Evaluation of the influence of kyphosis and scoliosis on intervertebral disc extrusion in French bulldogs

Although thoracic vertebral malformations with kyphosis and scoliosis are often considered incidental findings on diagnostic imaging studies of screw-tailed brachycephalic breeds, they have been suggested to interfere with spinal biomechanics and intervertebral disc degeneration. It is however unknown if an abnormal spinal curvature also predisposes dogs to develop clinically relevant intervertebral disc herniations. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the occurrence of thoracic vertebral malformations, kyphosis or scoliosis would be associated with a higher prevalence of cervical or thoracolumbar intervertebral disc extrusion in French bulldogs

The diterpenoid alkaloid noroxoaconitine is a Mapkap kinase 5 (MK5/PRAK) inhibitor

The mitogen-activated protein kinase-activated protein kinase MK5 is ubiquitously expressed in vertebrates and is implicated in cell proliferation, cytoskeletal remodeling, and anxiety behavior. This makes MK5 an attractive drug target. We tested several diterpenoid alkaloids for their ability to suppress MK5 kinase activity. We identified noroxoaconitine as an ATP competitor that inhibited the catalytic activity of MK5 in vitro (IC50 = 37.5 μM; Ki = 0.675 μM) and prevented PKA-induced nuclear export of MK5, a process that depends on kinase active MK5. MK5 is closely related to MK2 and MK3, and noroxoaconitine inhibited MK3- and MK5- but not MK2-mediated phosphorylation of the common substrate Hsp27. Molecular docking of noroxoaconitine into the ATP binding sites indicated that noroxoaconitine binds more strongly to MK5 than to MK3. Noroxoaconitine and derivatives may help in elucidating the precise biological functions of MK5 and may prove to have therapeutic values

Atypical birdsong and artificial languages provide insights into how communication systems are shaped by learning, use and transmission

In this article, I argue that a comparative approach focusing on the cognitive capacities and behavioral mechanisms that underlie vocal learning in songbirds and humans can provide valuable insights into the evolutionary origins of language. The experimental approaches I discuss use abnormal song and atypical linguistic input to study the processes of individual learning, social interaction, and cultural transmission. Atypical input places increased learning and communicative pressure on learners, so exploring how they respond to this type of input provides a particularly clear picture of the biases and constraints at work during learning and use. Furthermore, simulating the cultural transmission of these unnatural communication systems in the laboratory informs us about how learning and social biases influence the structure of communication systems in the long run. Findings based on these methods suggest fundamental similarities in the basic social–cognitive mechanisms underlying vocal learning in birds and humans, and continuing research promises insights into the uniquely human mechanisms and into how human cognition and social behavior interact, and ultimately impact on the evolution of language