The Association of Blood-Based Inflammatory Factors IL-1ß, TGF-ß and CRP with Cognitive Function in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment.

OBJECTIVE: Many patients suffer from dementia in its most common form, Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, the levels of IL-1ß, TGF-ß and CRP, which are involved in the inflammatory response in Alzheimer's disease and its mild cognitive impairment (MCI), were measured and analyzed. METHODS: Seventy nine subjects participated in this study (mean age: 75.56 years, female: 54.3%, AD: 26, MCI: 28, normal: 25). The overall cognitive function of the subjects and the severity of the disease stage were assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE-K), the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) and the Geriatric Depression Scale-Korean (GDS-K). RESULTS: It was observed that patients with AD had significantly higher levels of IL-1ß and TGF-ß than the patients with MCI and normal controls. In addition, the MCI group showed a statistically significantly higher TGF-ß concentration than the normal group. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that IL-1ß and TGF-ß may be useful biological markers for patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Sampling and Selection Factors that Enhance the Diversity of Microbial Collections: Application to Biopesticide Development.

Diverse bacteria are known to colonize plants. However, only a small fraction of that diversity has been evaluated for their biopesticide potential. To date, the criteria for sampling and selection in such bioprospecting endeavors have not been systematically evaluated in terms of the relative amount of diversity they provide for analysis. The present study aimed to enhance the success of bio-prospecting efforts by increasing the diversity while removing the genotypic redundancy often present in large collections of bacteria. We developed a multivariate sampling and marker-based selection strategy that significantly increase the diversity of bacteria recovered from plants. In doing so, we quantified the effects of varying sampling intensity, media composition, incubation conditions, plant species, and soil source on the diversity of recovered isolates. Subsequent sequencing and high-throughput phenotypic analyses of a small fraction of the collected isolates revealed that this approach led to the recovery of over a dozen rare and, to date, poorly characterized genera of plant-associated bacteria with significant biopesticide activities. Overall, the sampling and selection approach described led to an approximately 5-fold improvement in efficiency and the recovery of several novel strains of bacteria with significant biopesticide potential.