Dietary n-3 fatty acids have suppressive effects on mucin upregulation in mice infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa

International audienceMucin hypersecretion and mucus plugging in the airways are characteristic features of chronic respiratory diseases like cystic fibrosis (CF) and contribute to morbidity and mortality. In CF, Pseudomonas aeruginosa superinfections in the lung exacerbate inflammation and alter mucus properties. There is increasing evidence that n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) exhibit anti-inflammatory properties in many inflammatory diseases while n-6 PUFA arachidonic acid (AA) favors inflammatory mediators such as eicosanoids prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and leukotriene B4 (LTB4) that may enhance inflammatory reactions. This suggests that n-3 PUFAs may have a protective effect against mucus over-production in airway diseases. Therefore, we hypothesized that n-3 PUFAs may downregulate mucins expression. We designed an absolute real-time PCR assay to assess the effect of a 5-week diet enriched either with n-3 or n-6 PUFAs on the expression of large mucins in the lungs of mice infected by P. aeruginosa. Dietary fatty acids did not influence mucin gene expression in healthy mice. Lung infection induced an increase of the secreted gel-forming mucin Muc5b and a decrease of the membrane bound mucin Muc4. These deregulations are modulated by dietary fatty acids with a suppressive effect of n-3 PUFAs on mucin (increase of Muc5b from 19-fold up to 3.6 x 10(5)-fold for the n-3 PUFAs treated group and the control groups, respectively, 4 days post-infection and decrease of Muc4 from 15-fold up to 3.2 x 10(4)-fold for the control and the n-3 PUFAs treated groups, respectively, 4 days post-infection). Our data suggest that n-3 PUFAs enriched diet represents an inexpensive strategy to prevent or treat mucin overproduction in pulmonary bacterial colonization

Four-Day-Old Human Neonates Look Longer at Non-Biological Motions of a Single Point-of-Light

BACKGROUND: Biological motions, that is, the movements of humans and other vertebrates, are characterized by dynamic regularities that reflect the structure and the control schemes of the musculo-skeletal system. Early studies on the development of the visual perception of biological motion showed that infants after three months of age distinguished between biological and non-biological locomotion. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using single point-light motions that varied with respect to the “two-third-power law” of motion generation and perception, we observed that four-day-old human neonates looked longer at non-biological motions than at biological motions when these were simultaneously presented in a standard preferential looking paradigm. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This result can be interpreted within the “violation of expectation” framework and can indicate that neonates' motion perception — like adults'—is attuned to biological kinematics

Visual laterality in dolphins: importance of the familiarity of stimuli

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many studies of cerebral asymmetries in different species lead, on the one hand, to a better understanding of the functions of each cerebral hemisphere and, on the other hand, to develop an evolutionary history of hemispheric laterality. Our animal model is particularly interesting because of its original evolutionary path, i.e. return to aquatic life after a terrestrial phase. The rare reports concerning visual laterality of marine mammals investigated mainly discrimination processes. As dolphins are migrant species they are confronted to a changing environment. Being able to categorize new versus familiar objects would allow dolphins a rapid adaptation to novel environments. Visual laterality could be a prerequisite to this adaptability. To date, no study, to our knowledge, has analyzed the environmental factors that could influence their visual laterality.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We investigated visual laterality expressed spontaneously at the water surface by a group of five common bottlenose dolphins (<it>Tursiops truncatus</it>) in response to various stimuli. The stimuli presented ranged from very familiar objects (known and manipulated previously) to familiar objects (known but never manipulated) to unfamiliar objects (unknown, never seen previously). At the group level, dolphins used their left eye to observe very familiar objects and their right eye to observe unfamiliar objects. However, eyes are used indifferently to observe familiar objects with intermediate valence.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest different visual cerebral processes based either on the global shape of well-known objects or on local details of unknown objects. Moreover, the manipulation of an object appears necessary for these dolphins to construct a global representation of an object enabling its immediate categorization for subsequent use. Our experimental results pointed out some cognitive capacities of dolphins which might be crucial for their wild life given their fission-fusion social system and migratory behaviour.</p

The role of metacognition in self-critical rumination: an investigation in individuals presenting with low self-esteem

Background: No research, to date, has directly investigated the role of metacognition in self-critical rumination and low self-esteem. Aim: To investigate the presence of metacognitive beliefs about self-critical rumination; the goal of self-critical rumination and its stop signal; and the degree of detachment from intrusive self-critical thoughts. Method: Ten individuals reporting both a self-acknowledged tendency to judge themselves critically and having low self-esteem were assessed using metacognitive profiling, a semi-structured interview. Results: All participants endorsed both positive and negative metacognitive beliefs about self-critical rumination. Positive metacognitive beliefs concerned the usefulness of self-critical rumination as a means of improving cognitive performance and enhancing motivation. Negative metacognitive beliefs concerned the uncontrollability of self-critical rumination and its negative impact on mood, motivation and perception of self-worth. The primary goal of engaging in self-critical rumination was to achieve a better or clearer understanding of a given trigger situation or to feel more motivated to resolve it. However, only four participants were able to identify when this goal had been achieved, which was if the trigger situation were not to occur again. Participants unanimously stated that they were either unable to detach from their self-critical thoughts or could do so some of the time with varying degrees of success. More often than not, though, self-critical thoughts were viewed as facts, would rarely be seen as distorted or biased, and could take hours or days to dissipate. Conclusions: These findings provide preliminary evidence that specific facets of metacognition play a role in the escalation and perseveration of self-critical rumination

Armodafinil improves wakefulness and long-term episodic memory in nCPAP-adherent patients with excessive sleepiness associated with obstructive sleep apnea

Residual excessive sleepiness (ES) and impaired cognition can occur despite effective and regular nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) therapy in some patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A pooled analysis of two 12-week, randomized, double-blind studies in nCPAP-adherent patients with ES associated with OSA evaluated the effect of armodafinil on wakefulness and cognition. Three hundred and ninety-one patients received armodafinil (150 or 250 mg) and 260 patients received placebo once daily for 12 weeks. Efficacy assessments included the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT), Cognitive Drug Research cognitive performance battery, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and Brief Fatigue Inventory. Adverse events were monitored. Armodafinil increased mean MWT sleep latency from baseline to final visit by 2.0 min vs a decrease of 1.5 min with placebo (P < 0.0001). Compared with placebo, armodafinil significantly improved quality of episodic secondary memory (P < 0.05) and patients’ ability to engage in activities of daily living (P < 0.0001) and reduced fatigue (P < 0.01). The most common adverse events were headache, nausea, and insomnia. Armodafinil did not adversely affect desired nighttime sleep, and nCPAP use remained high (approximately 7 h/night). Adjunct treatment with armodafinil significantly improved wakefulness, long-term memory, and patients’ ability to engage in activities of daily living in nCPAP-adherent individuals with ES associated with OSA. Armodafinil also reduced patient-reported fatigue and was well tolerated

Inflammatory pseudo-tumor of the liver: a rare pathological entity

Inflammatory pseudo-tumor (IPT) of the liver is a rare benign neoplasm and is often mistaken as a malignant entity. Few cases have been reported in the literature and the precise etiology of inflammatory pseudotumor remains unknown. Patients usually present with fever, abdominal pain and jaundice. The proliferation of spindled myofibroblast cells mixed with variable amounts of reactive inflammatory cells is characteristics of IPT. We reviewed the literature regarding possible etiology for IPT with a possible suggested etiology

Oral cholera vaccine use in Zanzibar: socioeconomic and behavioural features affecting demand and acceptance

Cholera remains a serious public health problem in low-income countries despite efforts in the past to promote oral rehydration therapy as major treatment. In 2007, the majority of worldwide cases (94%) and deaths (99%) were reported from Africa. To improve cholera control efforts in addition to maintaining and improving existing water supply, sanitation and hygiene behaviour measures, the World Health Organization has recently started to consider the use of vaccines as an additional public health tool. To assess this new approach in endemic settings, a project was launched in Zanzibar to vaccinate 50,000 individuals living in communities at high risk of cholera with an oral two-dose vaccine (Dukoral). Immunisation programmes in low-income countries have suffered a reduced coverage or were even brought to a halt because of an ignorance of local realities. To ensure the success of vaccination campaigns, implementers have to consider community-held perceptions and behaviours regarding the infectious disease and the vaccine of interest. The main aim of this study is to provide advice to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Zanzibar regarding routine introduction of an oral cholera vaccine from a socioeconomic and behavioural perspective as part of a long-term development for a sustained cholera prevention strategy. Qualitative and quantitative methods of health social science research will be applied on four stakeholder levels before and after the mass vaccination campaign. Rapid assessment individual interviews and focus groups will be used to describe cholera- and vaccine-related views of policy makers, health care professionals and community representatives. The cultural epidemiological approach will be employed on the individual household resident level in a repeated cross-sectional design to estimate determinants of anticipated and actual oral cholera vaccine acceptance. The study presented here is designed to inform about people's perceptions regarding cholera and about socioeconomic and behavioural factors determining anticipated and actual oral cholera vaccine acceptance in Zanzibar. Its pre- and post-intervention design using a mixed-methods approach on different stakeholder levels in communities at high risk of cholera outbreaks will ensure the collection of locally valid data relevant for public health action and planning

Does Presentation Format Influence Visual Size Discrimination in Tufted Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus spp.)?

Most experimental paradigms to study visual cognition in humans and non-human species are based on discrimination tasks involving the choice between two or more visual stimuli. To this end, different types of stimuli and procedures for stimuli presentation are used, which highlights the necessity to compare data obtained with different methods. The present study assessed whether, and to what extent, capuchin monkeys\u27 ability to solve a size discrimination problem is influenced by the type of procedure used to present the problem. Capuchins\u27 ability to generalise knowledge across different tasks was also evaluated. We trained eight adult tufted capuchin monkeys to select the larger of two stimuli of the same shape and different sizes by using pairs of food items (Experiment 1), computer images (Experiment 1) and objects (Experiment 2). Our results indicated that monkeys achieved the learning criterion faster with food stimuli compared to both images and objects. They also required consistently fewer trials with objects than with images. Moreover, female capuchins had higher levels of acquisition accuracy with food stimuli than with images. Finally, capuchins did not immediately transfer the solution of the problem acquired in one task condition to the other conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that - even in relatively simple visual discrimination problems where a single perceptual dimension (i.e., size) has to be judged - learning speed strongly depends on the mode of presentation

Determinants of recovery from post-COVID-19 dyspnoea: analysis of UK prospective cohorts of hospitalised COVID-19 patients and community-based controls

Background The risk factors for recovery from COVID-19 dyspnoea are poorly understood. We investigated determinants of recovery from dyspnoea in adults with COVID-19 and compared these to determinants of recovery from non-COVID-19 dyspnoea. Methods We used data from two prospective cohort studies: PHOSP-COVID (patients hospitalised between March 2020 and April 2021 with COVID-19) and COVIDENCE UK (community cohort studied over the same time period). PHOSP-COVID data were collected during hospitalisation and at 5-month and 1-year follow-up visits. COVIDENCE UK data were obtained through baseline and monthly online questionnaires. Dyspnoea was measured in both cohorts with the Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale. We used multivariable logistic regression to identify determinants associated with a reduction in dyspnoea between 5-month and 1-year follow-up. Findings We included 990 PHOSP-COVID and 3309 COVIDENCE UK participants. We observed higher odds of improvement between 5-month and 1-year follow-up among PHOSP-COVID participants who were younger (odds ratio 1.02 per year, 95% CI 1.01–1.03), male (1.54, 1.16–2.04), neither obese nor severely obese (1.82, 1.06–3.13 and 4.19, 2.14–8.19, respectively), had no pre-existing anxiety or depression (1.56, 1.09–2.22) or cardiovascular disease (1.33, 1.00–1.79), and shorter hospital admission (1.01 per day, 1.00–1.02). Similar associations were found in those recovering from non-COVID-19 dyspnoea, excluding age (and length of hospital admission). Interpretation Factors associated with dyspnoea recovery at 1-year post-discharge among patients hospitalised with COVID-19 were similar to those among community controls without COVID-19. Funding PHOSP-COVID is supported by a grant from the MRC-UK Research and Innovation and the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) rapid response panel to tackle COVID-19. The views expressed in the publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Health Service (NHS), the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. COVIDENCE UK is supported by the UK Research and Innovation, the National Institute for Health Research, and Barts Charity. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funders