Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 antagonism in neuroinflammation, neuroprotection and epigenetic regulation: Potential therapeutic implications for severe psychiatric disorders treatment

Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is a polymodal cation channel gated by a large array of chemical and physical stimuli and distributed across different brain regions on neuronal and glial cells. Preclinical studies indicate that TRPV1 might be a target for the treatment of anxiety, depression and addictive disorders. The aim of this narrative review is to focus on studies examining the effects of TRPV1 antagonism on neuroinflammation, neuroprotection and epigenetic regulation. Results suggest that TRPV1 modulation leads to pro- or anti-inflammatory effects depending on the cytokine environment and that the TRPV1 antagonism can switch the microglia towards an anti-inflammatory phenotype. Moreover, TRPV1 inhibitors have neuroprotective properties through the regulation of calcium levels. Finally, TRPV1 antagonism exerts regulatory effects on genes involved in synaptic and cognitive functions through histone deacetylase 2 inhibition. These findings highlight different mechanisms that may underlie the efficacy of TRPV1 antagonists in animal models of severe psychiatric disorders

pARMS: A Package for Solving General Sparse Linear Systems on Parallel Computers

This paper presents an overview of pARMS, a package for solving sparse linear systems on parallel platforms. Preconditioners constitute the most important ingredient in the solution of linear systems arising from realistic scientific and engineering applications. The most common parallel preconditioners used for sparse linear systems adapt domain decomposition concepts to the more general frameworkof “distributed sparse linear systems”. The parallel Algebraic Recursive Multilevel Solver (pARMS) is a recently developed package which integrates together variants from both Schwarz procedures and Schur complementtype techniques. This paper discusses a few of the main ideas and design issues of the package. A few details on the implementation of pARMS are provided