Investigation of choroid plexus variability in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders-insights from a multimodal study.

Previous studies have suggested that choroid plexus (ChP) enlargement occurs in individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD) and is associated with peripheral inflammation. However, it is unclear whether such an enlargement delineates a biologically defined subgroup of SSD. Moreover, it remains elusive how ChP is linked to brain regions associated with peripheral inflammation in SSD.

Proteomic profiling of neonatal herpes simplex virus infection on dried blood spots.

Background: Neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection is life-threatening, with a mortality of up to 70-80% when disseminated, often due to vague symptoms and delayed treatment. Neonatal screening using dried blood spot (DBS) samples is among the most impactful preventative health measures ever implemented, but screening for HSV has not been investigated.

Methods: We investigated high throughput multiplexed proteomics on DBS samples collected on days 2-3 of life from a nationwide cohort of neonates with HSV infection (n = 53) and matched controls.

Signature of Altered Retinal Microstructures and Electrophysiology in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders Is Associated With Disease Severity and Polygenic Risk.

Background: Optical coherence tomography and electroretinography studies have revealed structural and functional retinal alterations in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs). However, it remains unclear which specific retinal layers are affected; how the retina, brain, and clinical symptomatology are connected; and how alterations of the visual system are related to genetic disease risk.

Methods: Optical coherence tomography, electroretinography, and brain magnetic resonance imaging were applied to comprehensively investigate the visual system in a cohort of 103 patients with SSDs and 130 healthy control individuals.

Inflammatory cerebrospinal fluid markers in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 69 studies with 5710 participants.

Background: There is increasing evidence of immune dysregulation and neuroinflammation occurring in schizophrenia. The aim of this study is to combine studies on routine CSF parameters, as well as cytokines and inflammatory proteins, in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Methods: CSF parameters were summated and inverse variance meta-analyses using a random effects model were performed comparing mean difference or odds ratios.

Assessing household lifestyle exposures from consumer purchases, the My Purchases cohort.

Consumer purchase data (CPD) is a promising instrument to assess the impact of purchases on health, but is limited by the need for manual scanning, a lack of access to data from multiple retailers, and limited information on product data and health outcomes. Here we describe the My Purchases cohort, a web-app enabled, prospective collection of CPD, covering several large retail chains in Denmark, that enables linkage to health outcomes. The cohort included 459 participants as of July 03, 2023.

Gaidai reliability method for high-dimensional spatio-temporal biosystems.

This study presents novel methodology for pandemic risks assessment for a national health system of interest. The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a contagious disease with certain potential for worldwide spread and potentially significant effects on public health globally. Suggested methodology enables risks assessment of an epidemic, that may happen in the near future at any time, and in any national region of interest.

Influenza-type epidemic risks by spatio-temporal Gaidai-Yakimov method.

Background: Global public health was recently hampered by reported widespread spread of new coronavirus illness, although morbidity and fatality rates were low. Future coronavirus infection rates may be accurately predicted over a long-time horizon, using novel bio-reliability approach, being especially well suitable for environmental multi-regional health and biological systems. The high regional dimensionality along with cross-correlations between various regional datasets being challenging for conventional statistical tools to manage.

Floating wind turbines structural details fatigue life assessment.

Fatigue damage prediction is essential for safety of contemporary offshore energy industrial projects, like offshore wind turbines, that are to be designed for sufficiently long operational period of time, with minimal operational disruptions. Offshore structures being designed to withstand environmental loadings due to winds and waves. Due to accumulated fatigue damage, offshore wind floating turbines may develop material cracks in their critical locations sooner than expected.

COVID-19 spatio-temporal forecast in England.

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2) being contagious illness with allegedly high potential for global transmission, low potential for morbidity and fatality, and certain impact on global public health. This study describes a novel bio-system reliability spatio-temporal approach, that is especially appropriate for multi-regional environmental, biological and health systems and that, when observed for a sufficient amount of time, produces a reliable long-term forecast of the likelihood of an outbreak of a highly pathogenic virus. Conventional statistical approaches do not have the benefit of effectively handling large regional dimensionality and cross-correlation between various regional observations.

Dementia death rates prediction.

Background: Prevalence of dementia illness, causing certain morbidity and mortality globally, places burden on global public health. This study primary goal was to assess future risks of dying from severe dementia, given specific return period, within selected group of regions or nations.

Methods: Traditional statistical approaches do not have benefits of effectively handling large regional dimensionality, along with nonlinear cross-correlations between various regional observations.

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Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by marked heterogeneity at both the phenomenological and neurobiological levels. Its diagnostic disentanglement would lead to more precise treatment and improved prognosis in people with schizophrenia. For this, a deeper understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of schizophrenia is needed.

Genome-wide Association Study of Susceptibility to Respiratory Syncytial Virus Hospitalization in Young Children <5 Years of age.

Background: Worldwide, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are among the most common causes of infant hospitalization. Host genetic factors influencing the risk and severity of RSV infection are not well known.

Methods: We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to investigate single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with severe RSV infections using a nested case-control design based on 2 Danish cohorts.

The multimodal Munich Clinical Deep Phenotyping study to bridge the translational gap in severe mental illness treatment research.

Introduction: Treatment of severe mental illness (SMI) symptoms, especially negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, remains a major unmet need. There is good evidence that SMIs have a strong genetic background and are characterized by multiple biological alterations, including disturbed brain circuits and connectivity, dysregulated neuronal excitation-inhibition, disturbed dopaminergic and glutamatergic pathways, and partially dysregulated inflammatory processes. The ways in which the dysregulated signaling pathways are interconnected remains largely unknown, in part because well-characterized clinical studies on comprehensive biomaterial are lacking.

Combinatorial batching of DNA for ultralow-cost detection of pathogenic variants.

Background: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) based population screening holds great promise for disease prevention and earlier diagnosis, but the costs associated with screening millions of humans remain prohibitive. New methods for population genetic testing that lower the costs of NGS without compromising diagnostic power are needed.

Methods: We developed double batched sequencing where DNA samples are batch-sequenced twice - directly pinpointing individuals with rare variants.

Alteration patterns of peripheral concentrations of cytokines and associated inflammatory proteins in acute and chronic stages of schizophrenia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Background: Immune system dysfunction is considered to play an aetiological role in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, with substantial alterations in the concentrations of specific peripheral inflammatory proteins, such as cytokines. However, there are inconsistencies in the literature over which inflammatory proteins are altered throughout the course of illness. Through conducting a systematic review and network meta-analysis, this study aimed to investigate the patterns of alteration that peripheral inflammatory proteins undergo in both acute and chronic stages of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, relative to a healthy control population.

Cellulose from Annual Plants and Its Use for the Production of the Films Hydrophobized with Tetrafluoroethylene Telomers.

Cellulose was produced by the modified traditional method with 35% yield from the stem of Sosnovsky hogweed and was characterized by elemental analysis, infrared (IR) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffractometry, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). For , the degree of crystallinity (approximately 70%) and the glass transition temperature (105-108 °C) were determined. It was found that the whiteness characteristic in the case of was 92% and this significate was obtained without a bleaching procedure using chlorine-containing reagents.

Genetic regulation of spermine oxidase activity and cancer risk: a Mendelian randomization study.

Spermine oxidase (SMOX) catalyzes the oxidation of spermine to spermidine. Observational studies have reported SMOX as a source of reactive oxygen species associated with cancer, implying that inhibition of SMOX could be a target for chemoprevention. Here we test causality of SMOX levels with cancer risk using a Mendelian randomization analysis.

A Regioselective Synthesis of Novel Functionalized Organochalcogen Compounds by Chalcogenocyclofunctionalization Reactions Based on Chalcogen Halides and Natural Products.

The regioselective synthesis of novel functionalized condensed organochalcogen compounds by chalcogenocyclofunctionalization reactions based on chalcogen halides and the natural products thymol and carvacrol has been developed. The reactions of selenium dibromide with allyl thymol and allyl carvacrol proceeded in methylene chloride at room temperature in the presence of NaHCO affording bis[(7-isopropyl-4-methyl-2,3-dihydro-1-benzofuran-2-yl)methyl] and bis[(4-isopropyl-7-methyl-2,3-dihydro-1-benzofuran-2-yl)methyl] selenides in 90-92% yield. Similar sulfides were obtained in 70-72% yields by the reaction of sulfur dichloride in chloroform under reflux.

Immunotropic Properties of an Experimental Synthetic Selenium-Organic Compound.

We studied immunotropic properties of synthetic selenium-organic preparation 2,6-dipyridinium-9-selenabicyclo[3.3.1]nonyl dibromide (974zh).

Remarkable Alkene-to-Alkene and Alkene-to-Alkyne Transfer Reactions of Selenium Dibromide and PhSeBr. Stereoselective Addition of Selenium Dihalides to Cycloalkenes.

The original goal of this research was to study stereochemistry of selenium dihalides addition to cycloalkenes and properties of obtained products. Remarkable alkene-to-alkene and alkene-to-alkyne transfer reactions of selenium dibromide and PhSeBr were discovered during this research. The adducts of selenium dibromide with alkenes or cycloalkenes easily exchange SeBr with other unsaturated compounds, including acetylenes, at room temperature, in acetonitrile.

High Speed Ventral Plane Videography as a Convenient Tool to Quantify Motor Deficits during Pre-Clinical Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis.

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is the most commonly used multiple sclerosis animal model. EAE mice typically develop motor deficits in a caudal-to-rostral pattern when inflammatory lesions have already developed. However, to monitor more subtle behavioral deficits during lesion development (i.

Continuous cuprizone intoxication allows active experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis induction in C57BL/6 mice.

Oligodendrocyte degeneration is a hallmark of multiple sclerosis pathology, and protecting oligodendrocytes and myelin is likely to be of clinical relevance. Traditionally, oligodendrocyte and myelin degeneration are viewed as a direct consequence of an inflammatory attack, but metabolic defects might be equally important. Appropriate animal models to study the interplay of inflammation and metabolic injury are, therefore, needed.

Study of correlation between the NAT2 phenotype and genotype status among Greenlandic Inuit.

-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) is the main enzyme metabolizing isoniazid and genotype-based treatment has been studied for years without becoming common practice. To investigate whether genotype-based isoniazid treatment is feasible in Greenland, we sequenced the coding sequence of and determined the NAT2 enzyme-activity by caffeine test. No additional genetic variants were identified in the coding sequence of , so that genotype status in 260 study participants could be assessed by a well-established 7-SNP panel.