The Role of Patient Activation in Psychiatric Visits

OBJECTIVE: This study identified ways that consumers of mental health services are active participants in psychiatric treatment. METHODS: Four providers (three psychiatrists and one nurse practitioner) were recruited, and ten consumers with severe mental illness were recruited per provider (40 total). Consumers completed questionnaires on patient activation, illness self-management, and medication attitudes on the day of a psychiatric visit. The visit was audiotaped, transcribed, and thematically analyzed. Providers gave information on diagnosis, substance use disorder, and medication adherence. RESULTS: Consumer-rated patient activation was positively related to illness self-management and negatively related to substance use disorder. Transcripts of the psychiatric visit showed that consumers were active in partnership building, seeking and displaying competence, and directing treatment; however, the relationship was weak between consumer-reported activation and observed activation behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Consumers were found to be active participants in treatment in a variety of ways, but similar to other populations, the relationship between observed patient activation and consumer-reported desire for involvement was not direct

Bioengineered textiles with peptide binders that capture SARS-CoV-2 viral particles

The use of personal protective equipment (PPE), face masks and ventilation are key strategies to control the transmission of respiratory viruses. However, most PPE provides physical protection that only partially prevents the transmission of viral particles. Here, we develop textiles with integrated peptide binders that capture viral particles. We fuse peptides capable of binding the receptor domain of the spike protein on the SARS-CoV-2 capsid to the cellulose-binding domain from the Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase II protein. The hybrid peptides can be attached to the cellulose fibres in cotton and capture SARS-CoV-2 viral particles with high affinity. The resulting bioengineered cotton captures 114,000 infective virus particles per cm2 and reduces onwards SARS-CoV-2 infection of cells by 500-fold. The hybrid peptides could be easily modified to capture and control the spread of other infectious pathogens or for attachment to different materials. We anticipate the use of bioengineered protective textiles in PPE, facemasks, ventilation, and furnishings will provide additional protection to the airborne or fomite transmission of viruses.</p

Higher CSF sTREM2 attenuates ApoE4-related risk for cognitive decline and neurodegeneration

Background!#!The Apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (i.e. ApoE4) is the strongest genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). TREM2 (i.e. Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2) is a microglial transmembrane protein brain that plays a central role in microglia activation in response to AD brain pathologies. Whether higher TREM2-related microglia activity modulates the risk to develop clinical AD is an open question. Thus, the aim of the current study was to assess whether higher sTREM2 attenuates the effects of ApoE4-effects on future cognitive decline and neurodegeneration.!##!Methods!#!We included 708 subjects ranging from cognitively normal (CN, n = 221) to mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 414) and AD dementia (n = 73) from the Alzheimer's disease Neuroimaging Initiative. We used linear regression to test the interaction between ApoE4-carriage by CSF-assessed sTREM2 levels as a predictor of longitudinally assessed cognitive decline and MRI-assessed changes in hippocampal volume changes (mean follow-up of 4 years, range of 1.7-7 years).!##!Results!#!Across the entire sample, we found that higher CSF sTREM2 at baseline was associated with attenuated effects of ApoE4-carriage (i.e. sTREM2 x ApoE4 interaction) on longitudinal global cognitive (p = 0.001, Cohen's f!##!Conclusion!#!Our results suggest that a higher CSF sTREM2 levels are associated with attenuated ApoE4-related risk for future cognitive decline and AD-typical neurodegeneration. These findings provide further evidence that TREM2 may be protective against the development of AD