High (but Not Low) Urinary Iodine Excretion Is Predicted by Iodine Excretion Levels from Five Years Ago

Background: It has not been investigated whether there are associations between urinary iodine (UI) excretion measurements some years apart, nor whether such an association remains after adjustment for nutritional habits. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relation between iodine-creatinine ratio (ICR) at two measuring points 5 years apart. Methods: Data from 2,659 individuals from the Study of Health in Pomerania were analyzed. Analysis of covariance and Poisson regressions were used to associate baseline with follow-up ICR. Results: Baseline ICR was associated with follow-up ICR. Particularly, baseline ICR >300 mu g/g was related to an ICR >300 mu g/g at follow-up (relative risk, RR: 2.20; p < 0.001). The association was stronger in males (RR: 2.64; p < 0.001) than in females (RR: 1.64; p = 0.007). In contrast, baseline ICR <100 mu g/g was only associated with an ICR <100 mu g/g at follow-up in males when considering unadjusted ICR. Conclusions: We detected only a weak correlation with respect to low ICR. Studies assessing iodine status in a population should take into account that an individual with a low UI excretion in one measurement is not necessarily permanently iodine deficient. On the other hand, current high ICR could have been predicted by high ICR 5 years ago. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base

Erratum: Sequence data and association statistics from 12,940 type 2 diabetes cases and controls.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2017.179

Effect of lactoperoxidase on the antimicrobial effectiveness of the thiocyanate hydrogen peroxide combination in a quantitative suspension test

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The positive antimicrobial effects of increasing concentrations of thiocyanate (SCN-) and H₂O₂on the human peroxidase defence system are well known. However, little is known about the quantitative efficacy of the human peroxidase thiocyanate H₂O₂system regarding Streptococcus mutans and sanguinis, as well as Candida albicans. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the enzyme lactoperoxidase on the bactericidal and fungicidal effectiveness of a thiocyanate-H₂O₂combination above the physiological saliva level. To evaluate the optimal effectiveness curve, the exposure times were restricted to 1, 3, 5, and 15 min.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The bactericidal and fungicidal effects of lactoperoxidase on Streptococcus mutans and sanguinis and Candida albicans were evaluated by using two test mixtures of a 2.0% (w/v; 0.34 M) thiocyanate and 0.4% (w/v; 0.12 M) hydrogen peroxide solution, one without and one with lactoperoxidase. Following the quantitative suspension tests (EN 1040 and EN 1275), the growth of surviving bacteria and fungi in a nutrient broth was measured. The reduction factor in the suspension test without lactoperoxidase enzyme was < 1 for all three tested organisms. Thus, the mixtures of 2.0% (w/v; 0.34 M) thiocyanate and 0.4% (w/v; 0.12 M) hydrogen peroxide had no in vitro antimicrobial effect on Streptococcus mutans and sanguinis or Candida albicans. However, the suspension test with lactoperoxidase showed a high bactericidal and fungicidal effectiveness in vitro.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The tested thiocyanate and H₂O₂mixtures showed no relevant antimicrobial effect. However, by adding lactoperoxidase enzyme, the mixtures became not only an effective bactericidal (Streptococcus mutans and sanguinis) but also a fungicidal (Candida albicans) agent.</p

Genome-wide trans-ancestry meta-analysis provides insight into the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes susceptibility.

To further understanding of the genetic basis of type 2 diabetes (T2D) susceptibility, we aggregated published meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), including 26,488 cases and 83,964 controls of European, east Asian, south Asian and Mexican and Mexican American ancestry. We observed a significant excess in the directional consistency of T2D risk alleles across ancestry groups, even at SNPs demonstrating only weak evidence of association. By following up the strongest signals of association from the trans-ethnic meta-analysis in an additional 21,491 cases and 55,647 controls of European ancestry, we identified seven new T2D susceptibility loci. Furthermore, we observed considerable improvements in the fine-mapping resolution of common variant association signals at several T2D susceptibility loci. These observations highlight the benefits of trans-ethnic GWAS for the discovery and characterization of complex trait loci and emphasize an exciting opportunity to extend insight into the genetic architecture and pathogenesis of human diseases across populations of diverse ancestry

Genetically defined elevated homocysteine levels do not result in widespread changes of DNA methylation in leukocytes

BACKGROUND:DNA methylation is affected by the activities of the key enzymes and intermediate metabolites of the one-carbon pathway, one of which involves homocysteine. We investigated the effect of the well-known genetic variant associated with mildly elevated homocysteine: MTHFR 677C>T independently and in combination with other homocysteine-associated variants, on genome-wide leukocyte DNA-methylation. METHODS:Methylation levels were assessed using Illumina 450k arrays on 9,894 individuals of European ancestry from 12 cohort studies. Linear-mixed-models were used to study the association of additive MTHFR 677C>T and genetic-risk score (GRS) based on 18 homocysteine-associated SNPs, with genome-wide methylation. RESULTS:Meta-analysis revealed that the MTHFR 677C>T variant was associated with 35 CpG sites in cis, and the GRS showed association with 113 CpG sites near the homocysteine-associated variants. Genome-wide analysis revealed that the MTHFR 677C>T variant was associated with 1 trans-CpG (nearest gene ZNF184), while the GRS model showed association with 5 significant trans-CpGs annotated to nearest genes PTF1A, MRPL55, CTDSP2, CRYM and FKBP5. CONCLUSIONS:Our results do not show widespread changes in DNA-methylation across the genome, and therefore do not support the hypothesis that mildly elevated homocysteine is associated with widespread methylation changes in leukocytes

Evaluating the contribution of rare variants to type 2 diabetes and related traits using pedigrees

Significance Contributions of rare variants to common and complex traits such as type 2 diabetes (T2D) are difficult to measure. This paper describes our results from deep whole-genome analysis of large Mexican-American pedigrees to understand the role of rare-sequence variations in T2D and related traits through enriched allele counts in pedigrees. Our study design was well-powered to detect association of rare variants if rare variants with large effects collectively accounted for large portions of risk variability, but our results did not identify such variants in this sample. We further quantified the contributions of common and rare variants in gene expression profiles and concluded that rare expression quantitative trait loci explain a substantive, but minor, portion of expression heritability.</jats:p