Greater socioenvironmental risk factors and higher chronic pain stage are associated with thinner bilateral temporal lobes.

INTRODUCTION: Previous research indicates ethnic/race group differences in pain and neurodegenerative diseases. Accounting for socioenvironmental factors reduces ethnic/race group differences in clinical and experimental pain. In the current study sample, we previously reported that in individuals with knee pain, ethnic/race group differences were observed in bilateral temporal lobe thickness, areas of the brain associated with risk for Alzheimer's disease, and related dementias. The purpose of the study was to determine if socioenvironmental factors reduce or account for previously observed ethnic/race group differences and explore if a combined effect of socioenvironmental risk and chronic pain severity on temporal lobe cortices is evident. METHODS: Consistent with the prior study, the sample was comprised of 147 adults (95 women, 52 men), 45-85 years of age, who self-identified as non-Hispanic Black (n = 72) and non-Hispanic White (n = 75), with knee pain with/at risk for osteoarthritis. Measures included demographics, health history, pain questionnaires, cognitive screening, body mass index, individual- and community-level socioenvironmental factors (education, income, household size, marital and insurance status, and area deprivation index), and brain imaging. We computed a summative socioenvironmental risk index. RESULTS: Regression analyses showed that with the inclusion of socioenvironmental factors, the model was significant (p < .001), and sociodemographic (ethnic/race) group differences were not significant (p = .118). Additionally, findings revealed an additive stress load pattern indicating thinner temporal lobe cortices with greater socioenvironmental risk and chronic pain severity (p = .048). IMPLICATIONS: Although individual socioenvironmental factors were not independent predictors, when collectively combined in models, ethnic/race group differences in bilateral temporal lobe structures were not replicated. Further, combined socioenvironmental risk factors and higher chronic pain severity were associated with thinner bilateral temporal lobes.

Epigenetic age acceleration mediates the relationship between neighborhood deprivation and pain severity in adults with or at risk for knee osteoarthritis pain.

An estimated 250 million people worldwide suffer from knee osteoarthritis (KOA), with older adults having greater risk. Like other age-related diseases, residents of high-deprivation neighborhoods experience worse KOA pain outcomes compared to their more affluent neighbors. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between neighborhood deprivation and pain severity in KOA and the influence of epigenetic age acceleration (EpAA) on that relationship. The sample of 128 participants was mostly female (60.9%), approximately half non-Hispanic Black (49.2%), and had a mean age of 58 years. Spearman bivariate correlations revealed that pain severity positively correlated with EpAA (ρ = 0.47, p ≤ 0.001) and neighborhood deprivation (ρ = 0.25, p = 0.004). We found a positive significant relationship between neighborhood deprivation and EpAA (ρ = 0.47, p ≤ 0.001). Results indicate a mediating relationship between neighborhood deprivation (predictor), EpAA (mediator), and pain severity (outcome variable). There was a significant indirect effect of neighborhood deprivation on pain severity through EpAA, as the mediator accounted for a moderate portion of the total effect, PM = 0.44. Epigenetic age acceleration may act as a mechanism through which neighborhood deprivation leads to worse KOA pain outcomes and may play a role in the well-documented relationship between the neighborhood of residence and age-related diseases.

Brain-predicted age difference mediates the association between PROMIS sleep impairment, and self-reported pain measure in persons with knee pain.

Knee pain, the most common cause of musculoskeletal pain (MSK), constitutes a severe public health burden. Its neurobiological causes, however, remain poorly understood. Among many possible causes, it has been proposed that sleep problems could lead to an increase in chronic pain symptomatology, which may be driven by central nervous system changes. In fact, we previously found that brain cortical thickness mediated the relationship between sleep qualities and pain severity in older adults with MSK. We also demonstrated a significant difference in a machine-learning-derived brain-aging biomarker between participants with low-and high-impact knee pain. Considering this, we examined whether brain aging was associated with self-reported sleep and pain measures, and whether brain aging mediated the relationship between sleep problems and knee pain. Exploratory Spearman and Pearson partial correlations, controlling for age, sex, race and study site, showed a significant association of brain aging with sleep related impairment and self-reported pain measures. Moreover, mediation analysis showed that brain aging significantly mediated the effect of sleep related impairment on clinical pain and physical symptoms. Our findings extend our prior work demonstrating advanced brain aging among individuals with chronic pain and the mediating role of brain-aging on the association between sleep and pain severity. Future longitudinal studies are needed to further understand whether the brain can be a therapeutic target to reverse the possible effect of sleep problems on chronic pain.

Incorrect statistical method in parallel-groups RCT led to unsubstantiated conclusions.

The article by Aiso et al. titled "Compared with the intake of commercial vegetable juice, the intake of fresh fruit and komatsuna (Brassica rapa L. var perviridis) juice mixture reduces serum cholesterol in middle-aged men: a randomized controlled pilot study" does not meet the expected standards of Lipids in Health and Disease. Although the article concludes that there are some significant benefits to their komatsuna juice mixture, these claims are not supported by the statistical analyses used. An incorrect procedure was used to compare the differences in two treatment groups over time, and a large number of outcomes were tested without correction; both issues are known to produce high rates of false positives, making the conclusions of the study unjustified. The study also fails to follow published journal standards regarding clinical trial registration and reporting.

Aging and energetics' 'Top 40' future research opportunities 2010-2013.

BACKGROUND: As part of a coordinated effort to expand our research activity at the interface of Aging and Energetics a team of investigators at The University of Alabama at Birmingham systematically assayed and catalogued the top research priorities identified in leading publications in that domain, believing the result would be useful to the scientific community at large. OBJECTIVE: To identify research priorities and opportunities in the domain of aging and energetics as advocated in the 40 most cited papers related to aging and energetics in the last 4 years. DESIGN: The investigators conducted a search for papers on aging and energetics in Scopus, ranked the resulting papers by number of times they were cited, and selected the ten most-cited papers in each of the four years that include 2010 to 2013, inclusive. RESULTS:   Ten research categories were identified from the 40 papers.  These included: (1) Calorie restriction (CR) longevity response, (2) role of mTOR (mechanistic target of Rapamycin) and related factors in lifespan extension, (3) nutrient effects beyond energy (especially resveratrol, omega-3 fatty acids, and selected amino acids), 4) autophagy and increased longevity and health, (5) aging-associated predictors of chronic disease, (6) use and effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), (7) telomeres relative to aging and energetics, (8) accretion and effects of body fat, (9) the aging heart,  and (10) mitochondria, reactive oxygen species, and cellular energetics. CONCLUSION: The field is rich with exciting opportunities to build upon our existing knowledge about the relations among aspects of aging and aspects of energetics and to better understand the mechanisms which connect them.