Impact of Six Months of Three Different Modalities of Exercise on Stress in Post-Treatment Breast Cancer Survivors.

Background/objectives: Extensive evidence suggests that exercise is physically and mentally beneficial for cancer survivors. This study reports on changes in self-reported stress, physiological biomarkers for stress (salivary cortisol), and HR-QOL constructs for fifty breast cancer survivors participating in one of three different exercise programs over 6 months.

Methods: Fifty post-treatment breast cancer survivors were randomized to either therapeutic yoga-based exercise (YE), comprehensive exercise (CE) (aerobic, resistance, flexibility), or choosing (C) their own exercise activities.

Alterations in Excitatory and Inhibitory Synaptic Development Within the Mesolimbic Dopamine Pathway in a Mouse Model of Prenatal Drug Exposure.

The rise in rates of opioid abuse in recent years in the United States has led to a dramatic increase in the incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Despite improved understanding of NAS and its acute symptoms, there remains a paucity of information regarding the long-term effects of prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse on neurological development. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the effects of prenatal drug exposure on synaptic connectivity within brain regions associated with the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, the primary reward pathway associated with drug abuse and addiction, in a mouse model.

Clinical and basic research investigations into the long-term effects of prenatal opioid exposure on brain development.

Coincident with the opioid epidemic in the United States has been a dramatic increase in the number of children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a form of withdrawal resulting from opioid exposure during pregnancy. Many research efforts on NAS have focused on short-term care, including acute symptom treatment and weaning of the infants off their drug dependency prior to authorizing their release. However, investigations into the long-term effects of prenatal opioid exposure (POE) on brain development, from the cellular to the behavioral level, have not been as frequent.

Effect of a six-month yoga exercise intervention on fitness outcomes for breast cancer survivors.

Yoga-based exercise has proven to be beneficial for practitioners, including cancer survivors. This study reports on the improvements in physical fitness for 20 breast cancer survivors who participated in a six-month yoga-based exercise program (YE). Results are compared to a comprehensive exercise (CE) program group and a comparison (C) exercise group who chose their own exercises.

RanBP9 at the intersection between cofilin and Aβ pathologies: rescue of neurodegenerative changes by RanBP9 reduction.

Molecular pathways underlying the neurotoxicity and production of amyloid β protein (Aβ) represent potentially promising therapeutic targets for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We recently found that overexpression of the scaffolding protein RanBP9 increases Aβ production in cell lines and in transgenic mice while promoting cofilin activation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Translocation of cofilin to mitochondria and induction of cofilin-actin pathology require the activation/dephosphorylation of cofilin by Slingshot homolog 1 (SSH1) and cysteine oxidation of cofilin.