Increasing the lifespan of a population is often a marker of a country's success. With the percentage of the population over 65 yr of age expanding, managing the health and independence of this ...population is an ongoing concern. Advancing age is associated with a decrease in cognitive function that ultimately affects quality of life. Understanding potential adverse effects of aging on brain blood flow and cognition may help to determine effective strategies to mitigate these effects on the population. Exercise may be one strategy to prevent or delay cognitive decline. This review describes how aging is associated with cardiovascular disease risks, vascular dysfunction, and increasing Alzheimer's disease pathology. It will also discuss the possible effects of aging on cerebral vascular physiology, cerebral perfusion, and brain atrophy rates. Clinically, these changes will present as reduced cognitive function, neurodegeneration, and the onset of dementia. Regular exercise has been shown to improve cognitive function, and we hypothesize that this occurs through beneficial adaptations in vascular physiology and improved neurovascular coupling. This review highlights the potential interactions and ideas of how the age-associated variables may affect cognition and may be moderated by regular exercise.
New Findings
What is the topic of this review?
There are sex‐ and sex‐hormone‐specific differences in autonomic control of blood pressure, central haemodynamics and cerebral blood flow.
What advances ...does it highlight?
Sex differences in autonomic control of blood pressure may underlie other sex‐specific characteristics associated with cerebral blood flow, which can, in turn, affect tissue function.
Over the last decade, there have been many published reports on sex differences in blood pressure regulation between young men and young women. The autonomic nervous system is a primary contributor to both acute and long‐term blood pressure regulation. Sex differences in blood pressure regulation are likely to have effects that extend beyond mean arterial pressure and that can affect blood flow and tissue function. This short review includes recent literature from our laboratory focusing on autonomic control of the circulation, specifically age‐ and sex‐hormone‐related differences in central haemodynamics and cerebral blood flow, and discusses potential clinical implications.
Research regarding zoonotic diseases often focuses on infectious diseases animals have given to humans. However, an increasing number of reports indicate that humans are transmitting pathogens to ...animals. Recent examples include methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, influenza A virus, Cryptosporidium parvum, and Ascaris lumbricoides. The aim of this review was to provide an overview of published literature regarding reverse zoonoses and highlight the need for future work in this area.
An initial broad literature review yielded 4763 titles, of which 4704 were excluded as not meeting inclusion criteria. After careful screening, 56 articles (from 56 countries over three decades) with documented human-to-animal disease transmission were included in this report.
In these publications, 21 (38%) pathogens studied were bacterial, 16 (29%) were viral, 12 (21%) were parasitic, and 7 (13%) were fungal, other, or involved multiple pathogens. Effected animals included wildlife (n = 28, 50%), livestock (n = 24, 43%), companion animals (n = 13, 23%), and various other animals or animals not explicitly mentioned (n = 2, 4%). Published reports of reverse zoonoses transmission occurred in every continent except Antarctica therefore indicating a worldwide disease threat.
As we see a global increase in industrial animal production, the rapid movement of humans and animals, and the habitats of humans and wild animals intertwining with great complexity, the future promises more opportunities for humans to cause reverse zoonoses. Scientific research must be conducted in this area to provide a richer understanding of emerging and reemerging disease threats. As a result, multidisciplinary approaches such as One Health will be needed to mitigate these problems.
Florida's waters are a reservoir for a host of pathogens and toxins. Many of these microorganisms cause water-related diseases in people that are reportable to the Florida Department of Health. Our ...objective in this review was to ascertain which water-related pathogens and toxins of public health importance have been found in animal populations in Florida over the last twenty years. Nineteen databases were searched, including PubMed and Web of Science Core Collection, using keywords and search terms for the waterborne diseases, water-related vector-borne diseases, and water-based toxins reportable to the Florida Department of Health. For inclusion, peer-reviewed journal articles were to be written in English, published between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2019, and contain primary research findings documenting at least one of the water-related pathogens or toxins of interest in an animal population within Florida during this same time frame. Of over eight thousand initial search results, 65 studies were included for final analysis. The most common animal types implicated in the diseases of interest included marine mammals, fish and shellfish, wild birds, and livestock. Toxins or pathogens most often associated with these animals included toxin-producer Karenia brevis, vibriosis, Escherichia coli, and Salmonellosis.
Molecular phenotypes predict early recurrence in invasive breast cancer. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) progresses to invasive cancer after surgery in around half of all recurrences. Luminal A DCIS ...had a low rate of 5 year recurrence; the other phenotypes had significantly elevated risks. ER is regularly measured in DCIS but our data suggests that PR and HER2 should be measured for relapse risk.
Molecular phenotypes of invasive breast cancer predict early recurrence. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) exhibits similar phenotypes, but their frequency and significance remain unclear. To determine whether DCIS molecular phenotypes predict recurrence, 314 women (median age 57.7 years) with primary DCIS who were screened or entered DCIS trials in a specialist breast unit from 1990 to 2010 were studied.
Expression of Ki67, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) within primary DCIS was established using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Patients were subdivided into molecular phenotypes using IHC surrogates Luminal A (ER/PR+HER2-), Luminal B (ER/PR+/HER2+), HER2 type (ER and PR-/HER2+) or triple negative (ER/PR/HER2) and recurrence rates compared.
Overall, there were 57 (18.2%) recurrences, 35 (11.2%) DCIS and 22 (7%) invasive cancer. A low rate of recurrence at 5 years was seen in Luminal A DCIS (7.6%), compared with 15.8%–36.1% in other phenotypes. Independent predictors of overall recurrence on multivariate analysis were involved (<1 mm) surgical margins (HR 4.31, P < 0.001), high-grade lesions (HR 2.28, P < 0.024) and molecular phenotype (HR 5.14, P = 0.001 for Luminal B; HR 6.46, P < 0.001 for HER2 type and HR 3.27, P = 0.028 for triple-negative disease compared with Luminal A DCIS). Independent predictors for invasive recurrence were high Ki67 expression (HR 1.04, P = 0.021) and molecular phenotype (HR 13.4, P = 0.014 for Luminal B; HR 11.4, P = 0.027 for HER2 type and HR 10.3, P = 0.031 for triple negative compared with Luminal A DCIS).
DCIS molecular phenotype predicts for both overall and invasive recurrence. HER2 testing of DCIS could help clinicians individualise the treatment of patients with DCIS.
Following the discovery of type-II high-temperature superconductors in 1986 (refs 1, 2), work has proceeded to develop these materials for power applications. One of the problems, however, has been ...that magnetic flux is not completely expelled, but rather is contained within magnetic fluxons, whose motion prevents larger supercurrents. It is known that the critical current of these materials can be enhanced by incorporating a high density of extended defects to act as pinning centres for the fluxons. YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO or 123) is the most promising material for such applications at higher temperatures (liquid nitrogen). Pinning is optimized when the size of the defects approaches the superconducting coherence length ( approximately 2-4 nm for YBCO at temperatures < or =77 K) and when the areal number density of defects is of the order of (H/2) x 10(11) cm(-2), where H is the applied magnetic field in tesla. Such a high density has been difficult to achieve by material-processing methods that maintain a nanosize defect, except through irradiation. Here we report a method for achieving a dispersion of approximately 8-nm-sized nanoparticles in YBCO with a high number density, which increases the critical current (at 77 K) by a factor of two to three for high magnetic fields.
Household drinking water can be contaminated by diarrheagenic enteropathogens at numerous points between the source and actual consumption. Interventions to prevent this contamination have focused on ...preventing exposure to human waste through interventions to improve drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). In many cases though, the infectious agent may be of zoonotic rather than human origin suggesting that unsafely managed animal waste may contribute to the contamination of household drinking water and the associated diarrheal disease burden.
A cross-sectional household survey of 800 households was conducted across three informal peri-urban neighborhoods of Kisumu, Kenya, collecting stored drinking water samples, administering a household survey including water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure and behaviors, and recording domestic animal presence and ownership. We used multivariate logistic regression to assess the association of traditional WASH factors and domestic animal presence and ownership on microbial contamination of household drinking water.
The majority of households sampled had fecally contaminated drinking water (67%), defined by the presence of any colony forming units of the fecal indicator bacteria enterococci. After adjustment for potential confounders, including socio-economic status and water and sanitation access, both household animal ownership (aOR 1.31; CI 1.00-1.73, p = 0.05) and the presence of animal waste in the household compound (aOR 1.38; CI 1.01, 1.89, p = 0.04) were found to be significantly associated with household drinking water contamination. None of the conventional WASH variables were found to be significantly associated with household drinking water contamination in the study population.
Water, sanitation, and hygiene strategies to reduce diarrheal disease should consider the promotion of safe animal contact alongside more traditional interventions focusing on the management of human waste. Future research on fecal contamination of unsafe household drinking water should utilize host-specific markers to determine whether the source is human or animal to prepare targeted public health messages.
Individuals at risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) demonstrate systemic autoimmunity in the form of anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are implicated in established RA. ...This study aimed to (1) compare miRNA expression between healthy individuals and those at risk of and those that develop RA, (2) evaluate the change in expression of miRNA from "at-risk" to early RA and (3) explore whether these miRNAs could inform a signature predictive of progression from "at-risk" to RA.
We performed global profiling of 754 miRNAs per patient on a matched serum sample cohort of 12 anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) + "at-risk" individuals that progressed to RA. Each individual had a serum sample from baseline and at time of detection of synovitis, forming the matched element. Healthy controls were also studied. miRNAs with a fold difference/fold change of four in expression level met our primary criterion for selection as candidate miRNAs. Validation of the miRNAs of interest was conducted using custom miRNA array cards on matched samples (baseline and follow up) in 24 CCP+ individuals; 12 RA progressors and 12 RA non-progressors.
We report on the first study to use matched serum samples and a comprehensive miRNA array approach to identify in particular, three miRNAs (miR-22, miR-486-3p, and miR-382) associated with progression from systemic autoimmunity to RA inflammation. MiR-22 demonstrated significant fold difference between progressors and non-progressors indicating a potential biomarker role for at-risk individuals.
This first study using a cohort with matched serum samples provides important mechanistic insights in the transition from systemic autoimmunity to inflammatory disease for future investigation, and with further evaluation, might also serve as a predictive biomarker.
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