Quantifying the Effects of 16p11.2 Copy Number Variants on Brain Structure: A Multisite Genetic-First Study

BACKGROUND

16p11.2 breakpoint 4 to 5 copy number variants (CNVs) increase the risk for developing autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and language and cognitive impairment. In this multisite study, we aimed to quantify the effect of 16p11.2 CNVs on brain structure.

METHODS

Using voxel- and surface-based brain morphometric methods, we analyzed structural magnetic resonance imaging collected at seven sites from 78 individuals with a deletion, 71 individuals with a duplication, and 212 individuals without a CNV.

RESULTS

Beyond the 16p11.2-related mirror effect on global brain morphometry, we observe regional mirror differences in the insula (deletion > control > duplication). Other regions are preferentially affected by either the deletion or the duplication: the calcarine cortex and transverse temporal gyrus (deletion > control; Cohen's d > 1), the superior and middle temporal gyri (deletion < control; Cohen's d < -1), and the caudate and hippocampus (control > duplication; -0.5 > Cohen's d > -1). Measures of cognition, language, and social responsiveness and the presence of psychiatric diagnoses do not influence these results.

CONCLUSIONS

The global and regional effects on brain morphometry due to 16p11.2 CNVs generalize across site, computational method, age, and sex. Effect sizes on neuroimaging and cognitive traits are comparable. Findings partially overlap with results of meta-analyses performed across psychiatric disorders. However, the lack of correlation between morphometric and clinical measures suggests that CNV-associated brain changes contribute to clinical manifestations but require additional factors for the development of the disorder. These findings highlight the power of genetic risk factors as a complement to studying groups defined by behavioral criteria.

Evolución del color, azúcares y HMF en el tratamiento térmico de zumo de manzana/Colour, sugars and HMF evolution during thermal treatment of apple juice

Non-enzymatic browning in an 11 "Brix apple juice during thermal treatment was studied through changes in colour by colorimetric parameters ( A420, colour difference and index of browning), and HMF and sugars (fructose, glucose and sucrose) evolution. Zero and first order kinetics were applied to describe evolution of colorimetric parameters. The formation of HMF was fitted to auto- catalytical and first order equations. Sucrose tends to disappear according to a first order kinetics giving fructose and glucose. For the reducing sugars (fructose and glucose), no clear tendency was observed. The effect of temperature can be described by an Arrhenius-type equation.

Kinetics of Peach Clarified Juice Discoloration Process with an Adsorbent Resin

This paper deals with the effects of adsorbent resin upon kinetic process of peach juice adsorption de-coloration at different temperatures ranged from 10 °C to 50 °C. The adsorption equilibrium was quantified by means of adsorption isotherms in the range from 10 °C to 50 °C. Absorbance data at 420 nm were used to plot all the isotherms, which correlated reasonable well with the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms. Also, the efficiency of the adsorption process was studied for different resin/juice ratios at different temperatures, from which it was observed that there was a notable improvement in efficiency as the resin content increased, while the increase in temperature was not so important in the process. The adsorption kinetics was also studied at 30 °C, for relationships of 1, 2, and 3 g resin/100g juice. A kinetic adsorption— desorption model in two simultaneous steps was proposed, where the adsorption step is considered as zero order and the desorption step as first order. This allows a global expression to be obtained that fits the experimental data appropriately to this kinetic type equation. The initial adsorption rate depended on the resin/juice relationship in such a way that the higher its value, the lower this relationship was. It was also shown that the equilibrium constant showed a similar tendency, its value being superior to the unit, which indicates that the retention stage over the resin prevails over the colored product desorption stage.

Absence seizures effects on reading revealed by video-electroencephalography

OBJECTIVE

The effects of absence seizures on reading have not been studied. The purpose of this paper is to show some alterations in reading during absence seizures in patients with video-electroencephalographic recordings.

METHODS

Patients were selected if absences seizures were the only type of seizures. They were studied at rest with eyes closed and while reading aloud a text by simultaneous bipolar electroencephalographic and video recordings.

RESULTS

Eight patients were studied with 34 events. Absences ranged from 1-12 events in twenty-five minutes recording, seizures duration ranged from 1.5-16 seconds. Brief seizures results on non-stop reading, but reading arrest with latency of 1-3 seconds after seizure onset were present in the longer events. Post-absence amnesia ranged from 1-4.5 seconds. Re-start reading occurs mainly in other reading place in the text, but two patients in one event re-started reading in the right place. Classic symptoms during absence were present and reading alterations found were: reading arrest, lost of reading point, bradylexia, dysprosodic reading, grapheme substitution, reading loudness reduction, repeating of phrases. Events occurred without patient seizure awareness, except in one patient by means of the time lost between onset to the end of the event.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that acute reading alterations during absence seizures are frequent in longer seizures, producing many neuropsychological symptoms that alter reading without seizure awareness.

Combining suramin and a chimeric toxin directed to basic fibroblast growth factor receptors increases therapeutic efficacy against human melanoma in an animal model

BACKGROUND

Suramin, which binds to and blocks autocrine and paracrine growth factors required for the proliferation of neoplastic cells, is a clinically effective antitumor agent against some human tumors; however, efficacy often is limited by toxicity. In this study, suramin treatment was combined with a fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptor-directed toxin chimera, basic FGF-saporin (bFGF-SAP), based on the authors' previous observations that autocrine-mediated resistance to bFGF-SAP in melanoma in vitro is abrogated by suramin treatment.

METHODS

Severe-combined immunodeficient-Beige mice bearing SK-Mel-5 human melanoma xenografts received weekly treatments of suramin (200 or 75 mg/kg intraperitoneally) beginning on Day 5 after tumor implantation followed 18 hours later by a treatment with bFGF-SAP (0.5-5 microg/kg intravenously) for 4 weeks. The optimal interlude between the administration of suramin and bFGF-SAP was determined by tumor excision assays. The efficacy of combination therapy as a function of alternative dosing regimens was determined by tumor growth inhibition (TGI) studies.

RESULTS

Fifty days after implantation, a 79-82% TGI was observed in animals receiving the suramin (200 mg/kg) plus bFGF-SAP combination regimens compared with median tumor volumes from vehicle-treated controls (3070+/-440 mm(3)). TGI observed for combination therapies varied significantly (P<0.05-0.001) from TGI observed in treatment groups receiving suramin alone (57%) or bFGF-SAP alone (34-38%). Combining bFGF-SAP (5 microg/kg) with a low, therapeutically ineffective dose of suramin (75 mg/kg) produced a 68% rate of TGI compared with controls, thus lowering the therapeutic effective dose of suramin and eliminating the suramin-related lethal toxicity (12% mortality rate) observed in animals treated with high dose suramin.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the current study suggest that combining suramin with receptor-directed therapies offers a more effective regimen for the treatment of malignant melanoma.

Characterization of epiphycan, a small proteoglycan with a leucine-rich repeat core protein

The epiphysis of developing bones is a cartilaginous structure that is eventually replaced by bone during skeletal maturation. We have separated a dermatan sulfate proteoglycan, epiphycan, from decorin and biglycan by using dissociative extraction of bovine fetal epiphyseal cartilage, followed by sequential ion-exchange, gel permeation, hydrophobic, and Zn2+ chelate chromatographic steps. Epiphycan is a member of the small leucine-rich proteoglycan family, contains seven leucine-rich repeats (LRRs), is related to osteoglycin (osteoinductive factor) (Bentz, H., Nathan, R. M., Rosen, D. M., Armstrong, R. M., Thompson, A. Y., Segarini, P. R., Mathews, M. C., Dasch, J., Piez, K. A., and Seyedin, S. M. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 20805-20810), and appears to be the bovine equivalent of the chick proteoglycan PG-Lb (Shinomura, T., and Kimata, K. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 1265-1270). The intact proteoglycan had a median size of approximately 133 kDa. The core protein was 46 kDa by electrophoretic analysis, had a calculated size of 34,271 Da, and had two approximately equimolar N termini (APTLES ... and ETYDAT ... ) separated by 11 amino acids. There were at least three O-linked oligosaccharides in the N-terminal region of the protein, based on blank cycles in Edman degradation and corresponding serine or threonine residues in the translated cDNA sequence. The glycosaminoglycans ranged in size from 23 to 34 kDa were more heterogeneous than those in other dermatan sulfate small leucine-rich proteoglycans and were found in the acidic N-terminal region of the protein core, N-terminal to the LRRs. A four-cysteine cluster was present at the N terminus of the LRRs, and a disulfide-bonded cysteine pair was present at the C terminus of the protein core. The seventh LRR and an N-linked oligosaccharide were between the two C-terminal cysteines. An additional potential N-glycosylation site near the C terminus did not appear to be substituted at a significant level.

Characterization of human DSPG3, a small dermatan sulfate proteoglycan

PG-Lb is a small dermatan sulfate proteoglycan that has been previously characterized in chicken. In the developing limb, chick PG-Lb appears to be exclusively expressed in the zone of flattened chondrocytes. We have cloned and sequenced the human homolog to chick PG-Lb from two human chondrocyte cDNA libraries and a human chondrocyte RNA sample. The human homolog has been named DSPG3, as it is the third member of the small dermatan sulfate proteoglycan family to be identified and characterized along with biglycan (PG-I) and decorin (PG-II). DSPG3 maps to chromosome 12q21 and is composed of 1515 nucleotides of cDNA that code for a 322-amino-acid protein. The protein contains three potential glycosaminoglycan attachment sites, two N-glycosylation sites, a poly- glutamic acid stretch, and six cysteines. By Northern analysis, we have demonstrated that DSPG3 is expressed in cartilage, as well as ligament and placental tissues.

Mixed iota-kappa carrageenan gels

Studies have been made of the gelation of mixtures of iota and kappa carrageenan. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies suggest that the iota and kappa components gel independently of each other. The DSC data conflict with evidence presented for the currently accepted Domain model for carrageenan gelation (Morris, E.R., Rees, D.A. and Robinson, G.J. J. Mol. Biol. 1980; 138:349). In particular, the present data suggest that iota carrageenan gels show thermoreversible setting and melting behaviour associated with the coil-helix transition. Analysis of rheological data favours an interpenetrating network (IPN) model for gelation of the mixtures.

Predictive value of digital subtraction angiography in patients with tuberculous meningitis

Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) was performed in 24 adults with tuberculous meningitis (TBM) and results were correlated with 24 admission and 16 follow-up CT examinations. 19 MRI studies and clinical outcome at a mean follow-up of 44 weeks. DSA was abnormal in 11 patients. Abnormal DSA was associated with advanced clinical stages of the Medical Research Council classification, admission CT with hydrocephalus or gyral cortical enhancement. MRI disclosed brain infarcts not seen on initial CT in 8 cases. Of seven patients who died, 4 had abnormal and 3 normal DSA. Among patients who survived, those with normal DSA had a better functional outcome by Karnofsky scores. During follow-up infarcts were evident in 16 patients. Abnormal DSA in relation to brain infarcts had a sensitivity of 0.56, specificity 0.75, positive predictive value 0.82 and negative predictive value 0.46. A single arteriogram does not predict the outcome in patients with TBM and its value is limited in the assessment of vascular complications of TBM. Angiography in TBM is justified only in specific clinical trials to assess new therapeutic modalities against infarcts.

Heat resistance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from spoiled peach puree

The heat resistance of three Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from spoiled peach puree, in McIlvaine buffer (pH 4 and 7) and peach puree (pH 3.9) was studied. The D60-values in buffer at pH 7 were 0.75, 1.32 and 0.14 min for the strains 173, 180 and 325, respectively. The pH of the buffer did not influence the heat resistance of the three strains studied. The thermal sensitivity for all strains assayed was higher when peach puree was used with D60-values of 0.53, 0.20 and 0.10 min for the strains 173, 180 and 325, respectively. The menstrua used had limited influence on the z-values, varying between 3 (strain 173, pH 4) and 4 (strain 325, peach puree).

Effects of potassium sorbate on growth and penicillic acid production by Aspergillus ochraceus and Penicillium aurantiogriseum

The effect of potassium sorbate on the growth and penicillin acid production of Aspergillus ochraceus and Penicillium aurantiogriseum was studied. Yeast extract sucrose (YES) broth at initial pH values of 5.5 or 7.0, and containing different concentrations of potassium sorbate was inoculated with fungal spores and incubated for 35 days at 28 degrees C. In all cases, although the pH changes in sorbate-containing media were delayed, patterns were similar to those of the cultures without sorbate. This was most evident when the highest concentration of potassium sorbate was used. Potassium sorbate also inhibited mycelial growth. Penicillic acid production was initially delayed by the presence of potassium sorbate but this inhibition was eventually overcome (30-35 days) and penicillic acid levels at the end of the experiment were similar or higher then the controls. Generally cultures growing in culture media at an initial pH of 5.5 produced less toxin than those growing at pH 7.0.