Comprehensive Review of Red Meat Consumption and the Risk of Cancer.

Red and processed meat consumption rates are increasing in the United States. In this review, we present the current evidence that links red meat consumption and cancer development. A literature search was conducted in the PubMed and Google Scholar databases to review red meat consumption and its association with breast cancer and gastrointestinal cancer. Due to the presence of heme iron, which triggers oxidative reactions that eventually result in tumor formation, red meat consumption is strongly associated with the development of breast cancer. Ingestion of red meat increases Helicobacter pylori infections, resulting in enhanced expression of the CagA gene and the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. This is the leading cause of gastric cancer. There is a strong correlation between heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in red meat and the development of pancreatic cancer. However, additional research is necessary to confirm this finding. Adult colorectal cancer is caused by the formation of heterocyclic amines and DNA adducts due to the intake of red and processed meats cooked at higher temperatures. The consumption of poultry is associated with a reduced risk of breast and gastrointestinal cancers, but the results are inconsistent. The evidence is strong for the association between red meat and breast cancer and most gastric cancers. The presence of aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic amines, and heme iron in red meat has been found to be behind tumorigenesis. Poultry has been shown to have a low association with cancer, but additional research is needed.

Liraglutide-Induced Pancreatitis: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Liraglutide is an anti-diabetic medication used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, and chronic weight management. It is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist that helps reduce postprandial hyperglycemia for up to 24 h after administration. It stimulates endogenous insulin secretion according to glucose levels, and also delays gastric emptying and suppresses prandial glucagon secretion. Some of the common complications associated with liraglutide include hypoglycemia, headache, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Uncommon adverse effects include pancreatitis, kidney failure, pancreatic cancer, and injection site reactions. In this article, we discussed a case of a 73-year-old male with a history of uncontrolled type 2 diabetes mellitus on long-term insulin and liraglutide who presented with abdominal pain, subjective fevers, dry heaves, tachycardia, and mildly reduced oxygen saturation. The patient was diagnosed with pancreatitis on the basis of laboratory and imaging findings. Liraglutide was discontinued, and the patient received supportive care with significant clinical improvement. The use of GLP-1 inhibitors has been increasing not only for diabetes mellitus management, but also for its promising effect on weight management. The literature review endorses our case report findings, and also discusses other complications of liraglutide. Therefore, we recommend to be cognizant of these side-effects upon starting liraglutide.

Association of dementia and patient outcomes among COVID-19 patients: A multi-center retrospective case-control study.

Background: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on COVID-19 patients with and without dementia by extracting data from the HCA Healthcare Enterprise Data Warehouse between January-September 2020. Aims: To describe the role of patients' baseline characteristics specifically dementia in determining overall health outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Methods: We grouped in-patients who had ICD-10 codes for dementia (DM) with age and gender-matched (1:2) patients without dementia (ND). Our primary outcome variables were in-hospital mortality, length of stay, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission, ICU-free days, mechanical ventilation (MV) use, MV-free days and 90-day re-admission. Results: Matching provided similar age and sex in DM and ND groups. BMI (median, 25.8 vs. 27.6) and proportion of patients who had smoked (23.3 vs. 31.3%) were lower in DM than in ND patients. The median (IQR) Elixhauser Comorbidity Index was higher in dementia patients 7 (5-10) vs. 5 (3-7, p < 0.01). Higher mortality was observed in DM group (30.8%) vs. ND group (26.4%, p < 0.01) as an unadjusted univariate analysis. The 90-day readmission was not different (32.1 vs. 31.8%, p = 0.8). In logistic regression analysis, the odds of dying were not different between patients in DM and ND groups (OR = 1.0; 95% CI 0.86-1.17), but the odds of ICU admissions were significantly lower for dementia patients (OR = 0.58, 95% CI 0.51-0.66). Conclusions: Our data showed that COVID-19 patients with dementia did not fare substantially worse, but in fact, fared better when certain metrics were considered.

Curcumin as a Potential Therapeutic Agent in Certain Cancer Types.

Cancer is a devastating disease condition and is the second most common etiology of death globally. After decades of research in the field of hematological malignancies and cellular therapeutics, we are still looking for therapeutic agents with the most efficacies and least toxicities. Curcumin is one of the cancer therapeutic agents that is derived from the Curcuma longa (turmeric) plant, and still in vitro and in vivo research is going on to find its beneficial effects on various cancers. Due to its potency to affect multiple targets of different cellular pathways, it is considered a promising agent to tackle various cancers alone or in combination with the existing chemotherapies. This review covers basic properties, mechanism of action, potential targets (molecules and cell-signaling pathways) of curcumin, as well as its effect on various solid and hematological malignancies.

Functional cooperativity of p97 and histone deacetylase 6 in mediating DNA repair in mantle cell lymphoma cells.

p97 is an ATPase that works in concert with histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6), to facilitate the degradation of misfolded proteins by autophagosomes. p97 has also been implicated in DNA repair and maintaining genomic stability. In this study, we determined the effect of combined inhibition of p97 and HDAC6 activities in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) cells. We report that treatment with p97 inhibitors induces dose-dependent apoptosis in MCL cells. The p97 inhibitor CB-5083 induces ER stress markers GRP78 and CHOP and results in the accumulation of polyubiquitylated proteins. Co-treatment with CB-5083 and the HDAC6 inhibitor ACY-1215 result in marked downregulation of CDK4, Cyclin D1, and BRCA1 levels without inhibiting autophagic flux. Consequently, treatment with CB-5083 accentuates DNA damage in response to treatment with ACY-1215 resulting in enhanced accumulation of H2AX-γ and synergistic apoptosis. Furthermore, ATM loss severely impairs phosphorylation of 53BP1 following co-treatment with CB-5083 and ACY-1215 in response to gamma irradiation. Finally, co-treatment CB-5083 and ACY-1215 results in reduced tumor volumes and improves survival in Z138C and Jeko-1 xenografts in NSG mice. These observations suggest that combined inhibition of p97 and HDAC6 abrogates resolution of proteotoxic stress and impairs DNA repair mechanisms in MCL cells.