Eating habit of adding salt to foods and incident sleep apnea: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have revealed that sodium-restricted diet intervention significantly decreased apnea frequency among patients with sleep apnea. However, the longitudinal association between the habit of adding salt to foods and sleep apnea in general populations is uncertain. METHODS: The UK Biobank cohort study includes more than 500,000 participants aged 40 to 69 across the United Kingdom from 2006 to 2010. The frequency of adding salt to foods was collected through a touch screen questionnaire. Incident sleep apnea was ascertained by hospital inpatient records, death registries, primary care, and self-reported diagnosis. The association between the habit of adding salt to foods and incident sleep apnea was estimated using Cox proportional hazard regression models. RESULTS: Among the 488,196 participants (mean age 56.5 years; 55.0% female) in this study. During a median follow-up of 12.3 years, 6394 sleep apnea events occurred. Compared to participants who never/rarely added salt to foods, those who sometimes, usually, and always added salt to foods had an 11% (hazard ratio [HR] 1.11, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04 to 1.17), 15% (HR 1.15, 95% CI: 1.07 to 1.24), and 24% (HR 1.24, 95% CI: 1.12 to 1.37) higher risk for incident sleep apnea, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In this large prospective study, the habit of adding salt to foods was associated with a higher risk of incident sleep apnea. The findings support the benefits of a salt reduction program in preventing sleep apnea.

The Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Two Rock Scallops (Bivalvia: Spondylidae) Indicate Extensive Gene Rearrangements and Adaptive Evolution Compared with Pectinidae.

Different from the diverse family Pectinidae, the Spondylidae is a small group with a single genus that shares the sedentary life habit of cementing themselves to the substrate. However, little information related to the genetic diversity of Spondylidae has been reported. In the present study, the complete mitochondrial genomes of Spondylus versicolor and S. spinosus were sequenced and compared with those of pectinids. The mtDNA of S. versicolor and S. spinosus show similar patterns with respect to genome size, AT content, AT skew, GC skew, and codon usage, and their mitogenomic sizes are longer than most pectinid species. The mtDNA of S. spinosus is 27,566 bp in length, encoding 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and 2 ribosomal RNA genes, while an additional tRNA-Met was found in the mtDNA of S. versicolor, which is 28,600 bp in length. The monophylies of Spondylidae and Pectinidae were well supported, but the internal relationships within Pectinidae remain unresolved due to the paraphyly of the genus Mimachlamy and the controversial position of the tribe Aequipectinini. The gene orders of S. versicolor and S. spinosus are almost identical but differ greatly from species of the Pectinidae, indicating extensive gene rearrangements compared with Pectinidae. Positive selection analysis revealed evidence of adaptive evolution in the branch of Spondylidae. The present study could provide important information with which to understand the evolutionary progress of the diverse and economically significant marine bivalve Pectinoidea.

[Correlation between red meat intake and prevalence of adults diabetes in Hubei Province from 1997 to 2018].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between red meat intake and the prevalence of diabetes. METHODS: Using the data of the China Health and Nutrition Survey in 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2018, 1154 people aged 18-75 years were included, and age, gender, urban and rural, education, marital status, income, occupational physical activity, total energy intake, fat energy ratio, smoking, drinking, body mass index and hypertension were adjusted. The Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to calculate diabetes hazard ratio(HR) and corresponding 95%CI. RESULTS: In the study population, the per capita intake of red meat increased from 40.59 g/d in 1997 to 73.91 g/d in 2018, and the prevalence of diabetes rose from 6.14% in 2009 to 7.00% in 2018. In the early adjustment model, compared with the control group, the red meat intake HR of 1-39 g/d group was 0.92(95% CI 0.51-1.68), and the HR of 40-74 g/d group was 0.86(95% CI 0.47-1.58), and the HR of the group ≥75 g/d was 1.02(95% CI 0.62-1.68). In model 2, compared with the control group, the red meat intake HR of 1-39 g/d group was 0.71(95% CI 0.37-1.35), and the HR of 40-74 g/d group was 0.71(95% CI 0.38-1.35), the HR of ≥75 g/d group was 1.06(95% CI 0.69-1.87). In the fully adjusted model, compared with the control group, the red meat intake HR of 1-39 g/d group was 0.75(95% CI 0.61-1.55), the HR of 40-74 g/d group was 0.66(95% CI 0.57-1.43), and the HR of ≥75 g/d group was 1.27(95% CI 0.87-2.04). CONCLUSION: With the increase of red meat intake, the prevalence of diabetes was also increasing, but there was no statistically significant association.

Evaluation of EDB Fibronectin in Plasma, Patient-Derived Xenograft Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded and Fresh Frozen Tumor Tissues Using Immunoaffinity LC-MS/MS.

The fibronectin (FN) isoform including the extradomain B (EDB) segment (EDB + FN) is a promising tumor target and is highly expressed in some tumor types, such as breast, head, and neck cancer. To date, mostly immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blot have been used for the analysis of EDB + FN. However, complete quantitative measurements of EDB + FN expression in a tumor and circulation are important for the development of anti-EDB therapeutics. To this end, a method using protein enrichment followed by online antipeptide antibody enrichment coupled with a nanoflow LC-MS/MS was developed to quantify EDB + FN in human and cynomolgus plasma, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumors, and PDX formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples. Mouse plasma EDB + FN was analyzed using a protein immunoaffinity method followed by nanoflow LC-MS/MS. EDB + FN concentrations were 63.1 pmol/g in PDX breast cancer tumor and 49.6 pmol/g in PDX head and neck tumor. Mean plasma concentration was 1.1 nM (pmol/mL, 47.4 ng/mL) in normal healthy humans and 0.35 nM (15.1 ng/mL) in naive cynomolgus. The assay sensitivity was 0.018 nM based on calibration with recombinant human EDB + FN (rhEDB + FN).

Frequency of adding salt at the table and risk of incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Adding salt at the table is a prevalent eating habit, but its long-term relationship with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality remains unclear. We evaluated the associations of adding salt at the table with the risk of incident CVD and all-cause mortality. METHODS: Among 413,109 middle- and old-aged adults without cancer or CVD, all participants reported the frequency of adding salt at the table at baseline. The associations between adding salt at the table and incident CVD (the composite endpoint of coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and CVD deaths) and all-cause mortality were investigated using Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: Of the study population, the mean age was 55.8 years and 45.5% were men; 44.4% reported adding salt at the table; 4.8% reported always adding salt at the table. During a median follow-up of 12 years, there were 37,091 incident CVD cases and 21,293 all-cause deaths. After adjustment for demographic, lifestyle, and cardiometabolic risk factors, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for participants who always added salt at the table versus never/rarely added salt at the table were 1.21 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.16-1.26) for CVD, 1.19 (95%CI: 1.05-1.35) for CVD mortality, and 1.22 (95%CI: 1.16-1.29) for all-cause mortality, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In this prospective cohort study, a higher frequency of adding salt at the table was associated with a greater risk of incident CVD and mortality. Our findings support the benefits of restricting the habit of adding salt at the table in promoting cardiovascular health.

Association of peripheral basophils with tumor M2 macrophage infiltration and outcomes of the anti-PD-1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy combination in advanced gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: Although the anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitor plus chemotherapy combination has been approved as the standard first-line treatment for advanced gastric cancer, a proportion of patients do not significantly benefit from this therapy. Who would respond poorly to this treatment and the underlying mechanisms of treatment failure are far from clear. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the associations between the peripheral basophils at baseline and clinical outcomes in 63 advanced gastric cancer patients treated with anti-PD-1 plus chemotherapy and 54 patients treated with chemotherapy alone. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence staining in gastric cancer samples were utilized to investigate the basophil-related immunophenotype. RESULTS: The optimal cutoff of basophil count to distinguish responders to anti-PD-1 plus chemotherapy from non-responders was 20.0/µL. Compared with the low basophil group (≤ 20.0/µL, n = 40), the high basophil group (> 20.0/µL, n = 23) had a significantly lower objective response rate (ORR 17.4% vs. 67.5%, p = 0.0001), worse progression-free survival (median PFS 4.0 vs. 15.0 months, p = 0.0003), and worse overall survival (median OS not reached, p = 0.027). Multivariate analyses identified a basophil count of > 20.0/µL as an independent risk factor for a worse ORR (OR 0.040, 95% CI 0.007-0.241, p = 0.0004), worse PFS (HR 3.720, 95% CI 1.823-7.594, p = 0.0003) and worse OS (HR 3.427, 95% CI 1.698-6.917, p = 0.001). In contrast, there was no significant association between peripheral basophil counts and tumor response or survival in the chemotherapy-alone group (p > 0.05). In primary gastric cancer samples, we observed a correlation between higher peripheral basophil counts and the accumulation of tumor-infiltrating basophils (r = 0.6833, p = 0.005). Tumor-infiltrating basophils were found to be spatially proximate to M2 macrophages within TME and positively correlated with tumor M2 macrophage infiltration (r = 0.7234, p = 0.0023). The peripheral basophil counts also had a significant positive correlation with tumor-infiltrating M2 macrophage counts (r = 0.6584, p = 0.003). Further validation in tumor samples treated with the neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy combination suggests that the peripheral basophils, tumor infiltration of basophils, and M2 macrophages were significantly more abundant in non-responders than in responders (p = 0.0333, p = 0.0007, and p = 0.0066, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The peripheral basophil count was observed to be a potential biomarker of anti-PD-1 efficacy for advanced gastric cancer. Moreover, basophils may induce an immune-evasive tumor microenvironment by increasing M2 macrophage infiltration, which could be a potential immunotherapeutic target for advanced gastric cancer.

FMD-Yolo: An efficient face mask detection method for COVID-19 prevention and control in public.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a world-wide epidemic and efficient prevention and control of this disease has become the focus of global scientific communities. In this paper, a novel face mask detection framework FMD-Yolo is proposed to monitor whether people wear masks in a right way in public, which is an effective way to block the virus transmission. In particular, the feature extractor employs Im-Res2Net-101 which combines Res2Net module and deep residual network, where utilization of hierarchical convolutional structure, deformable convolution and non-local mechanisms enables thorough information extraction from the input. Afterwards, an enhanced path aggregation network En-PAN is applied for feature fusion, where high-level semantic information and low-level details are sufficiently merged so that the model robustness and generalization ability can be enhanced. Moreover, localization loss is designed and adopted in model training phase, and Matrix NMS method is used in the inference stage to improve the detection efficiency and accuracy. Benchmark evaluation is performed on two public databases with the results compared with other eight state-of-the-art detection algorithms. At IoU = 0.5 level, proposed FMD-Yolo has achieved the best precision AP50 of 92.0% and 88.4% on the two datasets, and AP75 at IoU = 0.75 has improved 5.5% and 3.9% respectively compared with the second one, which demonstrates the superiority of FMD-Yolo in face mask detection with both theoretical values and practical significance.

Ethylene, not ABA, is closely linked to the recovery of gas exchange after drought in four Caragana species.

Drought is a cyclical phenomenon in natural environments. During dehydration, stomatal closure is mainly regulated by abscisic acid (ABA) dynamics that limit transpiration in seed plants, but following rehydration, the mechanism of gas exchange recovery is still not clear. In this study, leaf water potential (ψleaf ), stomatal conductance (gs ), leaf hydraulic conductance (Kleaf ), foliar ABA level, ethylene emission rate in response to dehydration and rehydration were investigated in four Caragana species with isohydric (Caragana spinosa and C. pruinosa) and anisohydric (C. intermedia and C. microphylla) traits. Two isohydric species with ABA-induced stomatal closure exhibited more sensitive gs and Kleaf to decreasing ψleaf than two anisohydric species which exhibited a switch from ABA to water potential-driven stomatal closure during dehydration. Following rehydration, the recovery of gas exchange was not associated with a decrease in ABA level but was strongly limited by the degradation of the ethylene emission rate in all species. Furthermore, two anisohydric species with low drought-induced ethylene production exhibited more rapid recovery in gas exchange upon rehydration. Our results indicated that ethylene is a key factor regulating the drought-recovery ability in terms of gas exchange, which may shape species adaptation to drought and potential species distribution.

Electronic properties of Janus MXY/graphene (M = Mo, W; X ≠ Y = S, Se) van der Waals structures: a first-principles study.

Based on the first-principles calculations, we studied the intrinsic dipole moment and electronic properties of Janus MXY (M = Mo, W; X ≠ Y = S, Se) monolayers, bilayers and heterostructures with graphene, and the possibility of MXY encapsulating graphene. The results show that Janus MXY monolayer has an intrinsic dipole moment and a direct band gap. However, for MXY bilayers strong interlayer coupling will cause direct to indirect band gap transition, and the existence of the dipole moment leads to a significantly large interlayer band offset, being the driving force for the formation of interlayer excitons. In MXY/graphene heterostructures, changes in the direction of intrinsic dipole moment will cause a change in Schottky barrier height and even the transition between p- and n-type Schottky contacts. Independent of the interface atomic layer of Janus MXY, on one hand, the Dirac cone still exists in graphene, proving that MXY is an ideal coating material. On the other hand, the type-II band alignment will disappear as the intrinsic dipole moment disappears, confirming that the intrinsic dipole moment plays a vital role in the formation of a large band offset. Our results provide guidance for the study of interlayer excitonic states, the experimental construction of atomically thin p-n junctions and the encapsulation of graphene.

Metal-Free B@g-CN: Visible/Infrared Light-Driven Single Atom Photocatalyst Enables Spontaneous Dinitrogen Reduction to Ammonia.

Conversion of naturally abundant dinitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3) is one of the most attractive and challenging topics in chemistry. Current studies mainly focus on electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) using metal-based electrocatalysts, while metal-free and solar-driven photocatalysts have been rarely explored. Here, on the basis of the "σ donation-π* back-donation" concept, single B atom supported on holey g-CN (B@g-CN) can serve as metal-free photocatalyst for highly efficient N2 fixation and reduction under visible and even infrared spectra. Our results reveal that N2 can be efficiently activated and reduced to NH3 with extremely low overpotential of 0.15 V and activation barrier of 0.61 eV, lower than most of metal-based NRR catalysts, thereby guaranteeing low energy cost and fast kinetics of NRR. The inherent properties of B@g-CN, such as centralized spin-polarization on the B atom, efficient prohibition of competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and reduced exciton binding energy, are responsible for the high selectivity and Faradaic efficiency for NRR under ambient conditions. Moreover, for the first time, we theoretically disclose that the external potential provided by photogenerated electrons for NRR/HER endowing B@g-CN spontaneous NRR and inaccessible HER. This work may provide a promising lead for designing efficient and robust metal-free single atom catalysts toward photocatalytic NRR under visible/infrared spectrum.

Natural Product Bis-Intercalator Depsipeptides as a New Class of Payloads for Antibody-Drug Conjugates.

A potent class of DNA-damaging agents, natural product bis-intercalator depsipeptides (NPBIDs), was evaluated as ultrapotent payloads for use in antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Detailed investigation of potency (both in cells and via biophysical characterization of DNA binding), chemical tractability, and in vitro and in vivo stability of the compounds in this class eliminated a number of potential candidates, greatly reducing the complexity and resources required for conjugate preparation and evaluation. This effort yielded a potent, stable, and efficacious ADC, PF-06888667, consisting of the bis-intercalator, SW-163D, conjugated via an N-acetyl-lysine-valine-citrulline- p-aminobenzyl alcohol- N, N-dimethylethylenediamine (AcLysValCit-PABC-DMAE) linker to an engineered variant of the anti-Her2 mAb, trastuzumab, catalyzed by transglutaminase.

Electronic and magnetic properties of the one-dimensional interfaces of two-dimensional lateral GeC/BP heterostructures.

We studied the electronic and magnetic properties of one-dimensional (1D) interfaces of two dimensional (2D) GeC/BP lateral heterostructures by first-principles calculations. We showed that an inner electric field exists in the heterostructures, and the 1D interfaces exhibit metallic properties when the ribbon width is larger than a critical value. In other words, the 1DEG/1DHG (one dimensional electron gas/one dimensional hole gas) with π bonding character appear at the interfaces. We verified that the existence of the polar discontinuity at the interfaces is the pre-requisite for this insulator-to-metal transition, which can be understood by the topology classification of the formal polarization of the honeycomb structures with C3 symmetry and the corresponding charge compensation mechanism was also discussed. We predicted the emergence of magnetism at the interfaces, with the width-dependent spin polarization being attributed to the Stoner instability. Increasing DOS at the interfaces leads to a paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition.

Step-like band alignment and stacking-dependent band splitting in trilayer TMD heterostructures.

We propose for the first time a kind of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure composed of three distinct transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers, where step-like band alignment could be realized. In this case, excitons can be spatially separated into constituent top and bottom layers segregated by the middle layer. In light of the reduced binding energy and long lifetime of the interlayer excitons, trilayer TMD heterostructures hold great promise in applications such as solar cells and light-harvesting. In addition, heterostructures with different constituents and stacking orders give rise to distinct band offsets between neighboring layers. Other factors, like strain and SOC, also have apparent effects on the band offset. Our results reveal that 2H stacking can enhance valence band splitting, while 3R stacking has a significant influence on conduction band splitting. On account of the proper step-like band alignment and stacking-dependent band splitting, these trilayer TMD heterostructures also have great potential for applications in spintronics.

Establishment and evaluation of four different types of patient-derived xenograft models.

BACKGROUND: Patient-derived xenografts (PDX) have a biologically stable in tumor architecture, drug responsiveness, mutational status and global gene-expression patterns. Numerous PDX models have been established to date, however their thorough characterization regarding the tumor formation and rates of tumor growth in the established models remains a challenging task. Our study aimed to provide more detailed information for establishing the PDX models successfully and effectively. METHODS: We transplanted four different types of solid tumors from 108 Chinese patients, including 21 glioblastoma (GBM), 11 lung cancers (LC), 54 gastric cancers (GC) and 21 colorectal cancers (CRC), and took tumor tissues passaged for three successive generations. Here we report the rate of tumor formation, tumor-forming times, tumor growth curves and mortality of mice in PDX model. We also report H&E staining and immunohistochemistry for HLA-A, CD45, Ki67, GFAP, and CEA protein expression between patient cancer tissues and PDX models. RESULTS: Tumor formation rate increased significantly in subsequent tumor generations. Also, the survival rates of GC and CRC were remarkably higher than GBM and LC. As for the time required for the formation of tumors, which reflects the tumor growth rate, indicated that tumor growth rate always increased as the generation number increased. The tumor growth curves also illustrate this law. Similarly, the survival rate of PDX mice gradually improved with the increased generation number in GC and CRC. And generally, there was more proliferation (Ki67+) in the PDX models than in the patient tumors, which was in accordance with the results of tumor growth rate. The histological findings confirm similar histological architecture and degrees of differentiation between patient cancer tissues and PDX models with statistical analysis by GraphPad Prism 5.0. CONCLUSION: We established four different types of PDX models successfully, and our results add to the current understanding of the establishment of PDX models and may contribute to the extension of application of different types of PDX models.

Evolution of the linear band dispersion of monolayer and bilayer germanene on Cu(111).

The structural and electronic properties of germanene are always strongly modulated by the hybridization effects with metal substrates. In order to see what will happen when a buffer layer is introduced in-between germanene and metal substrates, we study the structural and electronic properties of the recently synthesized monolayer and bilayer germanene on Cu(111) though first-principles calculations. Our results show that the monolayer germanene on Cu(111) displays a nearly flat configuration and interface states form between the Ge pz and Cu sp-like states, with the Ge π states maintaining the Dirac character. For bilayer germanene on Cu(111), interactions with Cu(111) are reduced due to germanene inter-layer interactions, which is beneficial for the transfer of germanene. In comparison with the bottom germanene layer, the Ge pz character of the upper germanene layer can be maintained near the Fermi level. Since the linear band dispersion is at the heart of the novel quantum phenomenon, our results will facilitate research into the synthesis, extraordinary quantum properties, and applications based on the two-dimensional (2D) germanium system.

Enhancement of pulsed laser ablation in environmentally friendly liquid.

Enhancement of pulsed laser ablation can be achieved in acetic acid as an environmentally friendly liquid. This paper evaluates microholes and textured features induced by a nanosecond pulsed laser under different processing circumstances. The microholes are fabricated by laser drilling in acetic acid and found to be 100% deeper than in air. The textured features achieved in the liquid demonstrate a higher content of Copper and a lower content of Oxygen. The improvement of laser ablation efficiency in the liquid is attributed to the strong confinement of plasma plume accompanying with shockwave and cavitation bubbles. Meanwhile, the laser enhanced chemical etching by the weak acid plays a critical role.

Fabrication of ultraviolet-curable adhesive bottle-like microresonators by wetting and photocuring.

This work presents a remarkably simple method for the fabrication of ultraviolet (UV)-curable adhesive bottle-like microresonators (BLMRs). The main fabrication process involves two steps: (1) creating liquid bottle-like microcavities along the taper waist of an optical fiber taper under interfacial tension and (2) curing the liquids into solids by UV light irradiation. The shape of the BLMRs can be fitted with a truncated harmonic-oscillator profile. Whispering gallery mode resonances of the bottle-like microcavity were excited via a tapered fiber at different positions along its axis. A cleaner spectrum with identifiable and traceable features over a broad wavelength range at the center excitation position and the estimated Q factors close to 105 around 1.55 µm are observed. The shifts of resonance frequency by the input light power change demonstrate the potential applications of thermo-optic sensing and frequency tuning.

Association of the serum levels of saturated fatty acids and mild cognitive impairment: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association of serum saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and prevalent mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among middle-aged and elderly Chinese. METHODS: A total of 607 Chinese adults aged at least 45 years were included in the baseline survey of The Lifestyle and Healthy Aging of Chinese Square Dancer Study. Serum concentrations of individual SFAs including 6 even-chain SFAs (C14:0, C16:0, C18:0, C20:0, C22:0, and C24:0) and 4 odd-chain SFAs (C15:0, C17:0, C21:0, and C23:0), were quantified by Gas chromatography system with a mass spectrometer. According to Petersen's criteria, prevalent MCI was diagnosed by neurologists through uniformed neuropsychological tests, including trail-making test-part B (TMT-B), auditory verbal learning test (AVLT), digit symbol substitution test (DSST), and verbal fluency test (VFT). RESULTS: The median age was 62 years with an interquartile range of 57.0 to 67.0 years, and 86 (14.17%) participants were living with MCI. Higher levels of either even-chain or odd-chain individual SFAs were associated with the higher odds of MCI, and their odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were 2.054 (1.012 to 4.171) for C14:0, 2.246 (1.061 to 4.755) for C16:0, 2.789 (1.321 to 5.886) for C18:0, and 2.329 (1.136 to 4.778) for C15:0, and 2.761 (1.310 to 5.820) for C17:0, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The serum concentration of SFAs was positively related to the odds of MCI in middle-aged and elderly adults. Determining the link between SFAs profiles and MCI may inform a better understanding of the potential role of saturated fat intake on cognitive function.

Association of Advanced Glycation End Products with Cognitive Function: HealthyDance Study.

Background: The current research on advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs) and cognitive function is limited. Objective: We aimed to investigate the relationship between multiple plasma AGEs and cognitive function and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: Baseline data from The Lifestyle and Healthy Aging of Chinese Square Dancer Study was used in this cross-sectional study. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was used to determine plasma levels of carboxymethyl lysine (CML), carboxyethyl lysine (CEL), and methyl imidazolinone (MG-H1). Four cognitive tests were used to obtain the four cognitive domain scores and the composite z scores. The Petersen criteria were used to diagnose MCI. The data were analyzed by multivariable linear and logistic regression models. Results: This study included 1,018 participants (median age 61.0 years, 87.3% female). After multivariate adjustment, the ßs of the highest quartile of CML and CEL compared to the lowest quartile were -0.28 (-0.38, -0.17) and -0.13 (-0.23, -0.03), respectively, for the composite z score. For the four cognitive domains, CML was negatively correlated with memory, attention, and executive function, and CEL was negatively associated with memory and language function. In addition, higher CML was associated with a higher odds of MCI. MG-H1 was not associated with cognitive function. Conclusions: High plasma AGE levels were correlated with poorer cognitive function, particularly CML and CEL, higher levels of CML were also associated with higher odds of MCI. To clarify the effects of different AGEs on cognitive function and the underlying mechanisms, further longitudinal and experimental studies are needed.

Associations of vegetable and fruit intake with cognitive function and its decline: Two longitudinal studies.

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies suggested protective associations of vegetables and fruits (VF) intake with cognitive function, but evidence on specific types of VF was insufficient. METHODS: The current study included 4066 participants from 1997 to 2006 in the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) and 6170 participants from 2013 to 2020 in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Dietary intake (using 3-day 24-h dietary recalls in CHNS and food frequency questionnaire in HRS) and cognitive function (using the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status-Modified, TICS-m) were measured. Linear mixed-effects models were used to estimate the beta coefficients (ß) and the 95% confidence intervals (CI) to evaluate the association of VF with cognitive function (z-score) and its decline. RESULTS: Highest intake of total VF was associated with better cognitive function and slower cognitive decline. Differences in cognitive function z-score between the highest and lowest tertiles of VF consumption were 0.039 (95% CI: 0.002, 0.076) for CHNS and 0.063 (95% CI: 0.026, 0.100) for HRS. The corresponding differences in annual cognitive decline were 0.011 (95% CI: 0.002, 0.021) and 0.012 (95% CI: 0.003, 0.020) units respectively. Vegetables and fruits showed independent associations with cognitive function and its decline. In specific VF subgroups, when comparing the highest to the lowest tertile intake, cruciferous vegetables (ß = 0.058, 95% CI: 0.017, 0.100 in CHNS and ß = 0.067, 95% CI: 0.032, 0.101 in HRS) and green leafy vegetables (ß = 0.036, 95% CI: -0.001, 0.073 in CHNS and ß = 0.082, 95% CI: 0.046, 0.117 in HRS) was associated with better cognitive function in both cohorts. Similarly, higher intake of dark-colored vegetables (ß = 0.019, 95% CI: 0.008, 0.030 for red/yellow vegetables in CHNS and ß = 0.004, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.007 for green leafy vegetables in HRS) were associated with slower cognitive decline in subsequent years. Moreover, rigorous sensitivity analyses confirmed the stability of the results. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the potential beneficial roles of VF, especially cruciferous vegetables, green leafy vegetables, and red/yellow vegetables, in maintaining cognitive function and slowing cognitive decline in middle-aged and older adults.