Functional foods for health promotion: microbes and healthExtended abstracts from the 11th Annual Conference on Functional Foods for Health Promotion, April 2008

The extended abstracts in this report are based on presentations from the 11^th Special Conference on Functional Foods for Health Promotion, cosponsored by the Technical Committee on Food Components for Health Promotion of the North American Branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI NA) and the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) at the Experimental Biology (EB) meeting in April 2008. Evidence that foods and their components offer health benefits beyond basic nutrition continues to captivate the interest of scientific communities, federal agencies, and the general public. The theme of the 2008 special conference was "Microbes and Health". It began with a general introduction and overview of how diet or dietary components can influence microbial growth and, ultimately, disease risk and overall health. Subsequent presentations provided fundamental information about how the food supply can set the landscape for gene expression in microbes and, ultimately, their influence on health (with some comments on how microbes might contribute to the obesity epidemic), child health and infections, role of microbes in cancer prevention, and effects of foods and their bioactive constituents as modifiers of microbes in the oral cavity.     

Changes in physical health among participants in a multidisciplinary health programme for long-term unemployed persons

Background  

The relationship between poor health and unemployment is well established. Health promotion among unemployed persons may improve their health. The aims of this study were to investigate characteristics of non-participants and drop-outs in a multidisciplinary health promotion programme for long-term unemployed persons with health complaints, to evaluate changes in physical health among participants, and to investigate determinants of improvement in physical health.     

Dowling–Degos disease with dyschromatosis universalis hereditaria-like pigmentation in a family

Dowling-Degos disease is a rare autosomal dominant inherited pigmentary disorder characterized by reticulate pigmentation of the flexures, prominent comedone like lesions and pitted scars. Dyschromatosis universalis hereditaria is characterized by the presence of hypopigmented as well as hyperpigmented macules. We report a family showing features of both these diseases.     

Alpelisib and radiotherapy treatment enhances Alisertib-mediated cervical cancer tumor killing

Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the main causative agent in cervical cancers. High-risk HPV cancers, including cervical cancer, are driven by major HPV oncogene, E6 and E7, which promote uncontrolled cell growth and genomic instability. We have previously shown that the presence of HPV E7 sensitizes cells to inhibition of aurora kinases (AURKs), which regulates the control of cell entry into and through mitosis. Such treatment is highly effective at eliminating early tumors and reducing large, late tumors. In addition, the presence of HPV oncogenes also sensitizes cells to inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks), a family of enzymes involved in cellular functions such as cell growth and proliferation. Using MLN8237 (Alisertib), an oral, selective inhibitor of AURKs, we investigated whether Alisertib treatment can improve tumor response when combined with either radiotherapy (RT) treatment or with a PI3K inhibitor, BYL719 (Alpelisib). Indeed, both RT and Alpelisib significantly improved Alisertib-mediated tumor killing, and the promising achieved results warrant further development of these combinations, and potentially translating them to the clinics.     

Neurodevelopmental outcome in high-risk preterm infants treated with inhaled nitric oxide

Inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) is used to treat preterm infants with hypoxaemic respiratory failure. In this study we describe the long-term survival and neurodevelopmental status of high-risk preterm infants enrolled into a randomized controlled trial of iNO therapy. Information regarding long-term outcome was available for all 25 children enrolled in the original trial who survived until discharge from hospital. Formal, blinded, developmental assessment and neurological examinations were performed in 21 out of 22 children still alive at 30 mo of age, corrected for prematurity. No significant differences were found in long-term mortality (12/20 vs 8/22, RR 1.65, 95% CI 0.87-3.3), neurodevelopmental delay (4/7 vs 9/14, RR 0.89, 95% CI 0.37-1.75), severe neurodisability (0/7 vs 5/14, p = 0.12) or cerebral palsy (0/7 vs 2/14, p = 0.53) between iNO-treated and control infants. CONCLUSION: In this study there was no evidence of a significant effect on either survival or long-term neurodevelopmental status in infants treated with iNO.     

Age-dependent neurological phenotypes in a mouse model of PRRT2-related diseases

Paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia is an episodic movement disorder caused by dominant mutations in the proline-rich transmembrane protein PRRT2, with onset in childhood and typically with improvement or resolution by middle age. Mutations in the same gene may also cause benign infantile seizures, which begin in the first year of life and typically remit by the age of 2 years. Many details of PRRT2 function at the synapse, and the effects of mutations on neuronal excitability in the pathophysiology of epilepsy and dyskinesia, have emerged through the work of several groups over the last decade. However, the age dependence of the phenotypes has not been explored in detail in transgenic models. Here, we report our findings in heterozygous and homozygous Prrt2 knockout mice that recapitulate the age dependence of dyskinesia seen in the human disease. We show that Prrt2 deletion reduces the levels of synaptic proteins in a dose-dependent manner that is most pronounced at postnatal day 5 (P5), attenuates at P60, and disappears by P180. In a test for foot slippage while crossing a balance beam, transient loss of coordination was most pronounced at P60 and less prominent at age extremes. Slower traverse time was noted in homozygous knockout mice only, consistent with the ataxia seen in rare individuals with biallelic loss of function mutations in Prrt2. We thus identify three age-dependent phenotypic windows in the mouse model, which recapitulate the pattern seen in humans with PRRT2-related diseases.

     

Cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea: depiction with MR cisternography in dogs

Canine cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea, which occurs frequently in purebred beagles, was demonstrated in two dogs on magnetic resonance images after cisternal introduction of gadolinium-DTPA dimeglumine.