News

• Due to the amazing efforts of Ed Cross, Louise Gorringe, Susanne Schmitt, Christian Schmitz, Ulrika Smrekova and Tim Stassines, ISN has a completely new website . The renovation is not just a visual facelift. Over the last 6 months, this team has completed quite a bit of work “under the car hood” to generate a new and highly functional ISN database and secure ISN website able to handle multiple types of transactions. As we continue to phase in new features, we will likely hit some bumps. Please be patient, but to help us improve our website, please do not hesitate to inform us (at secretariat@neurochemistry.org ) of any issues/problems encountered. Discover our new web presence on www.neurochemistry.org/ !
• ISN council has just made membership much more valuable . As of this July, only ISN members will be eligible for all of ISN's many awards grants, funding for conferences. Applications for ISN membership can be made at the time of application for ISN funded awards & grants.
• On July 9th, ISN launched its survey of the ISN membership, ISN meeting attendees and recipients of ISN awards & grants . This survey is aimed at gathering information to help ISN officers and council identify and implement benefits valued by ISN members. This survey has been closed on August 10th. A summary of survey results will be posted on the ISN webpage after the annual business meeting.

     

News and ISN

• Did you know Journal of Neurochemistry offers authors the option to publish Open Access ? ISN members receive a reduced fee ($1,000 USD compared to the regular fee of $3,000 USD, less than most other journals charge).
• Download the new JNeurochem App for free: https:// itunes.apple.com/us/app/journal-neurochemistry-for/id655612235
• A virtual issue on Neuroinflammation in nervous system disorders, edited by Tammy Kielian, is now available: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1471-4159/homepage/virtual_issues.htm#neuroinflammation

     

News & ISN May 2016

• Journal of Neurochemistry is happy to announce the 2015 Mark Smith Award winner Yuda Huo for the paper “ The deubiquitinating enzyme USP46 regulates AMPA receptor ubiquitination and trafficking ”  Journal of Neurochemistry 134(6): 1067–1080, Yuda Huo, Natasha Khatri, Qingming Hou, James Gilbert, Guan Wang and Heng‐Ye Man. DOI: 10.1111/jnc.13194

With this important contribution to our understanding of ubiquitination processes, the award goes again to a highly deserving candidate. Dr. Huo will present his work at the 26th Biennial ISN Conference in Paris in 2017 (see below).

• The Journal of Neurochemistry is celebrating its 60th Anniversary!
• Upcoming Special issues on Frontotemporal Dementia, Parkinson disease and the 60th Anniversary of the Journal

     

A History of the Origin and Development of Japanese Society for Neurochemistry: International Cooperation to Overcome Dementia and Mental Illness

“Neurochemistry” in Japan was established by intensive cooperation between psychiatrists and their collaborators, biochemists, who have sought to investigate the etiology of mental illness to establish treatments. It was a completely different direction from the flow of modern biochemistry that was born using microorganisms or eukaryotic cells as research materials. Neurochemists aimed to elucidate the physiological or pathological functions of the brain through chemical analysis of the morphologically and functionally unique complexity and characteristics of brain. I here describe some of the origin and history of neurochemistry in Japan how researchers estabIished Japanese Society for Neurochemistry in1958 Yasuzo Tsukada as a president in collaboration with Isamu Sano, Genkichiro Takagaki and Masanori Kurokawa. The formation of research groups with the support of MEXT played a major role in promoting neurochemistry. Many international conferences held in Japan promoted the activity of neurochemistry: The International Society of Physiology (Tokyo) in 1965, and the Japan-US Neurochemistry Conference (Oiso) in 1965, and in 1967 the International Conference on Biochemistry (Tokyo). These meetings offered excitements to younger researchers by close interaction with the world top class researchers. Government established Brain Research Institutes in several national universities. The Asia–Pacific Society for Neurochemistry (APSN) was established in 1991 subsequent to an initiative by JSN. APSN presidents: Yasuzo Tsukada, Kazuhiro Ikenaka, and Akio Wanaka contributed to promote neurochemistry. The 4th ISN meeting was organized at Tokyo (Yasuzo Tsukada, president) in 1973 and the 15th ISN meeting at Kyoto (Kinya Kuriyama, president) in 1995. Kunihiko Suzuki and Kazuhiro Ikenaka as ISN Presidents greatly contributed in promoting the activity of ISN.

     

News and ISN

• Journal of Neurochemistry announces the move to Online Only publication as of January 2014 (issue 128‐1), with the recent release of the new App for iPad. Versions for iPhone and Android will follow soon.
• The App can be downloaded from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/journal-neurochemistry-for/id655612235

• Special Issues have been published on:
  • 150 Years of Friedreich Ataxia Research
  • Virtual Issue on Molecular Imaging
  • Mini article series featuring Model systems for Neurodegenerative Diseases (yeast, drosophila, zebrafish) with an accompanying Editorial Highlight
• In addition to the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) and the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), the ISN has become a member of the global advocacy initiative recently launched by International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) , with a first panel discussion and poster presentation held at SfN in San Diego this November.
• The ISN council has decided to launch two new exciting ventures:
  • A joint ISN‐JNeurochem Flagship School envisioned to be a recurring school that focuses on high impact research, to be launched in celebration of ISN's 50th anniversary celebration
  • A junior investigator committee to provide a voice for our junior researchers in society and biennial meeting issues.

     

Circulating liver-specific microRNAs as noninvasive diagnostic biomarkers of hepatic diseases in human

Context: Hepatitis is an endemic disease worldwide leading to chronic and debilitating cancers. The viral agents and hepatotoxic substances lead to damage of hepatocytes and release of damage associated molecules in circulation. The lack of timely and rapid diagnosis of hepatitis results in chronic disease.

Objective: The present review aimed to describe regulation, release and functions of microRNAs (miR) during human liver pathology and insights into their promising use as noninvasive biomarkers of hepatitis.

Methods: Comprehensive data were collected from PubMed, ScienceDirect and the Web of Science databases utilizing the keywords “biomarkers”, “microRNAs” and “hepatic diseases”.

Results: The miRs are readily released in the body fluids and blood during HBV/HCV associated hepatitis as well as metabolic, alcoholic, drug induced and autoimmune hepatitis. The liver-specific microRNAs including miR-122, miR-130, miR-183, miR-196, miR-209 and miR-96 are potential indicators of liver injury (mainly via apoptosis, necrosis and necroptosis) or hepatitis with their varied expression during acute/fulminant, chronic, liver fibrosis/cirrhosis and hepato-cellular carcinoma.

Conclusions: The liver-specific miRs can be used as rapid and noninvasive biomarkers of hepatitis to discern different stages of hepatitis. Blocking or stimulating pathways associated with miR regulation in liver could unveil novel therapeutic strategies in the management of liver diseases.

• Clinical significance

• Liver specific microRNAs interact with cellular proteins and signaling molecules to regulate the expression of various genes controlling biological processes.

• The circulatory level of liver specific microRNAs is indicator of severity of HBV and HCV infections as well as prognostic and therapeutic candidates.

• The expression of liver specific microRNAs is strongly associated with infectious, drug-induced, hepatotoxic, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases.

     

Copeptin,B-type natriuretic peptide and cystatin C are associated with incident symptomatic PAD

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate plasma biomarkers as predictors for peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Materials and methods: Prospective longitudinal cohort study of middle-aged individuals from the cardiovascular cohort of the Malmö Diet and Cancer study (MDCS) (n?=?5550; 1991–94). Cystatin C, copeptin, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (N-BNP), midregional proatrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), mid-regional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM), and conventional risk factors were measured at baseline. The diagnosis of symptomatic PAD was validated in 97% of the cases.

Results: Cumulative incidence of PAD during median follow up of 23.4?years was 4.4% (men 5.9%, women 3.3%). Adjusted for age, sex, smoking, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and total cholesterol, copeptin (hazard ratio [HR] 1.46; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.19–1.80), N-BNP (HR 1.28; 95% CI 1.11–1.48), and cystatin C (HR 1.19; 95% CI 1.10–1.29) were independently associated with incident PAD. Subjects with the three biomarkers copeptin, N-BNP, and cystatin C in the highest quartiles, ran a high risk of incident PAD (HR 3.29; 95% CI 1.76–6.17) compared to those with no biomarker in the highest quartile.

Conclusion: Copeptin, N-BNP, and cystatin C were associated with incident symptomatic PAD, implying that these biomarkers are sensitive indicators of early subclinical PAD.

• Clinical significance

• First prospective longitudinal cohort study evaluating Cystatin C, copeptin, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (N-BNP), midregional proatrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), and mid-regional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM) as predictors for peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

• Copeptin, N-BNP, and Cystatin C where independently associated with incident symptomatic PAD after adjustment for conventional risk factors.

• Copeptin, N-BNP, and Cystatin C seem to be sensitive indicators of early subclinical PAD.

     

Myeloperoxidase,a possible biomarker for the early diagnosis of cardiac diastolic dysfunction with preserved ejection fraction

The current study was conducted on a sample of 91 patients diagnosed with diastolic dysfunction (DD) with preserved systolic function caused by a painful chronic ischaemic cardiopathy – angina pectoris stable at the effort. The diagnosis was established following anamnesis, electrocardiogram, and echocardiography. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) serum levels were assessed in all patients and then these values were correlated with some of the echocardiography parameters that proved the mentioned diagnosis.

In conclusion, the execution of this investigation triad (electrocardiogram, echocardiography, and MPO) allows:

• Stratifying the patients depending on the disease risk by early detecting of any possible DD with preserved systolic function.

• The use of the MPO increased circulating levels as a biomarker for diagnosis and risk due to the statistically significant correlation between those and the results of the other two aforementioned paraclinical investigation.

     

News & ISN

• The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Stefan W. Hell, Eric Betzig and William E. Moerner for the development of a superresolution imaging technique, STED (stimulated emission depletion). The technique opens up new possibilities in imaging nanostructures, and has been featured in a review article in the Journal of Neurochemistry, entitled “STED microscopy of living cells ‐ new frontiers in membrane and neurobiology” by Christian Eggeling, Kathrin I. Willig and Francisco J. Barrantes: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jnc.12243/abstract
• A Virtual Issue on Neuroinflammation in Nervous System Disorders: Diversity in Insults and Outcomes, edited by Deputy Chief Editor Tammy Kielian ( http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1471-4159/homepage/virtual_issues.htm#neuroinflammation ), will shortly be followed by a Special Issue on neuroinflammation.
• The Journal of Neurochemistry now has a new page for special Article Series and/or reviews solicited at ISN meetings such as the 5th Special ISN Conference 2012 .
• The Committee for Aid and Education in Neurochemistry ( CAEN ) provides funds for travelling to another laboratory to develop new technical or conceptual expertise, purchasing research supplies, attending workshops/training courses/satellite meetings or organizing a workshop/small school. The ISN‐CAEN application deadlines for this year are on April 30, August 31 and December 31.

     

Inference for epidemic models with time‐varying infection rates: Tracking the dynamics of oak processionary moth in the UK

1. Invasive pests pose a great threat to forest, woodland, and urban tree ecosystems. The oak processionary moth (OPM) is a destructive pest of oak trees, first reported in the UK in 2006. Despite great efforts to contain the outbreak within the original infested area of South‐East England, OPM continues to spread.
2. Here, we analyze data consisting of the numbers of OPM nests removed each year from two parks in London between 2013 and 2020. Using a state‐of‐the‐art Bayesian inference scheme, we estimate the parameters for a stochastic compartmental SIR (susceptible, infested, and removed) model with a time‐varying infestation rate to describe the spread of OPM.
3. We find that the infestation rate and subsequent basic reproduction number have remained constant since 2013 (with R0 between one and two). This shows further controls must be taken to reduce R0 below one and stop the advance of OPM into other areas of England.
4. Synthesis. Our findings demonstrate the applicability of the SIR model to describing OPM spread and show that further controls are needed to reduce the infestation rate. The proposed statistical methodology is a powerful tool to explore the nature of a time‐varying infestation rate, applicable to other partially observed time series epidemic data.

     

Review of mathematica

Mathematica is an extremely powerful tool designed to perform a multitude of mathematical operations and functions. Stephen Wolfram is the creator of the programming language and has long been a leader in the field of scientific computing. The language is rich in options and the task of learning it may seem daunting at first However, if one proceeds with small steps, first learning the basics and then new functions as becomes necessary, they will be rewarded with learning a robust, powerful language that can be used in virtually any application. Here we discuss examples of Mathematica's utility in risk assessment and review a copy of the newly released version 3. It arrives on a multi‐platform CD (i.e., Windows, Macintosh, UNIX) with a password that allows access on only one of the platforms.

Program: Mathematica, Ver. 3.0

Source: Wolfram Research, Inc., 100 Trade Center Drive, Champaign, IL 61820–7237

System: Windows 95 or Windows NT, Ver. 3.51 or higher with at least 8 MB of RAM, though at least 16 MB of RAM is recommended; many other platforms are available

Cost: Commercial price, $1295 for program, standard add‐on packages, and manual; Educational $895; Regular service $195; Premier service $385     

Scuttle flies (Diptera: Phoridae) from Ardabil province in Iran,with description of a new species of Megaselia Rondani

our named species of scuttle flies were collected from Ardabil province-Iran, during 2013–2014. A new species of the genus Megaselia Rondani 1856, M. ardabilensis n. sp., is described from the region and Megaselia producta (Schmitz) is recorded from the country for the first time. Geographical distributions and supplementary figures are given.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B28C521B-2BFE-44F3-9041-1656341F29B6     

Tumour expressions of hypoxic markers predict the response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in children with inoperable rhabdomyosarcoma

Objective: The study was to assess whether tumour expressions of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α, glucose transporter (GLUT)-1, carbonic anhydrase (CA) IX and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) predict response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (naCHT) in children with inoperable rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS).

Methods: Immunohistochemical expressions of hypoxia markers were determined semi-quantitatively in tumour tissue microarray of 46 patients with embryonal RMS (RME) and 20 with alveolar (RMA), treated with CWS protocols (1992–2013).

Results: In paediatric RME, response to naCHT was influenced significantly by tumour expression of CA IX and GLUT-1. Patients with RMA with low expressions of analysed markers responded well to naCHT, while all poor-responders expressed highly hypoxia markers. Only 5.88% of RMA and 11.11% of RME tumours did not express any of the proteins. In both RME and RMA subgroups, most poor-responders demonstrated simultaneous high expression of ≥3 markers, while most patients expressing ≤2 markers responded well to naCHT. In the whole cohort, co-expression of ≥3 markers, was the only independent factor predicting poor-response to chemotherapy (odds ratio 14.706; 95% CI 1.72–125.75; p?=?0.014).

Conclusions: Immunohistochemical expression pattern of four endogenous markers of hypoxia, in tumour tissue at diagnosis, emerges as a promising tool to predict response to naCHT in children with inoperable RMS.     

Re-description of the growth pattern of four decapod species by information theory

The growth pattern of four commercial decapod crustacean species (Arenaeus cribrarius, Ucides cordatus, Palaemon longirostris and Plesionika izumiae) was reanalyzed using published data. Six candidate growth models with asymptotic and non-asymptotic characteristics were tested. The best model was determined by information theory, according to Bayesian (BIC) and Akaike (AICc) information criteria and the weight of evidence in favour of model i (Wi). For U. cordatus, P. izumiae and the females of A. cribrarius, the best growth model corresponded to case 1 of Schnute model. In male A. cribrarius, the highest Wi was observed for the case 1 of Schnute model according to both criteria, but seasonal models were also plausible to describe growth. In P. longirostris, discrepancies were observed between criteria. The BIC supported the case 1 of Schnute in females, but the AICc did not identify a winner model (Wi > 90%); the case 1 and case 4 of Schnute displayed the highest Wi. The males that exhibited the highest Wi values were Schnute case 4 > Schnute case 3 > von Bertalanffy > Gompertz > Logistic. This study highlights the importance of considering different assumptions in growth patterns of the species and does not impose any a priori mathematical framework to available data.

Abbreviations: AIC: Akaike Information Criterion. BIC: Bayesian Information Criterion

Impact Statement

• The multi-model approach improves the model selection based on information criteria to re-describe patterns of growth in some decapod crustaceans.

• The von Bertalanffy growth model is not appropriate to describe the growth pattern based on the available data.

• The growth patterns found were asymptotic and not asymptotic, described mainly through the Schnute model.