Depression with melancholic features is associated with higher long-term risk for dementia

BACKGROUND: Depression has been reported to increase the risk of subsequently developing dementia, but the nature of this relation remains to be elucidated. Depression can be a prodrome/manifestation of dementia or an early risk factor, and the effect may differ according to depression subtypes. Our aim was to study the association between early-onset depression and different depression subtypes, and the later occurrence of dementia. METHODS: We conducted a cohort study including 322 subjects with depression, recruited between 1977 and 1984. A comparison cohort (non-exposed) was recruited retrospectively, to include 322 subjects admitted at the same hospital for routine surgery (appendicectomy or cholecystectomy), at the same period as the depressed cohort. Subjects were contacted again between 2009 and 2014, to assess their dementia status. We computed the risk for dementia in subjects with early onset depression and quantified the association between different depression subtypes (namely melancholic, anxious, and psychotic) and dementia. RESULTS: The odds of dementia were increased by 2.90 times (95% C.I. 1.61-5.21; p<0.0001) for the depressed cohort when compared to the surgical cohort. When the analysis was restricted to patients younger than 45 years old at baseline, the odds for dementia in the depressed cohort were also significantly higher when compared to the surgical cohort (8.53; 95% C.I. 2.40-30.16). In the multivariate Cox analysis, subjects having depression with melancholic features had an increased risk for developing dementia compared to those without melancholic features (HR=3.64; 95% C.I. 1.78-11.26; p=0.025). LIMITATIONS: About 59% of the participants with depression and 53% of those non-exposed were lost during follow up. The inclusion of biological biomarkers would strengthen the results. The sample included a low number of bipolar patients. CONCLUSIONS: These results support depression as an early risk factor for dementia. Depression with melancholic features was found as an important risk factor for dementia, playing a main role in the relation between these disorders

Antenna subtraction for gluon scattering at NNLO

We use the antenna subtraction method to isolate the double real radiation infrared singularities present in gluonic scattering amplitudes at next-to-next-to-leading order. The antenna subtraction framework has been successfully applied to the calculation of NNLO corrections to the 3-jet cross section and related event shape distributions in electron-positron annihilation. Here we consider processes with two coloured particles in the initial state, and in particular two-jet production at hadron colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We construct a subtraction term that describes the single and double unresolved contributions from the six-gluon tree-level process using antenna functions with initial state partons and show numerically that the subtraction term correctly approximates the matrix elements in the various single and double unresolved configurations.Comment: 71 pages, JHEP3 class; corrected typos, equivalent but more compact version of eq. (5.12), results unchange

Paracoccidioidiomycosis: case report

Os autores reportam o caso clínico de um homem, 43 anos de idade, natural e residente na ilha da Madeira, emigrado na Venezuela até há 6 anos. Em Março 2009, observado por aparecimento de lesão pápulo-crostosa de bordos regulares eritematosos, indolor, pruriginosa, com dimensões de 4,5 x 3 cm, localizada no dorso, com 2 meses de evolução. Como antecedentes, refere história de lesão da mucosa bucal, com exame histopatológico compatível com paracoccidioidomicose (PCM). Foram efectuadas duas biópsias da lesão cutânea para avaliação histopatológica e micológica. O exame histopatológico revelou a presença de múltiplas células circulares, sugerindo distribuição característica de “roda de leme”. O estudo micológicos revelou, no exame directo, a presença de leveduras – algumas em gemulação. As culturas permitiram isolar o Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. A radiografia pulmonar apresentava infiltrado bilateral e simétrico, nos lobos centrais e basais. A Tomografia Axial Computadorizada torácica demonstrou múltiplos nódulos espiculados, áreas de opacidade e bronquiectasias. Foi efectuada broncofibroscopia (sem alterações) e simultaneamente foi obtido o lavado broncoalveolar (LBA). A cultura, a 25º C, revelou a presença de hifas e clamidósporos (forma filamentosa). Na cultura, a 37º C, não se obteve a forma leveduriforme. O tratamento efectuado foi o itraconazol 200 mg/dia, durante 6 meses, com regressão da lesão. Até à actualidade, nenhum caso de PCM foi reportado na ilha da Madeira, Portugal. Embora não seja frequente, fora das áreas endémicas, os dermatologistas devem ser capazes de reconhecer e diagnosticar micoses sistémicas, como a PCM.We report a case of a 43 years-old portuguese man, natural and resident in Madeira island, who was emigrated in Venezuela until 6 years ago. He was observed on March 2008 for a crusted papulo-nodular lesion with erythematous regular borders, pruritic and sized 4,5 x 3,0 cm, located on the dorsum, with a 2 month history. There was no palpable lymphadenopathy. He denied other simptomatology. On March of 1999, the patient had a mouth lesion which was compatible with paracoccidioidomycosis on histopathological examination. He was not aware of any associated pathologies. We performed two punch biopsies of the cutaneous lesion for histopathological and mycological examination. The histopathology showed the presence of multiple round cells of different size (yeast cells) in a narrow base suggesting the classic “pilot’s wheels”, on Hematoxiline & Eosine stain. On direct microscopic examination the mycology revealed yeast of different sizes – some of them on gemulation. The cultures, at 24º and 37º, isolated Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. The thoracic x-ray revealed a heterogeneous, bilateral and symmetric pattern located towards the central and basal portions. The CT scan of the chest showed multiple, micronodular and striated lesions (some of them with small cavities), with tendency to coalesce. To characterize better these lung abnormalities, the patient performed a fibrobronchoscopy of the respiratory tract which was normal. The culture, at 25 ºC, obtained from the sputum of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) showed Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. Routine laboratory studies were normal and serology negative for HIV and tuberculosis. The treatment of choice was itraconazol 200 mg/day, for 6 months. As far as we know no case of PCM has been reported in Madeira. Although it is not a frequent disease outside the endemic areas, dermatologists should be able to recognise and diagnose systemic mycosis like PCM.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sialic Acid Glycobiology Unveils Trypanosoma cruzi Trypomastigote Membrane Physiology.

Trypanosoma cruzi, the flagellate protozoan agent of Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis, is unable to synthesize sialic acids de novo. Mucins and trans-sialidase (TS) are substrate and enzyme, respectively, of the glycobiological system that scavenges sialic acid from the host in a crucial interplay for T. cruzi life cycle. The acquisition of the sialyl residue allows the parasite to avoid lysis by serum factors and to interact with the host cell. A major drawback to studying the sialylation kinetics and turnover of the trypomastigote glycoconjugates is the difficulty to identify and follow the recently acquired sialyl residues. To tackle this issue, we followed an unnatural sugar approach as bioorthogonal chemical reporters, where the use of azidosialyl residues allowed identifying the acquired sugar. Advanced microscopy techniques, together with biochemical methods, were used to study the trypomastigote membrane from its glycobiological perspective. Main sialyl acceptors were identified as mucins by biochemical procedures and protein markers. Together with determining their shedding and turnover rates, we also report that several membrane proteins, including TS and its substrates, both glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, are separately distributed on parasite surface and contained in different and highly stable membrane microdomains. Notably, labeling for α(1,3)Galactosyl residues only partially colocalize with sialylated mucins, indicating that two species of glycosylated mucins do exist, which are segregated at the parasite surface. Moreover, sialylated mucins were included in lipid-raft-domains, whereas TS molecules are not. The location of the surface-anchored TS resulted too far off as to be capable to sialylate mucins, a role played by the shed TS instead. Phosphatidylinositol-phospholipase-C activity is actually not present in trypomastigotes. Therefore, shedding of TS occurs via microvesicles instead of as a fully soluble form

Joint angle variability and co-variation in a reaching with a rod task

The problem at the heart of motor control is how the myriad units of the neuromotor system are coordinated to perform goal-directed movements. Although for long these numerous degrees of freedom (DOFs) were considered redundant, recent views emphasize more that the DOFs should be considered abundant, allowing flexible performance. We studied how variability in arm joints was employed to stabilize the displaced end-effector in tool use to examine how the neuromotor system flexibly exploits DOFs in the upper extremity. Participants made pointing movements with the index finger and with the index finger extended by rods of 10, 20, and 30 cm. Using the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) method, the total joint angle variance was decomposed into two parts, the joint angle variance that did not affect the position of the end-effector (VUCM) and the variance that results in a deviation of the position of the end-effector from its mean (VORT). Analyses showed that some angles depended on length of the rod in use. For all rod lengths, VUCM was larger than VORT, and this did not differ over rod lengths, demonstrating that the arm was organized into a synergy. Finally, the variation in the joint angles in the arm as well as the degree of co-variation between these angles did not differ for the rod’s tip and the hand. We concluded that synergies are formed in the arm during reaching with an extended end-effector and those synergies stabilize different parts of the arm+rod system equally