scholarly journals From warrior genes to translational solutions: novel insights into monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and aggression

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexios-Fotios A. Mentis ◽  
Efthimios Dardiotis ◽  
Eleni Katsouni ◽  
George P. Chrousos
Keyword(s):  
Aggressive Behavior ◽  
Noncoding Rna ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Monoamine Oxidases ◽  
The Past ◽  
Collective Effort ◽  
Novel Biomarkers ◽  
Clinical Populations

AbstractThe pervasive and frequently devastating nature of aggressive behavior calls for a collective effort to understand its psychosocial and neurobiological underpinnings. Regarding the latter, diverse brain areas, neural networks, neurotransmitters, hormones, and candidate genes have been associated with antisocial and aggressive behavior in humans and animals. This review focuses on the role of monoamine oxidases (MAOs) and the genes coding for them, in the modulation of aggression. During the past 20 years, a substantial number of studies using both pharmacological and genetic approaches have linked the MAO system with aggressive and impulsive behaviors in healthy and clinical populations, including the recent discovery of MAALIN, a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) regulating the MAO-A gene in the human brain. Here, we first provide an overview of the MAOs and their physiological functions, we then summarize recent key findings linking MAO-related enzymatic and gene activity and aggressive behavior, and, finally, we offer novel insights into the mechanisms underlying this association. Using the existing experimental evidence as a foundation, we discuss the translational implications of these findings in clinical practice and highlight what we believe are outstanding conceptual and methodological questions in the field. Ultimately, we propose that unraveling the specific role of MAO in aggression requires an integrated approach, where this question is pursued by combining psychological, radiological, and genetic/genomic assessments. The translational benefits of such an approach include the discovery of novel biomarkers of aggression and targeting the MAO system to modulate pathological aggression in clinical populations.

scholarly journals AGENTS IN THE PROCESS OF INCULTURATION: FRIEND OR FOE?

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Okelloh Ogera
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Simple Question ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Church

Purpose: This article looks at the role played by agents: the people responsible for articulating and implementing inculturation in Africa. The article asks the simple question of are these agents useful or a hindrance in the process of inculturation? The article begins by identifying these agents then discusses the challenges they face in the process of inculturation. The article concludes by giving a way forward and that is an integrated approach in inculturation.Methodology: This study will review the available literature on the subject with a view to examining what previous research says concerning the role of the agents, that is human beings, in the process of inculturation. This was done with the main objective of examining the challenges that he agents of inculturation face, and concluding by exploring an integrated approach to inculturation, where all the agents are brought on board. Findings: This study found out that if inculturation is to truly take root in African Christianity, it must bring on board all actors, not just Church leaders, and trained theologians, but also the laity. All these actors also need to overcome some of the challenges that have hindered the prospects of inculturation which include but not limited to fear of syncretism, lack of enthusiasm by some Church leaders, answering the question of culture in a post-modern and globalized world.Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: This paper will offer unique contributions to policies and practices governing the attempts to make the Church in Africa truly African by proposing a re-evaluation of the way inculturation has been carried out in the past. This has tended to be spearheaded by professional theologians and some church leaders, neglecting the biggest constituency in the entire process, and that is the consumer of inculturational processes; the laity.

scholarly journals Monoamine Oxidases, Oxidative Stress, and Altered Mitochondrial Dynamics in Cardiac Ageing

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Maggiorani ◽  
Nicola Manzella ◽  
Dale E. Edmondson ◽  
Andrea Mattevi ◽  
Angelo Parini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dynamics ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Mitochondrial Enzymes ◽  
Oxidative Deamination ◽  
Monoamine Oxidases ◽  
Mao B ◽  
The Past ◽  
Age Dependent ◽  
Mao A

The advances in healthcare over the past several decades have resulted in populations now living longer. With this increase in longevity, a wider prevalence of cardiovascular diseases is more common and known to be a major factor in rising healthcare costs. A wealth of scientific evidence has implicated cell senescence as an important component in the etiology of these age-dependent pathologies. A number of studies indicate that an excess of reactive oxygen species (ROS) contributes to trigger and accelerate the cardiac senescence processes, and a new role of monoamine oxidases, MAO-A and MAO-B, is emerging in this context. These mitochondrial enzymes regulate the level of catecholamines and serotonin by catalyzing their oxidative deamination in the heart. MAOs’ expression substantially increases with ageing (6-fold MAO-A in the heart and 4-fold MAO-B in neuronal tissue), and their involvement in cardiac diseases is supposedly related to the formation of ROS, via the hydrogen peroxide produced during the substrate degradation. Here, we will review the most recent advances in this field and describe why MAOs could be effective targets in order to prevent age-associated cardiovascular disease.

scholarly journals Organizing memories for generalization in complementary learning systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weinan Sun ◽  
Madhu Advani ◽  
Nelson Spruston ◽  
Andrew Saxe ◽  
James E Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Network Models ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
Neural Network Models ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Systems Consolidation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future Behavior ◽  
Uncertain Future

Our ability to remember the past is essential for guiding our future behavior. Psychological and neurobiological features of declarative memories are known to transform over time in a process known as systems consolidation. While many theories have sought to explain the time-varying role of hippocampal and neocortical brain areas, the computational principles that govern these transformations remain unclear. Here we propose a theory of systems consolidation in which hippocampal-cortical interactions serve to optimize generalizations that guide future adaptive behavior. We use mathematical analysis of neural network models to characterize fundamental performance tradeoffs in systems consolidation, revealing that memory components should be organized according to their predictability. The theory shows that multiple interacting memory systems can outperform just one, normatively unifying diverse experimental observations and making novel experimental predictions. Our results suggest that the psychological taxonomy and neurobiological organization of declarative memories reflect a system optimized for behaving well in an uncertain future.

scholarly journals Approaches to Translation in the Context of Theory of Speech Activity

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-77
Author(s):  
Serhii Zasiekin
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Speech Activity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Operations ◽  
Cognitive Foundations ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Over the past decades there has been a significant increase in the studies exploring cognitive foundations of translation reflected in a considerable amount of literature published on the topic. However, it is important to bear in mind that many of the ideas in the cognitive literature are mainly rooted in the psycholinguistic approaches to translation. For instance, a lot of scholarly works on translation in the former Soviet Union published in 1960-1970s emphasise the role of translator’s thinking and speech processes. The emergence of ‘theory of speech activity’, Soviet version of Western psycholinguistics, stimulated interest of linguists and psychologists who considered translation and interpreting, their procedural aspects worthy of scholarly attention. A. Leontyev (1969), one of the founders of the above mentioned ‘theory’, paid special attention to translator’s mental operations and probabilistic programming of the target language utterance(s). Thus far, a number of recent cognitive translation studies have confirmed the effectiveness of previous psycholinguistic models of translation designed within the framework of theory of speech activity. The goal of the study is a theoretical review of psycholinguistic approaches to interpreting and translation discussed in the works of scholars who were part of the Soviet theory of speech activity. The main objective is to reveal the translator’s status, his/her thinking and speech operations as psycholinguistic units in the approaches under review. Together, the psycholinguistic studies reviewed in the paper support the notion that the translator relies both on his/her algorithmic actions and heuristic solutions with the latter based on his/her background guided by probability thinking mechanism. This integrated approach proves useful in expanding our better and deeper understanding of translator’s activity.

Remembering the Past to See the Future

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole C. Rust ◽  
Stephanie E. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future Events ◽  
The Relationship

In addition to the role that our visual system plays in determining what we are seeing right now, visual computations contribute in important ways to predicting what we will see next. While the role of memory in creating future predictions is often overlooked, efficient predictive computation requires the use of information about the past to estimate future events. In this article, we introduce a framework for understanding the relationship between memory and visual prediction and review the two classes of mechanisms that the visual system relies on to create future predictions. We also discuss the principles that define the mapping from predictive computations to predictive mechanisms and how downstream brain areas interpret the predictive signals computed by the visual system. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals LINC00312/YBX1 Axis Regulates Myofibroblast Activities in Oral Submucous Fibrosis

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 2979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan-Hang Yu ◽  
Chih-Yuan Fang ◽  
Cheng-Chia Yu ◽  
Pei-Ling Hsieh ◽  
Yi-Wen Liao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Noncoding Rna ◽  
Type I Collagen ◽  
Oral Submucous Fibrosis ◽  
Collagen Gel ◽  
Great Effort ◽  
Type I ◽  
The Past ◽  
Submucous Fibrosis

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) has been recognized as a precancerous disorder in the oral cavity. Great effort has been made to inhibit the malignant progression of OSF over the past decades, but the cure of this fibrosis disease has not been discovered. In the present study, we found that a long noncoding RNA, LINC00312, was upregulated in OSF tissues, and positively associated with several fibrosis factors, such as α-SMA, type I collagen, and fibronectin. As such, we sought to investigate the role of LINC00312 in OSF progression and identify its interacting factor that mediated oral fibrogenesis. Our results showed that the inhibition of LINC00312 downregulated the myofibroblast activities, including collagen gel contractility, transwell migration, and wound healing, as well as the gene expression of myofibroblast markers. We verified that YBX1 was a downstream factor of LINC00312 and revealed that the downregulation of YBX1 repressed the gene expression of α-SMA and p-Smad2 along with the reduced myofibroblast phenotypes. Most importantly, we demonstrated that the LINC00312-induced myofibroblast activities were reverted by the knockdown of YBX1, suggesting that the LINC00312-mediated myofibroblast transdifferentiation was through YBX1. Collectively, our findings revealed that the LINC00312/ YBX1 axis may serve as a target for the development of therapies against OSF.

The Epigenetic Landscape in the Treatment of Gynecologic Malignancies

2018 ◽  
pp. 480-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramez N. Eskander
Keyword(s):  
Cervical Cancer ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Noncoding Rna ◽  
Gynecologic Cancer ◽  
Treatment Modalities ◽  
Epigenetic Landscape ◽  
The Past ◽  
Disease Initiation ◽  
State Of The Science

The care of patients with advanced-stage or recurrent endometrial, ovarian, and cervical cancer remains clinically challenging. Despite the identification of novel therapeutics and advancements in supportive care, survival outcomes have been relatively unchanged over the past decade. In addition to established genomic alterations and the contributions of the tumor microenvironment to cancer progression, epigenetic mechanisms have emerged as important contributors to gynecologic cancer progression. DNA methylation, histone modification, and noncoding RNA expression may be important contributors to disease initiation and progression and may represent novel therapeutic targets. This article reviews the epigenetic landscape of endometrial, ovarian, and cervical cancer, describing the state of the science and discussing potential clinical applications. To date, the role of epigenetic drugs in the treatment of gynecologic cancers remains unclear, although continued progress may inform future treatment modalities.

scholarly journals Brain disconnections link structural connectivity with function and behaviour

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Thiebaut de Schotten ◽  
Chris Foulon ◽  
Parashkev Nachev
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Brain Lesion ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Brain Lesions ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lesion Studies ◽  
Open Question

Abstract Brain lesions do not just disable but also disconnect brain areas, which once deprived of their input or output, can no longer subserve behaviour and cognition. The role of white matter connections has remained an open question for the past 250 years. Based on 1333 stroke lesions, here we reveal the human Disconnectome and demonstrate its relationship to the functional segregation of the human brain. Results indicate that functional territories are not only defined by white matter connections, but also by the highly stereotyped spatial distribution of brain disconnections. While the former has granted us the possibility to map 590 functions on the white matter of the whole brain, the latter compels a revision of the taxonomy of brain functions. Overall, our freely available Atlas of White Matter Function will enable improved clinical-neuroanatomical predictions for brain lesion studies and provide a platform for explorations in the domain of cognition.

scholarly journals Monoamine Oxidases as Potential Contributors to Oxidative Stress in Diabetes: Time for a Study in Patients Undergoing Heart Surgery

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oana M. Duicu ◽  
Rodica Lighezan ◽  
Adrian Sturza ◽  
Raluca A. Ceausu ◽  
Claudia Borza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Stress ◽  
Mitochondrial Membrane ◽  
Ventricular Hypertrophy ◽  
Heart Surgery ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Oxygen Species ◽  
Inner Mitochondrial Membrane ◽  
Monoamine Oxidases ◽  
The Past

Oxidative stress is a pathomechanism causally linked to the progression of chronic cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Mitochondria have emerged as the most relevant source of reactive oxygen species, the major culprit being classically considered the respiratory chain at the inner mitochondrial membrane. In the past decade, several experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the contribution of monoamine oxidases (MAOs) at the outer mitochondrial membrane to the maladaptative ventricular hypertrophy and endothelial dysfunction. This paper addresses the contribution of mitochondrial dysfunction to the pathogenesis of heart failure and diabetes together with the mounting evidence for an emerging role of MAO inhibition as putative cardioprotective strategy in both conditions.

scholarly journals Brain disconnections link structural connectivity with function and behaviour

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Thiebaut de Schotten ◽  
Chris Foulon ◽  
Parashkev Nachev
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Brain Lesion ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Brain Lesions ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lesion Studies ◽  
Open Question

AbstractBrain lesions do not just disable but also disconnect brain areas, which once deprived of their input or output, can no longer subserve behaviour and cognition. The role of white matter connections has remained an open question for the past 250 years. Based on 1333 stroke lesions we reveal the human Disconnectome and demonstrate its relationship to the functional segregation of the human brain. Results indicate that functional territories are not only defined by white matter connections, but also by the highly stereotyped spatial distribution of brain disconnections. While the former has granted us the possibility to map 590 functions on the white matter of the whole brain, the latter compels a revision of the taxonomy of brain functions. Overall, our freely available Functional Atlas of the White Matter will enable improved clinical-neuroanatomical predictions for brain lesion studies and provide a platform for novel explorations in the domain of cognition.

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