Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway, leading to motor and non-motor dysfunctions, such as depression, olfactory dysfunction, and memory impairment. Although levodopa (L-dopa) has been the gold standard PD treatment for decades, it only relieves motor symptoms and has no effect on non-motor symptoms or disease progression. Prior studies have reported that 6-shogaol, the active ingredient in ginger, exerts a protective effect on dopaminergic neurons by suppressing neuroinflammation in PD mice. This study investigated whether cotreatment with 6-shogaol and L-dopa could attenuate both motor and non-motor symptoms and dopaminergic neuronal damage.Both 6-shogaol (20 mg/kg) and L-dopa (80 mg/kg) were orally administered to 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine/probenecid-induced PD model mice for 26 days. The experimental results showed that L-dopa alleviated motor symptoms, but had no significant effect on non-motor symptoms, loss of dopaminergic neuron, or neuroinflammation. However, when mice were treated with 6-shogaol alone or in combination with L-dopa, an amelioration in both motor and non-motor symptoms such as depressionlike behavior, olfactory dysfunction and memory impairment was observed. Moreover, 6-shogaol-only or co-treatment of 6-shogaol with L-dopa protected dopaminergic neurons in the striatum and reduced neuroinflammation in the striatum and substantia nigra.Overall, these results suggest that 6-shogaol can effectively complement L-dopa by improving non-motor dysfunction and restoring dopaminergic neurons via suppressing neuroinflammation.

Purpose: Smoking cessation intervention is one of the key components of successful lung cancer screening program. We investigated the effectiveness and related factors of smoking cessation services provided to the participants in a population-based lung cancer screening trial. Materials and Methods: The Korean Lung Cancer Screening Project (K-LUCAS) is a nationwide, multi-center lung cancer screening trial that evaluates the feasibility of implementing population-based lung cancer screening. All 5,144 current smokers who participated in the K-LUCAS received a mandatory smoking cessation counseling. Changes in smoking status were followed up using a telephone survey in 6 months after lung cancer screening participation. The lung cancer screening’s impact on smoking cessation is analyzed by variations in the smoking cessation interventions provided in screening units. Results: Among 4,136 survey responders, participant’s motivation to quit smoking increased by 9.4% on average after lung cancer screening. After 6 months from the initial screening, 24.3% of participants stopped smoking, and 10.6% of participants had not smoked continuously for at least 6 months after screening. Over 80% of quitters stated that participation in lung cancer screening motivated them to quit smoking. Low-cost public smoking cessation program combined with lung cancer screening increased the abstinence rates. The smokers were three times more likely to quit smoking when the smoking cessation counseling was provided simultaneously with low-dose computed tomography screening results than when provided separately. Conclusion A mandatory smoking cessation intervention integrated with screening result counselling by a physician after participation in lung cancer screening could be effective for increasing smoking cessation attempts.

OBJECTIVES: This study compared the current smoking prevalence among adults with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection to that of the general Korean population and analyzed changes in smoking prevalence and cessation rates from 2009 to 2020. METHODS: The study included a total of 10,980 adults with HIV infection who underwent a health screening examination (National Health Insurance Service-National Health Information Database; NHIS-NHID), 1,230 individuals with HIV infection who participated in the Korea HIV/AIDS Cohort (KoCosHIV), and 76,783 participants from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). We estimated the current smoking prevalence and the quit ratio, defined as the ratio of former smokers to ever-smokers. RESULTS: In the NHIS-NHID and KoCosHIV studies, the prevalence of current and former smoking among adults with HIV was 44.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 43.2 to 45.1) and 15.6% (95% CI, 14.9 to 16.3), and 47.7% (95% CI, 43.7 to 51.8) and 16.9% (95% CI, 11.8 to 22.0), respectively. In the KNHANES, these rates were 22.5% and 18.1%, respectively. The standardized prevalence ratio of current smoking among adults with HIV was 1.76 in the NHIS-NHID and 1.97 in the KoCosHIV. Furthermore, the likelihood of quitting smoking was lower among adults with HIV than in the general population (NHIS-NHID: 26.1%; 95% CI, 25.0 to 27.1; KoCosHIV: 26.2%; 95% CI, 20.2 to 32.1; KNHANES: 44.6%; 95% CI, 44.5 to 44.6). Among HIV-positive adults, there was a 1.53% decline in the current smoking rate and a 2.86% increase in the quit ratio. CONCLUSIONS Adults with HIV were more likely to smoke and less likely to quit smoking than the general adult population. Tobacco screening and cessation strategies should specifically target this population.