The neuroprotective effects of human growth hormone as a potential treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Machine learning analysis of population-wide plasma proteins identifies hormonal biomarkers of Parkinson's Disease

As the number of Parkinson's patients is expected to increase with the growth of the aging population there is a growing need to identify new diagnostic markers that can be used cheaply and routinely to monitor the population, stratify patients towards treatment paths and provide new therapeutic leads. Genetic predisposition and familial forms account for only around 10% of PD cases [1] leaving a large fraction of the population with minimal effective markers for identifying high risk individuals. The establishment of population-wide omics and longitudinal health monitoring studies provides an opportunity to apply machine learning approaches on these unbiased cohorts to identify novel PD markers. Here we present the application of three machine learning models to identify protein plasma biomarkers of PD using plasma proteomics measurements from 43,408 UK Biobank subjects as the training and test set and an additional 103 samples from Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) as external validation. We identified a group of highly predictive plasma protein markers including known markers such as DDC and CALB2 as well as new markers involved in the JAK-STAT, PI3K-AKT pathways and hormonal signaling. We further demonstrate that these features are well correlated with UPDRS severity scores and stratify these to protective and adversarial features that potentially contribute to the pathogenesis of PD.

Fasting mimicking diet extends lifespan and improves intestinal and cognitive health

Caloric restriction is an effective means of extending a healthy lifespan. Fasting mimicking diet (FMD) is a growing pattern of caloric restriction. We found that FMD significantly prolonged the lifespan of prematurely aging mice. In naturally aging mice, FMD improved cognitive and intestinal health. Through a series of behavioral experiments, we found that FMD relieved anxiety and enhanced cognition in aged mice. In the intestine, the FMD cycles enhanced the barrier function, reduced senescence markers, and maintained T cell naïve-memory balance in the lamina propria mucosa. To further explore the causes of immune alterations, we examined changes in the stool microbiota using 16S rRNA sequencing. We found that FMD remodeled gut bacterial composition and significantly expanded the abundance of Lactobacillus johnsonii. Our research revealed that FMD has in-depth investigative value as an anti-aging intervention for extending longevity and improving cognition, intestinal function, and gut microbiota composition.

Navigating the Gene Co-Expression Network and Drug Repurposing Opportunities for Brain Disorders Associated with Neurocognitive Impairment

Neurocognitive impairment refers to a spectrum of disorders characterized by a decline in cognitive functions such as memory, attention, and problem-solving, which are often linked to structural or functional abnormalities in the brain. While its exact etiology remains elusive, genetic factors play a pivotal role in disease onset and progression. This study aimed to identify highly correlated gene clusters (modules) and key hub genes shared across neurocognition-impairing diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD), HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), and glioma. Herein, the microarray datasets AD (GSE5281), HAND (GSE35864), glioma (GSE15824), and PD (GSE7621) were used to perform Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) to identify highly preserved modules across the studied brain diseases. Through gene set enrichment analysis, the shared modules were found to point towards processes including neuronal transcriptional dysregulation, neuroinflammation, protein aggregation, and mitochondrial dysfunction, hallmarks of many neurocognitive disorders. These modules were used in constructing protein-protein interaction networks to identify hub genes shared across the diseases of interest. These hub genes were found to play pivotal roles in processes including protein homeostasis, cell cycle regulation, energy metabolism, and signaling, all associated with brain and CNS diseases, and were explored for their drug repurposing experiments. Drug repurposing based on gene signatures highlighted drugs including Dorzolamide and Oxybuprocaine, which were found to modulate the expression of the hub genes in play and may have therapeutic implications in neurocognitive disorders. While both drugs have traditionally been used for other medical purposes, our study underscores the potential of a combined WGCNA and drug repurposing strategy for searching for new avenues in the simultaneous treatment of different diseases that have similarities in gene co-expression networks.

Healthy Sleep Every Day Keeps the Doctor Away

When one considers the big picture of their health, sufficient sleep may often go overlooked as a keystone element in this picture. Insufficient sleep in either quality or duration is a growing problem for our modern society. It is essential to look at what this means for our health because insufficient sleep increases our risks of innumerable lifechanging diseases. Beyond increasing the risk of developing these diseases, it also makes the symptoms and pathogenesis of many diseases worse. Additionally, consistent quality sleep can not only improve our physical health but has also been shown to improve mental health and overall quality of life. Substandard sleep health could be a root cause for numerous issues individuals may be facing in their lives. It is essential that physicians take the time to learn about how to educate their patients on sleep health and try to work with them on an individual level to help motivate lifestyle changes. Facilitating access to sleep education for their patients is one way in which physicians can help provide patients with the tools to improve their sleep health. Throughout this paper, we will review the mechanisms behind the relationship between insufficient sleep health and chronic disease and what the science says about how inadequate sleep health negatively impacts the overall health and the quality of our lives. We will also explain the lifechanging effects of sufficient sleep and how we can help patients get there.

Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Brain Metabolism

We are facing an obesity epidemic, and obesity itself and its close companion, type 2 diabetes, are independent risk factors for neurodegeneration. While most medical treatments fail to induce a clinically meaningful improvement in neurodegenerative disorders, lifestyle interventions have emerged in the spotlight. A recently rediscovered approach is intermittent fasting (IF), which, compared to the classic caloric restriction regimens, limits only the time of eating, rather than the number of calories allowed per day. There is already a large amount of evidence from preclinical and clinical studies showing the beneficial effects of IF. In this review, we specifically focus on the effects of IF on brain metabolism. Key molecular players modified during IF and involved in its beneficial central effects (ketone bodies, BDNF, GABA, GH/IGF-1, FGF2, sirtuin-3, mTOR, and gut microbiota) are identified and discussed. Studies suggest that IF induces several molecular and cellular adaptations in neurons, which, overall, enhance cellular stress resistance, synaptic plasticity, and neurogenesis. Still, the absence of guidelines regarding the application of IF to patients hampers its broad utilization in clinical practice, and further studies are needed to improve our knowledge on the different IF protocols and long-term effects of IF on brain metabolism before it can be widely prescribed.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the endocrine system: Are there any further ties to be explored?

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) belongs to the family of neurodegenerative disorders and is classified as fronto-temporal dementia (FTD), progressive muscular atrophy, primary lateral sclerosis, and pseudobulbar palsy. Even though endocrine dysfunction independently impacts the ALS-related survival rate, the complex connection between ALS and the endocrine system has not been studied in depth. Here we review earlier and recent findings on how ALS interacts with hormones a) of the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, b) the thyroid gland, c) the pancreas, d) the adipose tissue, e) the parathyroid glands, f) the bones, g) the adrenal glands, and h) the gonads (ovaries and testes). Of note, endocrine issues should always be explored in patients with ALS, especially those with low skeletal muscle and bone mass, vitamin D deficiency, and decreased insulin sensitivity (diabetes mellitus). Because ALS is a progressively deteriorating disease, addressing any potential endocrine co-morbidities in patients with this malady is quite important for decreasing the overall ALS-associated disease burden. Importantly, as this burden is estimated to increase globally in the decades to follow, in part because of an increasingly aging population, it is high time for future multi-center, multi-ethnic studies to assess the link between ALS and the endocrine system in significantly larger patient populations. Last, the psychosocial stress experienced by patients with ALS and its psycho-neuro-endocrinological sequelae, including hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal dysregulation, should become an area of intensive study in the future.

Influence of Growth Hormone and Glutamine on Intestinal Stem Cells: A Narrative Review

Growth hormone (GH) and glutamine (Gln) stimulate the growth of the intestinal mucosa. GH activates the proliferation of intestinal stem cells (ISCs), enhances the formation of crypt organoids, increases ISC stemness markers in the intestinal organoids, and drives the differentiation of ISCs into Paneth cells and enterocytes. Gln enhances the proliferation of ISCs and increases crypt organoid formation; however, it mainly acts on the post-proliferation activity of ISCs to maintain the stability of crypt organoids and the intestinal mucosa, as well as to stimulate the differentiation of ISCs into goblet cells and possibly Paneth cells and enteroendocrine cells. Since GH and Gln have differential effects on ISCs. Their use in combination may have synergistic effects on ISCs. In this review, we summarize the evidence of the actions of GH and/or Gln on crypt cells and ISCs in the literature. Overall, most studies demonstrated that GH and Gln in combination exerted synergistic effects to activate the proliferation of crypt cells and ISCs and enhance crypt organoid formation and mucosal growth. This treatment influenced the proliferation of ISCs to a similar degree as GH treatment alone and the differentiation of ISCs to a similar degree as Gln treatment alone.

Distinct Effects of Growth Hormone and Glutamine on Activation of Intestinal Stem Cells

BACKGROUND

For patients with short bowel syndrome under parenteral nutrition support, growth hormone (GH) and glutamine (GLN) have been found to help the growth of intestinal mucosa. In this research, we studied the effects of GH and GLN on intestinal stem cells (ISCs).

METHODS

The in vitro and in vivo effects of GH and/or GLN on ISCs were evaluated by observing the ability of ISCs to form organoids in a Matrigel culture system. The expression levels of stemness and differentiation markers in ISCs and organoids were assessed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, immunofluorescence assay, and immunohistochemistry staining.

RESULTS

In vitro administration of GH activated the stemness of ISCs, whereas GLN enhanced the expression of chromogranin A and Muc2, which are differentiation markers in enteroendocrine and goblet cells, respectively. Administration of GH or GLN in mice showed that GH, but not GLN, upregulated the proliferative activity of ISCs with increased formation of crypt organoids. In addition, GH increased the expression of Lgr5 and GLN enhanced expression of Muc2 in the crypt fractions of the intestines in mice.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that GH mainly enhances proliferative activities, whereas GLN promotes the differentiation potential of ISCs.

Homocysteine augments BK channel activity and decreases exocytosis of secretory granules in rat GH3 cells

In this study, we investigated the effects of L-homocysteine (Hcy) on maxi calcium-activated potassium (BK) channels and on exocytosis of secretory granules in GH3 rat pituitary-derived cells. A major finding of our study indicates that short-term application of Hcy increased the open probability of oxidized BK channels in inside-out recordings. Whole-cell recordings show that extracellular Hcy also augmented BK currents during long-term application. Furthermore, Hcy decreased the exocytosis of secretory granules. This decrease was partially prevented by the BK channel inhibitor paxilline and fully prevented by N-acetylcysteine, a reactive oxygen species scavenger. Taken together, our data show that elevation of cellular Hcy level induces oxidative stress, increases BK channel activity, and decreases exocytosis of secretory granules. These findings may provide insight into some of the developmental impairments and neurotoxicity associated with Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy), a disease arising due to abnormally elevated levels of Hcy in the plasma.