COP-1 is one of a series of polypeptide preparations developed to stimulate myelin basic protein (MBP), a natural component of the myelin sheath. MBP in Freund's complete adjuvant induces ...experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). In saline, MBP suppresses EAE. This is the rationale for the use of COP-1 in MS.
The implication of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-1) in the myelination and the repair of myelin that occur after a demyelinating process was evaluated in organotypic cultures of embryonic nerve ...tissue. The amount of myelin of mouse spinal cord explants exposed to media supplemented with IGF-I beginning on the first day of explantation was recorded by light-microscopic examination and quantitation of the 2′,3′-cyclic nucleotide 3′-phosphohydrolase (CNPase) activity. After 9 days in vitro (DIV), the cultures treated with medium supplemented with 0.1−1μg/ml IGF-I showed a greater amount of myelin and an increase over the controls in CNPase activity between 50 and 80% at 16 DIV and 100% at 21 DIV. Total demyelination with a concomitant reduction of about 80% in the CNPase activity resulted when anti-white matter antiserum and complement were added to the nutrient medium of fully myelinated cultures. This effect was partially reverted when IGF-I was included in the demyelinating medium. The higher inhibition, about 50%, was obtained with concentrations of IGF-I between 0.1 and 0.5 μg/ml. To study the effect of IGF-I on remyelination, well-myelinated cultures were completely demyelinated, maintained in that state for 2 or 15 DIV and after that allowed to remyelinate for 14 days. Cultures exposed to medium supplemented with 0.01−0.1μg/ml IGF-I showed a degree of remyelination similar to that of the normal nutrient medium-fed cultures. Higher concentration of IGF-I seems to have a negative effect, since the amount myelin did not increases and remained similar to that of the demyelinated groups during all the times tested. The described effect of IGF-I on the nerve tissue is consistent with a proposed role in the regulation of oligodendroglial and neuronal development.
•A brief new measure to assess COVID-19 anxiety syndrome features is presented.•The measure has acceptable levels of reliability and concurrent validity.•The measure was found to predict COVID-19 ...anxiety and work and social adjustment controlling for other variables.
The central aim of our study was to widen the mental health response to the COVID-19 pandemic by developing and evaluating a measure that could be used to identify the presence of anxiety syndrome features associated with COVID-19. In Study 1, a community sample of 292 participants completed the newly developed COVID-19 Anxiety Syndrome Scale (C-19ASS) and results were subjected to a Principal Components Analysis. An 11-item two-factor structure was identified. In Study 2, a community sample of 426 participants completed a battery of questionnaires including the C-19ASS. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed on the C-19ASS. A 9-item two-factor structure was confirmed. Results also indicated that the C-19ASS has acceptable levels of reliability and concurrent validity. The C-19ASS perseveration factor was found to explain an additional 9.3% variance in COVID-19 anxiety, and additional 2.2% variance in work and social adjustment (functional impairment), over and above all other variables. The C-19ASS appears to be a reliable and valid measure of the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Bergamo province was badly hit by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. We organised a public-funded, multidisciplinary follow-up programme for COVID-19 patients discharged from the ...emergency department or from the inpatient wards of ‘Papa Giovanni XXIII’ Hospital, the largest public hospital in the area. As of 31 July, the first 767 patients had completed the first post-discharge multidisciplinary assessment. Patients entered our programme at a median time of 81 days after discharge. Among them, 51.4% still complained of symptoms, most commonly fatigue and exertional dyspnoea, and 30.5% were still experiencing post-traumatic psychological consequences. Impaired lung diffusion was found in 19%. Seventeen per cent had D-dimer values two times above the threshold for diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (two unexpected and clinically silent pulmonary thrombosis were discovered by investigating striking D-dimer elevation). Survivors of COVID-19 exhibit a complex array of symptoms, whose common underlying pathology, if any, has still to be elucidated: a multidisciplinary approach is fundamental, to address the different problems and to look for effective solutions.
•First study to examine the contribution of the Big 5 personality traits, health anxiety, and COVID-19 psychological distress to generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms.•COVID-19 psychological ...distress predicts generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms beyond all other variables.•Specific personality traits appear to be protective of COVID-19 psychological distress.
In the current study we sought to extend our understanding of vulnerability and protective factors (the Big Five personality traits, health anxiety, and COVID-19 psychological distress) in predicting generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (n = 502), who were United States residents, completed a variety of sociodemographic questions and the following questionnaires: Big Five Inventory‐10 (BFI-10), Whitley Index 7 (WI-7), Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), COVID-19 Anxiety Syndrome Scale (C19-ASS), and Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS). Results showed that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness were negatively correlated with generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms and that neuroticism, health anxiety and both measures of COVID-19 psychological distress were positively correlated with generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms. We used path analysis to determine the pattern of relationships specified by the theoretical model we proposed. Results showed that health anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety, and the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome partially mediated the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms. Specifically, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were negatively associated with the three mediators, which, in turn, were positively associated with generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms, with COVID-19 anxiety showing the strongest effect. Conversely, neuroticism and openness were positively associated with COVID-19 anxiety and the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome, respectively. These relationships were independent of age, gender, employment status and risk status. The model accounted for a substantial variance of generalised anxiety and depression symptoms (R2 = .75). The implications of these findings are discussed.
Spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by CAG/polyglutamine repeat expansions in the ataxin-7 gene. Ataxin-7 is a component of two different transcription ...coactivator complexes, and recent work indicates that disease protein normal function is altered in polyglutamine neurodegeneration. Given this, we studied how ataxin-7 gene expression is regulated. The ataxin-7 repeat and translation start site are flanked by binding sites for CTCF, a highly conserved multifunctional transcription regulator. When we analyzed this region, we discovered an adjacent alternative promoter and a convergently transcribed antisense noncoding RNA, SCAANT1. To understand how CTCF regulates ataxin-7 gene expression, we introduced ataxin-7 mini-genes into mice, and found that CTCF is required for SCAANT1 expression. Loss of SCAANT1 derepressed ataxin-7 sense transcription in a cis-dependent fashion and was accompanied by chromatin remodeling. Discovery of this pathway underscores the importance of altered epigenetic regulation for disease pathology at repeat loci exhibiting bidirectional transcription.
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► The atx7 repeat region contains an alternative promoter and antisense RNA—SCAANT1 ► CTCF binding promotes SCAANT1; loss of SCAANT1 derepressed atx7 sense transcription ► SCAANT1 antisense ncRNA transcription represses the atx7 alternative promoter in cis ► Regulatory bidirectional transcription may be a feature of many repeat diseases
Aims. Digital images of observations printed in the books Rosa Ursina sive solis and Prodromus pro sole mobili by Christoph Scheiner, as well as the drawings from Scheiner’s letters to Marcus Welser, ...are analysed to obtain information on the positions and sizes of sunspots that appeared before the Maunder minimum. Methods. In most cases, the given orientation of the ecliptic is used to set up the heliographic coordinate system for the drawings. Positions and sizes are measured manually on screen. Very early drawings have no indication of their orientation. A rotational matching using common spots of adjacent days is used in some cases, while in other cases, the assumption that images were aligned with a zenith-horizon coordinate system appeared to be the most probable. Results. In total, 8167 sunspots were measured. A distribution of sunspot latitudes versus time (butterfly diagram) is obtained for Scheiner’s observations. The observations of 1611 are very inaccurate, the drawings of 1612 have at least an indication of their orientation, while the remaining part of the spot positions from 1618−1631 have good to very good accuracy. We also computed 697 tilt angles of apparently bipolar sunspot groups observed in the period 1618−1631. We find that the average tilt angle of nearly 4 degrees is not significantly different from 20th-century values.
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