Longitudinal assessment of the relationship between frailty and social relationships among Japanese older adults: a random intercept cross-lagged panel model.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the bidirectional association between frailty and social relationships in older adults while distinguishing between interpersonal and intrapersonal effects. METHODS: A prospective cohort study of community-dwelling older adults was conducted in Japan in three waves spanning six years with follow-ups in every three years. Random intercept cross-lagged panel model was used to explore temporal associations between frailty and social relationships. RESULTS: Data for 520 participants (mean age 73.02 [SD 6.38] years, 56.7% women) were analyzed. Across individuals, frailty was associated with social relationships (ß = -0.514, p < 0.001). At the interpersonal level, frailty was cross-sectionally associated with social relationships separately at T1(ß = -0.389, p < 0.01), T2 (ß = -0.343, p < 0.001) and T3 (ß = -0.273, p < 0.05). Moreover, social relationships were associated with subsequent increases in symptoms of frailty in all measurement waves (ß = -0.332, p < 0.001; ß = -0.169, p < 0.01) and vice versa (ß = -0.149, p < 0.05; ß = -0.292, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that frailty was associated with lower levels of social relationships. Frailty improvement programs can be combined with interventions to enhance social relationships, which will be beneficial in preventing frailty. The results emphasize the importance of combining clinical treatments of frailty with interventions to improve social relationships.

Does Er,Cr:YSGG reduce the microleakage of restorations when used for cavity preparation? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: As the member of erbium laser family, Erbium, Chromium: Yttrium Scandium Gallium Garnet (Er,Cr:YSGG) has obtained the approval for caries removal and cavity preparation by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, there is still controversy over the beneficial effects of Er,Cr:YSGG preparations on microleakage. The present study is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to compare the microleakage of cavities prepared by Er,Cr:YSGG lasers with that by traditional burs. In addition, the effect of acid etching on the adhesive potential of self-etch and etch-and-rinse adhesives was assessed after laser preparation. METHODS: An electronic search was performed in Pubmed, EBSCO, Embase, and the Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials (CENTRAL). RESULTS: Totally, 357 articles were identified. Finally, 13 met the inclusion criteria, of which 11 were selected for meta-analysis. All the included studies exhibited a moderate risk of bias. Based on the meta-analysis, no significant difference was observed between the Er,Cr:YSGG and traditional bur groups in terms of the incidence of microleakage. Self-etch adhesives, in combination with prior acid etching, showed less microleakage than those without acid etching in the laser-prepared cavities. CONCLUSIONS: Current studies do not support the beneficial effects of Er,Cr:YSGG preparations on microleakage. Additional acid etching with self-etching adhesives is recommended after Er,Cr:YSGG preparations. Further high-quality studies are needed to draw a convincing conclusion in the future.

Effects of plastic residues and microplastics on soil ecosystems: A global meta-analysis.

Plastic pollution is one of the global pressing environmental problems, threatening the health of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. However, the influence of plastic residues and microplastics (MPs) in soil ecosystems remains unclear. We conducted a global meta-analysis to quantify the effect of plastic residues and MPs on indicators of global soil ecosystem functioning (i.e. soil physicochemical properties, plant and soil animal health, abundance and diversity of soil microorganisms). Concentrations of plastic residues and MPs were 1-2700 kg ha-1 and 0.01-600,000 mg kg-1, respectively, based on 6223 observations. Results show that plastic residues and MPs can decrease soil wetting front vertical and horizontal movement, dissolved organic carbon, and total nitrogen content of soil by 14%, 10%, 9%, and 7%, respectively. Plant height and root biomass were decreased by 13% and 14% in the presence of plastic residues and MPs, while the body mass and reproduction rate of soil animals decreased by 5% and 11%, respectively. However, soil enzyme activity increased by 7%441% in the presence of plastic residues and MPs. For soil microorganisms, plastic residues and MPs can change the abundance of several bacteria phyla and families, but the effects vary between different bacteria.

Membrane protein density determining membrane fusion revealed by dynamic fluorescence imaging.

Membrane fusion is fundamental to biological activity of cells, so disclosingits relevant mechanism is very important for understanding various cell functions. Although artificial model systems have been developed to uncover the mechanism of membrane fusion, key factors determining the mode of membrane fusion remain unclear. Based on the construction of different types of liposome vesicles, we used a dynamic fluorescence imaging method to investigate the effect of membrane protein distribution density on membrane fusion. Time-resolved imaging revealed that protein-free pure phospholipid vesicles themselves occurred full membrane fusion. Moreover, we prepared proteoliposomes with increasing protein-to-lipid ratio to better reflect the characteristic of membrane structure in vivo. Our data showed that pure phospholipid vesicles no longer fused with the proteoliposomes that in a higher protein proportion, indicating dense membrane proteins may hinder membrane fusion. A further comparative analysis of the interactions of pure phospholipid vesicles with the cell membrane / giant plasma membrane vesicles (GPMVs) / protein-free giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) confirmed the inhibitory effect of dense membrane proteins on membrane fusion. Our work demonstrates the membrane protein density influences the mode of membrane fusion and lays a foundation for constructing quasi-native membrane fusion models in vitro.

Engineering non-covalently assembled protein nanoparticles for long-acting gouty arthritis therapy.

As an incurable metabolic disease, gouty arthritis (GA) requires long-term treatment with frequent drug administration several times per day. Compared to non-specific small organic medications, interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) blocking therapies, such as IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), show great therapeutic potential in clinical trials of GA. However, IL-1Ra application is starkly limited due to its short half-life and poor bioavailability. Herein, we demonstrate a new type of nanotherapeutic formulation via noncovalent assembly of an engineered IL-1Ra chimera protein. PEGylation was employed to induce such assembly by exploiting electrostatic complexation and hydrophobic interactions. The engineered protein nanoparticles had a combination of biocompatibility, improved bioavailability and therapeutic performance. It showed extraordinary long-term anti-inflammatory effect and robust bio-efficacy for GA therapy in acute GA rat models. Strikingly, this nanoprotein system possesses an ultralong half-life of 27 hours and a bioavailability 7 times higher than that of pristine IL-1Ra, thus extending the dosing interval from several hours to more than 3 days. Therefore, our noncovalent assembly strategy via an engineered chimeric protein empowers the construction of potent delivery nanosystems for efficient GA treatment, and this might be adapted for other therapeutics to form long-acting formulations.

Ultra-strong bio-glue from genetically engineered polypeptides.

The development of biomedical glues is an important, yet challenging task as seemingly mutually exclusive properties need to be combined in one material, i.e. strong adhesion and adaption to remodeling processes in healing tissue. Here, we report a biocompatible and biodegradable protein-based adhesive with high adhesion strengths. The maximum strength reaches 16.5 ± 2.2 MPa on hard substrates, which is comparable to that of commercial cyanoacrylate superglue and higher than other protein-based adhesives by at least one order of magnitude. Moreover, the strong adhesion on soft tissues qualifies the adhesive as biomedical glue outperforming some commercial products. Robust mechanical properties are realized without covalent bond formation during the adhesion process. A complex consisting of cationic supercharged polypeptides and anionic aromatic surfactants with lysine to surfactant molar ratio of 1:0.9 is driven by multiple supramolecular interactions enabling such strong adhesion. We demonstrate the glue's robust performance in vitro and in vivo for cosmetic and hemostasis applications and accelerated wound healing by comparison to surgical wound closures.