Adding low-dose antidepressants to interferon alpha treatment for chronic hepatitis C improved psychiatric tolerability in a patient with schizoaffective psychosis

Treatment of chronic hepatitis C with interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) is relatively contraindicated in patients with psychiatric disorders because of possible severe psychiatric side effects. We report on a case of a female patient with a chronic schizoaffective psychosis, who was treated for 3 months with 3 x 3 mio IE IFN-alpha s.c./week because of a chronic hepatitis C (genotype Ib). Psychosis was stable with flupentixol monotherapy. After 2 months, she developed a severe depressive syndrome which lead to suicidal ideation. Until this time, she was without any antidepressive medication. Depressive symptoms disappeared after interferon therapy was stopped. Under prophylactic treatment with low-dose trimipramine (50 mg) or nefazodone (200 mg/day) therapy with IFN-alpha 3 x 3 mio IE/week was re-established after several months and again 2 years later adding ribavirin 1200 mg/day, a virustaticum. In contrast to the symptoms during monotherapy with IFN-alpha, during the time of both combination treatments, no psychiatric side effects occurred. While for ribavirin antidepressant effects are not known, we suppose that antidepressants may in serotonergic or noradrenergic caused by IFN-alpha. prevent changes neurotransmission caused by IFN-alpha. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel

Módulo 2. Formando el formador

Incorporar aquests documents a la Col·lecció del Centre de Recerca i Estudis pel Desenvolupament Organitzatiu. Considerar que el registre té més d'un arxiu, ja que s'incorpora traduït a diversos idiomes.El desarrollo de bancos de prueba que permitan la aproximación de las competencias profesionales desarrolladas en las universidades al sector productivo y, más en concreto, una formación de los estudiantes más vinculada con las necesidades del mercado, hacen que este módulo formativo cobre especial importancia en el marco del proyecto ASCENT

CD40-activated B cells induce anti-tumor immunity in vivo

The introduction of checkpoint inhibitors represents a major advance in cancer immunotherapy. Some studies on checkpoint inhibition demonstrate that combinatorial immunotherapies with secondary drivers of anti-tumor immunity provide beneficial effects for patients that do not show a strong endogenous immune response. CD40-activated B cells (CD40B cells) are potent antigen presenting cells by activating and expanding naïve and memory CD4 + and CD8 + and homing to the secondary lymphoid organs. In contrast to dendritic cells, the generation of highly pure CD40B cells is simple and time efficient and they can be expanded almost limitlessly from small blood samples of cancer patients. Here, we show that the vaccination with antigen-loaded CD40B cells induces a specific T-cell response in vivo comparable to that of dendritic cells. Moreover, we identify vaccination parameters, including injection route, cell dose and vaccination repetitions to optimize immunization and demonstrate that application of CD40B cells is safe in terms of toxicity in the recipient. We furthermore show that preventive immunization of tumor-bearing mice with tumor antigen-pulsed CD40B cells induces a protective anti-tumor immunity against B16.F10 melanomas and E.G7 lymphomas leading to reduced tumor growth. These results and our straightforward method of CD40B-cell generation underline the potential of CD40B cells for cancer immunotherapy

Moire superlattice effects in graphene/boron-nitride van der Waals heterostructures

Van der Waals heterostructures of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride feature a moir\'e superlattice for graphene's Dirac electrons. Here, we review the effects generated by this superlattice, including a specific miniband structure featuring gaps and secondary Dirac points, and a fractal spectrum of magnetic minibands known as Hofstadter's butterfly.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

Increased parahippocampal and lingual gyrification in first-episode schizophrenia

Objective: Cerebral gyrification is attributed to a large extent to genetic and intrauterine/ perinatal factors. Hence, investigating gyrification might offer important evidence for disturbed neurodevelopmental mechanisms in schizophrenia. As an extension of recent ROI analyses of gyrification in schizophrenia the present study is the first to compare on a node-by-node basis mean curvature as a sensitive parameter for the identification of local gyrification changes of the whole cortex in first-episode schizophrenia. Methods: A group of 54 patients with first-episode schizophrenia according to DSM-IV and 54 age and gender matched healthy control subjects were included. All participants underwent high-resolution T1-weighted MRI scans on a 1.5 T scanner. Mean curvature was calculated dividing the sum of the principal curvatures by two at each point of the curved surface as implemented in the Freesurfer Software package. Statistical cortical maps were created to estimate gyrification differences between groups based on a clustering approach. Results: A significantly increased gyrification was observed in first-episode schizophrenia patients relative to controls in a right parahippocampal-lingual cortex area. The cluster encompassed a surface area of 750 mm². A further analysis of cortical thickness of this cluster demonstrated concurrent significant reduced cortical thickness of this area. Conclusions: This is the first study to reveal an aberrant gyrification of the medial surface in first-episode schizophrenia. This finding is in line with substantial evidence showing medial temporal lobe abnormalities in schizophrenia. The present morphometric data provide further support for an early disruption of cortical maturation in schizophrenia

Subanesthetic ketamine treatment promotes abnormal interactions between neural subsystems and alters the properties of functional brain networks

Acute treatment with subanesthetic ketamine, a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonist, is widely utilized as a translational model for schizophrenia. However, how acute NMDA receptor blockade impacts on brain functioning at a systems level, to elicit translationally relevant symptomatology and behavioral deficits, has not yet been determined. Here, for the first time, we apply established and recently validated topological measures from network science to brain imaging data gained from ketamine-treated mice to elucidate how acute NMDA receptor blockade impacts on the properties of functional brain networks. We show that the effects of acute ketamine treatment on the global properties of these networks are divergent from those widely reported in schizophrenia. Where acute NMDA receptor blockade promotes hyperconnectivity in functional brain networks, pronounced dysconnectivity is found in schizophrenia. We also show that acute ketamine treatment increases the connectivity and importance of prefrontal and thalamic brain regions in brain networks, a finding also divergent to alterations seen in schizophrenia. In addition, we characterize how ketamine impacts on bipartite functional interactions between neural subsystems. A key feature includes the enhancement of prefrontal cortex (PFC)-neuromodulatory subsystem connectivity in ketamine-treated animals, a finding consistent with the known effects of ketamine on PFC neurotransmitter levels. Overall, our data suggest that, at a systems level, acute ketamine-induced alterations in brain network connectivity do not parallel those seen in chronic schizophrenia. Hence, the mechanisms through which acute ketamine treatment induces translationally relevant symptomatology may differ from those in chronic schizophrenia. Future effort should therefore be dedicated to resolve the conflicting observations between this putative translational model and schizophrenia

Commissioning of the vacuum system of the KATRIN Main Spectrometer

The KATRIN experiment will probe the neutrino mass by measuring the beta-electron energy spectrum near the endpoint of tritium beta-decay. An integral energy analysis will be performed by an electro-static spectrometer (Main Spectrometer), an ultra-high vacuum vessel with a length of 23.2 m, a volume of 1240 m^3, and a complex inner electrode system with about 120000 individual parts. The strong magnetic field that guides the beta-electrons is provided by super-conducting solenoids at both ends of the spectrometer. Its influence on turbo-molecular pumps and vacuum gauges had to be considered. A system consisting of 6 turbo-molecular pumps and 3 km of non-evaporable getter strips has been deployed and was tested during the commissioning of the spectrometer. In this paper the configuration, the commissioning with bake-out at 300{\deg}C, and the performance of this system are presented in detail. The vacuum system has to maintain a pressure in the 10^{-11} mbar range. It is demonstrated that the performance of the system is already close to these stringent functional requirements for the KATRIN experiment, which will start at the end of 2016

Gamma-induced background in the KATRIN main spectrometer

International audienceThe KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims to make a model-independent determination of the effective electron antineutrino mass with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c 2 . It investigates the kinematics of β -particles from tritium β -decay close to the endpoint of the energy spectrum. Because the KATRIN main spectrometer (MS) is located above ground, muon-induced backgrounds are of particular concern. Coincidence measurements with the MS and a scintillator-based muon detector system confirmed the model of secondary electron production by cosmic-ray muons inside the MS. Correlation measurements with the same setup showed that about 12% of secondary electrons emitted from the inner surface are induced by cosmic-ray muons, with approximately one secondary electron produced for every 17 muon crossings. However, the magnetic and electrostatic shielding of the MS is able to efficiently suppress these electrons, and we find that muons are responsible for less than 17% (90% confidence level) of the overall MS background