Contribution of Aerobic Cellulolytic Gut Bacteria to Cellulose Digestion in Fifteen Coastal Grapsoid Crabs Underpins Potential for Mineralization of Mangrove Production.

Grapsoid crabs (Decapoda: Grapsoidea) inhabiting along the land-sea transition provided various amounts and quality of vascular plant carbon (e.g., fresh mangrove leaf, leaf litter, and mangrove-derived organic carbon) and perform differing levels of herbivory. Other than endogenous cellulase, symbiotic cellulolytic bacteria could also contribute to the crabs' vascular plant carbon assimilation and mineralization. In this study, we isolated culturable cellulolytic bacteria from three gut regions (i.e., stomach, midgut, and hindgut) of 15 species of grapsoid crabs that inhabit in various coastal habitats (i.e., land margin, mangrove forest, tidal flat, and subtidal area). Bacillus, which was isolated from 11 out of the 15 grapsoid crabs, was the most common genus of culturable prominently cellulolytic bacteria among the target species. Seventy to ninety nine percent of culturable cellulolytic bacteria were removed, and the endoglucanase activity of five species was significantly reduced by 14.4-27.7% after antibiotic treatment. These results suggest that cellulolytic bacteria play a role in assisting mangrove carbon utilization in coastal grapsoid crabs, especially those inhabiting mangrove, mudflat, and subtidal areas. The significantly higher abundance of cellulolytic bacteria and the generally higher hydrolytic capacity of the bacteria in mangrove crab species suggest that they receive more contribution from symbionts for mangrove carbon utilization, while semi-terrestrial crabs seem to depend little on symbiotic cellulase due to the lower abundances.

Rhythmic auditory stimulation incorporated in training improved movements in individuals with psychotic-like experiences.

Movement abnormalities, including movement slowing and irregular muscle contraction, exist in individuals with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and serve as vulnerable factors of developing psychotic diseases in the psychosis continuum. To date scarce studies have developed early intervention programs tackling these initial impairments, which may be caused by basal ganglia alterations, in the early stage of the psychosis course. Rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) is a technique of neurological music therapy and has been proved effective in inducing faster movements in patients with psychotic diseases. This pilot study examined if RAS incorporated in functional movement training reduced severity of movement slowing and irregular muscle contraction in individuals with PLEs. Seventeen individuals with PLEs were randomly allocated to receiving RAS or receiving no RAS and underwent daily 40-min movement training (picking up beans) for three weeks. This study used motion analysis to measure movement performance at pretest and posttest. Eighteen age- and gender-matched individuals without PLEs were also recruited to provide data of intact movements. Results showed that RAS may reduce severity of movement slowing and irregular muscle contraction in individuals with PLEs. This pilot study is one of the pioneering studies validating effectiveness of early intervention programs tackling movement abnormalities, which are initial impairments in the psychosis continuum, in individuals with PLEs.

Effect of directness of exposure and trauma type on Mental Health Literacy of PTSD.

BACKGROUND: Research has demonstrated that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one of the most widely recognized mental disorders, but recognition is affected by trauma type. AIMS: The current study investigated the effect of direct versus indirect exposure to traumatic event and trauma types on Mental Health Literacy (MHL) of PTSD. METHODS: Two hundred and thirty-three participants were asked to identify the mental health problem after presentation of an unlabeled vignette describing a character experiencing PTSD symptoms. The six vignettes described the same symptoms but differed in directness (direct/indirect exposure) and trauma type (rape, military combat or man-made disaster). It was hypothesized that (1) recognition rate would be higher in direct than indirect conditions, and (2) higher in military combat, followed by man-made disaster, and lowest in rape condition. RESULTS: Overall, correct recognition of PTSD was 42.5%. Recognition in direct exposure vignettes was significantly higher than indirect, supporting the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis was only partly supported. While PTSD recognition in rape vignettes was significantly lower than the other two scenarios, no difference was found between combat and man-made disaster trauma types. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings implied under-recognition of PTSD, with lack of awareness of different causes of PTSD and of PTSD from indirect trauma exposure. The latter finding is important in the light of DSM-V revisions to diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

Advanced Glycation End-Product Precursor Methylglyoxal May Lead to Development of Alzheimer's Disease.

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is characterized by chronic hyperglycemia and diabetic complications. Exacerbated cortical neuronal degeneration was observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with DM. In fact, DM is now considered a risk factor of AD, as DM-induced activation of stress responses in the central nervous system (CNS) such as oxidative stress and neuroinflammation may lead to various neurodegenerative disorders. Methylglyoxal (MG) is one of the most reactive advanced glycation end-product (AGE) precursors. Abnormal accumulation of MG is observed in the serum of diabetic patients. As MG is reported to promote brain cells impairment in the CNS, and it is found that AGEs are abnormally increased in the brains of AD patients. Therefore, the effect of MG causing subsequent symptoms of AD was investigated. Methods: 5-week-old C57BL/6 mice were intraperitoneally injected with MG solution for 11 weeks. The Morris water maze (MWM) was used to examine the spatial learning ability and cognition of mice. After MG treatment, MTT assay, real-time PCR analyses, and Western blot were performed to assess the harvested astrocytes and hippocampi. Results: Significantly longer escape latency and reduced percentage time spent in the target quadrant were observed in the 9-week-MG-treated mice. We have found in both in vitro and in vivo models that MG induced astrogliosis, pro-inflammatory cytokines, AD-related markers, and ERK activation. Further, trend of normalization of the tested markers mRNA expressions were observed after ERK inhibition. Conclusion: Our in vivo results suggested that MG could induce AD symptoms and in vitro results implied that ERK may regulate the promotion of inflammation and Aß formation in MG-induced reactive astrocytes. Taken together, MG may participate in the dysfunction of brain cells resulting in possible diabetes-related neurodegeneration by promoting astrogliosis, Aß production, and neuroinflammation through the ERK pathway. Our findings provide insight of targeting ERK as a therapeutic application for diabetes-induced AD.

Effects of food and feeding regime on CO2 fluxes from mangrove consumers - Do marine benthos breathe what they eat?

Intertidal benthos link tertiary predators and primary producers in marine food webs as well as directly contribute to sediment CO2 emission. However, current methods for studying food sources of marine benthos are time-consuming and does not allow direct estimates on feeding regime-related (including different diets, active versus dormant) CO2 production. We examined the food sources of mangrove crabs and gastropods as well as their corresponding CO2 production using cavity-ring down spectroscopy to measure the δ13C-CO2 respiration for consumers, considering the effects of feeding regime, benthos taxa, and dominant feeding habit. Benthos taxa and feeding habit have significant impact on δ13C-CO2 respiration. Particularly, the δ13C-CO2 respiration for crabs (-23.9 ± 0.4‰) was significantly lower than that for gastropods (-17.5 ± 1.3‰). The δ13C-CO2 respiration for deposit-feeders was significantly higher than that for detritivores. There are significant differences in the amount of CO2 emitted and δ13C-CO2 respiration for crabs under different feeding regimes. The differences reflect diet-switching and fuel-switching by the crabs, i.e. 'you breathe what you eat'. Significant differences in CO2 production of crabs also exist between those feeding on microphytobenthos in the laboratory (0.13 ± 0.02 mmol g-1 day-1) and on field collection (i.e. just collected from the field) (0.31 ± 0.03 mmol g-1 day-1). CO2 production of crabs is strongly related to carapace width and length. The δ13C-CO2 respiration for mangrove crabs reflects their diet while crab-respired CO2 flux is related to crab size. These relationships enable partitioning the feeding habit and food sources of key benthos, and help incorporate their contribution into the overall sediment-atmosphere CO2 fluxes in mangrove forests.

Do interventions that include education on dementia progression improve knowledge, mental health and burden of family carers? A systematic review.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The European Association of Palliative Care recommends that family carers need education on the progression of dementia. This systematic review aimed to explore whether interventions incorporating education regarding the progressive nature of dementia increased carers' understanding of dementia and improved mental health and burden. METHOD: MEDLINE, PsycINFO and CINAHL were searched to April 2018. Randomised controlled trials with samples of family carers of someone with dementia were eligible. Included interventions involved a component aimed to increase the carer's understanding of the progression of dementia. Outcomes of interest included: knowledge of dementia, depression, burden and pre-death grief. RESULTS: Searches identified 3221 unique citations of which 11 studies were eligible for review. Interventions ranged from 4 to 16 sessions of which 1 to 3 sessions focused on the progression of dementia. Knowledge: Two studies evaluated carers' knowledge of dementia. One found no difference between the trial arms immediately after the intervention or three months later. The second found a significant intervention effect at the end of the intervention but not at three-month follow-up. Depression: Seven studies evaluated intervention effects on depression. Meta-analysis of three trials showed significant differences in mean follow-up scores favouring intervention over control. The remaining four studies did not show differences in depression between intervention and control groups. Burden: Nine studies evaluated burden and were examined in two meta-analyses (mean scores at follow-up and mean change scores from baseline to follow-up), neither of which found a benefit for intervention over control. Using the grading of recommendations assessment, development and evaluation system, we judged the quality of evidence to be very low for depression and low for burden, knowledge and pre-death grief, reducing our confidence in any of the effect estimates. CONCLUSION: The evidence was not sufficient to support or refute the effectiveness of education on progression of dementia on carers' knowledge and mental health.

The dataset of methylglyoxal activating p38 and p44/42 pathway in osteoclast.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a kind of chronic metabolic disease that could be characterized by uncontrollable high blood glucose (hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period and diverse complications in various organs. These complications include activation of stress responses in bone such as oxidative stress and inflammation, which have been implicated in various bone diseases, including osteoporosis. Non-enzymatic glycation of proteins form and accumulate in patients under hyperglycemia condition. Methylglyoxal (MG) is a reactive advanced glycation end-product precursor. Abnormal high concentration of MG was in serum of diabetic patients. It was proven that MG induces various stress responses. This indicates that it might possibly the key metabolite leading to diabetes-associated bone loss. In this data report, using cell models, the underlying mechanism of methylglyoxal on osteoclast that may lead to bone loss was investigated. In cell cultures, RAW264.7, Macrophages, was treated with methylglyoxal and gene expressions of osteoclast bone biomarkers were investigated. Furthermore, the inhibitions of p38 and p44/42 activities were employed to investigate the osteoclast biomarkers CTSK, OSCAR, and TRACP5 gene expressions. These data implied that MG activated the p38 and p44/42, which was reported to regulate proliferation and differentiation of osteoclast. However, the decreasing MAPK though siRNA knockdown did not change expression of those target markers, TRACP5, OSCAR, and CTSK, in mRNA level. The effects of MG to other osteoclast markers through p38 and p44/42 would be worth to be investigated. For more insight please see Methylglyoxal Activates Osteoclasts through JNK Pathway leading to Osteoporosis.

Methylglyoxal activates osteoclasts through JNK pathway leading to osteoporosis.

Diabetes mellitus is characterized by chronic hyperglycemia and its diverse complications. Hyperglycemia is associated with inflammatory responses in different organs, and diabetic patients have a higher risk of bone fracture due to increased bone weakness. Methylglyoxal, a reactive advanced glycation end product precursor, is known to have increased level in diabetic patients. The accumulation of methylglyoxal promotes inflammation and it may play a role in diabetes related osteoporosis. In this study, therefore, the underlying mechanism of methylglyoxal on osteoporosis was studied using both animal and cell models. In the animal model, rats were treated with either methylglyoxal or saline as control. In the cell model, the macrophage RAW264.7 was treated with methylglyoxal or vehicle control. Following the treatment, animal samples were harvested for micro-CT and real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses. Cell samples were harvested for MTT assay, RT-PCR, and Western Blotting analyses. In both animals and cell cultures, methylglyoxal was shown to induce osteoclastogenesis by increased gene expression of osteoclast bone biomarkers CTSK, OSCAR and TRACP5. Furthermore, in methylglyoxal-treated macrophages activation of the c-Jun N-terminal kinases signaling pathway was observed, and inhibition of JNK activities resulted in down-regulation of osteoclast biomarkers gene expressions. Our results therefore suggested that methylglyoxal may contribute to the progression of diabetes-related osteoporosis and imbalanced bone remodeling through JNK pathway in osteoclasts.