Research progress in the risk factors and screening assessment of dysphagia in the elderly.

With the aging of the population, the incidence of dysphagia has gradually increased and become a major clinical and public health issue. Early screening of dysphagia in high-risk populations is crucial to identify the risk factors of dysphagia and carry out effective interventions and health management in advance. In this study, the current epidemiology, hazards, risk factors, preventive, and therapeutic measures of dysphagia were comprehensively reviewed, and a literature review of screening instruments commonly used globally was conducted, focusing on their intended populations, main indicators, descriptions, and characteristics. According to analysis and research in the current study, previous studies of dysphagia were predominantly conducted in inpatients, and there are few investigations and screenings on the incidence and influencing factors of dysphagia in the community-dwelling elderly and of dysphagia developing in the natural aging process. Moreover, there are no unified, simple, economical, practical, safe, and easy-to-administer screening tools and evaluation standards for dysphagia in the elderly. It is imperative to focus on dysphagia in the community-dwelling elderly, develop unified screening and assessment tools, and establish an early warning model of risks and a dietary structure model for dysphagia in the community-dwelling elderly.

Research progress on transcranial magnetic stimulation for post-stroke dysphagia.

Dysphagia is one of the most common manifestations of stroke, which can affect as many as 50-81% of acute stroke patients. Despite the development of diverse treatment approaches, the precise mechanisms underlying therapeutic efficacy remain controversial. Earlier studies have revealed that the onset of dysphagia is associated with neurological damage. Neuroplasticity-based transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a recently introduced technique, is widely used in the treatment of post-stroke dysphagia (PSD) by increasing changes in neurological pathways through synaptogenesis, reorganization, network strengthening, and inhibition. The main objective of this review is to discuss the effectiveness, mechanisms, potential limitations, and prospects of TMS for clinical application in PSD rehabilitation, with a view to provide a reference for future research and clinical practice.

The relation of common inflammatory cytokines with anxiety and depression and their values in estimating cardiovascular outcomes in coronary heart disease patients.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory cytokines are associated with the occurrence and severity of psychological disorders in cerebro-cardiovascular disease patients. This study aimed to investigate the correlation of inflammatory cytokines with anxiety and depression in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients and their values for estimating cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: Totally, 150 CHD patients and 50 healthy subjects were enrolled. Then, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-17 in their serum samples were detected using ELISA assay; anxiety and depression were assessed by the HADS score. For CHD patients, major adverse cardiac events (MACE) were recorded and evaluated. RESULTS: CHD patients presented with increased TNF-α (median: 50.0 vs. 37.0 pg/ml, p < 0.001), IL-1ß (median: 2.7 vs. 2.0 pg/ml, p < 0.001), IL-6 (median: 24.7 vs. 24.3 pg/ml, p = 0.032), IL-17A (median: 58.6 vs. 43.6 pg/ml, p < 0.001), HADS-A score (p < 0.001), HADS-D score (p < 0.001), anxiety rate (p < 0.001), and depression rate (p < 0.001) compared to healthy subjects. Then, TNF-α (p = 0.003), IL-1ß (p = 0.023), and IL-17A (p < 0.001) were related to elevated HADS-A score. Also, TNF-α (p = 0.014) and IL-17A (p = 0.020) positively, while IL-10 (p = 0.047) negatively related to the HADS-D score in CHD patients. Interestingly, elevated TNF-α and IL-17A were associated with anxiety and depression occurrence in CHD patients (all p < 0.05). Inspiringly, only TNF-α high, but not other cytokines, was related to elevated accumulating MACE (p = 0.041), while no correlation of anxiety (p = 0.173) or depression (p = 0.068) with accumulating MACE was observed. CONCLUSION: TNF-α and IL-17A correlate with anxiety and depression, while only TNF-α high is related to elevated accumulating MACE in CHD patients.

A ROP2-RIC1 pathway fine-tunes microtubule reorganization for salt tolerance in Arabidopsis.

The reorganization of microtubules induced by salt stress is required for Arabidopsis survival under high salinity conditions. RIC1 is an effector of Rho-related GTPase from plants (ROPs) and a known microtubule-associated protein. In this study, we demonstrated that RIC1 expression decreased with long-term NaCl treatment, and ric1-1 seedlings exhibited a higher survival rate under salt stress. We found that RIC1 reduced the frequency of microtubule transition from shortening to growing status and knockout of RIC1 improved the reassembly of depolymerized microtubules caused by either oryzalin treatment or salt stress. Further investigation showed that constitutively active ROP2 promoted the reassembly of microtubules and the survival of seedlings under salt stress. A rop2-1 ric1-1 double mutant rescued the salt-sensitive phenotype of rop2-1, indicating that ROP2 functions in salt tolerance through RIC1. Although ROP2 did not regulate RIC1 expression upon salt stress, a quick but mild increase of ROP2 activity was induced, led to reduction of RIC1 on microtubules. Collectively, our study reveals an ROP2-RIC1 pathway that fine-tunes microtubule dynamics in response to salt stress in Arabidopsis. This finding not only reveals a new regulatory mechanism for microtubule reorganization under salt stress but also the importance of ROP signalling for salinity tolerance.