Associations between social behaviour and proinflammatory immune activation are modulated by age in a free-ranging primate population.

The effect of the social environment on the proinflammatory immune response may mediate the relationship between social environment and fitness but remains understudied outside captive animals and human populations. Age can also influence both immune function and social behaviour, and hence may modulate their relationships. This study investigates the role of social interactions in driving the concentrations of two urinary markers of proinflammatory immune activation, neopterin and soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR), in a free-ranging population of rhesus macaques, .

Associations between fecal glucocorticoid levels and social bonds vary with relatedness in juvenile rhesus macaques.

Strong social bonds in gregarious adult animals have been associated with lower levels of glucocorticoids. However, similar research is lacking for juvenile primates. We examined relationships between social bonds and mean concentrations of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGCMs) in 44 free-ranging juvenile rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.

Harnessing Oxetane and Azetidine Sulfonyl Fluorides for Opportunities in Drug Discovery.

Four-membered heterocycles such as oxetanes and azetidines represent attractive and emergent design options in medicinal chemistry due to their small and polar nature and potential to significantly impact the physiochemical properties of drug molecules. The challenging preparation of these derivatives, especially in a divergent manner, has severely limited their combination with other medicinally and biologically important groups. Consequently, there is a substantial demand for mild and effective synthetic strategies to access new oxetane and azetidine derivatives and molecular scaffolds.

Drivers of global tourism carbon emissions.

Tourism has a critical role to play in global carbon emissions pathway. This study estimates the global tourism carbon footprint and identifies the key drivers using environmentally extended input-output modelling. The results indicate that global tourism emissions grew 3.

Wild capuchin monkeys as a model system for investigating the social and ecological determinants of ageing.

Studying biological ageing in animal models can circumvent some of the confounds exhibited by studies of human ageing. Ageing research in non-human primates has provided invaluable insights into human lifespan and healthspan. Yet data on patterns of ageing from wild primates remain relatively scarce, centred around a few populations of catarrhine species.

Early life adversity has sex-dependent effects on survival across the lifespan in rhesus macaques.

Exposure to early life adversity is linked to detrimental fitness outcomes across taxa. Owing to the challenges of collecting longitudinal data, direct evidence for long-term fitness effects of early life adversity from long-lived species remains relatively scarce. Here, we test the effects of early life adversity on male and female longevity in a free-ranging population of rhesus macaques () on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.

Social ageing can protect against infectious disease in a group-living primate.

The benefits of social living are well established, but sociality also comes with costs, including infectious disease risk. This cost-benefit ratio of sociality is expected to change across individuals' lifespans, which may drive changes in social behaviour with age. To explore this idea, we combine data from a group-living primate for which social ageing has been described with epidemiological models to show that having lower social connectedness when older can protect against the costs of a hypothetical, directly transmitted endemic pathogen.

GPR35 agonists inhibit TRPA1-mediated colonic nociception through suppression of substance P release.

The development of nonopioid analgesics for the treatment of abdominal pain is a pressing clinical problem. To address this, we examined the expression of Gi/o-coupled receptors, which typically inhibit nociceptor activation, in colonic sensory neurons. This led to the identification of the orphan receptor GPR35 as a visceral analgesic drug target because of its marked coexpression with transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), a mediator of noxious mechanotransduction in the bowel.

Investigating mechanoreceptor variability and morphometric proxies in Rhesus Macaques: Implications for primate precision touch studies.

The origin of primates has long been associated with an increased emphasis on manual grasping and touch. Precision touch, facilitated by specialized mechanoreceptors in glabrous skin, provides critical sensory feedback for grasping-related tasks and perception of ecologically-relevant stimuli. Despite its importance, studies of mechanoreceptors in primate hands are limited, in part due to challenges of sample availability and histological methods.

Epidemiological associations between periodontitis and cancer.

There is a postulated association of periodontitis with a number of human cancers. This narrative review provides current epidemiological evidence on the association between periodontitis and cancer. A PubMed search with the relevant keywords (periodontal disease, periodontitis, cancer, and malignancy) was completed to identify relevent articles.

Multimodal sexual signals are not precise indicators of fertility in female Kinda baboons.

Female fertility signals are found across taxa, and the precision of such signals may be influenced by the relative strength of different sexual selection mechanisms. Among primates, more precise signals may be found in species with stronger direct male-male competition and indirect female mate choice, and less precise signals in species with stronger indirect male-male competition (e.g.

The affinity-efficacy problem: an essential part of pharmacology education.

A fundamental mistake in receptor theory has led to an enduring misunderstanding of how to estimate the affinity and efficacy of an agonist. These properties are inextricably linked and cannot be easily separated in any case where the binding of a ligand induces a conformation change in its receptor. Consequently, binding curves and concentration-response relationships for receptor agonists have no straightforward interpretation.

Immune gene regulation is associated with age and environmental adversity in a nonhuman primate.

Phenotypic aging is ubiquitous across mammalian species, suggesting shared underlying mechanisms of aging. Aging is linked to molecular changes to DNA methylation and gene expression, and environmental factors, such as severe external challenges or adversities, can moderate these age-related changes. Yet, it remains unclear whether environmental adversities affect gene regulation via the same molecular pathways as chronological, or 'primary', aging.

Evergene: an interactive webtool for large-scale gene-centric analysis of primary tumours.

Motivation: The data sharing of large comprehensive cancer research projects, such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), has improved the availability of high-quality data to research labs around the world. However, due to the volume and inherent complexity of high-throughput omics data, analysis of this is limited by the capacity for performing data processing through programming languages such as R or Python. Existing webtools lack functionality that supports large-scale analysis; typically, users can only input one gene, or a gene list condensed into a gene set, instead of individual gene-level analysis.

Ecological disturbance alters the adaptive benefits of social ties.

Extreme weather events radically alter ecosystems. When ecological damage persists, selective pressures on individuals can change, leading to phenotypic adjustments. For group-living animals, social relationships may be a mechanism enabling adaptation to ecosystem disturbance.

Socioecological drivers of injuries in female and male rhesus macaques ().

Competition over access to resources, such as food and mates, is believed to be one of the major costs associated with group living. Two socioecological factors suggested to predict the intensity of competition are group size and the relative abundance of sexually active individuals. However, empirical evidence linking these factors to injuries and survival costs is scarce.

Social ageing can protect against infectious disease in a group-living primate.

The benefits of social living are well established, but sociality also comes with costs, including infectious disease risk. This cost-benefit ratio of sociality is expected to change across individuals' lifespans, which may drive changes in social behaviour with age. To explore this idea, we combine data from a group-living primate for which social ageing has been described with epidemiological models to show that having lower social connectedness when older can protect against the costs of a hypothetical, directly transmitted endemic pathogen.

Digging deeper into pain: an ethological behavior assay correlating well-being in mice with human pain experience.

The pressing need for safer, more efficacious analgesics is felt worldwide. Preclinical tests in animal models of painful conditions represent one of the earliest checkpoints novel therapeutics must negotiate before consideration for human use. Traditionally, the pain status of laboratory animals has been inferred from evoked nociceptive assays that measure their responses to noxious stimuli.

Quantifying the relationship between bone and soft tissue measures within the rhesus macaques of Cayo Santiago.

Objectives: Interpretations of the primate and human fossil record often rely on the estimation of somatic dimensions from bony measures. Both somatic and skeletal variation have been used to assess how primates respond to environmental change. However, it is unclear how well skeletal variation matches and predicts soft tissue.

Mechanical and morphometric approaches to body mass estimation in rhesus macaques: A test of skeletal variables.

Objectives: Estimation of body mass from skeletal metrics can reveal important insights into the paleobiology of archeological or fossil remains. The standard approach constructs predictive equations from postcrania, but studies have questioned the reliability of traditional measures. Here, we examine several skeletal features to assess their accuracy in predicting body mass.

A note on estimating absolute cytosolic Ca concentration in sensory neurons using a single wavelength Ca indicator.

Ca imaging is frequently used in the investigation of sensory neuronal function and nociception. In vitro imaging of acutely dissociated sensory neurons using membrane-permeant fluorescent Ca indicators remains the most common approach to study Ca signalling in sensory neurons. Fluo4 is a popular choice of single-wavelength indicator due to its brightness, high affinity for Ca and ease of use.