Outcomes of a Fatigue Management Intervention for People With Post COVID-19 Condition.

OBJECTIVE: Fatigue is identified as one of the most prevalent and persistent problems reported by people with post COVID-19 condition that negatively impacts on everyday living and resumption of pre-COVID-19 lifestyle. A pilot occupational therapy fatigue management intervention was designed for patients presenting with post COVID-19 condition fatigue. DESIGN: A retrospective analysis was carried out after the delivery of the fatigue management intervention. Self-reported measures of fatigue, well-being, and health status were taken at baseline and repeated at 2 wks after intervention. Baseline and postintervention scores were compared using nonparametric analysis. RESULTS: Sixty participants (73% female), median age 50.5 yrs (range, 17-74), 93% reporting symptoms persisting for 12 wks or longer, completed the fatigue management intervention. All participants reported moderate to severe fatigue impacting on everyday activity at baseline. The greatest impact of fatigue was on engagement in leisure and work activity. Statistically significant improvement in fatigue ( P < 0.001), well-being ( P < 0.001), and health status ( P < 0.001) were noted after the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate the potential of occupational therapy fatigue management interventions to enable self-management strategies and reduce the negative impact of fatigue among people with post COVID-19 condition.

An innovative food system approach to diversifying protein intake: Protein-I: Shared Island sustainable healthy nutrition.

There is a need to transform our current food system if we are to feed the rapidly expanding global population while maintaining planetary health. Within the island of Ireland, there is an urgent need to diversify the foods that currently contribute to our populations' protein intake. A Shared Island Innovative Food System approach is required to achieve this in a manner that is sustainable and provides benefits to producers, consumers and other supply chain participants. The Protein-I project employs such an approach, with the paradigm focusing on production of plant food through to human health, while paying particular attention to the development of the rural bioeconomy. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the team will develop strategies to maximise sustainable plant protein production in a traceable/transparent fashion and assess the impact of changes to existing value chains and the development of new value chains for the rural economy. A smart supply chain technology solution tailored to the needs of the agri-food industry will be developed and tested. Additionally, we will co-design consumer-led approaches to diversify plant protein intake, model the impact of changes at the population level and perform human interventions to demonstrate efficacy in terms of achieving adequate nutrition and improved health. Comprehensive engagement with stakeholders is embedded throughout the whole project to embrace the multi-actor approach. Overall, the project will be a key step towards future-proofing our food system on the island of Ireland and moving towards protecting planetary and population health, within the context of a just transition.

The impact of an occupational therapy group cognitive rehabilitation program for people with dementia.

INTRODUCTION: This study was conducted to examine the impact of a group cognitive rehabilitation program for people with dementia on everyday memory function and quality of life. METHODS: Participants included in the study were community-dwelling adults with a diagnosis of dementia. The intervention was a 5-week occupational therapy lead group cognitive rehabilitation program delivered once a week for 1.5 h. Outcome measures included standardised memory tests, subjective everyday memory function and quality of life ratings. The measures were completed at baseline, post-intervention and 3-month post-intervention. RESULTS: Outcome measures were completed with 58 participants. Statistically significant improvements in standardised memory scores were noted following the intervention. Similarly, self-rated everyday memory function and quality of life scores significantly improved following the intervention. All standardised scores and subjective ratings were maintained at 3-month follow-up. CONCLUSION: Group-based cognitive rehabilitation programs can positively impact the quality of life and everyday memory function among people with dementia.

Integrated Lipidomics and Proteomics Point to Early Blood-Based Changes in Childhood Preceding Later Development of Psychotic Experiences: Evidence From the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

BACKGROUND: The identification of early biomarkers of psychotic experiences (PEs) is of interest because early diagnosis and treatment of those at risk of future disorder is associated with improved outcomes. The current study investigated early lipidomic and coagulation pathway protein signatures of later PEs in subjects from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort. METHODS: Plasma of 115 children (12 years of age) who were first identified as experiencing PEs at 18 years of age (48 cases and 67 controls) were assessed through integrated and targeted lipidomics and semitargeted proteomics approaches. We assessed the lipids, lysophosphatidylcholines (n = 11) and phosphatidylcholines (n = 61), and the protein members of the coagulation pathway (n = 22) and integrated these data with complement pathway protein data already available on these subjects. RESULTS: Twelve phosphatidylcholines, four lysophosphatidylcholines, and the coagulation protein plasminogen were altered between the control and PEs groups after correction for multiple comparisons. Lipidomic and proteomic datasets were integrated into a multivariate network displaying a strong relationship between most lipids that were significantly associated with PEs and plasminogen. Finally, an unsupervised clustering approach identified four different clusters, with one of the clusters presenting the highest case-control ratio (p < .01) and associated with a higher concentration of smaller low-density lipoprotein cholesterol particles. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the lipidome and proteome of subjects who report PEs at 18 years of age are already altered at 12 years of age, indicating that metabolic dysregulation may contribute to an early vulnerability to PEs and suggesting crosstalk between these lysophosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylcholines, and coagulation and complement proteins.

A systematic review of metabolite biomarkers of schizophrenia.

Current diagnosis of schizophrenia relies exclusively on the potentially subjective interpretation of clinical symptoms and social functioning as more objective biological measurement and medical diagnostic tests are not presently available. The use of metabolomics in the discovery of disease biomarkers has grown in recent years. Metabolomic methods could aid in the discovery of diagnostic biomarkers of schizophrenia. This systematic review focuses on biofluid metabolites associated with schizophrenia. A systematic search of Web of Science and Ovid Medline databases was conducted and 63 studies investigating metabolite biomarkers of schizophrenia were included. A review of these studies revealed several potential metabolite signatures of schizophrenia including reduced levels of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (EPUFAs), vitamin E and creatinine; and elevated levels of lipid peroxidation metabolites and glutamate. Further research is needed to validate these biomarkers and would benefit from large cohort studies and more homogeneous and well-defined subject groups.

Blood-Based Protein Changes in Childhood Are Associated With Increased Risk for Later Psychotic Disorder: Evidence From a Nested Case-Control Study of the ALSPAC Longitudinal Birth Cohort.

The identification of early biological changes associated with the psychotic disorder (PD) is important as it may provide clues to the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. We undertook the first proteomic profiling of blood plasma samples of children who later develop a PD. Participants were recruited from the UK Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort who also participated in psychiatric assessment interviews at age 18. Protein expression levels at age 11 were compared between individuals who developed PD at age 18 (n = 37) with population-based age-matched controls (n = 38). Sixty out of 181 plasma proteins profiled were found to be differentially expressed (P < .05) in children with an outcome of the PD. Thirty-four of these proteins were found to be differentially expressed following correction for multiple comparisons. Pathway analysis implicated the complement and coagulation cascade. A second, targeted proteomic approach was used to verify these findings in age 11 plasma from subjects who reported psychotic experiences at age 18 (n = 40) in comparison to age-matched controls (n = 66). Our findings indicate that the complement and coagulation system is dysregulated in the blood during childhood before the development of the PD.

Exploring the Links between Diet and Health in an Irish Cohort: A Lipidomic Approach.

Epidemiology and clinical studies provide clear evidence of the complex links between diet and health. To understand these links, reliable dietary assessment methods are pivotal. Biomarkers have emerged as more objective measures of intake compared with traditional dietary assessment methods. However, there are only a limited number of putative biomarkers of intake successfully identified and validated. The use of biomarkers that reflect food intake to examine diet related diseases represents the next step in biomarker research. Therefore, the aim of this study was to (1) identify and confirm biomarkers associated with dietary fat intake and (2) examine the relationship between those biomarkers with health parameters. Heatmap analysis identified a panel of 22 lipid biomarkers associated with total dietary fat intake in the Metabolic Challenge (MECHE) Study. Confirmation of four of these biomarkers demonstrated responsiveness to different levels of fat intake in a separate intervention study (NutriTech study). Linear regression identified a significant relationship between the panel of dietary fat biomarkers and HOMA-IR, with three lipid biomarkers (C16, PCaaC36:2, and PCae36:4) demonstrating significant associations. Identifying such links allows us to explore the relationship between diet and health to determine whether these biomarkers can be modulated through diet to improve health outcomes.

Lactation-induced changes in metabolic status and follicular-fluid metabolomic profile in postpartum dairy cows.

The aim was to investigate the effect of lactation on the composition of pre-ovulatory follicular fluid (FF). Forty in-calf primiparous heifers and 20 maiden heifers were enrolled. Immediately after calving, half of the cows were dried off while the remainder were milked twice daily. Serum samples were collected twice weekly from two weeks pre- to 84 days postpartum (dpp). FF was analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Serum concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids and ß-hydroxybutyrate were higher, while glucose, insulin and Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) concentrations were lower in lactating cows compared with non-lactating cows and heifers (P<0.01). Principal component analysis of FF metabolites revealed a clear separation of the lactating group from both non-lactating cows and heifers. The amino acids tyrosine, phenylalanine and valine and fatty acids heneicosanoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid were all lower in FF from lactating compared with dry cows (P<0.05). FF from lactating cows was higher in aminoadipic acid, α-aminobutyric acid, glycine and serine while histidine, leucine, lysine, methionine and ornithine were all lower than in dry cows and heifers (P<0.05). The ratio of n6:n3 was higher in lactating cows compared with both non-lactating cows and heifers, whereas total n3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, pentadecanoic, linolenic, elaidic and arachidonic acids were all lower in the FF of lactating cows than both non-lactating cows and heifers (P<0.05). In conclusion, lactation induces distinct changes in the overall metabolic status of postpartum lactating dairy cows which are associated with divergent metabolite profiles in FF.

Metabolomic applications in nutritional research: a perspective.

Metabolomics focuses on the global study of metabolites in cells, tissues and biofluids. Analytical technologies such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and hyphenated mass spectrometry (MS) combined with advanced multivariate statistical methods allow us to study perturbations in metabolism. The close link between metabolism and nutrition has seen the application of metabolomics in nutritional research increase in recent times. Such applications can be divided into three main categories, namely (1) the area of dietary biomarker identification, (2) diet-related diseases and (3) nutritional interventions. The present perspective gives an overview of these applications and an outlook to the future.

Metabolomics as a tool in nutritional research.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Metabolomics is emerging as a powerful tool for studying metabolic processes and in recent years, the applications in the area of nutrition have risen rapidly. The present review gives an overview of the current applications in the field of nutrition and identifies areas in need of advancement. RECENT FINDINGS: Applications in nutrition research can in general be divided into three main areas: identification of dietary biomarkers, study of diet-related diseases and identification of biomarkers of disease and application to dietary intervention studies as a tool to identify molecular mechanisms. SUMMARY: Metabolomics has made a significant impact on all the areas identified above and is set to have a major impact on the study of diet-health relationships.

Negative energy balance affects imprint stability in oocytes recovered from postpartum dairy cows.

Ovarian follicle development in post-partum, high-producing dairy cows, occurs in a compromised endogenous metabolic environment (referred to as negative energy balance, NEB). Key events that occur during oocyte/follicle growth, such as the vital process of genomic imprinting, may be detrimentally affected by this altered ovarian environment. Imprinting is crucial for placental function and regulation of fetal growth, therefore failure to establish and maintain imprints during oocyte growth may contribute to early embryonic loss. Using ovum pick-up (OPU), oocytes and follicular fluid samples were recovered from cows between days 20 and 115 post-calving, encompassing the NEB period. In a complimentary study, cumulus oocyte complexes were in vitro matured under high non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) concentrations and in the presence of the methyl-donor S-adenosylmethionine (SAM). Pyrosequencing revealed the loss of methylation at several imprinted loci in the OPU derived oocytes. The loss of DNA methylation was observed at the PLAGL1 locus in oocytes, following in vitro maturation (IVM) in the presence of elevated NEFAs and SAM. Finally, metabolomic analysis of postpartum follicular fluid samples revealed significant differences in several branched chain amino acids, with fatty acid profiles bearing similarities to those characteristic of lactating dairy cows. These results provide the first evidence that (1) the postpartum ovarian environment may affect maternal imprint acquisition and (2) elevated NEFAs during IVM can lead to the loss of imprinted gene methylation in bovine oocytes.

Metabolomics in the identification of biomarkers of dietary intake.

Traditional methods for assessing dietary exposure can be unreliable, with under reporting one of the main problems. In an attempt to overcome such problems there is increasing interest in identifying biomarkers of dietary intake to provide a more accurate measurement. Metabolomics is an analytical technique that aims to identify and quantify small metabolites. Recently, there has been an increased interest in the application of metabolomics coupled with statistical analysis for the identification of dietary biomarkers, with a number of putative biomarkers identified. This minireview focuses on metabolomics based approaches and highlights some of the key successes.

Use of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and chemometric data analysis to evaluate damage and age in mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) grown in Ireland.

The aim of this research was to investigate whether the chemical changes induced by mechanical damage and aging of mushrooms can be (a) detected in the midinfrared absorption region and (b) identified using chemometric data analysis. Mushrooms grown under controlled conditions were bruise-damaged by vibration to simulate damage during normal transportation. Damaged and nondamaged mushrooms were stored for up to 7 days postharvest. Principal component analysis of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra showed evidence that physical damage had an effect on the tissue structure and the aging process. Random forest classification models were used to predict damage in mushrooms producing models with error rates of 5.9 and 9.8% with specific wavenumbers identified as important variables for identifying damage, and partial least-squares (PLS) models were developed producing models with low levels of misclassification. Modeling postharvest age in mushrooms using random forests and PLS resulted in high error rates and misclassification; however, random forest models had the ability to correctly classify 82% of day zero samples, which may be a useful tool in discriminating between "fresh" and old mushrooms. This study highlights the usefulness of FTIR spectroscopy coupled with chemometric data analysis in particular for evaluating damage in mushrooms and with the possibility of developing a monitoring system for damaged mushrooms using the FTIR "fingerprint" region.