Acid folic supplementation in major depressive disorder treatment: A double-blind randomized clinical trial

Background: Augmentation therapy involves the addition of a second drug, such as mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and nutritional supplements, to a primary antidepressant treatment. Studies on adding folic acid to a preexisting antidepressive regimen as a form of augmentation therapy have had different and even controversial results. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effects that adding folic acid to a pharmaceutical diet with citalopram has on the treatment of depression. Methods: This double-blind randomized clinical trial was conducted in Kashan, Iran on 90 patients who suffered from depression. Patients were allocated to study groups using random permuted blocks. One group (n=45) received a dosage of 20 mg citalopram in combination with 2.5mgfolic acid on a daily basis, and the other group (n=45) received the same daily dose of citalopram with a placebo for eight weeks. To measure the severity of each patient’s depression, the Beck depression inventory II (BDI-II) questionnaire was used prior to starting the antidepressant therapy and was repeated four, six, and eight weeks after beginning the treatment. A reduction from the original BDI-II scores that was greater than 50% was considered to be a response to treatment. Results: The average depression scores before treatment were 30.11±10.41 in the intervention group and 31.24±10.26 in the control group (P=0.6). At the end of the study, the depression scores in the intervention and the control groups were 13.31±6.57 and 19.11±8.59, respectively (P<0.001). A reduction in the average depression scores of the intervention group was statistically significant after six and eight weeks (P=0.01 and P=0.001, respectively). At the end of the study, the frequency of response to treatment was 73.3% in the intervention group and 40.0% in the control group (P<0.001). Conclusions: Folic acid, when used as a complementary therapy, can improve a patient’s response to antidepressants used for the treatment of major depression

Reconnecting Magnetic Flux Tubes as a Source of In Situ Acceleration in Extragalactic Radio Sources

Many extended extragalactic radio sources require a local {\it in situ\/} acceleration mechanism for electrons, in part because the synchrotron lifetimes are shorter than the bulk travel time across the emitting regions. If the magnetic field in these sources is localized in flux tubes, reconnection may occur between regions of plasma \be (ratio of particle to magnetic pressure) $<<1$, even though $\beta$ averaged over the plasma volume may be \gsim 1. Reconnection in low $\beta$ regions is most favorable to acceleration from reconnection shocks. The reconnection X-point regions may provide the injection electrons for their subsequent non-thermal shock acceleration to distributions reasonably consistent with observed spectra. Flux tube reconnection might therefore be able to provide $in\ situ$ acceleration required by large scale jets and lobes.Comment: 14 pages, plain TeX, accepted to Ap.J.Let

Expression, Tissue Distribution and Function of miR-21 in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objective:MiR-21 is an oncomir expressed by malignant cells and/or tumor microenvironment components. In this study we focused on understanding the effects of stromal miR-21 on esophageal malignant cells.Design:MiR-21 expression was evaluated in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples from patients with esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC) by quantitative RT-PCR. MiR-21 tissue distribution was visualized with in situ hybridization. A co-culture system of normal fibroblasts and esophageal cancer cells was used to determine the effects of fibroblasts on miR-21 expression levels, and on SCC cell migration and invasion.Results:MiR-21 was overexpressed in SCCs, when compared to the adjacent non-tumor tissues (P = 0.0007), and was mainly localized in the cytoplasm of stromal cells adjacent to malignant cells. Accordingly, miR-21 expression was increased in tumors with high versus low stromal content (P = 0.04). When co-cultured with normal fibroblasts, miR-21 expression was elevated in SCC cells (KYSE-30), while its expression was restricted to fibroblasts when co-cultured with adenocarcinoma cells (OE-33 and FLO-1). MiR-21 was detected in conditioned media of cancer cell lines, illustrating the release of this miRNA into the environment. Co-culturing with normal fibroblasts or addition of fibroblast conditioned media caused a significant increase in cell migration and invasion potency of KYSE-30 cells (P<0.0001). In addition, co-culturing cancer cells with fibroblasts and expression of miR-21 induced the expression of the cancer associated fibroblast (CAF) marker S100A4.Conclusions:MiR-21 expression is mostly confined to the SCC stroma and its release from fibroblasts influences the migration and invasion capacity of SCC cells. Moreover, miR-21 may be an important factor in "activating" fibroblasts to CAFs. These findings provide new insights into the role of CAFs and the extracellular matrix in tumor microenvironment formation and in tumor cell maintenance, and suggest miR-21 may contribute to cellular crosstalk in the tumor microenvironment. © 2013 Nouraee et al

THEMIS Observations of Unusual Bow Shock Motion, Attending a Transient Magnetospheric Event

We present a multipoint case study of solar wind and magnetospheric observations during a transient magnetospheric compression at 2319 UT on October 15, 2008. We use high-time resolution magnetic field and plasma data from the THEMIS and GOES-11/12 spacecraft to show that this transient event corresponded to an abrupt rotation in the IMF orientation, a change in the location of the foreshock, and transient outward bow shock motion. We employ results from a global hybrid code model to reconcile the observations indicating transient inward magnetopause motion with the outward bow shock motion

Spontaneous Hot Flow Anomalies at Quasi-Parallel Shocks: 2. Hybrid Simulations

Motivated by recent THEMIS observations, this paper uses 2.5-D electromagnetic hybrid simulations to investigate the formation of Spontaneous Hot Flow Anomalies (SHFA) upstream of quasi-parallel bow shocks during steady solar wind conditions and in the absence of discontinuities. The results show the formation of a large number of structures along and upstream of the quasi-parallel bow shock. Their outer edges exhibit density and magnetic field enhancements, while their cores exhibit drops in density, magnetic field, solar wind velocity and enhancements in ion temperature. Using virtual spacecraft in the simulation, we show that the signatures of these structures in the time series data are very similar to those of SHFAs seen in THEMIS data and conclude that they correspond to SHFAs. Examination of the simulation data shows that SHFAs form as the result of foreshock cavitons interacting with the bow shock. Foreshock cavitons in turn form due to the nonlinear evolution of ULF waves generated by the interaction of the solar wind with the backstreaming ions. Because foreshock cavitons are an inherent part of the shock dissipation process, the formation of SHFAs is also an inherent part of the dissipation process leading to a highly non-uniform plasma in the quasi-parallel magnetosheath including large scale density and magnetic field cavities

Magnetosheath Filamentary Structures Formed by Ion Acceleration at the Quasi-Parallel Bow Shock

Results from 2.5-D electromagnetic hybrid simulations show the formation of field-aligned, filamentary plasma structures in the magnetosheath. They begin at the quasi-parallel bow shock and extend far into the magnetosheath. These structures exhibit anticorrelated, spatial oscillations in plasma density and ion temperature. Closer to the bow shock, magnetic field variations associated with density and temperature oscillations may also be present. Magnetosheath filamentary structures (MFS) form primarily in the quasi-parallel sheath; however, they may extend to the quasi-perpendicular magnetosheath. They occur over a wide range of solar wind Alfvnic Mach numbers and interplanetary magnetic field directions. At lower Mach numbers with lower levels of magnetosheath turbulence, MFS remain highly coherent over large distances. At higher Mach numbers, magnetosheath turbulence decreases the level of coherence. Magnetosheath filamentary structures result from localized ion acceleration at the quasi-parallel bow shock and the injection of energetic ions into the magnetosheath. The localized nature of ion acceleration is tied to the generation of fast magnetosonic waves at and upstream of the quasi-parallel shock. The increased pressure in flux tubes containing the shock accelerated ions results in the depletion of the thermal plasma in these flux tubes and the enhancement of density in flux tubes void of energetic ions. This results in the observed anticorrelation between ion temperature and plasma density

First Observations of a Foreshock Bubble at Earth: Implications for Magnetospheric Activity and Energetic Particle Acceleration

Earth?s foreshock, which is the quasi-parallel region upstream of the bow shock, is a unique plasma region capable of generating several kinds of large-scale phenomena, each of which can impact the magnetosphere resulting in global effects. Interestingly, such phenomena have also been observed at planetary foreshocks throughout our solar system. Recently, a new type of foreshock phenomena has been predicted: foreshock bubbles, which are large-scale disruptions of both the foreshock and incident solar wind plasmas that can result in global magnetospheric disturbances. Here we present unprecedented, multi-point observations of foreshock bubbles at Earth using a combination of spacecraft and ground observations primarily from the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission, and we include detailed analysis of the events? global effects on the magnetosphere and the energetic ions and electrons accelerated by them, potentially by a combination of first and second order Fermi and shock drift acceleration processes. This new phenomena should play a role in energetic particle acceleration at collisionless, quasi-parallel shocks throughout the Universe

Distinguishing Solar Flare Types by Differences in Reconnection Regions

Observations show that magnetic reconnection and its slow shocks occur in solar flares. The basic magnetic structures are similar for long duration event (LDE) flares and faster compact impulsive (CI) flares, but the former require less non-thermal electrons than the latter. Slow shocks can produce the required non-thermal electron spectrum for CI flares by Fermi acceleration if electrons are injected with large enough energies to resonate with scattering waves. The dissipation region may provide the injection electrons, so the overall number of non-thermal electrons reaching the footpoints would depend on the size of the dissipation region and its distance from the chromosphere. In this picture, the LDE flares have converging inflows toward a dissipation region that spans a smaller overall length fraction than for CI flares. Bright loop-top X-ray spots in some CI flares can be attributed to particle trapping at fast shocks in the downstream flow, the presence of which is determined by the angle of the inflow field and velocity to the slow shocks.Comment: 15 pages TeX and 2 .eps figures, accepted to Ap.J.Let

Neuropathological changes in the PDAPP transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a uniquely human disorder. Although the pathogenesis of AD is not fully understood, growing evidence indicates that the deposition of beta-amyloid (Aβ) and the local reactions of various cell types to this protein play major roles in the development of the disease. In the present study transgenic mice expressing mutant amyloid precursor protein (APP) has been used. These mice exhibit selective neuronal death in the brain regions that are most affected in AD, suggesting that amyloid plaque formation is directly involved in AD neurons loss. Brains from 12 transgenic animals and 12 age-matched non transgenic littermate controls (1 and 2 years old) were examined histopathologically. One year old transgenic animals (n=6) exhibit deposits of human Aβ in the hippocampus, corpus callosum and cerebral cortex. By 2 years of age, a great number of diffuse and mature plaques were present in the cortex and hippocampus, and subcortical regions like thalamus and striatum. Another major finding was reduction of cholinergic cells in the medial septum, striatum and diagonal band of Broca. The present data are consistent with the hypothesis that the neuropathology begins in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus before spreading in a retrograde fashion to subcortical regions