Impact of OMNIPOD® on the quality of life of adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

INTRODUCTION: Several pediatric studies have demonstrated that therapy using a conventional insulin pump improves glycemic control and quality of life. At the beginning of this study, a new tubeless insulin pump, Omnipod®, had recently been marketed in France. OBJECTIVES: Analyze the response of adolescents treated with multiple injections to the proposal to use this new medical device and compare both the quality of life and the glycemic control of adolescents according to their choice. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This was a prospective, observational study of adolescents aged 10-17 years who had type 1 diabetes for more than 1 year, all treated with multi-injection insulin delivery according to a basal-bolus regimen. They were separated into three groups: group A choosing to use the Omnipod® system, group B taking the time to think before making a decision, and group C choosing to keep their multi-injection therapy. The three groups were compared according to their quality of life with validated tools and glycemic control. RESULTS: Groups were formed with 30 (25%) patients in group A, 55 patients (45%) in group B, and 36 patients (30%) in group C. As to the WHO Well-Being Index, no significant difference appeared in the study for the patients in the three groups. An increased treatment satisfaction score was found, evolving from 3.79 ± 0.68 to 4.36 ± 0.56, p = 0.002 (group A) and from 3.87 ± 0.7 to 4.16 ± 0.7, p = 0.032 (group B), with no significant change for group C (from 4.39 ± 0.6 to 4.31 ± 0.62, p = 0.582). The wish to change treatment score improved for group A (from 4.14 ± 0.88 to 1.68 ± 0.9; p < 0.001) and group B (from 3.51 ± 1.05 to 1.84 ± 1; p < 0.001), with no significant change for group C (from 1.81 ± 0 0.98 to 1.61 ± 0.8; p = 0.432). There was no significant difference regarding HbA1c rates in the three groups. CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference in quality-of-life scores between adolescents who chose to switch from multiple injection to the tubeless patch pump and those who retained multi-injection treatment, but increased satisfaction was observed in the former group.

Olfactory stem cells reveal MOCOS as a new player in autism spectrum disorders.

With an onset under the age of 3 years, autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are now understood as diseases arising from pre- and/or early postnatal brain developmental anomalies and/or early brain insults. To unveil the molecular mechanisms taking place during the misshaping of the developing brain, we chose to study cells that are representative of the very early stages of ontogenesis, namely stem cells. Here we report on MOlybdenum COfactor Sulfurase (MOCOS), an enzyme involved in purine metabolism, as a newly identified player in ASD. We found in adult nasal olfactory stem cells of 11 adults with ASD that MOCOS is downregulated in most of them when compared with 11 age- and gender-matched control adults without any neuropsychiatric disorders. Genetic approaches using in vivo and in vitro engineered models converge to indicate that altered expression of MOCOS results in neurotransmission and synaptic defects. Furthermore, we found that MOCOS misexpression induces increased oxidative-stress sensitivity. Our results demonstrate that altered MOCOS expression is likely to have an impact on neurodevelopment and neurotransmission, and may explain comorbid conditions, including gastrointestinal disorders. We anticipate our discovery to be a fresh starting point for the study on the roles of MOCOS in brain development and its functional implications in ASD clinical symptoms. Moreover, our study suggests the possible development of new diagnostic tests based on MOCOS expression, and paves the way for drug screening targeting MOCOS and/or the purine metabolism to ultimately develop novel treatments in ASD.

Complete recovery of olfactory associative learning by activation of 5-HT4 receptors after dentate granule cell damage in rats.

Bilateral intradentate injections of 3.0microg of colchicine induced a substantial loss of granule cells and damage to the overlying pyramidal cell layer in region CA1 in adult male Long-Evans rats. All rats with such lesions showed a significant associative learning deficit in an olfactory discrimination task, while being unimpaired in the procedural component of this task. Injection of a partial selective 5-HT(4) agonist (SL65.0155; 0.01mg/kg, i.p., vs. saline) before the third of six training sessions enabled complete recovery of associative learning performance in the lesioned rats. Activation of 5-HT(4) receptors by a selective agonist such as SL65.0155 might therefore provide an opportunity to reduce learning and memory deficits associated with temporal lobe damage, and could be useful for the symptomatic treatment of memory dysfunctions related to pathological aging such as Alzheimer's disease.