Leptospira interrogans Prevents Macrophage Cell Death and Pyroptotic IL-1β Release through Its Atypical Lipopolysaccharide.

Leptospira interrogans are bacteria that can infect all vertebrates and are responsible for leptospirosis, a neglected zoonosis. Some hosts, such as humans, are susceptible to the disease, whereas mice are resistant and get chronically colonized. Although leptospires escape recognition by some immune receptors, they activate the NOD-like receptor pyrin 3-inflammasome and trigger IL-1β secretion.

Vigilance in schizophrenia and its disruption by impaired pre-attentive selection: a dysintegration hypothesis.

Introduction: The study determined, simultaneously, whether major deficits of schizophrenia (sustained and selective attention, slow information processing, slow motor responding) are independent or related to each other.

Methods: An auditory vigilance task (Pigache Attention Task, PAT) required a button-press to targets during four 5-minute subtests (slow diotic, fast diotic, slow dichotic, fast dichotic, analogous to four versions of the continuous performance test). Twenty schizophrenics on the first test-occasion of a double-blind, placebo controlled, crossover study were compared to 11 healthy subjects.

Auditory sustained attention in schizophrenia: a comparison of the Continuous Performance Test and the Pigache Attention Task.

An auditory version of the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) was compared with the Pigache Attention Task (PAT) to evaluate relative sensitivities in schizophrenia. Digits spoken seamlessly for 5 min required a button-press response to each of 50 targets. Diotic and dichotic event rates were 1/s for the CPT and 0.

Selective impairment of auditory attention following closed head injuries or right cerebrovascular accidents.

According to clinical experience a frequent consequence of head injury is an impairment of auditory attention. We investigated the possibility that patients with either closed head injuries (CHI), or cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) of the right hemisphere, would be impaired by comparison to healthy subjects on an objective test of auditory attention. We used an experimental paradigm that consisted of four subtests which comprised strings of auditory digits heard either diotically or dichotically, at either fast or slow presentation rates, respectively.

Effects of placebo, orphenadrine, and rising doses of chlorpromazine, on PAT performance in chronic schizophrenia. A two year longitudinal study.

An earlier study (Study 1: 14 months duration) showed that the PAT (an auditory attention task) is sensitive to changes of clinical state in chronic schizophrenia and is able to predict hospital discharge. The newly presented study (Study 2: 12 months duration) investigated the effects of increasing the dose of chlorpromazine (CPZ) stepwise (double-blind) to between 900 mg and 1800 mg per day, in 10 of the original 20 patients. Measurements were made fortnightly throughout both studies and the data were depicted continuously for each patient.