Comparison of Giardia duodenalis point-of-care antigen faecal tests to reference laboratory assays in non-symptomatic dogs

Giardia duodenalis is one of the most prevalent enteric parasites of dogs. Point-of-care antigen tests (POC) are rapid and do not require additional equipment, or a specialised diagnostic laboratory. The aim of this study was to compare diagnostic tests available in veterinary practices and in a diagnostic laboratory for the detection of G. duodenalis on a cohort of group-housed dogs from New South Wales, Australia. Two different POC tests were used for the detection of G. duodenalis. Laboratory tests used were the multiplexed-tandem PCR panel (MT-PCR) that includes detection of G. duodenalis DNA, and two reference tests (an in-house TaqMan real-time PCR and a direct immunofluorescence assay, DFA). Canine faecal samples (n = 40) were tested simultaneously for the detection of G. duodenalis. Using either DFA or TaqMan real-time PCR as reference tests, 77.5% (31/40) and 82.5% (33/40) of dogs tested positive, respectively. Agreement (Kappa) between the DFA and TaqMan real-time PCR was 0.84 (95% CI 0.64 to 1.00). There was substantial G. duodenalis test outcome agreement between the two POC tests, Kappa = 0.75. Combining the two POC tests yielded 77% sensitivity and 100% specificity with DFA as reference, and for TaqMan real-time PCR it was 73% sensitivity and 100% specificity. The MT-PCR was in excellent agreement with each reference test, DFA or TaqMan real-time PCR. Due to the high specificity of both POC tests, they can be confidently used as rule-in diagnostics. Confirmatory testing that detects different biological parameters such as DNA, e.g. PCR (inc. MT-PCR), should be implemented before concluding that a dog is negative for the presence of G. duodenalis.

A comparison of SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing with realtime RT-PCR among symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals

BACKGROUND

Identification of SARS-CoV-2 positive patients with rapid and cost-effective test methods is the key for isolating infected individuals, interrupting the transmission chain, and thus, containment of the CoVID-19 disease. In this regard, Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) plays an important role at point of care testing but the low sensitivity attributing towards escape of positive cases is reported as a major disadvantage of RAT which led us to evaluate a RAT kit among symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals suspected of CoVID-19.

METHODS

We analyzed 329 parallel nasopharyngeal swabs for RAT (Zydus Cadila, India) at the point of collection in a hospital-based facility and RealTime RT-PCR in the laboratory. The performance parameters were analyzed by evaluating the specificity, sensitivity, Negative Predictive Value (NPV), Positive Predictive Value (PPV), and Kappa coefficient.

RESULTS

The sensitivity and specificity were found to be 75.17% and 98.89% respectively. Positive Predictive value was 98.25% and the negative predictive value was 82.79%. The accuracy between the two techniques was found to be 88.14% with a kappa coefficient of 0.756 (SE: 0.036 and CI at 95%: 0.686 to 0.826) with a good strength of agreement (0.61-0.80) between the two testing techniques. Among the false-negative cases, 22 (59.5%) were asymptomatic having the Cycle Threshold (Ct) range 27 to 32.9 including 12 cases with a history of close contact with the known positive cases (i.e. household contact). The remaining 15 cases (40.5%) were symptomatic having low to moderate Ct values.

CONCLUSION

It is observed from the results that the false negative result for symptomatic individuals is a matter of concern as it was noted in 4 cases of our study subjects who required hospitalisation later. Also the positives among asymptomatic contacts are important from epidemiological point of view for isolation and curtailing the infection from spreading in a community. These results support the fact that RAT showing sensitivity below 80% can be used for mass screening purposes with provision for additional testing in case of false negative with symptomatic individuals. Also false-negative results should be interpreted cautiously considering the epidemiological link as well as the clinical condition of the patients.

Variable detection of Omicron-BA.1 and -BA.2 by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests

During 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic has been dominated by the variant of concern (VoC) Omicron (B.1.1.529) and its rapidly emerging subvariants, including Omicron-BA.1 and -BA.2. Rapid antigen tests (RATs) are part of national testing strategies to identify SARS-CoV-2 infections on site in a community setting or to support layman's diagnostics at home. We and others have recently demonstrated an impaired RAT detection of infections caused by Omicron-BA.1 compared to Delta. Here, we evaluated the performance of five SARS-CoV-2 RATs in a single-centre laboratory study examining a total of 140 SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive respiratory swab samples, 70 Omicron-BA.1 and 70 Omicron-BA.2, as well as 52 SARS-CoV-2 PCR-negative swabs collected from March 8th until April 10th, 2022. One test did not meet minimal criteria for specificity. In an assessment of the analytical sensitivity in clinical specimen, the 50% limit of detection (LoD50) ranged from 4.2 × 104 to 9.2 × 105 RNA copies subjected to the RAT for Omicron-BA.1 compared to 1.3 × 105 to 1.5 × 106 for Omicron-BA.2. Overall, intra-assay differences for the detection of Omicron-BA.1-containing and Omicron-BA.2-containing samples were non-significant, while a marked overall heterogeneity among the five RATs was observed. To score positive in these point-of-care tests, up to 22-fold (LoD50) or 68-fold (LoD95) higher viral loads were required for the worst performing compared to the best performing RAT. The rates of true-positive test results for these Omicron subvariant-containing samples in the highest viral load category (Ct values < 25) ranged between 44.7 and 91.1%, while they dropped to 8.7 to 22.7% for samples with intermediate Ct values (25-30). In light of recent reports on the emergence of two novel Omicron-BA.2 subvariants, Omicron-BA.2.75 and BJ.1, awareness must be increased for the overall reduced detection rate and marked differences in RAT performance for these Omicron subvariants.

SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection in deceased bodies: implications for infection prevention

Background & objectives

High transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 has significant implications on healthcare workers' safety, preservation, handling, transportation and disposal of the deceased bodies. The objective of this study was to detect SARS-CoV-2 antigen in nasopharyngeal samples and its implications in handling and care of COVID-19 deceased bodies.

Methods

A study was conducted at a dedicated COVID-19 centre on deceased individuals from April to December 2020. Rapid antigen test (RAT) and reverse transcription (RT)-PCR was compared on all the SARS-CoV-2 positive cadavers recruited in the study.

Results

A total of 115 deceased individuals were included in the study. Of these, 79 (68.7%) were male and 36 (31.3%) were female and majority were in the age group of 51-60 yr [31 (27%)]. SARS-CoV-2 antigen test was positive in 32 (27.8%) and negative in 83 (72.1%) individuals. The mean time interval between deaths to the sample collection was 13.2 h with interquartile range of eight to 20 h. Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR was used as the reference test and 24 (20.9%) cases were true positive; 93.6 per cent [95% confidence interval (CI) 88.8-98.4%] sensitivity, 45.2 per cent (95% CI 35.5-55%) specificity, 60.2 per cent (95% CI 50.6-69.8%) positive predictive value and 88.8 per cent (95% CI 82.7-95%) negative predictive value of antigen test was computed.

Interpretation & conclusions

SARS-CoV-2 antigen test was positive beyond 19 h in COVID-19 deceased individuals. Antigen test was found to be highly sensitive in the deceased. Patients, suspected of having died due to COVID-19, can be screened by this method. As infectiousness of the virus in the deceased bodies cannot be directly concluded from either the antigen or RT-PCR test, yet possible transmission cannot be completely ruled out. Strict infection control measures need to be followed during the handling and clearance of COVID-19 cadavers.

Analysis of the COVID-19 testing parameters and progression of the pandemic at the district level: findings from the ICMR Hundred Million Test (HMT) database during the first wave in India

BACKGROUND

India had the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases globally. We evaluated the progression of the pandemic across the lockdowns and phased reopenings at the district level during the first wave (in India).

METHODS

For the analysis in this study, we used more than 100 million COVID-19 test results along with other parameters available in the Indian Council of Medical Research database from March 2020 to October 2020. The districts were stratified as high, moderate, and low caseload districts and data analysis was done for each phase of lockdown.

FINDINGS

Of the 110.5 million tests included in the analysis, 54.79 million tests were performed using molecular methods, 53.58 million by rapid antigen tests, and 2.13 million using the indigenous TruNat platform. The proportion of positive cases among symptomatic individuals (22.6%) was significantly higher than asymptomatic individuals (8.6%). The tests conducted and proportions of positivity were significantly higher in high caseload districts; 58% of these tests were conducted using molecular methods as opposed to only one-third in low caseload districts.

INTERPRETATION

Laboratory parameters, along with other demographic information, can help us better understand the spread of the pandemic in a country. This information can be crucial to formulating and implementing public health policies in future waves of the pandemic.

Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron on Rapid Antigen Testing Developed for Early-Pandemic SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Rapid antigen tests (RATs) are widely used for point-of-care or self-testing to identify SARS-CoV-2 (SCoV2), but currently circulating Omicron variants may impair detection. In this study, we prospectively evaluated the Roche-SARS-CoV-2-Antigen and Acon-FlowFlex-SARS-CoV-2-Antigen in 150 consecutively collected nasopharyngeal patient swabs (50 SCoV2 RNA undetectable; 100 SCoV2 Omicron BA.1). Omicron BA.1 results were compared to 92 Ct-matched early-pandemic SCoV2 variants (B.1.160 and B.1.177), to 100 Omicron BA.2 positive and to 100 Omicron BA.5 positive samples. For Omicron BA.1, Roche-SARS-CoV-2-Antigen detected 87% of samples having Ct-values <29 reflecting 3.6% lower rates compared to B.1.160 and B.1.177. Acon-FlowFlex-SARS-CoV-2-Antigen was less affected and detected 90% of Omicron BA.1 with Ct-values <29. Omicron BA.2 and BA.5 detection rates were significantly reduced by 20% and 10%, respectively, for the Roche-SARS-CoV-2-Antigen in samples with Ct-values <29 but remained similar for Acon-FlowFlex-SARS-CoV-2-Antigen. RATs need to be continuously evaluated as new SCoV2-variants emerge. Spreading of Omicron-BA.2, and the recently emerged Omicron BA.5 variant, may not only result from escape from postvaccine or postinfection immunity, but also from false-negative RATs misguiding point-of-care and self-testing decisions at times of restricted molecular testing. IMPORTANCE Antigen tests are widely used for rapid identification of SCoV2-positive cases and their increased risk of transmission. At present, there are several FDA- and CE-cleared tests available in North America and Europe. However, their diagnostic performance has been evaluated with early-pandemic variants. This study provides evidence that variation within the nucleocapsid protein as seen in recently emerged and now globally spreading Omicron BA.2 and BA.5 variants significantly impairs detection rates of widely used antigen tests. Consequently, antigen tests need to be reevaluated when new pandemic SCoV2 variants emerge and start to predominate globally.

An Agreement of Antigen Tests on Oral Pharyngeal Swabs or Less Invasive Testing With Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction for Detecting SARS-CoV-2 in Adults: Protocol for a Prospective Nationwide Observational Study

Background

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented level of worldwide testing for epidemiologic and diagnostic purposes, and due to the extreme need for tests, the gold-standard Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing capacity has been unable to meet the overall worldwide testing demand. Consequently, although the current literature has shown the sensitivity of rapid antigen tests (RATs) to be inferior to RT-PCR, RATs have been implemented on a large scale without solid data on performance.

Objective

This study will compare analytical and clinical sensitivities and specificities of 50 lateral flow– or laboratory-based RATs and 3 strand invasion–based amplification (SIBA)-RT-PCR tests from 30 manufacturers to RT-PCR testing of samples obtained from the deep oropharynx. In addition, the study will compare sensitivities and specificities of the included RATs as well as RT-PCR on clinical samples obtained from the deep oropharynx, the anterior nasal cavity, saliva, the deep nasopharynx, and expired air to RT-PCR on deep oropharyngeal samples.

Methods

In the prospective part of the study, 200 individuals found SARS-CoV-2 positive and 200 individuals found SARS-CoV-2 negative by routine RT-PCR testing will be retested with each RAT, applying RT-PCR as the reference method. In the retrospective part of the study, 304 deep oropharyngeal cavity swabs divided into 4 groups based on RT-PCR quantification cycle (Cq) levels will be tested with each RAT.

Results

The results will be reported in several papers with different aims. The first paper will report retrospective (analytical sensitivity, overall and stratified into different Cq range groups) and prospective (clinical sensitivity) data for RATs, with RT-PCR as the reference method. The second paper will report results for RAT based on anatomical sampling location. The third paper will compare different anatomical sampling locations by RT-PCR testing. The fourth paper will focus on RATs that rely on central laboratory testing. Tests from 4 different manufacturers will be compared for analytical performance data on retrospective deep oropharyngeal swab samples. The fifth paper will report the results of 4 RATs applied both as professional use and as self-tests. The last paper will report the results from 2 breath tests in the study. A comparison of sensitivity and specificity between RATs will be conducted using the McNemar test for paired samples and the chi-squared test for unpaired samples. Comparison of the positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) between RATs will be performed by the bootstrap test, and 95% CIs for sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV will be calculated as bootstrap CIs.

Conclusions

The study will compare the sensitivities of a large number of RATs for SARS-CoV-2 to with those of RT-PCR and will address whether lateral flow–based RATs differ significantly from laboratory-based RATs. The anatomical test locations for both RATs and RT-PCR will also be compared.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04913116; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04913116

International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)

DERR1-10.2196/35706

Evaluation of Five Commercial SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Tests in a Clinical Setting

BACKGROUND

Point-of-care antigen tests (AgTs) for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) enable the rapid testing of infected individuals and are easy-to-use. However, there are few studies evaluating their clinical use.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to evaluate and compare the clinical performance characteristics of various commercial SARS-CoV-2 AgTs.

DESIGN

The sensitivity of five AgTs, comprising four rapid antigen tests (RAT; AMP Rapid Test SARS-CoV-2 Ag, NADAL COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test, CLINITEST Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Test, and Roche SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test) and one sandwich chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA; LIAISON SARS-CoV-2 Assay), were evaluated in 300 nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs. Reverse transcriptase (RT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used as a reference method.

PARTICIPANTS

NP swabs were collected from patients admitted to hospital due to COVID-19.

KEY RESULTS

Sensitivities of the AgTs ranged from 64.9 to 91.7% for samples with RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values lower than 30 and were 100% for cycle threshold (Ct) values lower than 20. The highest sensitivity was observed for CLINITEST Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Test, and Roche SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test. Multivariate analysis using time from symptom onset and the Ct value for AgT sensitivity showed an inverse correlation. Further, the female sex was an independent factor of lower RAT sensitivity.

CONCLUSIONS

Antigen tests from NP swab samples show high sensitivity in patients with a Ct value < 20. The best clinical sensitivity can be obtained using AgTs within the first 6 days after symptom onset.

Neurotrophic factors combined with stem cells in the treatment of sciatic nerve injury in rats:a meta-analysis

Treatment of peripheral nerve regeneration with stem cells (SCs) alone has some limitations. For this reason, we evaluate the efficacy of neurotrophic factors combined with stem cell transplantation in the treatment of sciatic nerve injury (SNI) in rats. PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, WanFang, VIP and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases were retrieved from inception to October 2021, and control experiments on neurotrophic factors combined with stem cells in the treatment of SNI in rats were searched. Nine articles and 551 rats were included in the meta-analysis. The results of meta-analysis confirmed that neurotrophic factor combined with stem cells for the treatment of SNI yielded more effective repair than normal rats with regard to sciatic nerve index, electrophysiological detection index, electron microscope observation index, and recovery rate of muscle wet weight. The conclusion is that neurotrophic factor combined with stem cells is more conducive to peripheral nerve regeneration and functional recovery than stem cells alone. However, due to the limitation of the quality of the included literature, the above conclusions need to be verified by randomized controlled experiments with higher quality and larger samples.

Goliath": A simple antigen detection test with potential to change diagnostic strategy for SARS-CoV-2

INTRODUCTION

As regard to all pandemics, the current COVID-19 pandemic, could also have been better managed with prudent use of preventive measures coupled with rapid diagnostic tools such as rapid antigen tests, but their efficacy is under question because of projected lower sensitivity as compared to Real Time Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, which although considered gold standard has its own limitations.

METHODOLOGY

A prospective, single centre study was carried out to evaluate the performance of Standard Q COVID-19 Ag, a rapid immuno-chromatographic assay for antigen detection, against TrueNat, a chip-based, point-of-care, portable, Real-Time PCR analyzer for diagnosis of COVID-19; on 467 nasal swab samples from suspected subjects at a fever clinic in North India in month of July 2020.

RESULTS

Of the 467 specimens tested, TrueNat showed positive result in 29 (6.2%), majority of whom were asymptomatic (72.4%) while 4/29 (13.9%) had influenza like illness and 2/29 (6.8%) presented with severe acute respiratory illness. Compared to TrueNat, Rapid antigen test gave concordance for 26 samples, while for 2 samples the result was false positive; giving an overall sensitivity of 89.7% (95% CI = 72.6- 97.8) and a specificity of 99.5%, indicating strong agreement between two methods.

CONCLUSION

Community prevalence plays an important role is choosing the laboratory test and result interpretation. Rapid antigen detection tests definitely have a big role to play, especially in resource limited setting, for early diagnosis as well as for source control to halt the spread.

Performance of SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test compared with real-time RT-PCR in asymptomatic individuals

Screening, testing and contact tracing plays a pivotal role in control of the COVID-19 pandemic. To enable this it is necessary to increase the testing capacity. This study compared a SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test (RAT) and RT-PCR in 842 asymptomatic individuals from Tarapacá, Chile. A sensitivity of 69.86%, specificity of 99.61%, PPV of 94.44% and NPP of 97.22% with Ct values (Ct > 27) that were significantly higher among individuals with false-negative RAT were reported. These results support the fact that RAT might have a significant impact on the identification of asymptomatic carriers in areas that lack suitable laboratories to perform SARS-CoV-2 real-time RT-PCR diagnostics, or the results take more than 24-48 h, as well as zones with high traffic of individuals such as border/customs, airports, interregional bus, train stations or in any mass testing campaign requiring rapid results.

Transcription factors activated through RIP (regulated intramembrane proteolysis) and RAT (regulated alternative translocation)

Transmembrane proteins are membrane-anchored proteins whose topologies are important for their functions. These properties enable regulation of certain transmembrane proteins by regulated intramembrane proteolysis (RIP) and regulated alternative translocation (RAT). RIP enables a protein fragment of a transmembrane precursor to function at a new location, and RAT leads to an inverted topology of a transmembrane protein by altering the direction of its translocation across membranes during translation. RIP mediated by site-1 protease (S1P) and site-2 protease (S2P) is involved in proteolytic activation of membrane-bound transcription factors. In resting cells, these transcription factors remain in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) as inactive transmembrane precursors. Upon stimulation by signals within the ER, they are translocated from the ER to the Golgi. There, they are cleaved first by S1P and then by S2P, liberating their N-terminal domains from membranes and enabling them to activate genes in the nucleus. This signaling pathway regulates lipid metabolism, unfolded protein responses, secretion of extracellular matrix proteins, and cell proliferation. Remarkably, ceramide-induced RIP of cAMP response element-binding protein 3-like 1 (CREB3L1) also involves RAT. In resting cells, RIP of CREB3L1 is blocked by transmembrane 4 L6 family member 20 (TM4SF20). Ceramide inverts the orientation of newly synthesized TM4SF20 in membranes through RAT, converting TM4SF20 from an inhibitor to an activator of RIP of CREB3L1. Here, I review recent insights into RIP of membrane-bound transcription factors, focusing on CREB3L1 activation through both RIP and RAT, and discuss current open questions about these two signaling pathways.

Ultra-high-field fMRI insights on insight: Neural correlates of the Aha!-moment

Finding creative solutions to difficult problems is a fundamental aspect of human culture and a skill highly needed. However, the exact neural processes underlying creative problem solving remain unclear. Insightful problem solving tasks were shown to be a valid method for investigating one subcomponent of creativity: the Aha!-moment. Finding insightful solutions during a remote associates task (RAT) was found to elicit specific cortical activity changes. Considering the strong affective components of Aha!-moments, as manifested in the subjectively experienced feeling of relief following the sudden emergence of the solution of the problem without any conscious forewarning, we hypothesized the subcortical dopaminergic reward network to be critically engaged during Aha. To investigate those subcortical contributions to insight, we employed ultra-high-field 7 T fMRI during a German Version of the RAT. During this task, subjects were exposed to word triplets and instructed to find a solution word being associated with all the three given words. They were supposed to press a button as soon as they felt confident about their solution without further revision, allowing us to capture the exact event of Aha!-moment. Besides the finding on cortical involvement of the left anterior middle temporal gyrus (aMTG), here we showed for the first time robust subcortical activity changes related to insightful problem solving in the bilateral thalamus, hippocampus, and the dopaminergic midbrain comprising ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (NAcc), and caudate nucleus. These results shed new light on the affective neural mechanisms underlying insightful problem solving.

Approaching the Distinction between Intuition and Insight

Intuition and insight share similar cognitive and neural basis. Though, there are still some essential differences between the two. Here in this short review, we discriminated between intuition, and insight in two aspects. First, intuition, and insight are toward different aspects of information processing. Whereas intuition involves judgment about “yes or no,” insight is related to “what” is the solution. Second, tacit knowledge play different roles in between intuition and insight. On the one hand, tacit knowledge is conducive to intuitive judgment. On the other hand, tacit knowledge may first impede but later facilitate insight occurrence. Furthermore, we share theoretical, and methodological views on how to access the distinction between intuition and insight.

Molecular Profiling and Malignant Behavior Define Two Rat Mammary Tumor Cell Lines as a Relevant Experimental Model

Cancer cell lines have become a reliable tool in genetic and biochemical studies of breast cancer. Here, we described the behavior and novel molecular characterization of two cell lines derived from DMBA-induced rat mammary tumor, LA7 and RBA. LA7 cells have been identified as myoepithelial cells with stem cell properties, whereas the RBA cell line are epithelial cells that present mutational activated H-Ras, but are much less known. We evaluated the proliferation rate and molecular markers, several signaling pathways status related to proliferation, survival, inflammation, and apoptosis, as well as migration capacity, global DNA methylation levels, and stem cells populations. In fact, we found the A/T transversion in the c-Ha-Ras codon 61 as the activator mutation origin described in RBA cells. LA7 and RBA cells showed a high proliferation rate associated with overexpression of Cyclin D1, and resistance to apoptotic signals due to lack of expression of Bad. Moreover, neither of these two cell lines expressed steroid receptors, but they showed high migration capacity, all in accordance with an aggressive phenotype. We found global DNA methylation levels in LA7 and RBA cells lower than reference tissues analyzed, in addition to the presence of different stem cells populations in RBA cell line that differed in the expression of CD44 and CD24. These results revealed a malignant behavior associated with cancer stem cell phenotype. Since this profile is similar to a human triple-negative basal-like tumor, their extensive characterization presented herein increases their value as a good in vitro model. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 2825-2834, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Sleep Strengthens but does Not Reorganize Memory Traces in a Verbal Creativity Task

STUDY OBJECTIVES

Sleep after learning promotes the quantitative strengthening of new memories. Less is known about the impact of sleep on the qualitative reorganization of memory content. This study tested the hypothesis that sleep facilitates both memory strengthening and reorganization as indexed by a verbal creativity task.

METHODS

Sixty healthy university students (30 female, 30 male, 20-30 years) were investigated in a randomized, controlled parallel-group study with three experimental groups (sleep, sleep deprivation, daytime wakefulness). At baseline, 60 items of the Compound Remote Associate (CRA) task were presented. At retest after the experimental conditions, the same items were presented again together with 20 new control items to disentangle off-line incubation from online performance effects.

RESULTS

Sleep significantly strengthened formerly encoded memories in comparison to both wake conditions (improvement in speed of correctly resolved items). Offline reorganization was not enhanced following sleep, but was enhanced following sleep-deprivation in comparison to sleep and daytime wakefulness (solution time of previously incubated, newly solved items). Online performance did not differ between the groups (solution time of new control items).

CONCLUSIONS

The results support the notion that sleep promotes the strengthening, but not the reorganization, of newly encoded memory traces in a verbal creativity task. Future studies are needed to further determine the impact of sleep on different types of memory reorganization, such as associative thinking, creativity and emotional memory processing, and potential clinical translations, such as the augmentation of psychotherapy through sleep interventions.

Detection and Characterization of the Effect of AB-FUBINACA and Its Metabolites in a Rat Model

Synthetic cannabinoids were originally developed by academic and pharmaceutical laboratories with the hope of providing therapeutic relief from the pain of inflammatory and degenerative diseases. However, recreational drug enthusiasts have flushed the market with new strains of these potent drugs that evade detection yet endanger public health and safety. Although many of these drug derivatives were published in the medical literature, others were merely patented without further characterization. AB‐FUBINACA is an example of one of the new indazole‐carboxamide synthetic cannabinoids introduced in the past year. Even though AB‐FUBINACA has become increasingly prominent in forensic drug and toxicology specimens analyses, little is known about the pharmacology of this substance. To study its metabolic fate, we utilized Wistar rats to study the oxidative products of AB‐FUBINACA in urine and its effect on gene expressions in liver and heart. Rats were injected with 5 mg/kg of AB‐FUBINACA each day for 5 days. Urine samples were collected every day at the same time. On day 5 after treatment, we collected the organs such as liver and heart. The urine samples were analyzed by mass spectrometry, which revealed several putative metabolites and positioning of the hydroxyl addition on the molecule. We used quantitative PCR gene expression array to analyze the hepatotoxicity and cardiotoxicity on these rats and confirmed by real‐time quantitative RT‐PCR. We identified three genes significantly associated with dysfunction of oxidation and inflammation. Our study reports in vivo metabolites of AB‐FUBINACA in urine and its effect on the gene expressions in liver and heart. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 1033–1043, 2016. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals. Inc.

Distinct pro-vigilant profile induced in rats by the mGluR5 potentiator LSN2814617

While treatment options are available, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) remains a significant unmet medical need for many patients. Relatively little rodent behavioural pharmacology has been conducted in this context to assess potential pro-vigilant compounds for their ability to restore functional capacity following experimentally induced sleep loss. Male Wistar rats were prepared for electroencephalographic (EEG) recording and subject to 11 h of sleep restriction using a biofeedback-induced cage rotation protocol. A simple response latency task (SRLT) was used to behaviourally index sleep restriction and the effects of pro-vigilant compounds: modafinil, D-amphetamine, caffeine, and the mGlu5-positive allosteric modulator LSN2814617. Sleep restriction resulted in a consistent, quantified loss of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep that impaired SRLT performance in a manner suggestive of progressive task disengagement. In terms of EEG parameters, all compounds induced wakefulness. Amphetamine treatment further decreased SRLT performance capacity, whereas the other three compounds decreased omissions and allowed animals to re-engage in the task. Caffeine and modafinil also significantly increased premature responses during this period, an effect not observed for LSN2814617. While all compounds caused compensatory sleep responses, the magnitude of compensation observed for LSN2814617 was much smaller than would be predicted to result from the prolongation of wakefulness exhibited. Using simple response latencies to index performance, an mGlu5 PAM dramatically increased wakefulness and improved functional capacity of sleep-restricted animals, without eliciting a proportionate compensatory sleep response. This effect was qualitatively distinct from that of amphetamine, caffeine and modafinil.

Discovery of a disused desaturase gene from the pheromone gland of the moth Ascotis selenaria, which secretes an epoxyalkenyl sex pheromone

Female Ascotis selenaria (Geometridae) moths use 3,4-epoxy-(Z,Z)-6,9-nonadecadiene, which is synthesized from linolenic acid, as the main component of their sex pheromone. While the use of dietary linolenic or linoleic fatty acid derivatives as sex pheromone components has been observed in moth species belonging to a few families including Geometridae, the majority of moths use derivatives of a common saturated fatty acid, palmitic acid, as their sex pheromone components. We attempted to gain insight into the differentiation of pheromone biosynthetic pathways in geometrids by analyzing the desaturase genes expressed in the pheromone gland of A. selenaria. We demonstrated that a Δ11-desaturase-like gene (Asdesat1) was specifically expressed in the pheromone gland of A. selenaria in spite of the absence of a desaturation step in the pheromone biosynthetic pathway in this species. Further analysis revealed that the presumed transmembrane domains were degenerated in Asdesat1. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that Asdesat1 anciently diverged from the lineage of Δ11-desaturases, which are currently widely used in the biosynthesis of sex pheromones by moths. These results suggest that an ancestral Δ11-desaturase became dysfunctional in A. selenaria after a shift in pheromone biosynthetic pathways.

Phylogenetic analysis and positive-selection site detecting of vascular endothelial growth factor family in vertebrates

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), known to play an important role in vascular homeostasis, vascular integrity and angiogenesis, is little known about the evolutionary relationship of its five members especially the role of gene duplication and natural selection in the evolution of the VEGF family. In this study, seventy-five full-length cDNA sequences from 33 vertebrate species were extracted from the NCBI's GenBank, UniProt protein database and the Ensembl database. By phylogenetic analyses, we investigated the origin, conservation, and evolution of the VEGFs. Five VEGF family members in vertebrates might be formed by gene duplication. The inferred evolutionary transitions that separate members which belong to different gene clusters correlated with changes in functional properties. Selection analysis and protein structure analysis were combined to explain the relationship of the site-specific evolution in the vertebrate VEGF family. Eleven positive selection sites, one transmembrane region and the active sites were detected in this process.