The efficacy and safety of menatetrenone in the management of osteoporosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

In our systematic review and meta-analysis, we comprehensively evaluated menatetrenone in the management of osteoporosis. We found that menatetrenone decreased the ratio of undercarboxylated osteocalcin to osteocalcin (ucOC/OC) and improved lumbar BMD compared with placebo based on the 18 studies assessed. However, its benefit in fracture risk control was uncertain.

INTRODUCTION

We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy and safety of menatetrenone in managing osteoporosis.

METHODS

PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, ClinicalTrials.gov , and three Chinese literature databases (CNKI, CBM, Wanfang) were searched for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published before October 5, 2017, comparing menatetrenone with other anti-osteoporotic drugs or placebo in treating osteoporosis. The pooled risk ratio (RR) or mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using fixed-effects or random-effects meta-analysis.

RESULTS

Eighteen RCTs (8882 patients) were included. Pooled analyses showed that menatetrenone was more effective than placebo in improving lumbar bone mineral density (BMD) (five studies, N = 658, MD = 0.05 g/cm², 95% CI 0.01 to 0.09 g/cm²) and decreasing ucOC/OC (two studies, N = 75, MD = - 21.78%, 95% CI - 33.68 to - 9.87%). Compared with placebo, menatetrenone was associated with a nonsignificantly decreased risk of vertebral fracture (five studies, N = 5508, RR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.64 to 1.20). Evidence on other anti-osteoporotic drugs as comparators was limited and revealed no significantly different effects of menatetrenone on BMD or fracture risks. Furthermore, compared with placebo, menatetrenone significantly increased the incidence of adverse events (AEs) (two studies, N = 1949, RR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.02) and adverse drug reactions (four studies, N = 6102, RR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.56). However, no significant difference in the incidence of serious AEs was found between menatetrenone and placebo.

CONCLUSIONS

Menatetrenone significantly decreases ucOC and might improve lumbar BMD in osteoporotic patients. However, its benefit in fracture risk control is uncertain.

Single-Neuron Level One-Photon Voltage Imaging With Sparsely Targeted Genetically Encoded Voltage Indicators

Voltage imaging of many neurons simultaneously at single-cell resolution is hampered by the difficulty of detecting small voltage signals from overlapping neuronal processes in neural tissue. Recent advances in genetically encoded voltage indicator (GEVI) imaging have shown single-cell resolution optical voltage recordings in intact tissue through imaging naturally sparse cell classes, sparse viral expression, soma restricted expression, advanced optical systems, or a combination of these. Widespread sparse and strong transgenic GEVI expression would enable straightforward optical access to a densely occurring cell type, such as cortical pyramidal cells. Here we demonstrate that a recently described sparse transgenic expression strategy can enable single-cell resolution voltage imaging of cortical pyramidal cells in intact brain tissue without restricting expression to the soma. We also quantify the functional crosstalk in brain tissue and discuss optimal imaging rates to inform future GEVI experimental design.

Diffuse Speckle Contrast Analysis Assisted Intraoperative Blood Flow Monitoring in the Rat Model of Femoral Arterial Occlusion

The rodent model has been largely used for understanding specific disease pathophysiology, with low cost and the large spectrum from genetic strains. Here, we present a diffuse speckle contrast analysis (DSCA) system to measure blood flow changes non-invasively in rat's thigh and paw during femoral arterial occlusion (FAO) surgery which is the procedure for inducing peripheral arterial disease. The blood flow index in rat's paw showed significant decrease according to arterial occlusion. Moreover, we analyzed cross-correlation between two measurement positions. The results showed the affinity with hemodynamic response. In conclusion, the DSCA system secured the intraoperative blood flow monitoring during FAO surgery in a rat model.

[Pay much attention to control and manage the high pressure of renal plevic and the backflow of irrigation during the operation of urolithiasis of upper tract urinary]

Endoscopic surgery has become the most common urological procedure for calculus in upper urinary tract. However, the widespread usage of minimally invasive endoscopic techniques failed to end the occurrence of perioperative complications, especially some fatal complications. The most severe complication of urolithiasis related endoscopic procedure is urosepsis, which is closely related to the backflow of irrigation fluid induced by the high pressure of renal pelvic during the procedure. By controlling the perfusion and drainage during the operation, the liquid backflow can be reduced effectively, thus may reduce the spread of infectious toxins and pathogens, and incidence of infectious complications can be controlled accordingly. In this article, the pathophysiology of urinary obstruction, the backflow which caused by elevated renal pelvic pressure and its subsequent pathophysiological changes, the control of intra-renal gressure and the prevention of urosepsis will be reviewed. The important range of intra-renal pressure and the major steps for pressure control during the operation is emphasized.

Cortical signatures of wakeful somatosensory processing

Sensory inputs carry critical information for the survival of an organism. In mice, tactile information conveyed by the whiskers is of high behavioural relevance, and is broadcasted across cortical areas beyond the primary somatosensory cortex. Mesoscopic voltage sensitive dye imaging (VSDI) of cortical population response to whisker stimulations has shown that seemingly 'simple' sensory stimuli can have extended impact on cortical circuit dynamics. Here we took advantage of genetically encoded voltage indicators (GEVIs) that allow for cell type-specific monitoring of population voltage dynamics in a chronic dual-hemisphere transcranial windowed mouse preparation to directly compare the cortex-wide broadcasting of sensory information in wakening (lightly anesthetized to sedated) and awake mice. Somatosensory-evoked cortex-wide dynamics is altered across brain states, with anatomically sequential hyperpolarising activity observed in the awake cortex. GEVI imaging revealed cortical activity maps with increased specificity, high spatial coverage, and at the timescale of cortical information processing.

Universality and correlations in individuals wandering through an online extremist space

The "out of the blue" nature of recent terror attacks and the diversity of apparent motives highlight the importance of understanding the online trajectories that individuals follow prior to developing high levels of extremist support. Here we show that the physics of stochastic walks, with and without temporal correlation, provides a unifying description of these online trajectories. Our unique data set comprising all users of a global social media site reveals universal characteristics in individuals' online lifetimes. Our accompanying theory generates analytical and numerical solutions that describe the characteristics shown by individuals that go on to develop high levels of extremist support and those that do not. Going forward, it is conceivable that a deeper understanding of these temporal and many-body correlations may eventually contribute to the important task of better countering the spread of radical propaganda online.

Antidamping-Torque-Induced Switching in Biaxial Antiferromagnetic Insulators

We investigate the current-induced switching of the Néel order in NiO(001)/Pt heterostructures, which is manifested electrically via the spin Hall magnetoresistance. Significant reversible changes in the longitudinal and transverse resistances are found at room temperature for a current threshold lying in the range of 10^{7}  A/cm^{2}. The order-parameter switching is ascribed to the antiferromagnetic dynamics triggered by the (current-induced) antidamping torque, which orients the Néel order towards the direction of the writing current. This is in stark contrast to the case of antiferromagnets such as Mn_{2}Au and CuMnAs, where fieldlike torques induced by the Edelstein effect drive the Néel switching, therefore resulting in an orthogonal alignment between the Néel order and the writing current. Our findings can be readily generalized to other biaxial antiferromagnets, providing broad opportunities for all-electrical writing and readout in antiferromagnetic spintronics.

Long-term risk of diabetes in women at varying durations after gestational diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis with more than 2 million women

This study aims to investigate the impact of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on the long-term risks of diabetes in women with prior GDM, including the effect at different time periods after GDM. We searched PubMed and other databases to retrieve articles which were published prior to February 28, 2017. Cohort studies which evaluated the risk and time of onset of diabetes postpartum in women with and without GDM were included. Meta-analysis with random effects models was used to obtain pooled relative risks and 95% confidence intervals for the risk of diabetes. Subgroup analyses were performed to check for different effect sizes as well as consistency across groups. Multivariable logistic regression was used to adjust for confounders. Thirty cohort studies with 2,626,905 pregnant women were included. Women with prior GDM had 7.76-fold (95% confidence intervals: 5.10-11.81) unadjusted pooled risk of diabetes as compared with women without GDM, whilst the adjusted risk was 17.92-fold (16.96-18.94). The adjusted ORs of GDM for diabetes among women at <3, ≥3 - <6 and ≥6 - <10 years after GDM were 5.37 (3.51-9.34), 16.55 (16.08-17.04) and 8.20 (4.53-14.86), respectively. Women with prior GDM had substantially increased risk of diabetes, with the risk highest during the 3-6 years after GDM.

Multiscale dynamical network mechanisms underlying aging of an online organism from birth to death

We present the continuous-time evolution of an online organism network from birth to death which crosses all organizational and temporal scales, from individual components through to the mesoscopic and entire system scale. These continuous-time data reveal a lifespan driven by punctuated, real-time co-evolution of the structural and functional networks. Aging sees these structural and functional networks gradually diverge in terms of their small-worldness and eventually their connectivity. Dying emerges as an extended process associated with the formation of large but disjoint functional sub-networks together with an increasingly detached core. Our mathematical model quantifies the very different impacts that interventions will have on the overall lifetime, period of initial growth, peak of potency, and duration of old age, depending on when and how they are administered. In addition to their direct relevance to online extremism, our findings may offer insight into aging in other network systems of comparable complexity for which extensive in vivo data is not yet available.

Abstract P5-05-04: The APOBEC3B transgenic mouse

Background: Massively parallel DNA sequencing efforts have facilitated the production of catalogs of the somatic mutations present in cancer genomes. Examining the sequence context of the mutations it is possible to identify patterns that recur frequently. These mutational patterns or “signatures” enable inference into the mutational processes responsible for the patterns. Investigators at the Sanger Institute in the UK have produced a compendium of 30 “Signatures of Mutational Processes in Human Cancer”. Two of these signatures have been attributed to the actions of APOBEC cytidine deaminases. Data from other investigators suggest that APOBEC3B (A3B) is more likely to play a role than are other members of the APOBEC family. The evidence to support the hypothesis that APOBEC activation is responsible for the mutation patterns is limited at present. It is important to establish whether these enzymes play a role in oncogenesis as the APOBEC mutational signature had been noted to be present in 1 of every 6 cancer specimens and second only to aging in prevalence.

Methods: In order to determine if overexpression of APOBEC3B in the mammary gland of mice is tumorigenic and produces the mutational signatures attributed to its activity, we contracted with a commercial vendor for the production of an APOBEC3B transgenic mouse on a 129:C57BL/6 background. Of note, in the course of the production of the transgenic, the intron between exons 5 and 6 was retained in the construct to prevent the expression of the highly mutatgenic protein in E. coli. The transgene was placed 3' of a stop sequence flanked by LoxP sites within the ROSA26 locus. Mating with MMTV-Cre mice restricts the excision of the stop cassette and expression of APOBEC3B to the mammary tissue. A3B heterozygotes from the F1 generation were bred to produce A3B homozygotes. Homozygotes have been allowed to undergo multiple pregnancies and have been observed for up to 12 months as of June 2017.

Results: 3 mice have developed malignancies. Two mice appear to have developed lymphomas and the epithelial cells of a mammary gland of a third mouse (homozygote) at 11 months of age are diffusely hyperplastic. The cells are arranged in rows ranging from 2-4 cells in thickness. Periodic acid–Schiff (PAS) staining confirms that the basement membrane is intact around the hyperplasic cells. There is no anisocytosis, anisokaryosis, desmoplasia, necrosis or mitotic figures noted in the gland.

Conclusions: At 11 month of age, the mammary glands of APOBEC3B transgenic mice are beginning to display histologic abnormalities associated with breast oncogenesis. Observation will continue. With the passage of time we expect to observe more advanced and larger mammary lesions. DNA will be extracted from any invasive mammary tumors, sequenced and the mutation signature determined using the EMu: Expectation-Maximisation inference of mutational signatures software available from Sanger.

Citation Format: Choi M, Lyle LT, Song C, Clare SE. The APOBEC3B transgenic mouse [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-05-04.

Modeling plant composition as community continua in a forest landscape with LiDAR and hyperspectral remote sensing

In light of the need to operationalize the mapping of forest composition at landscape scales, this study uses multi-scale nested vegetation sampling in conjunction with LiDAR-hyperspectral remotely sensed data from the G-LiHT airborne sensor to map vascular plant compositional turnover in a compositionally and structurally complex North Carolina Piedmont forest. Reflecting a shift in emphasis from remotely sensing individual crowns to detecting aggregate optical-structural properties of forest stands, predictive maps reflect the composition of entire vascular plant communities, inclusive of those species smaller than the resolution of the remotely sensed imagery, intertwined with proximate taxa, or otherwise obscured from optical sensors by dense upper canopies. Stand-scale vascular plant composition is modeled as community continua: where discrete community-unit classes at different compositional resolutions provide interpretable context for continuous gradient maps that depict n-dimensional compositional complexity as a single, consistent RGB color combination. In total, derived remotely sensed predictors explain 71%, 54%, and 48% of the variation in the first three components of vascular plant composition, respectively. Among all remotely sensed environmental gradients, topography derived from LiDAR ground returns, forest structure estimated from LiDAR all returns, and morphological-biochemical traits determined from hyperspectral imagery each significantly correspond to the three primary axes of floristic composition in the study site. Results confirm the complementarity of LiDAR and hyperspectral sensors for modeling the environmental gradients constraining landscape turnover in vascular plant composition and hold promise for predictive mapping applications spanning local land management to global ecosystem modeling.

Angiosome based time series analysis of deep tissue perfusion using diffuse speckle contrast analysis

An angiosome is a three dimensional volume of biological tissue which a specific artery governs. Although proven useful for vascular surgery, the direct relationship between arterial flow and microcirculation in specific angiosome remains controversial. Here, we present new optical approach, a four-channel diffuse speckle contrast analysis (DSCA) which can simultaneously measure blood perfusion at different foot area. Based on the hypothesis that same angiosome will support similar low frequency oscillation, we investigated cross-correlation among different DSCA channels. Our preliminary results show that the LFO signal from the channel closest to posterior tibial artery is leading the signal from the other channels.