Complex network changes during a virtual reality rehabilitation protocol following stroke: a case study

FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORStroke is one of the main causes of disabilities caused by injuries to the human central nervous system, yielding a wide range of mild to severe impairments that can compromise sensorimotor and cognitive functions. Although rehabilitation protocols may improve function of stroke survivors, patients often reach plateaus while undergoing therapy. Recently, virtual reality (VR) technologies have been paired with traditional rehabilitation aiming to improve function recovery after stroke. Aiming to better understand structural brain changes due to VR rehabilitation protocols, we modeled the brain as a graph and extracted three measures representing the network's topology: degree, clustering coefficient and betweenness centrality (BC). In this single case study, our results indicate that all metrics increased on the ipsilesional hemisphere, while remaining about the same at the contralesional site. Particularly, the number of functional connections increased in the lesion area overtime. In addition, the BC displayed the highest variations, and in brain regions related to the patient's cognitive and motor impairments; hence, we argue that this measure could be regarded as an indicative for brain plasticity mechanisms.891894FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIOR2013/07559-3Sem informação9. IEEE/EMBS International Conference on Neural Engineering (NER)20 a 23 de Março de 2019San Francisco, CA, Estados UnidosIEEE; EMB

Changuinola Virus Serogroup, New Genomes within the Genus Orbivirus (Family Reoviridae) Isolated in the Brazilian Amazon Region

We report here the first complete genome sequence of a Changuinola virus (CGLV) serotype Irituia virus (BE AN 28873) isolated from a wild rodent (Oryzomys goeldi) in the municipality of Ipixuna, State of Pará, northern Brazil. All genome segments showed similarity with those belonging to members of the genus Orbivirus, family Reoviridae

Circulating microRNAs in sera correlate with soluble biomarkers of immune activation but do not predict mortality in ART treated individuals with HIV-1 infection: A case control study

Introduction: The use of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has dramatically reduced HIV-1 associated morbidity and mortality. However, HIV-1 infected individuals have increased rates of morbidity and mortality compared to the non-HIV-1 infected population and this appears to be related to end-organ diseases collectively referred to as Serious Non-AIDS Events (SNAEs). Circulating miRNAs are reported as promising biomarkers for a number of human disease conditions including those that constitute SNAEs. Our study sought to investigate the potential of selected miRNAs in predicting mortality in HIV-1 infected ART treated individuals. Materials and Methods: A set of miRNAs was chosen based on published associations with human disease conditions that constitute SNAEs. This case: control study compared 126 cases (individuals who died whilst on therapy), and 247 matched controls (individuals who remained alive). Cases and controls were ART treated participants of two pivotal HIV-1 trials. The relative abundance of each miRNA in serum was measured, by RTqPCR. Associations with mortality (all-cause, cardiovascular and malignancy) were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Correlations between miRNAs and CD4+ T cell count, hs-CRP, IL-6 and D-dimer were also assessed. Results: None of the selected miRNAs was associated with all-cause, cardiovascular or malignancy mortality. The levels of three miRNAs (miRs -21, -122 and -200a) correlated with IL-6 while miR-21 also correlated with D-dimer. Additionally, the abundance of miRs -31, -150 and -223, correlated with baseline CD4+ T cell count while the same three miRNAs plus miR- 145 correlated with nadir CD4+ T cell count. Discussion: No associations with mortality were found with any circulating miRNA studied. These results cast doubt onto the effectiveness of circulating miRNA as early predictors of mortality or the major underlying diseases that contribute to mortality in participants treated for HIV-1 infection