Chemical fingerprints of emotional body odor

Chemical communication is common among animals. In humans, the chemical basis of social communication has remained a black box, despite psychological and neural research showing distinctive physiological, behavioral, and neural consequences of body odors emitted during emotional states like fear and happiness. We used a multidisciplinary approach to examine whether molecular cues could be associated with an emotional state in the emitter. Our research revealed that the volatile molecules transmitting different emotions to perceivers also have objectively different chemical properties. Chemical analysis of underarm sweat collected from the same donors in fearful, happy, and emotionally neutral states was conducted using untargeted two-dimensional (GC×GC) coupled with time of flight (ToF) MS-based profiling. Based on the multivariate statistical analyses, we find that the pattern of chemical volatiles (N = 1655 peaks) associated with fearful state is clearly different from that associated with (pleasant) neutral state. Happy sweat is also significantly different from the other states, chemically, but shows a bipolar pattern of overlap with fearful as well as neutral state. Candidate chemical classes associated with emotional and neutral sweat have been identified, specifically, linear aldehydes, ketones, esters, and cyclic molecules (5 rings). This research constitutes a first step toward identifying the chemical fingerprints of emotion.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome: an EBMT inborn errors working party analysis

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a potentially curative treatment for patients affected by Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS). Reported HSCT outcomes have improved over time with respect to overall survival, but some studies have identified older age and HSCT from alternative donors as risk factors predicting poorer outcome. We analyzed 197 patients transplanted at EBMT centers between 2006 and 2017, who received conditioning as recommended by the inborn errors working party (IEWP): either busulfan (n=103) or treosulfan (n=94) combined with fludarabine ± thiotepa. After a median follow-up after HSCT of 44.9 months, 176 patients were alive, resulting in a 3-year overall survival of 88.7%, and chronic GVHD-free survival (CRFS; events: death, graft failure, severe chronic GVHD) of 81.7%. Overall survival and CRFS were not significantly impacted by conditioning regimen (busulfan- versus treosulfan-based), donor type (MSD/MFD vs MUD/MMUD vs. MMFD), and period of HSCT (2006-2013 vs. 2014-2017). Patients younger than 5 years at HSCT had a significantly better overall survival. The overall cumulative incidences of grade III-IV acute GVHD and extensive/moderate/severe chronic GVHD were 6.6% and 2.1%, respectively. Patients receiving treosulfan-based conditioning had a higher incidence of graft failure, mixed donor chimerism and more frequently received secondary procedures (2nd HSCT, unconditioned stem cell boost, donor lymphocyte infusion, or splenectomy). In summary, HSCT for WAS with conditioning regimens currently recommended by IEWP results in excellent survival and low rates of GVHD, regardless of donor or stem cell source, but age ≥5 years remains a risk factor for overall survival