13 research outputs found
NLRP3 Inflammasome Is Involved in Cocaine-Mediated Potentiation on Behavioral Changes in CX3CR1-Deficient Mice
Microglia, the primary immunocompetent cells of the brain, are suggested to play a role in the development of drug addiction. Previous studies have identified the microglia-derived pro-inflammatory factor IL1ÎČ can promote the progression of cocaine addiction. Additionally, the activation status of microglia and âtwo-hit hypothesisâ have been proposed in the field of drug addiction to explain how early life stress (ELS) could significantly increase the incidence of drug addiction in later life. However, the mechanisms underlying microglia prime and full activation and their roles in drug addiction remain greatly unexplored. Here, we employed CX3CR1-GFP mice (CX3CR1 functional deficiency, CX3CR1â/â) to explore whether primed microglia could potentiate cocaine-mediated behavioral changes and the possible underlying mechanisms. CX3CR1â/â mice revealed higher hyperlocomotion activity and conditional place preference than wild-type (WT) mice did under cocaine administration. In parallel, CX3CR1â/â mice showed higher activity of NLR family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome than WT mice. Interestingly, CX3CR1 deficiency itself could prime NLRP3 signaling by increasing the expression of NLPR3 and affect lysosome biogenesis under basal conditions. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that the functional status of microglia could have an impact on cocaine-mediated reward effects, and NLRP3 inflammasome activity was associated with this phenomenon. This study was consistent with the two-hit hypothesis and provided solid evidence to support the involvement of microglia in drug addiction. Targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome may represent a novel therapeutic approach for ameliorating or blocking the development of drug addiction
Antiretroviral-Mediated Microglial Activation Involves Dysregulated Autophagy and Lysosomal Dysfunction
In the era of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), as infected individuals continue to have longer lifespans, there is also an increased prevalence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Inflammation is one of the underlying features of HAND, with the role of viral proteins and antiretroviral drugs implicated in this process. Microglia are extremely sensitive to a plethora of stimuli, including viral products and cART. The current study was undertaken to understand the molecular mechanism(s) underlying cART-mediated activation of microglia. Herein we chose a combination of three commonly used drugs, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), emtricitabine (FTC), and dolutegravir (DTG). We demonstrated that exposure of microglia to this cART cocktail induced lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP), which subsequently resulted in impaired lysosomal functioning involving elevated pH and decreased cathepsin D (CTSD) activity. cART exposure of microglia resulted in increased formation of autophagosomes as demonstrated by a time-dependent increase of autophagy markers, with a concomitant defect in the fusion of the lysosomes with the autophagosome. Taken together, our findings suggest a novel mechanism by which cART impairs lysosomal functioning, resulting in dysregulated autophagy and increased neuroinflammation. Interventions aimed at lysosome protection could likely be envisioned as promising therapeutic targets for abrogating cART-mediated microglia activation, which in turn, could thus be considered as adjunctive therapeutics for the treatment of HAND pathogenesis
GB Virus C Viremia Is Associated With Higher Levels of Double-Negative T Cells and Lower T-Cell Activation in HIV-Infected Individuals Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy
Definition of an 18-mer Synthetic Peptide Derived from the GB virus C E1 Protein as a New HIV-1 Entry Inhibitor
Cocaine Induces Inflammatory Gut Milieu by Compromising the Mucosal Barrier Integrity and Altering the Gut Microbiota Colonization
Purification and Characterization of Mannanase from Aspergillus awamori for Fruit Juice Clarification
Characteristics of gluten-free bread: quality improvement by the addition of starches/hydrocolloids and their combinations using a definitive screening design
Prevalence of human pegivirus-1 and sequence variability of its E2 glycoprotein estimated from screening donors of fetal stem cell-containing material
Parameter Baserad Prediktionsmodell för Upplevd Talkvalité i SÀker VoIP trafik
More and more sensitive information is communicated digitally and with thatcomes the demand for security and privacy on the services being used. An accurateQoS metric for these services are of interest both for the customer and theservice provider. This thesis has investigated the impact of different parameterson the perceived voice quality for encrypted VoIP using a PESQ score as referencevalue. Based on this investigation a parametric prediction model has been developedwhich outputs a R-value, comparable to that of the widely used E-modelfrom ITU. This thesis can further be seen as a template for how to construct modelsof other equipments or codecs than those evaluated here since they effect theresult but are hard to parametrise. The results of the investigation are consistent with previous studies regarding theimpact of packet loss, the impact of jitter is shown to be significant over 40 ms.The results from three different packetizers are presented which illustrates theneed to take such aspects into consideration when constructing a model to predictvoice quality. The model derived from the investigation performs well withno mean error and a standard deviation of the error of a mere 1:45 R-value unitswhen validated in conditions to be expected in GSM networks. When validatedagainst an emulated 3G network the standard deviation is even lower.