Medical Bulletin 24/August/2023

Here are the top medical news of the day:

Heart damage in young adulthood linked with sedentary time in children

Hours of inactivity during childhood could be setting the stage for heart attacks and strokes later in life, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2023.1 The study found that sedentary time accumulated from childhood to young adulthood was associated with heart damage – even in those with normal weight and blood pressure.

The researchers analysed the association between sedentary time between 11 and 24 years of age and heart measurements between 17 and 24 years of age after adjusting for factors that could influence the relationship including age, sex, blood pressure, body fat, smoking, physical activity and socioeconomic status.

Reference: Dr. Andrew Agbaje et al, European Society of Cardiology

Assessing Catheter ablation in very old patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation

Non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) is a common type of cardiac arrhythmia, specifically an irregular and often rapid heartbeat, that occurs in the upper chambers of the heart, known as the atria. The term "non-valvular" is used to distinguish this type of atrial fibrillation from another subtype called valvular atrial fibrillation, which is often associated with heart valve disorders.

Catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) is recommended for selected older patients. However, the preventive effects of AF ablation on cardiovascular events and death remain unclear, especially in older patients. In a new study, researchers from Kagawa Prefectural Central Hospital and Hyogo Medical University aimed to investigate the impact of AF ablation on the incidence of cardiovascular events and death in very old nonvalvular AF patients.

Reference: Cardiovascular events and death after catheter ablation in very old patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, Aging-US, DOI 10.18632/aging.204952 

Evidence that Parkinson’s starts in the gut reaffirmed in new study

New findings by Columbia researchers and graduate students are adding to evidence backing this hypothesis—and showing that what triggers initial gastrointestinal changes in Parkinson’s could be a misdirected immune attack. The findings also raise the possibility that early detection—and then interruption—of an immune response in the gut could prevent a later attack on the brain’s neurons and stop Parkinson’s in its tracks.

In Parkinson’s, a protein called alpha-synuclein becomes misfolded, accumulates inside neurons, and slowly poisons the cells. Sulzer’s lab in collaboration with immunologists at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology has shown that small portions of the misfolded alpha-synuclein also can appear on the outside of neurons, which makes the neurons vulnerable to attack from the immune system. The immune attack could be doing more acute damage to the neurons than the internal deposits of alpha-synuclein.

Reference: Interaction of an α-synuclein epitope with HLA-DRB1∗15:01 triggers enteric features in mice reminiscent of prodromal Parkinson’s disease, Neuron, DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.07.015