scholarly journals Treatment with Growth Hormone (GH) Increased the Metabolic Activity of the Brain in an Elder Patient, Not GH-Deficient, Who Suffered Mild Cognitive Alterations and Had an ApoE 4/3 Genotype

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 2294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesús Devesa ◽  
Iria Núñez ◽  
Carlos Agra ◽  
Alejandro Bejarano ◽  
Pablo Devesa

(1) Background: We analyzed, using PET-SCAN and cognitive tests, how growth hormone (GH) could act in the brain of an older woman, not deficient in GH, who showed mild cognitive alterations (MCI) and had a genotype of ApoE 4/3 and familial dyslipidemia. (2) Methods: After performing a first psychometric study (TAVEC verbal learning test), the metabolic activity of brain structures related to knowledge, memory, and behavior was analyzed using 18-F fluorodeoxyglucose PET-SCAN. The patient was then treated with GH (0.4 mg/day, subcutaneous) for three weeks and on the last day under this treatment, a new PET-SCAN was performed. One month after beginning treatment with GH, a new TAVEC test was performed. (3) Results: GH administration normalized the cognitive deficits observed in the first psychometric test and significantly (p < 0.025) increased the metabolic activity in practically all brain cortical areas, specifically in the left hippocampus and left amygdala, although not in the left parahippocampus. (4) Conclusions: This study demonstrates for the first time the positive effects of GH on cerebral metabolism in a patient without GH deficiency, recovering the function of affected areas related to knowledge, memory, and behavior in an elderly patient with MCI.

Author(s):  
Jesús Devesa ◽  
Iria Núñez ◽  
Carlos Agra ◽  
Alejandro Bejarano ◽  
Pablo Devesa

1) Background: We analyzed, by PET-SCAN, how growth hormone (GH) could act on the brain of an older woman, not GH-deficient, which was beginning to show some cognitive deficiencies and presented an ApoE genotype 4/3; 2) Methods: After performing a first psychometric study (TAVEC verbal learning test), the metabolic activity of brain structures related to knowledge, memory, and behavior was analyzed using 18-F Fluorodeoxyglucose PET-SCAN. The patient was then treated with GH (0.4 mg/day) for three weeks and on the last day under this treatment, a new PET-SCAN was performed. One month after beginning treatment with GH, a new TAVEC test was performed; 3) Results: GH administration normalized the cognitive deficits observed in the first psychometric test and increased significantly (P &lt; 0.025) the metabolic activity in practically all brain cortical areas, specifically in the left hippocampus and left amygdala, although not in the left parahippocampus; and 4) Conclusions: This is the first study in which the positive effects of GH on cerebral metabolism have been visualized in a human patient. Our data confirm the positive effects of this hormone on cognition, memory and behavior in patients affected by mild cognitive impairments.


Author(s):  
Jesús Devesa ◽  
Iria Núñez ◽  
Carlos Agra ◽  
Alejandro Bejarano ◽  
Pablo Devesa

1) Background: We analyzed, by PET-SCAN, how growth hormone (GH) might act on the brain of a not GH-deficient elder woman who suspected that she was developing Alzheimer's disease; 2) Methods: After performing a first psychometric study (TAVEC verbal learning test), the metabolic activity of brain structures related to cognition, memory and behavior was analyzed by 18-F Fluorodeoxyglucose PET-SCAN. The patient was then treated with GH (0.4 mg/day) during three weeks and the last day under this treatment a new PET-SCAN was carried out. One month after commencing the treatment with GH a new TAVEC test was performed; 3) Results: GH administration normalized the cognitive deficits observed in the first cognitive test and significantly (p &lt; 0.025) increased (Voxel-Based Morphometry) the metabolic activity in the left hippocampus, left amygdala and left parahippocampus, but also in practically all brain cortical areas; 4) Conclusions: This is the first study in which the effects of GH on the brain have been visualized in images. Our data confirm the positive effects of this hormone on cognition and memories; although they do not allow us to conclude whether GH administration may be useful in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, they seem to be promising.


1985 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 999-999
Author(s):  
Gerald S. Wasserman

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-86
Author(s):  
Vencislava Dimitrova

The article shares a real experience of remote interaction and cooperation with the families of children in the conditions of a pandemic. There is an emphasis on the positive effects that can be highlighted so that the tension and anxiety in the feelings, thinking and behavior of children, parents, teachers are prevented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 402-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin-Zi Li ◽  
Shan-Shan Lei ◽  
Bo Li ◽  
Fu-Chen Zhou ◽  
Ye-Hui Chen ◽  
...  

Aim and Objective: The Dendrobium officinalis flower (DOF) is popular in China due to common belief in its anti-aging properties and positive effects on “nourish yin”. However, there have been relatively few confirmatory pharmacological experiments conducted to date. The aim of this work was to evaluate whether DOF has beneficial effects on learning and memory in senescent rats, and, if so, to determine its potential mechanism of effect. Materials and Methods: SD rats were administrated orally DOF at a dose of 1.38, or 0.46 g/kg once a day for 8 weeks. Two other groups included a healthy untreated control group and a senescent control group. During the 7th week, a Morris water maze test was performed to assess learning and memory. At the end of the experiment, serum and brain samples were collected to measure concentrations of antioxidant enzymes, including malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione reductase (GSH-Px) in serum, and the neurotransmitters, including γ-aminobutyric acid (γ-GABA), Glutamic (Glu), and monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) in the brain. Histopathology of the hippocampus was assessed using hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining. Results: The results suggested that treatment with DOF improved learning as measured by escape latency, total distance, and target quadrant time, and also increased levels of γ-GABA in the brain. In addition, DOF decreased the levels of MDA, Glu, and MAO-B, and improved SOD and GSHPx. Histopathological analysis showed that DOF also significantly reduced structural lesions and neurodegeneration in the hippocampus relative to untreated senescent rats. Conclusion: DOF alleviated brain aging and improved the spatial learning abilities in senescent rats, potentially by attenuating oxidative stress and thus reducing hippocampal damage and balancing the release of neurotransmitters.


Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 152
Author(s):  
Camille Meslin ◽  
Françoise Bozzolan ◽  
Virginie Braman ◽  
Solenne Chardonnet ◽  
Cédric Pionneau ◽  
...  

Insect pest management relies mainly on neurotoxic insecticides, including neonicotinoids such as clothianidin. The residual accumulation of low concentrations of these insecticides can have positive effects on target pest insects by enhancing various life traits. Because pest insects often rely on sex pheromones for reproduction and olfactory synaptic transmission is cholinergic, neonicotinoid residues could indeed modify chemical communication. We recently showed that treatments with low doses of clothianidin could induce hormetic effects on behavioral and neuronal sex pheromone responses in the male moth, Agrotis ipsilon. In this study, we used high-throughput RNAseq and proteomic analyses from brains of A. ipsilon males that were intoxicated with a low dose of clothianidin to investigate the molecular mechanisms leading to the observed hormetic effect. Our results showed that clothianidin induced significant changes in transcript levels and protein quantity in the brain of treated moths: 1229 genes and 49 proteins were differentially expressed upon clothianidin exposure. In particular, our analyses highlighted a regulation in numerous enzymes as a possible detoxification response to the insecticide and also numerous changes in neuronal processes, which could act as a form of acclimatization to the insecticide-contaminated environment, both leading to enhanced neuronal and behavioral responses to sex pheromone.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiushi Wang ◽  
Yuehua Xu ◽  
Tengda Zhao ◽  
Zhilei Xu ◽  
Yong He ◽  
...  

Abstract The functional connectome is highly distinctive in adults and adolescents, underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior. However, it remains unknown whether the individual uniqueness of the functional connectome is present in neonates, who are far from mature. Here, we utilized the multiband resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 40 healthy neonates from the Developing Human Connectome Project and a split-half analysis approach to characterize the uniqueness of the functional connectome in the neonatal brain. Through functional connectome-based individual identification analysis, we found that all the neonates were correctly identified, with the most discriminative regions predominantly confined to the higher-order cortices (e.g., prefrontal and parietal regions). The connectivities with the highest contributions to individual uniqueness were primarily located between different functional systems, and the short- (0–30 mm) and middle-range (30–60 mm) connectivities were more distinctive than the long-range (&gt;60 mm) connectivities. Interestingly, we found that functional data with a scanning length longer than 3.5 min were able to capture the individual uniqueness in the functional connectome. Our results highlight that individual uniqueness is present in the functional connectome of neonates and provide insights into the brain mechanisms underlying individual differences in cognition and behavior later in life.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 340
Author(s):  
Lehel Balogh ◽  
Masaru Tanaka ◽  
Nóra Török ◽  
László Vécsei ◽  
Shigeru Taguchi

Psychotherapy is a comprehensive biological treatment modifying complex underlying cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and regulatory responses in the brain, leading patients with mental illness to a new interpretation of the sense of self and others. Psychotherapy is an art of science integrated with psychology and/or philosophy. Neurological sciences study the neurological basis of cognition, memory, and behavior as well as the impact of neurological damage and disease on these functions, and their treatment. Both psychotherapy and neurological sciences deal with the brain; nevertheless, they continue to stay polarized. Existential phenomenological psychotherapy (EPP) has been in the forefront of meaning-centered counseling for almost a century. The phenomenological approach in psychotherapy originated in the works of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, and Viktor Frankl, and it has been committed to accounting for the existential possibilities and limitations of one’s life. EPP provides philosophically rich interpretations and empowers counseling techniques to assist mentally suffering individuals by finding meaning and purpose to life. The approach has proven to be effective in treating mood and anxiety disorders. This narrative review article demonstrates the development of EPP, the therapeutic methodology, evidence-based accounts of its curative techniques, current understanding of mood and anxiety disorders in neurological sciences, and a possible converging path to translate and integrate meaning-centered psychotherapy and neuroscience, concluding that the EPP may potentially play a synergistic role with the currently prevailing medication-based approaches for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.


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