Atypical depression: useful concept, but it's time to revise the DSM-IV criteria.

Stewart et al (2009) have outlined the evidence in support of the validity of the DSM-IV definition of the 'With Atypical Features' episode specifier. Although recognizing the historical significance and clinical utility of the concept of atypical depression, this article takes issue with the DSM-IV criteria. It is concluded that mood reactivity, the A or obligative criterion, is neither significantly associated with the other symptomatic criteria nor useful to diagnose atypical depression, and thus should be eliminated.

New insights into the molecular basis of T cell anergy: anergy factors, avoidance sensors, and epigenetic imprinting.

The vertebrate immune system has evolved to deal with invasive pathogens, but this adaptation comes at the expense of immunopathology. Among a number of mechanisms that coevolved to control adaptive immunity is anergy, the functional inactivation of T lymphocytes that respond to Ag in the absence of inflammation. In this review, I highlight a series of intracellular proteins in quiescent T cells that function to integrate signals from Ag, costimulatory, and growth factor receptors.

Substance P (SP) enhances CCL5-induced chemotaxis and intracellular signaling in human monocytes, which express the truncated neurokinin-1 receptor (NK1R).

Substance P (SP) is a potent modulator of monocyte/macrophage function. The SP-preferring receptor neurokinin-1 receptor (NK1R) has two forms: a full-length NK1R (NK1R-F) isoform and a truncated NK1R (NK1R-T) isoform, which lacks the terminal cytoplasmic 96-aa residues. The distribution of these receptor isoforms in human monocytes is not known.

The changing epidemiologic spectrum of single-suture synostoses.

Purpose: Classic literature indicates an infrequency of metopic craniosynostosis (3 to 10 percent) compared to other single-suture craniosynostosis. Recent observation challenges these conceptions, warranting long-term demographic analysis.

Methods: Syndromic craniofacial dysostoses and multiple suture involvement were exclusion criteria, leaving only single suture synostoses treated between 1975 and 2004.

CPT2 gene mutations resulting in lethal neonatal or severe infantile carnitine palmitoyltransferase II deficiency.

Three distinct clinical manifestations of carnitine palmitoyltransferase II (CPT II) deficiency have been defined including a mild adult onset myopathy, a severe infantile disorder and a lethal neonatal form. In this study we have examined the genomic DNA of five patients, 3 with the lethal neonatal form and 2 with the severe infantile form of the disease and identified two disease-causing mutations in the CPT2 gene for each patient, three of which are novel. In addition, based on currently available structural, biochemical and clinical data, we have classified all 64 known disease-causing mutations into groups with different predicted phenotypes depending on their CPT2 allelic counterparts.

The search for medications to treat stimulant dependence.

Progress in understanding the neurobiology of stimulant dependence has enabled researchers to identify medications whose pharmacological effects suggest that they might help patients initiate abstinence or avoid relapse. Several of these medications and a vaccine have shown encouraging results in controlled clinical trials with cocaine-dependent patients. The search for a medical treatment for methamphetamine dependence started more recently, due to the later emergence of this epidemic, but at least one candidate medication has shown promise in early clinical testing.

Genetic and shared environmental influences on children's 24-h food and beverage intake: sex differences at age 7 y.

Background: The genetics of habitual food and beverage intake in early childhood is poorly understood.

Objective: The objective was to test the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on 24-h food and beverage intake in 7-y-old children. The association between intake of specific food-beverage categories and child body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)) was also tested.

The role of FoxO in the regulation of metabolism.

Forkhead proteins, and FoxO1 in particular, play a significant role in regulating whole body energy metabolism. Glucose homeostasis is achieved by adjusting endogenous glucose production as well as glucose uptake by peripheral tissues in response to insulin. In the fasted state, the liver is primarily responsible for maintaining glucose levels, with FoxO1 playing a key role in promoting the expression of gluconeogenic enzymes.

Pharmacotherapy of mood disorders.

The mood disorders-primarily major depressive disorder and bipolar affective disorder-constitute one of the world's greatest public health problems and are associated with significant reductions in productivity, health, and longevity. In addition, people who suffer from these common illnesses, along with their families and loved ones, experience an incalculable toll on quality of life. Dating to the introduction of the first effective therapies for mood disorders in the late 1950s and 1960s, various types of pharmacotherapy have become a mainstay for the management of mood disorders, particularly more severe, chronic, and recurrent forms of depression and most forms of bipolar disorder.

Initial testing (stage 1) of sunitinib by the pediatric preclinical testing program.

Background: Sunitinib is an orally bioavailable, multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor with selectivity for PDGF receptors, VEGF receptors, FLT3, and KIT.

Procedures: Sunitinib was tested at concentrations ranging from 0.1 nM to 1.

Medical co-morbidity in depressive disorders.

Background: Depression is much more prevalent among those with chronic medical conditions compared to the general population of the United States. Depression is recognized as a cause of increased morbidity and mortality and has been associated with higher health care costs, adverse health behaviors, significant functional impairment, lost work productivity, occupational disability and increased health care utilization.

Method: Searches of Medline, OVIDMedline, PubMed and PsycINFO of all English-language articles published between 1966 and 2007 were conducted using the keywords mood disorders, medical comorbidity, depression, antidepressant therapy.

Neurocognitive correlates of problem behavior in environmentally at-risk adolescents.

Objective: This study prospectively examines the correlation between neurocognitive (NC) functioning and problem behavior in early adolescence.

Methods: As part of a longitudinal study, African American urban youths of lower socioeconomic status, mean age 12.1 years (SD=1.

A post-transcriptional process contributes to efficient gamma-globin gene silencing in definitive erythroid cells.

Objectives: The expression of human gamma globin is developmentally regulated through mechanisms that affect the transcriptional activity of its encoding gene. The current manuscript investigates whether the efficiency of this process might be enhanced though an unrecognized post-transcriptional event that defines the stability of gamma-globin mRNA.

Methods: Experiments were conducted in vivo in transgenic mice expressing human gamma globin in their adult erythroid cells.

New paradigms in the management of alloimmune refractoriness to platelet transfusions.

Purpose Of Review: Following transfusion or pregnancy, a significant number of patients develop antibodies to class I human leukocyte antigen. Some will exhibit platelet transfusion refractoriness, defined as inappropriately low platelet count increments after two or more consecutive transfusions. Unfortunately, failure of at least two products is required before an immunologic work-up is undertaken.

Quinine--a tonic too bitter for hemodialysis-associated muscle cramps?

Hemodialysis patients are susceptible to muscle cramps, both during dialysis sessions as well as in the interdialytic interval. These cramps are often very painful, disruptive to the dialysis treatment, and adversely affect quality of life. There is no well-defined means of preventing or treating these cramps.

Akt/PKB regulates hepatic metabolism by directly inhibiting PGC-1alpha transcription coactivator.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus, a disease with significant effects on the health and economy of Western societies, involves disturbances in both lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. In the insulin-resistant or diabetic state, the liver is unresponsive to the actions of insulin with regard to the suppression of glucose output but continues to produce large amounts of lipid, the latter mimicking the fed, insulin-replete condition. The disordered distribution of lipids contributes to the cardiovascular disease that is the greatest cause of mortality of type 2 diabetes mellitus.