A global immune deficit in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment disclosed by a novel data mining process.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, while mild cognitive impairment (MCI) causes a slight but measurable decline in cognitive abilities. A person with MCI has an increased risk of developing AD or another dementia. Thus, it is of medical interest to develop predictive tools to assess this risk. A growing awareness exists that pro-oxidative state and neuro-inflammation are both involved in AD. However, the extent of this relationship is still a matter of debate. Due to the expected non-linear correlations between oxidative and inflammatory markers, traditional statistics is unsuitable to dissect their relationship with the disease. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are computational models inspired by central nervous system networks, capable of machine learning and pattern recognition. The aim of this work was to disclose the relationship between immunological and oxidative stress markers in AD and MCI by the application of ANNs. Through a machine learning approach, we were able to construct an algorithm to classify MCI and AD with high accuracy. Such an instrument, requiring a small amount of immunological and oxidative-stress parameters, would be useful in the clinical practice. Moreover, applying an innovative non-linear mathematical technique, a global immune deficit was shown to be associated with cognitive impairment. Surprisingly, both adaptive and innate immunity were peripherally defective in AD and MCI patients. From this study, new pathogenetic aspects of these diseases could emerge.

The process and criteria for diagnosing specific learning disorders: indications from the Consensus Conference promoted by the Italian National Institute of Health.

A Consensus Conference on Specific Learning Disorders has been promoted by the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS). The Consensus Conference consisted in a systematic review of the international literature addressing the issues of diagnosis, risk factors and prognosis, treatment, service delivery and organizational models for Specific Learning Disorders (reading, spelling/writing, calculation). Selected papers were examined by a group of Evaluators and then discussed by a Scientific and Technical Committee, whose conclusions were examined and approved by a Jury Panel. The part on diagnostic issues is presented here, encompassing a systematic discussion of the use and appropriateness of diagnostic criteria, parameters, tasks and psychometric indexes as illustrated in the literature, and providing recommendations for clinical practice. Special attention has been devoted to the collection, analysis and discussion of published data concerning languages with transparent orthography. Controversial issues such as discrepancy criteria, role of reading comprehension and importance of accuracy and fluency are discussed.

Oxidative stress is differentially present in multiple sclerosis courses, early evident, and unrelated to treatment.

BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress is well documented in multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions, but its correspondence at peripheral level is still controversial. Objective. To evaluate peripheral oxidative stress markers in MS patients. METHODS: We studied total blood levels of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), oxidized and reduced forms of glutathione, malondialdehyde, reactive oxygen species (ROS), anti-oxidized-low-density lipoproteins (anti-oxLDL) antibodies, and antioxidant power (PAO) in 87 patients with different MS clinical phenotypes and in 77 controls. RESULTS: CoQ10 was lower whereas anti-oxLDL antibodies titer was higher in MS patients than in controls. The benign variant of MS displayed both higher CoQ10 and higher anti-oxLDL than other MS clinical variants. Female patients had lower CoQ10 and PAO and higher ROS than male patients. Differences were greater in younger patients with shorter disease duration. Surprisingly, there was no difference for these markers between treated and untreated patients. CONCLUSION: We found lower antioxidant agents and higher anti-oxLDL antibodies in MS, and the highest antibody titers occurred in the benign form. We suggest that natural anti-oxLDL antibodies can be protective against MS, saving blood brain barrier integrity. Our findings also suggest that milder MS is associated with a distinct oxidative stress pattern, which may provide a useful biomarker of disease prognosis.

Distinct cytokine patterns associated with different forms of chronic dysimmune neuropathy.

To better understand the presumed immune system dysregulation of chronic dysimmune neuropathy (CDN) patients, we designed a study to evaluate the levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the most common forms of CDN: chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), and anti-myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG)-related polyneuropathy (MAGnp). Sixteen patients fulfilled diagnostic criteria for CIDP, 14 were diagnosed with MAGnp, and 36 were classified as exhibiting "chronic idiopathic polyneuropathy" (CIP). Cytokine production in mitogen-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was analyzed by flow cytometry. CIDP and MAGnp patients were compared with CIP patients, those with monoclonal gammopathy without polyneuropathy (MGUS), and healthy controls (HC). We observed an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines in the CIDP group, whereas interleukin-10 (IL-10) was augmented in the MAGnp patients. These distinctive immune alterations may represent a biological tool in differential diagnosis and future therapeutic approaches.

Prevalence and risk determinants of HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections in pregnant women in Bissau.

OBJECTIVES: To analyse the risk determinants of HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections in pregnant women in Bissau. METHODS: Pregnant women attending the antenatal clinics of Bissau between January 2002 and June 2006 were consecutively tested unless they opted out. RESULTS: Among 23,869 tested women the overall prevalence of HIV-1 was 5.7%, that of HIV-2 was 2.4%, and these included the 0.7% prevalence of HIV-1 and HIV-2 duals. The main factors associated with the risk of HIV-1 infection were older age, occupation and number of sexual partners. Beafada and Mandinga ethnic groups were at greater risk of presenting HIV-1, and Bijago and Papel at lower risk. The factors associated with the risk of HIV-2 were age, literacy and occupation; the Beafada were at greater risk than the other ethnic groups. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of HIV-2 infection decreased overtime, whereas that of HIV-1 infection remained substantially stable, but was higher than that observed in previous studies. The rapid decline in the rates of HIV-2 infection suggests that many of the factors that allowed its exponential growth in the past have now been partially removed, and that sexual and vertical transmission have not been sufficient to maintain and extend the epidemic.