̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - National Natural Science Foundation of China

Loneliness linked to higher risk of heart disease and stroke and susceptibility to infection

cjb250 — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Researchers from the UK and China drew this conclusion after studying proteins from blood samples taken from over 42,000 adults recruited to the UK Biobank. Their findings are published today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Social relationships play an important role in our wellbeing. Evidence increasingly demonstrates that both social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health and an early death. Despite this evidence, however, the underlying mechanisms through which social relationships impact health remain elusive.

One way to explore biological mechanisms is to look at proteins circulating in the blood. Proteins are molecules produced by our genes and are essential for helping our bodies function properly. They can also serve as useful drug targets, allowing researchers to develop new treatments to tackle diseases.

A team led by scientists at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, UK, and Fudan ̽��ֱ��, China, examined the ‘proteomes’ – the suite of proteins – in blood samples donated by over 42,000 adults aged 40-69 years who are taking part in the UK Biobank. This allowed them to see which proteins were present in higher levels among people who were socially isolated or lonely, and how these proteins were connected to poorer health.

̽��ֱ��team calculated social isolation and loneliness scores for individuals. Social isolation is an objective measure based on, for example, whether someone lives alone, how frequently they have contact with others socially, and whether they take part in social activities. Loneliness, on the other hand, is a subjective measure based on whether an individual feels lonely.

When they analysed the proteomes and adjusted for factors such as age, sex and socioeconomic background, the team found 175 proteins associated with social isolation and 26 proteins associated with loneliness (though there was substantial overlap, with approximately 85% of the proteins associated with loneliness being shared with social isolation). Many of these proteins are produced in response to inflammation, viral infection and as part of our immune responses, as well as having been linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and early death.

̽��ֱ��team then used a statistical technique known as Mendelian randomization to explore the causal relationship between social isolation and loneliness on the one hand, and proteins on the other. Using this approach, they identified five proteins whose abundance was caused by loneliness.

Dr Chun Shen from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan ̽��ֱ��, said: “We know that social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health, but we’ve never understood why. Our work has highlighted a number of proteins that appear to play a key role in this relationship, with levels of some proteins in particular increasing as a direct consequence of loneliness.

Professor Jianfeng Feng from the ̽��ֱ�� of Warwick said: "There are more than 100,000 proteins and many of their variants in the human body. AI and high throughput proteomics can help us pinpoint some key proteins in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis in many human diseases and revolutionise the traditional view of human health.

" ̽��ֱ��proteins we’ve identified give us clues to the biology underpinning poor health among people who are socially isolated or lonely, highlighting why social relationships play such an important part in keeping us healthy.”

One of the proteins produced in higher levels as a result of loneliness was ADM. Previous studies have shown that this protein plays a role in responding to stress and in regulating stress hormones and social hormones such as oxytocin – the so-called ‘love hormone’ – which can reduce stress and improve mood.

̽��ֱ��team found a strong association between ADM and the volume of the insula, a brain hub for interoception, our ability to sense what's happening inside our body – the greater the ADM levels, the smaller the volume of this region. Higher ADM levels were also linked to lower volume of the left caudate, a region involved in emotional, reward, and social processes. In addition, higher levels of ADM were linked to increased risk of early death.

Another of the proteins, ASGR1, is associated with higher cholesterol and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, while other identified proteins play roles in the development of insulin resistance, atherosclerosis (‘furring’ of the arteries) and cancer progression, for example.

Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge said: “These findings drive home the importance of social contact in keeping us well. More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely. That’s why the World Health Organization has described social isolation and loneliness as a ‘global public health concern’. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy.”

̽��ֱ��research was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Shanghai Rising-Star Program, National Key R&D Program of China, Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project, 111 Project, Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, and Zhangjiang Lab.

Reference
Shen, C et al. Plasma proteomic signatures of social isolation and loneliness associated with morbidity and mortality. Nat Hum Behav; 3 Jan 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-02078-1

Interactions with friends and family may keep us healthy because they boost our immune system and reduce our risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy

Barbara Sahakian

Noah Silliman

Person looking out through window

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One in two children with ADHD experience emotional problems, study finds

cjb250 — Wed, 22 May 2024 08:00:15 +0000

In research published in Nature Mental Health, the team found that as many as one in two children with ADHD show signs of emotional dysregulation, and that Ritalin – the commonly-prescribed drug to help the condition – appears to be less effective at treating this symptom.

ADHD affects around one in 14 young people under the age of 18 and in around half of these cases it persists into adulthood. ̽��ֱ��condition causes problems including hyperactivity, impulsivity and a difficulty to focus attention.

It has become increasingly clear that some people with ADHD also have self-control problems, affecting their ability to regulate emotions. For example, one in 50 (2.1%) children with a diagnosis of ADHD also have a mood disorder, such as depression, while more than one in four (27.4%) have an anxiety disorder. Many also have verbal or physical outbursts due to an inability to regulate their emotions.

These problems were thought to be a result of other symptoms associated with ADHD, such as problems with cognition and motivation. But today’s study shows that emotional dysregulation occurs independently of these.

̽��ֱ��researchers examined data from the ABCD Study, a large longitudinal cohort that tracks the brain development and mental health of children from across the United States. Data on ADHD symptoms was available for just over 6,000 of these children, allowing the researchers to attribute a score to each individual indicating their likelihood of having ADHD.

A team of scientists from Fudan ̽��ֱ�� in Shanghai, China, and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge identified 350 individuals within the cohort who had high symptom scores that met the clinical cut-off for ADHD. Two-thirds (65.7%) of these were male.

Parents or guardians of the children and adolescents in the cohort had previously completed a series of questionnaires, which included questions that related to emotional behaviour, for example:

When my child is upset, he/she has difficulty controlling his/her behaviours.

When my child is upset, he/she knows that he/she can find a way to eventually feel better.

When my child is upset, he/she starts to feel very bad about him/herself.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that half (51.4%) of the individuals in the high-symptom group showed signs of emotion dysregulation and this was independent of cognitive and motivational problems.

Among children with only low-ADHD symptoms at both ages 12 and 13 years, those with a high scores of emotion dysregulation at age 13 years were 2.85 times more likely to have developed high-ADHD symptoms by age 14 years compared with those with a low score of emotion dysregulation.

When the researchers examined brain imaging data available for some of the participants, they discovered a particular region of the brain known as the pars orbitalis that was smaller among children who scored highly for ADHD and emotional problems. ̽��ֱ��pars orbitalis is at the front of the brain and plays an important role in understanding and processing of emotion and communication as well as inhibitory control over behaviour, which may explain some of the behaviours seen in ADHD.

Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and a Fellow of Clare Hall said: “ ̽��ֱ��pars orbitalis is a well-connected part of the brain, and if it hasn’t developed properly it might make it difficult for individuals to control their emotions and communicate with others appropriately, especially in social situations.

“Parents and teachers often say they have problems controlling children with ADHD, and it could be that when the children can’t express themselves well – when they hit emotional difficulties – they may not be able to control their emotions and have an outburst rather than communicating with the parent, teacher or the other child.”

Professor Sahakian hopes that acknowledging emotion dysregulation as a key part of ADHD will help people better understand the problems the child is experiencing. This could lead to using effective treatments for regulation of emotion, such as cognitive behavioural therapy.

̽��ֱ��findings may also point to potential ways to help the child manage their emotions, for example by using cognitive behavioural techniques to learn to stop and think before they react and to express their feelings verbally, or use techniques such as exercise or relaxation to calm themselves or alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety.

This may be particularly important as the researchers found that Ritalin, the drug used to help manage ADHD symptoms, does not appear to fully treat symptoms of emotion dysregulation. Identifying the problem earlier would allow for alternative, more effective interventions to help the child better manage their emotions, potentially helping the individual in adulthood.

Professor Qiang Luo from Fudan ̽��ֱ�� and a Life Member at Clare Hall, Cambridge, said: “If you're having trouble controlling your emotions, this can lead to problems with social interactions, which further exacerbates any depression or anxiety that you might have. It also might mean that you're saying things or doing things that exacerbate a situation rather than calming it down. Teaching vulnerable individuals from an early age how to manage your emotions and express yourself could help them overcome such problems further down the line.”

While it is not clear exactly what causes these problems in the first place, the researchers found signs of a link to possible dysfunction of the immune system, with individuals who exhibited signs of emotion dysregulation showing higher percentages of certain types of immune cell.

Professor Sahakian added: “We already know that problems with the immune system can be linked to depression, and we’ve seen similar patterns in individuals with ADHD who experience emotion dysregulation.”

̽��ֱ��research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Program of Shanghai Academic Research Leader and the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project.

Reference
Hou, W et al. Emotion dysregulation and right pars orbitalis constitute a neuropsychological pathway to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Nature Mental Health; 13 May 2024: DOI: 10.1038/s44220-024-00251-z

Cambridge scientists have shown that problems regulating emotions – which can manifest as depression, anxiety and explosive outbursts – may be a core symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

When the children can’t express themselves well – when they hit emotional difficulties – they may not be able to control their emotions and have an outburst rather than communicating

Barbara Sahakian

Constantinis (Getty Images)

Teenage boys fighting on way to school

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Reading for pleasure early in childhood linked to better cognitive performance and mental wellbeing in adolescence

cjb250 — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 23:01:19 +0000

In a study published today in Psychological Medicine, researchers in the UK and China found that 12 hours a week was the optimal amount of reading, and that this was linked to improved brain structure, which may help explain the findings.

Reading for pleasure can be an important and enjoyable childhood activity. Unlike listening and spoken language, which develop rapidly and easily in young children, reading is a taught skill and is acquired and developed through explicit learning over time.

During childhood and adolescence, our brains develop, making this an important time in which to establish behaviours that support our cognitive development and promote good brain health. However, until now it has been unclear what impact – if any – encouraging children to read from an early age will have on their brain development, cognition and mental health later in life.

To investigate this, researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Warwick in the UK and Fudan ̽��ֱ�� in China looked at data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) cohort in the US, which recruited more than 10,000 young adolescents.

̽��ֱ��team analysed a wide range of data including from clinical interviews, cognitive tests, mental and behavioural assessments and brain scans, comparing young people who began reading for pleasure at a relatively early age (between two and nine years old) against those who began doing so later or not at all. ̽��ֱ��analyses controlled for many important factors, including socio-economic status.

Of the 10,243 participants studied, just under a half (48%) had little experience of reading for pleasure or did not begin doing so until later in their childhood. ̽��ֱ��remaining half had spent between three and ten years reading for pleasure.

̽��ֱ��team found a strong link between reading for pleasure at an early age and a positive performance in adolescence on cognitive tests that measured such factors as verbal learning, memory and speech development, and at school academic achievement.

These children also had better mental wellbeing, as assessed using a number of clinical scores and reports from parents and teachers, showing fewer signs of stress and depression, as well as improved attention and fewer behavioural problems such as aggression and rule-breaking.

Children who began reading for pleasure earlier also tended to spend less screen time – for example watching TV or using their smartphone or tablet – during the week and at weekends in their adolescence, and also tended to sleep longer.

When the researchers looked at brain scans from the adolescent cohort, they found that those participants who had taken to reading for pleasure at an early age showed moderately larger total brain areas and volumes, including in particular brain regions that play critical roles in cognitive functions. Other brain regions that were different among this group were those that have been previously shown to relate to improved mental health, behaviour and attention.

Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge said: “Reading isn’t just a pleasurable experience – it’s widely accepted that it inspires thinking and creativity, increases empathy and reduces stress. But on top of this, we found significant evidence that it’s linked to important developmental factors in children, improving their cognition, mental health, and brain structure, which are cornerstones for future learning and well-being.”

̽��ֱ��optimal amount of reading for pleasure as a young child was around 12 hours per week. Beyond this, there appeared to be no additional benefits. In fact, there was a gradual decrease in cognition, which the researchers say may be because it suggests they are spending more time sedentary and less time at other activities that could be cognitively enriching, including sports and social activities.

Professor Jianfeng Feng from Fudan ̽��ֱ�� in Shanghai, China, and the ̽��ֱ�� of Warwick, UK, said: “We encourage parents to do their best to awaken the joy of reading in their children at an early age. Done right, this will not only give them pleasure and enjoyment, but will also help their development and encourage long-term reading habits, which may also prove beneficial into adult life.”

Funders included: Wellcome and the National Institute for Health & Care Research (UK) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.*

Reference
Yun-Jun Sun & Barbara J. Sahakian et al. Early-Initiated Childhood Reading for Pleasure: Associations with Better Cognitive Performance, Mental Well-being and Brain Structure in Young Adolescence. Psychological Medicine; 28 June 2023; DOI: 10.1017/S0033291723001381.

*A full list of funders can be found in the paper.

Children who begin reading for pleasure early in life tend to perform better at cognitive tests and have better mental health when they enter adolescence, a study of more than 10,000 young adolescents in the US has found.

We found significant evidence that reading is linked to important developmental factors in children, improving their cognition, mental health, and brain structure, which are cornerstones for future learning and well-being

Barbara Sahakian

Johnny McClung

Girl reading a book

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Environmentally-friendly graphene textiles could enable wearable electronics

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 00:23:01 +0000

Wearable, textiles-based electronics present new possibilities for flexible circuits, healthcare and environment monitoring, energy conversion, and many others. Now, researchers at the Cambridge Graphene Centre (CGC) at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, working in collaboration with scientists at Jiangnan ̽��ֱ��, China, have devised a method for depositing graphene-based inks onto cotton to produce a conductive textile. ̽��ֱ��work, published in the journal Carbon, demonstrates a wearable motion sensor based on the conductive cotton.

Cotton fabric is among the most widespread for use in clothing and textiles, as it is breathable and comfortable to wear, as well as being durable to washing. These properties also make it an excellent choice for textile electronics. A new process, developed by Dr Felice Torrisi at the CGC, and his collaborators, is a low-cost, sustainable and environmentally-friendly method for making conductive cotton textiles by impregnating them with a graphene-based conductive ink.

Based on Dr Torrisi’s work on the formulation of printable graphene inks for flexible electronics, the team created inks of chemically modified graphene flakes that are more adhesive to cotton fibres than unmodified graphene. Heat treatment after depositing the ink on the fabric improves the conductivity of the modified graphene. ̽��ֱ��adhesion of the modified graphene to the cotton fibre is similar to the way cotton holds coloured dyes, and allows the fabric to remain conductive after several washes.

Although numerous researchers around the world have developed wearable sensors, most of the current wearable technologies rely on rigid electronic components mounted on flexible materials such as plastic films or textiles. These offer limited compatibility with the skin in many circumstances, are damaged when washed and are uncomfortable to wear because they are not breathable.

“Other conductive inks are made from precious metals such as silver, which makes them very expensive to produce and not sustainable, whereas graphene is both cheap, environmentally-friendly, and chemically compatible with cotton,” explains Dr Torrisi.

Co-author Professor Chaoxia Wang of Jiangnan ̽��ֱ�� adds: “This method will allow us to put electronic systems directly into clothes. It’s an incredible enabling technology for smart textiles.”

Electron microscopy image of a conductive graphene/cotton fabric. Credit: Jiesheng Ren

̽��ֱ��work done by Dr Torrisi and Prof Wang, together with students Tian Carey and Jiesheng Ren, opens a number of commercial opportunities for graphene-based inks, ranging from personal health technology, high-performance sportswear, military garments, wearable technology/computing and fashion.

“Turning cotton fibres into functional electronic components can open to an entirely new set of applications from healthcare and wellbeing to the Internet of Things,” says Dr Torrisi “Thanks to nanotechnology, in the future our clothes could incorporate these textile-based electronics and become interactive.”

Graphene is carbon in the form of single-atom-thick membranes, and is highly conductive. ̽��ֱ��group’s work is based on the dispersion of tiny graphene sheets, each less than one nanometre thick, in a water-based dispersion. ̽��ֱ��individual graphene sheets in suspension are chemically modified to adhere well to the cotton fibres during printing and deposition on the fabric, leading to a thin and uniform conducting network of many graphene sheets. This network of nanometre flakes is the secret to the high sensitivity to strain induced by motion. A simple graphene-coated smart cotton textile used as a wearable strain sensor has been shown to reliably detect up to 500 motion cycles, even after more than 10 washing cycles in normal washing machine.

̽��ֱ��use of graphene and other related 2D materials (GRMs) inks to create electronic components and devices integrated into fabrics and innovative textiles is at the centre of new technical advances in the smart textiles industry. Dr Torrisi and colleagues at the CGC are also involved in the Graphene Flagship, an EC-funded, pan-European project dedicated to bringing graphene and GRM technologies to commercial applications.

Graphene and GRMs are changing the science and technology landscape with attractive physical properties for electronics, photonics, sensing, catalysis and energy storage. Graphene’s atomic thickness and excellent electrical and mechanical properties give excellent advantages, allowing deposition of extremely thin, flexible and conductive films on surfaces and – with this new method – also on textiles. This combined with the environmental compatibility of graphene and its strong adhesion to cotton make the graphene-cotton strain sensor ideal for wearable applications.

̽��ֱ��research was supported by grants from the European Research Council’s Synergy Grant, the International Research Fellowship of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. ̽��ֱ��technology is being commercialised by Cambridge Enterprise, the ̽��ֱ��’s commercialisation arm.

Reference
Ren, J. et al. Environmentally-friendly conductive cotton fabric as flexible strain sensor based on hot press reduced graphene oxide. Carbon; 19 Oct 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2016.10.045

A new method for producing conductive cotton fabrics using graphene-based inks opens up new possibilities for flexible and wearable electronics, without the use of expensive and toxic processing steps.

Turning cotton fibres into functional electronic components can open to an entirely new set of applications from healthcare and wellbeing to the Internet of Things

Felice Torrisi

Jiesheng Ren

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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