Exercise and progressive supranuclear palsy : the need for explicit exercise reporting

Background Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is the most frequent form of atypical Parkinsonism. Although there is preliminary evidence for the benefits of gait rehabilitation, balance training and oculomotor exercises in PSP, the quality of reporting of exercise therapies appears mixed. The current investigation aims to evaluate the comprehensiveness of reporting of exercise and physical activity interventions in the PSP literature. Methods Two independent reviewers used the Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template (CERT) to extract all exercise intervention data from 11 studies included in a systematic review. CERT items covered: ‘what’ (materials), ‘who’ (instructor qualifications), ‘how’ (delivery), ‘where’ (location), ‘when’, ‘how much’ (dosage), ‘tailoring’ (what, how), and ‘how well’ (fidelity) exercise delivery complied with the protocol. Each exercise item was scored ‘1’ (adequately reported) or ‘0’ (not adequately reported or unclear). The CERT score was calculated, as well as the percentage of studies that reported each CERT item. Results The CERT scores ranged from 3 to 12 out of 19. No PSP studies adequately described exercise elements that would allow exact replication of the interventions. Well-described items included exercise equipment, exercise settings, exercise therapy scheduling, frequency and duration. Poorly described items included decision rules for exercise progression, instructor qualifications, exercise adherence, motivation strategies, safety and adverse events associated with exercise therapies. Discussion The results revealed variability in the reporting of physical therapies for people living with PSP. Future exercise trials need to more comprehensively describe equipment, instructor qualifications, exercise and physical activity type, dosage, setting, individual tailoring of exercises, supervision, adherence, motivation strategies, progression decisions, safety and adverse events. Conclusion Although beneficial for people living with PSP, exercise and physical therapy interventions have been inadequately reported. It is recommended that evidence-based reporting templates be utilised to comprehensively document therapeutic exercise design, delivery and evaluation

16S rRNA gene-based profiling of the human infant gut microbiota is strongly influenced by sample processing and PCR primer choice

Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the assistance of Grietje Holtrop (RINH-BioSS) with the statistical analysis of the data and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute’s 454 pyrosequencing team for generating 16S rRNA gene data. AWW, PS and JP received core funding support from the Wellcome Trust [grant number 098051]. AWW, JCM, HJF and KPS are funded by the Scottish Government (SG-RESAS).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Sustained Dietary Change Increases Epigenetic Variation in Isogenic Mice

Epigenetic changes can be induced by adverse environmental exposures, such as nutritional imbalance, but little is known about the nature or extent of these changes. Here we have explored the epigenomic effects of a sustained nutritional change, excess dietary methyl donors, by assessing genomic CpG methylation patterns in isogenic mice exposed for one or six generations. We find stochastic variation in methylation levels at many loci; exposure to methyl donors increases the magnitude of this variation and the number of variable loci. Several gene ontology categories are significantly overrepresented in genes proximal to these methylation-variable loci, suggesting that certain pathways are susceptible to environmental influence on their epigenetic states. Long-term exposure to the diet (six generations) results in a larger number of loci exhibiting epigenetic variability, suggesting that some of the induced changes are heritable. This finding presents the possibility that epigenetic variation within populations can be induced by environmental change, providing a vehicle for disease predisposition and possibly a substrate for natural selection.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DP0771859) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (#459412, #635510)

The E3 ubiquitin ligase IDOL regulates synaptic ApoER2 levels and is important for plasticity and learning.

Neuronal ApoE receptors are linked to learning and memory, but the pathways governing their abundance, and the mechanisms by which they affect the function of neural circuits are incompletely understood. Here we demonstrate that the E3 ubiquitin ligase IDOL determines synaptic ApoER2 protein levels in response to neuronal activation and regulates dendritic spine morphogenesis and plasticity. IDOL-dependent changes in ApoER2 abundance modulate dendritic filopodia initiation and synapse maturation. Loss of IDOL in neurons results in constitutive overexpression of ApoER2 and is associated with impaired activity-dependent structural remodeling of spines and defective LTP in primary neuron cultures and hippocampal slices. IDOL-deficient mice show profound impairment in experience-dependent reorganization of synaptic circuits in the barrel cortex, as well as diminished spatial and associative learning. These results identify control of lipoprotein receptor abundance by IDOL as a post-transcriptional mechanism underlying the structural and functional plasticity of synapses and neural circuits

The Star-Forming Dwarf Galaxy Populations of two z ~ 0.4 Clusters: MS1512.4+3647 and Abell 851

We present the results of a deep narrow-band [OII] 3727 \AA emission-line search for faint ($g <$ 27), star-forming galaxies in the field of the $z=0.37$ MS1512.4+3647 cluster. We find no evidence for an over-density of emission-line sources relative to the field at $z \sim$ 0.4 (Hogg et al. 1998), and therefore conclude that the MS1512.4+3647 sample is dominated by field [OII] emission-line galaxies which lie along the $\sim$ 180 Mpc line of sight immediately in front and behind the cluster. This is surprising, given that the previously surveyed $z=0.41$ cluster Abell 851 has 3-4 times the field emission-line galaxy density (Martin et al. 2000). We find that the MS1512.4+3647 sample is deficient in galaxies with intermediate colors (1.0 $< g-i <$ 2.0) and implied star-formation exponential decay timescales $\tau \sim$ 100 Myr - 1 Gyr that dominate the Abell 851 emission-line galaxy population. Instead, the majority of [OII] emission-line galaxies surrounding the MS1512.4+3647 cluster are blue ($g-i \leq 1.0$) and forming stars in bursts with $\tau <$ 100 Myr. In both samples, galaxies with the shortest star-formation timescales are preferentially among the faintest star-forming objects. Their i luminosities are consistent with young stellar populations \sim 10^8 - 10^9 \Msun, although an additional factor of ten in stellar mass could be hiding in underlying old stellar populations. We discuss the implications for the star-formation histories of dwarf galaxies in the field and rich clusters.Comment: 26 pages, including 5 tables and 13 figures; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

The effect of exogenous corticosterone on West Nile virus infection in Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis)

The relationship between stress and disease is thought to be unambiguous: chronic stress induces immunosuppression, which likely increases the risk of infection. However, this link has not been firmly established in wild animals, particularly whether stress hormones affect host responses to zoonotic pathogens, which can be transmitted to domesticated animal, wildlife and human populations. Due to the dynamic effects of stress hormones on immune functions, stress hormones may make hosts better or poorer amplifying hosts for a pathogen contingent on context and the host species evaluated. Using an important zoonotic pathogen, West Nile virus (WNV) and a competent host, the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), we tested the effects of exogenous corticosterone on response to WNV infection. Corticosterone was administered at levels that individuals enduring chronic stressors (i.e., long-term inclement weather, food shortage, anthropogenic pollution) might experience in the wild. Corticosterone greatly impacted mortality: half of the corticosterone-implanted cardinals died between five - 11 days post-inoculation whereas only one of nine empty-implanted (control) birds died. No differences were found in viral titer between corticosterone- and empty-implanted birds. However, cardinals that survived infections had significantly higher average body temperatures during peak infection than individuals that died. In sum, this study indicates that elevated corticosterone could affect the survival of WNV-infected wild birds, suggesting that populations may be disproportionately at-risk to disease in stressful environments