Limited Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms Late in Pregnancy Are Not Related to Neonatal Outcomes

Background: Prior studies have reported inconsistent findings regarding the link between antenatal depressive and anxiety symptomatology, with neonatal outcomes. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to assess the possible association of prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms, in the third trimester of pregnancy, with perinatal outcomes (birth weight of the newborn, Apgar score and the newborn’s admission in neonatal intensive care unit) in a sample of pregnant women, in Greece. Patients and Methods: A total of 117 women from Athens, during the 32nd to 35th week of pregnancy, participated in the study. Demographic and obstetric history data, as well as neonatal outcomes, were recorded. Three self-administered psychometric scales (Beck depression inventory (BDI), Edinburg postnatal depression scale (EPDS) and beck anxiety inventory (BAI)) were used to evaluate in detail the prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms. Descriptive statistics, Spearman’s Rho coefficients, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis testes were applied to analyze the data. Results: On the basis of BDI, 81.1% of the sample showed minimal, 15.4% mild, 2.6% moderate and 0.9% severe depressive symptoms, respectively. Furthermore, 80.3% of the participants, scored on EPDS below the cut-off point for a likely diagnosis of depression. According to BAI scale, 43.6% showed minimal, 42.7% women mild, 10.3% moderate and 3.4% severe anxiety symptoms. No statistically significant correlations were found between depressive and anxiety symptoms and neonatal outcomes (birth weight, Apgar score and admission in neonatal intensive care unit). Conclusions: Limited levels of prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms do not seem to be associated with neonatal outcomes. In clinical practice, pregnant women, who suffer from low levels of prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms, may be reassured, in respect of the adverse outcomes of these mood symptoms on the neonate

a-Synuclein and lipids in erythrocytes of Gaucher disease carriers and patients before and after enzyme replacement therapy

It is well established that patients with Gaucher disease, as well as carriers of the disease have an increased risk for developing Parkinson's disease. A plethora of evidence suggests that disturbed alpha-Synuclein homeostasis is the link between Gaucher disease and Parkinson's disease. The pathogenic mechanism linking these entities is still a topic of debate and both gain- and loss-of-function theories have been put forward, which however are not mutually exclusive. In the present study we expanded our previous studies to include not only Gaucher disease patients but also Gaucher disease carriers and Gaucher disease patients following Enzyme Replacement Therapy. In these groups we investigated alpha-Synuclein in red blood cell membranes in association with lipid abnormalities described in Gaucher disease. These included glucosylceramide and its species, glucosylsphingosine, glucosylcholesterol and plasmalogens. Increased oligomerization of alpha-Synuclein in red blood cell membranes was observed not only in Gaucher disease patients but also in carriers of the disease. There were no qualitative differences in the lipids identified in the groups studied. However, significant quantitative differences compared to controls were observed in Gaucher disease patients but not in Gaucher disease carriers. Enzyme Replacement Therapy reversed the biochemical defects and normalized alpha-Synuclein homeostasis, providing for the first time evidence in human subjects that such homeostatic dysregulation is reversible. Further studies investigating alpha-Synuclein status during the differentiation of erythroid progenitors could provide new data on the pathogenic mechanism of alpha-Synuclein oligomerization in this system.Medical Biochemistr

Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Understanding the role of seascape in shaping genetic and demographic population structure is highly challenging for marine pelagic species such as cetaceans for which there is generally little evidence of what could effectively restrict their dispersal. In the present work, we applied a combination of recent individual-based landscape genetic approaches to investigate the population genetic structure of a highly mobile extensive range cetacean, the harbour porpoise in the eastern North Atlantic, with regards to oceanographic characteristics that could constrain its dispersal.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analyses of 10 microsatellite loci for 752 individuals revealed that most of the sampled range in the eastern North Atlantic behaves as a 'continuous' population that widely extends over thousands of kilometres with significant isolation by distance (IBD). However, strong barriers to gene flow were detected in the south-eastern part of the range. These barriers coincided with profound changes in environmental characteristics and isolated, on a relatively small scale, porpoises from Iberian waters and on a larger scale porpoises from the Black Sea.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The presence of these barriers to gene flow that coincide with profound changes in oceanographic features, together with the spatial variation in IBD strength, provide for the first time strong evidence that physical processes have a major impact on the demographic and genetic structure of a cetacean. This genetic pattern further suggests habitat-related fragmentation of the porpoise range that is likely to intensify with predicted surface ocean warming.</p

Facilitating accessible, rapid, and appropriate processing of ancient metagenomic data with AMDirT [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Background: Access to sample-level metadata is important when selecting public metagenomic sequencing datasets for reuse in new biological analyses. The Standards, Precautions, and Advances in Ancient Metagenomics community (SPAAM, https://spaam-community.github.io) has previously published AncientMetagenomeDir, a collection of curated and standardised sample metadata tables for metagenomic and microbial genome datasets generated from ancient samples. However, while sample-level information is useful for identifying relevant samples for inclusion in new projects, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) library construction and sequencing metadata are also essential for appropriately reprocessing ancient metagenomic data. Currently, recovering information for downloading and preparing such data is difficult when laboratory and bioinformatic metadata is heterogeneously recorded in prose-based publications. Methods: Through a series of community-based hackathon events, AncientMetagenomeDir was updated to provide standardised library-level metadata of existing and new ancient metagenomic samples. In tandem, the companion tool 'AMDirT' was developed to facilitate automated metadata curation and data validation, as well as rapid data filtering and downloading. Results: AncientMetagenomeDir was extended to include standardised metadata of over 5000 ancient metagenomic libraries. The companion tool 'AMDirT' provides both graphical- and command-line interface based access to such metadata for users from a wide range of computational backgrounds. We also report on errors with metadata reporting that appear to commonly occur during data upload and provide suggestions on how to improve the quality of data sharing by the community.Conclusions: Together, both standardised metadata and tooling will help towards easier incorporation and reuse of public ancient metagenomic datasets into future analyses.Bioarchaeolog