Encephalitic alphaviruses (EEVs), Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI), and organophosphorus nerve agents (NAs) are three diverse biological, physical, and chemical injuries that can lead to long-term neurological deficits in humans. EEVs include Venezuelan, eastern, and western equine encephalitis viruses. This review describes the current understanding of neurological pathology during these three conditions, provides a comparative review of case studies vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) manifests prior to the age of 65, and affects 4%-8% of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The current analyses sought to examine longitudinal cognitive trajectories of participants with early-onset dementia.
Methods: Data from 307 cognitively normal (CN) volunteer participants and those with amyloid-positive EOAD or amyloid-negative cognitive impairment (EOnonAD) were compared.
Introduction: Early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) and late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) share similar amyloid etiology, but evidence from smaller-scale studies suggests that they manifest differently clinically. Current analyses sought to contrast the cognitive profiles of EOAD and LOAD.
Methods: Z-score cognitive-domain composites for 311 amyloid-positive sporadic EOAD and 314 amyloid-positive LOAD participants were calculated from baseline data from age-appropriate control cohorts.
The promise of large-scale, high-resolution datasets from Electron Microscopy (EM) and X-ray Microtomography (XRM) lies in their ability to reveal neural structures and synaptic connectivity, which is critical for understanding the brain. Effectively managing these complex and rapidly increasing datasets will enable new scientific insights, facilitate querying, and support secondary use across the neuroscience community. However, without effective neurodata standards that permit use of these data across multiple systems and workflows, these valuable and costly datasets risk being underutilized especially as they surpass petascale levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe increasing prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders has highlighted the need for improved testing methods to determine developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) hazard for thousands of chemicals. This paper proposes the integration of organoid intelligence (OI); leveraging brain organoids to study neuroplasticity into the DNT testing paradigm. OI brings a new approach to measure the impacts of xenobiotics on plasticity mechanisms - a critical biological process that is not adequately covered in current DNT assays.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have shown that briefly inhaled isoflurane rapidly halts convulsions and protects the central nervous system (CNS) from organophosphate-induced neuronal loss when administered at 5% for 5 min, even as late as 1 h after organophosphate exposure. In the current study we investigated if an injectable form of isoflurane was as effective as inhaled isoflurane. We used a mixture of 10% isoflurane dissolved in an IV-compatible lipid-water emulsion for intravenous administration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Microphysiological Systems including neural organoids derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells offer a unique lens to study the intricate workings of the human brain. This paper investigates the foundational elements of learning and memory in neural organoids, also known as Organoid Intelligence by quantifying immediate early gene expression, synaptic plasticity, neuronal network dynamics, and criticality to demonstrate the utility of these organoids in basic science research. Neural organoids showed synapse formation, glutamatergic and GABAergic receptor expression, immediate early gene expression basally and evoked, functional connectivity, criticality, and synaptic plasticity in response to theta-burst stimulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this high-throughput proteomic study of autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease (ADAD), we sought to identify early biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for disease monitoring and treatment strategies. We examined CSF proteins in 286 mutation carriers (MCs) and 177 non-carriers (NCs). The developed multi-layer regression model distinguished proteins with different pseudo-trajectories between these groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder that develops over decades. AD brain proteomics reveals vast alterations in protein levels and numerous altered biologic pathways. Here, we compare AD brain proteome and network changes with the brain proteomes of amyloid β (Aβ)-depositing mice to identify conserved and divergent protein networks with the conserved networks identifying an Aβ amyloid responsome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is believed to be more common in African Americans (AA), but biomarker studies in AA populations are limited. This report represents the largest study to date examining cerebrospinal fluid AD biomarkers in AA individuals.
Methods: We analyzed 3,006 cerebrospinal fluid samples from controls, AD cases, and non-AD cases, including 495 (16.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is currently defined by the aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau proteins in the brain. Although biofluid biomarkers are available to measure Aβ and tau pathology, few markers are available to measure the complex pathophysiology that is associated with these two cardinal neuropathologies. Here, we characterized the proteomic landscape of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) changes associated with Aβ and tau pathology in 300 individuals using two different proteomic technologies-tandem mass tag mass spectrometry and SomaScan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatterns of habitat use directly influence a species' fitness, yet for many species an individual's age can influence patterns of habitat use. However, in tropical rainforests, which host the greatest terrestrial species diversity, little is known about how age classes of different species use different adjacent habitats of varying quality. We use long-term mist net data from the Amazon rainforest to assess patterns of habitat use among adult, adolescent (teenage) and young understory birds in forest fragments, primary and secondary forest at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Brazil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBody size is a fundamental trait that drives multiple evolutionary and ecological patterns. Caenorhabditis inopinata is a fig-associated nematode that is exceptionally large relative to other members of the genus, including Caenorhabditis elegans. We previously showed that C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Cerebrovascular dysfunction is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nevertheless, detecting cerebrovascular changes within bulk tissues has limited our ability to characterize proteomic alterations from less abundant cell types.
Methods: We conducted quantitative proteomics on bulk brain tissues and isolated cerebrovasculature from the same individuals, encompassing control (N = 28), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) (N = 18), and AD (N = 21) cases.
Aging is characterized by declining health that results in decreased cellular resilience and neuromuscular function. The relationship between lifespan and health, and the influence of genetic background on that relationship, has important implications in the development of pharmacological anti-aging interventions. Here we assessed swimming performance as well as survival under thermal and oxidative stress across a nematode genetic diversity test panel to evaluate health effects for three compounds previously studied in the Intervention Testing Program and thought to promote longevity in different ways - NP1 (nitrophenyl piperazine-containing compound 1), propyl gallate, and resveratrol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe pathophysiological mechanisms driving disease progression of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and corresponding biomarkers are not fully understood. We leveraged aptamer-based proteomics (> 4,000 proteins) to identify dysregulated communities of co-expressed cerebrospinal fluid proteins in 116 adults carrying autosomal dominant FTLD mutations () compared to 39 noncarrier controls. Network analysis identified 31 protein co-expression modules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Heparin binding proteins (HBPs) with roles in extracellular matrix assembly are strongly correlated to β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). However, it remains challenging to detect these proteins in plasma using standard mass spectrometry-based proteomic approaches.
Methods: We employed heparin affinity chromatography, followed by off-line fractionation and tandem mass tag mass spectrometry (TMT-MS), to capture and enrich HBPs in plasma obtained from AD (n=62) and control (n=47) samples.
Dysfunction of the neurovascular unit stands as a significant pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Nevertheless, detecting vascular changes in the brain within bulk tissues has proven challenging, limiting our ability to characterize proteomic alterations from less abundant cell types. To address this challenge, we conducted quantitative proteomic analyses on both bulk brain tissues and cerebrovascular-enriched fractions from the same individuals, encompassing cognitively unimpaired control, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and AD cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current demand for early intervention, prevention, and treatment of late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) warrants deeper understanding of the underlying molecular processes which could contribute to biomarker and drug target discovery. Utilizing high-throughput proteomic measurements in serum from a prospective population-based cohort of older adults (n = 5,294), we identified 303 unique proteins associated with incident LOAD (median follow-up 12.8 years).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrganophosphate-based chemical agents (OP), including nerve agents and certain pesticides such as paraoxon, are potent acetylcholinesterase inhibitors that cause severe convulsions and seizures, leading to permanent central nervous system (CNS) damage if not treated promptly. The current treatment regimen for OP poisoning is intramuscular injection of atropine sulfate with an oxime such as pralidoxime (2-PAM) to mitigate cholinergic over-activation of the somatic musculature and autonomic nervous system. This treatment does not provide protection against CNS cholinergic overactivation and therefore convulsions require additional medication.
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