Case Report of a Remote Ischemic Preconditioning Intervention during Aerobic Exercise in a 44-year-old Amateur Triathlete Male with a History of Acute Myocardial Infarction

International Journal of Exercise Science 13(3): 924-937, 2020. Over the years, exercise has become increasingly important in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, AMI patients need to be closely monitored since they maintain cardiovascular disease risks, such as ventricular repolarization abnormalities in electrocardiograms during exercise and rest. A recent study showed the need to focus on the different potential mechanisms and the applicability of remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) for cardiac patients engaged in exercise rehabilitation. This is the first case report that explores the effectiveness of an RIPC intervention in a 44-year-old amateur triathlete male with a history of AMI during a moderate (75% of gas exchange threshold) and high (115% of gas exchange threshold) intensity steady-state cycling aerobic exercise. Prior to aerobic exercise, the participant was allocated to either RIPC intervention or CTL (control) with four cycles of five minutes of ischemia followed by five minutes of reperfusion. ECG was continuously recorded during the protocol. These findings showed that RIPC improved participant’s oxygen uptake response and shortened his ventricular repolarization during steady-state aerobic exercises. By measuring the physiological and electrophysical parameters, this case report adds new evidence for the benefits of RIPC. This study also demonstrates the safety of the intervention for cardiac patients in addition to showing that the intervention is not dangerous or harmful. This provides a new approach to cardiac rehabilitation programs. Future studies with cardiac patients are needed to provide a safe, standardized exercise intervention in cardiac rehabilitation

Sleep is required to consolidate odor memory and remodel olfactory synapses

Animals with complex nervous systems demand sleep for memory consolidation and synaptic remodeling. Here, we show that, although the Caenorhabditis elegans nervous system has a limited number of neurons, sleep is necessary for both processes. In addition, it is unclear if, in any system, sleep collaborates with experience to alter synapses between specific neurons and whether this ultimately affects behavior. C. elegans neurons have defined connections and well-described contributions to behavior. We show that spaced odor-training and post-training sleep induce long-term memory. Memory consolidation, but not acquisition, requires a pair of interneurons, the AIYs, which play a role in odor-seeking behavior. In worms that consolidate memory, both sleep and odor conditioning are required to diminish inhibitory synaptic connections between the AWC chemosensory neurons and the AIYs. Thus, we demonstrate in a living organism that sleep is required for events immediately after training that drive memory consolidation and alter synaptic structures

Drug suicide: a sex-equal cause of death in 16 European countries

Background: There is a lack of international research on suicide by drug overdose as a preventable suicide method. Sex- and age-specific rates of suicide by drug self-poisoning (ICD-10, X60-64) and the distribution of drug types used in 16 European countries were studied, and compared with other self-poisoning methods (X65-69) and intentional self-injury (X70-84).Methods: Data for 2000-04/05 were collected from national statistical offices. Age-adjusted suicide rates, and age and sex distributions, were calculated.Results: No pronounced sex differences in drug self-poisoning rates were found, either in the aggregate data (males 1.6 and females 1.5 per 100,000) or within individual countries. Among the 16 countries, the range (from some 0.3 in Portugal to 5.0 in Finland) was wide. 'Other and unspecified drugs' (X64) were recorded most frequently, with a range of 0.2-1.9, and accounted for more than 70% of deaths by drug overdose in France, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain. Psychotropic drugs (X61) ranked second. The X63 category ('other drugs acting on the autonomic nervous system') was least frequently used. Finland showed low X64 and high X61 figures, Scotland had high levels of X62 ('narcotics and hallucinogens, not elsewhere classified') for both sexes, while England exceeded other countries in category X60. Risk was highest among the middle-aged everywhere except in Switzerland, where the elderly were most at risk.Conclusions: Suicide by drug overdose is preventable. Intentional self-poisoning with drugs kills as many males as females. The considerable differences in patterns of self-poisoning found in the various European countries are relevant to national efforts to improve diagnostics of suicide and appropriate specific prevention. The fact that vast majority of drug-overdose suicides came under the category X64 refers to the need of more detailed ICD coding system for overdose suicides is needed to permit better design of suicide-prevention strategies at national level

Contribution of the stg Fimbrial Operon of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi during Interaction with Human Cells▿

Salmonella serovars contain a wide variety of putative fimbrial systems that may contribute to colonization of specific niches. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi is the etiologic agent of typhoid fever and is a pathogen specific to humans. In a previous study, we identified a gene, STY3920 (stgC), encoding the predicted usher of the stg fimbrial operon, that was expressed by serovar Typhi during infection of human macrophages. The stg genes are located in the glmS-pstS intergenic region in serovar Typhi and certain Escherichia coli strains, but they are absent in other S. enterica serovars. We cloned the stg fimbrial operon into a nonfimbriate E. coli K-12 strain and into S. enterica serovar Typhimurium. We demonstrated that the stg fimbrial operon contributed to increased adherence to human epithelial cells. Transcriptional fusion assays with serovar Typhi suggested that stg is preferentially expressed in minimal medium. Deletion of stg reduced adherence of serovar Typhi to epithelial cells. However, deletion of stg increased uptake of serovar Typhi by human macrophages, and overexpression of stg in serovar Typhi and serovar Typhimurium strains reduced phagocytosis by human macrophages. These strains survived inside macrophages as well as the wild-type parent. Although the stgC gene contains a premature stop codon that disrupts the expected open reading frame encoding the usher and is therefore considered a pseudogene, our results show that the stg operon may encode a functional fimbria. Thus, this serovar Typhi-specific fimbrial operon contributes to interactions with host cells, and further characterization is important for understanding the role of the stg fimbrial cluster in typhoid fever pathogenesis

Hippocampal sulcal cavities in depression and healthy individuals

Background: A literature review suggested age and cognitive problems to be related to an increased prevalence of small areas of signal variation within the hippocampus observed on MRI, described as hippocampal sulcal cavities (HSCs; (Maller et al 2011)). The current study aimed to describe the prevalence of HSCs in patients with treatment resistant depression (TRD) and healthy controls over a large age range Methods: 115 TRD patients and 86 controls underwent MRI brain scanning. Right and left HSCs were rated separately for prevalence and length. Results: HSCs were observed in 73.04% of those with TRD, statistically more prevalent (p=0.001) than amongst controls (51.16%). These findings are consistent with our review (66% prevalence in memory disorders and 47% in healthy controls). Furthermore. HSC presence and length was associated with aging. Limitations: The study was cross-sectional so its implications for aging are tentative. A larger sample scanned longitudinally will allow for more sophisticated statistical methods by which to investigate the relationship between HSCs, aging, and TRD. Conclusions: Although their clinical significance remains uncertain, the results of the current study suggest that HSCs are related with age and those with TRD have more aged brains than their peers. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

3D-NTT: a versatile integral field spectro-imager for the NTT

International audienceThe 3D-NTT is a visible integral field spectro-imager offering two modes. A low resolution mode (R ~ 300 to 6 000) with a large field of view Tunable Filter (17'x17') and a high resolution mode (R ~ 10 000 to 40 000) with a scanning Fabry-Perot (7'x7'). It will be operated as a visitor instrument on the NTT from 2009. Two large programmes will be led: "Characterizing the interstellar medium of nearby galaxies with 2D maps of extinction and abundances" (PI M. Marcelin) and "Gas accretion and radiative feedback in the early universe" (PI J. Bland Hawthorn). Both will be mainly based on the Tunable Filter mode. This instrument is being built as a collaborative effort between LAM (Marseille), GEPI (Paris) and LAE (Montreal). The website adress of the instrument is : http://www.astro.umontreal.ca/3DNT