Currently, there is increasing evidence from clinic, epidemiology, as well as neuroimaging, demonstrating neuropsychiatric abnormalities in COVID-19, however, whether there were associations between brain changes caused by COVID-19 and genetic susceptibility of psychiatric disorders was still unknown.
In this study, we performed a meta-analysis to investigate these associations by combing single-cell RNA sequencing datasets of brain tissues of COVID-19 and genome-wide association study summary statistics of psychiatric disorders.
The analysis demonstrated that among ten psychiatric disorders, gene expression perturbations implicated by COVID-19 in excitatory neurons of choroid plexus were significantly associated with schizophrenia.
Our analysis might provide insights for the underlying mechanism of the psychiatric consequence of COVID-19.

Associations between brain gene expression perturbations implicated by COVID-19 and psychiatric disorders.

Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) polymorphisms might influence predisposition to hemorrhagic cerebral vascular diseases, but the results of already published studies regarding relationship between eNOS polymorphisms and hemorrhagic cerebral vascular diseases were still controversial.
The authors performed this meta-analysis to estimate relationship between eNOS polymorphisms and hemorrhagic cerebral vascular diseases in a larger pooled population by combing the results of already published related studies. The authors searched Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, and CNKI for already published studies.
Eighteen already published studies were pooled analyzed in this meta-analysis. The pooled meta-analyses results showed that eNOS rs2070744 polymorphism was significantly associated with predisposition to hemorrhagic cerebral vascular diseases in East Asians (dominant comparison: OR = 0.77, p = .01; overdominant comparison: OR = 1.24, p = .04; allele comparison: OR = 0.78, p = .006) Nevertheless, the pooled meta-analyses did not reveal any positive results for eNOS rs1799983 and rs869109213 polymorphisms.
This meta-analysis suggested that eNOS rs2070744 polymorphism, but not rs1799983 and rs869109213 polymorphisms, might influence predisposition to hemorrhagic cerebral vascular diseases in East Asians.

eNOS rs2070744 polymorphism might influence predisposition to hemorrhagic cerebral vascular diseases in East Asians: A meta-analysis.

Background: Nutritional interventions such as the use of prebiotics can promote eubiosis of gut microbiome and maintain glucose homeostasis in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, it would appear that results of the effects of prebiotics on the community of microbes in the gut are not consistent. Aim: To examine the effect of prebiotics and oral antidiabetic agents on gut microbiome in patients with T2D. Methods: The PRISMA Extension Statement for Systematic Reviews and Network Meta-analyses was used to conduct this review. Searches were carried out in EMBASE, EBSCO-host databases, Google Scholar and the reference lists of articles for studies that are relevant to the research question, from database inception to 15 August 2022. The search strategy was based on PICOS framework. Network Meta-analysis which allows the estimation of relative treatment effects by combing both direct trial evidence (e.g., treatment A vs. treatment B) and indirect evidence was conducted. Furthermore, pairwise meta-analysis was also carried out to estimate effect sizes based on head-to-head comparisons of treatments and/or control conditions. Results: Findings of the Network meta-analysis revealed that prebiotics significantly reduced HbA1c compared with control and the SMD was −0.43 [95% CI, −0.77, −0.08; p = 0.02], whereas there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between the other treatments and control. In addition, anti-diabetic agents including glipizide and metformin also reduced HbA1C, although these were not significantly different (p > 0.05) from control. While prebiotics promoted Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia, the improvements were not significantly different (p > 0.05) from control. On the other hand, metformin decreased the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium, but increased Lactobacillus and Akkermansia, although the differences were not significant (p > 0.05) compared with control. With respect to fasting blood glucose and BMI, the effects of prebiotics and oral antidiabetic agents did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) from controls. Conclusions: The findings of the systematic review and Network meta-analysis demonstrated prebiotics were significantly (p < 0.05) more effective in reducing HbA1c than control in patients with T2D. However, the effects of prebiotics and oral antidiabetic agents did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) from the controls in relation to fasting blood glucose, post-prandial blood glucose, body mass index and the genera of gut bacteria examined. More studies are required to fully investigate the effects of prebiotics and oral antidiabetic agents in patients with T2D

The Effect of Prebiotics and Oral Anti-Diabetic Agents on Gut Microbiome in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials.

Dietary patterns play a critical role in diabetes management, while the best dietary pattern for Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients is still unclear. The aim of this network meta-analysis was to compare the impacts of various dietary approaches on the glycemic control of T2DM patients.
Relevant studies were retrieved from PubMed, Embase, Web of Knowledge, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and other additional records (1949 to 31 July 2022). Eligible RCTs were those comparing different dietary approaches against each other or a control diet in individuals with T2DM for at least 6 months. We assessed the risk of bias of included studies with the Cochrane risk of bias tool and confidence of estimates with the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach for network meta-analyses. In order to determine the pooled effect of each dietary approach relative to each other, we performed a network meta-analysis (NMA) for interventions for both HbA1c and fasting glucose, which enabled us to estimate the relative intervention effects by combing both direct and indirect trial evidence.
Forty-two RCTs comprising 4809 patients with T2DM were included in the NMA, comparing 10 dietary approaches (low-carbohydrate, moderate-carbohydrate, ketogenic, low-fat, high-protein, Mediterranean, Vegetarian/Vegan, low glycemic index, recommended, and control diets). In total, 83.3% of the studies were at a lower risk of bias or had some concerns. Findings of the NMA revealed that the ketogenic, low-carbohydrate, and low-fat diets were significantly effective in reducing HbA1c (viz., -0.73 (-1.19, -0.28), -0.69 (-1.32, -0.06), and -1.82 (-2.93, -0.71)), while moderate-carbohydrate, low glycemic index, Mediterranean, high-protein, and low-fat diets were significantly effective in reducing fasting glucose (viz., -1.30 (-1.92, -0.67), -1.26 (-2.26, -0.27), -0.95 (-1.51, -0.38), -0.89 (-1.60, -0.18) and -0.75 (-1.24, -0.27)) compared to a control diet. The clustered ranking plot for combined outcomes indicated the ketogenic, Mediterranean, moderate-carbohydrate, and low glycemic index diets had promising effects for controlling HbA1c and fasting glucose. The univariate meta-regressions showed that the mean reductions of HbA1c and fasting glucose were only significantly related to the mean weight change of the subjects.
For glycemic control in T2DM patients, the ketogenic diet, Mediterranean diet, moderate-carbohydrate diet, and low glycemic index diet were effective options. Although this study found the ketogenic diet superior, further high-quality and long-term studies are needed to strengthen its credibility.

Effect of Dietary Approaches on Glycemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review with Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials.

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