Publications by authors named "Rozalyn A Simon"

Objective: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic pain disorder characterized by disturbed interactions between the gut and the brain with depression as a common comorbidity. In both IBS and depression, structural brain alterations of the insular cortices, key structures for pain processing and interoception, have been demonstrated but the specificity of these findings remains unclear. We compared the gray matter volume (GMV) of insular cortex (IC) subregions in IBS women and healthy controls (HC) and examined relations to gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and glutamate + glutamine (Glx) concentrations.

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Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) is a neuroendocrine peptide distributed throughout the human body, including the CNS, where it is particularly abundant in brain regions associated with anxiety and depression. Based on earlier studies indicating that peripheral VIP may cross through the blood-brain barrier, we hypothesized plasma VIP levels to be associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as brain volume and resting-state functional connectivity in the amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampus, and orbitofrontal cortex. Plasma VIP concentrations and anxiety/depression symptoms were measured in 37 healthy females.

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Molecular and electronic structures and optical absorption properties of oligothiophenes used for spectral assignment of amyloid deposits have been investigated for a family of probes known as luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes (LCOs). Theoretical absorption spectra have been determined using conformational averaging, combining classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) spectrum calculations. Theoretical absorption spectra are in excellent agreement with experiments, showing average errors below 5 nm for absorption maxima.

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A wide range of neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by the deposition of multiple protein aggregates. Ligands for molecular characterization and discrimination of these pathological hallmarks are thus important for understanding their potential role in pathogenesis as well as for clinical diagnosis of the disease. In this regard, luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes (LCOs) have proven useful for spectral discrimination of amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), two of the pathological hallmarks associated with Alzheimer's disease.

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Molecular probes for selective identification of protein aggregates are important to advance our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis underlying protein aggregation diseases. Here we report the chemical design of a library of anionic luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes (LCOs), which can be utilized as ligands for detection of protein aggregates. Certain molecular requirements were shown to be necessary for detecting (i) early non-thioflavinophilic protein assemblies of Aβ1-42 and insulin preceding the formation of amyloid fibrils and (ii) for obtaining distinct spectral signatures of the two main pathological hallmarks observed in human Alzheimer's diease brain tissue (Aβ plaques and neurofibrillary tangles).

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As part of our program to identify novel small molecules with interesting biological activity, we have designed and synthesized a library of end-capped dipeptides with an emphasis on compound diversity, complexity, and membrane permeability. An approximately 1500-member library was synthesized manually on large polystyrene beads using the mix-and-split method. The final compounds were cleaved into 384-well plates to generate individual stock solutions for input into high-throughput biological screens.

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