Selective Hyper-responsiveness of the Interferon System in Major Depressive Disorders and Depression Induced by Interferon Therapy

Though an important percentage of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) undergoing interferon (IFN) therapy develop depressive symptoms, the role of the IFN system in the pathogenesis of depressive disorders is not well understood.50 patients with HCV infection were treated with standard combination therapy (pegylated IFN-α2a/ribavirin). IFN-induced gene expression was analyzed to identify genes which are differentially regulated in patients with or without IFN-induced depression. For validation, PBMC from 22 psychiatric patients with a severe depressive episode (SDE) and 11 controls were cultivated in vitro with pegylated IFN-α2a and gene expression was analyzed.IFN-induced depression in HCV patients was associated with selective upregulation of 15 genes, including 6 genes that were previously described to be relevant for major depressive disorders or neuronal development. In addition, increased endogenous IFN-production and selective hyper-responsiveness of these genes to IFN stimulation were observed in SDE patients.Our data suggest that selective hyper-responsiveness to exogenous (IFN therapy) or endogenous (depressive disorders) type I IFNs may lead to the development of depressive symptoms. These data could lead to the discovery of novel therapeutic approaches to treat IFN-induced and major depressive disorders

Age-dependent motor unit remodelling in human limb muscles.

Voluntary control of skeletal muscle enables humans to interact with and manipulate the environment. Lower muscle mass, weakness and poor coordination are common complaints in older age and reduce physical capabilities. Attention has focused on ways of maintaining muscle size and strength by exercise, diet or hormone replacement. Without appropriate neural innervation, however, muscle cannot function. Emerging evidence points to a neural basis of muscle loss. Motor unit number estimates indicate that by age around 71 years, healthy older people have around 40 % fewer motor units. The surviving low- and moderate-threshold motor units recruited for moderate intensity contractions are enlarged by around 50 % and show increased fibre density, presumably due to collateral reinnervation of denervated fibres. Motor unit potentials show increased complexity and the stability of neuromuscular junction transmissions is decreased. The available evidence is limited by a lack of longitudinal studies, relatively small sample sizes, a tendency to examine the small peripheral muscles and relatively few investigations into the consequences of motor unit remodelling for muscle size and control of movements in older age. Loss of motor neurons and remodelling of surviving motor units constitutes the major change in ageing muscles and probably contributes to muscle loss and functional impairments. The deterioration and remodelling of motor units likely imposes constraints on the way in which the central nervous system controls movements

Legacies of Madness: An Exploration of the Reception of Vincent Van Gogh and Yayoi Kusama

Our merging of artistic ability and mental instability is a notion that goes farther back than many of us realize. This idea of “fine madness,” that creativity and madness are not so far apart, and that artists have, through their mercurial temperaments some kind of extraordinary gift, has a long history and was significantly bolstered during the Romantic Era. But what does the “mad genius” archetype actually mean for artists? How does it change how they and their art are viewed by the public? My senior thesis explores how being labeled mentally ill has affected the reputation and reception of Vincent Van Gogh and Yayoi Kusama — arguably the two most famous examples of this trope. My research focuses on how the label of mental illness has led to myth-making that has propelled the two to fame but also led critics to unfairly attribute the lion’s share of their artistic ability and success to the presence of mental illness. It looks at the similarities between the receptions of Van Gogh and Kusama’s as well as how they differ: notably, through the fact that Kusama had agency and control over the narrative created about her life and art, while Van Gogh did not