Fatty aspirin: a new perspective in the prevention of dementia of Alzheimer's type?

Alzheimer's disease (AD) leads to a dramatic decline in cognitive abilities and memory. A more modest disruption of memory often occurs in normal aging and the same circuits that are devastated through degeneration in AD are vulnerable to sub-lethal age-related changes that alter synaptic transmission. There are numerous indications that aberrant plasticity is critically involved in Alzheimer's. Is ageing itself the major risk factor for AD? Is AD an acceleration of normal ageing? We assume that the ability of the brain is to modify its own structural organization and functioning which is liable to become impaired in ageing until it becomes dramatically impaired in Alzheimer's. Moreover, ageing can compromise the conversion of dietary alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) to docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). DHA regulates synaptogenesis and affects the synaptic structure, and synapse density is reduced in ageing. DHA and newly identified DHA-derived messenger, neuroprotecting D1 (NPD1), protect synapses and decrease the number of activated microglia in the hippocampal system. Delaying AD onset by a few years would reduce the number of the cases of dementia in the community. DHA (and NPD1?) and aspirin induce brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein expression and this protein has a crucial role in neuronal survival. The authors--in view of the increased neuroinflammatory reaction frequently observed during normal brain ageing--suggest the long-term use of "fatty aspirin", an association of DHA and/or NPD1 and aspirin (or nitroaspirin), to postpone, or prevent, the structural neurodegeneration of the brain.

Um protocolo inovativo para avaliação tridimensional do pé na análise de marcha / An innovative protocol for 3D avaliation of lower limb in Gait analysis

A analise de marcha é um instrumento de grande utilidade no diagnostico funcional de pacientes com problema na deambulação. Os protocolos disponíveis atualmente não fornecem dados tridimensionais dos movimentos das articulações do membro inferior completo e baseado na convenção biomecânica utilizada. O objetivo deste estudo foi de apresentar um novo protocolo para analise tridimensional do membro inferior e de mostrar em particular as vantagens das análises tridimensionais do complexo tíbio-társico em pacientes com deformidade típica consequente de acidente vascular encefálico (AVE). Cinco pacientes com pé equino varo supinado em consequência de AVE foram submetidos a uma análise de marcha utilizando o protocolo Total 3D Gait e o convencional Plug-in-Gait model (PIG). Um paciente com análoga deformidade foi submetido à análise da marcha antes e após a correção cirúrgica do pé. O protocolo Total 3D Gait apresentado forneceu, em relação ao protocolo convencional PIG, dados essenciais e únicos do movimento do pé nos três planos de espaço permitindo um diagnóstico funcional mais preciso da complexidade do movimento durante a deambulação e avaliou com maior eficácia os resultados do tratamento.

Gait analysis is an instrument of great value in the functional diagnosis of patients with altered gait. The currently available protocols do not provide tridimensional (3D) data of complete lower limb joint movements based on common biomechanics convetion. The aim of this study was to present an innovative protocol of lower limb 3D analysis and to demonstrate the advantages of 3D analysis of the tibiotarsal joint in patients with typical stroke deformities. Five patients with equinus foot due to cardiovascular accident were submitted to gait analysis with the Total 3D gait protocol and the convetional Plug-in-Gait model (PiG). One patient with the same type of deformity wasanalyzed before and after foot surgical intervention. The novel protocol provided, in contrast to the PiG conventional protocol, essential and unique data from foot movement in the three movement planes, allowing a more precise functional diagnosis of the movement complexity during gait along with efficienty assessing treatment results.

The soluble interleukin-2 receptor, peripheral blood, and reticulocyte fractions in acute pancreatitis.

CONCLUSION: In acute pancreatitis (AP), the peripheral blood analysis, including reticulocytes (RC) and RC fractions, and its relationship to the changes of the levels of the soluble interleukin 2 receptor (sIL-2R) can provide useful information about the involvement of the immunoinflammatory system in AP and can indicate the severity of the disease. BACKGROUND: In the disease clinical assessment, we correlated the sIL-2R serum levels to the peripheral blood components (including RC and RC fractions) to serum albumin and C-reactive protein (CRP) during AP. METHODS: In 21 patients with AP, sIL-2R, the total and differential white blood cell (WBC) counts, red blood cell (RBC) counts, RC, RC fractions, hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Ht), platelets (PLT), albumin, and CRP were evaluated from the onset to the sixth day of illness. RESULTS: sIL-2R increased in all the patients. The increase was directly related to eosinophils, monocytes, and to middle-aged (MFR) RC, and inversely related to neutrophils and the old (LFR) RC. MFR-RC were directly related to the total WBC count, eosinophils, and basophils, and inversely related to Hb and albumin. LFR-RC behaved in the opposite manner. CRP increased in 16 patients; this rise was directly related to WBC, RC, and MFR-RC, and inversely related to Hb, LFR-RC, and albumin. sIL-2R and CRP values were not statistically interrelated, but when the CRP levels were higher, the increase in sIL-2R was greater and more sustained.

Structural and functional relationship of ATP synthases (F1F0) from Escherichia coli and the thermophilic bacterium PS3.

Functional compatibility between the F1 and F0 parts of ATP synthases from Escherichia coli (EF1F0) and the thermophilic bacterium PS3 (TF1F0) was analyzed. F1-stripped everted membrane vesicles from both organisms bound the homologous or heterologous F1 part to the same extent. Titration of the reconstituted membrane vesicles with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide revealed a similar sensitivity of the homologous and hybrid F1F0 complexes towards the inhibitor. Furthermore, the heterologous enzymes exhibited ATP-dependent H+ translocation comparable to that of homologous F1F0. Antisera raised against EF1 or subunits a, b, and c of EF0 were analyzed for cross-reactivity with TF1 and TF0. Common antigenic sites have been detected with immunoblot analysis for subunit beta and subunit c of EF1F0 and the corresponding subunits from TF1F0. A weak binding of the anti-a and anti-b antisera with the TF0 part has been observed in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Based on these findings the structural and functional relationship between the mesophilic and thermophilic ATP synthase complexes is discussed.

Phospholipid-enriched bacterial chromatophores. A system suited to investigate the ubiquinone-mediated interactions of protein complexes in photosynthetic oxidoreduction processes.

Fusion of phospholipid vesicles with photosynthetic chromatophores from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides was induced by freezing and thawing. After sucrose density gradient sedimentation, bands containing closed vesicles characterized by different phospholipid to reaction center molar ratios could be isolated and analyzed morphologically and functionally by means of electron microscopy and fast spectroscopy, respectively. Analogously to data reported for phospholipid-enriched mitochondrial inner membranes (Schneider, H., Lemasters, J. J., and Hackenbrock, C. R. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 10793), the rate of photosynthetic electron transfer in phospholipid-enriched chromatophores decreased with increasing distance between integral membrane complexes. A fast cyclic electron transfer could be restored when the concentration of the ubiquinone pool within the lipid bilayer was reconstituted by additions of exogenous ubiquinone. These results suggest that cyclic electron transfer between reaction center and ubiquinol-cytochrome c2 oxidoreductase complexes in phospholipid-enriched chromatophores is limited by the lateral diffusion of the quinone molecules in the membrane plane. The observation that dilution of the quinone pool in the lipid bilayer affects the rate of photosynthetic electron transport contrasts with previously reported data which indicated that up to 80% of the quinone pool can be removed without altering the kinetic parameters of the overall process. These conflicting results can be reconciled by a model which assumes that the relative orientation of the protein complexes, possibly controlled by protein-protein interactions within the lipid bilayer, plays a key role in the effectiveness of the molecular collisions. According to a diffusion-limited mechanism, this would lead to a fast electron transfer during the photosynthetic reactions.

The reconstitution of oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria isolated from a ubiquinone-deficient mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Mitochondria, isolated from the ubiquinone-deficient nuclear mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae E3-24, are practically unable to oxidize exogenous substrates. Respiratory activity, coupled to ATP synthesis, can, however, be reconstituted by the simple addition of ethanolic solutions of ubiquinones. A minimal length of the isoprenoid side chain (greater than or equal to 3) was required for the restoration. Saturation of the reconstitution required a large amount of exogeneous ubiquinone, in excess over the normal content present in the mitochondria of the wild type strain. A similar pattern of reconstituted activities could be also obtained using sonicated inverted particles. Mitochondria and sonicated particles are also able to carry out a dye-mediated electron flow coupled to ATP synthesis in the absence of added ubiquinone, using ascorbate or succinate as electron donor. This demonstrates that the energy conserving mechanism at the third coupling site of the respiratory chain is fully independent of the presence of the large mobile pool of ubiquinone in the membrane.