Long-Term Tea Consumption Is Associated with Reduced Risk of Diabetic Retinopathy: A Cross-Sectional Survey among Elderly Chinese from Rural Communities.

AIM: To investigate the association between variables related to tea consumption (duration, frequency, and type) and the risk of diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: A rural community-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted in Weitang Town, Suzhou, China. People aged 60 years or above were invited to complete the survey. All eligible patients underwent detailed eye examination. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) was diagnosed and graded based on the retinal fundus imaging. Diabetes was defined as fasting glucose concentrations of ≥7.0 mmol/L or self-reported diagnosis of diabetes. Information about tea consumption such as duration, type, and frequency, together with demographics and lifestyle characteristics, were collected using a face-to-face questionnaire interview. The association between tea consumption and the risk of DR was determined by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Among the 5,281 participants, 614 had diabetes mellitus (prevalence of 11.63%). The prevalence rate of DR was 10.38% in the diabetic population and 1.04% in the general population. Compared with non-tea consumers, the crude OR values for DR in subjects with long-term and short-term tea consumption were 0.34 (95%CI = 0.14-0.82, p = 0.016) and 1.64 (95%CI = 0.74-3.64, p = 0.221), respectively. When adjusted for age, gender, and other confounders, consumption of tea for ≥20 years was associated with reduced odds of DR (OR = 0.29, 95%CI = 0.09-0.97, p = 0.044). Thus, long-term tea consumption was significantly associated with a lower risk of DR. There was no statistical significance between frequency or type of tea consumption with DR (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Elderly diabetic Chinese residents who consumed tea for more than twenty years had a lower risk of DR compared to non-tea consumers. The long-term tea consumption may be an independent protective factor for DR. However, further studies are warranted to examine the association.

Spore powder of Ganoderma lucidum for Alzheimer's disease: A protocol for systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have reported that spore powder of Ganoderma lucidum (SPGL) may be effective for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, its efficacy is still inconclusive. Thus, this systematic review will aim to assess its efficacy and safety for AD. METHODS: We will search the electronic databases of Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, MEDILINE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database to assess the efficacy and safety of SPGL for patients with AD from their inceptions to the present. All case-control studies and randomized controlled trials will be considered for inclusion in this study. Two review authors will independently perform the study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias evaluation. RESULTS: The primary outcome includes the cognitive status for patients. The secondary outcomes consist of the quality of life, AD symptoms, and adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review will present the existing evidence for the efficacy and safety of SPGL for treating patients with AD. DISSEMINATION AND ETHICS: The results of this systematic review will be disseminated by through peer-reviewed journals. It does not needs ethic approval, because it does not involve individual patient data. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42019119426.

Spore powder of Ganoderma lucidum for the treatment of Alzheimer disease: A pilot study.

BACKGROUND: This study explored the feasible efficacy and safety of the Spore Powder of Ganoderma Lucidum (SPGL) for treating patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). METHODS: Forty-two eligible patients with AD were recruited. These patients were randomly allocated to an intervention group and a control group equally. The patients in the intervention group underwent SPGL, whereas the subjects in the control received placebo. All patients were treated for a total of 6 weeks. The primary outcome was measured by Alzheimer's disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive (ADAS-cog). The secondary outcomes were measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) and Neuropsychiatric Index (NPI). The adverse events were also recorded during the treatment period. RESULTS: At the end of the treatment, GLSP did not show more encouraging outcomes in symptoms improvement, measured by the ADAS-cog (P = .31), and NPI (P = .79); and quality of life enhancement, measured by the WHOQOL-BREF (physical, P = .62; psychological, P = .69; social relationships, P = .75; environment, P = .82; overall quality of life, P = .74), compared with the control group. In addition, all adverse events were mild, and no significant differences were found between 2 groups. CONCLUSION: The results of this study did not find the promising efficacy of SPGL for the treatment of AD after 6-week treatment. It may be because of the relative short-term of intervention. Future clinical trials with larger sample size and longer treatment period are urgently needed.

Uranium Release from Acidic Weathered Hanford Sediments: Single-Pass Flow-Through and Column Experiments.

The reaction of acidic radioactive waste with sediments can induce mineral transformation reactions that, in turn, control contaminant fate. Here, sediment weathering by synthetic uranium-containing acid solutions was investigated using bench-scale experiments to simulate waste disposal conditions at Hanford's cribs (Hanford, WA). During acid weathering, the presence of phosphate exerted a strong influence over uranium mineralogy and a rapidly precipitated, crystalline uranium phosphate phase (meta-ankoleite [K(UO2)(PO4)·3H2O]) was identified using spectroscopic and diffraction-based techniques. In phosphate-free system, uranium oxyhydroxide minerals such as K-compreignacite [K2(UO2)6O4(OH)6·7H2O] were formed. Single-pass flow-through (SPFT) and column leaching experiments using synthetic Hanford pore water showed that uranium precipitated as meta-ankoleite during acid weathering was strongly retained in the sediments, with an average release rate of 2.67 × 10-12 mol g-1 s-1. In the absence of phosphate, uranium release was controlled by dissolution of uranium oxyhydroxide (compreignacite-type) mineral with a release rate of 1.05-2.42 × 10-10 mol g-1 s-1. The uranium mineralogy and release rates determined for both systems in this study support the development of accurate U-release models for the prediction of contaminant transport. These results suggest that phosphate minerals may be a good candidate for uranium remediation approaches at contaminated sites.

Effects of hydrated lime on radionuclides stabilization of Hanford tank residual waste.

Chemical stabilization of tank residual waste is part of a Hanford Site tank closure strategy to reduce overall risk levels to human health and the environment. In this study, a set of column leaching experiments using tank C-104 residual waste were conducted to evaluate the leachability of uranium (U) and technetium (Tc) where grout and hydrated lime were applied as chemical stabilizing agents. The experiments were designed to simulate future scenarios where meteoric water infiltrates through the vadose zones into the interior of the tank filled with layers of grout or hydrated lime, and then contacts the residual waste. Effluent concentrations of U and Tc were monitored and compared among three different packing columns (waste only, waste + grout, and waste + grout + hydrated lime). Geochemical modeling of the effluent compositions was conducted to determine saturation indices of uranium solid phases that could control the solubility of uranium. The results indicate that addition of hydrated lime strongly stabilized the uranium through transforming uranium to a highly insoluble calcium uranate (CaUO4) or similar phase, whereas no significant stabilization effect of grout or hydrated lime was observed on Tc leachability. The result implies that hydrated lime could be a great candidate for stabilizing Hanford tank residual wastes where uranium is one of the main concerns.

Physiological and proteomic analysis of selenium-mediated tolerance to Cd stress in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.).

Selenium can mitigate cadmium toxicity in plants. However, the mechanism of this alleviation has not been fully understood. In the present study, the role of Se in inducing tolerance to Cd stress in cucumber was elucidated. Results showed that Se significantly alleviated Cd-induced growth inhibition, reduced Cd concentration, increased SPAD value and improved photosynthetic performance. Through proteomic analysis by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) coupled with mass spectrometry, 26 protein spots were identified, which were significantly influenced by Cd stress and/or Se application. Among these proteins, the abundance of 21 spots (10 in leaves and 11 in roots) were repressed in Cd-treated and up-accumulated or no-changed in Cd+Se-treated cucumber. These altered proteins were involved in the response to stress, metabolism, photosynthesis and storage, they were including glutathione S-transferase F8, heat shock protein STI-like, peroxidase, ascorbate oxidase, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase 2, NiR, Rieske type ion sulfur subunit and PsbP domain-containing protein 6. Furthermore, we identified five proteins with an increase in relative abundance after Cd treatment, they were involved in the functional groups active in response to stress and transport. The present study provided novel insights into Se-mediated tolerance of cucumber seedlings against Cd toxicity at the proteome level.