MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight hundred and twenty-eight subjects (404 PD patients, and 424 age and gender-matched control subjects without neurological disorders) were recruited. Genotyping was done by Taqman® allelic discrimination assay on an Applied Biosystems 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR machine.
RESULTS: The heterozygous A419V genotype was found in only 1 patient with PD, compared to 3 in the control group (0.4% vs 1.3%), giving an odds ratio of 0.35 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.01 to 3.79; P = 0.624).
CONCLUSION: A419V is not an important LRRK2 risk variant in our Asian cohort of patients with PD. Our data are further supported by a literature review which showed that 4 out of 6 published studies reported a negative association of this variant in PD.
RESULTS: The most abundant monosaccharide in the carbohydrate composition of durian seed gum were galactose (48.6-59.9%), glucose (37.1-45.1%), arabinose (0.58-3.41%), and xylose (0.3-3.21%). The predominant fatty acid of the lipid fraction from the durian seed gum were palmitic acid (C16:0), palmitoleic acid (C16:1), stearic acid (C18:0), oleic acid (C18:1), linoleic acid (C18:2), and linolenic acid (C18:2). The most abundant amino acids of durian seed gum were: leucine (30.9-37.3%), lysine (6.04-8.36%), aspartic acid (6.10-7.19%), glycine (6.07-7.42%), alanine (5.24-6.14%), glutamic acid (5.57-7.09%), valine (4.5-5.50%), proline (3.87-4.81%), serine (4.39-5.18%), threonine (3.44-6.50%), isoleucine (3.30-4.07%), and phenylalanine (3.11-9.04%).
CONCLUSION: The presence of essential amino acids in the chemical structure of durian seed gum reinforces its nutritional value.
Methods: Proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR)-based metabolomics approach was used to investigate fecal and serum metabolome of rat model of IBS-D with and without HPM treatment.
Results: The current results showed that IBS-induced metabolic alterations in fecal and serum sample include higher level of threonine and UDP-glucose together with lower levels of aspartate, ornithine, leucine, isoleucine, proline, 2-hydroxy butyrate, valine, lactate, ethanol, arginine, 2-oxoisovalerate and bile acids. These altered metabolites potentially involve in impaired gut secretory immune system and intestinal inflammation, malabsorption of nutrients, and disordered metabolism of bile acids. Notably, the HPM treatment was found able to normalize the Bristol stool forms scale scores, fecal water content, plasma endotoxin level, and a number of IBS-induced metabolic changes.
Conclusions: These findings may provide useful insight into the molecular basis of IBS and mechanism of the HPM intervention.