PeerJ最新文献

Background: As the global population ages and life expectancy increases, older adults encounter challenges like chronic illnesses and losing loved ones; resilience is crucial for adapting to these difficulties. This study aims to culturally and linguistically adapt the psychological resilience scale designed for older adults to the Turkish context.

Methods: This methodological study included 566 individuals aged 65 and older. All participants completed the Resilience Scale for Older Adults, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Quality of Life in Older Adults Scale-Short Form. Construct validity was assessed through confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses, while convergent and discriminant validity were evaluated through the correlation of the scales. Reliability was determined using internal consistency and the split-half method.

Results: The scale retains its original structure with 33 items and four sub-dimensions (Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Spiritual, and Experiential). The content validity index of the scale is 0.98, with item loadings ranging from 0.406 to 0.947, according to exploratory factor analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis indicates good fit indices. Convergent validity is supported by a strong positive correlation (r = 0.657, p < 0.001) between the Resilience Scale for Older Adults and the Quality of Life in Older Adults Scale-Short Form. Reliability measures include a Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient of 0.93 and a Guttman split-half reliability coefficient of 0.723.

Conclusion: The results show that the Turkish version of the Resilience Scale for Older Adults is a valid and reliable measurement tool.

Background: This study investigates the protective properties of melatonin in an in vivo Parkinson's disease (PD) model, focusing on the underlying mechanisms involving heat shock proteins (HSPs).

Methods: Twelve adult male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four groups (normal control, melatonin control, Parkinson's model, and melatonin treatment; n = 3 per group) and housed in a single cage. 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) was injected intraperitoneally in the Parkinson's model and treatment groups to establish a subacute PD model, while controls received saline. Limb motor ability was assessed 1 h after the final injection using behavioral tests, including the open field test to evaluate central zone entries and average movement. Dopamine transporter (DAT) expression in the striatum was analyzed by immunohistochemistry, and Western blot was used to measure autophagy proteins and HSP70 levels.

Results: The PD mouse model was successfully established through MPTP stimulation. Compared to the normal control group, the model group showed a significant reduction in the frequency of entering the central zone and average movement. The number of DAT-positive cells in the brain also decreased significantly. The expression levels of HSP70 and CDK5 were significantly lower, while the expression levels of LC3 II /LC3I and p62 increased significantly. In the MT treatment group, both the frequency of entering the central zone and the average movement were significantly higher compared to the model group. DAT-positive cells in the midbrain also increased significantly. The expression levels of HSP70 and CDK5 were significantly elevated, while the expression levels of LC3 II /LC3I and p62 protein were significantly decreased.

Conclusion: Melatonin exerts a protective effect against MPP⁺-induced damage to dopaminergic neurons, presumably by upregulating HSP70, which inhibits neuronal autophagy.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the timing and mode of failure of metallic screw-type suture anchors used to attach artificial tendons to bone in an in vivo New Zealand White rabbit model.

Study design: Metal suture anchors with braided composite sutures of varying sizes (United States Pharmacopeia (USP) size 1, 2, or 5) were used to secure artificial tendons replacing both the Achilles and tibialis cranialis tendons in 12 female New Zealand White rabbits. Artificial tendons were implanted either at the time of (immediate replacement, n = 8), or four/five weeks after (delayed replacement, n = 4) resection of the biological tendon. Hindlimb radiographs of the rabbits were obtained immediately after surgery and approximately every other week until the study endpoint (16 weeks post-surgery).

Results: All suture anchors used for the tibialis cranialis artificial tendons remained secure and did not fail during the study. The suture anchor used to attach the Achilles artificial tendon to the calcaneus bone failed in nine of 12 rabbits. In all cases of suture anchor failure, the suture broke away from the knot, while the metallic screw remained securely embedded in the bone. Based on radiographic analysis, the mean estimated failure timepoint was 5.3 ± 2.3 weeks post-surgery, with a range of 2-10 weeks. Statistical analyses (Mann-Whitney U test and Fisher's exact test) revealed no significant effect of tendon implantation timing or suture size on either the timing or frequency of suture anchor failure.

Conclusion: For the suture anchors used to attach artificial tendons in this study, suture anchor failure was most likely due to suture wear or cutting against the eyelet of the anchor screw. Future studies are needed to test the effect of suture-eyelet interaction on suture strength under different loading conditions.

Ozone (O₃), a major air pollutant, can negatively impact plant growth and yield. While O₃ impacts have been widely documented in crops such as wheat and soybean, few studies have looked at the effects of O₃ on sorghum, a C₄ plant and the fifth most important cereal crop worldwide. We exposed grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor cv. HAT150843) to a range of O₃ concentrations (daytime mean O₃ concentrations ranged between 20 and 97 ppb) in open-top chambers, and examined how whole plant and leaf morphological traits varied in response to O₃ exposure. Results showed no significant impact of realistic O₃ exposure on whole plant biomass and its partitioning in sorghum. These findings suggest that sorghum is generally resistant to O₃ and should be considered as a favourable crop in O₃ polluted regions, while acknowledging further research is needed to understand the mechanistic basis of O₃ tolerance in sorghum.

Background: Periodontitis is not always satisfactorily treated with conventional scaling and root planing, and adjunctive use of antibiotics is required in clinical practice. Therefore, it is important for clinicians to understand the diversity and the antibiotic resistance of subgingival microbiota when exposed to different antibiotics.

Materials and methods: In this study, subgingival plaques were collected from 10 periodontitis patients and 11 periodontally healthy volunteers, and their microbiota response to selective pressure of four antibiotics (amoxicillin, metronidazole, clindamycin, and tetracycline) were evaluated through 16S rRNA gene amplicon and metagenomic sequencing analysis. Additionally, sensitive and resistant strains were isolated and cultured in vitro for resistance evaluation.

Results: Cultivation of subgingival microbiota revealed the oral microbiota from periodontitis patients were more resistant to antibiotics than that of healthy. Significant differences were also observed for the microbial community between with and without antibiotics (especially amoxicillin and tetracycline) treated in periodontitis group.

Conclusion: Overall, after the two antibiotics (amoxicillin and tetracycline) exposed, the oral subgingival microbiota in periodontitis patients exhibited different diversity and composition. Streptococcus may account for oral biofilm-specific antibiotic resistance in periodontitis. This provides information for personalized treatment of periodontitis.

Background: The differential diagnosis between benign and malignant thyroid nodules continues to be a major challenge in clinical practice. The rising incidence of thyroid neoplasm and the low incidence of aggressive thyroid carcinoma, urges the exploration of strategies to improve the diagnostic accuracy in a pre-surgical phase, particularly for indeterminate nodules, and to prevent unnecessary surgeries. Only in 2022, the 5th WHO Classification of Endocrine and Neuroendocrine Tumors, and in 2023, the 3rd Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology and the European Thyroid Association included biomarkers in their guidelines. In this review, we discuss the integration of biomarkers within the routine clinical practice for diagnosis of thyroid nodules and cancer.

Methodology: The literature search for this review was performed through Pub Med, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. We selected 156 publications with significant contributions to this topic, with the majority (86, or 55.1%) published between January 2019 and March 2024, including some publications from our group during those periods. The inclusion criteria were based on articles published in recognized scientific journals with high contributions to the proposed topic. We excluded articles not emphasizing molecular biomarkers in refine the pre-surgical diagnosis of thyroid nodules.

Results: We explored genetic biomarkers, considering the division of thyroid neoplasm into BRAF-like tumor and RAS-like tumor. The specificity of BRAF mutation in the diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is nearly 100% but its sensitivity is below 35%. RAS mutations are found in a broad spectrum of thyroid neoplasm, from benign to malignant follicular-patterned tumors, but do not increase the ability to distinguish benign from malignant lesions. The overexpression of miRNAs is correlated with tumor aggressiveness, high tumor node metastasis (TMN) stage, and recurrence, representing a real signature of thyroid cancer, particularly PTC. In addition, associations between the expression levels of selected miRNAs and the presence of specific genetic mutations have been related with aggressiveness and worse prognosis.

Conclusions: The knowledge of genetic and molecular biomarkers has achieved a high level of complexity, and the difficulties related to its applicability determine that their implementation in clinical practice is not yet a reality. More studies with larger series are needed to optimize their use in routine practice. Additionally, the improvement of new techniques, such as liquid biopsy and/or artificial intelligence, may be the future for a better understanding of molecular biomarkers in thyroid nodular disease.

Copy number variations of the human CNTN6 gene, resulting from megabase-scale microdeletions or microduplications in the 3p26.3 region, are frequently implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders such as intellectual disability and developmental delay. However, duplication of the full-length human CNTN6 gene presents with variable penetrance, resulting in phenotypes that range from neurodevelopmental disorders to no visible pathologies, even within the same family. Previously, we obtained a set of induced pluripotent stem cell lines derived from a patient with a CNTN6 gene duplication and from two healthy donors. Our findings demonstrated that CNTN6 expression in neurons carrying the duplication was significantly reduced. Additionally, the expression from the CNTN6 duplicated allele was markedly lower compared to the wild-type allele. Here, we first introduce a system for correcting megabase-scale duplications in induced pluripotent stem cells and secondly analyze the impact of this correction on CNTN6 gene expression. We showed that the deletion of one copy of the CNTN6 duplication did not affect the expression levels of the remaining allele in the neuronal cells.

Background: Heart failure (HF) has become a public healthcare concern with significant costs to countries because of the aging world population. Acute heart failure (AHF) is a common condition faced frequently in emergency departments, and patients often present to hospitals with complaints of breathlessness. The patient must be evaluated with anamnesis, physical examination, blood, and imaging results to diagnose AHF. Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a widely accepted biomarker for the diagnosis of HF.

Methods: The files of the patients who applied to the emergency department with complaints of breathlessness were scanned, and BNP and urinary density (UD) levels were evaluated for the diagnosis of HF in patients.

Results: The results support that BNP is an effective biomarker in AHF, as is widely accepted. When the correlation between BNP and UD measurements was examined in the present study, a negative correlation was detected between the parameters. The results also suggested that low UD values may help diagnose AHF.

Conclusion: If similar results are obtained in prospective multicenter studies with the participation of more patients, UD value can be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis of AHF.