This paper explores which demographic characteristics substantially bias self-reported physical and cognitive health status of older Europeans. The analysis utilises micro-data for 19 European ...countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to compare performance-tested outcomes of mobility and memory with their self-reported equivalents. Relative importance analysis based on multinomial logistic regressions shows that the bias in self-reported health is mostly due to reporting heterogeneities between countries and age groups, whereas gender contributes little to the discrepancy. Concordance of mobility and cognition measures is highly related; however, differences in reporting behaviour due to education and cultural background have a larger impact on self-assessed memory than on self-assessed mobility. Southern as well as Central and Eastern Europeans are much more likely to misreport their physical and cognitive abilities than Northern and Western Europeans. Overall, our results suggest that comparisons of self-reported health between countries and age groups are prone to significant biases, whereas comparisons between genders are credible for most European countries. These findings are crucial given that self-assessed data are often the only information available to researchers and policymakers when asking health-related questions.
Cancer is one of the greatest public health challenges worldwide, and we still lack complementary approaches to significantly enhance the efficacy of standard anticancer therapies. The ketogenic ...diet, a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with adequate amounts of protein, appears to sensitize most cancers to standard treatment by exploiting the reprogramed metabolism of cancer cells, making the diet a promising candidate as an adjuvant cancer therapy.
To critically evaluate available preclinical and clinical evidence regarding the ketogenic diet in the context of cancer therapy. Furthermore, we highlight important mechanisms that could explain the potential antitumor effects of the ketogenic diet.
The ketogenic diet probably creates an unfavorable metabolic environment for cancer cells and thus can be regarded as a promising adjuvant as a patient-specific multifactorial therapy. The majority of preclinical and several clinical studies argue for the use of the ketogenic diet in combination with standard therapies based on its potential to enhance the antitumor effects of classic chemo- and radiotherapy, its overall good safety and tolerability and increase in quality of life. However, to further elucidate the mechanisms of the ketogenic diet as a therapy and evaluate its application in clinical practice, more molecular studies as well as uniformly controlled clinical trials are needed.
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•Ketogenic diets (KDs) can enhance the efficacy of classical antitumor therapies.•Effect of KDs on proliferation is tumor type dependent.•Application of KDs to cancer patients is generally well tolerated.•Low-carbohydrate and KDs increase quality of life of cancer patients.•More standardized studies are needed before KDs can be advised for cancer patients.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a very complex and multifactorial metabolic disease characterized by insulin resistance and β cell failure leading to elevated blood glucose levels. Hyperglycemia ...is suggested to be the main cause of diabetic complications, which not only decrease life quality and expectancy, but are also becoming a problem regarding the financial burden for health care systems. Therefore, and to counteract the continually increasing prevalence of diabetes, understanding the pathogenesis, the main risk factors, and the underlying molecular mechanisms may establish a basis for prevention and therapy. In this regard, research was performed revealing further evidence that oxidative stress has an important role in hyperglycemia-induced tissue injury as well as in early events relevant for the development of T2DM. The formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), a group of modified proteins and/or lipids with damaging potential, is one contributing factor. On the one hand it has been reported that AGEs increase reactive oxygen species formation and impair antioxidant systems, on the other hand the formation of some AGEs is induced per se under oxidative conditions. Thus, AGEs contribute at least partly to chronic stress conditions in diabetes. As AGEs are not only formed endogenously, but also derive from exogenous sources, i.e., food, they have been assumed as risk factors for T2DM. However, the role of AGEs in the pathogenesis of T2DM and diabetic complications-if they are causal or simply an effect-is only partly understood. This review will highlight the involvement of AGEs in the development and progression of T2DM and their role in diabetic complications.
Protein oxidation is involved in regulatory physiological events as well as in damage to tissues and is thought to play a key role in the pathophysiology of diseases and in the aging process. ...Protein-bound carbonyls represent a marker of global protein oxidation, as they are generated by multiple different reactive oxygen species in blood, tissues and cells. Sample preparation and stabilization are key steps in the accurate quantification of oxidation-related products and examination of physiological/pathological processes. This review therefore focuses on the sample preparation processes used in the most relevant methods to detect protein carbonyls after derivatization with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine with an emphasis on measurement in plasma, cells, organ homogenates, isolated proteins and organelles. Sample preparation, derivatization conditions and protein handling are presented for the spectrophotometric and HPLC method as well as for immunoblotting and ELISA. An extensive overview covering these methods in previously published articles is given for researchers who plan to measure protein carbonyls in different samples.
Scope
3‐Methylhistidine (3‐MH) as a potential biomarker for muscle protein turnover is influenced by meat intake but data on the impact of meat on plasma 3‐MH are scarce. We determined the ...association of plasma 3‐MH, 1‐methylhistidine (1‐MH), and creatinine with dietary habits and assessed the impact of a single white meat intervention during a meat‐free period.
Methods and results
Plasma 3‐MH, 1‐MH, and creatinine concentrations of healthy young omnivores (n = 19) and vegetarians (n = 16) were analyzed together with data on anthropometry, body composition, grip strength, and nutrition. After baseline measurements omnivores adhered to a meat‐free diet for 6 days and received a defined administration of chicken breast on day four. At baseline, omnivores had higher plasma 3‐MH and 1‐MH concentrations than vegetarians. White meat administration led to a slight increase in plasma 3‐MH in omnivores. The elevated 3‐MH concentrations significantly declined within 24 h after white meat intake.
Conclusion
1‐MH concentrations in plasma seem to be suitable to display (white) meat consumption and its influence on 3‐MH plasma concentration. 3‐MH in plasma may be used as a biomarker for muscle protein turnover if subjects have not consumed meat in the previous 24 h.
3‐Methylhistidine, as a potential biomarker for muscle protein turnover, is analyzed together with 1‐methylhistidine and creatinine in omnivores and vegetarians to assess the influence of different dietary habits on these biomarkers and the impact of a single white meat intervention in omnivores during a meat‐free period.
The purpose of this review is to give an overview on recently published articles investigating the associations of diet and dietary interventions with biomarkers of oxidative stress with special ...emphasis on different categories of redox biomarkers.
Intervention and observational studies both in healthy participants and patients that investigated associations of dietary habits, foodstuffs or isolated nutrients with biomarkers of oxidative stress were included in this review. Recently published observation studies confirm the inverse association between fruit and vegetable intake and oxidative stress markers. Studies investigating the effect of vitamin D and vitamin E, magnesium, zinc, chromium, selenium, probiotic supplementation and several phytochemicals reported consistent changes in redox biomarkers. Of 88 articles included in this review, only seven studies measured biomarkers from the three categories: oxidative damage, endogenous antioxidants, and exogenous antioxidants. Many studies rely on controversial assays for total antioxidant capacity, thus there is potential in many studies to improve biomarker repertoire to cover all three categories of biomarkers and to turn away from such assays.
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•Oxidative stress can be assessed by specific biomarker categories.•Three biomarker categories: oxidative damage, endogenous, exogenous antioxidants.•Only seven studies performed measurements of all three biomarker categories.•TAC, TRAP, FRAP, ORAC should not be used as stand-alone redox marker.•Several interventions reported improvements in markers of oxidative stress.
For over 60 years, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has been the major curative therapy for several hematological and genetic disorders, but its efficacy is limited by the secondary disease ...called graft versus host disease (GvHD). Huge advances have been made in successful transplantation in order to improve patient quality of life, and yet, complete success is hard to achieve. This review assimilates recent updates on pathophysiology of GvHD, prophylaxis and treatment of GvHD-related complications, and advances in the potential treatment of GvHD.
Comparing the burden of aging across countries hinges on the availability of valid and comparable indicators. The Old Age Dependency Ratio allows only a limited assessment of the challenges of aging, ...because it does not include information on any individual characteristics except age itself. Existing alternative indicators based on health or economic activity suffer from measurement and comparability problems. We propose an indicator based on age variation in cognitive functioning. We use newly released data from standardized tests of seniors' cognitive abilities for countries from different world regions. In the wake of long-term advances in countries' industrial composition, and technological advances, the ability to handle new job procedures is now of high and growing importance, which increases the importance of cognition for work performance over time. In several countries with older populations, we find better cognitive performance on the part of populations aged 50+ than in countries with chronologically younger populations. This variation in cognitive functioning levels may be explained by the fact that seniors in some regions of the world experienced better conditions during childhood and adult life, including nutrition, duration and quality of schooling, lower exposure to disease, and physical and social activity patterns. Because of the slow process of cohort replacement, those countries whose seniors already have higher cognitive levels today are likely to continue to be at an advantage for several decades to come.
Disruptions of the intestinal microbiome are involved in the pathophysiology of acute gastrointestinal graft versus host disease in patients after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Systemic ...broad-spectrum antibiotics display a major risk factor for the loss of protective commensal gut bacteria.
Abstract
Background
Maintaining gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome diversity plays a key role during allogeneic stem cell transplantation (ASCT), and loss of diversity correlates with acute GI graft versus host disease (GvHD) and poor outcomes.
Methods
In this retrospective analysis of 161 ASCT patients, we used serial analyses of urinary 3-indoxyl sulfate (3-IS) levels and GI microbiome parameters within the first 10 days after ASCT to identify potential commensal microbiota–sparing antibiotics. Based on antibiotic activity, we formed 3 subgroups (Rifaximin without systemic antibiotics, Rifaximin with systemic antibiotics, and Ciprofloxacin/Metronidazole with/without systemic antibiotics).
Results
Mono-antibiosis with Rifaximin revealed higher 3-IS levels (P < .001), higher Clostridium cluster XIVa (CCXIVa) abundance (P = .004), and higher Shannon indices (P = .01) compared to Ciprofloxacin/Metronidazole with/without systemic antibiotics. Rifaximin followed by systemic antibiotics maintained microbiome diversity compared to Ciprofloxacin/Metronidazole with/without systemic antibiotics, as these patients showed still higher 3-IS levels (P = .04), higher CCXIVa copy numbers (P = .01), and higher Shannon indexes (P = .01). Even for this larger cohort of patients, the outcome was superior with regard to GI GvHD (P = .05) and lower transplant-related mortality (P < .001) for patients receiving Rifaximin plus systemic antibiotics compared to other types of systemic antibiotic treatment. Antibiosis with Ciprofloxacin/Metronidazole (n = 12, P = .01), Piperacillin/Tazobactam (n = 52, P = .01), Meropenem/Vancomycin (n = 16, P = .003), Ceftazidime (n = 10, P = .03), or multiple systemic antibiotics (n = 53, P = .001) showed significantly lower 3-IS levels compared to mono-antibiosis with Rifaximin (n = 14) or intravenous Vancomycin (n = 4, not statistically significant).
Conclusions
Different types of antibiotic treatments show different impacts on markers of microbiome diversity. The identification of antibiotics sparing commensal bacteria remains an ongoing challenge. However, Rifaximin allowed a higher intestinal microbiome diversity, even in the presence of systemic broad-spectrum antibiotics.
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