rudyvdbrink/CitationDatabase huggingface dataset:
Sensory neuroanatomy of Parastrongyloides trichosuri, a nematode parasite of mammals: Amphidial neurons of the first-stage larva.
The Journal of comparative neurology, 2011

Owing to its ability to switch between free-living and parasitic modes of development, Parastrongyloides trichosuri represents a valuable model with which to study the evolution of parasitism among the nematodes, especially aspects pertaining to morphogenesis of infective third-stage larvae. In the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, developmental fates of third-stage larvae are determined in part by environmental cues received by chemosensory neurons in the amphidial sensillae. As a basis for comparative study, we have described the neuroanatomy of the amphidial sensillae of P. trichosuri. By using computational methods, we incorporated serial electron micrographs into a three-dimensional reconstruction of the amphidial neurons of this parasite. Each amphid is innervated by 13 neurons, and the dendritic processes of 10 of these extend nearly to the amphidial pore. Dendritic processes of two specialized neurons leave the amphidial channel and terminate within invaginations of the sheath cell. One of these is similar to the finger cell of C. elegans, terminating in digitiform projections. The other projects a single cilium into the sheath cell. The dendritic process of a third specialized neuron terminates within the tight junction of the amphid. Each amphidial neuron was traced from the tip of its dendrite(s) to its cell body in the lateral ganglion. Positions of these cell bodies approximate those of morphologically similar amphidial neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans, so the standard nomenclature for amphidial neurons in C. elegans was adopted. A map of cell bodies within the lateral ganglion of P. trichosuri was prepared to facilitate functional study of these neurons.
Reciprocal interactions between prostaglandin E2- and estradiol-dependent signaling pathways in the injured zebra finch brain.
Journal of neuroinflammation, 2017

Astrocytic aromatization and consequent increases in estradiol are neuroprotective in the injured brain. In zebra finches, cyclooxygenase-activity is necessary for injury-induced aromatase expression, and increased central estradiol lowers neuroinflammation. The mechanisms underlying these influences are unknown. Here, we document injury-induced, cyclooxygenase-dependent increases in glial aromatase expression and replicate previous work in our lab showing increases in central prostaglandin E2 and estradiol following brain damage. Further, we describe injury-dependent changes in E-prostanoid and estrogen receptor expression and reveal the necessity of E-prostanoid and estrogen receptors in the injury-dependent, reciprocal interactions of neuroinflammatory and neurosteroidogenic pathways.
Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis associated with hepatic neuroendocrine carcinoma: A case report.
Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia, 2017

Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (Anti-NMDAR) encephalitis can present with and without tumor. Tumor associations are less common in older patients. We report a 65-year-old gentleman who presented with one week history of cough, chills, rigor and altered behavior, followed by florid visual and auditory hallucinations. Mini mental status examination score was 16/30. Both cerebrospinal fluid and plasma anti-NMDA receptor antibodies were detected. A course of intravenous methylprednisolone was given with partial symptom improvement. A hepatic neuroendocrine carcinoma was detected and confirmed on biopsy. Unfortunately, he developed several medical complications: non-ST elevation myocardial infarction, infected foot gangrene and peripheral vascular disease, which made him unsuitable for both surgery and chemotherapy. He passed away 6months later due to the progression of the malignancy. This case illustrated that NMDAR encephalitis may be associated with an uncommon hepatic neuroendocrine carcinoma in an older person, which is responsive to early treatment.
Microglia in Alzheimer's disease: A multifaceted relationship.
Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2016

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting elderly people worldwide, which is mainly characterized by cerebral amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaque deposition and neurofibrillary tangle formation. The interest in microglia arose from the overwhelming experimental evidence that outlined a key role of neuroinflammation in AD pathology. Microglia constitute the powerhouse of the innate immune system in the brain. It is now widely accepted that microglia are myeloid-derived cells that infiltrate the developing brain at the early embryonic stages, and acquire a highly ramified phenotype postnatally. Microglia use these dynamic ramifications as sentinels to sense and detect any occurring alteration in brain homeostasis. Once a danger signal is detected, microglia get activated by acquiring a less ramified phenotype, and mount adequate responses that range from phagocyting cell debris to secreting inflammatory and trophic factors. Earlier reports have demonstrated, unequivocally, that microglia surround Aβ plaques and internalize Aβ microaggregates. However, the implication of these observations in AD pathology, and consequently treatment, is still a matter of debate. Nonetheless, targeting the activity of these cells constituted a convergent point in this debate. Unfortunately, the conflicting experimental findings obtained following the modulation of microglial activity in AD, further fueled the debate. This review aims at providing an overview regarding what we know about the implication of microglia in AD pathology, and treatment. The emerging role of monocytes is also discussed.
Increased functional coupling of the left amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex during the perception of communicative point-light stimuli.
Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2019

Interpersonal predictive coding (IPPC) describes the behavioral phenomenon whereby seeing a communicative rather than an individual action helps to discern a masked second agent. As little is known, yet, about the neural correlates of IPPC, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in a group of 27 healthy participants using point-light displays of moving agents embedded in distractors. We discovered that seeing communicative compared to individual actions was associated with higher activation of right superior frontal gyrus, whereas the reversed contrast elicited increased neural activation in an action observation network that was activated during all trials. Our findings, therefore, potentially indicate the formation of action predictions and a reduced demand for executive control in response to communicative actions. Further, in a regression analysis, we revealed that increased perceptual sensitivity was associated with a deactivation of the left amygdala during the perceptual task. A consecutive psychophysiological interaction analysis showed increased connectivity of the amygdala with medial prefrontal cortex in the context of communicative compared to individual actions. Thus, whereas increased amygdala signaling might interfere with task-relevant processes, increased co-activation of the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex in a communicative context might represent the integration of mentalizing computations.
Normative Estimates and Agreement Between 2 Measures of Health-Related Quality of Life in Older People With Frailty: Findings From the Community Ageing Research 75+ Cohort.
Value in health : the journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, 2020

Previous studies have summarized evidence on health-related quality of life for older people, identifying a range of measures that have been validated, but have not sought to present results by degree of frailty. Furthermore, previous studies did not typically use quality-of-life measures that generate an overall health utility score. Health utility scores are a necessary component of quality-adjusted life-year calculations used to estimate the cost-effectiveness of interventions.
Dendritic mechanisms controlling the threshold and timing requirement of synaptic plasticity.
Hippocampus, 2011

Active conductances located and operating on neuronal dendrites are expected to regulate synaptic integration and plasticity. We investigate how Kv4.2-mediated A-type K(+) channels and Ca(2+) -activated K(+) channels are involved in the induction process of Hebbian-type plasticity that requires correlated pre- and postsynaptic activities. In CA1 pyramidal neurons, robust long-term potentiation (LTP) induced by a theta burst pairing protocol usually occurred within a narrow window during which incoming synaptic potentials coincided with postsynaptic depolarization. Elimination of dendritic A-type K(+) currents in Kv4.2(-/-) mice, however, resulted in an expanded time window, making the induction of synaptic potentiation less dependent on the temporal relation of pre- and postsynaptic activity. For the other type of synaptic plasticity, long-term depression, the threshold was significantly increased in Kv4.2(-/-) mice. This shift in depression threshold was restored to normal when the appropriate amount of internal free calcium was chelated during induction. In concert with A-type channels, Ca(2+) -activated K(+) channels also exerted a sliding effect on synaptic plasticity. Blocking these channels in Kv4.2(-/-) mice resulted in an even larger potentiation while by contrast, the depression threshold was shifted further. In conclusion, dendritic A-type and Ca(2+) -activated K(+) channels dually regulate the timing-dependence and thresholds of synaptic plasticity in an additive way.
Effect of agomelatine and its interaction with the daily corticosterone rhythm on progenitor cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus of the adult rat.
Neuropharmacology, 2010

Agomelatine, a novel melatonin analogue and anti-depressant that acts as an agonist on melatonin receptors 1 and 2 and as an antagonist at the 5HT2C receptor, was tested for its effects on cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus of the adult rat hippocampus under intact and flattened corticosterone rhythm conditions. Agomelatine stimulated mitosis rates in the intact male rat. Flattening the daily corticosterone rhythm by inserting a subcutaneous pellet of this steroid prevented the action of agomelatine. However, adding a daily injection of corticosterone at CT1200 to rats with implanted corticosterone pellets failed to restore agomelatine's efficacy on cell proliferation. The 5HT2C receptor antagonist SB242084 stimulated progenitor cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus, while a 5HT2C agonist (RO600175) had no effect on cell proliferation alone, but counteracted that of agomelatine. These results suggest that agomelatine, a new anti-depressant, can stimulate progenitor cell mitosis in the dentate gyrus. Its action requires an intact diurnal corticosterone rhythm. The action of agomelatine on neurogenesis is likely to reside in its antagonism of the 5HT2C receptor, and suggests a mechanism distinct from that of fluoxetine, another anti-depressant, which, as previous work shows, acts through the 5HT1A receptor, but whose action is also blocked by a flattened corticosterone rhythm.
Associations between personality and whole-brain functional connectivity at rest: Evidence across the adult lifespan.
Brain and behavior, 2020

Personality is associated with cognitive, emotional, and social functioning, and can play a role in age-related cognitive decline and dementia risk; however, little is known about the brain dynamics underlying personality characteristics, and whether they are moderated by age.
Different macaque models of cognitive aging exhibit task-dependent behavioral disparities.
Behavioural brain research, 2018

Deficits in cognitive functions that rely on the integrity of the frontal and temporal lobes are characteristic of normative human aging. Due to similar aging phenotypes and homologous cortical organization between nonhuman primates and humans, several species of macaque monkeys are used as models to explore brain senescence. These macaque species are typically regarded as equivalent models of cognitive aging, yet no direct comparisons have been made to support this assumption. Here we used adult and aged rhesus and bonnet macaques (Macaca mulatta and Macaca radiata) to characterize the effect of age on acquisition and retention of information across delays in a battery of behavioral tasks that rely on prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe networks. The cognitive functions that were tested include visuospatial short-term memory, object recognition memory, and object-reward association memory. In general, bonnet macaques at all ages outperformed rhesus macaques on tasks thought to rely primarily on the prefrontal cortex, and were more resilient to age-related deficits in these behaviors. On the other hand, both species were comparably impaired by age on tasks thought to preferentially engage the medial temporal lobe. Together, these results suggest that rhesus and bonnet macaques are not equivalent models of cognitive aging and highlight the value of cross-species comparisons. These observations should enable improved design and interpretation of future experiments aimed at understanding changes in cognition across the lifespan.
A role for acoustic distortion in novel rapid frequency modulation behaviour in free-flying male mosquitoes.
The Journal of experimental biology, 2016

We describe a new stereotypical acoustic behaviour by male mosquitoes in response to the fundamental frequency of female flight tones during mating sequences. This male-specific free-flight behaviour consists of phonotactic flight beginning with a steep increase in wing-beat frequency (WBF) followed by rapid frequency modulation (RFM) of WBF in the lead up to copula formation. Male RFM behaviour involves remarkably fast changes in WBF and can be elicited without acoustic feedback or physical presence of the female. RFM features are highly consistent, even in response to artificial tones that do not carry the multi-harmonic components of natural female flight tones. Comparison between audiograms of the robust RFM behaviour and the electrical responses of the auditory Johnston's organ (JO) reveals that the male JO is tuned not to the female WBF per se but, remarkably, to the difference between the male and female WBFs. This difference is generated in the JO responses as a result of intermodulation distortion products (DPs) caused by non-linear interaction between male-female flight tones in the vibrations of the antenna. We propose that male mosquitoes rely on their own flight tones in making use of DPs to acoustically detect, locate and orientate towards flying females. We argue that the previously documented flight-tone harmonic convergence of flying male and female mosquitoes could be a consequence of WBF adjustments so that DPs generated through flight-tone interaction fall within the optimal frequency ranges for JO detection.
A critical review of zebrafish schizophrenia models: Time for validation?
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2019

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects 1% of the population worldwide and is manifested as a broad spectrum of symptoms, from hallucinations to memory impairment. It is believed that genetic and/or environmental factors may contribute to the occurrence of this disease. Recently, the zebrafish has emerged as a valuable and attractive model for various neurological disorders including schizophrenia. In this review, we describe current pharmacological models of schizophrenia with special emphasis on providing insights into the pros and cons of using zebrafish as a behavioural model of this disease. Moreover, we highlight the advantages and utility of using zebrafish for elucidating the genetic mechanisms underlying this psychiatric disorder. We believe that the zebrafish has high potential also in the area of precision medicine and may complement the development of therapeutics, especially for pharmacoresistant patients.
Sluggish cognitive tempo: longitudinal stability and validity.
Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, 2019

Emerging research has identified sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) as a construct separate from ADHD predominately inattentive presentation. The present study explores the longitudinal stability of SCT over a period of 7 years, specifically the independent effects of SCT on behavioural and academic outcomes concurrently over a 3-year period. A sample of 639 twins, aged 6-12 years, participating in the Western Reserve Reading and Math Project (WRRMP) were assessed at seven annual home visits. The WRRMP sample is an unselected sample of twins representative of the general population of typically developing school-age children. The current investigation will focus on parent and teacher reports which assess attention deficit hyperactive/impulsive disorder (ADHD) and standardized achievement measures which assess academic outcomes. Over periods longer than 1 or 2 years, SCT does not display good longitudinal stability (r < .60). SCT also does not have consistent significant independent effects on academic outcomes once the effects of ADHD were controlled for. Over a 7-year period, SCT does not demonstrate consistent longitudinal stability. SCT significantly predicts social problems, internalizing behaviours, and anxious/depressive behaviours after the effects of ADHD are controlled for. SCT has no significant independent effects on cognitive or educational outcomes after the effects of inattentive ADHD are controlled for.
Relationship between Post-Thrombolysis Blood Pressure and Outcome in Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients Undergoing Thrombolysis Therapy.
Journal of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases : the official journal of National Stroke Association, 2017

The management of blood pressure (BP) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients undergoing thrombolysis is still under debate. The purpose of this study was (1) to explore the association between post-thrombolysis BP and functional outcome and (2) to examine whether post-thrombolysis BP can predict functional outcome in Chinese AIS patients undergoing thrombolysis therapy.
Rapid Cortical Adaptation and the Role of Thalamic Synchrony during Wakefulness.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2021

Rapid sensory adaptation is observed across all sensory systems, and strongly shapes sensory percepts in complex sensory environments. Yet despite its ubiquity and likely necessity for survival, the mechanistic basis is poorly understood. A wide range of primarily
Complement protein C1q modulates neurite outgrowth in vitro and spinal cord axon regeneration in vivo.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2015

Traumatic injury to CNS fiber tracts is accompanied by failure of severed axons to regenerate and results in lifelong functional deficits. The inflammatory response to CNS trauma is mediated by a diverse set of cells and proteins with varied, overlapping, and opposing effects on histological and behavioral recovery. Importantly, the contribution of individual inflammatory complement proteins to spinal cord injury (SCI) pathology is not well understood. Although the presence of complement components increases after SCI in association with axons and myelin, it is unknown whether complement proteins affect axon growth or regeneration. We report a novel role for complement C1q in neurite outgrowth in vitro and axon regrowth after SCI. In culture, C1q increased neurite length on myelin. Protein and molecular assays revealed that C1q interacts directly with myelin associated glycoprotein (MAG) in myelin, resulting in reduced activation of growth inhibitory signaling in neurons. In agreement with a C1q-outgrowth-enhancing mechanism in which C1q binding to MAG reduces MAG signaling to neurons, complement C1q blocked both the growth inhibitory and repulsive turning effects of MAG in vitro. Furthermore, C1q KO mice demonstrated increased sensory axon turning within the spinal cord lesion after SCI with peripheral conditioning injury, consistent with C1q-mediated neutralization of MAG. Finally, we present data that extend the role for C1q in axon growth and guidance to include the sprouting patterns of descending corticospinal tract axons into spinal gray matter after dorsal column transection SCI.
Integrative analysis of circadian transcriptome and metabolic network reveals the role of de novo purine synthesis in circadian control of cell cycle.
PLoS computational biology, 2015

Metabolism is the major output of the circadian clock in many organisms. We developed a computational method to integrate both circadian gene expression and metabolic network. Applying this method to zebrafish circadian transcriptome, we have identified large clusters of metabolic genes containing mostly genes in purine and pyrimidine metabolism in the metabolic network showing similar circadian phases. Our metabolomics analysis found that the level of inosine 5'-monophosphate (IMP), an intermediate metabolite in de novo purine synthesis, showed significant circadian oscillation in larval zebrafish. We focused on IMP dehydrogenase (impdh), a rate-limiting enzyme in de novo purine synthesis, with three circadian oscillating gene homologs: impdh1a, impdh1b and impdh2. Functional analysis revealed that impdh2 contributes to the daily rhythm of S phase in the cell cycle while impdh1a contributes to ocular development and pigment synthesis. The three zebrafish homologs of impdh are likely regulated by different circadian transcription factors. We propose that the circadian regulation of de novo purine synthesis that supplies crucial building blocks for DNA replication is an important mechanism conferring circadian rhythmicity on the cell cycle. Our method is widely applicable to study the impact of circadian transcriptome on metabolism in complex organisms.
Regulation of synaptic functions in central nervous system by endocrine hormones and the maintenance of energy homoeostasis.
Bioscience reports, 2012

Energy homoeostasis, a co-ordinated balance of food intake and energy expenditure, is regulated by the CNS (central nervous system). The past decade has witnessed significant advances in our understanding of metabolic processes and brain circuitry which responds to a broad range of neural, nutrient and hormonal signals. Accumulating evidence demonstrates altered synaptic plasticity in the CNS in response to hormone signals. Moreover, emerging observations suggest that synaptic plasticity underlies all brain functions, including the physiological regulation of energy homoeostasis, and that impaired synaptic constellation and plasticity may lead to pathological development and conditions. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on the regulation of postsynaptic receptors such as AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid), NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) and GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) receptors, and the presynaptic components by hormone signals. A detailed understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms by which hormones regulate energy homoeostasis may lead to novel strategies in treating metabolic disorders.