Digital Commons Network^™

Chronic Oral Cannabidiol Delays Seizure Onset And Reduces Seizure Burden In A Mouse Model Of Cln2 Disease, Joshua T. Dearborn, Keigo Takahashi, Nicholas R. Rensing, Michael Wong, Jonathan D. Cooper, Mark S. Sands

2020-Current year OA Pubs

A growing body of literature describes the anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and anti-epileptic properties of the cannabis sativa constituent cannabidiol, suggesting that it might play a useful role in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (CLN2 disease) is a rare pediatric neurodegenerative disorder resulting from an inherited dysfunction of the lysosome. CLN2 disease, and its representative animal models, display neuroimmune response, neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and epileptic seizures, and these symptoms are all touted as potential targets of cannabidiol therapeutic benefit. Here, we treated a valid model of CLN2 disease with long-term daily cannabidiol (300 mg/kg) from 1 month of …

Infant Sensory Gating And A Developmental Cascade To Autistic Traits And Anxiety, Rebecca F Schwarzlose

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Disruptions to the infant sensory environment can have lasting effects on neural response properties and behavior in both humans and animals. Recent work has begun to highlight an additional factor in infant sensory experience: differences in inhibitory signaling and sensory gating. Converging work from human and animal studies has begun to implicate a developmental cascade by which impaired sensory gating during a sensitive period of neonatal neurodevelopment promotes a phenotype of sensory over-responsivity, autistic traits, anxiety, and other psychiatric challenges. In this Review, I propose a model for this developmental cascade and highlight how differences in infant sensory responsivity represent …

Characteristics And Outcomes Of Patients With Hematologic Malignancies Hospitalized With Respiratory Viral Infections, Zulfiqar A Lokhandwala, Brenna Park-Egan, Ravneet Waraich, Colleen A Mcevoy, Andrew P Michelson, Alice F Bewley, Lynne Strasfeld, Rachel Cook, Brandon Hayes-Lattin, Catherine L Hough, Patrick G Lyons

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Respiratory viral infections in patients with hematologic malignancies or hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HCTs) are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. However, the hospital presentations and courses of these infections remain under-described.

METHODS: We performed a multicenter retrospective cohort study of hospitalized patients with hematologic malignancy or HCT at 2 comprehensive cancer centers between January 2019 and June 2023. We included all patients with acute viral respiratory infection (identified based on a constellation of test results and objective physiology), comparing clinical presentations, care processes, and patient outcomes across pathogens; the primary outcome was the composite of hospital death or …

Mapping Functional Connectivity In The Pigeon Brain With Wide-Field Optical Imaging, Kathryn C Chenard, Annie R Bice, Seana H Bice, Joseph P Culver, Paula Gerliz, Xavier Helluy, Onur Güntürkün, Jason W Trobaugh, Mehdi Behroozi, Carlos A Botero

2020-Current year OA Pubs

SIGNIFICANCE: Adapting optical imaging technology to avian models can overcome many limitations imposed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which currently restricts the number of species used to study functional connectivity. Developing advanced technology to expand the diversity of species that can be effectively imaged is crucial for addressing significant questions that are currently unreachable, such as understanding the evolution of cognition from a comparative perspective.

AIM: We assessed the potential of optical imaging technology to measure functional connectivity in birds, utilizing pigeons as an avian model. We evaluated whether we could partition the dorsal surface of the pigeon brain …

A Designathon To Collaboratively Develop Sustainable Hiv Prevention Services For Youth With Community-Based Organizations In Nigeria, Titilola Gbaja-Biamila, Chiyere Arinze, Olufunto Olusanya, Temitope Ojo, Ross Brownson, Juliet Iwelunmor, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: The engagement of youth in the design of services that promote and increase the uptake of essential services to reduce HIV and other sexually transmitted infections is vital to sustaining these preventive services. The study objective is to identify strategies for sustaining HIV prevention services among Nigerian youth, in partnership with community-based organizations, through a crowdsourced open call and designathon in Nigeria.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: From February to March 2024, Nigerian youth (ages 14-24) submitted ideas to an open crowdsourcing call on how community-based organizations in Nigeria might sustain HIV self-testing and youth-friendly preventive services for at-risk youth. The …

Comprehensive Evaluation Of At(N) Imaging Biomarkers For Predicting Cognitive Decline, Tom Earnest, Braden Yang, Deydeep Kothapalli, Aristeidis Sotiras, Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have investigated how different Alzheimer's disease biomarker definitions affect predictions of cognitive decline.

METHODS: We predicted cognitive decline using 42 biomarker definitions spanning amyloid beta, tau, and neurodegeneration in 383 ADNI participants with baseline neuroimaging and longitudinal cognitive assessments. We identified optimal predictors for each pathology and variable type (continuous, binary, non-binary categorical) using nested cross-validation. Models were compared against support vector machines (SVMs) incorporating brain-wide pathology. In a subsample, we compared imaging-based biomarkers with biofluids (cerebrospinal fluid and plasma).

RESULTS: We observed substantial variability in accuracy, even for measures of the same pathology. Tau biomarkers were …

Neurofilament Light Chain But Not Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Serum Levels Are Elevated In Wolfram Syndrome, Matthew J Jansen, Heather M Lugar, Cris M Brown, Abby F Tang, Liam J Oiknine, Ling Chen, Jonathan M Koller, Brian A Gordon, Bess A Marshall, Fumihiko Urano, Tamara Hershey

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Wolfram syndrome is a rare genetic disorder caused by pathogenic variants in the

OBJECTIVE: To determine if serum NfL and/or GFAP levels are elevated in Wolfram syndrome compared to controls and whether they can serve as monitoring biomarkers.

METHODS: Serum NfL and GFAP levels were log

RESULTS: NfL levels were higher in the Wolfram group relative to all control groups (

CONCLUSION: Serum NfL elevation in Wolfram syndrome may reflect the ongoing, relatively slow neurodegeneration occurring in this disorder. However, without any correspondence between serum levels and currently used clinical and neuroimaging metrics, it has limited utility as a …

Immunoembolization In Liver-Predominant Metastatic Uveal Melanoma: A Single-Center Retrospective Analysis, Renee Morecroft, Jordan Phillipps, Amrat Kumar, Jacob Strelnikov, George Nassief, Naganathan Mani, Jennifer Gould, Tanner Johanns, George Ansstas

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Approximately 50% of patients with uveal melanoma develop metastatic disease, most commonly involving the liver, and prognosis remains poor. Immunoembolization (IE) is an established liver-directed therapy for patients with liver-dominant metastatic uveal melanoma (mUM), though comparative data with other regional therapies remain limited. We present a single-center retrospective analysis of IE in hepatic mUM and compare outcomes with those reported in the Phase 3 FOCUS trial evaluating melphalan via percutaneous hepatic perfusion.

METHODS: All patients with liver-dominant mUM treated with IE between 2010 and 2023 at our institution were included. Clinical records were reviewed for demographics, tumor characteristics, treatment …

Hiv-2 Infection As A Comparative Lens For Functional Hiv-1 Remission, Sabastine Eugene Arthur, John Atanniba, Prince Adom Nartey, Yeena Abla Tay, Dzidzor Aku Attoh, Christopher Zaab-Yen Abana, Evelyn Yayra Bonney, George Boateng Kyei

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Four decades into the HIV pandemic, HIV-2 infection remains an underutilized comparative resource for HIV-1 cure research. HIV-2 is associated with lower plasma viral loads, slower CD4