Executive Function as a Predictor of Pain Perception in Healthy Young Adults.

OBJECTIVE: Pain's impact on executive function is understood and specific cognitive abilities may contribute to coping with pain, though past work is confounded by chronic pain populations. This study aims to understand how executive functioning may predict the experience of pain among healthy adults. It was hypothesized that poorer executive functioning would predict more intense pain perception. METHOD: A total of 172 young adults were recruited for participation. Three aspects of executive functioning (i.e., impulsivity, cognitive flexibility, working memory) were assessed before randomizing participants to varying types and levels of stimulated pain. RESULTS: Results supported the hypothesis that poorer performance on tasks of working memory predicts more intense pain perception. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are counter to past work that has found inhibition may be important for coping, and future research is needed to understand the impact of specific cognitive abilities as well as how this may differ for chronic pain.

Regulation of the mammalian-brain V-ATPase through ultraslow mode-switching.

Vacuolar-type adenosine triphosphatases (V-ATPases)1-3 are electrogenic rotary mechanoenzymes structurally related to F-type ATP synthases4,5. They hydrolyse ATP to establish electrochemical proton gradients for a plethora of cellular processes1,3. In neurons, the loading of all neurotransmitters into synaptic vesicles is energized by about one V-ATPase molecule per synaptic vesicle6,7. To shed light on this bona fide single-molecule biological process, we investigated electrogenic proton-pumping by single mammalian-brain V-ATPases in single synaptic vesicles. Here we show that V-ATPases do not pump continuously in time, as suggested by observing the rotation of bacterial homologues8 and assuming strict ATP-proton coupling. Instead, they stochastically switch between three ultralong-lived modes: proton-pumping, inactive and proton-leaky. Notably, direct observation of pumping revealed that physiologically relevant concentrations of ATP do not regulate the intrinsic pumping rate. ATP regulates V-ATPase activity through the switching probability of the proton-pumping mode. By contrast, electrochemical proton gradients regulate the pumping rate and the switching of the pumping and inactive modes. A direct consequence of mode-switching is all-or-none stochastic fluctuations in the electrochemical gradient of synaptic vesicles that would be expected to introduce stochasticity in proton-driven secondary active loading of neurotransmitters and may thus have important implications for neurotransmission. This work reveals and emphasizes the mechanistic and biological importance of ultraslow mode-switching.

Pyocyanin inhibits both nitric oxide-dependent and -independent relaxation in porcine coronary arteries.

The effects of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence factor pyocyanin (PCN) on the contractile function of porcine coronary arteries was investigated in vitro. Artery rings (5 mm) were suspended in organ baths containing Krebs' solution for the measurement of isometric tension. The effect of PCN on resting and precontracted coronary arteries was initially investigated with various agents. Arteries were precontracted with prostaglandin (PG) F2α or potassium chloride and endothelium-dependent relaxations were induced by various agents in the presence of PCN. Pyocyanin (0.1-10 µmol/L) evoked small-amplitude, dose-dependent contractions in resting porcine coronary arteries. In addition, PCN amplified the contractile response to PGF2α , but did not alter responses to carbachol. Pyocyanin (0.1-10 µmol/L) significantly inhibited endothelium-dependent relaxations evoked by neurokinin A. Pyocyanin also inhibited relaxations evoked by diethylamine nitric oxide (a nitric oxide donor), forskolin (an adenylate cyclase activator), dibuytyryl-cAMP (a cAMP analogue), 8-bromo-cGMP (a cGMP analogue) and P1075 (a KATP channel activator), but not isoprenaline (ß-adrenoceceptor agonist). These results indicate that physiological concentrations of PCN interfere with multiple intracellular processes involved in vascular smooth muscle relaxation, in particular pathways downstream of nitric oxide release. Thus, PCN may alter normal vascular function in patients infected with P. aeruginosa.