Red Bull® energy drink increases consumption of higher concentrations of alcohol.

Mixing alcohol with caffeinated energy drinks is a common practice, especially among young people. In humans, the research on this issue has mainly focused on the use of the mass-marketed energy drinks themselves, whereas in animal models, it has focused on the individual effects of their active ingredients (i.e. caffeine). Here, we have characterized how Red Bull®, one of the most consumed caffeinated energy drink worldwide, modulates operant alcohol self-administration in Wistar rats. We found that animals readily and steadily responded for Red Bull (mean: 90 responses, 30 minutes and fixed-ratio 1), which was accompanied by locomotor stimulating effects (26 percent increase). The higher the concentration of alcohol (3-20 percent), the higher the consumption of alcohol (g/kg) and associated blood alcohol levels (91.76 percent) in the mixed Red Bull-alcohol group (60 percent increase). Blood caffeine levels in the Red Bull group were 4.69 µg/ml and 1.31 µg/ml in the Red Bull-alcohol group after the 30-minute session. Because Red Bull also contains 11 percent sucrose, we examined the time course of blood glucose as well as insulin and corticosterone. The correlation between intake of Red Bull and blood glucose levels was higher at 90 minutes than 5 minutes after its consumption, and there was no relationship with blood insulin or blood corticosterone levels. Red Bull did not alter extinction and reacquisition of responding for alcohol nor did it affect relapse-like drinking. Overall, our results suggest that Red Bull might be a vulnerability factor to develop alcoholism given that it intensifies the consumption of higher concentrations of alcohol.

A spontaneous deletion of α-synuclein is associated with an increase in CB1 mRNA transcript and receptor expression in the hippocampus and amygdala: effects on alcohol consumption.

α-Synuclein (α-syn) protein and endocannabinoid CB1 receptors are primarily located in presynaptic terminals. An association between α-syn and CB1 receptors has recently been established in Parkinson's disease, but it is completely unknown whether there is an association between these two proteins in alcohol addiction. Therefore, we aimed to examine the α-syn mRNA transcript and protein expression levels in the prefrontal cortex, striatum, amygdala and hippocampus. These brain regions are the most frequently implicated in alcohol and other drug addiction. In these studies, we used C57BL/6 mice carrying a spontaneous deletion of the α-syn gene (C57BL/6(Snca-/-) ) and their respective controls (C57BL/6(Snca) (+/) (+) ). These animals were monitored for spontaneous alcohol consumption (3-10%) and their response to a hypnotic-sedative dose of alcohol (3 g kg(-1) ) was also assessed. Compared with the C57BL/6(Snca+/+) mice, we found that the C57BL/6(Snca-/-) mice exhibited a higher expression level of the CB1 mRNA transcript and CB1 receptor in the hippocampus and amygdala. Furthermore, C57BL/6(Snca-/-) mice showed an increase in alcohol consumption when offered a 10% alcohol solution. There was no significant difference in sleep time after the injection of 3 g/kg alcohol. These results are the first to reveal an association between α-syn and the CB1 receptor in the brain regions that are most frequently implicated in alcohol and other drug addictions.

Dissecting operant alcohol self-administration using saccharin-fading procedure.

BACKGROUND: Although alcohol use disorder is a complex human pathology, the use of animal models represents an opportunity to study some aspects of this pathology. One of the most used paradigms to study the voluntary alcohol consumption in rodents is operant self-administration (OSA). AIMS: In order to facilitate the performance of this paradigm, we aim to describe some critical steps of OSA under a saccharin-fading procedure. MATERIAL & METHODS: We used 40 male Wistar rats to study the process of acquiring the operant response through a saccharin-fading procedure under a fixed ratio (FR1) schedule of reinforcement. Next, we analyze the alcohol introduction and concentration increase, the effect of an alcohol deprivation, and the analogy between this paradigm with the Drinking in the Dark-Multiple Scheduled Access paradigm. RESULTS: During alcohol concentration increase, animals reduced their lever presses in accordance with the increase in alcohol concentration. On the contrary, the consumption measured in g·kg-1 BW showed a great stability. The lever presses pattern within operant session changes with the introduction of different alcohol concentrations: at higher alcohol concentrations, animals tended to accumulate most of their presses in the initial period of the session. DISCUSSION: We show the utility of fading with low concentrations of saccharin and the evolution of the operant response through the different concentrations of alcohol. CONCLUSION: Taken together, our results aimed to dissect the acquisition and maintenance of OSA behavior as well as other related variables, to facilitate the understanding and performance of this paradigm.

Quantitative Proteomics for the Identification of Differentially Expressed Proteins in the Extracellular Vesicles of Cervical Cancer Cells.

The extracellular vesicles (EVs) in a tumoral microenvironment can exert different functions by transferring their content, which has been poorly described in cervical cancer. Here, we tried to clarify the proteomic content of these EVs, comparing those derived from cancerous HPV (+) keratinocytes (HeLa) versus those derived from normal HPV (-) keratinocytes (HaCaT). We performed a quantitative proteomic analysis, using LC-MS/MS, of the EVs from HeLa and HaCaT cell lines. The up- and downregulated proteins in the EVs from the HeLa cell line were established, along with the cellular component, molecular function, biological processes, and signaling pathways in which they participate. The biological processes with the highest number of upregulated proteins are cell adhesion, proteolysis, lipid metabolic process, and immune system processes. Interestingly, three of the top five signaling pathways with more up- and downregulated proteins are part of the immune response. Due to their content, we can infer that EVs can have a significant role in migration, invasion, metastasis, and the activation or suppression of immune system cells in cancer.

Presence of HPV DNA in extracellular vesicles from HeLa cells and cervical samples.

INTRODUCTION: The main cause of cervical cancer is an infection of keratinocytes in the basal layer of the stratified epithelium of the cervix by human papillomavirus (HPV). Other than in cervical samples, HPV DNA has been found in serum and other fluids but its origin is unclear. Extracellular vesicles (EV) could be a conveyance of viral DNA given their emerging role in cellular communication. The content of EV derived from cervical cells has not been properly explored and it is not known whether or not they contain HPV DNA. METHODS: We evaluated the DNA content of exosomes purified from cultures of HeLa cells by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and confirmed its presence by PCR. The presence of HPV DNA was also evaluated by PCR and NGS in EV from HPV-positive cervical samples without apparent lesion or with LSIL. RESULTS: We detected the integrated form of viral-DNA in exosomes from HeLa cells by NGS and confirmed its presence by PCR. The search for HPV sequences in EV obtained from cervical exudate samples without apparent lesion or with LSIL, where we expected to find the viral genome as an episome, indicated that HPV DNA, including the E6 and E7 oncogenes, is present in these EV. CONCLUSION: HPV DNA, including the viral oncogenes E6/E7, is found in exosomes regardless of the integration status of the virus in the infected cell.

Gold-Iron oxide yolk-shell nanoparticles (YSNPs) as magnetic probe for fluorescence-based detection of 3 base mismatch DNA.

Seed-mediated Gold-Iron oxide yolk-shell nanoparticles (YSNPs) were synthesized and functionalized with cy5 attached- thiolated single strand DNA probe for the detection of mutated DNA. The optimum concentration of thiolated DNA determined from a bathochromic shift of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak, was 0.177µM. The effect of pH (2-10), temperature (4, 37, 60 and 100 °C), and ionic strengths (1 M to 4 M) on the stability of ssDNA probe tethered YSNPs, studied with the assistance of flocculation parameter. The detection of mutation in DNA was possible using such ssDNA probe functionalized and stabilized nanoparticles. The hybridization of the oligonucleotide probe with the complementary, non-complementary and mutated DNA strands are determined via their respective intensities of the fluorescence of cy5, an efficient fluorescent marker. The intensities help in the comprehension of the specificity of the system. The report predicts controlled efficiency of hybridization with the aid of Hamaker constant, which is determined as 1.15 × 10-20 J for DNA functionalized YSNPs. The minimum concentration of target DNA detected using this methodology was 1.2 × 10-11 mol/L.

Predicting Human miRNA-like Sequences within Human Papillomavirus Genomes.

BACKGROUND: This study presents a prediction of putative miRNA within several Human Papillomavirus (HPV) types by using bioinformatics tools and a strategy based on sequence and structure alignment. Currently, little is known about HPV miRNAs. METHODS: Computational methods have been widely applied in the identification of novel miRNAs when analyzing genome sequences. Here, ten whole-genome sequences from HPV-6, -11, -16, -18, -31, -33, -35, -45, -52, and -58 were analyzed. Software based on local contiguous structure-sequence features and support vector machine (SVM), as well as additional bioinformatics tools, were utilized for identification and classification of real and pseudo microRNA precursors. RESULTS: An initial analysis predicted 200 putative pre-miRNAs for all the ten HPV genome variants. To derive a smaller set of pre-miRNAs candidates, stringent validation criteria was conducted by applying <‒10 ΔG value (Gibbs Free Energy). Thus, only pre-miRNAs with total scores above the cut-off points of 90% were considered as putative pre-miRNAs. As a result of this strategy, 19 pre-miRNAs were selected (hpv-pre-miRNAs). These novel pre-miRNAs were located in different clusters within HPV genomes and some of them were positioned at splice regions. Additionally, the 19 identified pre-miRNAs sequences varied between HPV genotypes. Interestingly, the newly identified miRNAs, 297, 27b, 500, 501-5, and 509-3-5p, were closely implicated in carcinogenesis participating in cellular longevity, cell cycle, metastasis, apoptosis evasion, tissue invasion and cellular growth pathways. CONCLUSIONS: The novel putative miRNAs candidates could be promising biomarkers of HPV infection and furthermore, could be targeted for potential therapeutic interventions in HPV-induced malignancies.

Cocaine reverses the naltrexone-induced reduction in operant ethanol self-administration: the effects on immediate-early gene expression in the rat prefrontal cortex.

Naltrexone is a clinically approved medication for alcoholism. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of naltrexone co-administered with cocaine and the association of these substances with immediate-early gene expression in the rat prefrontal cortex. We used chronic operant ethanol self-administration and oral treatments prescribed for alcoholism and available in pharmacies to maximise the predictive validity in humans. We performed real-time PCR analysis to determine gene expression levels in the prefrontal cortex. Only the highest dose of naltrexone (1, 3, and 10 mg/kg, p.o.) reduced the response to ethanol. Cocaine increased ethanol self-administration in a dose-dependent manner (2.5, 10, 20 mg/kg, i.p.) and reversed the naltrexone-induced reduction. Naltrexone failed to prevent the cocaine-induced increase in locomotor activity observed in these animals. Chronic self-administration of ethanol reduced the expression of the C-fos gene 4- to 12-fold and increased expression of the COX-2 (up to 4-fold) and Homer1a genes in the rat prefrontal cortex. Chronic ethanol self-administration is prevented by naltrexone, but cocaine fully reverses this effect. This result suggests that cocaine may overcome naltrexone's effectiveness as a treatment for alcoholism. The ethanol-induced reduction in C-fos gene expression in the prefrontal cortex reveals an abnormal activity of these neurons, which may be relevant in the compulsive consumption of ethanol, the control of reward-related areas and the behavioural phenotype of ethanol addiction.

MAGE-A3 expression is an adverse prognostic factor in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

This study evaluates the prognostic value of MAGE-A3 expression in 28 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients. A significant association was observed between MAGE-A3 expressions, assessed by quantitative real-time RT-polymerase chain reaction (PCR), with advanced stages of disease (P < 0.05). Elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels and International Prognostic Index (IPI) score were significantly higher in MAGE-A3-positive patients (P = 0.025 and P = 0.004, respectively). Expression of MAGE-A3 was associated with poor response to treatment and a significantly shorter overall survival (P < 0.001). Our data address new information in the association of MAGE-A3 expression and poor prognosis in DLBCL patients.