Pathways in the association between sugar sweetened beverages and child asthma traits in the 2nd year of life: Findings from the BRISA cohort

Studies on the exposure of children to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) at an early age may contribute to better understand the common causes and the temporal order of the relationships between obesity and asthma in early childhood. The objective of this study was to estimate the association between SSB and child asthma traits in the 2nd year of life, modeling direct and indirect pathways mediated by the highest BMI-z of the child and allergic inflammation. Data from the BRISA cohort, São Luís-MA, Brazil (n = 1140), were obtained from the baseline and from the follow-up performed at the 2nd year of life. The main explanatory variable was the calories from added sugars in SSBs as a percentage of the total daily energy intake. The outcome child asthma traits was a latent variable deduced from four indicators: medical diagnosis of asthma, wheezing, emergency visit due to intense wheezing, and medical diagnosis of rhinitis. A high percentage of daily calories from sugars added to SSBs was directly associated with higher values of child asthma traits (standardized coefficient (SC = 0.073; P = .030)). High levels of eosinophils were also directly associated with child asthma traits (SC = 0.118; P = .049). No mediation pathways were observed via greater BMI-z or eosinophil counts. Therefore, early exposure of children to SSB may contribute to increased risk of childhood asthma, preceding the link between sugar consumption and overweight/obesity, not yet evident in children in the first 2 years of life.     

Galectin-3 modulates postnatal subventricular zone gliogenesis

Postnatal subventricular zone (SVZ) neural stem cells generate forebrain glia, namely astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. The cues necessary for this process are unclear, despite this phase of brain development being pivotal in forebrain gliogenesis. Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is increased in multiple brain pathologies and thereby regulates astrocyte proliferation and inflammation in injury. To study the function of Gal-3 in inflammation and gliogenesis, we carried out functional studies in mouse. We overexpressed Gal-3 with electroporation and using immunohistochemistry surprisingly found no inflammation in the healthy postnatal SVZ. This allowed investigation of inflammation-independent effects of Gal-3 on gliogenesis. Loss of Gal-3 function via knockdown or conditional knockout reduced gliogenesis, whereas Gal-3 overexpression increased it. Gal-3 overexpression also increased the percentage of striatal astrocytes generated by the SVZ but decreased the percentage of oligodendrocytes. These novel findings were further elaborated with multiple analyses demonstrating that Gal-3 binds to the bone morphogenetic protein receptor one alpha (BMPR1α) and increases bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling. Conditional knockout of BMPR1α abolished the effect of Gal-3 overexpression on gliogenesis. Gain-of-function of Gal-3 is relevant in pathological conditions involving the human forebrain, which is particularly vulnerable to hypoxia/ischemia during perinatal gliogenesis. Hypoxic/ischemic injury induces astrogliosis, inflammation and cell death. We show that Gal-3 immunoreactivity was increased in the perinatal human SVZ and striatum after hypoxia/ischemia. Our findings thus show a novel inflammation-independent function for Gal-3; it is necessary for gliogenesis and when increased in expression can induce astrogenesis via BMP signaling.     

Cell-based assays for the detection of MOG antibodies: a comparative study

Journal of Neurology - The detection of antibodies to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) is fundamental for the identification of MOG antibody-associated disorders (MOGAD), and the...     

Ancillary factors in the treatment of orofacial pain: A topical narrative review

Ancillary factors, not directly related to treatment, often play a significant role by affecting therapeutic outcome. A search of the literature was conducted including words related to the placebo phenomenon and orofacial diseases. Therefore, critical factors have been grouped into three major categories: (a) the natural course of the diseases; (b) the regression of the symptoms to their mean intensity; and (c) placebo response. This topical narrative review describes the elements mentioned above, provides an up‐to‐date overview of the hot topics and gaps in the field and indicates developing and future research direction of the orofacial pain field. Such a knowledge might be positively used during daily clinical practice to optimise the management of orofacial pain diseases, as well as in conducting future clinical trials for validating new interventions.     

Do antibacterial and antifungal combinations have better activity against clinically relevant fusarium species? in vitro synergism

The aim of this study was to evaluate the susceptibility of 20 clinical isolates of Fusarium spp. to classic antifungals [amphotericin B (AmB), itraconazole (ITR), voriconazole (VRC) and caspofungin (CAS)] and to non-antifungal agents [amiodarone (AMD), doxycycline (DOX) and moxifloxacin (MFX)] by the broth microdilution method. Combinations between these antifungal and non-antifungal agents were also evaluated to determine the fractional inhibitory concentration indices using the chequerboard technique. Synergistic interactions were observed for the following combinations (% synergism): AMD?+?VRC, 80%; MFX?+?AmB, 75%; AMD?+?AmB, 65%; DOX?+?VRC, 60%; MFX?+?VRC, 55%; DOX?+?AmB, 50%; and AMD?+?CAS, 30%. Synergism was not observed for associations with ITR. Antagonism was not seen in any combination. These findings suggest that the combinations of AMD, DOX or MFX with AmB or VRC to have potential for future in vivo investigations.     

Characterization and Treatment of Local Recurrence Following Breast Conservation for Ductal Carcinoma In Situ

Purpose

The optimal treatment strategy for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) continues to evolve and should consider the consequences of initial treatment on the likelihood, type, and treatment of recurrences.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using two data sources of patients who experienced a recurrence (DCIS or invasive cancer) following breast-conserving surgery (BCS) for index DCIS: patients with an index DCIS diagnosed from 1997 to 2008 at the academic institutions of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN; N = 88) and patients with an index DCIS diagnosed from 1990 to 2001 at community-based integrated healthcare delivery sites of the Health Maintenance Organization Cancer Research Network (CRN) (N = 182).

Results

Just under half of local recurrences in both cohorts were invasive cancer. While 40 % of patients in both cohorts underwent mastectomy alone at recurrence, treatment of the remaining patients varied. In the earlier CRN cohort, most other patients underwent repeat BCS (39 %) with only 18 % receiving mastectomy with reconstruction, whereas only 16 % had repeat BCS and 44 % had mastectomy with reconstruction in the NCCN cohort. Compared with patients not treated with radiation, those who received radiation for index DCIS were less likely to undergo repeat BCS (NCCN: 6.6 vs. 37 %, p = 0.001; CRN: 20 vs. 48 %, p = 0.0004) and more likely to experience surgical complications after treatment of recurrence (NCCN: 15 vs. 4 %, p = 0.17; CRN: 40 vs. 25 %, p = 0.09).

Conclusion

We found that treatment of recurrences after BCS and subsequent complications may be affected by the use of radiotherapy for the index DCIS. Initial treatment of DCIS may have long-term implications that should be considered.