Background: Facial emotion recognition (FER) is impaired in individuals with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) when compared to healthy older adults. Since deficits in emotion recognition are closely related to caregiver burden or social interactions, researchers have fundamental interest in FER performance in patients with dementia.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the performance profiles of six facial emotions (i.e., fear, anger, disgust, sadness, surprise, and happiness) and neutral faces measured among Korean healthy control (HCs), and those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), AD, and FTD. Additionally, the neuroanatomical correlates of facial emotions were investigated.Methods: A total of 110 (33 HC, 32 MCI, 32 AD, 13 FTD) older adult participants were recruited from two different medical centers in metropolitan areas of South Korea. These individuals underwent an FER test that was used to assess the recognition of emotions or absence of emotion (neutral) in 35 facial stimuli. Repeated measures two-way analyses of variance were used to examine the distinct profiles of emotional recognition among the four groups. We also performed brain imaging and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) on the participants to examine the associations between FER scores and gray matter volume.Results: The mean score of negative emotion recognition (i.e., fear, anger, disgust, and sadness) clearly discriminated FTD participants from individuals with MCI and AD and HC [F(3,106) = 10.829, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.235], whereas the mean score of positive emotion recognition (i.e., surprise and happiness) did not. A VBM analysis showed negative emotions were correlated with gray matter volume of anterior temporal regions, whereas positive emotions were related to gray matter volume of fronto-parietal regions.Conclusion: Impairment of negative FER in patients with FTD is cross-cultural. The discrete neural correlates of FER indicate that emotional recognition processing is a multi-modal system in the brain. Focusing on the negative emotion recognition is a more effective way to discriminate healthy aging, MCI, and AD from FTD in older Korean adults.

The relationship between ambient particulate matter exposure and health has been well established. Ultrafine particles (UFP) with a diameter of 100 nm or less are known to increase pulmonary disease risk. Biological factors in dust containing UFP can cause severe inflammatory reactions. Pulmonary diseases develop primarily as a result of chronic inflammation caused by immune dysfunction. Thus, this review focuses on the adverse pulmonary effects of biological UFP, principally lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and bacterial extracellular vesicles (EVs), in indoor dust and the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the development of chronic pulmonary diseases. The impact of LPSinduced pulmonary inflammation is based primarily on the amount of inhaled LPS. When relatively low levels of LPS are inhaled, a cascade of immune responses leads to Th2 cell induction, and IL-5 and IL-13 released by Th2 cells contributes to asthma development. Conversely, exposure to high levels of LPS induces a Th17 cell response, leading to increased production of IL-17, which is associated with asthma, COPD, and lung cancer incidence. Responses to bacterial EV exposure can similarly be broadly divided based on whether one of two mechanisms, either intracellular or extracellular, is activated, which depends on the type of the parent cell. Extracellular bacteria-derived EVs can cause neutrophilic inflammation via Th17 cell induction, which is associated with asthma, emphysema, COPD, and lung cancer. On the other hand, intracellular bacteria-derived EVs lead to mononuclear inflammation via Th1 cell induction, which increases the risk of emphysema. In conclusion, future measures should focus on the overall reduction of LPS sources in addition to the improvement of the balance of inhaled bacterial EVs in the indoor environment to minimize pulmonary disease risk.

Novel biomarkers for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer (PC) are necessary to improve prognosis. We aimed to discover candidate biomarkers by identifying compositional differences of microbiome between patients with PC (n = 38) and healthy controls (n = 52), using microbial extracellular vesicles (EVs) acquired from blood samples. Composition analysis was performed using 16S rRNA gene analysis and bacteria-derived EVs. Statistically significant differences in microbial compositions were used to construct PC prediction models after propensity score matching analysis to reduce other possible biases. Between-group differences in microbial compositions were identified at the phylum and genus levels. At the phylum level, three species (Verrucomicrobia, Deferribacteres, and Bacteroidetes) were more abundant and one species (Actinobacteria) was less abundant in PC patients. At the genus level, four species (Stenotrophomonas, Sphingomonas, Propionibacterium, and Corynebacterium) were less abundant and six species (Ruminococcaceae UCG-014, Lachnospiraceae NK4A136 group, Akkermansia, Turicibacter, Ruminiclostridium, and Lachnospiraceae UCG-001) were more abundant in PC patients. Using the best combination of these microbiome markers, we constructed a PC prediction model that yielded a high area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.966 and 1.000, at the phylum and genus level, respectively). These microbiome markers, which altered microbial compositions, are therefore candidate biomarkers for early diagnosis of PC.

Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more prone to suicidal ideation and behavior. While those who have experienced interpersonal trauma exhibit more suicidality than those who have experienced non-interpersonal trauma, it is unclear how the traumatic effects are related to an individual’s personality characteristics. This study examined the association between interpersonal trauma and personality factors with suicidality, and elucidated the moderating role of interpersonal trauma in individuals with PTSD. The study included 6,022 participants from the Korean Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study 2011. The Korean Version of Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used for the survey, including the participants’ history of suicidality, the traumas they have experienced, and their PTSD symptoms. The 11-item version of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-11) was used to assess the participants’ personality factors. 76 individuals were diagnosed with PTSD, while 810 had been exposed to trauma but were not diagnosed with any DSM-IV mental disorder. Among the individuals with PTSD, those who had experienced interpersonal trauma were more likely to have suicidal ideation than those who had experienced non-interpersonal trauma (p = .020; odds ratio [OR] = 3.643; 95% confidence interval of OR = [1.226, 10.825]). High agreeableness and conscientiousness predicted less suicidality in those exposed to non-interpersonal trauma, while predicting more suicidality in those exposed to interpersonal trauma. Clinicians examining individuals with PTSD should pay closer attention to the trauma that they have experienced, as well as their personality factors, to provide appropriate treatment.