.

Teaching triage in disaster medicine - same subject, but different approach.

Background: Disaster management is an inter-, intra-, and cross-disciplinary task in which different specialties partake. Triage is a crucial part of disaster education. A synchronized approach and mutual understanding of triaging and agreement on priorities are essential for saving lives.