Do Alu repeats drive the evolution of the primate transcriptome?

The abundance of Alu elements near broadly expressed genes is best explained by their preferential preservation near housekeeping genes

Impaired brain glucose metabolism and presynaptic dopaminergic functioning in a mouse model of schizophrenia

Background: Schizophrenia is a disease diagnosed by visible signs and symptoms from late adolescence to early adulthood. The etiology of this disease remains unknown. An objective diagnostic approach is required. Here, we used a mouse model that shows schizophrenia-like phenotypes to study brain glucose metabolism and presynaptic dopaminergic functioning by positron emission tomography (PET) and immunohistochemistry. PET scannings were performed on mice after the administration of [18F]-FDG or [18F]-F-DOPA. Glucose metabolism was evaluated in basal conditions and after the induction of a hyperdopaminergic state.Results: Mutant animals show reduced glucose metabolism in prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and nucleus reuniens under the hyperdopaminergic state. They also show reduced [18F]-F-DOPA uptake in prefrontal cortex, substantia nigra reticulata, raphe nucleus, and ventral striatum but increased [18F]-F-DOPA uptake in dorsal striatum. Mutant animals also show reduced tyrosine hydroxylase expression on midbrain neurons.Conclusions: Dopamine D2 mutant animals show reduced glucose metabolism and impaired presynaptic dopaminergic functioning, in line with reports from human studies. This mouse line may be a valuable model of schizophrenia, useful to test novel tracers for PET scanning diagnostic.Fil: Tomasella, María Eugenia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Falasco, Germán Alfredo. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Urrutia, Leandro. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Bechelli, Maria Lucila. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Padilla Franzotti, Carla Luciana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Gelman, Diego Matias. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; Argentin

Correlação entre 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT e 18F-FDOPA PET em pacientes com doença de Parkinson: Um estudo piloto

Objective: To determine whether technetium-99m-labeled tropane derivative single-photon emission computed tomography (99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT) provides results comparable to those of the less widely available, less accessible tool fluorine-18-labeled fluorodopa positron-emission tomography (18F-FDOPA PET) in the setting of a movement disorders clinic. Materials and Methods: In this prospective pilot study, eight subjects with a clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease were randomly selected from among patients under treatment at a movement disorders clinic and submitted to99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT and18F-FDOPA PET. The results were read by two experienced observers, and a semiquantitative analysis was performed. Results: The visual and semiquantitative analyses were concordant for all studies, showing that radiotracer uptake in the contralateral striatum on the most affected side was lower when99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT was employed. The semiquantitative analysis demonstrated a significant correlation between18F-FDOPA PET and99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT (r = 0.73; p < 0.01). Conclusion: It appears that99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT is a valid option for the study of dopaminergic function in a clinical setting.Objetivo: Determinar se a 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT fornece resultados comparáveis aos da 18F-FDOPA PET, ferramenta menos acessível e menos amplamente disponível, no contexto de uma clínica de distúrbios do movimento. Materiais e Métodos: Neste estudo prospectivo, oito indivíduos com diagnóstico clínico de doença de Parkinson foram selecionados aleatoriamente entre pacientes em tratamento em uma clínica de distúrbios do movimento e submetidos a 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT e 18F-FDOPA PET. Os resultados foram lidos por dois observadores experientes e uma análise semiquantitativa foi realizada. Resultados: As análises visual e semiquantitativa foram concordantes para todos os estudos, mostrando que a captação do radiotraçador no estriado contralateral do lado mais afetado foi menor quando a 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT foi empregada. A análise semiquantitativa demonstrou uma correlação significativa entre 18F-FDOPA PET e 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT (r = 0,73; p < 0,01). Conclusão: A 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT parece ser uma opção válida para o estudo da função dopaminérgica em um ambiente clínico.Fil: Arena, Julieta E.. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Urrutia, Leandro. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Falasco, Germán Alfredo. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Ponce de Leon, Magdalena. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Silvia. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Rossi, Malco Damian. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Merello, Marcelo Jorge. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia. Instituto de Neurociencias - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Neurociencias; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; Argentin

SMaRT modulation of tau isoforms rescues cognitive and motor impairments in a preclinical model of tauopathy

Tau is a microtubule-associated protein predominantly expressed in neurons, which participates in microtubule polymerization and axonal transport. Abnormal tau metabolism leads to neurodegenerative diseases named tauopathies, such as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. The alternative splicing of exon 10 (E10) in the primary transcript produces tau protein isoforms with three (3R) or four (4R) microtubule binding repeats, which are found in equal amounts in the normal adult human brain. Several tauopathies are associated with abnormal E10 alternative splicing, leading to an imbalance between 3R and 4R isoforms, which underlies disease. Correction of such imbalance represents a potential disease-modifying therapy for those tauopathies. We have previously optimized a trans-splicing RNA reprogramming strategy to modulate the 3R:4R tau content in a mouse model of tauopathy related to tau mis-splicing (htau mice), and showed that local modulation of E10 inclusion in the prefrontal cortex prevents cognitive decline, neuronal firing impairments and hyperphosphorylated tau accumulation. Furthermore, local shifting of 3R–4R tau into the striatum of htau mice prevented motor coordination deficits. However, a major bottleneck of our previous work is that local splicing regulation was performed in young mice, before the onset of pathological phenotypes. Here we tested whether regulation of tau E10 splicing could rescue tau pathology phenotypes in htau mice, after the onset of cognitive and motor impairments, comparable to early stages of human tauopathies. To determine phenotypic time course and affected brain nuclei, we assessed htau mice using behavioural tests and microPET FDG imaging over time, similarly to diagnosis methods used in patients. Based on these analyses, we performed local delivery of pre-trans splicing molecules to regulate E10 inclusion either into the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or the striatum at 6-month-old once behavioral phenotypes and metabolic changes were detected. Tau isoforms modulation into the mPFC restored cognitive performance in mice that previously showed mild to severe memory impairment while motor coordination deficit was rescued after striatal injection of trans-splicing molecules. Our data suggest that tau regulation could recover pathological phenotypes early after phenotypic onset, raising promising perspectives for the use of RNA based therapies in tauopathies related to MAPT abnormal splicing.Fil: Muñiz, Javier Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Facal, Carolina Lucia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Urrutia, Leandro. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Clerici Delville, Ramiro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional; ArgentinaFil: Damianich, Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Ferrario, Juan Esteban. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Biociencias, Biotecnología y Biología Traslacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Falasco, Germán Alfredo. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Avale, Maria Elena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; Argentin

The lateral neocortex is critical for contextual fear memory reconsolidation

Memories are a product of the concerted activity of many brain areas. Deregulation of consolidation and reprocessing of mnemonic traces that encode fearful experiences might result in fear-related psychopathologies. Here, we assessed how pre-established memories change with experience, particularly the labilization/reconsolidation of memory, using the whole-brain analysis technique of positron emission tomography in male mice. We found differences in glucose consumption in the lateral neocortex, hippocampus and amygdala in mice that underwent labilization/reconsolidation processes compared to animals that did not reactivate a fear memory. We used chemogenetics to obtain insight into the role of cortical areas in these phases of memory and found that the lateral neocortex is necessary for fear memory reconsolidation. Inhibition of lateral neocortex during reconsolidation altered glucose consumption levels in the amygdala. Using an optogenetic/neuronal recording-based strategy we observed that the lateral neocortex is functionally connected with the amygdala, which, along with retrograde labeling using fluorophore-conjugated cholera toxin subunit B, support a monosynaptic connection between these areas and poses this connection as a hot-spot in the circuits involved in reactivation of fear memories.Fil: de la Fuente, Verónica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Medina, Candela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Falasco, Germán Alfredo. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Urrutia, Leandro. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Kravitz, Alexxai V.. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Urbano Suarez, Francisco Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Vázquez, Silvia. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; ArgentinaFil: Pedreira, Maria Eugenia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Romano, Arturo Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; Argentin

Experiencia de implementación de un proyecto Business Intelligence en una organización de salud privada de Argentina

La implementación de un proyecto de Business Intelligence (BI) es parte del proceso de crecimiento de una institución ya que permite optimizar los distintos procesos de atención y gestión convirtiéndola en una organización más eficiente y sustentable. El objetivo de esta presentación es compartir la experiencia adquirida durante la implementación de un proyecto de BI en una organización de salud del ámbito privado de Argentina, integrada por múltiples centros de atención, describiendo los métodos usados y principales resultados alcanzados. En la etapa inicial del proyecto, nos encontrábamos en un nivel de madurez de Gestión de Calidad de la Información (CDI) inicial, sin evaluación de la calidad de los datos y la información ni planteo de mejoras. En un año, a partir del cumplimiento de las etapas de trabajo propuestas, hemos alcanzado un nivel de Gestión de CDI integrado, teniendo un mejor conocimiento de los problemas, con capacidad de reacción y corrección ante la detección de errores. Actualmente, trabajamos activamente para alcanzar un nivel de madurez gestionado y optimizado, con evaluación y mejora continua de la CDI. Consideramos que compartir esta experiencia local podría ser valioso para otras instituciones que deseen iniciar el camino de la gestión basada en datos.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Dysregulation of neuronal iron homeostasis as an alternative unifying effect of mutations causing familial Alzheimer's disease

The overwhelming majority of dominant mutations causing early onset familial Alzheimer's disease (EOfAD) occur in only three genes, PSEN1, PSEN2, and APP. An effect-in-common of these mutations is alteration of production of the APP-derived peptide, amyloid ß (Aß). It is this key fact that underlies the authority of the Amyloid Hypothesis that has informed Alzheimer's disease research for over two decades. Any challenge to this authority must offer an alternative explanation for the relationship between the PSEN genes and APP. In this paper, we explore one possible alternative relationship - the dysregulation of cellular iron homeostasis as a common effect of EOfAD mutations in these genes. This idea is attractive since it provides clear connections between EOfAD mutations and major characteristics of Alzheimer's disease such as dysfunctional mitochondria, vascular risk factors/hypoxia, energy metabolism, and inflammation. We combine our ideas with observations by others to describe a "Stress Threshold Change of State" model of Alzheimer's disease that may begin to explain the existence of both EOfAD and late onset sporadic (LOsAD) forms of the disease. Directing research to investigate the role of dysregulation of iron homeostasis in EOfAD may be a profitable way forward in our struggle to understand this form of dementia

Alu content in flanking regions of human genes (20 kilobases) and expression profiles

Groups represent the 20% most highly ('High'), least highly ('Low'), and the medium expressed genes ('Medium') for peak (top panel) and breadth (lower panel). Points for high and low groups significantly different from medium expression levels (Student's -tests using Bonferroni correction) are represented by closed circles. Each point represents the Alu content in sliding windows of 1 kilobase (moving 200 base pairs at a time).<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Do Alu repeats drive the evolution of the primate transcriptome?"</p><p>http://genomebiology.com/2008/9/2/R25</p><p>Genome Biology 2008;9(2):R25-R25.</p><p>Published online 1 Feb 2008</p><p>PMCID:PMC2374697.</p><p></p

Alu content and expression divergence between human and mouse orthologous genes

Number of switches from expressed to non-expressed; ranked peak of expression difference; expression intensity divergence estimated by using correlation coefficients as measure of distance; and expression intensity divergence estimated by using Euclidean distances.<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Do Alu repeats drive the evolution of the primate transcriptome?"</p><p>http://genomebiology.com/2008/9/2/R25</p><p>Genome Biology 2008;9(2):R25-R25.</p><p>Published online 1 Feb 2008</p><p>PMCID:PMC2374697.</p><p></p

Average Alu content and breadth of expression for genes serving different biologic processes

Average Alu content and breadth of expression was obtained for genes associated with different biologic processes (according to the Gene Ontology database; only categories with more than 100 genes were taken into account). Each point in the graph represents genes associated with a particular biologic process. Error bars are standard errors for each group of genes in terms breadth of expression (vertical bars) and Alu content (horizontal bars). Regression line is shown in red.<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Do Alu repeats drive the evolution of the primate transcriptome?"</p><p>http://genomebiology.com/2008/9/2/R25</p><p>Genome Biology 2008;9(2):R25-R25.</p><p>Published online 1 Feb 2008</p><p>PMCID:PMC2374697.</p><p></p