Mitochondrial dysfunction heightens the integrated stress response to drive ALS pathogenesis.

Vesicle-associated membrane protein-associated protein-B (VAPB) is an ER membrane bound protein. VAPB P56S causes a dominant, familial form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), however, the mechanism through which this mutation causes motor neuron (MN) disease remains unknown. Using inducible wild type (WT) and VAPB P56S expressing iPSC-derived MNs we show that VAPB P56S, but not WT, protein decreased neuronal firing and mitochondrial-ER contact (MERC) with an associated age-dependent decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP); all typical characteristics of MN-disease. We further show that VAPB P56S expressing iPSC-derived MNs have enhanced age-dependent sensitivity to ER stress. We identified elevated expression of the master regulator of the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) marker ATF4 and decreased protein synthesis in the VAPB P56S iPSC-derived MNs. Chemical inhibition of ISR with the compound, ISRIB, rescued all MN disease phenotype in VAPB P56S MNs. Thus, our results not only support ISR inhibition as a potential therapeutic target for ALS patients, but also provides evidence to pathogenesis.

A quantitative proteomic and transcriptomic comparison of human mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow and umbilical cord vein.

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are adult multipotent cells that have high therapeutic potential due to their immunological properties. They can be isolated from several different tissues with bone marrow (BM) being the most common source. Because the isolation procedure is invasive, other tissues such as human umbilical cord vein (UCV) have been considered. However, their interchangeability remains unclear. In the present study, total protein extracts of BM-hMSCs and UCV-hMSCs were quantitatively compared using gel-LC-MS/MS. Previous SAGE analysis of the same cells was re-annotated to enable comparison and combination of these two data sets. We observed a more than 63% correlation between proteomic and transcriptomic data. In silico analysis of highly expressed genes in cells of both origins suggests that they can be modulated by microRNA, which can change protein abundance. Our results showed that MSCs from both tissues shared high similarity in metabolic and functional processes relevant to their therapeutic potential, especially in the immune system process, response to stimuli, and processes related to the delivery of the hMSCs to a given tissue, such as migration and adhesion. Hence, our results support the idea that the more accessible UCV could be a potentially less invasive source of MSCs.

Higher than normal plasma Iinterleukin-6 concentrations in brazilian patients with mood disorders

The aim of this work was to study the plasma concentration of IL-6 by ELISA in the patients with mood disorders and normal healthy donors. The plasma concentration of IL-6 was higher in the patients than in the control healthy group. Results suggested that IL-6 could serve as an immunological marker in mood disorder pathogenesis as well.

RNA from Borna disease virus in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective patients, and in their biological relatives.

Numerous interactions of the immune system with the central nervous system have been described recently. Mood and psychotic disorders, such as severe depression and schizophrenia, are both heterogeneous disorders regarding clinical symptomatology, the acuity of symptoms, the clinical course, the treatment response, and probably also the etiology. Detection of p24 RNA from Borna disease virus (BDV) by the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and in their biological relatives was evaluated. The subjects were 27 schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients, 27 healthy controls, 20 relatives without psychiatric disease, and 24 relatives with mood disorder, who attended the Psychiatric Ambulatory of Londrina State University, Paraná, Brazil. The subjects were interviewed by structured diagnostic criteria categorized according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV, axis I, (SCID-IV). The mean duration of illness in schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients was 15.341+/-1.494 years and the median age at onset was 22.4+/-7.371 years. There were no significant differences in gender (P=0.297), age (P=0.99), albumin (P=0.26), and body mass index (kg/m(2)) (p=0.28), among patients, controls, and relatives. Patients and biological relatives had significantly higher positive p24 RNA BDV detection than controls (P=0.04); however, the clinical significance of BDV remains to be clarified.

The effect of stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF1/CXCL12) genetic polymorphism on HIV-1 disease progression.

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) epidemic is increasing in Brazil, and little information has been reported about the genetic host factors related to HIV-1 infection in the Brazilian population. A polymorphism in the conserved 3' untranslated region of the stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF1/CXCL12) gene has been related either to resistance to HIV-1 infection and delayed progression to AIDS or to rapid disease progression and death. A longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate the association of the SDF1 polymorphism and the progression of HIV-1 infection in 161 asymptomatic patients infected with HIV-1 (ASYMPT) and 617 patients with AIDS (SYMPT) from Londrina and the surrounding region, southern Brazil. The endpoints used were the development of AIDS, death, and the slopes of the CD4+ T cell counts and HIV-1 RNA plasma levels. Among the 161 ASYMPT patients, all of the 7 patients (4.3%) homozygous for the mutation remained asymptomatic (p=0.1906); 6 of them had not initiated antiretroviral therapy. Among the 617 patients with AIDS, 40 (6.5%) progressed to death. Of these, 33/388 (8.5%) did not have the SDF1-3'A allele, 6/196 (3.1%) were heterozygous and 1/33 (3.0%) was homozygous for the SDF1-3'A allele (p=0.029). The SDF1 genotypes were not associated with the surrogate markers of HIV-1 disease progression such as the CD4+ T cell decline and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels. The results observed in this study support the hypothesis that the mutation of SDF1-3'A could have a possible late-stage protective effect on HIV-1 disease progression in the Brazilian population.

Detection of Borna disease virus p24 RNA in peripheral blood cells from Brazilian mood and psychotic disorder patients.

BACKGROUND: Borna disease virus (BDV) is a virus that naturally infects a broad range of warm-blooded animals. BDV is an enveloped virus, non-segmented, negative-stranded RNA genome and has an organization characteristic of a member of Bornaviridae in the order of Mononegavirale. In the present work we investigated the presence of BDV p24 RNA in peripheral blood cells from 30 psychiatric patients (19 with mood disorder and 11 with psychotic disorder) and 30 healthy volunteers as the control group. METHODS: All subjects were interviewed by structured diagnostic criteria categorized according to the DSM-IV, Axis I (SCID-V). The presence of BDV p24 RNA was investigated by nested reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) using specific primers to p24 from BDV. The specificity of the detection was analyzed by the sequencing of PCR products. RESULTS: The mean duration of illness in mood and psychotic patients with p24 RNA of BDV was 25 (+/-12.3) years and the median age was 43.77 (+/-15.2) years. There were no significant differences in gender and age among patients and control group, neither duration of illness among patients with mood and psychotic disorders in the presence or absence of p24 RNA of BDV. We found a frequency of 33.33% (10/30) of BDV-RNA on patient's group and 13.33% (4/30) on control group. The given sequences revealed identity with GenBank database sequence for BDV. CONCLUSION: The detection of a higher level of BDV-RNA in the peripheral blood cells of patients than on control group should help our understanding of the pathogenesis in the disease.

Aspectos patológicos, imunológicos e propriedades moleculares do TT vírus / Pathological and immunological aspects and molecular properties of TT virus

O TT vírus (TTV) foi primeiramente descrito no Japão, em 1997, por T. Nishizawa, no soro de pacientes com hepatite, pós-transfusão, não-A-G. Tem sido intensivamente investigado, desde então, como uma possível adicão à lista dos vírus indutores de hepatite. O TTV é um vírus DNA não-envelopado, de fita simples. Uma considerável variabilidade genética tem sido demonstrada por parte do TTV, o que tem levado pesquisadores a agrupar isolados do vírus em inúmeros genótipos e subtipos. No entanto a significância clínica da infeccão por TTV permanece desconhecida. Ele é freqüentemente detectado em fluidos corporais e seu componente mais bem elucidado atualmente é o genoma. Conhecimentos relacionados ao TTV têm aumentado constantemente, porém vários aspectos fundamentais permanecem obscuros. Esta revisão apresenta algumas das propriedades moleculares do TT vírus.

Detecção do RNA HGV/GBV-C em indivíduos saudáveis não portadores de HBV, HIV-1/2 e HCV / Detection of HGV/GBV - CRNA in healthy individuals non Carrier of HBV, HIV-1/2 and HCV

O vírus da hepatite G (HGV ou GBV-C) é um membro da família Flaviviridae. Baseado no perfil clínico e epidemiológico, este vírus pode ser adquirido principalmente por trnasmissão parenteral, por meio de sangue contaminado. Nós investigamos a presença do RNA do GBV -C/HGV em amostras de sangue periférico de doadores normais na ausência de marcadores como antígenos de superfície do HBV (HBsAg), anticorpos anti HBc (anti-HBc), anticorpos anti-HCV e anticorpos anti -HIV-1/HIV-2 0 RNA GBV-C foi detectado por reação de transcriptase reversa e reação em cadeia catalisada pela polimerase (RT-PCR). Foram analisadas 50 amostras de plasma e identificados 6 (12 por cento) amostras positivas para o RNA do GBV-C. A presença de RNA GBV-C na ausência de hepatite B e C em doadores saudáveis pode indicar que este vírus é capaz de transmissão independente e não contribui para doença hepática