The Effect of Beta-Carotene on Cognitive Function: A Systematic Review.

ß-carotene is a powerful antioxidant and dietary precursor of vitamin A whose role in maintaining mental health and cognitive performance, either alone or in combination with other dietary compounds, has been a topic of recent research. However, its effectiveness is still unclear. This systematic review, conducted according to the PRISMA guideline and assisted by the MySLR platform, addressed this issue. A total of 16 eligible original research articles were identified. Dietary intake or ß-carotene serum levels were associated with improved measures of cognitive function in 7 out of 10 epidemiological studies included. In intervention studies, ß-carotene consumption alone did not promote better cognitive function in the short term, but only in a long-term intervention with a mean duration of 18 years. However, all but one intervention study suggested the beneficial effects of ß-carotene supplementation at doses ranging from 6 mg to 50 mg per day in combination with a multicomplex such as vitamin E, vitamin C, zinc, or selenium for a period of 16 weeks to 20 years. Despite the current limitations, the available evidence suggests a potential association between ß-carotene dietary/supplementary intake and the maintenance of cognitive function. The ß-carotene most probably does not act alone but in synergy with other micronutrients.

Novel Markers of the Metabolic Impact of Exogenous Retinoic Acid with A Focus on Acylcarnitines and Amino Acids.

Treatment with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), the carboxylic form of vitamin A, lowers body weight in rodents by promoting oxidative metabolism in multiple tissues including white and brown adipose tissues. We aimed to identify novel markers of the metabolic impact of ATRA through targeted blood metabolomics analyses, with a focus on acylcarnitines and amino acids. Blood was obtained from mice treated with a high ATRA dose (50 mg/kg body weight/day, subcutaneous injection) or placebo (controls) during the 4 days preceding collection. LC-MS/MS analyses with a focus on acylcarnitines and amino acids were conducted on plasma and PBMC. Main results showed that, relative to controls, ATRA-treated mice had in plasma: increased levels of carnitine, acetylcarnitine, and longer acylcarnitine species; decreased levels of citrulline, and increased global arginine bioavailability ratio for nitric oxide synthesis; increased levels of creatine, taurine and docosahexaenoic acid; and a decreased n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids ratio. While some of these features likely reflect the stimulation of lipid mobilization and oxidation promoted by ATRA treatment systemically, other may also play a causal role underlying ATRA actions. The results connect ATRA to specific nutrition-modulated biochemical pathways, and suggest novel mechanisms of action of vitamin A-derived retinoic acid on metabolic health.

Programming of the Beige Phenotype in White Adipose Tissue of Adult Mice by Mild Resveratrol and Nicotinamide Riboside Supplementations in Early Postnatal Life.

SCOPE: Resveratrol (RSV) and nicotinamide riboside (NR) are food compounds with anti-obesity actions in adult rodents. Here, the long-term effects of RSV and NR mild supplementation throughout lactation on adiposity-related parameters and the appearance of the beige phenotype in white adipose tissue (WAT) in adulthood are assessed. METHODS AND RESULTS: Newborn mice received orally RSV or NR from day 2 to 20 of life. Control littermates received the vehicle. All animals are weaned onto a chow diet on day 21. On day 90, half the animals of each group are assigned to a high-fat diet (HFD) for 10 weeks, while the other remained on a normal-fat diet. Energy-balance-related parameters, blood parameters, and gene expression and immunohistochemical analysis of WAT are assessed. Treated male mice show an improved response to the HFD, such as delayed body weight gain, a blunted increase in the plasma leptin/adiponectin ratio, and a decreased lipolytic response, together with signs of white-to-brown fat remodeling in inguinal WAT. These effects are absent in female mice. CONCLUSION: RSV and NR supplementations in early postnatal life affect WAT's thermogenic/oxidative transcriptional phenotype and metabolic responses in adulthood, with upregulatory and beneficial effects evidenced in male animals.

Community-Acquired Legionella Pneumonia in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Adult Patients: A Matched Case-Control Study.

We investigate whether the clinical presentations and outcomes of Legionella pneumonia in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients were comparable to those seen in non-HIV-infected patients (case-control design). HIV-infected individuals presented neither a more severe disease nor a worse clinical outcome than matched HIV-negative control patients.

Nutritional potential of metabolic remodelling of white adipose tissue.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Recent findings in animals suggest that diet-related factors can programme adipose tissue features in early life and remodel white adipose tissue (WAT) towards a brown adipose tissue (BAT)-like phenotype in adulthood, while impacting on body fat content and susceptibility to obesity. The purpose of this review is to address the significance of these results and their applicability in humans. RECENT FINDINGS: Nutritional conditions in the perinatal period influence sympathetic innervation to WAT and WAT cellularity in rodents. Leptin intake during the suckling period prevents obesity and other metabolic alterations in later life in rats through mechanisms that include increased sensitivity of adipose tissues to leptin. Recent data support the thermogenic functionality of inducible brown-like cells in rodent WAT and functional thermogenic beige adipogenesis from human progenitor cells. Diet-related factors and exercise can promote BAT activation and/or WAT-to-BAT remodelling (WAT browning) in animals. SUMMARY: Animal studies suggest that adipose tissue health and whole body adiposity might be influenced by early life nutrition and lifestyle factors in adulthood impacting energy metabolism in adipose tissues. For this knowledge to be translated to humans, biomarkers allowing early detection of the programming status of the individual and technologies allowing measuring of the thermogenic activity of adipose tissue depots in vivo are required.

The complexity of finding multiple solutions to betweenness and quartet compatibility.

We show that two important problems that have applications in computational biology are ASP-complete, which implies that, given a solution to a problem, it is NP-complete to decide if another solution exists. We show first that a variation of BETWEENNESS, which is the underlying problem of questions related to radiation hybrid mapping, is ASP-complete. Subsequently, we use that result to show that QUARTET COMPATIBILITY, a fundamental problem in phylogenetics that asks whether a set of quartets can be represented by a parent tree, is also ASP-complete. The latter result shows that Steel's QUARTET CHALLENGE, which asks whether a solution to QUARTET COMPATIBILITY is unique, is coNP-complete.

On the complexity of uSPR distance.

We show that subtree prune and regraft (uSPR) distance on unrooted trees is fixed parameter tractable with respect to the distance. We also make progress on a conjecture of Steel on the preservation of uSPR distance under chain reduction, improving on lower bounds of Hickey et al.

Approximating subtree distances between phylogenies.

We give a 5-approximation algorithm to the rooted Subtree-Prune-and-Regraft (rSPR) distance between two phylogenies, which was recently shown to be NP-complete. This paper presents the first approximation result for this important tree distance. The algorithm follows a standard format for tree distances. The novel ideas are in the analysis. In the analysis, the cost of the algorithm uses a "cascading" scheme that accounts for possible wrong moves. This accounting is missing from previous analysis of tree distance approximation algorithms. Further, we show how all algorithms of this type can be implemented in linear time and give experimental results.