Annexin A1: a central player in the anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective role of microglia.

The brain microenvironment is continuously monitored by microglia with the detection of apoptotic cells or pathogens being rapidly followed by their phagocytosis to prevent inflammatory responses. The protein annexin A1 (ANXA1) is key to the phagocytosis of apoptotic leukocytes during peripheral inflammatory resolution, but the pathophysiological significance of its expression in the CNS that is restricted almost exclusively to microglia is unclear. In this study, we test the hypothesis that ANXA1 is important in the microglial clearance of apoptotic neurons in both noninflammatory and inflammatory conditions. We have identified ANXA1 to be sparingly expressed in microglia of normally aged human brains and to be more strongly expressed in Alzheimer's disease. Using an in vitro model comprising microglial and neuronal cell lines, as well as primary microglia from wild-type and ANXA1 null mice, we have identified two distinct roles for microglial ANXA1: 1) controlling the noninflammatory phagocytosis of apoptotic neurons and 2) promoting resolution of inflammatory microglial activation. In particular, we showed that microglial-derived ANXA1 targets apoptotic neurons, serving as both an "eat me" signal and a bridge between phosphatidylserine on the dying cell and formyl peptide receptor 2 on the phagocytosing microglia. Moreover, inflammatory activation of microglia impairs their ability to discriminate between apoptotic and nonapoptotic cells, an ability restored by exogenous ANXA1. We thus show that ANXA1 is fundamental for brain homeostasis, and we suggest that ANXA1 and its peptidomimetics can be novel therapeutic targets in neuroinflammation.

Surgical Approaches in Psychiatry: A Survey of the World Literature on Psychosurgery.

Brain surgery to promote behavioral or affective changes in humans remains one of the most controversial topics at the interface of medicine, psychiatry, neuroscience, and bioethics. Rapid expansion of neuropsychiatric deep brain stimulation has recently revived the field and careful appraisal of its 2 sides is warranted: namely, the promise to help severely devastated patients on the one hand and the dangers of premature application without appropriate justification on the other. Here, we reconstruct the vivid history of the field and examine its present status to delineate the progression from crude freehand operations into a multidisciplinary treatment of last resort. This goal is accomplished by a detailed reassessment of numerous case reports and small-scale open or controlled trials in their historical and social context. The different surgical approaches, their rationale, and their scientific merit are discussed in a manner comprehensible to readers lacking extensive knowledge of neurosurgery or psychiatry, yet with sufficient documentation to provide a useful resource for practitioners in the field and those wishing to pursue the topic further.

Severe SMA mice show organ impairment that cannot be rescued by therapy with the HDACi JNJ-26481585.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the leading genetic cause of early childhood death worldwide and no therapy is available today. Many drugs, especially histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), increase SMN levels. As all HDACi tested so far only mildly ameliorate the SMA phenotype or are unsuitable for use in humans, there is still need to identify more potent drugs. Here, we assessed the therapeutic power of the pan-HDACi JNJ-26481585 for SMA, which is currently used in various clinical cancer trials. When administered for 64 h at 100 nM, JNJ-26481585 upregulated SMN levels in SMA fibroblast cell lines, including those from non-responders to valproic acid. Oral treatment of Taiwanese SMA mice and control littermates starting at P0 showed no overt extension of lifespan, despite mild improvements in motor abilities and weight progression. Many treated and untreated animals showed a very rapid decline or unexpected sudden death. We performed exploratory autopsy and histological assessment at different disease stages and found consistent abnormalities in the intestine, heart and lung and skeletal muscle vasculature of SMA animals, which were not prevented by JNJ-26481585 treatment. Interestingly, some of these features may be only indirectly caused by α-motoneuron function loss but may be major life-limiting factors in the course of disease. A better understanding of - primary or secondary - non-neuromuscular organ involvement in SMA patients may improve standard of care and may lead to reassessment of how to investigate SMA patients clinically.