Ostarine blunts the effect of endurance training on submaximal endurance in rats.

The purpose of this study is to study the effects of ostarine alone and in combination with endurance training in sexually mature, male Wistar rats. The rats were divided into a treadmill-trained group and a sedentary group. Half of each group received either ostarine or vehicle for 8 weeks (n = 10 each, in total n = 40). We examined some functional, hormonal, and anthropometric parameters and the myogenic gene expression of myostatin, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) in m. gastrocnemius. Ostarine decreased submaximal endurance and increased myogenic gene expression of myostatin but had no effect on maximal time to exhaustion and grip strength. Training increased submaximal endurance, maximal time to exhaustion, and grip strength. Our results indicate that both exercise and ostarine treatment had no significant effects on serum levels of luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and testosterone, or on the myogenic gene expression of IGF-1 and VEGF-A. Neither ostarine nor the training had a significant effect on the testis, liver, and heart weights. In conclusion, ostarine had no effect on anthropometric and hormonal parameters but increased the myostatin gene expression in muscle. The SARM treatment decreased submaximal endurance without affecting maximal time to exhaustion, and training increased both metrics.

Serum vitamin D levels and inflammatory status in COVID-19 patients.

OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) is characterized by a heterogeneous clinical presentation, a complex pathophysiology and a wide range of laboratory findings, depending on disease severity. BACKGROUND: We studied some laboratory parameters in correlation with vitamin D status representing the inflammatory state in hospitalized COVID-19 patients on admission. METHODS: The study included 100 COVID-19 patients with moderate (n=55) and severe (n=45) form of the disease. Complete blood count and differential blood count, routine biochemical parameters, C-reactive protein and serum procalcitonin, ferritin, human IL-6 and serum vitamin D (measured as 25-OH vitamin D) concentrations, were performed. RESULTS: According to the severity of the disease, patients with severe form had significantly lower serum vitamin D (16.54±6.51 ng/ml vs 20.37±5.63 ng/ml, p=0.0012), higher serum interleukin-6 (41.24±28.46 pg/ml vs. 24.75±16.28 pg/ml, p=0.0003), C-reactive protein (101.49± 57.15 mg/l vs 74.43±42.99 mg/l, p=0.0044), ferritin (969.89±338.37 ng/ml vs 845.96±359.91 ng/ml, p=0.0423) and LDH (1050.53±369.11 U/l vs 905.31±335.57 U/l, p=0.0222) compared to those with moderate form of the disease. CONCLUSION: The presented data provide a relationship between increased inflammatory laboratory markers, low vitamin D levels and disease severity in COVID-19 patients (Tab. 2, Fig. 3, Ref. 32).

A Common Neural Account for Social and Nonsocial Decisions.

To date, social and nonsocial decisions have been studied largely in isolation. Consequently, the extent to which social and nonsocial forms of decision uncertainty are integrated using shared neurocomputational resources remains elusive. Here, we address this question using simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG)-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy human participants (young adults of both sexes) and a task in which decision evidence in social and nonsocial contexts varies along comparable scales. First, we identify time-resolved build-up of activity in the EEG, akin to a process of evidence accumulation (EA), across both contexts. We then use the endogenous trial-by-trial variability in the slopes of these accumulating signals to construct parametric fMRI predictors. We show that a region of the posterior-medial frontal cortex (pMFC) uniquely explains trial-wise variability in the process of evidence accumulation in both social and nonsocial contexts. We further demonstrate a task-dependent coupling between the pMFC and regions of the human valuation system in dorso-medial and ventro-medial prefrontal cortex across both contexts. Finally, we report domain-specific representations in regions known to encode the early decision evidence for each context. These results are suggestive of a domain-general decision-making architecture, whereupon domain-specific information is likely converted into a "common currency" in medial prefrontal cortex and accumulated for the decision in the pMFC.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Little work has directly compared social-versus-nonsocial decisions to investigate whether they share common neurocomputational origins. Here, using combined electroencephalography (EEG)-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and computational modeling, we offer a detailed spatiotemporal account of the neural underpinnings of social and nonsocial decisions. Specifically, we identify a comparable mechanism of temporal evidence integration driving both decisions and localize this integration process in posterior-medial frontal cortex (pMFC). We further demonstrate task-dependent coupling between the pMFC and regions of the human valuation system across both contexts. Finally, we report domain-specific representations in regions encoding the early, domain-specific, decision evidence. These results suggest a domain-general decision-making architecture, whereupon domain-specific information is converted into a common representation in the valuation system and integrated for the decision in the pMFC.