Examining the actual gonadal transcriptome from the frog Hoplobatrachus rugulosus to spot family genes involved in intercourse advancement.
 AIM A substantial portion of children and adolescents show subthreshold psychotic symptoms called psychotic experience (PE). Because PE shares its biological and environmental risk factors with psychotic spectrum disorders, parental neuroanatomical variation could reflect a heritable biological underpinning of PE that may predict an offspring's PE. METHODS A total of 94 participants from 35 families without a diagnosis of major neuropsychiatric disorders were examined, including 14 mother-daughter, 17 mother-son, 12 father-daughter, and 16 father-son dyads. An offspring's PE was assessed with the Atypicality subscale of the Behavior Assessment System for Children - 2nd Edition, Self-Report of Personality form (BASCaty). We examined correlations between voxel-by-voxel parental gray matter volume and their offspring's BASCaty score. RESULTS Maternal cerebellar gray matter volume using voxel-based morphometry was positively correlated with their daughters' BASCaty scores.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/ABT-263.html  The findings were significant in a more robust approach using cerebellum-specific normalization known. We did not find significant correlation between paternal gray matter volume and BASCaty scores or between offspring gray matter volumes and their BASCaty scores. CONCLUSION Expanding upon parent-of-origin effects in psychosis, maternal neuroanatomical variation was associated with daughters' PE. The nature of this sex-specific intergenerational effect is unknown, but maternally transmitted genes may relate cerebellum development to PE pathogenesis. © 2020 The Authors Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2020 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.BACKGROUND Neuroleptic drug-induced parkinsonism (NIP) is a leading cause of parkinsonism, particularly in aging. Based on abnormal dopamine transporter scan results, individuals displaying chronic NIP are often diagnosed with Lewy-body Parkinson's disease (PD), but this assumption needs further substantiation. OBJECTIVE To quantitate the profile of striatal dopaminergic nerve terminal density in NIP relative to PD. METHODS We used the positron emission tomography ligand [11 C](+)-dihydrotetrabenazine targeting vesicular monoamine transporter type 2 (VMAT2) binding sites and collected various clinical parameters (motor ratings, olfaction, polysomnography to document rapid eye movement sleep muscle activity, quantitative sensory testing for pain thresholds) possibly predicting binding results in patients older than age 50 living with schizophrenia spectrum disorders under long-term stable antipsychotic drug treatment, with (N = 11) or without (N = 11) chart documention of chronic NIP, and compared them to healthy volunteers (N = 11) and others medicated for PD (N = 12). RESULTS Striatal VMAT2 binding was dichotomous in the NIP group between those with spared (N = 5) or low (N = 6) PD-like values. Striatal binding reduction in the low VMAT2-NIP group was asymmetric without the gradient of maximal involvement in the posterior putamen typical of PD. Anosmia was the only nonmotor parameter measured matching the abnormal striatal VMAT2 binding status. CONCLUSION These preliminary observations suggest that striatal VMAT2 binding is abnormal in a fraction of chronic NIP cases and differs in spatial distribution from PD. The possibility of a drug-induced axonopathy and resultant synaptopathy, as well as the evolution of the binding deficit, warrant further longitudinal studies in a large cohort. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.BACKGROUND HER2 overexpression has been investigated as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target in biliary tract cancer (BTC), but a prognostic role of such alteration has not been demonstrated yet.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/ABT-263.html  MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively evaluated HER2 protein expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 100 patients with radically resected BTC. HER2 gene amplification was assessed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in 2+ and 3+ cases at IHC. High HER2 protein expression was defined as either IHC 3+ or 2+ associated with FISH positivity. The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the prognostic role of HER2 overexpression in terms of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Secondary endpoints were the prevalence of HER2 overexpression and the possible correlation with other clinicopathological features. RESULTS HER2 overexpression was identified in 11 patients and was not related to other clinicopathological factors. DFS was significantly shorter in HER2-positive compared with HER2-negative patients (10.6 vs. 20.9 months, log-rank p = .017). HER2 confirmed its prognostic value for DFS at multivariate analysis (hazard ratio 2.512; 95% confidence interval, 1.232-5.125; p = .011) together with nodal stage (p less then .001), resection margin (p = .027), and tumor site (p = .030). There was no difference in OS between HER2-positive and -negative patients (p = .068). CONCLUSION HER2 overexpression represents an independent prognostic factor for disease recurrence in patients with BTC treated with potentially curative surgery. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE HER2 overexpression may play an independent role in promoting an aggressive behavior in resectable biliary tract cancer. This evidence could be helpful in improving prognostic stratification after resection and, primarily, should endorse the rationale to investigate HER2 as a therapeutic target in biliary tract cancer. © AlphaMed Press 2020.We appreciate the letter by Eloy P., et al for their comments and complement regarding our review1-2 . Two independent in vitro studies indicated that favipiravir (T-705) inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication in Vero E6 cells with EC50 values of 61.88 μM (9.4 μg/mL)3 and >100 μM (15.7 μg/mL)4 , respectively. Data from the authors' group suggests an EC50 value in the range 40-80 µg/mL (X. de Lamballerie & F. Touret, unpublished results). I agree with the authors' assumption that favipiravir shows similar EC50 against SARS-CoV-2 and EBOV. As favipiravir is a prodrug that requires metabolic activation through ribosylation and phosphorylation in the host cells to form its triphosphate form (favipiravir-RTP), we think that variation in favipiravir activation by the cultured cells may, at least partially, contribute to the difference in the in vitro EC50 among studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.