Clinical Effects of Frontal Behavioral Impairment: Cortical Thickness and Cognitive Decline in Individuals with Subjective Cognitive Decline and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

BACKGROUND: Frontal behavioral impairment (FrBI) is commonly observed in various degenerative diseases and refers to various behavioral symptoms. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the effects of the presence of FrBI on cortical thickness, and the longitudinal neuropsychological changes in people in the predementia stage. METHODS: A total of 794 individuals completed neuropsychological tests and the Frontal Behavioral Inventory (FBI) Questionnaire, and underwent magnetic resonance (MR) scanning. Participants were analyzed and grouped into non-FrBI (FBI = 0) or FrBI (FBI≥1). Cortical thickness was measured on MR images using a surface-based method. RESULTS: In total, 281 people with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and 513 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) were assessed for FrBI. Relative to people without FrBI, those with FrBI presented reduced cortical thickness in the frontal, anterior temporal and lateral parietal regions (p < 0.05, FDR corrected). People with FrBI developed Alzheimer's disease, rather than behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, as observed over seven years. Mixed effects models reported that people with FrBI have greater cognitive decline than those with non-FrBI in multiple domains, including language, memory, and executive functions (p < 0.05, FDR corrected). Furthermore, while negative FrBI symptoms (e.g., deficit behaviors) were associated with greater declines in multiple domains, positive FrBI symptoms (e.g., disinhibition symptoms) were related to declines in visuospatial function and verbal memory. Finally, the occurrence of both types of symptoms correlated with multi-domain cognitive decline. CONCLUSIONS: FrBI predicted worse clinical outcomes, including reduced cortical thickness and cognitive decline, which are not necessarily specific to frontal dysfunction.

Associations Between Serum Zinc Levels and Mental Health: Findings from the 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Mental health problems are a major public health issue worldwide, and zinc may be associated with psychiatric symptoms, but such associations have not been investigated extensively. This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between serum zinc levels and mental health problems in Korean adults. We used data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey V-1, a cross-sectional survey of Korean civilians. Data from 1748 subjects were analyzed. Serum zinc levels did not differ significantly according to psychiatric symptoms including sleep duration, stress, depressed mood, suicidal ideation, and whether respondents sought psychiatric consultation. The frequencies and odds ratios of psychiatric symptoms according to serum zinc tertiles were not significantly associated after adjusting for age, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, body mass index, total body fat, and renal function and for daily fat, carbohydrate, and protein intake. Serum zinc levels may not be associated with psychiatric symptoms in Korean adults without psychiatric disorders.

Association between the Time of Length since Smoking Cessation and Insulin Resistance in Asymptomatic Korean Male Ex-Smokers.

AIM: Smoking is a major risk factor for diabetes mellitus, mainly due to decreased insulin secretion and increased insulin resistance. However, there has been little research on the effects of smoking cessation period on changes in insulin resistance. In this study, we investigated the relationships between the length of time since smoking cessation period and insulin resistance in asymptomatic Korean male ex-smokers. METHODS: A total of 851 male adults were included in this study. We considered several factors that can affect insulin resistance, and through multiple linear regression analysis, we assessed the effect the length of time since smoking cessation on insulin resistance in ex-smokers. Insulin resistance was represented as the insulin resistance index estimated by homeostasis model assessment. RESULTS: HOMA-IR values showed a statistically significant negative correlation with the length of time since smoking cessation (p = 0.009) in ex-smokers. After performing multiple linear regression analysis using factors that could potentially influence insulin resistance, we found that waist circumference (p = 0.026) and the length of time since smoking cessation (p = 0.039) were independent predictors of HOMA-IR in asymptomatic male ex-smokers. CONCLUSION: The longer the smoking cessation period, the more the insulin resistance tended to decrease in asymptomatic Korean male ex-smokers.

Enteroviral encephalitis presenting as rapidly progressive aphasia.

Enteroviral CNS infection is common and its clinical course is usually benign. In immunocompromised patients, however, it can cause meningoencephalitis, presenting with altered mentality and seizure. We describe a previously healthy female patient with enteroviral meningoencephalitis who showed rapidly progressive aphasia. Examination of her cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed pleocytosis with lymphocyte dominance, elevated protein, and normal glucose, findings compatible with viral encephalitis. Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) brain MRI showed hyperintensity in the left frontal and parietal cortices. Enterovirus in the CSF was confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of the CSF. Although her neurological deficits had progressed to global aphasia, conservative management resulted in complete improvement within 3 months. This case provides unusual clinical manifestations and imaging findings in enteroviral encephalitis.

Microarray analysis of gene expression profile in the corpus cavernosum of hypercholesterolemic rats after chronic treatment with PDE5 inhibitor.

Gene expression changes in the corpus cavernosum of hypercholesterolemic rats were not fully assessed, which were not previously known to be associated with hypercholesterolemia-related erectile dysfunction (ED). To provide molecular insight into pathophysiology of hypercholesterolemia-related ED and to investigate the effects of Udenafil, a phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitor, on gene expression, we performed microarray gene expression analysis via gene discovery methods using GenoCheck platinum cDNA chip (Ansan, S. Korea). Sixteen male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed 2% cholesterol diet for 5 months. Half of them were orally treated with Udenafil (20 mg/kg/day) simultaneously. Eight age-matched rats fed normal diet were served as normal control. RNA was extracted from corpus cavernosum and microarray analysis was performed. Decreased erectile responses and hypercholesterolemia were observed in hypercholesterolemic control group. In microarray analysis, 122 candidate genes were noted to be altered based on the magnitude of expression changes, which includes 44 down-regulated and 78 up-regulated genes compared with the age-matched normal controls. These changes were, however, significantly attenuated by treatment with Udenafil. Out of the 78 up-regulated genes, 8 genes were significantly decreased by the chronic treatment with Udenafil. The altered genes were cytochrome oxidase biogenesis protein OXA1, skeletal muscle myosin heavy chain, lipophilin, fast skeletal muscle isoforms beta/alpha, myosin light chain 3, cytochrome c oxidase, adipocyte fatty acid binding protein and one EST gene. In contrast, among the 44 down-regulated genes, Kruppel-like factor 5 and cyclin D1 genes were increased after the Udenafil treatment. These results provide the molecular basis for understanding the pathogenesis of hypercholesterolemia-related ED and offer clues on determining the underlying action mechanism of a PDE5 inhibitor.

Targeted cellular process profiling approach for uterine leiomyoma using cDNA microarray, proteomics and gene ontology analysis.

This study utilized both cDNA microarray and two-dimensional protein gel electrophoresis technology to investigate the multiple interactions of genes and proteins involved in uterine leiomyoma pathophysiology. Also, the gene ontology analysis was used to systematically characterize the global expression profiles at cellular process levels. We profiled differentially expressed transcriptome and proteome in six-paired leiomyoma and normal myometrium. Screening up to 17 000 genes identified 21 upregulated and 50 downregulated genes. The gene-expression profiles were classified into mutually dependent 420 functional sets, resulting in 611 cellular processes according to the gene ontology. Also, protein analysis using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis identified 33 proteins (17 upregulated and 16 downregulated) of more than 500 total spots, which was classified into 302 cellular processes. Of these functional profilings, downregulations of transcriptomes and proteoms were shown in cell adhesion, cell motility, organogenesis, enzyme regulator, structural molecule activity and response to external stimulus functional activities that are supposed to play important roles in pathophysiology. In contrast, the upregulation was only shown in nucleic acid-binding activity. Taken together, potentially significant pathogenetic cellular processes were identified and showed that the downregulated functional profiling has a significant impact on the discovery of pathogenic pathway in leiomyoma. Also, the gene ontology analysis can overcome the complexity of expression profiles of cDNA microarray and two-dimensional protein analysis via its cellular process-level approach. Therefore, a valuable prognostic candidate gene with relevance to disease-specific pathogenesis can be found at cellular process levels.