Publications

Publication: Journal of Neurotrauma

Jeanette Tas, Erta Beqiri, Ruud C. van Kaam, Marek Czosnyka, Joseph Donnelly, Roel H. Haeren, Iwan C.C. van der Horst, Peter J. Hutchinson, Sander M.J. van Kuijk, Analisa L. Liberti, David K. Menon, Cornelia W.E. Hoedemaekers, Bart Depreitere, Peter Smielewski, Geert Meyfroidt, Ari Ercole, and Marcel J.H. Aries

16 August 2021

Summary

It is increasingly recognised that patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) may benefit from individualised clinical management. Cerebral autoregulation (CA) may allow for maintaining cerebral blood flow for adequate energetic requirements in response to changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP), by means of vasoconstriction (the narrowing (constriction) of blood vessels by small muscles in their walls) and vasodilation (widening of blood vessels).

Publication: BMJ Journal of Medical Genetics

Laurene Ben Aim,  Eamonn R Maher, Alberto Cascon, Anne Barlier, Sophie Giraud, Tonino Ercolino, Pascal Pigny, Roderick J Clifton-Bligh, Delphine Mirebeau-Prunier, Amira Mohamed, Judith Favier, Anne-Paule Gimenez-Roqueplo, Francesca Schiavi, Rodrigo A Toledo, Patricia L Dahia, Mercedes Robledo, Jean Pierre Bayley Nelly Burnichon,

31 August 2021

Summary

A total of 223 distinct SDHB variants from 737 patients were collected worldwide. Using multiple criteria, each variant was first classified according to a 5-tier grouping based on American College of Medical Genetics and NGSnPPGL standardised recommendations and was then manually reviewed by a panel of experts in the field

Publication: Metabolites

Nancy McBride, Paul Yousefi, Ulla Sovio, Kurt Taylor, Yassaman Vafai, Tiffany Yang, Bo Hou, Matthew Suderman, Caroline Relton,  Gordon C. S. Smith, Deborah A. Lawlor

10 August 2021

Summary

Many women who experience gestational diabetes (GDM), gestational hypertension (GHT), pre-eclampsia (PE), have a spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) or have an offspring born small/large for gestational age (SGA/LGA) do not meet the criteria for high-risk pregnancies based upon certain maternal risk factors. The aim of this study was to assess the predictive ability of an untargeted platform of over 700 metabolites to predict the above pregnancy-related disorders in two cohorts.

Publication: The Journal of Nutrition

Kerry S Jones, Sarah R Meadows, Karen Chamberlain, Damon A Parkington, Dave Collins, Polly Page, Albert Koulman

26 August 2021

Summary

Publication: Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology

Fernandez-Egea, Emilio; Chen, Shanquan; Jenkins, Christopher; Turrion, Concha; Mitchell, Simon P.; Dodwell, David J. F.; Mann, Louisa M.; Deakin, Julia B.; Syed, Zahoor H.; Hafizi, Sepehr; Zimbron, Jorge; Praseedom, Asha S.; Cardinal, Rudolf N.

17 June 2021

Summary

Factors associated with sedation and its pharmacological management remain poorly studied.  Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study based on deidentified electronic clinical records of clozapine-treated patients from the secondary mental health care provider for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, United Kingdom.

Publication: Nature Medicine

Na Cai, Aurora Gomez-Duran, Ekaterina Yonova-Doing, Kousik Kundu, Annette I. Burgess, Zoe J. Golder, Claudia Calabrese, Marc J. Bonder, Marta Camacho, Rachael A. Lawson, Lixin Li, Caroline H. Williams-Gray, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, David J. Roberts, Nick A. Watkins, Willem H. Ouwehand, Adam S. Butterworth, Isobel D. Stewart, Maik Pietzner, Nick J. Wareham, Claudia Langenberg, John Danesh, Klaudia Walter, Peter M.Rothwell, Joanna M. M. Howson, Oliver Stegle, Patrick F. Chinnery & Nicole Soranzo

23 August 2021

Summary

Researchers have identified associations between mtDNA variants and an amino acid, N-formylmethionine (fMet), and effects of fMet on the risk of developing a range of common, late-onset illnesses. Read the full story.

Publication: International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

Chen S, Jones PB, Underwood BR, Fernández-Egea E, Qin P, Lewis JR, Cardinal RN

11 August 2021

Summary

Researchers studied patients over 65 known to CPFT mental health services during the early COVID-19 pandemic, and historical control groups (people known to have acquired COVID-19 itself did not take part). During lockdown, people with dementia or severe mental illness had a higher risk of death without confirmed COVID-19.

Publication: Nature Medicine

Charlotte K. Boughton, Afroditi Tripyla, Sara Hartnell, Aideen Daly, David Herzig, Malgorzata E. Wilinska, Cecilia Czerlau, Andrew Fry, Lia Bally & Roman Hovorka 

04 August 2021

Summary

An artificial pancreas could soon help people living with type 2 diabetes and who also require kidney dialysis. Tests led by the University of Cambridge and Inselspital, University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland show that the device can help patients safely and effectively manage their blood sugar levels and reduce the risk of low blood sugar levels. Read the full press release.

Publication: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Matthew Pearce, Tessa Strain, Katrien Wijndaele, Stephen J. Sharp, Alexander Mok & Søren Brage

27 July 2021

Summary

Current physical activity guidelines do not distinguish between activity accumulated in different behavioural domains but some studies suggest that occupational physical activity (OPA) may not confer health benefits and could even be detrimental. The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between OPA and mortality outcomes.

Publication: Scientific Reports

Tomas I. Gonzales, Kate Westgate, Tessa Strain, Stefanie Hollidge, Justin Jeon, Dirk L. Christensen, Jorgen Jensen, Nicholas J. Wareham & Søren Brage

28 July 2021

Summary

High cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with improved health, but exercise tests to measure fitness can be risky for some people.

Researchers developed a novel method to estimate fitness from lower-risk personalised exercise tests. The validity of the new method outperformed previous methods. The team then applied it to examine associations between fitness and health outcomes in the UK Biobank Study. Again, the new method was better than other approaches: Fitness could be estimated in more study participants, and fitness-to-health relationships were stronger. These results reinforce the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness for human health.

Publication: Neurobiology of Aging

David JWhiteside, P. Simon Jones, Boyd C P Ghosh, Ian Coyle-Gilchrist, Alexander Gerhard, Michele T. Hu, Johannes C Klein, P. Nigel Leigh, Alastair Church, David J Burn, Huw R Morris, James B Rowe, TimothyRittman

16 July 2021

Summary

This study investigated patterns of brain activity at rest in the neurodegenerative disease progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

The study found that participants with PSP spend more time than individuals without the disease in certain brain states, meaning their brain activity was less flexible and less efficient than normal. The time spent in these brain states was more apparent in participants who were more severely affected.

The changes in the brain’s activity did not only involve regions of the brain that are most affected by PSP, meaning that effect of the tau protein pathology of PSP has consequences across the whole brain, even where it may appear normal on a scan or have no tau pathology.

Publication: International Journal of Epidemiology

Peige Song, Ananya Gupta, Ian Y Goon, Mehedi Hasan, Sara Mahmood, Rajendra Pradeepa, Samreen Siddiqui, Gary S Frost, Dian Kusuma, Marisa Miraldo, Franco Sassi, Nick J Wareham, Sajjad Ahmed, Ranjit M. Anjana, Soren Brage, Nita G Forouhi, Sujeet Jha, Anuradhani Kasturiratne, Prasad Katulanda, Khadija I Khawaja, Marie Loh, Malay K Mridha, Ananda R Wickremasinghe, Jaspal S Kooner, John C Chambers,

09 July 2021

Summary

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are leading and closely interlinked global health challenges. The burdens of T2DM and CVD are especially high in South Asia, one of the most populous and the most densely populated regions of the world. Identification of the primary risk factors for T2DM and CVD is central to the development of effective approaches for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases such as T2DM and CVD. To address this important need, we have established a unique cross-sectional population-based study focused on the South Asian population: the South Asia Biobank (SAB).

Publication: Pediatric Obesity

Laurentya Olga, Inge A. L. P. van Beijsterveldt, Ieuan A. Hughes, David B. Dunger, Ken K. Ong, Anita C. S. Hokken-Koelega, Emanuella De Lucia Rolfe

10 June 2021

Summary

Anthropometry-based equations (included weight, height, body mass index etc.) are commonly used to estimate infant body composition. However, existing equations were designed for newborns or adolescents. We aimed to (a) derive new prediction equations in infancy against air-displacement plethysmography (ADP-PEA Pod) as the criterion, (b) validate the newly developed equations in an independent infant cohort and (c) compare them with published equations (Slaughter-1988, Aris-2013, Catalano-1995).

Publication: Nutrients

Tuck Seng Cheng, Felix R. Day, John R. B. Perry, Jian’an Luan, Claudia Langenberg, Nita G. Forouhi, Nicholas J. Wareham and Ken K. Ong

20 May 2021

Summary

Dietary intakes of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids have been inconsistently associated with puberty timing. We examined longitudinal associations of prepubertal dietary and plasma phospholipid saturated fatty acids with several puberty timing traits in boys and girls.

Publication: Journal of Nutrition

Philip T James, Zakari Ali, Andrew E Armitage, Ana Bonell, Carla Cerami, Hal Drakesmith, Modou Jobe, Kerry S Jones, Zara Liew, Sophie E Moore, Fernanda Morales-Berstein, Helen M Nabwera, Behzad Nadjm, Sant-Rayn Pasricha, Pauline Scheelbeek, Matt J Silver, Megan R Teh, Andrew M Prentice

1 July 2021

Summary

Many nutrients have powerful immunomodulatory actions with the potential to alter susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, progression to symptoms, likelihood of severe disease, and survival. The aim was to review the latest evidence on how malnutrition across all its forms (under- and overnutrition and micronutrient status) may influence both susceptibility to, and progression of, COVID-19.

Publication: European Journal of Nutrition

Tuck Seng Cheng, Stephen J. Sharp, Soren Brage, Pauline M. Emmett, Nita G. Forouhi & Ken K. Ong

7 July 2021

Summary

Early puberty is associated with adverse health outcomes. To identify potential modifiable factors for puberty timing, we examined the associations of prepubertal childhood macronutrient intakes with puberty timing in boys and girls. The findings suggest habitual total energy intakes in children, and protein intakes in girls, as potential modifiable determinants of puberty timing.

Publication: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Annie M. Constable, Josie E. Porter, Danielle Benger, Dimitris Vlachopoulos, Alan R. Barker, Sarah A. Moore 3 , Sonja Soininen, Eero A. Haapala, Kate Westgate, Soren Brage, Ricardo R. Agostinete, Romulo A. Fernandes, and Timo A. Lakka

18 May 2021

Summary

Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) positively influences bone mineral content (BMC) in prepubertal children, but it is unknown whether this relationship is partially mediated by free leptin index. The aim of this study was to examine whether the relationship between MVPA and total body less head (TBLH) BMC is mediated or moderated by free leptin index in prepubertal children.

Publication: Nature Communications

William S. Harris, Nathan L. Tintle, Fumiaki Imamura, Frank Qian, Andres V. Ardisson Korat, Matti Marklund, Luc Djoussé, Julie K. Bassett, Pierre-Hugues Carmichael, Yun-Yu Chen, Yoichiro Hirakawa, Leanne K. Küpers, Federica Laguzzi, Maria Lankinen, Rachel A. Murphy, Cécilia Samieri, Mackenzie K. Senn, Peilin Shi, Jyrki K. Virtanen, Ingeborg A. Brouwer, Kuo-Liong Chien, Gudny Eiriksdottir, Nita G. Forouhi, Johanna M. Geleijnse, Graham G. Giles, Vilmundur Gudnason, Catherine Helmer, Allison Hodge, Rebecca Jackson, Kay-Tee Khaw, Markku Laakso, Heidi Lai, Danielle Laurin, Karin Leander, Joan Lindsay, Renata Micha, Jaako Mursu, Toshiharu Ninomiya, Wendy Post, Bruce M. Psaty, Ulf Risérus, Jennifer G. Robinson, Aladdin H. Shadyab, Linda Snetselaar, Aleix Sala-Vila, Yangbo Sun, Lyn M. Steffen, Michael Y. Tsai, Nicholas J. Wareham, Alexis C. Wood, Jason H. Y. Wu, Frank Hu, Qi Sun, David S. Siscovick, Rozenn N. Lemaitre, Dariush Mozaffarian

24 April 2021

Summary

The EPIC-Norfolk Study from the MRC Epidemiology Unit and sixteen other study groups from Europe, the United States, and Asia came together to do research in the framework of the FORCE – Fatty Acids & Outcomes Research – Consortium. In this global collaboration, researchers examined the relationship between markers of fish consumption in the blood and the risk of death from any cause, analysing data from a total of 42,466 study volunteers.

Researchers measured blood levels of ‘omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids’, which are molecules circulating in our blood. Fish is typically rich in those markers or ‘omega-3s’. Our body cannot synthesise them, and thus the blood levels of those markers reflect habitual or usual fish consumption.   Our analysis showed  that those showing higher blood levels of omega-3s lived longer than those with lower levels. In other words, those people with relatively low omega-3 levels died prematurely, i.e., all else being equal, they might have lived longer had their blood omega-3 levels been higher.

Publication: Journal of Obesity

Marie W. Lundblad, Bjarne K. Jacobsen, Jonas Johansson, Emanuella De Lucia Rolfe, Sameline Grimsgaard, and Laila A. Hopstock

17 May 2021

Summary

Reference values for visceral adipose tissue (VAT) are needed and it has been advocated that body composition measures depend on both the technique and methods applied, as well as the population of interest.

We aimed to develop reference values for VAT in absolute grams (VATg), percent (VAT%), and as a kilogram-per-meters-squared index (VATindex) for women and men, and investigate potential differences between these measures and their associations with cardiometabolic risk factors (including metabolic syndrome (MetS).

These VAT reference values and thresholds, developed in a sample of adults of Norwegian origin, could be applied to other studies with similar populations using the same DXA device and protocols. The associations between VAT and cardiometabolic risk factors were similar across different measurement units of VAT.

Publication: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Jelisa Gallant, Kathleen Chan, Tim J Green, Frank T Wieringa, Shalem Leemaqz, Rem Ngik, Jeffrey R Measelle, Dare A Baldwin, Mam Borath, Prak Sophonneary, Lisa N Yelland, Daniela Hampel, Setareh Shahab-Ferdows, Lindsay H Allen, Kerry S Jones, Albert Koulman, Damon A Parkington, Sarah R Meadows, Hou Kroeun, Kyly C Whitfield

07 April 2021

Summary

Thiamine (vitamin B1) is essential for normal growth, development and energy metabolism. Thiamine is found in a wide-range of foods and deficiency is not usually a problem with a varied diet. However, in some populations, with diets that consist mostly of thiamine-poor white, polished rice, there may be an increased risk of thiamine deficiency.

The NIHR Cambridge BRC Nutritional Biomarker Laboratory was responsible for the blood analysis of two thiamine biomarkers for a recently published study led by Dr Kyly Whitfield (Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada). The aim of the study was to investigate the amount of supplemental thiamine intake required to optimise breastmilk thiamine concentrations and mother and infant blood thiamine status.

In the study, 335 mothers in rural Cambodia were randomised to one of four daily thiamine supplementation doses (0, 1.2, 2.4, or 10 mg per day) from 2 weeks to 6 months postpartum. At the end of the intervention period, blood samples were collected from mothers and infants, and breastmilk from mothers to estimate the optimal thiamine dose to improve thiamine status.

The results showed that women taking any of the thiamine-containing supplements had significantly higher thiamine content in their milk compared to the placebo group. Both mothers and infants had improved blood thiamine status after supplementation. In the study, a dose of 1.2 mg thiamine/day improved the thiamine status of breastfeeding mothers and their infants, normalising thiamine status, and may reduce the risk of thiamine deficiency and infantile beriberi. We hope the results of this study will inform a future thiamine fortification program in Cambodia, and elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia where thiamine deficiency remains a public health concern.