Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Intensities in Cognitive Paradigms

BACKGROUND: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become an important experimental tool for exploring the brain's functional anatomy. As TMS interferes with neural activity, the hypothetical function of the stimulated area can thus be tested. One unresolved methodological issue in TMS experiments is the question of how to adequately calibrate stimulation intensities. The motor threshold (MT) is often taken as a reference for individually adapted stimulation intensities in TMS experiments, even if they do not involve the motor system. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether it is reasonable to adjust stimulation intensities in each subject to the individual MT if prefrontal regions are stimulated prior to the performance of a cognitive paradigm. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Repetitive TMS (rTMS) was applied prior to a working memory task, either at the 'fixed' intensity of 40% maximum stimulator output (MSO), or individually adapted at 90% of the subject's MT. Stimulation was applied to a target region in the left posterior middle frontal gyrus (pMFG), as indicated by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) localizer acquired beforehand, or to a control site (vertex). Results show that MT predicted the effect size after stimulating subjects with the fixed intensity (i.e., subjects with a low MT showed a greater behavioral effect). Nevertheless, the individual adaptation of intensities did not lead to stable effects. CONCLUSION: Therefore, we suggest assessing MT and account for it as a measure for general cortical TMS susceptibility, even if TMS is applied outside the motor domain

Oncolytic adenovirus based on serotype 3

Oncolytic adenoviruses have been safe in clinical trials but the efficacy has been mostly limited. All published trials have been performed with serotype 5 based viruses. The expression level of the Ad5 receptor CAR may be variable in advanced tumors. In contrast, the Ad3 receptor remains unclear, but is known to be abundantly expressed in most tumors. Therefore, we hypothesized that a fully serotype 3 oncolytic adenovirus might be useful for treating cancer. Patients exposed to adenoviruses develop high titers of serotype-specific neutralizing antibodies, which might compromise re-administration. Thus, having different serotype oncolytic viruses available might facilitate repeated dosing in humans. Ad3-hTERT-E1A is a fully serotype 3 oncolytic adenovirus controlled by the promoter of the catalytic domain of human telomerase. It was effective in vitro on cell lines representing seven major cancer types, although low toxicity was seen in non-malignant cells. In vivo, the virus had anti-tumor efficacy in three different animal models. Although in vitro oncolysis mediated by Ad3-hTERT-E1A and wild-type Ad3 occurred more slowly than with Ad5 or Ad5/3 (Ad3 fiber knob in Ad5) based viruses, in vivo the virus was at least as potent as controls. Anti-tumor efficacy was retained in presence of neutralizing anti-Ad5 antibodies whereas Ad5 based controls were blocked. In summary, we report generation of a non-Ad5 based oncolytic adenovirus, which might be useful for testing in cancer patients, especially in the context of high anti-Ad5 neutralizing antibodies

Mobile digital storytelling in a Brazilian care home

Digital stories are short personal films made up of a series of still images with voiceover, music and text. The technical barriers to creating such stories are falling with the use of mobile apps which make it easy to assemble story elements as audiophoto narratives on a smartphone or tablet. In this case study, we explored the potential of mobile digital storytelling in a care home context. It was used for four weeks as form of multimedia communication between formal and informal carers inside and outside the home, and a care home resident suffering from dementia. The home was located in São Carlos, Brazil as part of a larger international project called Time Matters (UK and Brazil), in which Time stands for ‘This is me’. Fifteen digital stories were made by participants in the trial, which is about one for every visit of the researchers to the care home. Stories focused mainly on the resident; capturing aspects of everyday life discussed in Visit conversations (4), documenting Social events (3) inside or outside the home, recording Therapy sessions (3) with the resident or Health reports (3) by professional carers, and forming Media albums (2) of the residents’ art or life. In general, the technology was most useful for facilitating richer conversations with the resident and other participants, and stimulating greater expressivity and creativity in the resident herself. The desire to document the resident’s current life and interests in the home for later reminiscence by their family, stands in contrast to conventional reminiscence therapy and related digital systems. These use media artefacts to stimulate reminiscence of residents’ past life outside the home

Retinal transduction profiles by high-capacity viral vectors

Retinal gene therapy with adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors is safe and effective in humans. However, the limited cargo capacity of AAV prevents their use for therapy of those inherited retinopathies (IRs) due to mutations in large (>5 kb) genes. Viral vectors derived from adenovirus (Ad), lentivirus (LV) and herpes virus (HV) can package large DNA sequences, but do not target efficiently retinal photoreceptors (PRs) where the majority of genes responsible for IRs are expressed. Here, we have evaluated the mouse retinal transduction profiles of vectors derived from 16 different Ad serotypes, 7 LV pseudotypes and from a bovine HV. Most of the vectors tested transduced efficiently the retinal pigment epithelium. We found that LV-GP64 tends to transduce more PRs than the canonical LV-VSVG, albeit this was restricted to a narrow region. We observed more extensive PR transduction with HdAd1, 2 and 5/F35++ than with LV, although none of them outperformed the canonical HdAd5 or matched the extension of PR transduction achieved with AAV2/8

Reduced plasmodium parasite burden associates with CD38(+) CD4(+) T cells displaying cytolytic potential and impaired IFN-gamma production

Using a unique resource of samples from a controlled human malaria infection ( CHMI) study, we identified a novel population of CD4(+) T cells whose frequency in the peripheral blood was inversely correlated with parasite burden following P. falciparum infection. These CD4(+) T cells expressed the multifunctional ectoenzyme CD38 and had unique features that distinguished them from other CD4(+) T cells. Specifically, their phenotype was associated with proliferation, activation and cytotoxic potential as well as significantly impaired production of IFN-gamma and other cytokines and reduced basal levels of activated STAT1. A CD38(+) CD4(+) T cell population with similar features was identified in healthy uninfected individuals, at lower frequency. CD38(+) CD4(+) T cells could be generated in vitro from CD38(-) CD4(+) T cells after antigenic or mitogenic stimulation. This is the first report of a population of CD38(+) CD4(+) T cells with a cytotoxic phenotype and markedly impaired IFN-gamma capacity in humans. The expansion of this CD38(+) CD4(+) T population following infection and its significant association with reduced blood-stage parasite burden is consistent with an important functional role for these cells in protective immunity to malaria in humans. Their ubiquitous presence in humans suggests that they may have a broad role in host-pathogen defense

Kwaliteit van leven bij dementie

In de literatuur worden verschillende definities van ‘kwaliteit van leven’ gevonden. Dit roept de vraag op welke domeinen als belangrijk worden gezien door mensen met dementie zelf. In een exploratieve studie werden de meningen van mensen met dementie (thuiswonend en verblijvend in verpleeghuizen) vergeleken met die van professionele zorgverleners en met meetinstrumenten voor kwaliteit van leven bij dementie. Gegevens werden verzameld door middel van interviews, focusgroepen en literatuurstudie. De meeste kwaliteit- van-levendomeinen die door mensen met dementie belangrijk werden gevonden, werden ook genoemd door de professionele zorgverleners en gevonden in meetinstrumenten. Sommige domeinen werden echter niet genoemd door professionals (‘gevoel voor esthetiek’, ‘financiële situatie’, ‘nuttig zijn/zingeving’ en ‘spiritualiteit’) of niet gevonden in de meetinstrumenten (‘veiligheid en privacy’, ‘zelfbeschikking en vrijheid’, ‘nuttig zijn/ zingeving’ en ‘spiritualiteit’). Dit wijst op mogelijke verschillen in perspectief tussen mensen met dementie enerzijds en hun zorgverleners en onderzoekers anderzijds. Vervolgens is onderzocht in hoeverre professionals zich richten op de kwaliteit-vanlevendomeinen die mensen met dementie belangrijk vinden. Zorgverleners van 29 afdelingen en 3 dagbehandelingen van 13 verpleeghuizen en 12 ontmoetingscentra vulden een vragenlijst in (N=374). Zij gaven aan zich tenminste in enige mate te richten op de meeste domeinen die als relevant werden genoemd door mensen met dementie, maar in beperkte mate op ‘financiële situatie’ en ‘nuttig zijn/ zingeving’. Zorgverleners die betrokken zijn bij dagbesteding richtten zich meer dan zorgverleners die 24-uurszorg leveren op de domeinen ‘gehechtheid’, ‘plezier in activiteiten’, ‘gevoel voor esthetiek in leefomgeving’ en ‘nuttig zijn, zingeving’