Gambling in Sub-Saharan Africa: Traditional Forms and Emerging Technologies.

Purpose Of Review: The gambling industry in Africa has seen substantial growth and evolution over recent years with a growing body of literature describing these shifts. Here, we provide a narrative synthesis of the extant literature on the origins, trends and consequences of the expansion and intensification of the commercial gambling industry in sub-Saharan Africa with a reference for future research on gambling as a growing public health concern.

Recent Findings: The historical shift and permeation of gambling in sub-Saharan Africa is diverse with evidence of certain countries following a neo-colonial logic.

Deconstructing the functional neuroanatomy of the choroid plexus: an ontogenetic perspective for studying neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders.

The choroid plexus (CP) is a delicate and highly vascularized structure in the brain comprised of a dense network of fenestrated capillary loops that help in the synthesis, secretion and circulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This unique neuroanatomical structure is comprised of arachnoid villi stemming from frond-like surface projections-that protrude into the lumen of the four cerebral ventricles-providing a key source of nutrients to the brain parenchyma in addition to serving as a 'sink' for central nervous system metabolic waste. In fact, the functions of the CP are often described as being analogous to those of the liver and kidney.

Gambling Patterns and Problem Gambling Among Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review.

Mounting evidence suggests that youth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) find themselves increasingly drawn to gambling related activities; an issue, that if left unchecked, can lead to adverse consequences including financial difficulties, crime and mental health problems. To better understand the psychosocial mechanisms underlying problem gambling, there is a pressing need to conduct more research on gambling related disorders amongst this vulnerable stratum of society. Against this background, the present review explores gambling patterns, attitudes and behaviors among youth in SSA-in a manner aligning with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

The health and economic burden of the coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa.

The current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to overwhelm healthcare systems and to exert a negative influence on the global economy. Of particular concern is the impact of COVID-19 in low-income settings - especially in terms of their capacity to mitigate a surge in COVID-19 cases. Indeed, response measures currently in place to tackle the spread of COVID-19 in geographic regions predominantly consisting of low-income nations, such as Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), remain tenuous and will require context-appropriate interventions.

Implications of early life stress on fetal metabolic programming of schizophrenia: A focus on epiphenomena underlying morbidity and early mortality.

The fetal origin of adult disease hypothesis postulates that a stressful in utero environment can have deleterious consequences on fetal programming, potentially leading to chronic disease in later life. Factors known to impact fetal programming include the timing, intensity, duration and nature of the external stressor during pregnancy. As such, dynamic modulation of fetal programming is heavily involved in shaping health throughout the life course, possibly by influencing metabolic parameters including insulin action, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity and immune function.

A conceptualized model linking matrix metalloproteinase-9 to schizophrenia pathogenesis.

Matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) is an extracellularly operating zinc-dependent endopeptidase that is commonly expressed in the brain, other tissues. It is synthesized in a latent zymogen form known as pro-MMP-9 that is subsequently converted to the active MMP-9 enzyme following cleavage of the pro-domain. Within the central nervous system, MMP-9 is localized and released from neurons, astrocytes and microglia where its expression levels are modulated by cytokines and growth factors during both normal and pathological conditions as well as by reactive oxygen species generated during oxidative stress.

A strategy to analyse activity-based profiling of tyrosine kinase substrates in OCT-embedded lung cancer tissue.

The use of optimal cutting temperature (OCT) medium has served to improve the long-term preservation of surgical tissue specimens. Unfortunately, the presence of polymers in OCT has been found to generate signal interference in proteomic-based techniques. Indeed the presence of OCT medium in tissue lysates precludes the analysis of activity based proteomic profiles obtained from lung adenocarcinoma (LuAdCa) resection specimens.

Menstrual hygiene management among adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa.

Menstruation is a delicate physiological process through which a shedding of uterine lining occurs each month in females of reproductive age. Often considered a taboo subject, menstruation is seldom openly discussed in developing parts of the world. This article explores menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in sub-Saharan Africa and emphasizes the urgent and neglected need for feasible solutions, especially among adolescent girls.

Monitoring and managing mental health in the wake of Ebola. Commentary.

Infectious disease continues to have dramatic effects on morbidity and mortality around the world. Few events could cause such loss of life and damage to livelihoods. As witnessed with the recent West African Ebola outbreak, raising alerts and identifying the outbreak in the community took too long.

Low Merlin expression and high Survivin labeling index are indicators for poor prognosis in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Introduction: Alterations of the tumor suppressor Neurofibromatosis type II (NF2) have been reported in about 40% of Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) patients. NF2 (Merlin) deficiency leads to alterations of the Hippo pathway; resulting in activation of the oncogenic Yes Associated Protein-1 (YAP1). Our aim was to investigate the association between these alterations and clinical outcomes.

Weaving a Net of Neurobiological Mechanisms in Schizophrenia and Unraveling the Underlying Pathophysiology.

Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are enigmatic structures composed of extracellular matrix molecules that encapsulate the soma, dendrites, and axon segments of neurons in a lattice-like fashion. Although most PNNs condense around parvalbumin-expressing gamma-aminobutyric acidergic interneurons, some glutamatergic pyramidal cells in the brain are also surrounded by PNNs. Experimental findings suggest pivotal roles of PNNs in the regulation of synaptic formation and function.

Transcriptional dysregulation of γ-aminobutyric acid transporter in parvalbumin-containing inhibitory neurons in the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia.

Parvalbumin (PV)-containing neurons are functionally compromised in schizophrenia. Using double in situ hybridization in postmortem human prefrontal cortex, we found that the messenger RNA (mRNA) for the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transporter GAT-1 was undetectable in 22-41% of PV neurons in layers 3-4 in schizophrenia. In the remaining PV neurons with detectable GAT-1 mRNA, transcript expression was decreased by 26% in layer 3.

Perineuronal nets and schizophrenia: the importance of neuronal coatings.

Schizophrenia is a complex brain disorder associated with deficits in synaptic connectivity. The insidious onset of this illness during late adolescence and early adulthood has been reported to be dependent on several key processes of brain development including synaptic refinement, myelination and the physiological maturation of inhibitory neural networks. Interestingly, these events coincide with the appearance of perineuronal nets (PNNs), reticular structures composed of components of the extracellular matrix that coat a variety of cells in the mammalian brain.

PI3K/mTOR signaling in mesothelioma patients treated with induction chemotherapy followed by extrapleural pneumonectomy.

Introduction: The prognostic significance of activity biomarkers within the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway was assessed in two independent cohorts of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) patients uniformly treated with a multimodal approach. We specifically assessed expression signatures in a unique set of pre- and postchemotherapy tumor samples.

Methods: Biomarker expression was assessed in samples of two independent cohorts of 107 (cohort 1) and 46 (cohort 2) MPM cases uniformly treated with platinum-based induction chemotherapy followed by extrapleural pneumonectomy from two different institutions, assembled on tissue microarrays.

Sensorimotor gating and vigilance-dependent choice accuracy: a within-subject correlative analysis in wild-type C57BL/6 mice.

Deterioration in attention and related processes is an early sign in schizophrenia predictive of disease development. Amongst the various translational paradigms for assessing attention in rodents, it is not known if they are equivalent in detecting individual differences. Answers here are pertinent to their use in the general human population for identifying individuals at high risk of developing schizophrenia.

Oxidative stress in schizophrenia: an integrated approach.

Oxidative stress has been suggested to contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In particular, oxidative damage to lipids, proteins, and DNA as observed in schizophrenia is known to impair cell viability and function, which may subsequently account for the deteriorating course of the illness. Currently available evidence points towards an alteration in the activities of enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant systems in schizophrenia.

Late prenatal immune activation in mice leads to behavioral and neurochemical abnormalities relevant to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

Based on the human epidemiological association between prenatal infection and higher risk of schizophrenia, a number of animal models have been established to explore the long-term brain and behavioral consequences of prenatal immune challenge. Accumulating evidence suggests that the vulnerability to specific forms of schizophrenia-related abnormalities is critically influenced by the precise timing of the prenatal immunological insult. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis whether late prenatal immune challenge in mice may induce long-term behavioral and neurochemical dysfunctions primarily associated with the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

Cognitive impairment following prenatal immune challenge in mice correlates with prefrontal cortical AKT1 deficiency.

Accumulating evidence indicates that genetically determined deficiency in the expression of the cytoplasmic serine-threonine protein kinase AKT1 may contribute to abnormal prefrontal cortical structure and function relevant to the cognitive disturbances in schizophrenia. However, it remains essentially unknown whether prefrontal AKT1 expression may also be influenced by environmental factors implicated in the aetiology of this mental illness. One of the relevant environmental risk factors of schizophrenia and related disorders is prenatal exposure to infection and/or immune activation.

Zinc: the brain's dark horse.

Zinc is a life-sustaining trace element, serving structural, catalytic, and regulatory roles in cellular biology. It is required for normal mammalian brain development and physiology, such that deficiency or excess of zinc has been shown to contribute to alterations in behavior, abnormal central nervous system development, and neurological disease. In this light, it is not surprising that zinc ions have now been shown to play a role in the neuromodulation of synaptic transmission as well as in cortical plasticity.