The Sweet and Salty Dietary Face of Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease in Lebanon

The effect of metabolism-related lifestyle and clinical risk factors on digestive system cancers in East Asian populations: a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis

Metabolic factors play a critical role in the development of digestive system cancers (DSCs), and East Asia has the highest incidence of malignant tumors in the digestive system. We performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis to explore the associations between 19 metabolism-related lifestyle and clinical risk factors and DSCs, including esophageal, gastric, colorectal, hepatocellular, biliary tract, and pancreatic cancer. The causal association was explored for all combinations of each risk factor and each DSC. We gathered information on the instrumental variables (IVs) from various sources and retrieved outcome information from Biobank Japan (BBJ). The data were all from studies of east Asian populations. Finally, 17,572 DSCs cases and 195,745 controls were included. Our analysis found that genetically predicted alcohol drinking was a strong indicator of gastric cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 0.95; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.93-0.98) and hepatocellular carcinoma (OR = 1.11; 95% CI: 1.05-1.18), whereas coffee consumption had a potential protective effect on hepatocellular carcinoma (OR = 0.69; 95% CI: 0.53-0.90). Triglyceride was potentially associated with a decreased risk of biliary tract cancer (OR = 0.53; 95% CI: 0.34-0.81), and uric acid was associated with pancreatic cancer risk (OR = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.37-0.96). Metabolic syndrome (MetS) was associated with esophageal and gastric cancer. Additionally, there was no evidence for a causal association between other risk factors, including body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, educational levels, lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, glycine, creatinine, gout, and Graves' disease, and DSCs. The leave-one-out analysis revealed that the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs671 from the ALDH2 gene has a disproportionately high contribution to the causal association between alcohol drinking and gastric cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as the association between coffee consumption and hepatocellular carcinoma. The present study revealed multiple metabolism-related lifestyle and clinical risk factors and a valuable SNP rs671 for DSCs, highlighting the significance of metabolic factors in both the prevention and treatment of DSCs.

Physical exercise ameliorates age-related deterioration of skeletal muscle and mortality by activating Pten-related pathways in Drosophila on a high-salt diet

The phosphatase and tensin congeners (Pten) gene affects cell growth, cell proliferation, and rearrangement of connections, and it is closely related to cellular senescence, but it remains unclear the role of muscle-Pten gene in exercise against age-related deterioration in skeletal muscle and mortality induced by a high-salt diet (HSD). In here, overexpression and knockdown of muscle Pten gene were constructed by building MhcGAL4 /PtenUAS-overexpression and MhcGAL4 /PtenUAS-RNAi system in flies, and flies were given exercise training and a HSD for 2 weeks. The results showed that muscle Pten knockdown significantly reduced the climbing speed, climbing endurance, GPX activity, and the expression of Pten, Sirt1, PGC-1α genes, and it significantly increased the expression of Akt and ROS level, and impaired myofibril and mitochondria of aged skeletal muscle. Pten knockdown prevented exercise from countering the HSD-induced age-related deterioration of skeletal muscle. Pten overexpression has the opposite effect on skeletal muscle aging when compared to it knockdown, and it promoted exercise against HSD-induced age-related deterioration of skeletal muscle. Pten overexpression significantly increased lifespan, but its knockdown significantly decreased lifespan of flies. Thus, current results confirmed that differential expression of muscle Pten gene played an important role in regulating skeletal muscle aging and lifespan, and it also affected the adaptability of aging skeletal muscle to physical exercise since it determined the activity of muscle Pten/Akt pathway and Pten/Sirt1/PGC-1α pathway.

Dietary Patterns of Patients with Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes

Given the worldwide high prevalence of type 2 diabetes, the prevention and control of this disease has become an urgent priority. In this research, we report the results from a cross-sectional study conducted in the counties of Suceava and Iasi, northeast of Romania, on 587 patients with type 2 diabetes and 264 patients with prediabetes. By employing a factor analysis (principal component) on 14 food groups followed by varimax orthogonal rotation, three dietary patterns were identified for each group. In prediabetes, a low adherence to a specific dietary pattern (1 and 2) was associated with lower fasting plasma glucose, blood pressure and serum insulin, compared to increased adherence. In patients with diabetes, a low adherence to Pattern 1 was associated with lower systolic blood pressures, while a low adherence to Pattern 3 was associated with a lower HbA1c, compared to high adherence. Statistically significant differences between the groups were observed for fats and oils, fish and fish products, fruit, potatoes, sugars, preserves and snacks intake. The study demonstrated that certain food patterns are associated with increased blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and serum insulin.

Relationship between Occupational Metal Exposure and Hypertension Risk Based on Conditional Logistic Regression Analysis

Occupational exposure is a significant source of metal contact; previous studies have been limited regarding the effect of occupational metal exposure on the development of hypertension. This study was conducted to assess the levels of exposure of certain metals (chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and nickel (Ni)) in hypertensive and non-hypertensive workers and to assess the relationship between the risk of hypertension and metal exposure level. Our study included 138 hypertensive patients as case groups and 138 non-hypertensive participants as controls. The exposure risk level was divided according to the limit value after collecting and testing the metal dust in the workshop. Considering the influence of single- and poly-metal, single factor analysis and conditional logistic regression analysis of poly-metal were carried out. The results of the model indicated that the incidence of hypertension increased with an increase in Cr exposure level, and the risk of hypertension was 1.85 times higher in the highest exposure than in the lowest exposure (95% CI: 1.20−2.86, p < 0.05). Mn has the same effect as Cr. There was no significant correlation between Fe or Ni and hypertension. Our findings suggested that Cr and Mn exposure in the work environment might increase the risk of hypertension, while no effect of Fe and Ni on blood pressure was found. Prospective study designs in larger populations are needed to confirm our findings.

tRNA-Derived Small RNAs: Novel Insights into the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases

tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) are non-coding RNAs with diverse functions in various diseases. Although research on tsRNAs has focused on their roles in cancer, such as gene expression regulation to influence cancer progression and realize clinical effects, a growing number of studies are investigating the association of tsRNAs with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), including atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, and pulmonary hypertension. tsRNA expression varies across these diseases and could be regulated by epigenetics, tsRNA structure, and tRNA-binding proteins. tsRNAs play key roles in CVD progression, including the regulation of protein synthesis, and the different mechanisms underlying these functional roles of tsRNAs have been elucidated. Furthermore, tsRNAs are potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in CVDs. In this review, we summarize the biogenesis, classification, and regulation of tsRNAs and their potential application for CVD diagnosis and therapy. We also highlight the current challenges and provide perspectives for further investigation.