To investigate the association between primary insomnia and dementia using a Taiwanese population-based database. This case-control study involved a subset of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database of reimbursement claims. We included 51,734 patients who were diagnosed with primary insomnia from 2002 to 2004 as the test group and 258,715 nonprimary insomnia participants aged 20 years or older as the reference group. We excluded patients under 20 and those with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and/or sleep disorders caused by organic lesion(s), drugs, or alcohol. We used a Cox proportional hazards model to assess the primary insomnia on the risk of developing dementia after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and comorbidities. The primary insomnia cohort had a higher prevalence of diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, coronary heart disease, chronic liver disease, and chronic kidney disease at baseline. After adjusting for select comorbidities, primary insomnia remained a significant predisposing factor for developing dementia, and was associated with a 2.14-fold (95% confidence interval, 2.01–2.29) increase in dementia risk. We also found a higher risk of dementia in younger patients. Taiwanese patients with primary insomnia, especially those under 40, had a higher risk of developing dementia than those without primary insomnia.

This population-based study was designed to estimate and compare the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) between patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) and non-SS patients during a 10-year follow-up period. This is a retrospective cohort study. Data were obtained from the Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database. We identified 4463 primary SS patients and 22,315 non-SS patients; patients were matched by sex, age, and the year of index use of health care. Each patient was studied to identify the subsequent manifestation of AD. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to study the subsequent manifestation of AD, and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to compare survival probability. During the 10-year follow-up period, 7 primary SS and 13 non-SS patients developed AD. During the 10-year follow-up period, the risk of AD was 2.68-fold higher in the primary SS cohort with an overall adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 2.69 (95% CI 1.07–6.76), after adjusting for demographics and comorbidities. Within the 10-year period, patients with primary SS showed a 2.69-fold increased risk of developing AD. This risk increases with time, and the relative risk of AD is higher in older patients with primary SS.

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that requires individuals with diabetes to perform "finger stick blood sugar tests" multiple times a day. This invasive method is not capable of continuously monitoring a diabetic patient’s blood glucose levels and can be painful and inconvenient in the long term. In our study, we developed a non-invasive blood glucose estimation method using dual-channel Photoplethysmography (PPG) combined with Pulse Arrival Velocity (PAV). The dual-channel PPG was chosen based on the advantages of 530nm PPG in blood flow measurement and 1550nm infrared light in blood glucose concentration detection. In addition to testing various amplitude features in PPG at different fiducial points (systolic peak, dicrotic notch, and diastolic peak), we also examined the amplitude ratio between the two PPG channels (530nm green-light PPG and 1550nm infrared PPG), as well as PAV, for non-invasive blood glucose estimation. In this study, we recruited 18 healthy subjects (14 males and 4 females; aged 29.4 ± 7.87 years old). The oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) experiment was conducted on each participant to manipulate the blood glucose level. Each parameter for blood glucose estimation was examined using partial F-test to assess its impact on blood glucose estimation. We found that combining the amplitude ratio of the dual-channel PPG with PAV resulted in the best blood glucose estimation results, with estimation results falling within zone A in the Clarke Error Grid Analysis (CEGA) with a 100% success rate, and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) being 7.46 ± 2.43 mg/dL.

Pluchea indica (L.) Less. is a perennial plant known for its versatile uses in traditional medicine. Previous findings have shown that the extracts of Pluchea indica possess significant anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer and anti-tuberculosis activity. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the anticancer activity of the hexane fraction of P. indica root extract (H-PIRE) in human glioblastoma cells using flow cytometric and western blot analysis. The results shoewd that, H-PIRE suppressed the growth of glioblastoma cells in a dose-dependent manner. H-PIRE treatment markedly decreased the population of cells in S and G2/M phases. The significant upregulation of acidic vesicular organelle (AVO) was detected during H-PIRE treatment. The expression levels of microtubule-associated light chain 3-II (LC3-II) protein, phosphorylated JNK and phosphorylated p38 were significantly increased, confirming the occurrence of autophagy during the process. Finally, the combination treatment of H-PIRE and LY294002, a pan PI3K inhibitor, further decreased cell viability, suggesting an additive anticancer effect. Taken together, our results suggest that H-PIRE suppresses the proliferation of glioblastoma cells by inducing cell cycle arrest and autophagy.