RESUMO
Brazil has a diverse plant community, including underutilized non-conventional food crops (PANCs), which have the potential to be a rich source of food and contribute to food security. For assessing the folate content in a range of Brazilian PANCs, we extended the validation of an existing stable isotope dilution assay (SIDA) for the stably 13C-labelled 10-formyl-Pte[13C5]Glu (10-CHO-Pte[13C5]Glu). The SIDA method with an enzymatic treatment, purification step, and an LC-MS/MS measurement was validated regarding linearity, precision, LoD/LoQ, and recovery for 10-CHO-PteGlu. After successful validation, the study of some underutilized Brazilian non-conventional fruits and leaves from the São Paulo State University campus revealed them as an important source of folates. It provided the first insights into the folate content of unexploited food sources from Brazil. Pequi had the highest folate content among the fruits studied, with mean values of 333 µg/100 g based on fresh weight (FW). The analysis also shows that different cultivars of fruit or fruits from different growing locations have a high variability in folate content or other nutritional factors. In most fruits, the main vitamer was 5-CH3-H4folate, but jenipapo and taioba showed the highest content of 10-CHO-PteGlu with 28.22 µg/100 g (FW) in jenipapo peel and 75.64 µg/100 g (FW) in the taioba leaves. Thus, this study also provides results on the importance of the folate vitamer 10-CHO-PteGlu contributing to the total folate content.
RESUMO
STUDY OBJECTIVE: The use of benzodiazepines and the development of dementia is controversial, with studies indicating that benzodiazepines could be either a protective factor or a risk factor for dementia, or no association may exist between the two. Our objective was to identify whether such an association exists. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis of 12 prospective and retrospective cohort studies and case-control studies. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 981,133 (in the systematic review) and 980,860 (in the meta-analysis) adults or elderly individuals. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A search of the PubMed, LILACS, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases, as well as a manual search of the reference lists of the included publications and reviews, was performed. We included studies that reported the incidence of dementia and in ever users of benzodiazepines. Data were analyzed by using a random effects model in R software. Quality of the evidence was assessed with the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) certainty ratings system. The results of the main meta-analysis suggest that benzodiazepines can be a risk factor for developing dementia (odds ratio 1.38, 95% confidence interval 1.07-1.77; I2 = 98%; 95% prediction interval 0.58-3.25; very low certainty). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest an association between the use of benzodiazepines and the development of dementia. However, the current evidence lacks the power to infer differences between the effects of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementias, long-acting and short-acting benzodiazepines, and various exposure loads (duration and dose). Future long-term prospective cohort studies are necessary, with adequate adjustments for confounding variables, strategies to minimize reverse causality, reporting of subgroups aimed at greater homogeneity of findings, adequate statistical power to identify high-magnitude effects, and defined daily dose analyses for dose-response gradient.