Infliximab treatment reduces depressive symptoms in patients with ankylosing spondylitis: an ancillary study to a randomized controlled trial (ASSERT).

Background: Patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) are at increased risk of depression. This increased risk has been hypothesized to be solely secondary due to AS-related symptoms, or additionally due to a common inflammatory pathway. From a clinical perspective, it is important to know whether treatment with tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors reduces depressive symptoms, while from a pathophysiological point of view, it would be insightful to understand whether such an effect would be a direct result of reduced inflammation, the result of reduced AS-related symptoms, or both.

Modifiable Risk Factors for Prevention of Dementia in Midlife, Late Life and the Oldest-Old: Validation of the LIBRA Index.

Background: Recently, the LIfestyle for BRAin health (LIBRA) index was developed to assess an individual's prevention potential for dementia.

Objective: We investigated the predictive validity of the LIBRA index for incident dementia in midlife, late life, and the oldest-old.

Methods: 9,387 non-demented individuals were recruited from the European population-based DESCRIPA study.

Lifestyle for Brain Health (LIBRA): a new model for dementia prevention.

Objective: Modifiable risk factors for dementia were recently identified and compiled in a systematic review. The 'Lifestyle for Brain Health' (LIBRA) score, reflecting someone's potential for dementia prevention, was studied in a large longitudinal population-based sample with respect to predicting cognitive change over an observation period of up to 16 years.

Methods: Lifestyle for Brain Health was calculated at baseline for 949 participants aged 50-81 years from the Maastricht Ageing Study.

Target risk factors for dementia prevention: a systematic review and Delphi consensus study on the evidence from observational studies.

Objective: Dementia has a multifactorial etiology, but the importance of individual health and lifestyle related risk factors is often uncertain or based on few studies. The goal of this paper is to identify the major modifiable risk factors for dementia as a first step in developing an effective preventive strategy and promoting healthy late life cognitive functioning.

Methods: A mixed-method approach combined findings from a systematic literature review and a Delphi consensus study.

B vitamins and n-3 fatty acids for brain development and function: review of human studies.

Background: Nutrition is one of many factors that affect brain development and functioning, and in recent years the role of certain nutrients has been investigated. B vitamins and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are two of the most promising and widely studied nutritional factors.

Methods: In this review, we provide an overview of human studies published before August 2011 on how vitamin B(6), folate, vitamin B(12) and n-3 PUFA may affect the brain, their nutrient status and the existing evidence for an association between these nutrients and brain development, brain functioning and depression during different stages of the life cycle.

DNA methylation and cognitive functioning in healthy older adults.

Long-term supplementation with folic acid may improve cognitive performance in older individuals. The relationship between folate status and cognitive performance might be mediated by changes in methylation capacity, as methylation reactions are important for normal functioning of the brain. Although aberrant DNA methylation has been implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders, the relationship between DNA methylation status and non-pathological cognitive functioning in human subjects has not yet been investigated.

Genetic variation in folate metabolism is not associated with cognitive functioning or mood in healthy adults.

The present study examined the associations between genetic variation in folate metabolism on the one hand and cognitive functioning and mood on the other in healthy individuals. Two independent population-based samples were used, including 777 participants, aged 24-82 years, from the Maastricht Aging Study (MAAS); and 818 participants, aged 50-70 years, from the Folic Acid and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness (FACIT) study. Thymidylate synthase (TS) 2R→3R and serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT1) 1420C→T polymorphisms were determined in both populations.

Serum iron parameters, HFE C282Y genotype, and cognitive performance in older adults: results from the FACIT study.

Although iron homeostasis is essential for brain functioning, the effects of iron levels on cognitive performance in older individuals have scarcely been investigated. In the present study, serum iron parameters and hemochromatosis (HFE) C282Y genotype were determined in 818 older individuals who participated in a 3-year randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind trial examining the effects of folic acid on carotid intima-media thickness. All participants had slightly elevated homocysteine levels and were vitamin B12 replete.

Consuming functional foods enriched with plant sterol or stanol esters for 85 weeks does not affect neurocognitive functioning or mood in statin-treated hypercholesterolemic individuals.

Recent animal and human studies have shown that plant sterols and stanols, which are used as functional food ingredients to lower increased LDL cholesterol concentrations, pass the blood-brain barrier. Whether this affects neurocognitive functioning and mental well-being in humans has, to our knowledge, never been investigated. The aim of the present study was therefore to examine the effects of long-term plant sterol or stanol consumption on neurocognitive functioning and mood in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled dietary intervention trial.

Age dependence of plasma phospholipid fatty acid levels: potential role of linoleic acid in the age-associated increase in docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid concentrations.

Limited information is available with respect to the association between age and the plasma phospholipid fatty acid profile. Therefore we investigated the association between plasma phospholipid fatty acid status and age after correction for sex, smoking, alcohol use, BMI and fish intake. Plasma phospholipid fatty acid composition was measured and information on fish intake and other potential covariates was collected in 234 participants of the Maastricht Aging Study.

Plasma phospholipid fatty acid status and depressive symptoms: association only present in the clinical range.

Background: Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) have been implicated in depression, but their role in mood variability in the general population is still unclear. We investigated the associations between LCPUFA status or fish consumption on the one hand and depressive symptoms and chronicity of depressed mood on the other in a community-based sample.

Methods: Plasma phospholipid LCPUFA profiles of 241 participants of the Maastricht Aging Study (MAAS) were determined.

Methylphenidate disrupts social play behavior in adolescent rats.

Methylphenidate is the first-choice treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but its mechanism of action is incompletely understood. The cognitive effects of methylphenidate have been extensively studied, but little is known about its effects on spontaneous social behavior. During adolescence, rats display a characteristic, highly vigorous form of social behavior, termed social play behavior, which is of critical importance for social and cognitive development.

Acute and constitutive increases in central serotonin levels reduce social play behaviour in peri-adolescent rats.

Rationale: Serotonin is an important modulator of social behaviour. Individual differences in serotonergic signalling are considered to be a marker of personality that is stable throughout lifetime. While a large body of evidence indicates that central serotonin levels are inversely related to aggression and sexual behaviour in adult rats, the relationship between serotonin and social behaviour during peri-adolescence has hardly been explored.

Cytokines and major depression.

In the research field of psychoneuroimmunology, accumulating evidence has indicated the existence of reciprocal communication pathways between nervous, endocrine and immune systems. In this respect, there has been increasing interest in the putative involvement of the immune system in psychiatric disorders. In the present review, the role of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and interferon (IFN)-gamma, in the aetiology and pathophysiology of major depression, is discussed.