Subclinical immune reactions to viral infections may correlate with child and adolescent diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A preliminary study from Turkey

Background: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neuro-developmental disorders of childhood and  adolescence. Studies focusing on the relationship of infectious agents and ADHD are scarce. It is also known that cerebellar injury may lead to  hyperactive behavior. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship  between viral agents of cerebellitis and the diagnosis of ADHD.Methods: The study group was formed of 60 consecutive ADHD patients and 30 healthy children. IgG levels for VZV; HSV-1, CMV, Measles, Mumps, Rubella and EBV were evaluated.Results: Males were significantly higher among patients with ADHD (65% vs. 40%, p=0.025). Patients with ADHD displayed significantly higher positivity for measles IgG (80% vs. 60%, p=0.044). When patients with ADHD were classified according to their pubertal status, adolescents with ADHD displayed higher positivity for mumps (100% vs. 74.4%, p=0.043). Most of the patients were diagnosed with ADHD-Combined or  Hyperactive/Impulsive Subtypes (56.6%) while 43.3% were diagnosed with ADHD-predominantly inattentive type. When patients with subtypes of ADHD were compared in terms of seropositivity, it was found that patients with ADHD-Combined/ Hyperactive-Impulsive subtypes had significantly elevated reactions for Rubella (100% vs. 88.5%, p=0.044).Conclusion: Although limited to a single center and may be prone to sampling biases, our results may support the notion that immune reactions may be related with ADHD among children and adolescents. Further,  prospective studies from multiple centers are needed to support our  findings and establish causality.Key words: ADHD, infection, immunology, measles, rubella, mumps, Ig

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma of the duodenum together with multiple intra-abdominal thromboses and hepatitis C virus infection: a case report

Mucosa associated lymphoid tissue MALT lymphoma is a low grade malignancy that arises most commonly from the gastric mucosa. Small intestinal involvement is very rare. The causative relationship between Helicobacter pylori and the gastric MALT lymphoma is a well known issue, but recently there are several data suggesting the role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the pathogenesis of lymphoma including MALT lymphoma. Herein we present a rare case of duodenal MALT lymphoma with multiple intra-abdominal thromboses together with HCV infection that was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction detecting HCV-RNA within the peripheral blood mononuclear cells

Baicalin administration attenuates hyperglycemia-induced malformation of cardiovascular system

In this study, the effects of Baicalin on the hyperglycemia-induced cardiovascular malformation during embryo development were investigated. Using early chick embryos, an optimal concentration of Baicalin (6 μM), was identified which could prevent hyperglycemia-induced cardiovascular malformation of embryos. Hyperglycemia-enhanced cell apoptosis was reduced in embryos and HUVECs in the presence of Baicalin. Hyperglycemia-induced excessive ROS production was inhibited when Baicalin was administered. Analyses of SOD, GSH-Px, MAQE and GABAA suggested Baicalin plays an antioxidant role in chick embryos possibly through suppression of outwardly rectifying Cl(-) in the high-glucose microenvironment. In addition, hyperglycemia-enhanced autophagy fell in the presence of Baicalin, through affecting the ubiquitin of p62 and accelerating autophagy flux. Both Baicalin and Vitamin C could decrease apoptosis, but CQ did not, suggesting autophagy to be a protective function on the cell survival. In mice, Baicalin reduced the elevated blood glucose level caused by streptozotocin (STZ). Taken together, these data suggest that hyperglycemia-induced embryonic cardiovascular malformation can be attenuated by Baicalin administration through suppressing the excessive production of ROS and autophagy. Baicalin could be a potential candidate drug for women suffering from gestational diabetes mellitus

Development and Implementation of the AIDA International Registry for Patients with Non-Infectious Scleritis

Introduction This article points out the design, methods, development and deployment of the international registry promoted by the AutoInflammatory Disease Alliance (AIDA) Network with the aim to define and assess paediatric and adult patients with immune-mediated scleritis. Methods This registry collects both retrospective and prospective real-world data from patients with non-infectious scleritis through the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) tool and aims to promote knowledge and real-life evidence from patients enrolled worldwide; the registry also allows the collection of standardised data, ensuring the highest levels of security and anonymity of patients' data and flexibility to change according to scientific acquisitions over time. The communication with other similar registries has been also ensured in order to pursue the sustainability of the project with respect to the adaptation of collected data to the most diverse research projects. Results Since the launch of the registry, 99 centres have been involved from 20 countries and four continents. Forty-eight of the centres have already obtained a formal approval from their local ethics committees. At present, the platform counts 259 users (95 principal investigators, 160 site investigators, 2 lead investigators, and 2 data managers); the platform collects baseline and follow-up data using 3683 fields organised into 13 instruments, including patient's demographics, history, symptoms, trigger or risk factors, therapies and healthcare utilization. Conclusions The development of the AIDA International Registry for patients with non-infectious scleritis will allow solid research on this rare condition. Real-world evidence resulting from standardised real-life data will lead to the optimisation of routine clinical and therapeutic management, which are currently limited by the rarity of this ocular inflammatory condition

Clinical and laboratory features associated with macrophage activation syndrome in Still’s disease: data from the international AIDA Network Still’s Disease Registry

To characterize clinical and laboratory signs of patients with Still's disease experiencing macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) and identify factors associated with MAS development. Patients with Still's disease classified according to internationally accepted criteria were enrolled in the AutoInflammatory Disease Alliance (AIDA) Still's Disease Registry. Clinical and laboratory features observed during the inflammatory attack complicated by MAS were included in univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify factors associated to MAS development. A total of 414 patients with Still's disease were included; 39 (9.4%) of them developed MAS during clinical history. At univariate analyses, the following variables were significantly associated with MAS: classification of arthritis based on the number of joints involved (p = 0.003), liver involvement (p = 0.04), hepatomegaly (p = 0.02), hepatic failure (p = 0.01), axillary lymphadenopathy (p = 0.04), pneumonia (p = 0.03), acute respiratory distress syndrome (p < 0.001), platelet abnormalities (p < 0.001), high serum ferritin levels (p = 0.009), abnormal liver function tests (p = 0.009), hypoalbuminemia (p = 0.002), increased LDH (p = 0.001), and LDH serum levels (p < 0.001). At multivariate analysis, hepatomegaly (OR 8.7, 95% CI 1.9-52.6, p = 0.007) and monoarthritis (OR 15.8, 95% CI 2.9-97.1, p = 0.001), were directly associated with MAS, while the decade of life at Still's disease onset (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-0.9, p = 0.045), a normal platelet count (OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.01-0.8, p = 0.034) or thrombocytosis (OR 0.01, 95% CI 0.0-0.2, p = 0.008) resulted to be protective. Clinical and laboratory factors associated with MAS development have been identified in a large cohort of patients based on real-life data. © 2023, The Author(s)

Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and life threatening disease with median survival of 2.5-3 years. The IPF lung is characterized by abnormal lung remodeling, epithelial cell hyperplasia, myofibroblast foci formation, and extracellular matrix deposition. Analysis of gene expression microarray data revealed that cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), a non-collagenous extracellular matrix protein is among the most significantly up-regulated genes (Fold change 13, p-value <0.05) in IPF lungs. This finding was confirmed at the mRNA level by nCounter® expression analysis in additional 115 IPF lungs and 154 control lungs as well as at the protein level by western blot analysis. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that COMP was expressed in dense fibrotic regions of IPF lungs and co-localized with vimentin and around pSMAD3 expressing cells. Stimulation of normal human lung fibroblasts with TGF-β1 induced an increase in COMP mRNA and protein expression. Silencing COMP in normal human lung fibroblasts significantly inhibited cell proliferation and negatively impacted the effects of TGF-β1 on COL1A1 and PAI1. COMP protein concentration measured by ELISA assay was significantly increased in serum of IPF patients compared to controls. Analysis of serum COMP concentrations in 23 patients who had prospective blood draws revealed that COMP levels increased in a time dependent fashion and correlated with declines in force vital capacity (FVC). Taken together, our results should encourage more research into the potential use of COMP as a biomarker for disease activity and TGF-β1 activity in patients with IPF. Hence, studies that explore modalities that affect COMP expression, alleviate extracellular matrix rigidity and lung restriction in IPF and interfere with the amplification of TGF-β1 signaling should be persuaded. © 2013 Vuga et al

The tricot citizen science approach applied to on-farm variety evaluation: methodological progress and perspectives

Tricot (triadic comparisons of technologies) is a citizen science approach for testing technology options in their use environments, which is being applied to on-farm testing of crop varieties. Over the last years, important progress has been made on the tricot methodology of which an overview is given. Trial dimensions depend on several factors but tricot implies that plot size is as small as possible to include farmers with small plots (yet avoiding excessive interplot competition) while many locations are included to ensure representativeness of trials. Gender and socio-economic work is focused on better household characterization and recruitment strategies that move beyond sex-aggregation to address aspects of intersectionality. Ethics, privacy and traditional knowledge aspects will be addressed through expanding digital support in this direction. Genetic gain estimates need to be addressed by yield measurements, which can be generated by farmers themselves. There is conceptual clarity about the needs for documentation of trials and publishing data but this aspect requires further digital development. Much progress has been made on the ClimMob digital platform already, which is user friendly and supports trials in the main steps and includes open-source data analytics packages. Further improvements need to be made to ensure better integration with other tools. A next step will be the development of scaling strategies that involve business development. An important input into these strategies are economic studies, which are ongoing

Biosafety standards for working with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus

In countries from which Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is absent, the causative virus CCHF virus (CCHFV) is classified as a hazard group 4 agent and handled in containment level 4. In contrast, most endemic countries out of necessity have had to perform diagnostic tests under biosafety level (BSL) 2 or 3 conditions. In particular, Turkey and several of the Balkan countries have safely processed more than 100000 samples over many years in BSL-2 laboratories. It is therefore advocated that biosafety requirements for CCHF diagnostic procedures should be revised, to allow the required tests to be performed under enhanced BSL-2 conditions with appropriate biosafety laboratory equipment and personal protective equipment used according to standardized protocols in the affected countries. Downgrading of CCHFV research work from Cl- 4,BSL-4 to Cl-3 ,BSL-3 should also be considered.Funding was received through CCH Fever Network (Collaborative Project) supported by the European Commission under the Health Cooperation Work Program of the 7th Framework Program (Grant agreement no. 260427) (http://www.cch-fever.eu/).http://vir.sgmjournals.orghb2017Veterinary Tropical Disease