Key roles of C2/GAP domains in SYNGAP1-related pathophysiology.

Mutations in SYNGAP1 are a common genetic cause of intellectual disability (ID) and a risk factor for autism. SYNGAP1 encodes a synaptic GTPase-activating protein (GAP) that has both signaling and scaffolding roles. Most pathogenic variants of SYNGAP1 are predicted to result in haploinsufficiency.

The medial entorhinal cortex is necessary for the stimulus control over hippocampal place fields by distal, but not proximal, landmarks.

A fundamental property of place cells in the hippocampus is the anchoring of their firing fields to salient landmarks within the environment. However, it is unclear how such information reaches the hippocampus. In the current experiment, we tested the hypothesis that the stimulus control exerted by distal visual landmarks requires input from the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC).

The Black Box effect: sensory stimulation after learning interferes with the retention of long-term object location memory in rats.

Reducing sensory experiences during the period that immediately follows learning improves long-term memory retention in healthy humans, and even preserves memory in patients with amnesia. To date, it is entirely unclear why this is the case, and identifying the neurobiological mechanisms underpinning this effect requires suitable animal models, which are currently lacking. Here, we describe a straightforward experimental procedure in rats that future studies can use to directly address this issue.

Renal cell carcinoma and malignant phase hypertension.

Many cross-sectional and follow-up studies of large numbers of patients with hypertension have demonstrated an increased prevalence and mortality from renal cancer. We report the details of three patients with renal cell carcinoma from a series of 254 consecutive patients with malignant phase hypertension, an excess over the expected number reported from several large published series with non-malignant hypertension. In view of this excess we investigated the prevalence of hypertension in a series of 192 consecutive patients who presented with a diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma, in comparison with a local unselected population screening survey.