The Role of Unawareness, Volition, and Neural Hyperconnectivity in Alcohol Use Disorder: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

Background: Automated alcohol craving and habitual alcohol consumption characterize the later stages of alcohol use disorder (AUD). This study reanalyzed previously collected functional neuroimaging data in combination with the Craving Automated Scale for Alcohol (CAS-A) questionnaire to investigate the neural correlates and brain networks underlying automated drinking characterized by unawareness and nonvolition.

Methods: We assessed 49 abstinent male patients with AUD and 36 male healthy control participants during a functional magnetic resonance imaging-based alcohol cue-reactivity task.

Decoding fMRI alcohol cue reactivity and its association with drinking behaviour.

Background: Cue reactivity, the enhanced sensitivity to conditioned cues, is associated with habitual and compulsive alcohol consumption. However, most previous studies in alcohol use disorder (AUD) compared brain activity between alcohol and neutral conditions, solely as cue-triggered neural reactivity.

Objective: This study aims to find the neural subprocesses during the processing of visual alcohol cues in AUD individuals, and how these neural patterns are predictive for relapse.

Association between iron accumulation in the dorsal striatum and compulsive drinking in alcohol use disorder.

Rationale: Brain iron accumulation has been observed in neuropsychiatric disorders and shown to be related to neurodegeneration.

Objectives: In this study, we used quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), an emerging MRI technique developed for quantifying tissue magnetic susceptibility, to examine brain iron accumulation in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and its relation to compulsive drinking.

Methods: Based on our previous projects, QSM was performed as a secondary analysis with gradient echo sequence images, in 186 individuals with AUD and 274 healthy participants.

Exenatide once weekly for alcohol use disorder investigated in a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

BackgroundAlcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder that accounts for 5% of deaths annually, and there is an urgent need to develop new targets for therapeutic intervention. The glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist exenatide reduces alcohol consumption in rodents and nonhuman primates, but its efficacy in patients with AUD is unknown.MethodsIn a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial, treatment-seeking AUD patients were assigned to receive exenatide (2 mg subcutaneously) or placebo once weekly for 26 weeks, in addition to standard cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Signal Peptides Generated by Attention-Based Neural Networks.

Short (15-30 residue) chains of amino acids at the amino termini of expressed proteins known as signal peptides (SPs) specify secretion in living cells. We trained an attention-based neural network, the Transformer model, on data from all available organisms in Swiss-Prot to generate SP sequences. Experimental testing demonstrates that the model-generated SPs are functional: when appended to enzymes expressed in an industrial strain, the SPs lead to secreted activity that is competitive with industrially used SPs.

Reverse-Contrast Imaging and Targeted Radiation Therapy of Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Models.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of delivering experimental radiation therapy to tumors in the mouse pancreas. Imaging and treatment were performed using combined CT (computed tomography)/orthovoltage treatment with a rotating gantry.

Methods And Materials: After intraperitoneal administration of radiopaque iodinated contrast, abdominal organ delineation was performed by x-ray CT.

Administration of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists ABT-089 and ABT-107 attenuates the reinstatement of nicotine-seeking behavior in rats.

Current smoking cessation pharmacotherapies have modest efficacy, and most smokers relapse within the first few days after a quit attempt. Nicotine withdrawal-induced craving and cognitive impairments predict smoking relapse during abstinence and suggest that cognitive-enhancing drugs may prevent relapse. ABT-089 and ABT-107 are subtype-selective nAChR agonists that improve cognitive performance in laboratory animals.