Influence of fasting during the night shift on next day eating behavior, hunger, and glucose and insulin levels: a randomized, three-condition, crossover trial.

AIMS: To investigate the influence of fasting during the night shift on eating behavior, hunger, glucose and insulin levels the following day. METHODS: Study with 10 male police officers who have been working at night. Participants were tested under three different conditions separated by at least 6 days of washout in a randomized, crossover design: "Night Shift Fasting" (NSF)-two nights of fasting during the night shift; "Night Shift Eating" (NSE)-two nights with the consumption of a standardized meal during the night shift (678 ± 42 kcal consumed at ~ 0200 h); and "Nighttime Sleep" (NS)-two nights of sleep. The morning after, blood glucose and insulin and hunger ratings were assessed, and food intake was assessed with an ad libitum test meal. Food intake was also assessed throughout the remainder of the day using a food record. Generalized Estimating Equations were used to analyze the effect of experimental condition. RESULTS: Food intake during the test meal, especially of proteins and fats, was higher after fasting during the night shift compared to the other conditions (p < 0.05), whereas desire to eat scores were lower after the NSF compared to NSE condition (p = 0.043). Hunger levels were lower after the NSF compared to the NS condition (p = 0.012). Insulin and HOMA-IR were also lower in the morning after NSF (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Fasting during the night shift leads to not only a higher intake of energy and macronutrients both in the early morning after work and throughout the next day, but also lower insulin levels and HOMA-IR in the morning. REGISTRATION NUMBER OF CLINICAL TRIAL: NCT03800732. Initial release: 01/09/2019. Last release: 02/23/2022.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and cancer-related fatigue: associations and effects on depression, anxiety, functional capacity and health-related quality of Life in breast cancer survivors during adjuvant endocrine therapy.

BACKGROUND: The adjuvant treatment with Aromatase Inhibitor (AI) is considered standard of care for postmenopausal breast cancer (BC) women with hormone receptor-positive (HR +), however, it often causes adverse effects such as cancer-related fatigue (CRF). The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in postmenopausal women who start adjuvant AI supports the hypothesis that hypovitaminosis D would be one of the biological explanations for toxicity of AI. This study aimed to identify the relationship between 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and CRF, and to analyze their associations and effects on depression, anxiety, functional disability, muscle/joint aches and HRQL. METHODS: This prospective study included 89 postmenopausal women diagnosed with HR + early BC in adjuvant endocrine therapy with AI. Anthropometric and body composition assessments were performed, as well as dietary assessments by application of 24-h dietary recall, at three time points, totaling 24 months of follow-up. The women completed the Cervantes Scale (CS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). The CRF was determined from the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-fatigue (FACIT-F). The serum 25(OH)D was determined by electrochemiluminescence, with cut-off point above 75 nmol/L adopted as sufficiency. Generalized Linear Model (GLzM) and Generalized Mixed Model (GMM) analysis were used. RESULTS: At baseline, 36% (n = 32) of the women presented CRF and 39.3% (n = 35) had 25(OH)D below 75 nmol/L. None of the women reached the Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) of vitamin D. The causality between 25(OH)D and CRF was not significant. Longitudinally, lower levels of 25(OH)D had a negative effect on anxiety (p = 0.020), Menopause and Health (p = 0.033) and Vasomotor scores (p = 0.007). Also, the CRF had a negative effect on anxiety (p = 0.028); depression (p = 0.027); functional disability (p = 0.022); HRQL (p = 0.007); Menopause and Health (p = 0.042), Psychological (p = 0.008) and Couple Relations (p = 0.008) domains; and on Health (p = 0.019) and Aging (p = 0.036) subdomains. Vasomotor subdomain (ß = -2.279, p = 0.045) and muscle/joint aches (ß = -0.779, p = 0.013) were significant with CRF only at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: This study found negative effect of body adiposity on CRF. Still, the clinical relevance of 25(OH)D and CRF is highlighted, especially that of CRF, considering the consistent impact on several adverse effects reported by BC survivors during adjuvant endocrine therapy.

Eosinophilic esophagitis auxiliary diagnosis based on a peptide ligand to eosinophil cationic protein in esophageal mucus of pediatric patients.

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic inflammatory condition of the esophagus characterized by increased number of eosinophils. Currently, EoE diagnosis is based on endoscopic procedures for histopathological examination, eosinophils' counting and, often, in clinical practice, the challenge is the differentiation between EoE and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Our aim was to develop novel peptide ligand to Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) present in EoE biopsies of patients with potential to be used for detection. We performed a comparative proteomic analysis using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) of esophageal biopsies from pediatric patients with eosinophilic esophagitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease and control individuals. Then, phage display technology was used to select peptides against specific up-regulated protein from EoE patients. Twelve phage clones were selected after three biopanning rounds, and the best phage clone reactivity was evaluated by phage-ELISA assay using esophageal mucus samples from 94 pediatric patients. Mass spectrometry showed that eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) was one of the most up-regulated proteins in EoE patients, which is an eosinophil granule protein usually deposited on tissues to mediate remodeling, but in excess may cause fibrosis and hypertrophy, especially in allergic responses. A highly reactive ECP-ligand peptide (E5) was able to distinguish reactive mucus of EoE patients from GERD and the control individuals by Phage-ELISA, achieving a sensitivity of 84.62%, and a specificity of 82.72%. This is the first study that successfully demonstrated an antibody-like peptide targeting ECP at the esophagus mucus as a useful auxilliary tool for EoE diagnosis with a significant association with atopic disorders and dysphagia.ClinicalTrials.gov no.: NCT03069573.

Health-related quality of life became worse in short-term during treatment in head and neck cancer patients: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QoL) is influenced in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients by a set of factors related to diagnosis, treatment and tumor impacts. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Quality of Life (QoL) changes in Head and Neck cancer (HNC) patients during treatment (radiotherapy and/or chemoradiotherapy). METHODS: QoL was evaluated prospectively in 63 HNC patients during radiotherapy and/or chemoradiotherapy at three moments: before or at beginning (T0), in the middle (T1 ~ four weeks) and immediately at the end (T2 ~ eight weeks) of treatment. The differences between the scores at different time points was verified using Friedman's non-parametric test. Negative changes between time points were evaluated, with differences (delta) of ±10 points being considered to be clinically significant. RESULTS: The total mean age was 59.1 ± 9.5y, and 82.5% were male. The oral cavity and larynx were more frequent tumors. The functional score for 'role' was decreased at time points T1 and T2 as compared to T0, while an improvement in scores was observed for cognitive function. Several physical symptoms also worsened over time, such as: fatigue, nausea and vomiting, dry mouth and sticky saliva, swallowing and skin symptoms, senses and teeth problems. A high frequency of altered and clinically meaningful values were observed for most of domains, ranging from 6 to 74%. CONCLUSIONS: The QoL became worse at approximately one month after treatment beginning in HNC patients, and this remained until the end of therapy. Protocols directing to early nutritional counseling and management of symptoms of nutritional impact are important to improve clinical outcomes. This is part of preventive actions aiming to make the exhausting treatment process less traumatic and easier to complete.

PLA-PEG nanospheres decorated with phage display selected peptides as biomarkers for detection of human colorectal adenocarcinoma.

Peptide-mediated targeting to colorectal cancer can increase selectivity and specificity of this cancer diagnosis acting as biomarkers. The present work aimed to select peptides using the phage display technique and associate the peptides with polymeric nanospheres in order to evaluate their cytotoxicity and selectivity during cell interaction with Caco-2 human colon tumor cell line. Two peptides identified by phage display (peptide-1 and peptide-2) were synthesized and exhibited purity higher than 84%. Poly(lactic acid)-block-polyethylene glycol nanospheres were prepared by nanoprecipitation and double emulsion methods in order to load the two peptides. Nanoparticles ranged in size from 114 to 150 nm and peptide encapsulation efficiency varied from 16 to 32%, depending on the methodology. No cytotoxic activity was observed towards Caco-2 tumor cell line, either free or loaded peptides in concentrations up to 3 µM at incubation times of 6 and 24 h, indicating safety as biomarkers. Fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled peptides allowed evaluating selective interactions with Caco-2 cells, where peptide-1 entrapped in nanospheres showed greater intensity of co-localized cell fluorescence, in comparison to peptide-2. Peptide-1 loaded in nanospheres revealed promising to be investigated in further studies of selectivity with other human colon rectal cells as a potential biomarker.Graphical abstract.

A pilot study addressing the impact of religious practice on quality of life of breast cancer patients during chemotherapy.

The aim of this preliminary study was to investigate whether religious practice can modify quality of life (QoL) in BC patients during chemotherapy. QoL and religion practice questionnaire (RPQ) scores were evaluated in a sample of BC patients in different moments. Before chemotherapy initiation, women with lower physical and social functional scores displayed higher RPQ scores. On the other hand, low RPQ patients worsened some QoL scores over time. Body image acceptance was positively correlated with religious practice and specifically praying activity. This preliminary study suggests the importance of religion in coping with cancer chemotherapy.