Polymorphisms of transporter associated with antigen presentation, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-10 and their implications for protection and susceptibility to severe forms of dengue fever in patients in Sri Lanka

Context: To date, a clear understanding of dengue disease pathogenesis remains elusive. Some infected individuals display no symptoms while others develop severe life-threatening forms of the disease. It is widely believed that host genetic factors influence dengue severity. Aims: This study evaluates the relationship between certain polymorphisms and dengue severity in Sri Lankan patients. Settings and Design: Polymorphism studies are carried out on genes for; transporter associated with antigen presentation (TAP), promoter of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and promoter of interleukin-10 (IL-10). In other populations, TAP1 (333), TAP2 (379), TNF-α (−308), and IL-10 (−1082, −819, −592) have been associated with dengue and a number of different diseases. Data have not been collected previously for these polymorphisms for dengue patients in Sri Lanka. Materials and Methods: The polymorphisms were typed by amplification refractory mutation system polymerase chain reaction in 107 dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) patients together with 62 healthy controls. Statistical Analysis Used: Pearson′s Chi-square contingency table analysis with Yates′ correction. Results: Neither the TAP nor the IL-10 polymorphisms considered individually can define dengue disease outcome with regard to severity. However, the genotype combination, IL-10 (−592/−819/−1082) CCA/ATA was significantly associated with development of severe dengue in these patients, suggesting a risk factor to developing DHF. Also, identified is the genotype combination IL-10 (−592/−819/−1082) ATA/ATG which suggested a possibility for protection from DHF. The TNF-α (−308) GG genotype was also significantly associated with severe dengue, suggesting a significant risk factor. Conclusions: The results reported here are specific to the Sri Lankan population. Comparisons with previous reports imply that data may vary from population to population

ENIGMA-Meditation: Worldwide consortium for neuroscientific investigations of meditation practices

Meditation is a family of ancient and contemporary contemplative mind-body practices that can modulate psychological processes, awareness, and mental states. Over the last 40 years, clinical science has manualised meditation practices and designed various meditation interventions (MIs), that have shown therapeutic efficacy for disorders including depression, pain, addiction, and anxiety. Over the past decade, neuroimaging has examined the neuroscientific basis of meditation practices, effects, states, and outcomes for clinical and non-clinical populations. However, the generalizability and replicability of current neuroscientific models of meditation are yet to be established, as they are largely based on small datasets entrenched with heterogeneity along several domains of meditation (e.g., practice types, meditation experience, clinical disorder targeted), experimental design, and neuroimaging methods (e.g., preprocessing, analysis, task-based, resting-state, structural MRI). These limitations have precluded a nuanced and rigorous neuroscientific phenotyping of meditation practices and their potential benefits. Here, we present ENIGMA-Meditation, the first worldwide collaborative consortium for neuroscientific investigations of meditation practices. ENIGMA-Meditation will enable systematic meta- and mega-analyses of globally distributed neuroimaging datasets of meditation using shared, standardized neuroimaging methods and tools to improve statistical power and generalizability. Through this powerful collaborative framework, existing neuroscientific accounts of meditation practices can be extended to generate novel and rigorous neuroscientific insights, accounting for multi-domain heterogeneity. ENIGMA-Meditation will inform neuroscientific mechanisms underlying therapeutic action of meditation practices on psychological and cognitive attributes, advancing the field of meditation and contemplative neuroscience