The current study sought to examine factors that affect vection (the illusory experience of self-motion in the absence of real motion), visually-induced motion sickness, and one's sense of presence in a passive virtual reality driving simulation by exposing participants to 60-s pre-recorded driving laps and recording their self-reported metrics as well as their head motion patterns during the laps. Faster virtual driving speed (average 120 mph vs. 60 mph) resulted in significantly higher ratings of vection and motion sickness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOur laboratory has previously shown that chronic ethanol exposure elicits enhanced working memory performance in female, but not male, adult Sprague-Dawley rats, indicative of a fundamental sex difference in cortical plasticity. Recent studies have furthermore revealed that females display markedly reduced HCN-mediated channel activity in inhibitory Martinotti interneurons after chronic ethanol exposure that is similarly not observed in males. From these observations we hypothesized that alcohol induces facilitated working memory performance via down-regulation of these channels' activity specifically within interneurons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The clinical success of liver transplantation has led to increased demand, requiring further expansion of the donor pool. Therapeutic interventions to optimize organs from donation after circulatory death (DCD) have significant potential to mitigate the organ shortage. Dysfunction in DCD liver grafts is mediated by microvascular thrombosis during the warm ischemic period, and strategies that reduce this thrombotic burden may improve graft function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ex vivo kidney perfusion is an evolving platform that demonstrates promise in preserving and rehabilitating the kidney grafts. Despite this, there is little consensus on the optimal perfusion conditions. Hypothermic perfusion offers limited functional assessment, whereas normothermic perfusion requires a more complex mechanical system and perfusate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The aim of this study was to explore a classification system for children requiring full-mouth dental rehabilitation (FMDR) in the operating room (OR) and its association with adverse events.
Methods: Patients treated at a pediatric dental residency clinic and determined to need FMDR in the OR were classified on initial examination, based on the extent of caries, pain and the presence of a dental abscess. On the treatment date, parents were given a questionnaire concerning adverse events that occurred while waiting for treatment.
Long-term alcohol use results in behavioral deficits including impaired working memory, elevated anxiety, and blunted inhibitory control that is associated with prefrontal cortical (PFC) dysfunction. Preclinical observations demonstrate multiple impairments in GABAergic neurotransmission onto deep-layer principal cells (PCs) in the prelimbic cortex that suggest dependence-related cortical dysfunction is the product of elevated excitability in these cells. Despite accumulating evidence showing alcohol-induced changes in interneuron signaling onto PCs differ between sexes, there is limited data explicitly evaluating sex-specific ethanol effects on excitatory signaling onto deep-layer PCs that may further contribute to deficits in PFC-dependent behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDifferentiation Syndrome is a complication of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) therapy in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML). It appears clinically as acute end-organ damage with peripheral edema, hypotension, acute renal failure, and interstitial pulmonary infiltrates. When symptoms develop, physicians are recommended to stop ATRA therapy to minimize complications and reduce mortality immediately.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Infect Dis
April 2020
Background: The monoclonal antibody m102.4 is a potent, fully human antibody that neutralises Hendra and Nipah viruses in vitro and in vivo. We aimed to investigate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and immunogenicity of m102.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic ethanol exposure results in numerous neurobiological adaptations that promote deficits in medial prefrontal cortical (mPFC) function associated with blunted inhibitory control and elevated anxiety during withdrawal. Studies exploring alcohol dependence-related changes in this region have largely investigated adaptations in glutamatergic signaling, with inhibitory neurotransmission remaining relatively understudied. To address this, we used biochemical and electrophysiological methods to evaluate the effects of ethanol on the activity of deep-layer prelimbic mPFC Fast-Spiking (FS) and Martinotti interneurons after chronic ethanol exposure in male and female rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The prefrontal cortex (PFC) acts as an integrative hub for the processing of cortical and subcortical input into meaningful efferent signaling, permitting complex associative behaviors. PFC dysfunction is consistently observed with ethanol (EtOH) dependence and is a core component of the pathology of alcohol use disorders in current models of addiction. While intracortical gamma-aminobutryric acid (GABA)ergic neurotransmission is understood to be essential for maintaining coordinated network activity within the cortex, relatively little is known regarding functional GABAergic adaptations in PFC during EtOH dependence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlcohol use disorders are chronic debilitating diseases characterized by severe withdrawal symptoms that contribute to morbidity and relapse. GABA receptor (GABAR) adaptations have long been implicated in the chronic effects of alcohol and contribute to many withdrawal symptoms associated with alcohol dependence. In rodents, GABAR hypofunction results from decreases in Gabra1 expression, although the underlying mechanism controlling Gabra1 expression after chronic ethanol exposure is still unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between patients' understanding of periodontal disease, their individual compliance to homecare, self-reported periodontal disease, and how they have been educated regarding their oral health.
Method And Materials: A cross-sectional study was performed by distributing questionnaires to patients at the University of Alberta Dental Clinic. A survey consisting of 45 questions was constructed in order to quantify patients' understanding of periodontal disease (section 1), where they received their information, how often they have been instructed by dental practitioners, their homecare habits (section 2), and their self-reported periodontal status (section 3).
Study Objectives: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is prevalent among children and is associated with adverse health outcomes. Worldwide, approximately 250 million individuals reside at altitudes higher than 2000 meters above sea level (masl). The effect of chronic high-altitude exposure on children with SDB is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper discusses the automated visual identification of individual great white sharks from dorsal fin imagery. We propose a computer vision photo ID system and report recognition results over a database of thousands of unconstrained fin images. To the best of our knowledge this line of work establishes the first contour-based visual ID system in the field of animal biometrics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor is a glutamatergic ion channel and is a known site of ethanol action. Evidence suggests that ethanol inhibits NMDA receptor activity by reducing channel open probability and mean open time potentially via interaction with specific residues within the transmembrane (M) domains 3 and 4 of GluN subunits. Recent models of NMDAR function demonstrate that extracellular residues near the M domains are key regulators of gating, suggesting that they may contribute to ethanol sensitivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbused inhalants are voluntarily inhaled at high concentrations to produce intoxicating effects. Results from animal studies show that the abused inhalant toluene triggers behaviors, such as self-administration and conditioned place preference, which are commonly associated with addictive drugs. However, little is known about how toluene affects neurons within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain region within the basal ganglia that mediates goal-directed behaviors and is implicated in the development and maintenance of addictive behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFN-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are ion channels activated by the neurotransmitter glutamate and are highly expressed by neurons. These receptors are critical for excitatory synaptic signaling and inhibition of NMDA receptors leads to impaired cognition and learning. Ethanol inhibits NMDA currents at concentrations associated with intoxication and this action may underlie some of the behavioral effects of ethanol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study analyzed repeated methylphenidate (MPH) administration and its effects on brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the dorsal striatum and nucleus accumbens of male and female adolescent rats. In Experiment 1, rats were administered intraperitoneal (ip) saline, 1, 3, or 5 mg/kg dose of MPH every second day from postnatal day (P)33-P49. Locomotor activity was analyzed for 10 min after each administration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiologic drugs, such as monoclonal antibodies, are commonly made using mammalian cells in culture. The cell lines used for manufacturing should ideally be clonal, meaning derived from a single cell, which represents a technically challenging process. Fetal bovine serum is often used to support low cell density cultures, however, from a regulatory perspective, it is preferable to avoid animal-derived components to increase process consistency and reduce the risk of contamination from adventitious agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe granule cell layer of the cerebellum functions in spatio-temporal encoding of information. Granule cells (GCs) are tonically inhibited by spillover of GABA released from Golgi cells and this tonic inhibition is facilitated by acute ethanol. Recently, it was demonstrated that a specialized Ca(2+)-activated anion-channel, bestrophin1 (Best1), found on glial cells, can release GABA that contributes up to 50-75% of the tonic GABAergic current.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with enduring psychopathology, such as increased likelihood of substance use, in offspring. Various animal models demonstrate that continuous nicotine exposure produces teratogenic effects in offspring, as well. In this experiment, a novel intravenous (IV) exposure model was used to determine if gestational nicotine (GN) treatment produced alterations in methamphetamine-induced sensitization and the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system of adolescent offspring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransient gene expression systems in mammalian cells continue to grow in popularity due to their capacity to produce significant amounts of recombinant protein in a rapid and scalable manner, without the lengthy time periods and resources required for stable cell line development. Traditionally, production of recombinant monoclonal antibodies for pre-clinical assessment by transient expression in CHO cells has been hampered by low titers. In this report, we demonstrate transient monoclonal antibody titers of 140 mg/l with CHO cells using the episomal-based transient expression system, Epi-CHO.
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