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Introduction Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a degenerative brain disease that progresses over time, heavily burdening patients, families, and aging societies worldwide. Memantine and donepezil are frequently used in its treatment, both as monotherapy and in combination. This multiple treatment comparison meta‐analysis assessed the efficacy of these regimens and placebo in the management of AD. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and Wanfang Med Online and China National Knowledge Infrastructure for English and Chinese publications from the first records to 17 April 2020. Two investigators scanned articles for placebo‐controlled trials of memantine and donepezil alone and in combination. We extracted data on the following outcomes: cognition, global assessment, daily activities, neuropsychiatric symptoms, adverse events, and the acceptability and cost of these treatment regimens. Results Of 936 records screened, we included 54 trials in this analysis. The combination therapy was more effective in improving cognition (mean difference (MD)‐5.01, 95% credible interval (95% Crl) −10.73 to 0.86 in the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale‐Cognitive Subscale; MD 9.61, 95% Crl 2.29 to 16.97 in the Severe Impairment Battery), global assessment (MD −2.88, 95% Crl −6.04 to 0.40), daily activities (MD 13.06, 95% Crl −34.04 to 58.92), and neuropsychiatric symptoms (MD −6.84, 95% Crl −10.62 to –2.82) compared with placebo. Memantine was more acceptable than placebo (MD 0.93, 95% Crl 0.69 to 1.22). Conclusions Memantine plus donepezil showed superior outcomes for cognition, global assessment, daily activities, and neuropsychiatric symptoms, but lower acceptability than monotherapy and placebo. Combination therapy may be more cost‐effective, because memantine slows the progression of AD. Memantine and donepezil are frequently used in its treatment, both as monotherapy and in combination. This multiple treatment comparison meta‐analysis assessed the efficacy of these regimens and placebo in the management of AD.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is often associated with orthostatic hypotension (OH). However, research examining the relationship between OH and PD has yielded inconsistent results. This study conducts a meta-analysis to determine the associations between OH and clinical characteristics in individuals with PD. A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed by searching for studies related to PD and OH in the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane databases. Data were pooled as necessary to calculate the odds ratios (OR) and weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for OH in PD patients. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I statistic. Meta-regression was conducted to detect the potential influences of disease duration on the differences in clinical features between PD patients with and without OH. A total of 26 articles involving 3,992 patients with Parkinson's disease were included in our study. Patients with PD and OH were significantly older at the time of examination compared to those without OH (WMD 2.94 years, 95% CI 1.91-3.97 years; I = 64.1%). PD patients with OH had a significantly longer disease duration than those without OH (WMD 0.73, 95% CI 0.32-1.14). Furthermore, PD patients with OH exhibited significantly lower Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores than those without OH (WMD of - 0.99, 95% CI of -1.91 to -0.07; WMD of -1.86, 95% CI of -2.67 to -1.04). There were no significant differences in gender distribution, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA) or Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) scores among Parkinson's disease patients with or without OH. Patients with PD and OH tend to be older at the time of examination, exhibit a longer disease duration, and demonstrate more severe disease manifestations along with greater cognitive impairment compared to PD patients without OH. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD420251025263.

Wheat blast, caused by Pyricularia oryzae Triticum lineage (PoTl), can infect wheat leaves and heads. More information is needed on the pathogen biology and disease epidemiology of the isolate PoTl for the integrated management of wheat blast in Brazilian wheat fields. This study aimed to characterize the incubation period, latent period, and the temporal progress of wheat blast and to fit nonlinear models, describing the nature of an epidemic of the PoTl isolate 12.1.146 compared with the PoTl isolate Py6038, throughout five successive infection cycles of PoTl on wheat leaves and heads. Wheat blast occurred in all infection cycles. The incubation period and latent period of the PoTl isolate 12.1.146 were significantly shorter than that of the PoTl isolate Py6038. The secondary inocula produced by the PoTl isolate on symptomatic wheat leaves caused blast symptoms when inoculated on wheat heads. The area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) was calculated based on disease severity. In all infection cycles, the AUDPC of the PoTl isolate 12.1.146 was significantly higher than that of the PoTl isolate Py6038. Between the 1st and 5th infection cycle, a significant reduction was observed in the AUDPC of the PoTl isolates. The nonlinear logistic model describe the disease progress curves (DPCs) of PoTl isolates on wheat leaves and heads best. Our findings indicate that the PoTl isolates did not maintain the same temporal dynamics after five successive infection cycles. These findings may have implications for the integrated management of the wheat blast pathogen in Brazilian fields.

Neuroinflammation plays an important role in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathogenesis. However, it is difficult to evaluate inflammation of the central nervous system (CNS) or the relationship between neuroinflammation and disease progression in ALS patients. Recent advances in the field of exosomes and CNS-derived exosomes extraction technology provide the possibility of measuring the inflammatory status in the CNS without brain biopsy. In this pilot study, we extracted astrocyte-derived exosomes from the plasma of sporadic ALS patients and age-, sex-matched healthy controls and determined Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The IL-6 levels in astrocyte-derived exosomes were increased in sALS patients and positively associated with the rate of disease progression. However, the association between IL-6 levels and disease progression rate was limited to patients whose disease duration were less than 12 months. These data suggest an increased inflammatory cascade in the CNS of sALS patients. Our pilot study demonstrates that CNS-derived exosomes could be useful to reveal neuroinflammation of the CNS in ALS patients.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients were classified into four clinical stages (uncomplicated illness, mild, severe and critical pneumonia) depending on disease severity. We aim to investigate the corresponding clinical, radiological and laboratory characteristics between different clinical stages. A retrospective, single-centre study of 101 confirmed patients with COVID-19 at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from 2 January to 28 January 2020 was enrolled; follow-up endpoint was on 8 February 2020. Clinical data were collected and compared during the course of illness. The median age of the 101 patients was 51.0 years and 33.6% were medical staff. Fever (68%), cough (50%) and fatigue (23%) are the most common symptoms. About 26% patients underwent the mechanical ventilation and 98% patients were treated with antibiotics. Thirty-seven per cent patients were cured and 11 died. On admission, the number of patients with uncomplicated illness, mild, severe and critical pneumonia were 2 [2%], 86 [85%], 11 [11%] and 2 [2%]. Forty-four of the 86 mild pneumonia progressed to severe illness within 4 days, with nine patients worsened due to critical pneumonia within 4 days. Two of the 11 severe patients improved to mild condition while three others deteriorated. Significant differences were observed among groups of different clinical stages in numbers of influenced pulmonary segments (6 𝑣𝑠. 12 𝑣𝑠. 17, 𝑃 < 0.001). A significantly upward trend was witnessed in ground-glass opacities overlapped with striped shadows (33% 𝑣𝑠. 42% 𝑣𝑠. 55% 𝑣𝑠. 80%, 𝑃 < 0.001), while pure ground-glass opacities gradually decreased as disease progressed (45% 𝑣𝑠. 35% 𝑣𝑠. 24% 𝑣𝑠. 13%, 𝑃 < 0.001) within 12 days. Lymphocytes, prealbumin and albumin showed a downtrend as disease progressed from mild to severe or critical condition, an uptrend was found in white blood cells, C-reactive protein, neutrophils and lactate dehydrogenase. The proportions of serum amyloid 𝐴 > 300 mg/l in mild, severe and critical conditions were 18%, 46% and 71%, respectively.

In recent years, oil palm has grown on a major scale as it is a prominent commodity crop that contributes the most to almost every producing country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Nonetheless, existing threats such as the Ganoderma basal stem rot (BSR) disease have been deteriorating the oil palm plantations and suitable actions to overcome the issue are still being investigated. The BSR disease progression in oil palm is being studied using the disease progression through the plant disease triangle idea. This concept looks at all potential elements that could affect the transmission and development of the disease. The elements include pathogenic, with their mode of infection in each studied factor.

HCLS1-associated protein X-1 (HAX1) is a newly discovered multifunctional cell regulatory protein that is widely expressed in cells and has a close relationship with multiple cellular proteins. HAX1 plays important roles in various processes, including the regulation of apoptosis, maintenance of mitochondrial membrane potential stability and calcium homeostasis, occurrence and development of diseases, post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, and host immune response after viral infection. In this article, we have reviewed the research progress on the biological functions of HAX1, thereby laying a theoretical foundation for further exploration of its underlying mechanisms and targeted application.

Parkinson’s disease is easy to diagnose when it is advanced, but it is very difficult to diagnose in its early stages. Early diagnosis is essential to be able to treat the symptoms. It impacts on daily activities and reduces the quality of life of both the patients and their families and it is also the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer in people over the age of 60. Most current studies on the prediction of Parkinson’s severity are carried out in advanced stages of the disease. In this work, the study analyzes a set of variables that can be easily extracted from voice analysis, making it a very non-intrusive technique. In this paper, a method based on different deep learning techniques is proposed with two purposes. On the one hand, to find out if a person has severe or non-severe Parkinson’s disease, and on the other hand, to determine by means of regression techniques the degree of evolution of the disease in a given patient. The UPDRS (Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale) has been used by taking into account both the motor and total labels, and the best results have been obtained using a mixed multi-layer perceptron (MLP) that classifies and regresses at the same time and the most important features of the data obtained are taken as input, using an autoencoder. A success rate of 99.15% has been achieved in the problem of predicting whether a person suffers from severe Parkinson’s disease or non-severe Parkinson’s disease. In the degree of disease involvement prediction problem case, a MSE (Mean Squared Error) of 0.15 has been obtained. Using a full deep learning pipeline for data preprocessing and classification has proven to be very promising in the field Parkinson’s outperforming the state-of-the-art proposals.

Human osteopontin (OPN) is a glycosylated phosphoprotein which is expressed in a variety of tissues in the body. In recent years, accumulating evidence has indicated that the aberrant expression of OPN is closely associated with tumourigensis, progression and most prominently with metastasis in several tumour types. In this review, we present the current knowledge on the expression profiles of OPN and its main splice variants in human cancers, as well as the potential implications in patient outcome. We also discuss its putative clinical application as a cancer biomarker and as a therapeutic target.

Sorghum anthracnose caused by the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum sublineolum, is one of the most economically important diseases of sorghum globally and in Ethiopia. Breeding for resistance to this highly variable pathogen requires identification of new sources of resistance. Here we describe the identification of new sources of anthracnose resistance from a field-based screening of 225 landrace genotypes of sorghum collected from different parts of Ethiopia. Field trials were conducted at Assosa and Bako Agricultural research centres under natural infection to evaluate anthracnose resistance. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences in mean square due to environment, genotype and genotype by environment interactions (P ≤ 0.01) for leaf anthracnose disease relative AUDPC. Most genotypes from Western Ethiopia, a region known for high rain fall and high anthracnose disease incidence, displayed resistance reactions. Disease severity index and AUDPC showed negative correlation with agronomic, yield and yield related traits. Cluster analysis based on disease parameters suggested that accessions from neighbouring regions shared strong similarity. Seven genotypes at Bako and five genotypes at Assosa showed moderate resistance. Anthracnose resistance and better yield performance across locations were observed for three genotypes. These materials will be important for genetic studies to determine genetic control of resistance and for resistance breeding.