[Peer support workers : a novel profession in psychiatry]. / Les pairs praticiens en santé mentale : une nouvelle profession en psychiatrie.

The possibility to recover from a psychiatric disorder for example schizophrenia materializes today by the emergence of new professionals : peer support workers. These persons have lived the experience of a mental health disorder and underwent training in order to contribute to the recovery of others. This brief article provides an update while they begin to be active in French-speaking Switzerland. The data indicate that their involvement in care decreases the use of emergency, enhances the capability of persons to manage their own health and the satisfaction towards psychiatric services. They promote a culture of hope and recovery in other professionals. Studies are necessary to evaluate more precisely these complex interventions.

La possibilité de se rétablir d'un trouble psychiatrique, par exemple la schizophrénie, se concrétise aujourd'hui par l'émergence de nouveaux professionnels : les pairs praticiens en santé mentale. Ces personnes ont vécu l'expérience du trouble psychiatrique et suivi une formation pour contribuer au rétablissement d'autres personnes. Ce bref article fait le point alors qu'ils commencent à s'établir en Suisse romande. Les données indiquent que leur implication dans les soins diminue le recours aux urgences, augmente la capacité des personnes à gérer leur propre santé et le degré de satisfaction vis-à-vis des services de psychiatrie. Ils favorisent une culture de l'espoir et du rétablissement auprès des autres professionnels. Des études sont encore nécessaires pour évaluer plus précisément ces interventions complexes.

[New developments in psychiatry]. / Psychiatrie.

The development of the role of peer workers in mental health aims to give more space to patients and to enrich mental health treatment with their personal experience. New strategies have also been developed to facilitate access to work for patients suffering from mental illness as well as to improve mental health of workers, within a global movement aiming at putting forth the role of work as a mean towards social integration, which tends to be forgotten in a society aiming principally at productivity. In a more technical domain, repeated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation offers a new tool for the treatment of resistant depression. Finally, the Swiss Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (SGPP) has published recommendations for the treatment of schizophrenia which are freely available on the website of this society.

Le développement du rôle de pairs praticiens en santé mentale cherche à faire une plus grande place aux patients et à enrichir les soins en s'appuyant sur leur expérience de la maladie psychique. De nouvelles stratégies visent d'autre part à améliorer l'accès des patients psychiques au monde du travail, ainsi qu'à améliorer la santé psychique des travailleurs, dans un mouvement qui met en avant le rôle d'intégration sociale du travail, ce que l'on tend à oublier dans un monde axé avant tout sur la productivité. Dans un domaine plus technique, le développement de la stimulation magnétique transcrânienne répétitive (rTMS) offre un nouvel outil pour le traitement de la dépression résistante. Enfin, la Société suisse de psychiatrie et psychothérapie vient de publier des recommandations pour le traitement de la schizophrénie.

Tomato Rab11a characterization evidenced a difference between SYP121-dependent and SYP122-dependent exocytosis.

The regulatory functions of Rab proteins in membrane trafficking lie in their ability to perform as molecular switches that oscillate between a GTP- and a GDP-bound conformation. The role of tomato LeRab11a in secretion was analyzed in tobacco protoplasts. Green fluorescent protein (GFP)/red fluorescent protein (RFP)-tagged LeRab11a was localized at the trans-Golgi network (TGN) in vivo. Two serines in the GTP-binding site of the protein were mutagenized, giving rise to the three mutants Rab11S22N, Rab11S27N and Rab11S22/27N. The double mutation reduced secretion of a marker protein, secRGUS (secreted rat beta-glucuronidase), by half, whereas each of the single mutations alone had a much smaller effect, showing that both serines have to be mutated to obtain a dominant negative effect on LeRab11a function. The dominant negative mutant was used to determine whether Rab11 is involved in the pathway(s) regulated by the plasma membrane syntaxins SYP121 and SYP122. Co-expression of either of these GFP-tagged syntaxins with the dominant negative Rab11S22/27N mutant led to the appearance of endosomes, but co-expression of GFP-tagged SYP122 also labeled the endoplasmic reticulum and dotted structures. However, co-expression of Rab11S22/27N with SYP121 dominant negative mutants decreased secretion of secRGUS further compared with the expression of Rab11S22/27N alone, whereas co-expression of Rab11S22/27N with SYP122 had no synergistic effect. With the same essay, the difference between SYP121- and SYP122-dependent secretion was then evidenced. The results suggest that Rab11 regulates anterograde transport from the TGN to the plasma membrane and strongly implicate SYP122, rather than SYP121. The differential effect of LeRab11a supports the possibility that SYP121 and SYP122 drive independent secretory events.

The expression of the t-SNARE AtSNAP33 is induced by pathogens and mechanical stimulation.

The fusion of vesicles in the secretory pathway involves the interaction of t-soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (t-SNAREs) on the target membrane and v-SNAREs on the vesicle membrane. AtSNAP33 is an Arabidopsis homolog of the neuronal t-SNARE SNAP-25 involved in exocytosis and is localized at the cell plate and at the plasma membrane. In this paper, the expression of AtSNAP33 was analyzed after different biotic and abiotic stresses. The expression of AtSNAP33 increased after inoculation with the pathogens Plectosporium tabacinum and virulent and avirulent forms of Peronospora parasitica and Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato. The expression of PR1 transcripts encoding the secreted pathogenesis-related protein 1 also increased after inoculation with these pathogens and the expression of AtSNAP33 preceded or occurred at the same time as the expression of PR1. AtSNAP33 was also expressed in npr1 plants that do not express PR1 after pathogen inoculation as well as in cpr1 plants that overexpress PR1 in the absence of a pathogen. The level of AtSNAP33 decreased slightly in leaves inoculated with P. parasitica in the NahG plants, and eds5 and sid2 mutants that are unable to accumulate salicylic acid (SA) after pathogen inoculation, indicating a partial dependence on SA. AtSNAP33 was also expressed in systemic noninoculated leaves of plants inoculated with P. syringae. In contrast to the situation in infected leaves, the expression of AtSNAP33 in systemic leaves was fully SA dependent. Thus, the expression of AtSNAP33 after pathogen attack is regulated by SA-dependent and SA-independent pathways. Mechanical stimulation also led to an increase of AtSNAP33 transcripts.

Flux control of sulphate assimilation in Arabidopsis thaliana: adenosine 5'-phosphosulphate reductase is more susceptible than ATP sulphurylase to negative control by thiols.

The effect of externally applied L-cysteine and glutathione (GSH) on ATP sulphurylase and adenosine 5'-phosphosulphate reductase (APR), two key enzymes of assimilatory sulphate reduction, was examined in Arabidopsis thaliana root cultures. Addition of increasing L-cysteine to the nutrient solution increased internal cysteine, gamma-glutamylcysteine and GSH concentrations, and decreased APR mRNA, protein and extractable activity. An effect on APR could already be detected at 0.2 mm L-cysteine, whereas ATP sulphurylase was significantly affected only at 2 mm L-cysteine. APR mRNA, protein and activity were also decreased by GSH at 0.2 mm and higher concentrations. In the presence of L-buthionine-S, R-sulphoximine (BSO), an inhibitor of GSH synthesis, 0.2 mm L-cysteine had no effect on APR activity, indicating that GSH formed from cysteine was the regulating substance. Simultaneous addition of BSO and 0.5 mm GSH to the culture medium decreased APR mRNA, enzyme protein and activity. ATP sulphurylase activity was not affected by this treatment. Tracer experiments using (35)SO(4)(2-) in the presence of 0.5 mm L-cysteine or GSH showed that both thiols decreased sulphate uptake, APR activity and the flux of label into cysteine, GSH and protein, but had no effect on the activity of all other enzymes of assimilatory sulphate reduction and serine acetyltransferase. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that thiols regulate the flux through sulphate assimilation at the uptake and the APR step. Analysis of radioactive labelling indicates that the flux control coefficient of APR is more than 0.5 for the intracellular pathway of sulphate assimilation. This analysis also shows that the uptake of external sulphate is inhibited by GSH to a greater extent than the flux through the pathway, and that the flux control coefficient of APR for the pathway, including the transport step, is proportionately less, with a significant share of the control exerted by the transport step.