Pro-cognitive restoration of experience-dependent parvalbumin inhibitory neuron plasticity in neurodevelopmental disorders.

The hippocampus forms memories of our experiences by registering processed sensory information in coactive populations of excitatory principal cells or ensembles. Fast-spiking parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory neurons (PV INs) in the dentate gyrus (DG)-CA3/CA2 circuit contribute to memory encoding by exerting precise temporal control of excitatory principal cell activity through mossy fiber-dependent feed-forward inhibition. PV INs respond to input-specific information by coordinating changes in their intrinsic excitability, input-output synaptic-connectivity, synaptic-physiology and synaptic-plasticity, referred to here as experience-dependent PV IN plasticity, to influence hippocampal functions.

fMRI data acquisition and analysis for task-free, anesthetized rats.

Templates for the acquisition of large datasets such as the Human Connectome Project guide the neuroimaging community to reproducible data acquisition and scientific rigor. By contrast, small animal neuroimaging often relies on laboratory-specific protocols, which limit cross-study comparisons. The establishment of broadly validated protocols may facilitate the acquisition of large datasets, which are essential for uncovering potentially small effects often seen in functional MRI (fMRI) studies.

Associations of pregnancy timing relative to the COVID-19 pandemic, maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection, and adverse perinatal outcomes.

Purpose: To examine associations between pregnancy timing relative to the COVID-19 pandemic, maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection, and perinatal outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 189,097 singleton births in South Carolina (2018-2021). Pregnancy timing relative to the pandemic was classified as pre-pandemic (delivered before March 1, 2020), partial pandemic overlap (conceived before and delivered during the pandemic), or pandemic (conceived and delivered during the pandemic).

Identification and validation of a T cell receptor targeting KRAS G12V in HLA-A*11:01 pancreatic cancer patients.

T cells targeting a KRAS mutation can induce durable tumor regression in some patients with metastatic epithelial cancer. It is unknown whether T cells targeting mutant KRAS that are capable of killing tumor cells can be identified from peripheral blood of patients with pancreatic cancer. We developed an in vitro stimulation approach and identified HLA-A*11:01-restricted KRAS G12V-reactive CD8+ T cells and HLA-DRB1*15:01-restricted KRAS G12V-reactive CD4+ T cells from peripheral blood of 2 out of 6 HLA-A*11:01-positive patients with pancreatic cancer whose tumors expressed KRAS G12V.

Epithelium-derived exosomal dipeptidyl peptidase-4 involved in arecoline-induced oral submucous fibrosis.

Introduction: Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 is known to be involved in the progression of several fibrogenic diseases, but its association with oral submucous fibrosis remains unclear. This study aims to ascertain whether dipeptidyl peptidase-4 plays a role in the pathogenesis of arecoline-induced oral submucous fibrosis.

Methods: We assessed the expression of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 in arecoline-treated epithelial cells and the exosomes derived from cells.