A transmembrane CXC chemokine is a ligand for HIV-coreceptor Bonzo

We describe a protein with the hallmarks of a chemokine, designated CXCL16, that is made by dendritic cells (DCs) in lymphoid organ T cell zones and by cells in the splenic red pulp. CXCL16 contains a transmembrane domain and both membrane-bound and soluble forms are produced. Naïve CD8 T cells, natural killer T cells and a subset of memory CD4 T cells bind CXCL16, and activated T cells migrated chemotactically to the soluble chemokine. By expression cloning, Bonzo (also known as STRL33 and TYMSTR) was identified as a CXCL16 receptor. CXCL16 may function in promoting interactions between DCs and CD8 T cells and in guiding T cell movements in the splenic red pulp. CXCL16 was also found in the thymic medulla and in some nonlymphoid tissues, indicating roles in thymocyte development and effector T cell trafficking.

Statistical methods of estimation and inference for functional MR image analysis

Two questions arising in the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired during periodic sensory stimulation are: i) how to measure the experimentally determined effect in fMRI time series; and ii) how to decide whether an apparent effect is significant. Our approach is first to fit a time series regression model, including sine and cosine terms at the (fundamental) frequency of experimental stimulation, by pseudogeneralized least squares (PGLS) at each pixel of an image. Sinusoidal modeling takes account of locally variable hemodynamic delay and dispersion, and PGLS fitting corrects for residual or endogenous autocorrelation in fMRI time series, to yield best unbiased estimates of the amplitudes of the sine and cosine terms at fundamental frequency; from these parameters the authors derive estimates of experimentally determined power and its standard error. Randomization testing is then used to create inferential brain activation maps (BAMs) of pixels significantly activated by the experimental stimulus. The methods are illustrated by application to data acquired from normal human subjects during periodic visual and auditory stimulation.

A new highly penetrant form of obesity due to deletions on chromosome 16p11.2

Obesity has become a major worldwide challenge to public health, owing to an interaction between the Western 'obesogenic' environment and a strong genetic contribution. Recent extensive genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with obesity, but these loci together account for only a small fraction of the known heritable component. Thus, the 'common disease, common variant' hypothesis is increasingly coming under challenge. Here we report a highly penetrant form of obesity, initially observed in 31 subjects who were heterozygous for deletions of at least 593 kilobases at 16p11.2 and whose ascertainment included cognitive deficits. Nineteen similar deletions were identified from GWAS data in 16,053 individuals from eight European cohorts. These deletions were absent from healthy non-obese controls and accounted for 0.7% of our morbid obesity cases (body mass index (BMI) >or= 40 kg m(-2) or BMI standard deviation score >or= 4; P = 6.4 x 10(-8), odds ratio 43.0), demonstrating the potential importance in common disease of rare variants with strong effects. This highlights a promising strategy for identifying missing heritability in obesity and other complex traits: cohorts with extreme phenotypes are likely to be enriched for rare variants, thereby improving power for their discovery. Subsequent analysis of the loci so identified may well reveal additional rare variants that further contribute to the missing heritability, as recently reported for SIM1 (ref. 3). The most productive approach may therefore be to combine the 'power of the extreme' in small, well-phenotyped cohorts, with targeted follow-up in case-control and population cohorts.

Compliance therapy in psychotic patients: randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether compliance therapy, a cognitive-behavioural intervention, could improve compliance with treatment and hence social adjustment in acutely psychotic inpatients, and if so, whether the effect persisted six months later.

DESIGN

Randomised controlled trial of compliance therapy and non-specific counselling, each comprising 4-6 sessions lasting 10-60 minutes.

SETTING

Acute psychiatric admissions ward serving an inner London catchment area.

SUBJECTS

47 patients with psychosis.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Informant and observer reported measure of compliance; observer assessed global functioning after intervention and three and six months later; self-rated attitudes to drug treatment after the intervention and one month later; symptom scores after intervention and six months later.

RESULTS

25 patients received compliance therapy and showed significantly greater improvements in their attitudes to drug treatment and in their insight into illness and compliance with treatment compared with the control group. These gains persisted for six months. The intervention group was 5.2 times more likely than the control group to reach a criterion level of compliance (95% confidence interval 1.5 to 18.3). Global functioning showed a tendency to improve more in the intervention group after a delay (odds ratio 3.0 (0.8 to 11.5) to reach the criterion level at six months). Four subjects given compliance therapy and six in the control group were readmitted during follow up (odds ratio 2.0 (0.48 to 8.2)).

CONCLUSIONS

Compliance therapy is a pragmatic method for improving compliance with drug treatment in psychotic inpatients and its gains persist for at least six months. Overall functioning may also be enhanced.

Health of UK servicemen who served in Persian Gulf War

BACKGROUND

Various symptoms in military personnel in the Persian Gulf War 1990-91 have caused international speculation and concern. We investigated UK servicemen.

METHODS

We did a cross-sectional postal survey on a random sample of Gulf War veterans (Gulf War cohort, n=4248) and, stratified for age and rank, servicemen deployed to the Bosnia conflict (Bosnia cohort, n=4250) and those serving during the Gulf War but not deployed there (Era cohort, n=4246). We asked about deployment, exposures, symptoms, and illnesses. We analysed men only. Our outcome measures were physical health, functional capacity (SF-36), the general health questionnaire, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) multisymptom criteria for Gulf War illness, and post-traumatic stress reactions.

FINDINGS

There were 8195 (65.1%) valid responses. The Gulf War cohort reported symptoms and disorders significantly more frequently than those in the Bosnia and Era cohorts, which were similar. Perception of physical health and ability were significantly worse in the Gulf War cohort than in the other cohorts, even after adjustment for confounders. Gulf War veterans were more likely than the Bosnia cohort to have substantial fatigue (odds ratio 2.2 [95% CI 1.9-2.6]), symptoms of post-traumatic stress (2.6 [1.9-3.4]), and psychological distress (1.6 [1.4-1.8]), and were nearly twice as likely to reach the CDC case definition (2.5 [2.2-2.8]). In the Gulf War, Bosnia, and Era cohorts, respectively, 61.9%, 36.8%, and 36.4% met the CDC criteria, which fell to 25.3%, 11.8%, and 12.2% for severe symptoms. Potentially harmful exposures were reported most frequently by the Gulf War cohort. All exposures showed associations with all of the outcome measures in the three cohorts. Exposures specific to the Gulf were associated with all outcomes. Vaccination against biological warfare and multiple routine vaccinations were associated with the CDC multisymptom syndrome in the Gulf War cohort.

INTERPRETATION

Service in the Gulf War was associated with various health problems over and above those associated with deployment to an unfamiliar hostile environment. Since associations of ill health with adverse events and exposures were found in all cohorts, however, they may not be unique and causally implicated in Gulf-War-related illness. A specific mechanism may link vaccination against biological warfare agents and later ill health, but the risks of illness must be considered against the protection of servicemen.

Randomised controlled trial of compliance therapy. 18-month follow-up

BACKGROUND

A randomised controlled trial was conducted in an acute treatment setting to examine the effectiveness of compliance therapy, a brief pragmatic intervention targeting treatment adherence in psychotic disorders, based on motivational interviewing and recent cognitive approaches to psychosis.

METHOD

Seventy-four patients with psychotic disorders according to DSM-III-R criteria recruited from consecutive admissions to an acute in-patient unit, received 4-6 sessions of either compliance therapy or non-specific counselling, and were followed-up over 18 months. The principal outcome measures were observer-rated compliance, attitudes to treatment, insight and social functioning.

RESULTS

Significant advantages were found for the compliance therapy group post-treatment on measures of insight, attitudes to treatment and observer-rated compliance which were retained over the follow-up period. Global social functioning improved relatively more over time in the compliance therapy group compared with the control group. Survival in the community prior to readmission was significantly longer in the compliance therapy group.

CONCLUSIONS

The results support the effectiveness of compliance therapy in improving functioning and community tenure after an acute psychotic episode.

The assessment of insight in psychosis

An assessment schedule was used to determine the nature of insight in 91 mixed psychotic patients, and to examine its distribution and associations. While all the components of the schedule intercorrelated significantly, scores for compliance were only weakly related to those for ability to label psychotic phenomena as abnormal. Compliance and illness recognition were related to IQ. Total insight score was inversely correlated, moderately, with a global measure of psychopathology derived from the PSE, and was less in patients involuntarily committed. Age, sex, diagnosis, and the number of previous hospital admissions had little effect. The results support the notion that insight is not a unitary concept.

Tired, weak, or in need of rest: fatigue among general practice attenders

OBJECTIVES

To determine the prevalence and associations of symptoms of fatigue.

DESIGN

Questionnaire survey.

SETTING

London general practice.

PARTICIPANTS

611 General practice attenders.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Scores on a fatigue questionnaire and reasons given for fatigue.

RESULTS

10.2% Of men (17/167) and 10.6% of women (47/444) had substantial fatigue for one month or more. Age, occupation, and marital status exerted minor effects. Subjects attributed fatigue equally to physical and non-physical causes. Physical ill health, including viral infection, was associated with more severe fatigue. Women rather than men blamed family responsibilities for their fatigue. The profile of persistent fatigue did not differ from that of short duration. Only one person met criteria for the chronic fatigue syndrome.

CONCLUSIONS

Fatigue is a common complaint among general practice attenders and can be severe. Patients may attribute this to physical, psychological, and social stress.

The anatomy of conscious vision: an fMRI study of visual hallucinations

Despite recent advances in functional neuroimaging, the apparently simple question of how and where we see--the neurobiology of visual consciousness--continues to challenge neuroscientists. Without a method to differentiate neural processing specific to consciousness from unconscious afferent sensory signals, the issue has been difficult to resolve experimentally. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study patients with the Charles Bonnet syndrome, for whom visual perception and sensory input have become dissociated. We found that hallucinations of color, faces, textures and objects correlate with cerebral activity in ventral extrastriate visual cortex, that the content of the hallucinations reflects the functional specializations of the region and that patients who hallucinate have increased ventral extrastriate activity, which persists between hallucinations.

Clinical characteristics with inflammation profiling of long COVID and association with 1-year recovery following hospitalisation in the UK: a prospective observational study

BACKGROUND

No effective pharmacological or non-pharmacological interventions exist for patients with long COVID. We aimed to describe recovery 1 year after hospital discharge for COVID-19, identify factors associated with patient-perceived recovery, and identify potential therapeutic targets by describing the underlying inflammatory profiles of the previously described recovery clusters at 5 months after hospital discharge.

METHODS

The Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) is a prospective, longitudinal cohort study recruiting adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital with COVID-19 across the UK. Recovery was assessed using patient-reported outcome measures, physical performance, and organ function at 5 months and 1 year after hospital discharge, and stratified by both patient-perceived recovery and recovery cluster. Hierarchical logistic regression modelling was performed for patient-perceived recovery at 1 year. Cluster analysis was done using the clustering large applications k-medoids approach using clinical outcomes at 5 months. Inflammatory protein profiling was analysed from plasma at the 5-month visit. This study is registered on the ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN10980107, and recruitment is ongoing.

FINDINGS

2320 participants discharged from hospital between March 7, 2020, and April 18, 2021, were assessed at 5 months after discharge and 807 (32·7%) participants completed both the 5-month and 1-year visits. 279 (35·6%) of these 807 patients were women and 505 (64·4%) were men, with a mean age of 58·7 (SD 12·5) years, and 224 (27·8%) had received invasive mechanical ventilation (WHO class 7-9). The proportion of patients reporting full recovery was unchanged between 5 months (501 [25·5%] of 1965) and 1 year (232 [28·9%] of 804). Factors associated with being less likely to report full recovery at 1 year were female sex (odds ratio 0·68 [95% CI 0·46-0·99]), obesity (0·50 [0·34-0·74]) and invasive mechanical ventilation (0·42 [0·23-0·76]). Cluster analysis (n=1636) corroborated the previously reported four clusters: very severe, severe, moderate with cognitive impairment, and mild, relating to the severity of physical health, mental health, and cognitive impairment at 5 months. We found increased inflammatory mediators of tissue damage and repair in both the very severe and the moderate with cognitive impairment clusters compared with the mild cluster, including IL-6 concentration, which was increased in both comparisons (n=626 participants). We found a substantial deficit in median EQ-5D-5L utility index from before COVID-19 (retrospective assessment; 0·88 [IQR 0·74-1·00]), at 5 months (0·74 [0·64-0·88]) to 1 year (0·75 [0·62-0·88]), with minimal improvements across all outcome measures at 1 year after discharge in the whole cohort and within each of the four clusters.

INTERPRETATION

The sequelae of a hospital admission with COVID-19 were substantial 1 year after discharge across a range of health domains, with the minority in our cohort feeling fully recovered. Patient-perceived health-related quality of life was reduced at 1 year compared with before hospital admission. Systematic inflammation and obesity are potential treatable traits that warrant further investigation in clinical trials.

FUNDING

UK Research and Innovation and National Institute for Health Research.

Psychological predictors of insight and compliance in psychotic patients

BACKGROUND

A possible neuropsychological basis for poor insight in psychosis has been proposed. Consistent supporting evidence for this is lacking.

METHOD

Seventy-four consecutive acutely psychotic in-patients who were recruited for a randomised controlled trial of compliance therapy were given a battery of neuropsychological tests, along with a comprehensive clinical assessment, before and after the intervention.

RESULTS

Performance on neuropsychological tests improved during the patients' admission and treatment in hospital, as did symptoms and levels of insight. Cognitive function showed no relationship to insight and compliance initially, and very little after the intervention. Factors related to insight and compliance prior to discharge included: diagnosis, attitudes to medication, side-effects, being a detained patient, and whether or not compliance therapy was given.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinical variables and attitudes to treatment appear to be more relevant to compliance and the development of insight in acute psychosis than neuropsychological impairment.

Schizophrenia and city life

Prevalence of schizophrenia and rates of first admission to hospital for this disorder are higher in most modern industrialised cities, and in urban compared with rural areas. The "geographical drift" hypothesis (ie, most schizophrenics tend to drift into city areas because of their illness or its prodrome) has remained largely unchallenged. We have investigated the association between place of upbringing and the incidence of schizophrenia with data from a cohort of 49,191 male Swedish conscripts linked to the Swedish National Register of Psychiatric Care. The incidence of schizophrenia was 1.65 times higher (95% confidence interval 1.19-2.28) among men brought up in cities than in those who had had a rural upbringing. The association persisted despite adjustment for other factors associated with city life such as cannabis use, parental divorce, and family history of psychiatric disorder. This finding cannot be explained by the widely held notion that people with schizophrenia drift into cities at the beginning of their illness. We conclude that undetermined environmental factors found in cities increase the risk of schizophrenia.

Slater revisited: 6 year follow up study of patients with medically unexplained motor symptoms

OBJECTIVE

To investigate psychiatric and neurological morbidity, diagnostic stability, and indicators of prognosis in patients previously identified as having medically unexplained motor symptoms.

DESIGN

Follow up study.

SETTING

National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London--a secondary and tertiary referral hospital for neurological disorders.

SUBJECTS

73 patients with medically unexplained motor symptoms admitted consecutively in 1989-91. 35 (48%) patients had absence of motor function (for example, hemiplegia) and 38 (52%) had abnormal motor activity (for example, tremor, dystonia, or ataxia).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Neurological clinical diagnosis at face to face reassessment by a neurologist and a psychiatric diagnosis after a standardised assessment interview--the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia--conducted by a psychiatrist.

RESULTS

Good follow up data were available for 64 subjects (88%). Only three subjects had new organic neurological disorders at follow up that fully or partly explained their previous symptoms. 44/59 (75%) subjects had had psychiatric disorders; in 33 (75%) patients, the psychiatric diagnosis coincided with their unexplained motor symptoms. 31/59 (45%) patients had a personality disorder. Three subjects had developed new psychiatric illnesses at follow up, but in only one did the diagnosis account for the previous motor symptoms. Resolution of physical symptoms was associated with short length of symptoms, comorbid psychiatric disorder, and a change in marital status during follow up.

CONCLUSIONS

Unlike Slater's study of 1965, a low incidence of physical or psychiatric diagnoses which explained these patients' symptoms or disability was found. However, a high level of psychiatric comorbidity existed.

Premorbid adjustment and personality in people with schizophrenia

BACKGROUND

Schizoid personality and poor social adjustment have been thought of as common antecedents of schizophrenia but the existing literature is inconclusive. We have carried out a large cohort study with improved methodology.

METHOD

The premorbid personality and adjustment of 50,054 Swedish men were assessed on entry into the army at the age of 18. Individuals who developed schizophrenia or another psychosis after 15-year follow-up were identified. Odds ratios for variables independently associated with the later development of schizophrenia were calculated, adjusting for potential confounders.

RESULTS

Four variables reflecting early problems with interpersonal relationships were strongly associated with later schizophrenia and, to a lesser extent, non-schizophrenic psychoses, but also occurred commonly in the cohort as a whole. These associations with schizophrenia persisted after early-onset cases were excluded, though their predictive value was low (3.0%, 95% CI 1.5-4.5).

CONCLUSIONS

Some aspects of premorbid personality and adjustment may act as risk factors for schizophrenia. The results appear to be most consistent with a multi-factorial aetiology for schizophrenia and offer tentative support for a psychological disturbance mediating genetic and environmental effects on the causal pathway to the illness.

Detection of genomic imbalances by array based comparative genomic hybridisation in fetuses with multiple malformations

BACKGROUND

Malformations are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in full term infants and genomic imbalances are a significant component of their aetiology. However, the causes of defects in many patients with multiple congenital malformations remain unexplained despite thorough clinical examination and laboratory investigations.

METHODS

We used a commercially available array based comparative genomic hybridisation method (array CGH), able to screen all subtelomeric regions, main microdeletion syndromes, and 201 other regions covering the genome, to detect submicroscopic chromosomal imbalances in 49 fetuses with three or more significant anomalies and normal karyotype.

RESULTS

Array CGH identified eight genomic rearrangements (16.3%), all confirmed by quantitative multiplex PCR of short fluorescent fragments. Subtelomeric and interstitial deletions, submicroscopic duplications, and a complex genomic imbalance were identified. In four de novo cases (15qtel deletion, 16q23.1-q23.3 deletion, 22q11.2 deletion, and mosaicism for a rearranged chromosome 18), the genomic imbalance identified clearly underlay the pathological phenotype. In one case, the relationship between the genotype and phenotype was unclear, since a subtelomeric 6q deletion was detected in a mother and her two fetuses bearing multiple malformations. In three cases, a subtelomeric 10q duplication, probably a genomic polymorphism, was identified.

CONCLUSIONS

The detection of 5/49 causative chromosomal imbalances (or 4/49 if the 6qtel deletion is not considered as causative) suggests wide genome screening when standard chromosome analysis is normal and confirms that array CGH will have a major impact on pre and postnatal diagnosis as well as providing information for more accurate genetic counselling.

Insight and psychotic illness. Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations

BACKGROUND

Insight has recently re-emerged as an important aspect of psychopathology amenable to empirical study. We sought to examine the relationship between various aspects of insight into illness and clinical, sociodemographic and neuropsychological variables.

METHOD

From an inner-London catchment area population, 150 in-patients with recent onset of psychosis were assessed on a variety of measures, including the Present State Examination (PSE). Subjects were followed up for a mean of four years and reassessed.

RESULTS

High IQ was associated with better insight as rated on the PSE, while gender, ethnicity and a diagnosis of schizophrenia appeared to be unrelated. At follow-up, similar associations were found, as well as correlations with attitudes to treatment and a more elaborate measure of insight. Cerebral ventricular enlargement and tests of frontal lobe function did not correlate with insight, but there was a curious, strong association with left-handedness at both assessment points. Initial insight correlated significantly but weakly with insight at follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

The assessment of insight in psychosis has concurrent validity and is a distinct aspect of psychotic phenomenology. It may, in part, have a neuropsychological basis.

Positive symptomatology and source-monitoring failure in schizophrenia--an analysis of symptom-specific effects

Recent research has suggested that certain positive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia are linked to self monitoring/reality-monitoring deficits. We wished to investigate the association between such deficits and three specific symptoms: hallucinations, delusions and thought disorganisation. Forty patients with schizophrenia and 40 normal controls were administered a source-monitoring task. Twenty-four items were produced, either verbally by the experimenter, or verbally by the subject, or presented as pictures. Then, subjects were read a recognition list including the produced target items mixed with distractors. They were required to recognise the target items and to remember their source of production. The pattern of memory deficits has previously been reported (Brébion, G., Smith, M., Gorman, J., Amador, X., 1997. Discrimination accuracy and decision biases in different types of reality monitoring in schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 185, 247-253). The current analyses focussed on the false recognition of distractors, and on the errors in the source attribution of the recognised target items. Results showed that higher hallucination scores were associated with an increased tendency towards false recognition of non-produced items. In addition, hallucinators were more prone than control subjects to misattribute to another source the items they had produced themselves. Furthermore, hallucinators and delusional patients were more prone than the other patients to report that spoken items had been presented as pictures. This latter finding suggests that both hallucinations and delusions are associated with confusion between imagined and perceived pictures. Our previous report stated that only one of the three investigated types of response bias was associated with global positive symptomatology. However, this finer-grained analysis revealed that the three of them were in fact associated with hallucinations and/or delusions. On the other hand, thought disorganisation appeared to be independent from these mechanisms.

Distribution of mutations in the PEX gene in families with X-linked hypophosphataemic rickets (HYP)

Mutations in the PEX gene at Xp22.1 (phosphate-regulating gene with homologies to endopeptidases, on the X-chromosome), are responsible for X-linked hypophosphataemic rickets (HYP). Homology of PEX to the M13 family of Zn2+ metallopeptidases which include neprilysin (NEP) as prototype, has raised important questions regarding PEX function at the molecular level. The aim of this study was to analyse 99 HYP families for PEX gene mutations, and to correlate predicted changes in the protein structure with Zn2+ metallopeptidase gene function. Primers flanking 22 characterised exons were used to amplify DNA by PCR, and SSCP was then used to screen for mutations. Deletions, insertions, nonsense mutations, stop codons and splice mutations occurred in 83% of families screened for in all 22 exons, and 51% of a separate set of families screened in 17 PEX gene exons. Missense mutations in four regions of the gene were informative regarding function, with one mutation in the Zn2+-binding site predicted to alter substrate enzyme interaction and catalysis. Computer analysis of the remaining mutations predicted changes in secondary structure, N-glycosylation, protein phosphorylation and catalytic site molecular structure. The wide range of mutations that align with regions required for protease activity in NEP suggests that PEX also functions as a protease, and may act by processing factor(s) involved in bone mineral metabolism.

Current and future strategies for the treatment of malignant brain tumors

Glioblastoma (GB) is the most common subtype of primary brain tumor in adults. These tumors are highly invasive, very aggressive, and often infiltrate critical neurological areas within the brain. The mean survival time after diagnosis of GB has remained unchanged during the last few decades, in spite of advances in surgical techniques, radiotherapy, and also chemotherapy; patients' survival ranges from 9 to 12 months after initial diagnosis. In the same time frame, with our increasing understanding and knowledge of the physiopathology of several cancers, meaningful advances have been made in the treatment and control of several cancers, such as breast, prostate, and hematopoietic malignancies. Although a number of the genetic lesions present in GB have been elucidated and our understanding of the progressions of this cancer has increased dramatically over the last few years, it has not yet been possible to harness this information towards developing effective cures. In this review, we will focus on the classical ways in which GB is currently being treated, and will introduce a novel therapeutic modality, i.e., gene therapy, which we believe will be used in combination with classical treatment strategies to prolong the life-span of patients and to ultimately be able to control and/or cure these brain tumors. We will discuss the use of several vector systems that are needed to introduce the therapeutic genes within either the tumor mass, if these are not resectable, or the tumor bed, after successful tumor resection. We also discuss different therapeutic modalities that could be exploited using gene therapy, i.e., conditional cytotoxic approach, direct cytotoxicity, immunotherapy, inhibition of angiogenesis, and the use of pro-apoptotic genes. The advantages and disadvantages of each of the current vector systems available to transfer genes into the CNS are also discussed. With the advances in molecular techniques, both towards the elucidation of the physiopathology of GB and the development of novel, more efficient and less toxic vectors to deliver putative therapeutic genes into the CNS, it should be possible to develop new rationale and effective therapeutic approaches to treat this devastating cancer.

Anterior cingulate volumes in schizophrenia: a systematic review and a meta-analysis of MRI studies

OBJECTIVES

Several MRI studies have investigated the anterior cingulate in schizophrenia, as this is a key region for emotional processing and higher executive performances. A systematic review of structural MRI studies and a meta-analysis were conducted to explore whether anterior cingulate volumes are abnormal in patients with schizophrenia.

METHOD

A systematic search strategy was used to identify eligible MRI studies. Thereafter, a meta-analysis was carried out by using a random effect model. Also, a meta-regression analysis was used to assess the influence of age, gender and slice thickness on effect sizes.

RESULTS

The meta-analysis was performed on seven studies. These results showed that the anterior cingulate volumes were significantly reduced in patients compared to healthy controls. Significant heterogeneity between these studies was observed. The meta-regression demonstrated that the effect size was significantly related only to slice thickness.

CONCLUSIONS

Our work confirmed the presence of abnormally reduced anterior cingulate volumes in schizophrenia. However, several methodological issues limited the interpretation of these findings. Among these were different MR acquisition parameters and the small size of the sample, which was mostly composed of chronic patients. Future MRI studies should be planned to better understand the functional expression of anterior cingulate structural abnormalities.

Event generator tunes obtained from underlying event and multiparton scattering measurements

New sets of parameters ("tunes") for the underlying-event (UE) modelling of the pythia8, pythia6 and herwig++ Monte Carlo event generators are constructed using different parton distribution functions. Combined fits to CMS UE proton-proton ([Formula: see text]) data at [Formula: see text] and to UE proton-antiproton ([Formula: see text]) data from the CDF experiment at lower [Formula: see text], are used to study the UE models and constrain their parameters, providing thereby improved predictions for proton-proton collisions at 13[Formula: see text]. In addition, it is investigated whether the values of the parameters obtained from fits to UE observables are consistent with the values determined from fitting observables sensitive to double-parton scattering processes. Finally, comparisons are presented of the UE tunes to "minimum bias" (MB) events, multijet, and Drell-Yan ([Formula: see text] lepton-antilepton+jets) observables at 7 and 8[Formula: see text], as well as predictions for MB and UE observables at 13[Formula: see text].