The peripheral endocannabinoid system and its association with biomarkers of inflammation in untreated patients with multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The endocannabinoid system (ECS) has been found altered in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, whether the ECS alteration is present in the early stage of MS remains unknown. First, we aimed to compare the ECS profile between newly diagnosed MS patients and healthy controls (HCs). Next, we explored the association of the ECS, biomarkers of inflammation, and clinical parameters in newly diagnosed MS patients. METHODS: Whole blood gene expression of ECS components and levels of endocannabinoids in plasma were measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively, in 66 untreated MS patients and 46 HCs. RESULTS: No differences were found in the gene expression or plasma levels of the selected ECS components between newly diagnosed MS patients and HCs. Interferon-γ, encoded by the gene IFNG, correlated positively (ρ = 0.60) with the expression of G protein-coupled receptor 55 (GPR55), and interleukin1ß (IL1B) correlated negatively (ρ = -0.50) with cannabinoid receptor 2 (CNR2) in HCs. CONCLUSIONS: We found no alteration in the peripheral ECS between untreated patients with MS and HC. Furthermore, our results indicate that the ECS has a minor overall involvement in the early stage of MS on inflammatory markers and clinical parameters when compared with HCs.

Using both electromyography and movement disorder assessment improved the classification of children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy.

AIM: Children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy (CP) are often severely affected and effective treatment is difficult, due to different underlying disease mechanisms. Comprehensive systematic movement disorder evaluations were carried out on patients with this disorder. METHODS: Patients born from 1995 to 2007 were identified from the Danish Cerebral Palsy Register and referrals to the neuropaediatric centre, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen. They were classified by gross motor function, manual functional ability, communication ability, dystonia and spasticity. Electromyography was carried out on the upper and lower limbs. Magnetic resonance imaging scans were revised, and aetiological searches for underlying genetic disorders were performed. RESULTS: We investigated 25 patients with dyskinetic CP at a mean age of 11.7 years. Dystonia, spasticity and rigidity were found in the upper limbs of 21, four and six children, respectively, and in the lower limbs of 18, 18 and three children. The mean total Burke-Fahn-Marsden score for dystonia was 45.02, and the mean Disability Impairment Scale level was 38% for dystonia and 13% for choreoathetosis. Sustained electromyography activity was observed in 20/25 children. Stretching increased electromyography activity more in children with spasticity. There were 10 re-classifications. CONCLUSION: The children had heterogenic characteristics, and 40% were reclassified after systematic movement disorder evaluation.

Biomarkers of Cerebral Injury for Prediction of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the ability of the biomarkers neuron-specific enolase (NSE), tau, neurofilament light chain (NFL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) to predict postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) at discharge in patients who underwent cardiac surgery. DESIGN: Post hoc analyses (with tests being prespecified before data analyses) from a randomized clinical trial. SETTING: Single-center study from a primary heart center in Denmark. PARTICIPANTS: Adult patients undergoing elective or subacute on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting and/or aortic valve replacement. INTERVENTIONS: Blood was collected before induction of anesthesia, after 24 hours, after 48 hours, and at discharge from the surgical ward. The International Study of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction test battery was applied to diagnose POCD at discharge and after three months. Linear mixed models of covariance were used to assess whether repeated measurements of biomarker levels were associated with POCD. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were applied to assess the predictive value of each biomarker measurement for POCD. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A total of 168 patients had biomarkers measured at baseline, and 47 (28%) fulfilled the POCD criteria at discharge. Patients with POCD at discharge had significantly higher levels of tau (p = 0.02) and GFAP (p = 0.01) from baseline to discharge. The biomarker measurements achieving the highest area under the ROC curve for prediction of POCD at discharge were NFL measured at discharge (AUC, 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54-0.73), GFAP measured 48 hours after induction (AUC, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.55-0.73), and GFAP measured at discharge (AUC, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.54-0.74), corresponding to a moderate predictive ability. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative serum levels of tau and GFAP were significantly elevated in cardiac surgery patients with POCD at discharge, however, the biomarkers achieved only modest predictive abilities for POCD at discharge. Postoperative levels of NSE were not associated with POCD at discharge.

Serum Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Associations With Inflammation in Newly Diagnosed Patients With Multiple Sclerosis and Healthy Controls.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic immune-mediated disease characterized by demyelination and neuroaxonal damage in the central nervous system. The etiology is complex and is still not fully understood. Accumulating evidence suggests that our gut microbiota and its metabolites influence the MS pathogenesis. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as acetate, propionate and butyrate, are metabolites produced by gut microbiota through fermentation of indigestible carbohydrates. SCFAs and kynurenine metabolites have been shown to have important immunomodulatory properties, and propionate supplementation in MS patients has been associated with long-term clinical improvement. However, the underlying mechanisms of action and its importance in MS remain incompletely understood. We analyzed serum levels of SCFAs and performed targeted metabolomics in relation to biomarkers of inflammation, and clinical and MRI measures in newly diagnosed patients with relapsing-remitting MS before their first disease modifying therapy and healthy controls (HCs). We demonstrated that serum acetate levels were nominally reduced in MS patients compared with HCs. The ratios of acetate/butyrate and acetate/(propionate + butyrate) were significantly lower in MS patients in a multivariate analysis (orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis; OPLS-DA). The mentioned ratios and acetate levels correlated negatively with the pro-inflammatory biomarker IFNG, indicating an inverse relation between acetate and inflammation. In contrast, the proportion of butyrate was found higher in MS patients in the multivariate analysis, and both butyrate and valerate correlated positively with proinflammatory cytokines (IFNG and TNF), suggesting complex bidirectional regulatory properties of SCFAs. Branched SCFAs were inversely correlated with clinical disability, at a nominal significance level. Otherwise SCFAs did not correlate with clinical variables or MRI measures. There were signs of an alteration of the kynurenine pathway in MS, and butyrate was positively correlated with the immunomodulatory metabolite 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid. Other variables that influenced the separation between MS and HCs were NfL, ARG1 and IL1R1, D-ribose 5-phosphate, pantothenic acid and D-glucuronic acid. In conclusion, we provide novel results in this rapidly evolving field, emphasizing the complexity of the interactions between SCFAs and inflammation; therefore, further studies are required to clarify these issues before supplementation of SCFAs can be widely recommended.

Associations between mean arterial pressure during cardiopulmonary bypass and biomarkers of cerebral injury in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: secondary results from a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: Cardiac surgery is associated with risk of cerebral injury and mean arterial pressure (MAP) during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is suggested to be associated with cerebral injury. The 'Perfusion Pressure Cerebral Infarcts' (PPCI) trial randomized patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and/or aortic valve replacement to a MAP of 40-50 or 70-80 mmHg during CPB and found no difference in clinical or imaging outcomes between the groups. We here present PPCI trial predefined secondary end points, consisting of biomarkers of brain injury. METHODS: Blood was collected from PPCI trial patients at baseline, 24 and 48 h after induction of anaesthesia and at discharge from the surgical ward. Blood was analysed for neuron-specific enolase, tau, neurofilament light and the glial marker glial fibrillary acidic protein. Linear mixed models were used to analyse differences in biomarker value changes from baseline between the 2 MAP allocation groups. RESULTS: A total of 193 (98%) patients were included. We found no differences in biomarker levels over time from baseline to discharge between the 2 MAP allocation groups (PNSE = 0.14, PTau = 0.46, PNFL = 0.21, PGFAP = 0.13) and the result did not change after adjustment for age, sex and type of surgery. CONCLUSIONS: We found no significant differences in levels of biomarkers of neurological injury in patients undergoing elective or subacute CABG and/or aortic valve replacement randomized to either a target MAP of 40-50 mmHg or a target MAP of 70-80 mmHg during CBP.

Lack of Association Between Gaseous Microembolisms Assessed by a Single Detection Device and Cerebral Complications in Cardiac Surgery Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between total volume and number of gaseous microemboli (GME) in the cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) circuit and the occurrence of new postoperative cerebral infarctions and postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. DESIGN: Predefined subanalyses of the randomized controlled Perfusion Pressure Cerebral Infarcts (PPCI) trial. SETTING: Primary heart center in a university hospital. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 143 adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were allocated 1:1 to a low-target mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 40 to 50 mmHg or a high-target MAP of 70 to 80 mmHg during CPB with a fixed pump flow of 2.4 liters per minute per square meter body surface area plus 10% to 20%. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The total volume and number of GME in the CPB circuit were assessed by the Bubble Counter Clinical 200® (GAMPT GmbH). New cerebral infarcts were identified by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) 3 to 6 days after surgery. The median number of GME per patient was 8069 (range 1,523-204,095) with a median total volume of 1.2 µL (range 0.07-48 µL). A total of 66 (46%) patients had DWI detected cerebral infarcts postoperatively, and 36 (28%) patients had POCD after 7 days. The authors found no significant association between volume or number of GME with MAP target allocation, presence of cerebral infarction, or POCD. CONCLUSIONS: The authors found no significant associations between volume or number of GME with the occurrence of cerebral infarction or cognitive dysfunction in cardiac surgery patients.

Clinical utility of anti-MOG antibody testing in a Danish cohort.

BACKGROUND: Anti-myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibody (Ab) can be found in different immune-mediated inflammatory CNS disorders. The full range of clinical manifestations may not have been fully discovered yet. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study 184 adults (age ≥ 16) were tested for anti-MOG antibody (Ab) with a cell-based assay. To define the relevant target population for anti-MOG antibody testing in a neurology clinic, we divided the entire study population based on the presenting symptoms and classified cases followed for multiple sclerosis (MS) according to the clinical features and response to disease-modifying therapy. RESULTS: We identified eight (4.4%) MOG-Ab positive cases in the whole cohort. All eight cases had first manifestations suggestive of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), but had highly variable disease courses and responses to therapy. This included a patient with chronic relapsing inflammatory optic neuropathy (CRION) responding only to therapy with infliximab. Four (3%) out of 134 cases followed for MS who tested positive for anti-MOG Ab showed atypical features and had poor response to therapy. CONCLUSION: A broad range of clinical and radiological features of anti-MOG associated disorder was observed in a single centre. MOG-Ab testing should be considered in patients with an NMOSD phenotype and in MS patients presenting atypical features. The potential use of infliximab therapy for MOG-Ab disease should be further investigated.

Hippocampal and caudate volume reductions in antipsychotic-naive first-episode schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Enlarged ventricles and reduced hippocampal volume are consistently found in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Studies investigating brain structure in antipsychotic-naive patients have generally focused on the striatum. In this study, we examined whether ventricular enlargement and hippocampal and caudate volume reductions are morphological traits of antipsychotic-naive first-episode schizophrenia. METHODS: We obtained high-resolution 3-dimensional T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans for 38 antipsychotic-naive first-episode schizophrenia patients and 43 matched healthy controls by use of a 3-T scanner. We warped the brain images to each other by use of a high-dimensional intersubject registration algorithm. We performed voxel-wise group comparisons with permutation tests. We performed small volume correction for the hippocampus, caudate and ventricles by use of a false discovery rate correction (p < 0.05) to control for multiple comparisons. We derived and analyzed estimates of brain structure volumes. We grouped patients as those with (n = 9) or without (n = 29) any lifetime substance abuse to examine the possible effects of substance abuse. RESULTS: We found that hippocampal and caudate volumes were decreased in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. We found no ventricular enlargement, differences in global volume or significant associations between tissue volume and duration of untreated illness or psychopathology. The hippocampal volume reductions appeared to be influenced by a history of substance abuse. Exploratory analyses indicated reduced volume of the nucleus accumbens in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. LIMITATIONS: This study was not a priori designed to test for differences between schizophrenia patients with or without lifetime substance abuse, and this subgroup was small. CONCLUSION: Reductions in hippocampal and caudate volume may constitute morphological traits in antipsychotic-naive first-episode schizophrenia patients. However, the clinical implications of these findings are unclear. Moreover, past substance abuse may accentuate hippocampal volume reduction. Magnetic resonance imaging studies addressing the potential effects of substance abuse in antipsychotic-naive first-episode schizophrenia patients are warranted.

Hippocampal volume changes in healthy subjects at risk of unipolar depression.

Unipolar depression is moderately heritable. It is unclear whether structural brain changes associated with unipolar depression are present in healthy persons at risk of the disorder. Here we investigated whether a genetic predisposition to unipolar depression is associated with structural brain changes. A priori, hippocampal volume reductions were hypothesized. Using a high-risk study design, magnetic resonance imaging brain scans were obtained from 59 healthy high-risk subjects having a co-twin with unipolar depression, and 53 healthy low-risk subjects without a first-degree family history of major psychiatric disorder. High-risk twins had smaller hippocampal volumes than low-risk twins (p<0.04). The finding was most pronounced in DZ twins. Groups did not differ on global brain tissue volumes or regional tissue volumes assessed in exploratory voxel-wise whole cerebrum analyses. In conclusion, hippocampal volume reduction may index a predisposition to develop depression and thus may be predictive of future onset of the disorder. Further studies are needed to elucidate the role of (shared) environmental and genetic factors.

Muscle structural changes in mitochondrial myopathy relate to genotype.

It is well known that morphological changes at the cellular level occur in muscle of patients with mitochondrial myopathy (MM), but changes in muscle structure with fat infiltration and gross variation of muscle fiber size with giant fibers, normally encountered in the muscular dystrophies, have typically not been associated with mitochondrial disease. We investigated gross and microscopic muscle morphology in thigh muscles by muscle biopsy and MRI in 16 patients with MM, and compared findings with those obtained in muscular dystrophy patients and healthy subjects. Changes of muscle architecture, similar to those found in the group of muscular dystrophy patients occurred consistently in patients with a high mutation load for single, largescale deletions of mtDNA, but were absent in all patients with the 3243A-->G mtDNA point mutation. Dystrophic changes of muscle architecture were also present in one MM patient with a unique, sporadic mutation in the mtDNA tRNA(Met) gene. These findings provide evidence that morphological changes in muscle of MM patients are common and may resemble those of muscular dystrophies, but that development of dystrophic-like changes in muscle relate to genotype.