CB1 cannabinoid receptor enrichment in the ependymal region of the adult human spinal cord

Cannabinoids are involved in the regulation of neural stem cell biology and their receptors are expressed in the neurogenic niches of adult rodents. In the spinal cord of rats and mice, neural stem cells can be found in the ependymal region, surrounding the central canal, but there is evidence that this region is largely different in adult humans: lacks a patent canal and presents perivascular pseudorosettes, typically found in low grade ependymomas. Using Laser Capture Microdissection, Taqman gene expression assays and immunohistochemistry, we have studied the expression of endocannabinoid system components (receptors and enzymes) at the human spinal cord ependymal region. We observe that ependymal region is enriched in CB1 cannabinoid receptor, due to high CB1 expression in GFAP+ astrocytic domains. However, in human spinal cord levels that retain central canal patency we found ependymal cells with high CB1 expression, equivalent to the CB1HIGH cell subpopulation described in rodents. Our results support the existence of ependymal CB1HIGH cells across species, and may encourage further studies on this subpopulation, although only in cases when central canal is patent. In the adult human ependyma, which usually shows central canal absence, CB1 may play a different role by modulating astrocyte functions

Concordance between Antimicrobial Resistance Phenotype and Genotype of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius from Healthy Dogs

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, a common commensal canine bacterium, is the main cause of skin infections in dogs and is a potential zoonotic pathogen. The emergence of methicillin-resistant S. pseudintermedius (MRSP) has compromised the treatment of infections caused by these bacteria. In this study, we compared the phenotypic results obtained by minimum inhibitory concentration (MICs) for 67 S. pseudintermedius isolates from the skin of nine healthy dogs versus the genotypic data obtained with Nanopore sequencing. A total of 17 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were detected among the isolates. A good correlation between phenotype and genotype was observed for some antimicrobial classes, such as ciprofloxacin (fluoroquinolone), macrolides, or tetracycline. However, for oxacillin (beta-lactam) or aminoglycosides the correlation was low. Two antibiotic resistance genes were located on plasmids integrated in the chromosome, and a third one was in a circular plasmid. To our knowledge, this is the first study assessing the correlation between phenotype and genotype regarding antimicrobial resistance of S. pseudintermedius from healthy dogs using Nanopore sequencing technology

Correlation of the refractive index change at the surface and inside phosphate glass upon femtosecond laser irradiation

This paper was published in JOURNAL OF THE OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA B-OPTICAL PHYSICS and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/josab/viewmedia.cfm?URI=josab-29-10-2665&seq=0&origin=search. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law[EN] A study of the surface modification induced by single femtosecond laser pulses in phosphate glass has revealed surface swelling at fluences just below the ablation threshold. This behavior is different from that observed in other dielectric materials. Optical micrographs obtained with monochromatic light show a pattern of Newton rings within the swollen region whose number scales inversely with the illumination wavelength, acting as a micro Fabry-Perot etalon. The swollen surface layer has lower refractive index than the bulk glass and can reach a maximum thickness of 820 nm. We relate these findings to results obtained during subsurface waveguide writing inside phosphate glass, which also show a refractive index decrease at energies near threshold for waveguide fabrication. We have identified low density free-electron plasma to be the trigger of the refractive index change. © 2012 Optical Society of America.We thank Daniel Jaque from the Fluorescence Imaging Group at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid for providing access to and helping with the confocal microfluorescence imaging system, as well as for many fruitful discussions. We are also grateful to Susana Marcos and Carlos Dorronsoro from IO-CSIC for providing access and assistance to the OIM. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish TEC 2008-01183 and TEC2011-22422. D. Puerto acknowledges his grant of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education under TEC 2005-0007 and JCI-2010-07479.Puerto Garcia, D.; Siegel, J.; Ferrer, A.; Hernandez-Rueda, J.; Solis, J. (2012). Correlation of the refractive index change at the surface and inside phosphate glass upon femtosecond laser irradiation. Journal of the Optical Society of America B. 10(29):2665-2668. https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.29.002665S266526681029Bradley, J. D. B., & Pollnau, M. (2010). Erbium-doped integrated waveguide amplifiers and lasers. Laser & Photonics Reviews, 5(3), 368-403. doi:10.1002/lpor.201000015Della Valle, G., Osellame, R., & Laporta, P. (2008). Micromachining of photonic devices by femtosecond laser pulses. Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics, 11(1), 013001. doi:10.1088/1464-4258/11/1/013001Sansoni, L., Sciarrino, F., Vallone, G., Mataloni, P., Crespi, A., Ramponi, R., & Osellame, R. (2010). Polarization Entangled State Measurement on a Chip. Physical Review Letters, 105(20). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.105.200503Siegel, J., Puerto, D., Gawelda, W., Bachelier, G., Solis, J., Ehrentraut, L., & Bonse, J. (2007). Plasma formation and structural modification below the visible ablation threshold in fused silica upon femtosecond laser irradiation. Applied Physics Letters, 91(8), 082902. doi:10.1063/1.2766848Puerto, D., Siegel, J., Gawelda, W., Galvan-Sosa, M., Ehrentraut, L., Bonse, J., & Solis, J. (2010). Dynamics of plasma formation, relaxation, and topography modification induced by femtosecond laser pulses in crystalline and amorphous dielectrics. Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 27(5), 1065. doi:10.1364/josab.27.001065Gawelda, W., Puerto, D., Siegel, J., Ferrer, A., Ruiz de la Cruz, A., Fernández, H., & Solis, J. (2008). Ultrafast imaging of transient electronic plasmas produced in conditions of femtosecond waveguide writing in dielectrics. Applied Physics Letters, 93(12), 121109. doi:10.1063/1.2988275Patel, F. D., DiCarolis, S., Lum, P., Venkatesh, S., & Miller, J. N. (2004). A Compact High-Performance Optical Waveguide Amplifier. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 16(12), 2607-2609. doi:10.1109/lpt.2004.836350Ferrer, A., Ruiz de la Cruz, A., Puerto, D., Gawelda, W., Vallés, J. A., Rebolledo, M. A., … Solis, J. (2010). In situ assessment and minimization of nonlinear propagation effects for femtosecond-laser waveguide writing in dielectrics. Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 27(8), 1688. doi:10.1364/josab.27.001688Fletcher, L. B., Witcher, J. J., Reichman, W. B., Arai, A., Bovatsek, J., & Krol, D. M. (2009). Changes to the network structure of Er–Yb doped phosphate glass induced by femtosecond laser pulses. Journal of Applied Physics, 106(8), 083107. doi:10.1063/1.3246842Little, D. J., Ams, M., Dekker, P., Marshall, G. D., & Withford, M. J. (2010). Mechanism of femtosecond-laser induced refractive index change in phosphate glass under a low repetition-rate regime. Journal of Applied Physics, 108(3), 033110. doi:10.1063/1.3468490Ferrer, A., Jaque, D., Siegel, J., la Cruz, A. R. de, & Solís, J. (2011). Origin of the refractive index modification of femtosecond laser processed doped phosphate glass. Journal of Applied Physics, 109(9), 093107. doi:10.1063/1.3572268Liu, J. M. (1982). Simple technique for measurements of pulsed Gaussian-beam spot sizes. Optics Letters, 7(5), 196. doi:10.1364/ol.7.000196Ben-Yakar, A., Harkin, A., Ashmore, J., Byer, R. L., & Stone, H. A. (2007). Thermal and fluid processes of a thin melt zone during femtosecond laser ablation of glass: the formation of rims by single laser pulses. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 40(5), 1447-1459. doi:10.1088/0022-3727/40/5/021Brückner, R. (1970). Properties and structure of vitreous silica. I. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 5(2), 123-175. doi:10.1016/0022-3093(70)90190-0Bressel, L., de Ligny, D., Sonneville, C., Martinez, V., Mizeikis, V., Buividas, R., & Juodkazis, S. (2011). Femtosecond laser induced density changes in GeO_2 and SiO_2 glasses: fictive temperature effect [Invited]. Optical Materials Express, 1(4), 605. doi:10.1364/ome.1.000605Eaton, S. M., Zhang, H., Herman, P. R., Yoshino, F., Shah, L., Bovatsek, J., & Arai, A. Y. (2005). Heat accumulation effects in femtosecond laser-written waveguides with variable repetition rate. Optics Express, 13(12), 4708. doi:10.1364/opex.13.00470

Differential Aggregation and Phosphorylation of Alpha Synuclein in Membrane Compartments Associated With Parkinson Disease

The aggregation of α-synuclein (α-syn) is a major factor behind the onset of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Sublocalization of this protein may be relevant for the formation of multimeric α-syn oligomeric configurations, insoluble aggregates that form Lewy bodies in PD brains. Processing of this protein aggregation is regulated by associations with distinct lipid classes. For instance, instability of lipid raft (LR) microdomains, membrane regions with a particular lipid composition, is an early event in the development of PD. However, the relevance of membrane microdomains in the regulation and trafficking of the distinct α-syn configurations associated with PD remains unexplored. In this study, using 6- and 14-month-old healthy and MPTP-treated animals as a model of PD, we have investigated the putative molecular alterations of raft membrane microstructures, and their impact on α-syn dynamics and conformation. A comparison of lipid analyses of LR microstructures and non-raft (NR) fractions showed alterations in gangliosides, cholesterol, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and phospholipids in the midbrain and cortex of aged and MPTP-treated mice. In particular, the increase of PUFA and phosphatidylserine (PS) during aging correlated with α-syn multimeric formation in NR. In these aggregates, α-syn was phosphorylated in pSer129, the most abundant post-transductional modification of α-syn promoting toxic aggregation. Interestingly, similar variations in PUFA and PS content correlating with α-syn insoluble accumulation were also detected in membrane microstructures from the human cortex of incidental Parkinson Disease (iPD) and PD, as compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, structural changes in membrane lipid microenvironments may induce rearrangements in raft-interacting proteins involved in other neuropathologies. Therefore, we also investigated the dynamic of other protein markers involved in cognition and memory impairment such as metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5), ionotropic NMDA receptor (NMDAR2B), prion protein (PrPc) and amyloid precursor protein (APP), whose activity depends on membrane lipid organization. We observed a decline of these protein markers in LR fractions with the progression of aging and pathology. Overall, our findings demonstrate that lipid alterations in membranous compartments promoted by brain aging and PD-like injury may have an effect on α-syn aggregation and segregation in abnormal multimeric structures

Heterogeneity in response to MCT and psychoeducation: a feasibility study using latent class mixed models in first-episode psychosis

Metacognitive training (MCT) is an effective treatment for psychosis. Longitudinal trajectories of treatment response are unknown but could point to strategies to maximize treatment efficacy during the first episodes. This work aims to explore the possible benefit of using latent class mixed models (LCMMs) to understand how treatment response differs between metacognitive training and psychoeducation. We conducted LCMMs in 28 patients that received MCT and 34 patients that received psychoeducation. We found that MCT is effective in improving cognitive insight in all patients but that these effects wane at follow-up. In contrast, psychoeducation does not improve cognitive insight, and may increase self-certainty in a group of patients. These results suggest that LCMMs are valuable tools that can aid in treatment prescription and in predicting response to specific treatments.Daniel Fernández has been supported by grant 2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) and by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033]; and CIBER, Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónPostprint (published version

A fast synthesis route of boron-carbon-nitrogen ultrathin layers towards highly mixed ternary B-C-N phases

We report a direct and fast synthesis route to grow boron-carbon-nitrogen layers based on microwave-assisted plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) by using methylamine borane as a single source molecular precursor. This easy and inexpensive method allows controlled and reproducible growth of B-C-N layers onto thin Cu foils. Their morphological, structural, chemical, optical and transport properties have been thoroughly characterized by a number of different microscopies, transport and spectroscopic techniques. Though disorder and segregation into C-rich and h-BN-rich domains have been observed in ultrathin flat few layers, high doping levels have been reached, inducing strong modifications of the electronic, optical and transport properties of C-rich and h-BN-rich phases. This synthesis procedure can open new routes towards the achievement of homogeneous highly mixed ternary B-C-N phase

Males and females with first episode psychosis present distinct profiles of social cognition and metacognition

Deficits in social cognition and metacognition impact the course of psychosis. Sex differences in social cognition and metacognition could explain heterogeneity in psychosis. 174 (58 females) patients with first-episode psychosis completed a clinical, neuropsychological, social cognitive, and metacognitive assessment. Subsequent latent profile analysis split by sex yielded two clusters common to both sexes (a Homogeneous group, 53% and 79.3%, and an Indecisive group, 18.3% and 8.6% of males and females, respectively), a specific male profile characterized by presenting jumping to conclusions (28.7%) and a specific female profile characterized by cognitive biases (12.1%). Males and females in the homogeneous profile seem to have a more benign course of illness. Males with jumping to conclusions had more clinical symptoms and more neuropsychological deficits. Females with cognitive biases were younger and had lower self-esteem. These results suggest that males and females may benefit from specific targeted treatment and highlights the need to consider sex when planning interventionsDF has been supported by Marsden (E2987-3648) administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand, by grant 2017 SGR 622 (GRBIO) administrated by the Departament d'Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) and by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) [PID2019-104830RB-I00/ DOI (AEI): 10.13039/501100011033]Peer ReviewedAutors: M. Ferrer-Quintero, D. Fernández, R. López-Carrilero, I. Birulés, A. Barajas, E. Lorente-Rovira, A. Luengo, L. Díaz-Cutraro, M. Verdaguer, H. García-Mieres, A. Gutiérrez-Zotes, E. Grasa, E. Sousa, E. Huerta-Ramos, T. Pélaez, M. L. Barrigón, J. Gómez-Benito, F. González-Higueras, I. Ruiz-Delgado, J. Cid, S. Moritz, J. Sevilla-Llewellyn-Jones, Spanish Metacognition Group & S. OchoaPostprint (published version

Persons with first episode psychosis have distinct profiles of social cognition and metacognition

Subjects with first-episode psychosis experience substantial deficits in social cognition and metacognition. Although previous studies have investigated the role of profiles of individuals in social cognition and metacognition in chronic schizophrenia, profiling subjects with first-episode psychosis in both domains remains to be investigated. We used latent profile analysis to derive profiles of the abilities in 174 persons with first-episode psychosis using the Beck’s Cognitive Insight Scale, the Faces Test, the Hinting Task, the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire, and the Beads Task. Participants received a clinical assessment and a neuropsychological assessment. The best-fitting model was selected according to the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). We assessed the importance of the variables via a classification tree (CART). We derived three clusters with distinct profiles. The first profile (33.3%) comprised individuals with low social cognition. The second profile (60.9%) comprised individuals that had more proneness to present jumping to conclusions. The third profile (5.7%) presented a heterogeneous profile of metacognitive deficits. Persons with lower social cognition presented worse clinical and neuropsychological features than cluster 2 and cluster 3. Cluster 3 presented significantly worst functioning. Our results suggest that individuals with FEP present distinct profiles that concur with specific clinical, neuropsychological, and functional challenges. Each subgroup may benefit from different interventionsPeer ReviewedArticle signat per 22 articles: "M. Ferrer-Quintero, D. Fernández, R. López-Carrilero, I. Birulés, A. Barajas, E. Lorente-Rovira, L. Díaz-Cutraro, M. Verdaguer, H. García-Mieres, J. Sevilla-Llewellyn-Jones, A. Gutiérrez-Zotes, E. Grasa, E. Pousa, E. Huerta-Ramos, T. Pélaez, M. L. Barrigón, F. González-Higueras, I. Ruiz-Delgado, J. Cid, S. Moritz, Spanish Metacognition Group & S. Ochoa"Postprint (published version

Endocardial infarct scar recognition by myocardial electrical impedance is not influenced by changes in cardiac activation sequence

Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version