[Association between physical activity and apathy among community-dwelling older adults].

AIM: To determine the association between physical activity and apathy in community-dwelling older adults. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. Apathy was assessed using three sub-items from the Geriatric Depression Scale 15 (GDS-3A) on apathy syndrome. Physical activity was measured using a wrist-worn accelerometer. Exercise intensity was classified as sedentary behavior, light-intensity physical activity, or moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity. A logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between apathy and physical activity for each exercise intensity level. RESULTS: Seven-hundred and eighty-four participants (age 72.7±5.9 years old) were included. Of those, 103 (13.1%) were in the apathy group. A multivariate analysis adjusted for demographic factors revealed that decreased total physical activity (odds ratio [OR] = 0.947, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.912-0.984, p = 0.005), light-intensity physical activity (OR = 0.941, 95% CI = 0.899-0.985, p = 0.009), and increased sedentary behavior (OR = 1.002, 95% CI = 1.001-1.003, p = 0.007) were associated with a greater OR of apathy, although moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity was not significant (OR = 0.916, 95% CI = 1.826-1.017, p = 0.100). However, in the final model adjusted for depressive symptoms and functional factors, the association was not found to be significant, and a strong association was observed between depressive symptoms and apathy. CONCLUSION: Physical activity in older adults with apathy symptoms was decreased in this study. However, the associations seemed to be strongly affected by depressive symptoms, and physical activity was not independently associated with apathy.

Dual CRISPR-Cas3 system for inducing multi-exon skipping in DMD patient-derived iPSCs.

To restore dystrophin protein in various mutation patterns of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the multi-exon skipping (MES) approach has been investigated. However, only limited techniques are available to induce a large deletion to cover the target exons spread over several hundred kilobases. Here, we utilized the CRISPR-Cas3 system for MES induction and showed that dual crRNAs could induce a large deletion at the dystrophin exon 45-55 region (∼340 kb), which can be applied to various types of DMD patients. We developed a two-color SSA-based reporter system for Cas3 to enrich the genome-edited cell population and demonstrated that MES induction restored dystrophin protein in DMD-iPSCs with three distinct mutations. Whole-genome sequencing and distance analysis detected no significant off-target deletion near the putative crRNA binding sites. Altogether, dual CRISPR-Cas3 is a promising tool to induce a gigantic genomic deletion and restore dystrophin protein via MES induction.

Identification of the Biosynthetic Pathway for Anthocyanin Triglucoside, the Precursor of Polyacylated Anthocyanin, in Red Cabbage.

Red cabbage anthocyanin is utilized as a natural food colorant because of its stable and brilliant coloration. The major anthocyanin of red cabbage is cyanidin (Cy) mono- and di-acyltriglucoside; however, the biosynthetic pathway to generate this anthocyanin remains unclear. We isolated and identified four uridine diphosphate-glucose-dependent glucosyltransferase (UGT) cDNAs from red cabbage using RNA-seq. UGTs are involved in Cy triglucoside (CytriG) synthesis, the precursor of Cy acyltriglucoside. Enzymatic assays using recombinant proteins suggested that UGT78D5 encodes Cy 3GT, UGT79B45 encodes Cy 3-glucoside GT, UGT75C2 encodes Cy 3-sophoroside (Cy3Sp) 5GT, and UGT79B44 encodes flavonol 3-glucoside GT. Anthocyanin GT assays using crude proteins prepared from red cabbage suggested that CytriG is produced from intermediate products in the following order: Cy, Cy3G, Cy3Sp, and CytriG.

A triple-triangle cluster derived from a simple tridentate ligand.

The heptanuclear ferric cluster, [FeIII7(O)6(HL)5(H2L)(H2O)8](BF4)4 (H2L = 2,6-bis(1,5-diphenyl-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)pyridine), was synthesized by the reaction of the planar tridentate ligand H2L with iron(ii) tetrafluoroborate hexahydrate. The cluster has a corner-shared triple-triangle core structure connected by three µ-O atoms, and it has a spin-frustrated ferrimagnetic spin ground state of S = 19/2.