Screening performance of abbreviated versions of the UPSIT smell test.

“This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of a protocol published in Journal of Neurology. The final publication is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-019-09340-x"BACKGROUND: Hyposmia can develop with age and in neurodegenerative conditions, including Parkinson's disease (PD). The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) is a 40-item smell test widely used for assessing hyposmia. However, in a number of situations, such as identifying hyposmic individuals in large populations, shorter tests are preferable. METHODS: We assessed the ability of shorter UPSIT subsets to detect hyposmia in 891 healthy participants from the PREDICT-PD study. Shorter subsets included Versions A and B of the 4-item Pocket Smell Test (PST) and 12-item Brief Smell Identification Test (BSIT). Using a data-driven approach, we evaluated screening performances of 23,231,378 combinations of 1-7 smell items from the full UPSIT to derive "winning" subsets, and validated findings separately in another 191 healthy individuals. We then compared discriminatory UPSIT smells between PREDICT-PD participants and 40 PD patients, and assessed the performance of "winning" subsets containing discriminatory smells in PD patients. RESULTS: PST Versions A and B achieved sensitivity/specificity of 76.8%/64.9% and 86.6%/45.9%, respectively, while BSIT Versions A and B achieved 83.1%/79.5% and 96.5%/51.8%. From the data-driven analysis, 2 "winning" 7-item subsets surpassed the screening performance of 12-item BSITs (validation sensitivity/specificity of 88.2%/85.4% and 100%/53.5%), while a "winning" 4-item subset had higher sensitivity than PST-A, -B, and even BSIT-A (validation sensitivity 91.2%). Interestingly, several discriminatory smells featured within "winning" subsets, and demonstrated high-screening performances for identifying hyposmic PD patients. CONCLUSION: Using abbreviated smell tests could provide a cost-effective means of large-scale hyposmia screening, allowing more targeted UPSIT administration in general and PD-related settings

The estrogen-injected female mouse: new insight into the etiology of PCOS

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Female mice and rats injected with estrogen perinatally become anovulatory and develop follicular cysts. The current consensus is that this adverse response to estrogen involves the hypothalamus and occurs because of an estrogen-induced alteration in the GnRH delivery system. Whether or not this is true has yet to be firmly established. The present study examined an alternate possibility in which anovulation and cyst development occurs through an estrogen-induced disruption in the immune system, achieved through the intermediation of the thymus gland.</p> <p>Methods, Results and Conclusion</p> <p>A putative role for the thymus in estrogen-induced anovulation and follicular cyst formation (a model of PCOS) was examined in female mice by removing the gland prior to estrogen injection. Whereas all intact, female mice injected with 20 ug estrogen at 5–7 days of age had ovaries with follicular cysts, no cysts were observed in animals in which thymectomy at 3 days of age preceded estrogen injection. In fact, after restoring immune function by thymocyte replacement, the majority of thymectomized, estrogen-injected mice had ovaries with corpora lutea. Thus, when estrogen is unable to act on the thymus, ovulation occurs and follicular cysts do not develop. This implicates the thymus in the cysts' genesis and discounts the role of the hypothalamus. Subsequent research established that the disease is transferable by lymphocyte infusion. Transfer took place between 100-day-old estrogen-injected and 15-day-old naïve mice only when recipients were thymectomized at 3 days of age. Thus, a prerequisite for cyst formation is the absence of regulatory T cells. Their absence in donor mice was judged to be the result of an estrogen-induced increase in the thymus' vascular permeability, causing de facto circumvention of the final stages of regulatory T cell development. The human thymus has a similar vulnerability to steroid action during the fetal stage. We propose that in utero exposure to excessive levels of steroids such as estrogen has a long-term effect on the ability of the thymus to produce regulatory T cells. In female offspring this can lead to PCOS.</p

Skilled But Unaware of It: Occurrence and Potential Long-Term Effects of Females' Financial Underconfidence

We find strong gender- and education-related differences in the distribution of actual and perceived financial sophistication: Whereas financial literacy rises in formal education, confidence increases in education for men but decreases for women. We show that the financial decisions of highly-educated men benefit strongly from this excess confidence, while the underconfidence of highly-educated women, in contrast, impairs their long-term financial planning

Extensive innate immune gene activation accompanies brain aging, increasing vulnerability to cognitive decline and neurodegeneration: a microarray study

BACKGROUND: This study undertakes a systematic and comprehensive analysis of brain gene expression profiles of immune/inflammation-related genes in aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). METHODS: In a well-powered microarray study of young (20 to 59 years), aged (60 to 99 years), and AD (74 to 95 years) cases, gene responses were assessed in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, superior frontal gyrus, and post-central gyrus. RESULTS: Several novel concepts emerge. First, immune/inflammation-related genes showed major changes in gene expression over the course of cognitively normal aging, with the extent of gene response far greater in aging than in AD. Of the 759 immune-related probesets interrogated on the microarray, approximately 40% were significantly altered in the SFG, PCG and HC with increasing age, with the majority upregulated (64 to 86%). In contrast, far fewer immune/inflammation genes were significantly changed in the transition to AD (approximately 6% of immune-related probesets), with gene responses primarily restricted to the SFG and HC. Second, relatively few significant changes in immune/inflammation genes were detected in the EC either in aging or AD, although many genes in the EC showed similar trends in responses as in the other brain regions. Third, immune/inflammation genes undergo gender-specific patterns of response in aging and AD, with the most pronounced differences emerging in aging. Finally, there was widespread upregulation of genes reflecting activation of microglia and perivascular macrophages in the aging brain, coupled with a downregulation of select factors (TOLLIP, fractalkine) that when present curtail microglial/macrophage activation. Notably, essentially all pathways of the innate immune system were upregulated in aging, including numerous complement components, genes involved in toll-like receptor signaling and inflammasome signaling, as well as genes coding for immunoglobulin (Fc) receptors and human leukocyte antigens I and II. CONCLUSIONS: Unexpectedly, the extent of innate immune gene upregulation in AD was modest relative to the robust response apparent in the aged brain, consistent with the emerging idea of a critical involvement of inflammation in the earliest stages, perhaps even in the preclinical stage, of AD. Ultimately, our data suggest that an important strategy to maintain cognitive health and resilience involves reducing chronic innate immune activation that should be initiated in late midlife