The role of telomeres and telomerase in the clinical effect and mechanism of action of psychopharmacological interventions

Originally studied in relation to aging and cancer research, telomeres and telomerase are now also investigated in relation to psychiatric disorders and treatments. Based on findings emerging from clinical and preclinical data, we hypothesize that the telomere–telomerase system represents a novel element mediating the mechanism of action of certain psychopharmacological interventions. In this symposium I’ll present the preliminary evidence on the complex translational relationships between specific psychiatric medications (i.e. antidepressants, lithium and antipsychotics), the telomere–telomerase system and clinical outcomes. The modulation of intracellular Wnt/b-catenin or PI3 K/Akt signaling pathways, the interaction with BDNF and 5-HT, and the antioxidant properties could represent possible mechanisms by which the different types of psychiatric medications could modulate telomere length and telomerase activity. The potential of the telomere–telomerase system in promoting cellular survival and/or function in the brain and in the periphery could, in turn, represent a neurobiological substrate through which these molecules can mediate the therapeutic effect of such interventions. Further, in the present symposium I’ll show data from our research team on telomere length and telomerase activity in leukocytes predicting clinical response to serotonin–specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in subjects with major depressive disorder

Orthogonal polynomials and Riesz bases applied to the solution of Love's equation

In this paper we reinvestigate the structure of the solution of a well-known Love’s problem, related to the electrostatic field generated by two circular coaxial conducting disks, in terms of orthogonal polynomial expansions, enlightening the role of the recently introduced class of the Lucas–Lehmer polynomials. Moreover we show that the solution can be expanded more conveniently with respect to a Riesz basis obtained starting from Chebyshev polynomials

Condotte compulsive in paziente con sindrome di Aicardi. agenesia del corpo calloso

The corpus callosum, which is the largest white matter structure in the brain of all placental mammals, connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres. An alteration in its morphology, hypoconnectivity or hyperconnectivity is a common marker of various neuropsychiatric pathologies. One of these is Aicardi syndrome, which is characterized by a triad of callosal agenesis, infantile spasms and chorioretinal lacunae. Patients affected by Aicardi syndrome frequently display other malformations together with congenital defects of the eyes, ribs and vertebrae. Based on the current clinical knowledge, this syndrome is now recognized as a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that includes neurological and constitutional symptoms. However, literature data have not yet defined the presence of a particular set of symptoms in psychiatric patients with this condition. The present case is the first report in which an on-going compulsive behaviour focused on the insistence to order objects has been observed in Aicardi syndrom

Dissociative symptoms in female patients with mood and anxiety disorders: a psychopathological and temperamental investigation.

Abstract OBJECTIVE: Dissociative symptoms are frequent among psychiatric patients and may considerably affect patients' psychopathological condition and treatment outcomes. The objectives of the study are to assess the presence of dissociative symptoms in female patients with mood and anxiety disorders, to investigate their correlation with the clinical severity of the disorders and to investigate those personality traits that are more frequent in patients with high levels of dissociation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 50 Caucasian females were enrolled in the study. Patients were assessed through the Self-Report Symptom Check-List, the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and rating scales for Depression and Anxiety. RESULTS: The mean DES score in the overall sample was 16.6. 32% of patients had a DES score > 20. Depressive symptoms positively correlated with the DES total scores. Dissociator patients presented some significantly different temperamental characteristics in comparison with non dissociator patients. CONCLUSIONS: Dissociative symptoms are highly present in patients with mood and anxiety disorders and correlate with the severity of depressive symptoms. Specific personality traits more frequently observed in dissociator people may represent predisposing factors; their early identification could be clinically relevant

Lithium from mood stabilizer to putative cognitive enhancer

This study is the first to have demonstrated, by means of a highly sensitive test of visual memory, a potential hippocampus neuroprotective effect of lithium in patients with BD. Undoubtedly, other studies are needed to finally recognize lithium as a potential cognitive enhancer. Future studies should include, apart from highly sensitive cognitive tests, specific neurotrophic biomarkers, such as BDNF, NGF, etc. Finally, it will be of outmost importance to evaluate the minimal length of treatment and the optimum serum level in order to combine potential clinical benefit and, particularly for older patients, clinical safety

The “Eyeballing” technique : an emerging and alerting trend of alcohol misuse

Alternative methods of alcohol consumption have recently emerged among adolescents and young adults, including the alcohol “eyeballing”, which consist in the direct pouring of alcoholic substances on the ocular surface epithelium. In a context of drug and behavioural addictions change, “eyeballing” can be seen as one of the latest and potentially highly risky new trends. We aimed to analyze the existing medical literature as well as online material on this emerging trend of alcohol misusePeer reviewedFinal Published versio

An LTL Semantics of Business Workflows with Recovery

We describe a business workflow case study with abnormal behavior management (i.e. recovery) and demonstrate how temporal logics and model checking can provide a methodology to iteratively revise the design and obtain a correct-by construction system. To do so we define a formal semantics by giving a compilation of generic workflow patterns into LTL and we use the bound model checker Zot to prove specific properties and requirements validity. The working assumption is that such a lightweight approach would easily fit into processes that are already in place without the need for a radical change of procedures, tools and people's attitudes. The complexity of formalisms and invasiveness of methods have been demonstrated to be one of the major drawback and obstacle for deployment of formal engineering techniques into mundane projects

Deciding the Satisfiability of MITL Specifications

In this paper we present a satisfiability-preserving reduction from MITL interpreted over finitely-variable continuous behaviors to Constraint LTL over clocks, a variant of CLTL that is decidable, and for which an SMT-based bounded satisfiability checker is available. The result is a new complete and effective decision procedure for MITL. Although decision procedures for MITL already exist, the automata-based techniques they employ appear to be very difficult to realize in practice, and, to the best of our knowledge, no implementation currently exists for them. A prototype tool for MITL based on the encoding presented here has, instead, been implemented and is publicly available.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2013, arXiv:1307.416