Publications

Publication: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Matthew Pearce, Tessa Strain, Youngwon Kim, Stephen J. Sharp, Kate Westgate, Katrien Wijndaele, Tomas Gonzales, Nicholas J. Wareham & Søren Brage

16 March 2020

Summary

Higher levels of physical activity have been shown to be associated with a lower risk of morbidity and mortality, but accurately assessing the dose of physical activity in large population studies remains challenging The baseline questionnaire includes items adapted from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) [6] and the Recent Physical Activity Questionnaire (RPAQ).

Publication: Nutrients

Birdem Amoutzopoulos, Toni Steer, Caireen Roberts, David Collins, Polly Page

1 February 2020

Summary

Monitoring dietary intake of sugars in the population’s diet has great importance in evaluating the efficiency of national sugar reduction programmes. The study objective was to provide a comprehensive assessment of dietary sources of added and free sugars to assess adherence to public health recommendations in the UK population and to consider the impact of different sugar definitions on monitoring.

Publication: European Heart Journal

SCORE2 working group and ESC Cardiovascular risk collaboration

13 June 2021

Summary

The researchers analysed data from nearly 700,000 mainly middle-aged participants in 45 large-scale studies to develop risk prediction models (SCORE2) tailored for use in European countries.

The participants did not have previous history of CVD at the outset and 30,000 had a CVD event (heart attack or stroke) during the first 10 years of follow up.

These risk models were then statistically adapted or ‘recalibrated’ to more accurately estimate CVD risk for contemporary populations in four European risk regions, using data on population-specific CVD incidence rates and risk factor values from 10.8 million individuals. Read the full story

Publication: BMJ Open

Ioannis Bakolis Robert Stewart,David Baldwin, Jane Beenstock, Paul Bibby, Matthew Broadbent, Rudolf Cardinal, Shanquan Chen, Karthik Chinnasamy, Andrea Cipriani, Simon Douglas, Philip Horner, Caroline A Jackson, Ann John, Dan W Joyce, Sze Chim Lee, Jonathan Lewis, Andrew McIntosh, Neil Nixon, David Osborn, Peter Phiri, Shanaya Rathod, Tanya Smith, Rachel Sokal, Rob Waller, Sabine Landau

26 May 21

Summary

To investigate changes in daily mental health (MH) service use and mortality in response to the introduction and the lifting of the COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ policy in Spring 2020. Data was reviewed looking at lockdown policy, changes and admissions, with findings of sizeable changes during the first national lockdown, but still unclear what the effect is.

Publication: Sage Journals

Publication: Diabetes Care

Frank Qian  Andres V. Ardisson Korat  Fumiaki Imamura, Matti Marklund, Nathan Tintle, Jyrki K. Virtanen,  Xia Zhou, Julie K. Bassett,  Heidi Lai, Yoichiro Hirakawa, Kuo-Liong Chien, Alexis C. Wood, Maria Lankinen, Rachel A. Murphy, Cecilia Samieri, Kamalita Pertiwi, Vanessa D. de Mello, Weihua Guan, Nita G. Forouhi, Nick Wareham, Frank B. Hu, Ulf Riserus, Lars Lind, William S. Harris, Aladdin H. Shadyab, Jennifer G. Robinson, Lyn M. Steffen, Allison Hodge, Graham G. Giles, Toshiharu Ninomiya, Matti Uusitupa, Jaakko Tuomilehto, Jaana Lindström, Markku Laakso, David S. Siscovick, Catherine Helmer, Johanna M. Geleijnse, Jason H.Y. Wu, Amanda Fretts, Rozenn N. Lemaitre, Renata Micha , Dariush Mozaffarian and Qi Sun

May 2021

Summary

Prospective associations between n-3 fatty acid biomarkers and type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk are not consistent in individual studies. We aimed to summarize the prospective associations of biomarkers of α-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) with T2D risk through an individual participant-level pooled analysis.

Publication: Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

Winters-van Eekelen, Esther van der Velde, Jeroen H.P.M. Boone, Sebastiaan C.; Westgate, Kate; Brage, Søren, Lamb, Hildo J, Rosendaal, Frits R. de Mutsert, Renée¹

28 May 2021

Summary

It remains unclear to what extent habitual physical activity and sedentary time are associated with visceral fat and liver fat.

Researchers studied substitution of sedentary time with time spent physically active and total body fat (TBF), visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and hepatic triglyceride content (HTGC) in middle-aged men and women.

Reallocation of time spent sedentary with time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, but not light physical activity, was associated with less total body fat, and visceral and liver fat. These findings contribute to the development of more specified guidelines on sedentary time and physical activity.

Publication: Nature Medicine

Kaitlin H. Wade, Brian Y. H. Lam, Audrey Melvin, Warren Pan, Laura J. Corbin, David A. Hughes, Kara Rainbow, Jian-Hua Chen, Katie Duckett, Xiaoming Liu, Jacek Mokrosiński, Alexander Mörseburg, Sam Neaves, Alice Williamson, Chen Zhang, I. Sadaf Farooqi, Giles S. H. Yeo, Nicholas J. Timpson & Stephen O’Rahilly 

27 May 2021

Summary

Could a gene be the key why some of us carry extra fat? New research has found that one in every 340 people might carry a mutation in a single gene that makes them more likely to have a greater weight from early childhood and, by 18 years of age, they could be up to 30 pounds heavier with the excess weight likely to be mostly fat. Read the full story

Publication: Nature Cancer

Xueqing Zou, Gene Ching Chiek Koh, Arjun Scott Nanda, Andrea Degasperi, Katie Urgo, Theodoros I. Roumeliotis, Chukwuma A. Agu, Cherif Badja, Sophie Momen, Jamie Young, Tauanne Dias Amarante, Lucy Side, Glen Brice, Vanesa Perez-Alonso, Daniel Rueda, Celine Gomez, Wendy Bushell, Rebecca Harris, Jyoti S. Choudhary, Genomics England Research Consortium, Josef Jiricny, William C. Skarnes & Serena Nik-Zainal

26 April 2021

Summary

A new way to identify tumours that could be sensitive to particular immunotherapies has been developed using data from thousands of NHS cancer patient samples sequenced through the 100,000 Genomes Project.  The MMRDetect clinical algorithm makes it possible to identify tumours that have ‘mismatch repair deficiencies’ and then improve the personalisation of cancer therapies to exploit those weaknesses.

Publication: Nature Communications

Sungsam Gong, Francesca Gaccioli, Justyna Dopierala, Ulla Sovio, Emma Cook, Pieter-Jan Volders, Lennart Martens, Paul D. W. Kirk, Sylvia Richardson, Gordon C. S. Smith & D. Stephen Charnock-Jones 

11 May 2021

Summary

The placenta is understudied and is commonly omitted from large-scale “-omic” analyses, this study enables tissue-wide comparison of transcriptome analyses, looking at identification placentally-related adverse pregnancy outcomes such as fetal growth restriction (FGR) and preeclimisia (PE).

Publication: bioRxiv

Conde C Domínguez, T Gomes, LB Jarvis, C Xu, SK Howlett, DB Rainbow, O Suchanek, HW King, L Mamanova, K Polanski, N Huang, E Fasouli, KT Mahbubani, M Prete, L Campos, HS Mousa, EJ Needham, S Pritchard, T Li, R Elmentaite, J Park, DK Menon, OA Bayraktar, LK James, KB Meyer, MR Clatworthy, K Saeb-Parsy, JL Jones, SA Teichmann

28 April 2021

Summary

Despite their crucial role in health and disease, researchers knowledge of immune cells within human tissues, in contrast to those circulating in the blood, remains limited. Researchers surveyed the immune compartment of lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues of six adult donors by single-cell RNA sequencing, including alpha beta T-cell receptor, gamma delta TCR and B-cell receptor variable regions.

To aid systematic cell type identification researchers developed CellTypist, a tool for automated and accurate cell type annotation. Using this approach combined with manual curation, researchers determined the tissue distribution of finely phenotyped immune cell types and cell states.

Publication: Journal of Nutrition

Matthew Pearce, Anouar Fanidi, Tom R P Bishop, Stephen J Sharp, Fumiaki Imamura, Stefan Dietrich, Tasnime Akbaraly, Maira Bes-Rastrollo, Joline W J Beulens, Liisa Byberg, Scheine Canhada, Maria del Carmen B Molina, Zhengming Chen, Adrian Cortes-Valencia, Huaidong Du, Bruce B Duncan, Tommi Härkänen, Maryam Hashemian, Jihye Kim, Mi Kyung Kim, Yeonjung Kim, Paul Knekt, Daan Kromhout, Camille Lassale, Ruy Lopez Ridaura, Dianna J Magliano, Reza Malekzadeh, Pedro Marques-Vidal, Miguel Ángel Martínez-González, Gráinne O’Donoghue, Donal O’Gorman, Jonathan E Shaw, Sabita S Soedamah-Muthu, Dalia Stern, Alicja Wolk, Hye Won Woo, EPIC-InterAct Consortium, Nicholas J Wareham, Nita G Forouhi

11 May 2021

Summary

A healthy diet is one important way to prevent type 2 diabetes. Legumes such as beans, lentils, peas and soy are typically high in dietary fibre, protein, B vitamins, and minerals and have a low glycaemic index.

Legume consumption is promoted as part of a healthy diet in many countries, but research has shown inconsistent and inconclusive findings for any link with type 2 diabetes. Researchers planned to find out the nature of the association between the amount and type of legume consumption and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes over time and in different world regions.

The research included data from 27 existing studies in Europe (Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK), the Americas (Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, USA), Eastern Mediterranean (Iran), and Western Pacific (Australia, China, South Korea).

They used data on more than 800,000 participants, among whom 42,473 participants developed type 2 diabetes over time.

Publication: Science

Josephine M. Bryant,  Karen P. Brown,  Sophie Burbaud,  Isobel Everall,  Juan M. Belardinelli, Daniela Rodriguez-Rincon,  Dorothy M. Grogono,  Chelsea M. Peterson,  Deepshikha Verma,  Ieuan E. Evans,  Christopher Ruis,  Aaron Weimann,  Divya Arora,  Sony Malhotra,  Bridget Bannerman, Charlotte Passemar,  Kerra Templeton,  Gordon MacGregor, Kasim Jiwa,  Andrew J. Fisher,  Tom L. Blundell,  Diane J. Ordway,  Mary Jackson, Julian Parkhill, R. Andres Floto

30 April 2021

Summary:

Researchers have been able to track how a multi-drug resistant organism is able to evolve and spread widely among cystic fibrosis patients – showing that it can evolve rapidly within an individual during chronic infection. The researchers say their findings highlight the need to treat patients with Mycobacterium abscessus infection immediately, counter to current medical practice.

Publication: Journal of Internal Medicine

S. van Oort, J. W. J. Beulens, A. J. van Ballegooijen, S. Burges,s S. C. Larsson

26 October 2020

Summary

The American Heart Association introduced the Life’s Simple 7 initiative to improve cardiovascular health by modifying cardiovascular risk factors and lifestyle behaviours. It is unclear whether these risk factors are causally associated with longevity.

This study aimed to investigate causal associations of Life’s Simple 7 modifiable risk factors, as well as sleep and education, with longevity using the two‐sample Mendelian randomization design.

Risk factors associated with a lower odds of longevity included the following: genetic liability to type 2 diabetes, genetically predicted systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol and smoking initiation. Genetically increased high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol and educational level were associated with a higher odds of longevity. Fasting glucose and other lifestyle factors were not significantly associated with longevity.

Most of the Life’s Simple 7 modifiable risk factors are causally related to longevity. Prevention strategies should focus on modifying these risk factors and reducing education inequalities to improve cardiovascular health and longevity.

Publication: Nature

Emily Stephenson, Gary Reynolds, Rachel A. Botting, Fernando J. Calero-Nieto, Michael D. Morgan, Zewen Kelvin Tuong, Karsten Bach, Waradon Sungnak, Kaylee B. Worlock, Masahiro Yoshida, Natsuhiko Kumasaka, Katarzyna Kania, Justin Engelbert, Bayanne Olabi, Jarmila Stremenova Spegarova, Nicola K. Wilson, Nicole Mende, Laura Jardine, Louis C. S. Gardner, Issac Goh, Dave Horsfall, Jim McGrath, Simone Webb, Michael W. Mather, Rik G. H. Lindeboom, Emma Dann, Ni Huang, Krzysztof Polanski, Elena Prigmore, Florian Gothe, Jonathan Scott, Rebecca P. Payne, Kenneth F. Baker, Aidan T. Hanrath, Ina C. D. Schim van der Loeff, Andrew S. Barr, Amada Sanchez-Gonzalez, Laura Bergamaschi, Federica Mescia, Josephine L. Barnes, Eliz Kilich, Angus de Wilton, Anita Saigal, Aarash Saleh, Sam M. Janes, Claire M. Smith, Nusayhah Gopee, Caroline Wilson, Paul Coupland, Jonathan M. Coxhead, Vladimir Yu Kiselev, Stijn van Dongen, Jaume Bacardit, Hamish W. King, Anthony J. Rostron, A. John Simpson, Sophie Hambleton, Elisa Laurenti, Paul A. Lyons, Kerstin B. Meyer, Marko Z. Nikolić, Christopher J. A. Duncan, Kenneth G. C. Smith, Sarah A. Teichmann, Menna R. Clatworthy, John C. Marioni, Berthold Göttgens & Muzlifah Haniffa

20 April 2020

Summary

A UK-wide study has identified differences in people’s immune responses to COVID-19, depending on whether they have no symptoms or more serious reactions to the virus. Read the full story

Publication: NeuroImage: Clinical

Martina Bocchetta, Emily G. Todd, Georgia Peakman, David M. Cash, Rhian S. Convery, Lucy L.Russell, David L. Thomas, Juan Eugenio Iglesias, John C.van Swieten, Lize C. Jiskootf, Harro Seelaar, Barbara Borronig, Daniela Galimbertihi, Raquel Sanchez-Vallej, Robert Laforce Jr, Fermin Morenol, Matthis Synofzik, Caroline Graffno, Mario Masellis, Maria Carmela Tartaglia, James B.Rower, Rik Vandenberghes, Elizabeth, Finger, Fabrizio Tagliaviniu, Alexandrede Mendonçav, Isabel Santanaw, Chris R.Butlerx, Simon Ducharmey, Alexander Gerhardza,  AdrianDanek, JohannesLevina,  Markus Ottoac, Sandro Sorbiad, Isabelle Le Beraeafag, Florence Pasquierahaiaj, Jonathan D.Rohrera.

29 March 2021

Summary

Studies have previously shown evidence for presymptomatic cortical atrophy in genetic FTD. Whilst initial investigations have also identified early deep grey matter volume loss, little is known about the extent of subcortical involvement, particularly within subregions, and how this differs between genetic groups.

Publication: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Ulla Sovio, Francesca Gaccioli, Emma Cook, Stephen Charnock-Jones, .Gordon C.S,

24 April 2021

Summary

Slowing of fetal growth and elevated maternal serum are associated with early term spontaneous labor

Publication: Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology

F. Mone,  R. Y. Eberhardt, M. E. Hurles,  D. J. McMullan,  E. R. Maher,  J. Lord,  L. S. Chitty,  E. Dempsey,  T. Homfray,  J. L. Giordano,  R. J. Wapner,  L. Sun, T. N. Sparks,  M. E. Norton, M. D. Kilby

13 April 2021

Summary

Use of prenatal next generation sequencing in both isolated and non‐isolated NIHF should be considered in developing clinical pathways.

Publication: Nature Medicine

Liam Gaziano, Claudia Giambartolomei, Alexandre C. Pereira, Anna Gaulton, Daniel C. Posner, Sonja A. Swanson, Yuk-Lam Ho, Sudha K. Iyengar, Nicole M. Kosik, Marijana Vujkovic, David R. Gagnon, A. Patrícia Bento, Inigo Barrio-Hernandez, Lars Rönnblom, Niklas Hagberg, Christian Lundtoft, Claudia Langenberg, Maik Pietzner, Dennis Valentine, Stefano Gustincich, Gian Gaetano Tartaglia, Elias Allara, Praveen Surendran, Stephen Burgess,  Jing Hua Zhao, James E. Peters, Bram P. Prins, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, Poornima Devineni, Yunling Shi, Kristine E. Lynch, Scott L. DuVall, Helene Garcon, Lauren O. Thomann, Jin J. Zhou, Bryan R. Gorman, Jennifer E. Huffman, Christopher J. O’Donnell, Philip S. Tsao, Jean C. Beckham, Saiju Pyarajan, Sumitra Muralidhar, Grant D. Huang, Rachel Ramoni, Pedro Beltrao, John Danesh, Adriana M. Hung, Kyong-Mi Chang, Yan V. Sun, Jacob Joseph, Andrew R. Leach, Todd L. Edwards, Kelly Cho, J. Michael Gaziano, Adam S. Butterworth, Juan P. Casas & VA Million Veteran Program COVID-19 Science Initiative

9 April 2021

Summary:

Drug repurposing provides a rapid approach to meet the urgent need for therapeutics to address COVID-19. To identify therapeutic targets relevant to COVID-19, researchers conducted Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses, deriving genetic instruments based on transcriptomic and proteomic data for 1,263 actionable proteins that are targeted by approved drugs or in clinical phase of drug development.

Publication: BJPsych Open

Bhardwaj A, Moore A, Cardinal RN, Bradley C, Cross L, Ford TJ

13 January 2021

The Covid-19 crisis necessitated rapid adoption of remote consultations across National Health Service (NHS) child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

This study aimed to understand practitioners’ experiences of rapid implementation of remote consultations across CAMHS in one NHS trust in the east of England.

Data were collected through a brief questionnaire documenting clinicians’ experiences following remote delivery of services. The questionnaire began before ‘lockdown’ and focused on 102 assessment consultations as part of a planned move to virtual assessment.

As the roll-out of remote consultations was extended at lockdown, the researchers extended the questionnaire to include all remote clinical contacts (n = 202).

Despite high levels of initial concern, clinicians’ reports were positive overall; importantly, however, their experiences varied by team. When restrictions on face-to-face working are lifted, a blended approach of remote and face-to-face service delivery is recommended to optimise access and capacity while retaining effective and safe care.