Association Between Serum Vitamins and the Risk of Alzheimer's Disease in Chinese Population.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic and fatal neurodegenerative disease; accumulating evidence suggests that vitamin deficiency is associated with the risk of AD. However, studies attempting to elucidate the relationship between vitamins and AD varied widely. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between serum vitamin levels and AD in a cohort of the Chinese population. METHODS: A total of 368 AD patients and 574 healthy controls were recruited in this study; serum vitamin A, B1, B6, B9, B12, C, D, and E were measured in all participants. RESULTS: Compared with the controls, vitamin B2, B9, B12, D, and E were significantly reduced in AD patients. Lower levels of vitamin B2, B9, B12, D, and E were associated with the risk of AD. After adjusting for age and gender, low levels of vitamin B2, B9, and B12 were still related to the risk of AD. In addition, a negative correlation was determined between vitamin E concentration and Activity of Daily Living Scale score while no significant association was found between serum vitamins and age at onset, disease duration, Mini-Mental State Examination, and Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire score. CONCLUSION: We conclude that lower vitamin B2, B9, B12, D, and E might be associated with the risk of AD, especially vitamin B2, B9, and B12. And lower vitamin E might be related to severe ability impairment of daily activities.

Predicting the potential suitable habitats of Alsophila spinulosa and their changes.

Alsophila spinulosa is a rare and endangered relict fern species. With the Maxent model, we predicted the global potential suitable habitat and its future changes for A. spinulosa. We evaluated the accuracy of our prediction based on the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), in order to provide reference for the protection, detection and cultivation of its resources. The results showed that most potential suitable habitat for A. spinulosa would be in Asia and few in North Ame-rica, Central America, Madagascar, La Réunion, Mauritius, Seychelles, New Zealand, New Caledonia and Fiji. The global potential suitable habitat for A. spinulosa under current climate conditions encompassed 357.1×104 km2, with Asia accounting for 88.4% and China for 49.5% of the total. The highly suitable habitat for A. spinulosa in China would be mainly in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Sichuan Basin, south of the Nanling Mountains and Taiwan Island. The critical factors driving the distribution of A. spinulosa would be the precipitation of warmest quarter, July average precipita-tion, temperature seasonality and mean diurnal range. Under the SSP1_2.6 climate scenario, the global potential suitable habitat for A. spinulosa would decrease by 7.8% from 2041 to 2060, and increase by 3.2% from 2081 to 2100. Under the SSP2_4.5 climate scenario, it would increase by 2.9% from 2041 to 2060 and by 7.2% from 2081 to 2100. Under the SSP5_8.5 climate scenario, it would increase by 3.3% from 2041 to 2060 and by 5.3% from 2081 to 2100.