Cognitive performance and the thymus among HIV-infected subjects receiving HAART

Maria J Miguez-Burbano1, John E Lewis2, Jose Moreno3, Joel Fishman41Robert Stempel School of Public Health & School of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA; 2Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 3Department of Medicine, 4Department of Radiology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USAObjective: To evaluate the impact of alcohol use, which is widespread in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)+ individuals, on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)-associated immune and cognitive improvements and the relationship between those two responses.Methods: In a case-control longitudinal study, thymic volume, cognition, and immune responses were evaluated at baseline and after 6 months therapy in HIV+ and HIV- controls. Cognitive performance was evaluated using the HIV Dementia Score (HDS) and the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT).Results: Prior to HAART, thymic volume varied considerably from 2.7 to 29.3 cm3 (11 ± 7.2 cm3). Thymic volume at baseline showed a significantly inverse correlation with the patient’s number of years of drinking (r2 = 0.207; p < 0.01), as well as HDS and the CVLT scores in both HIV-infected (r2 = 0.37, p = 0.03) and noninfected (r2 = 0.8, p = 0.01). HIV-infected individuals with a small thymic volume scored in the demented range, as compared with those with a larger thymus (7 ± 2.7 vs. 12 ± 2.3, p = 0.005). After HAART, light/moderate drinkers exhibited thymus size twice that of heavy drinkers (14.8 ± 10.4 vs. 6.9 ± 3.3 cm3).Conclusions: HAART-associated increases of thymus volume appear to be negatively affected by alcohol consumption and significantly related to their cognitive status. This result could have important clinical implications.Keywords: thymus, CNS, immune, alcoho

Effect of Aging on Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy in Ischemic Cardiomyopathy Patients

AbstractBackgroundThe role of patient age in the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy in ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) is controversial.ObjectivesThis study sought to determine whether the therapeutic effect of culture-expanded MSCs persists, even in older subjects.MethodsPatients with ICM who received MSCs via transendocardial stem cell injection (TESI) as part of the TAC-HFT (Transendocardial Autologous Cells in Ischemic Heart Failure) (n = 19) and POSEIDON (Percutaneous Stem Cell Injection Delivery Effects on Neomyogenesis) (n = 30) clinical trials were divided into 2 age groups: younger than 60 and 60 years of age and older. Functional capacity was measured by 6-min walk distance (6MWD) and quality of life using the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) score, measured at baseline, 6 months, and 1 year post-TESI. Various cardiac imaging parameters, including absolute scar size, were compared at baseline and 1 year post-TESI.ResultsThe mean 6MWD was similar at baseline and increased at 1 year post-TESI in both groups: 48.5 ± 14.6 m (p = 0.001) for the younger and 35.9 ± 18.3 m (p = 0.038) for the older participants (p = NS between groups). The older group exhibited a significant reduction in MLHFQ score (−7.04 ± 3.54; p = 0.022), whereas the younger than 60 age group had a borderline significant reduction (−11.22 ± 5.24; p = 0.058) from baseline (p = NS between groups). Although there were significant reductions in absolute scar size from baseline to 1 year post-TESI, the effect did not differ by age.ConclusionsMSC therapy with TESI in ICM patients improves 6MWD and MLHFQ score and reduces myocardial infarction size. Importantly, older individuals did not have an impaired response to MSC therapy

Enhancing studies of the connectome in autism using the autism brain imaging data exchange II

The second iteration of the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE II) aims to enhance the scope of brain connectomics research in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Consistent with the initial ABIDE effort (ABIDE I), that released 1112 datasets in 2012, this new multisite open-data resource is an aggregate of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and corresponding structural MRI and phenotypic datasets. ABIDE II includes datasets from an additional 487 individuals with ASD and 557 controls previously collected across 16 international institutions. The combination of ABIDE I and ABIDE II provides investigators with 2156 unique cross-sectional datasets allowing selection of samples for discovery and/or replication. This sample size can also facilitate the identification of neurobiological subgroups, as well as preliminary examinations of sex differences in ASD. Additionally, ABIDE II includes a range of psychiatric variables to inform our understanding of the neural correlates of co-occurring psychopathology; 284 diffusion imaging datasets are also included. It is anticipated that these enhancements will contribute to unraveling key sources of ASD heterogeneity

Neutron-diffraction evidence for the ferrimagnetic ground state of a molecule-based magnet with weakly coupled sublattices

El pdf del artículo es la versión post-print.The diruthenium compound [Ru2(O2CMe)4]3[Cr(CN)6] contains two weakly coupled, ferrimagnetically ordered sublattices occupying the same volume. Due to the weak, antiferromagnetic dipolar interaction Kc ≈ 5 × 10−3 meV between sublattices, a small magnetic field Hc ~ Kc/μB ≈ 800 Oe aligns the sublattice moments. Powder neutron-diffraction measurements on a deuterated sample confirm an earlier prediction that the sublattice moments are restricted by the anisotropy of the diruthenium 'paddle-wheels' to the cubic diagonals. Those measurements also suggest that quantum corrections to the ground state are significant. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd.This research was sponsored by the Division of Materials Science and Engineering of the US Department of Energy (RSF), by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through grants MAT2011-27233-C02-02 and CSD2007-00010 (JC), and by the US National Science Foundation through grant NSF-11063630 (JSM and TEV) for the chemical synthesis.Peer Reviewe

Design and evaluation of a radio frequency coil for nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of fluorine and protons

A frequency‐switchable, homogeneous‐field rf saddle coil has been designed for imaging both protons (1H, 59.1 MHz) and fluorine (1 9F, 55.6 MHz) on a 1.4‐T superconducting small‐bore nuclear magnetic resonance imager. Frequency and impedance switching is accomplished by external capacitance and cable length changes; these operations permit imaging of both nuclei without perturbing the sample. The coil is optimized for 1 9F operation, yet performs better at the proton frequency than does the unswitched 1 9F coil. The angular distribution of the coil’s wires and the use of distributed capacitors are designed to optimize field homogeneity and Q. A quantitative image of field homogeneity is presented. The coil is suitable for imaging small animals (7‐cm‐diam bore) and couples far better to small samples than does our standard receiver coil (15.2 cm in diameter). Images of phantoms and rats injected with a perfluorinated blood substitute are presented