There are only a few studies that have shown an association of peripheral neuropathy with cognitive impairment in elderly individuals. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between cognitive performance and peripheral neuropathy. From the database of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 1999–2002), each participant completed a household interview, physical performance test, questionnaire regarding personal health, and Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) to evaluate cognitive performance. The severity of peripheral neuropathy was assessed based on the number of insensate areas in both feet during monofilament examination. We used the multivariate linear regression to analyze the association of the DSST findings with insensate areas of the worse foot. There were 828 participants in our study from NHANES 1999 to 2002; their mean age was 69.96 ± 7.38 years, and 51.3% were male. The β coefficients of the number of insensate areas associated with the DSST findings were all negative values, and the absolute value increased as the number of insensate areas increased. After adjustment for pertinent variables, the correlations remained significantly negative (all P for trend <.001). In addition, subgroup analysis showed no gender differences in the negative association, but this association was not significant in obese participants ( P > .05 ) . Our study provides evidence that the severity of peripheral neuropathy is significantly negatively correlated with cognitive performance.

Hearing loss resulted from multiple intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Secondhand smoke (SHS) and obesity had been reported to be related to hearing loss. This study explored the possible associations of SHS and obesity with the hearing threshold. The relations between SHS and the hearing threshold in subjects from three different body mass index classes were analyzed. Our study included data from 1,961 subjects aged 20–69 years that were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the years 1999–2004. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, the subjects with the higher tertiles of serum cotinine levels tended to have higher hearing thresholds than those with the lowest tertile of serum cotinine levels (for both trends, p < 0.05). Notably, the obese subjects with the higher tertiles of serum cotinine levels had significantly higher hearing thresholds for high frequencies and low frequencies than those with the lowest tertile of serum cotinine levels (for both trends, p < 0.05). Our study showed a significant positive association between SHS exposure and hearing thresholds in the adult population, especially in obese individuals. Based on our findings, avoiding exposure to SHS, especially in obese adults, may decrease the risk of hearing loss.

Poloxamer-188 (P188) is a nonionic triblock linear copolymer that can be used as a pharmaceutical excipient because of its amphiphilic nature. This study investigated whether P188 can act as an adjuvant to improve the immunogenicity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) receptor binding domain (RBD) subunit vaccine. BALB/c mice were vaccinated twice with the RBD antigen alone or in combination with P188 or MF59 (a commercial adjuvant for comparison purposes). The resulting humoral and cellular immunity were assessed. Results showed that P188 helped elicit higher neutralizing activity than MF59 after vaccination. P188 induced significant humoral immune response, along with type 1 T helper (Th1) and type 2 T helper (Th2) cellular immune response when compared with MF59 due to repressing p38MAPK phosphorylation. Furthermore, P188 did not result in adverse effects such as fibrosis of liver or kidney after vaccination. In conclusion, P188 is a novel adjuvant that may be used for safe and effective immune enhancement of the SARS-CoV-2 RBD antigen.

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