Modernisme er nationalhistorie

I K&K nr. 117 finder man en artikel af Michael Böss med den prægnante titel ’Nationalhistorie efter modernismen’ (Böss). Den modernisme der henvises til, er den historiske tolkning af moderne nationer – herunder den danske – som resultat af statsbygnings- moderniserings- og integrationsprocesser og ideologiske reorienteringsprocesser i det lange 19. århundrede efter ca. 1750. Det, der træder i stedet efter modernismen, er en etnosymbolsk tolkning, der ser moderne nationer i forlængelse af etniske samfund etableret i den tidlige middelalder

Identification of Novel Native Autoantigens in Rheumatoid Arthritis

The majority of patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have developed autoantibodies against neoepitopes in proteins that have undergone post-translational modification, e.g., citrullination or carbamylation. There is growing evidence of their molecular relevance and their potential utility to improve diagnosis, patient stratification, and prognosis for precision medicine. Autoantibodies reacting to native proteins may also have a role in RA pathogenesis, however, their reactivity patterns remain much less studied. We hypothesized that a high-density protein array technology could shed light onto the normal and disease-related autoantibodies produced in healthy and RA patient subgroups. In an exploratory study, we investigated the global reactivity of autoantibodies in plasma pools from 15 anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP)-positive and 10 anti-CCP-negative RA patients and 10 healthy donors against more than 1600 native and unmodified human proteins using a high-density protein array. A total of 102 proteins recognized by IgG autoantibodies were identified, hereof 86 were recognized by antibodies from CCP-positive RA patients and 76 from anti-CCP-negative RA patients, but not by antibodies from healthy donors. Twenty-four of the identified autoantigens have previously been identified in synovial fluid. Multiple human proteins in their native conformation are recognized by autoantibodies from anti-CCP-positive as well as anti-CCP-negative RA patients

Measuring endogenous changes in serotonergic neurotransmission with [11C]Cimbi-36 positron emission tomography in humans

Abstract Developing positron emission tomography (PET) radioligands for the detection of endogenous serotonin release will enable the investigation of serotonergic deficits in many neuropsychiatric disorders. The present study investigates how acute challenges that aim to increase or decrease cerebral serotonin levels affect binding of the serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) agonist radioligand [11C]Cimbi-36. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, three-arm design, 23 healthy volunteers were PET scanned twice with [11C]Cimbi-36: at baseline and following double-blind assignment to one of three interventions (1) infusion of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram preceded by oral dosing of the 5-HT1AR antagonist pindolol, (n = 8) (2) acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) (n = 7) and (3) placebo (n = 8). Two-sample t-tests revealed no significant group differences in percent change of neocortical [11C]Cimbi-36 binding from baseline to intervention between placebo and citalopram/pindolol (p = 0.4) or between placebo and ATD (p = 0.5). Notably, there was a significantly larger within-group variation in 5-HT2AR binding after intervention with citalopram/pindolol, as compared with placebo (p = 0.007). These findings suggest that neither ATD nor a combination of citalopram and pindolol elicit acute unidirectional changes in serotonin levels sufficient to be detected with [11C]Cimbi-36 PET in neocortex. We suggest that the large interindividual variation in 5-HT2AR binding after citalopram/pindolol reflects that after an acute SSRI intervention, individuals respond substantially different in terms of their brain serotonin levels. Our observation has a potential impact for the understanding of patient responses to SSRI