Challenges in assessing change in autistic adults: scale limitations and discrepancies in reporting in clinical trials.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder marked by deficits in social communication and social interaction, together with restricted and/or repetitive patterns of behaviours, activities or interests. As more adults are being diagnosed with ASD, and more diagnosed children are aging into adulthood, the need for effective treatments and support services for autistic adults is quickly growing. As such, clinical research targeting autistic adults has emerged in recent years. Currently, caregiver ratings are commonly used as outcome measures in child treatment studies, but these scales present challenges when utilised to assess the autistic adult population. In this commentary, we seek to unveil the difficulties and obstacles in assessing change in clinical treatment trials for autistic adults. Specifically, this article uses case examples to explore the limitations of rating scales. Steps for improving the accuracy of ratings, and for developing novel self-rating scales for autistic adults are discussed. It is hoped that in exploring these difficulties in more depth, clinical research with adult ASD populations will continue to improve and that reliable, valid and sensitive outcome measures will be developed to ensure the highest quality treatments emerge.

Cross Talk Between Renal Transporters and Polycystin-1 as a Potential Molecular Target Involved in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease.

INTRODUCTION: The mutational changes in Polycystin-1(PC-1) encoded by PKD1 gene is the main cause of Autosomal Dominant Polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). The pathological changes in renal epithelial cells and multiple cyst formation occur due to activation of cascade of signalling pathways and membrane renal transporters (RTs). Our study have focused on the identification, of different RTs, their interactions with Polycystin-1 and other selected target proteins to find out their role in pathogenesis. METHODS: In this study, various RTs protein sequences were identified and retrieved from NCBI's GenBank and UniProt. RTs were categorized according to different nephronal segmenta as per their functional information retrieved from UniProt and Transpoter databases. Further, sequences were subjected for interaction network analysis in String database and Cytoscape 3.7.2. Different interactions including experimentally validated were identified and can be further validated through in vivo methods. RESULTS: The cross talk between different RT, Polycystin-1 and other sequences were analysed. The various pathways of the interaction with PC-1 were categorised. The total number of 119 nodes and 769 edges interactions were generated. The results were visualized and cross verified with other databases in cytoscape. CONCLUSION: The cross signalling of PKD1 with SCNN1A, SCNN1G, SLC12A1, AVPR2 shows their importance in the cyst formation and in pathogenesis of ADPKD.

Role of ABO blood type in delayed cerebral ischemia onset and clinical outcomes after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in an ethnic minority urban population.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the role of ABO blood type moved into focus through the discovery of different hemostaseologic properties with importance in many diseases including subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). However, the role of ABO blood type in delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) onset, clinical progress, and outcome after SAH is to date largely unexplored. Our aim was to explore the role of ABO blood group in DCI and clinical outcomes after aneurysmal SAH (aSAH). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was made with data collected from patients who presented aSAH at our single- academic center from 2015 to 2018. We included demographic, clinical, and imaging variables in the univariate analysis and in the subsequent multivariate analysis. RESULTS: A total of 204 patients were included in this study. About 17.9% of "O" type patients developed a DCI while DCI was reported in only 8.2% of non-O type patients (P = 0.04). "O" type was an independent risk after in the logistic regression after adjusting for significant factors in the univariate analysis (OR=2.530, 95% CI: 1.040- 6.151, P = 0.41). Compared to "non-O" type patients, "O" type patients had a trend to have poorer outcomes at discharge (25.5% vs. 21.3%, P = 0.489) and at 12-18 months (21.1% vs. 19.5%, P = 0.795). However, there were no significant differences. CONCLUSION: Our study evidenced that patients with "O" blood type have higher risk of DCI onset after aSAH. Although these findings need to be confirmed, they may aid to improve DCI prevention and outcome predictions.

Jaw Elevation Device: Tool for Neck Immobilization to Facilitate Recovery in Endovascular Thrombectomy via Transcervical Access.

BACKGROUND: Acute stroke resolution via endovascular thrombectomy requires transcarotid access when transfemoral access is not possible. Although postoperative complications such as cervical hematoma and airway compression have been reported, an appropriate postprocedural management is largely unknown yet. We aim to provide new insights and learning points from our experience using the Jaw Elevation Device (JED) as a tool to facilitate recovery post surgery. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 79-year-old female underwent endovascular thrombectomy via transcervical, transcarotid access for a left internal carotid artery occlusion. No intraprocedural complications were reported. After successful thrombectomy, manual compression was applied in the carotid artery, and to achieve neck immobilization a JED was used for 4 hours after the procedure. No complications occurred. CONCLUSIONS: JED appears to be a reasonable option to facilitate patient recovery due to its capacity to maintain the airway, provide mild compression for hemostasis, and prevent cervical hematoma through a comfortable neck immobilization.

Plant-based larvicidal agents: An overview from 2000 to 2018.

Current review aims to systematically segregate, analyze and arrange the key findings of the scientific reports published on larvicidal plants including larvicidal formulations. The investigation was carried out by analyzing the published literature in various scientific databases, subsequently, the key findings of the selective scientific reports having larvicidal potency (LC50) of extract or isolated oil<100 µg/mL were tabulated to provide the concise and crucial information. Special emphasis was given on reports in which LC50 of extract or isolated oil was reported to be < 10 µg/mL, genus or species documented in multiple independent studies, advancement in larvicidal formulations and activity of isolated phytoconstituents. Extensive analysis of published literature revealed that the larvicidal potency of herbal resources varied from sub-microgram/ml to practically insignificant. Overall, this unprecedented summarized and arranged information can be utilized for design, development and optimization of herbal based formulation having potential larvicidal activity.