Cognitive effort increases the intensity of rewards.

An important body of literature suggests that exerting intense cognitive effort causes mental fatigue and can lead to unhealthy behaviors such as indulging in high-calorie food and taking drugs. Whereas this effect has been mostly explained in terms of weakening cognitive control, cognitive effort may also bias behavioral choices by amplifying the hedonic and emotional impact of rewards. We report parallel findings with animals and humans supporting this hypothesis.

Smokers with higher positive or negative urgency have lower rates of smoking cessation success 12 months after a quit attempt.

Impulsivity dimensions have been shown to be associated with smoking status and tobacco use disorder severity. However, it is important to determine the specific impulsivity traits associated with smoking relapse. This study aimed at investigating the associations between impulsivity traits and smoking cessation success among adult smokers at 12 months after a quit attempt.

Effects of Highly Palatable Diet on motivation for food and resistance to punishment in rats: Role of sex and age of exposure.

Exposure to highly palatable food is believed to induce behavioral and neurobiological changes that may produce addiction-like behavior and increase the risks of obesity and overweight. Studies in rodents have led to conflicting results suggesting that several factors such as sex and age of exposure contribute to the development of maladaptive behaviors towards food. In addition, it is not clear whether effects of exposure to highly palatable diets (HPD) persist after their discontinuation, which would indicate long-term risks to develop addiction-like behavior.

Aglycosylated extracellular loop of inwardly rectifying potassium channel 4.1 (KCNJ10) provides a target for autoimmune neuroinflammation.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Yet, the autoimmune targets are still undefined. The extracellular e1 sequence of KCNJ10, the inwardly rectifying potassium channel 4.

Immune Profiling Reveals the T-Cell Effect of Ocrelizumab in Early Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis.

Background And Objectives: Ocrelizumab (OCR), a humanized anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, is highly efficient in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RR-MS). We assessed early cellular immune profiles and their association with disease activity at treatment start and under therapy, which may provide new clues on the mechanisms of action of OCR and on the disease pathophysiology.

Methods: A first group of 42 patients with an early RR-MS, never exposed to disease-modifying therapy, was included in 11 centers participating to an ancillary study of the ENSEMBLE trial (NCT03085810) to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of OCR.

The amygdala-ventral pallidum pathway contributes to a hypodopaminergic state in the ventral tegmental area during protracted abstinence from chronic cocaine.

Background And Purpose: Incubation of craving, the progressive increase in drug seeking over the first weeks of abstinence, is associated with temporal changes during abstinence in the activity of several structures involved in drug-seeking behaviour. Decreases of dopamine (DA) release and DA neuronal activity (hypodopaminergic state) have been reported in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) during cocaine abstinence, but the mechanisms underlying these neuroadaptations are not well understood. We investigated the potential involvement of a VTA inhibiting circuit (basolateral amygdala [BLA]-ventral pallidum [VP] pathway) in the hypodopaminergic state associated with abstinence from chronic cocaine.

Prevention of relapse to methamphetamine self-administration by environmental enrichment: involvement of glucocorticoid receptors.

Rationale: In rodents, environmental enrichment (EE) produces both preventive and curative effects on drug addiction, and this effect is believed to depend at least in part on EE's actions on the stress system.

Objectives: This study investigated whether exposure to EE during abstinence reduces methamphetamine seeking after extended self-administration. In addition, we investigated whether these effects are associated with alterations in the levels of glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in the brain and whether administration of GR antagonists blocks methamphetamine relapse.

Highly Variable Sialylation Status of Donor-Specific Antibodies Does Not Impact Humoral Rejection Outcomes.

Clinical outcome in antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) shows high inter-individual heterogeneity. Sialylation status of the Fc fragment of IgGs is variable, which could modulate their ability to bind to C1q and/or Fc receptors. In this translational study, we evaluated whether DSA sialylation influence AMR outcomes.

Persistent Neuroadaptations in the Expression of Genes Involved in Cholesterol Homeostasis Induced by Chronic, Voluntary Alcohol Intake in Rats.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with persistent adaptations in the brain that are believed to participate in the long-lasting vulnerability to relapse after abstinence. Cholesterol, the major sterol compound found in the central nervous system (CNS), plays a major role in maintenance of neuronal morphology, synaptogenesis and synaptic communication and may be involved in alcohol-induced neuroadaptations. In this study, we investigated whether alcohol consumption in a two-bottle choice paradigm followed by 3 weeks of abstinence could alter the expression of genes encoding proteins involved in cholesterol homeostasis in brain regions involved in addiction and relapse, namely the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the nucleus accumbens (NAc), the mesencephalon and the amygdala.

Correction: Bone marrow cell extract promotes the regeneration of irradiated bone.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Corrigendum: Broad Impairment of Natural Killer Cells From Operationally Tolerant Kidney Transplanted Patients.

[This corrects the article on p. 1721 in vol. 8, PMID: 29312288.

Lack of effects of simvastatin on smoking cessation in humans: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study.

A recent pre-clinical study has shown that brain-penetrating statins can reduce risks of relapse to cocaine and nicotine addiction in rats. Based on this information, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, proof-of-concept trial to assess the efficacy of simvastatin in smoking cessation. After informed consent, 118 participants received behavioral cessation support and were randomly assigned to a 3-month treatment with simvastatin or placebo.

Broad Impairment of Natural Killer Cells from Operationally Tolerant Kidney Transplanted Patients.

The role of natural killer (NK) cells in organ transplantation is controversial. This study aims to decipher their role in kidney transplant tolerance in humans. Previous studies highlighted several modulated genes involved in NK cell biology in blood from spontaneously operationally tolerant patients (TOLs; drug-free kidney-transplanted recipients with stable graft function).

An intermediate level of CD161 expression defines a novel activated, inflammatory, and pathogenic subset of CD8 T cells involved in multiple sclerosis.

Several lines of evidence support a key role for CD8 T cells in central nervous system tissue damage of patients with multiple sclerosis. However, the precise phenotype of the circulating CD8 T cells that may be recruited from the peripheral blood to invade the CNS remains largely undefined to date. It has been suggested that IL-17 secreting CD8 (Tc17) T cells may be involved, and in humans these cells are characterized by the expression of CD161.

Bone marrow cell extract promotes the regeneration of irradiated bone.

Mandibular osteoradionecrosis is a severe side effect of radiotherapy after the treatment of squamous cell carcinomas of the upper aerodigestive tract. As an alternative to its treatment by micro-anastomosed free-flaps, preclinical tissular engineering studies have been developed. Total bone marrow (TBM) associated with biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) significantly enhanced bone formation in irradiated bone.

Multi-facetted impulsivity following nigral degeneration and dopamine replacement therapy.

Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are debilitating side effects of dopamine replacement therapy (DRT) in Parkinson's disease (PD) that severely affect the quality of life of patients. While DRT, the pattern and extent of neurodegeneration, and prodromic factors of vulnerability (e.g.

N-acetylcysteine Facilitates Self-Imposed Abstinence After Escalation of Cocaine Intake.

Background: N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been suggested to prevent relapse to cocaine seeking. However, the psychological processes underlying its potential therapeutic benefit remain largely unknown.

Methods: We investigated the hallmark features of addiction that were influenced by chronic NAC treatment in rats given extended access to cocaine: escalation, motivation, self-imposed abstinence in the face of punishment, or propensity to relapse.

Sialylation of antibodies in kidney recipients with de novo donor specific antibody, with or without antibody mediated rejection.

Background: DSA are associated with reduced long-term transplant function and increased prevalence of chronic rejection in some patients, whereas others do not: our goal was to determine whether the sialylation of IgG and DSA could help to explain in these last cases their "non-aggressive" and/or "protective" biological activity.

Methods: The sialylation level of total IgG in blood from two groups of kidney-transplant patients with de novo DSA, one with an AMR (DSAAMR), and the other without were studied.

Results: In the DSAAMR patients total IgG were more sialylated at time of transplant, and at the first detection of DSA, class I DSA were 2.

Deciphering the role of TRIB1 in regulatory T-cells.

The role of regulatory T-cells (Tregs) is crucial to maintain immune homoeostasis by controlling peripheral tolerance. A better understanding in the molecular mechanisms involved in the biology of these Tregs could improve their expansion and selection to treat immune-related diseases, achieve immunosuppression-free organ transplantation and to specifically target them in cancer. We reported on the overexpression of tribbles-1 (TRIB1) in Tregs compared with their counterpart naive T-cells and that TRIB1 interacts with the master molecule of Tregs, forkhead box P3 (FOXP3), a transcription factor essential for Treg suppressive activity.

Inflammatory Stress on Autophagy in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells from Patients with Alzheimer's Disease during 24 Months of Follow-Up.

Recent findings indicate that microglia in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is senescent whereas peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) could infiltrate the brain to phagocyte amyloid deposits. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in the amyloid peptide clearance remain unknown. Autophagy is a physiological degradation of proteins and organelles and can be controlled by pro-inflammatory cytokines.

There is no correlation between peripheral inflammation and cognitive status at diagnosis in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Besides the neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques, an inflammatory process is involved at central and peripheral levels in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We aimed to determine whether peripheral inflammatory parameter levels, in plasma and in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), could be correlated with the cognitive status at the time of AD diagnosis.

Methods: Patients were included at diagnosis with MMSE score between 16 and 25 and were naive of symptomatic treatment for AD.