Cognitive training: the effects of working memory training

Gemstone Team Cognitive TrainingWe compare the effects of adaptive working memory training to a non-adaptive arithmetic and reading comprehension training paradigm on a variety of cognitive measures. Participants included 112 members of the University of Maryland community, 46 of whom successfully completed all of the training requirements. Participants completed a battery of cognitive tests prior to and following 20 hours of training over six weeks. Our research provides further evidence for the efficacy of adaptive working memory training for targeted working memory improvement. This study also offers support for the ability of non-adaptive arithmetic and reading comprehension training to improve general math ability and interference resolution

Long-term visual and treatment outcomes of whole-population pre-school visual screening (PSVS) in children:a longitudinal, retrospective, population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND: This study reports the long-term visual and treatment outcomes in a whole-population, orthoptic-delivered pre-school visual screening (PSVS) programme in Scotland and further examines their associations with socioeconomic backgrounds and home circumstances. METHODS: Retrospective case review was conducted on 430 children who failed PSVS. Outcome measures included best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), severity of amblyopia (mild, moderate and severe), binocular vision (BV) (normal, poor and none), ophthalmic diagnosis and treatment modalities. Parameters at discharge were compared to those at baseline and were measured against the Scottish index of multiple deprivation (SIMD) and Health plan indicator (HPI), which are indices of deprivation and status of home circumstances. RESULTS: The proportion of children with amblyopia reduced from 92.3% (373/404) at baseline to 29.1% (106/364) at discharge (p < 0.001). Eighty percent (291/364) had good BV at discharge compared to 29.2% (118/404) at baseline (p < 0.001). Children from more socioeconomically deprived areas (OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.01–4.30, p = 0.003) or adverse family backgrounds (OR 3.94, 95% CI 1.99–7.74, p = 0.002) were more likely to attend poorly and/or become lost to follow-up. Children from worse home circumstances were five times more likely to have residual amblyopia (OR 5.37, 95% CI 3.29–10.07, p < 0.001) and three times more likely to have poor/no BV (OR 3.41, 95% CI 2.49–4.66, p < 0.001) than those from better home circumstances. CONCLUSIONS: Orthoptic-delivered PSVS is successful at screening and managing amblyopia. Children from homes requiring social care input are less likely to attend and are more likely to have poorer visual outcomes

Butyrate down-regulates CD44 transcription and liver colonisation in a highly metastatic human colon carcinoma cell line

Over-expression of the adhesion molecule CD44 and its splice variants, especially CD44v6, is associated with poor prognosis and metastasis. We aimed at regulating the expression of CD44 in the highly metastatic human colon cancer cell line HM7 and thereby affecting its metastatic ability. HM7 cells show constitutive expression of CD44 standard and variants isoforms, which were significantly down-regulated by treatment with butyrate. Butyrate significantly inhibited transcription of the CD44 gene and abolished epidermal growth factor-mediated up-regulation of the reporter gene luciferase subcloned upstream to the CD44 promoter (−1.1 kb) and transfected to HM7 cells. Nuclear proteins from butyrate-treated cells bound to an epidermal growth factor receptor element motif present in the CD44 promoter. Epidermal growth factor receptor element-site directed mutations eliminated the inducibility of the luciferase reporter gene and did not allowed binding of nuclear proteins harvested from butyrate-treated cells. Butyrate induced CD44 gene repression by specifically interacting with an epidermal growth factor receptor element nuclear transcriptional factor. This interaction affects CD44 transcriptional activity vis-à-vis in vivo metastatic ability of HM7 cells. These results provide additional insight into the anticarcinogenic properties of butyrate

Peroxiredoxin-2 plays a pivotal role as multimodal cytoprotector in the early phase of pulmonary hypertension

Pulmonary-artery-hypertension (PAH) is a life-threatening and highly invalidating chronic disorder. Chronic oxidation contributes to lung damage and disease progression. Peroxiredoxin-2 (Prx2) is a typical 2-cysteine (Cys) peroxiredoxin but its role on lung homeostasis is yet to be fully defined. Here, we showed that Prx2 mice displayed chronic lung inflammatory disease associated with (i) abnormal pulmonary vascular dysfunction; and (ii) increased markers of extracellular-matrix remodeling. Hypoxia was used to induce PAH. We focused on the early phase PAH to dissect the role of Prx2 in generation of PAH. Hypoxic Prx2 mice showed (i) amplified inflammatory response combined with cytokine storm; (ii) vascular activation and dysfunction; (iii) increased PDGF-B lung levels, as marker of extracellular-matrix deposition and remodeling; and (iv) ER stress with activation of UPR system and autophagy. Rescue experiments with in vivo the administration of fusedrecombinant- PEP-Prx2 show a reduction in pulmonary inflammatory vasculopathy and in ER stress with down-regulation of autophagy. Thus, we propose Prx2 plays a pivotal role in the early stage of PAH as multimodal cytoprotector, targeting oxidation, inflammatory vasculopathy and ER stress with inhibition of autophagy. Collectively, our data indicate that Prx2 is able to interrupt the hypoxia induced vicious cycle involving oxidation-inflammationautophagy in the pathogenesis of PAH

Data demonstrating the role of peroxiredoxin 2 as important anti-oxidant system in lung homeostasis.

The data presented in this article are related to the research paper entitled "peroxiredoxin-2 plays a pivotal role as multimodal cytoprotector in the early phase of pulmonary hypertension" (Federti et al., 2017) [1]. Data show that the absence of peroxiredoxin-2 (Prx2) is associated with increased lung oxidation and pulmonary vascular endothelial dysfunction. Prx2 mice displayed activation of the redox-sensitive transcriptional factors, NF-kB and Nrf2, and increased expression of cytoprotective system such as heme-oxygenase-1 (HO- 1). We also noted increased expression of both markers of vascular activation and extracellular matrix remodeling. The administration of the recombinant fusion protein PEP Prx2 reduced the activation of NF-kB and Nrf2 and was paralleled by a decrease in HO-1 and in vascular endothelial abnormal activation. Prolonged hypoxia was used to trigger pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH). Prx2 precociously developed PAH compared to wildtype animals

Novel Biochemical Markers of Psychosocial Stress in Women

Background: Prolonged psychosocial stress is a condition assessed through self-reports. Here we aimed to identify biochemical markers for screening and early intervention in women

Cervical human papillomavirus infection and squamous intraepithelial lesions in rural Gambia, West Africa: viral sequence analysis and epidemiology

The development of effective strategies against cervical cancer in Africa requires accurate type specific data on human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence, including determination of DNA sequences in order to maximise local vaccine efficacy. We have investigated cervical HPV infection and squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) in an unselected cohort of 1061 women in a rural Gambian community. Squamous intraepithelial lesions was diagnosed using cytology and histology, HPV was typed by PCR-ELISA of DNA extracts, which were also DNA sequenced. The prevalence of cervical HPV infection was 13% and SIL were observed in 7% of subjects. Human papillomavirus-16 was most prevalent and most strongly associated with SIL. Also common were HPV-18, -33, -58 and, notably, -35. Human papillomavirus DNA sequencing revealed HPV-16 samples to be exclusively African type 1 (Af1). Subjects of the Wolof ethnic group had a lower prevalence of HPV infection while subjects aged 25–44 years had a higher prevalence of cervical precancer than older or younger subjects. This first report of HPV prevalence in an unselected, unscreened rural population confirms high rates of SIL and HPV infection in West Africa. This study has implications for the vaccination of Gambian and other African populations in the prevention of cervical cancer

Lack of efficacy of blueberry in nutritional prevention of azoxymethane-initiated cancers of rat small intestine and colon

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Blueberries may lower relative risk for cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. Previous work indicated an inhibitory effect of consumed blueberry (BB) on formation of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) in colons of male Fisher F344 rats (inbred strain). However, effects of BB on colon tumors and in both genders are unknown.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined efficacy of BB in inhibition of azoxymethane (AOM)-induced colon ACF and intestine tumors in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats (outbred strain). Pregnant rats were fed a diet with or without 10% BB powder; progeny were weaned to the same diet as their dam and received AOM as young adults.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Male and female rats on control diet had similar numbers of ACF at 6 weeks after AOM administration. BB increased (<it>P </it>< 0.05) ACF numbers within the distal colon of female but not male rats. There was a significant (<it>P </it>< 0.05) diet by gender interaction with respect to total colon ACF number. Colon and duodenum tumor incidences were less in females than males at 17 weeks after AOM. BB tended (0.1 > <it>P </it>> 0.05) to reduce overall gastrointestinal tract tumor incidence in males, however, tumor incidence in females was unaffected (<it>P </it>> 0.1) by BB. There was a tendency (0.1 > <it>P </it>> 0.05) for fewer adenocarcinomas (relative to total of adenomatous polyps plus adenocarcinomas) in colons of female than male tumor-bearing rats; in small intestine, this gender difference was significant (<it>P </it>< 0.05). BB favored (<it>P </it>< 0.05) fewer adenocarcinomas and more adenomatous polyps (as a proportion of total tumor number) in female rat small intestine.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Results did not indicate robust cancer-preventive effects of BB. Blueberry influenced ACF occurrence in distal colon and tumor progression in duodenum, in gender-specific fashion. Data indicate the potential for slowing tumor progression (adenomatous polyp to adenocarcinoma) by BB.</p