The onset of ulcerative colitis upon Helicobacter pylori eradication in a 72-year-old woman: report of a rare case with a 3-year follow-up

BACKGROUND

Epidemiological studies suggest an inverse association between H. pylori infection/exposure and inflammatory bowel disease prevalence/incidence, however, there are no reports of individual patients who developed a "non-transient" ulcerative colitis (UC) following H. pylori eradication.

CASE PRESENTATION

We report a case of a 72-year-old female with an elderly-onset UC developed upon H. pylori eradication and a 3-year follow-up of the progression to steroid-dependent colitis complicated with enteropathic arthritis and final containment of the disease with golimumab. In our patient, H. pylori eradication was associated with the development of pancolitis that evolved into clinically, endoscopically, and pathohistologically confirmed UC.

CONCLUSIONS

The case of our patient provides a unique clinical context for a growing body of literature suggesting molecular mechanisms involved in the interaction of genes, environment, and microbiota to be of critical importance in the etiopathogenesis of UC, and thus, provides a valuable set of complementary translational information for preclinical and epidemiological research on the topic.

Repurposing a digital kitchen scale for neuroscience research: a complete hardware and software cookbook for PASTA

Widely available low-cost electronics encourage the development of open-source tools for neuroscientific research. In recent years, many neuroscientists recognized the open science movement for its potential to stimulate and encourage science that is less focused on money, and more on robustness, validity, questioning and understanding. Here, we wanted to contribute to this global community by creating a research platform based on a common digital kitchen scale. This everyday ordinary kitchen tool is sometimes used in neuroscience research in various ways; however, its use is limited by sampling rate and inability to store and analyze data. To tackle this problem we developed a Platform for Acoustic STArtle or PASTA. This robust and simple platform enables users to obtain data from kitchen scale load cells at a high sampling rate, store it and analyze it. Here, we used it to analyze acoustic startle and prepulse inhibition sensorimotor gating in rats treated intracerebroventricularly with streptozotocin, but the system can be easily modified and upgraded for other purposes. In accordance with open science principles, we shared complete hardware design with instructions. Furthermore, we also disclose our software codes written for PASTA data acquisition (C++, Arduino) and acoustic startle experimental protocol (Python) and analysis (ratPASTA R package-R-based Awesome Toolbox for PASTA, and pastaWRAP-Python wrapper package for ratPASTA). To further encourage the development of our PASTA platform we demonstrate its sensitivity by using PASTA-gathered data to extract breathing patterns during rat freezing behavior in our experimental protocol.

Widely available lysosome targeting agents should be considered as potential therapy for COVID-19

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Lysosome targeting agents can disrupt endolysosomal maturation and inhibit viral replication

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Lysosome targeting agents and lysosomotropic drugs should be explored as antiviral drugs for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2

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Some lysosomotropic drugs are commonly used pharmacological agents

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Particular attention should be directed towards macrolides (e.g. azithromycin), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g. indomethacin) and other lysosomotoropic agents

While the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic advances, the scientific community continues to struggle in the search for treatments. Several improvements have been made, including discovery of the clinical efficacy of chloroquine (CQ) in patients with COVID-19, but effective treatment protocols remain elusive. In the search for novel treatment options, many scientists have used the in-silico approach to identify compounds that could interfere with the key molecules involved in entrance, replication or dissemination of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. However, most of the identified molecules are not available as pharmacological agents at present, and assessment of their safety and efficacy could take many months. This review took a different approach based on the proposed pharmacodynamic model of CQ in COVID-19. The main mechanism of action responsible for the favourable outcome of patients with COVID-19 treated with CQ seems to be related to a pH-modulation-mediated effect on endolysosomal trafficking, a characteristic of chemical compounds often called ‘lysosomotropic agents’ because of the physico-chemical properties that enable them to diffuse passively through the endosomal membrane and undergo protonation-based trapping in the lumen of the acidic vesicles. This review discusses lysosomotropic and lysosome targeting drugs that are already in clinical use and are characterized by good safety profiles, low cost and wide availability. Some of these drugs –particularly azithromycin and other macrolides, indomethacin and some other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, proton pump inhibitors and fluoxetine – could provide additional therapeutic benefits in addition to the potential antiviral effect that is still to be confirmed by well-controlled clinical trials. As some of these drugs have probably been used empirically in the treatment of COVID-19, it is hoped that colleagues worldwide will publish patient data to enable evaluation of the potential efficacy of these agents in the clinical context, and rapid implementation in therapeutic protocols if they are shown to have a beneficial effect on clinical outcome.

Rat brain glucose transporter-2, insulin receptor and glial expression are acute targets of intracerebroventricular streptozotocin: risk factors for sporadic Alzheimer's disease?

Accumulated evidence suggests that the insulin-resistant brain state and cerebral glucose hypometabolism might be the cause, rather than the consequence, of the neurodegeneration found in a sporadic Alzheimer's disease (sAD). We have explored whether the insulin receptor (IR) and the glucose transporter-2 (GLUT2), used here as their markers, are the early targets of intracerebroventricularly (icv) administered streptozotocin (STZ) in an STZ-icv rat model of sAD, and whether their changes are associated with the STZ-induced neuroinflammation. The expression of IR, GLUT2 and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was measured by immunofluorescence and western blot analysis in the parietal (PC) and the temporal (TC) cortex, in the hippocampus (HPC) and the hypothalamus. One hour after the STZ-icv administration (1.5 mg/kg), the GFAP immunoreactivity was significantly increased in all four regions, thus indicating the wide spread neuroinflammation, pronounced in the PC and the HPC. Changes in the GLUT2 (increment) and the IR (decrement) expression were mild in the areas close to the site of the STZ injection/release but pronounced in the ependymal lining cells of the third ventricle, thus indicating the possible metabolic implications. These results, together with the finding of the GLUT2-IR co-expression, and also the neuronal IR expression in PC, TC and HPC, indicate that the cerebral GLUT2 and IR should be further explored as the possible sAD etiopathogenic factors. It should be further clarified whether their alterations are the effect of a direct STZ-icv toxicity or they are triggered in a response to STZ-icv induced neuroinflammation.