The Potential Relationship Between The Environmental Risk Factors And Social Cognition in Psychosis

Introduction

In schizophrenia research, little is known about the relationship of environmental exposures with social cognition deficits.

Objectives

We aimed to investigate the relationship between social cognitive performance and well-defined environmental risk factors (childhood adversities, birth season, paternal age, obstetric complications, urban living i.e.) in schizophrenia.

Methods

54 schizophrenia patients and 37 healthy controls (HCs) were included in our study. Participants in both groups were of similar age, gender, and educational level. Two theory of mind (ToM) tests (DEZIKÖ and RMET), and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) were applied. ToM test scores among groups (patients with/ without risk factors, and HC) were compared using analysis of variance.

Results

Overall, the schizophrenia group scored higher on the CTQ and performed worse on ToM tests than the HCs. Patients were more likely to report obstetric complications, advanced paternal age, winter and rural birth. Both the patients having high and low CTQ scores performed poorer on the RMET and false belief test than HCs. However, there was no significant difference in DEZİKÖ-total scores of patients with low CTQ scores and HCs. Patients with advanced paternal age at birth achieved lower faux pas sub-scores. Urban birth and RMET scores were positively correlated in patients.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest the environmental factors such as childhood traumas, advanced paternal age, and rural birth seem to negatively affect the social cognitive performance of schizophrenia patients.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Multicenter international assessment of a SARS-CoV-2 RT-LAMP test for point of care clinical application

Continued waves, new variants, and limited vaccine deployment mean that SARS-CoV-2 tests remain vital to constrain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Affordable, point-of-care (PoC) tests allow rapid screening in non-medical settings. Reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) is an appealing approach. A crucial step is to optimize testing in low/medium resource settings. Here, we optimized RT-LAMP for SARS-CoV-2 and human β-actin, and tested clinical samples in multiple countries. "TTTT" linker primers did not improve performance, and while guanidine hydrochloride, betaine and/or Igepal-CA-630 enhanced detection of synthetic RNA, only the latter two improved direct assays on nasopharygeal samples. With extracted clinical RNA, a 20 min RT-LAMP assay was essentially as sensitive as RT-PCR. With raw Canadian nasopharygeal samples, sensitivity was 100% (95% CI: 67.6% - 100%) for those with RT-qPCR Ct values ≤ 25, and 80% (95% CI: 58.4% - 91.9%) for those with 25 < Ct ≤ 27.2. Highly infectious, high titer cases were also detected in Colombian and Ecuadorian labs. We further demonstrate the utility of replacing thermocyclers with a portable PoC device (FluoroPLUM). These combined PoC molecular and hardware tools may help to limit community transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Field validation of the performance of paper-based tests for the detection of the Zika and chikungunya viruses in serum samples

In low-resource settings, resilience to infectious disease outbreaks can be hindered by limited access to diagnostic tests. Here we report the results of double-blinded studies of the performance of paper-based diagnostic tests for the Zika and chikungunya viruses in a field setting in Latin America. The tests involved a cell-free expression system relying on isothermal amplification and toehold-switch reactions, a purpose-built portable reader and onboard software for computer vision-enabled image analysis. In patients suspected of infection, the accuracies and sensitivities of the tests for the Zika and chikungunya viruses were, respectively, 98.5% (95% confidence interval, 96.2–99.6%, 268 serum samples) and 98.5% (95% confidence interval, 91.7–100%, 65 serum samples) and approximately 2 aM and 5 fM (both concentrations are within clinically relevant ranges). The analytical specificities and sensitivities of the tests for cultured samples of the viruses were equivalent to those of the real-time quantitative PCR. Cell-free synthetic biology tools and companion hardware can provide de-centralized, high-capacity and low-cost diagnostics for use in low-resource settings.

A glucose meter interface for point-of-care gene circuit-based diagnostics

Recent advances in cell-free synthetic biology have given rise to gene circuit-based sensors with the potential to provide decentralized and low-cost molecular diagnostics. However, it remains a challenge to deliver this sensing capacity into the hands of users in a practical manner. Here, we leverage the glucose meter, one of the most widely available point-of-care sensing devices, to serve as a universal reader for these decentralized diagnostics. We describe a molecular translator that can convert the activation of conventional gene circuit-based sensors into a glucose output that can be read by off-the-shelf glucose meters. We show the development of new glucogenic reporter systems, multiplexed reporter outputs and detection of nucleic acid targets down to the low attomolar range. Using this glucose-meter interface, we demonstrate the detection of a small-molecule analyte; sample-to-result diagnostics for typhoid, paratyphoid A/B; and show the potential for pandemic response with nucleic acid sensors for SARS-CoV-2.

Getting synthetic biology circuit-based sensors into field applications is still a challenge. Here the authors combine a circuit sensor with a glucose meter for small analyte and nucleic acid detection.

The effects of nitrous oxide on vitamin B12 and homocysteine levels in methyltetrahydrofolate reductase gene mutation

BACKGROUND

We aimed to investigate the effects of nitrous oxide on plasma total homocysteine and vitamin B12 levels in patients with or without methyltetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHRF) gene mutation.

METHODS

After obtaining the ethics committee approval and written informed consents of patients, 93 patients between 18-70 years of age scheduled for surgery anticipated to last 1-4 hours were enrolled in the study. Patients with contraindications for nitrous oxide use were excluded. Preoperatively, blood samples were obtained from all patients for the determination of MTHFR gene mutation. Anesthesia induction was achieved with 3 mg.kg-1 of propofol and 1 µg.kg-1 of fentanyl. Anesthesia maintenance was performed with sevoflurane and with a carrier gas composed of 40 % O2 and 60 % N2O. Venous blood samples were obtained after venous canulation, and 24 hours after extubation for the analysis of plasma total homocysteine, vitamin B12 levels.

RESULTS

Eighty-one patients were included in the study. Postoperative vitamin B12 levels were found to be significantly lower when compared with their preoperative levels (p<0.05). It was found that MTHRF gene polymorphism had no significant effect on postoperative plasma total homocysteine and serum vitamin B12 levels (p>0.05). Postoperative plasma total homocysteine levels were found to be significantly different between patients with operation times under and over 3 hours (p=0.028).

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that MTHRF gene polymorphism had no significant effects on postoperative plasma total homocysteine levels. However, we found that homocysteine levels might rise in patients who received general anesthesia with nitrous oxide for longer than 3 hours (Tab. 7, Ref. 26).

A case report: Prostatic carcinoma with metastasis to the testicle

Secondary testicular tumours are rare. We present a 54 years old patient with testicular metastasis from carcinoma of the prostate with a 7 years history of hormonotherapy and chemotherapy for advanced carcinoma.

A case report: Renal metastasis of prostate cancer

In this report, a rare case of renal metastasis of prostate cancer in a 55-year-old man is presented.

Accelerated atherosclerosis in tertiary syphilis and successful treatment with saphenous vein grafting--a case report

A 48-year-old male patient having none of the known risk factors for atherosclerosis underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery because of double-vessel coronary artery disease. During the operation, the aorta, both internal thoracic arteries (L/R-ITA), and the femoral artery were sclerotic, and CABG was performed using only saphenous vein grafts. A diagnosis of tertiary syphilis had been confirmed by either microscopic or serologic tests. There were different degrees of sclerosis in different arteries of different sizes. The presence of coronary artery disease with no known atherosclerotic risk factors should include preoperative testing for connective tissue disorders, chronic inflammatory disease, and cold hemagglutinins, because of the possible use of obligatory deep hypothermia or total circulatory arrest due to a diseased ascending aorta.