Pyramidal

14-3-3 proteins are a family of regulatory proteins that are abundantly expressed in the brain and enriched at the synapse. Dysfunctions of these proteins have been linked to neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. Our group has previously shown that functional inhibition of these proteins by a peptide inhibitor, difopein, in the mouse brain causes behavioural alterations and synaptic plasticity impairment in the hippocampus. Recently, we found an increased cFOS expression in difopein-expressing dorsal CA1 pyramidal neurons, indicating enhanced neuronal activity by 14-3-3 inhibition in these cells...

Activin A, a member of the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) family, is widely recognized for its neurotrophic and neuroprotective function in the developing and injured brain, respectively. Moreover, in the healthy adult brain, activin A has been shown to tune signal processing at excitatory synapses in a fashion that improves cognitive performance. Because its level in human cerebrospinal fluid rises with age, we wondered whether activin A has a role in mitigating the gradual cognitive decline that healthy individuals experience in late-life...

INTRODUCTION: Dietary acid load (DAL), which reflects the balance between acid- and alkaline-forming foods, is a modifiable risk factor for metabolic acidosis in CKD. Owing to the paucity of data in the Indian context, we undertook this cross-sectional study to estimate DAL and assess acid and alkaline food consumption in children with CKD2-5D (Chronic kidney disease stage 2 to 5 and 5D-those on hemodialysis). METHODS: Clinical profile, dietary assessment of energy, protein intake/deficits, and macronutrients were noted and computed using software created by the division of nutrition, St John's research institute based on Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines in clinically stable children with CKD2-5D...

The growing demand for sustainable and environmentally friendly viticulture is leading to a multiplication of breeding programs aimed at obtaining vines that are resistant to powdery mildew (PM) and downy mildew (DM), the two most damaging vine diseases. In Puglia, the most important Italian region for the production of table grapes, an extensive crossing program was launched in 2015 with 113 crosses, including elite table varieties, seedless varieties, and resistant varieties. The main seedling production parameters were measured for each cross...

Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a clinical syndrome primarily caused by either tau (bvFTD-tau) or TDP-43 (bvFTD-TDP) proteinopathies. We previously found lower cortical layers and dorsolateral regions accumulate greater tau than TDP-43 pathology; however, patterns of laminar neurodegeneration across diverse cytoarchitecture in bvFTD is understudied. We hypothesized that bvFTD-tau and bvFTD-TDP have distinct laminar distributions of pyramidal neurodegeneration along cortical gradients, a topologic order of cytoarchitectonic subregions based on increasing pyramidal density and laminar differentiation...

INTRODUCTION: Service robot technology is increasingly gaining prominence in the field of artificial intelligence. However, persistent limitations continue to impede its widespread implementation. In this regard, human motion pose estimation emerges as a crucial challenge necessary for enhancing the perceptual and decision-making capacities of service robots. METHOD: This paper introduces a groundbreaking model, YOLOv8-ApexNet, which integrates advanced technologies, including Bidirectional Routing Attention (BRA) and Generalized Feature Pyramid Network (GFPN)...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is increasingly becoming a major public health concern in our society. While many studies have explored the use of natural polyketides, alkaloids, and other chemical components in AD treatment, there is an urgent need to clarify the concept of multi-target treatment for AD. This study focuses on using network pharmacology approach to elucidate how secondary metabolites from Dictyostelium discoideum affect AD through multi-target or indirect mechanisms. The secondary metabolites produced by D...

AIMS: Ventral pathway circuits are constituted by the interconnected brain areas that are distributed throughout the brain. These brain circuits are primarily involved in processing of object related information in brain. However, their role in object recognition memory (ORM) enhancement remains unknown. Here, we have studied on the implication of these circuits in ORM enhancement and in reversal of ORM deficit in aging. METHODS: The brain areas interconnected to ventral pathway circuits in rat brain were activated by an expression of a protein called regulator of G-protein signaling 14 of 414 amino acids (RGS14414 )...

Collective interactions are a novel type of chemical bond formed between metals and electron-rich substituents around an electron-poor central atom. So far only a limited number of candidates for having collective interactions are reported. In this work, we extend the newly introduced concept of collective bonding to a series of neutral boron complexes with the general formula M2BX3 (M = Li, Na, and K; X = F, Cl, and Br). Our state-of-the-art ab initio computations suggest that these complexes form trigonal bipyramidal structures with a D3h to C3v distortion along the C3 axis of symmetry...

Computational models of brain regions are crucial for understanding neuronal network dynamics and the emergence of cognitive functions. However, current supercomputing limitations hinder the implementation of large networks with millions of morphological and biophysical accurate neurons. Consequently, research has focused on simplified spiking neuron models, ranging from the computationally fast Leaky Integrate and Fire (LIF) linear models to more sophisticated non-linear implementations like Adaptive Exponential (AdEX) and Izhikevic models, through Generalized Leaky Integrate and Fire (GLIF) approaches...

Hippocampal somatostatin-expressing ( Sst ) GABAergic interneurons (INs) exhibit considerable anatomical and functional heterogeneity. Recent single-cell transcriptome analyses have provided a comprehensive Sst -IN subpopulations census, a plausible molecular ground truth of neuronal identity whose links to specific functionality remain incomplete. Here, we designed an approach to identify and access subpopulations of Sst -INs based on transcriptomic features. Four mouse models based on single or combinatorial Cre- and Flp- expression differentiated functionally distinct subpopulations of CA1 hippocampal Sst- INs that largely tiled the morpho-functional parameter space of the Sst -INs superfamily...

BACKGROUND: Previous work from our group has shown that chronic exposure to Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) causes cytoskeletal alterations suggesting that V2O5 can interact with cytoskeletal proteins through polymerization and tyrosine phosphatases inhibition, causing Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like hippocampal cell death. OBJECTIVE: This work aims to characterize an innovative AD experimental model through chronic V2O5 inhalation, analyzing the spatial memory alterations and the presence of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), amyloid-β (Aβ) senile plaques, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and dendritic spine loss in AD-related brain structures...

INTRODUCTION: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a widely used therapeutic tool in neurology and psychiatry, but its cellular and molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. Standardizing stimulus parameters, specifically electric field strength, is crucial in experimental and clinical settings. It enables meaningful comparisons across studies and facilitates the translation of findings into clinical practice. However, the impact of biophysical properties inherent to the stimulated neurons and networks on the outcome of rTMS protocols remains not well understood...

AIM: To propose an algorithm for automatic detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR) lesions based on ultra-widefield scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO). METHODS: The algorithm utilized the FasterRCNN (Faster Regions with CNN features)+ResNet50 (Residua Network 50)+FPN (Feature Pyramid Networks) method for detecting hemorrhagic spots, cotton wool spots, exudates, and microaneurysms in DR ultra-widefield SLO. Subimage segmentation combined with a deeper residual network FasterRCNN+ResNet50 was employed for feature extraction to enhance intelligent learning rate...

Compounds containing Mn-O bonds are of utmost importance in biological systems and catalytic processes. Nevertheless, mononuclear manganese complexes containing all O-donor ligands are still rare. Taking advantage of the low tendency of the pentafluoroorthotellurate ligand (teflate, OTeF5 ) to bridge metal centers, we have synthesized two homoleptic manganese complexes with monomeric structures and an all O-donor coordination sphere. The tetrahedrally distorted MnII anion, [Mn(OTeF5 )4 ]2- , can be described as a high spin d5 complex ( S = 5/2), as found experimentally (magnetic susceptibility measurements and EPR spectroscopy) and using theoretical calculations (DFT and CASSCF/NEVPT2)...

Bronchiectasis is a clinical-radiological condition composed of irreversible bronchial dilation due to inflammation and infection of the airways, which causes respiratory symptoms, usually productive cough and infectious exacerbations. Bronchiectasis can have multiple causes, both pulmonary and extrapulmonary, and its clinical presentation is very heterogenous. Its prevalence is unknown, although up to 35-50% of severe COPD and 25% of severe asthma present them, so their underdiagnosis is evident. Chronic bacterial bronchial infection is common, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the pathogen that has been found to imply a worse prognosis...

Canonically, action potentials of most mammalian neurons initiate at the axon initial segment and propagate bidirectionally: orthodromically along the distal axon, and retrogradely into the soma and dendrites. Under some circumstances action potentials may initiate ectopically, at sites distal to the axon initial segment, and propagate antidromically along the axon. These 'ectopic action potentials' (EAPs) have been observed in experimental models of seizures and chronic pain, and more rarely in nonpathological forebrain neurons...

Pitt-Hopkins syndrome (PTHS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by haploinsufficiency of transcription factor 4 (TCF4). In this work, we focused on the cerebral cortex and investigated in detail the progenitor cell dynamics and the outcome of neurogenesis in a PTHS mouse model. Labeling and quantification of progenitors and newly generated neurons at various time points during embryonic development revealed alterations affecting the dynamic of cortical progenitors since the earliest stages of cortex formation in PTHS mice...

Anxiety is a prevalent mental illness known for its high incidence, comorbidity, and tendency to recur, posing significant societal and individual burdens. Studies have highlighted Interleukin-19 (IL-19) as having potential relevance in neuropsychiatric disorders. Our previous research revealed that IL-19 overexpression in colonies exacerbated anxiety-related behaviors induced by dextran sodium sulfate/stress. However, the precise role and molecular mechanisms of IL-19 in anxiety regulation remain uncertain...

Cholecystokinin-expressing interneurons (CCKIs) are hypothesized to shape pyramidal cell-firing patterns and regulate network oscillations and related network state transitions. To directly probe their role in the CA1 region, we silenced their activity using optogenetic and chemogenetic tools in mice. Opto-tagged CCKIs revealed a heterogeneous population, and their optogenetic silencing triggered wide disinhibitory network changes affecting both pyramidal cells and other interneurons. CCKI silencing enhanced pyramidal cell burst firing and altered the temporal coding of place cells: theta phase precession was disrupted, whereas sequence reactivation was enhanced...