Cognitive impairment in long-COVID and its association with persistent dysregulation in inflammatory markers.

Objective: To analyze the potential impact of sociodemographic, clinical and biological factors on the long-term cognitive outcome of patients who survived moderate and severe forms of COVID-19. Methods: We assessed 710 adult participants (Mean age = 55 ± 14; 48.3% were female) 6 to 11 months after hospital discharge with a complete cognitive battery, as well as a psychiatric, clinical and laboratory evaluation. A large set of inferential statistical methods was used to predict potential variables associated with any long-term cognitive impairment, with a focus on a panel of 28 cytokines and other blood inflammatory and disease severity markers. Results: Concerning the subjective assessment of cognitive performance, 36.1% reported a slightly poorer overall cognitive performance, and 14.6% reported being severely impacted, compared to their pre-COVID-19 status. Multivariate analysis found sex, age, ethnicity, education, comorbidity, frailty and physical activity associated with general cognition. A bivariate analysis found that G-CSF, IFN-alfa2, IL13, IL15, IL1.RA, EL1.alfa, IL45, IL5, IL6, IL7, TNF-Beta, VEGF, Follow-up C-Reactive Protein, and Follow-up D-Dimer were significantly (p<.05) associated with general cognition. However, a LASSO regression that included all follow-up variables, inflammatory markers and cytokines did not support these findings. Conclusion: Though we identified several sociodemographic characteristics that might protect against cognitive impairment following SARS-CoV-2 infection, our data do not support a prominent role for clinical status (both during acute and long-stage of COVID-19) or inflammatory background (also during acute and long-stage of COVID-19) to explain the cognitive deficits that can follow COVID-19 infection.

Severe rhabdomyolysis caused by Plasmodium vivax malaria in the Brazilian Amazon.

Severe rhabdomyolysis (creatine phosphokinase = 29,400 U/L) developed in a 16-year-old boy from Manaus, Brazil, after he started treatment with chloroquine for infection with Plasmodium vivax. Treatment led to myoglobinuria and acute renal failure. After hemodialysis, the patient improved and a muscle biopsy specimen showed no myophosphorylase or deaminase deficiency. This case of rhabdomyolysis associated with P. vivax infection showed no comorbidities. The pathogenesis is still unclear. Although rhabdomyolysis is generally reported as a complication of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, leading to metabolic and renal complications,1 it has been reported in a patient with P. vivax infection with myoadenylate deaminase deficiency.2 We report a case in a patient without typical muscle enzyme deficiencies in which severe rhabdomyolysis developed while the patients was being treated with chloroquine for a confirmed P. vivax infection.

Expression of HOXC9 and E2F2 are up-regulated in CD133(+) cells isolated from human astrocytomas and associate with transformation of human astrocytes.

Comparative analysis of cancer stem cells with their neoplastic and non-neoplastic counterparts should help better understand the underlying molecular events leading to transformation and tumor dissemination. Here, we report a molecular signature comprised by genes with exclusive aberrant expression in CD133(+) cells, a reported subpopulation of tumorigenic stem-like cells, isolated from human glioblastomas. Microarrays covering 55,000 transcripts were used to compare gene expression profiles in purified subpopulations of CD133(+) and CD133(-) GBM cells. Sixteen genes, many of which not previously associated with astrocytomas, were found aberrantly expressed in CD133(+) cells, but not in CD133(-), when compared with corresponding non-neoplastic controls. Up-regulation of two of such genes, E2F2 and HOXC9, was detected in a set of 54 astrocytomas of different grades and significantly associated with malignancy. Due to their distinctive expression in CD133(+) cells, the use of E2F2 and HOXC9 as therapeutic targets for tumor eradication is suggested.

Clinical characteristics and surgical outcome of patients with temporal lobe tumors and epilepsy

This is a retrospective study of 21 surgically treated patients with temporal lobe tumors and epilepsy. Evaluation included clinical data, EEG findings, structural scans, pathological diagnosis and post-surgical follow-up. There were 9 cases of ganglioglioma, 5 pilocytic astrocytoma, 3 ganglioneuroma, 2 dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor, 1 pleomorphic xantoastrocytoma, and 1 meningioangiomatosis. Mean follow-up time was 22 months and outcome was evaluated according to Engel's classification; 76.2 percent were classified in class I and 23.8 percent in II and III. All patients classes II and III had been submitted to mesial and neocortical resections. There were no differences related to clinical characteristics, pathological diagnosis or duration of follow-up in patients seizure-free or not. All patients had abnormal MRI and ten of these had normal CT; the MRI characteristics were compared to pathological diagnosis and specific histological characteristics of the tumors were not discernible by MRI. We concluded that MRI was essential for the diagnosis and precise location of TL tumors. Ganglioglioma was the most frequent tumor and lesionectomy associated to mesial resection doesn't guarantee a better prognosis