Current Issue : April-June Volume : 2023 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 5 Articles
Celiac disease (CD) is a common chronic inflammatory disorder occurring in genetically predisposed individuals secondary to gluten ingestion. CD usually presents with gastrointestinal symptoms such as pain, bloating, flatulence, and constipation or diarrhea. However, individuals can present in a nonclassical manner with only extraintestinal symptoms. The neurological manifestations of CD include ataxia, cognitive impairment, epilepsy, headache, and neuropathy. A lifelong glutenfree diet is the current recommended treatment for CD. This review discusses the relevant neurological manifestations associated with CD and the novel therapeutics. Further research is required to get a better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of the neurological manifestations associated with CD. Clinicians should keep CD in the differential diagnosis in individuals presenting with neurological dysfunction of unknown cause....
Lipid peroxidation is a process of oxidative degradation of cellular lipids that is increasingly recognized as an important factor in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. We were therefore interested in the manifestation of lipid peroxidation in synucleinopathies, a group of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the central pathology of α-synuclein aggregates, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple system atrophy, dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer’s disease with Lewy bodies. We assessed lipid peroxidation products, lipid aldehydes, in the amygdala, a common disease-affected region in synucleinopathies, and in the visual cortex, a disease-unaffected region. We found that the levels of lipid aldehydes were significantly increased in the amygdala, but not in the visual cortex. We hypothesized that these increases are due to increases in the abundance of unsaturated lipids, since lipid aldehydes are formed from unsaturated lipids. We undertook a comprehensive analysis of membrane lipids using liquid chromatography- mass spectrometry and found that unsaturated phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine and sphingomyelin were specifically elevated in the amygdala and correlated with increases in lipid aldehydes. Furthermore, unsaturated phosphatidylethanolamine levels were associated with soluble α-synuclein. Put together, these results suggest that manifestation of lipid peroxidation is prevalent in synucleinopathies and is likely to be due to increases in unsaturated membrane lipids. Our findings underscore the importance of lipid peroxidation in α-synuclein pathology and in membrane structure maintenance....
Background: Peer victimization is common among adolescents and leads to negative consequences. However, few studies have examined the extent of peer-victimization and its correlates among adolescent patients in a psychiatric setting. The current study aimed to examine the prevalence and correlates of peer victimisation among youth with mental illness and to examine its association with depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Methods: A sample of 239 youths aged 15–24 years were recruited from the outpatient clinics of a tertiary psychiatric hospital in Singapore using convenience sampling. All participants were administered the Multidimensional Peer Victimisation Scale (MPVS), Short Form 12 (SF-12) questionnaire and the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8). The effect of MPVS total and subscores on depression scores, quality of life subscores and quality of life total scores were examined using multiple linear regression analyses. Results: The majority of the patients reported that they had experienced at least one form of peer victimisation (95.8%, n = 229) during their school years. Higher levels of ‘verbal victimisation’, ‘attacks on property’ and higher total MPVS scores were significantly associated with lower social functioning; additionally, higher levels of ‘verbal victimisation’ were significantly associated with lower mental component summary scores in the quality of life assessment. Higher scores on all four subscales as well as higher total scores on the MPVS were significantly associated with more severe depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Given the high prevalence of peer victimisation in our sample and its associations with more severe depressive symptoms and lower quality of life, it is vital to implement interventions that prevent peer victimisation in educational and other social settings and to provide youth with strategies to more effectively manage instances of peer victimisation....
Alpha-synuclein (aSyn) is a pre-synaptic monomeric protein that can form aggregates in neurons in Parkinson’s disease (PD), Parkinson’s disease with dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and in oligodendrocytes in multiple system atrophy (MSA). Although aSyn in astrocytes has previously been described in PD, PDD and DLB, the biochemical properties and topographical distribution of astrocytic aSyn have not been studied in detail. Here, we present a systematic investigation of aSyn astrocytic pathology using an expanded antibody toolset covering the entire sequence and key post-translational modifications (PTMs) of aSyn in Lewy body disorders (LBDs) and in MSA. Astrocytic aSyn was detected in the limbic cortical regions of LBDs but were absent in main pathological regions of MSA. The astrocytic aSyn was revealed only with antibodies against the mid N-terminal and non-amyloid component (NAC) regions covering aSyn residues 34–99. The astroglial accumulations were negative to canonical aSyn aggregation markers, including p62, ubiquitin and aSyn pS129, but positive for phosphorylated and nitrated forms of aSyn at Tyrosine 39 (Y39), and not resistant to proteinase K. Our findings suggest that astrocytic aSyn accumulations represent a major part of aSyn pathology in LBDs and possess a distinct sequence and PTM signature that is characterized by both N- and C-terminal truncations and modifications at Y39. This is the first description that aSyn accumulations are made solely from N- and C-terminally cleaved aSyn species and the first report demonstrating that astrocytic aSyn is a mixture of Y39 phosphorylated and nitrated species. These observations underscore the importance of systematic characterization of aSyn accumulations in different cell types to capture the aSyn pathological diversity in the brain. Our findings combined with further studies on the role of astrocytic pathology in the progression of LBDs can pave the way towards identifying novel disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets....
This article overviews my recent acceptance of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sapienza University of Rome, in which I discussed three decades of my work on the right brain in development, psychopathogenesis, and psychotherapy. In the following, I offer current brain laterality and hemispheric asymmetry research indicating that right brain emotional and relational processes operate beneath conscious awareness not only in early human development, but over the lifespan. I discuss recent interdisciplinary studies on the central role of ultrarapid right brain-to-right brain intersubjective communications of face, voice, and gesture and the implicit regulation of emotion in nonverbal attachment dynamics. Special emphasis is on the fundamental psychobiological process of interpersonal synchrony, and on the evolutionary mechanism of attachment, the interactive regulation of biological synchrony within and between organisms. I then present some clinical applications, suggesting that effective therapeutic work with “primitive” nonverbal emotional attachment dynamics focuses not on conscious verbal insight but on the formation of an unconscious emotion-communicating and regulating bond within the therapeutic relationship. Lastly, I review recent hyperscanning research of the patient’s and therapist’s brains during a face-to-face, emotionally focused psychotherapy session that supports the right brain-to-right brain communication model. I end suggesting that the right brain is dominant in both short-term symptom-reducing and long-term growth-promoting deep psychotherapy....
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