母爱行为影响子代的表观遗传机制

生命早期社会环境会对人类个体身心健康产生持久的影响已久为人知,然而要了解生命早期经历(包括来自母亲的关爱行为)与一生的认知和情绪健康之间的因果关系却只能借助于动物模型。文章综述了大鼠母爱行为对子代成年后应对应激的行为和繁育行为的影响及其表观遗传机制,并就这一模型对于环境因素影响人类身心健康的研究所具有的意义进行了展望。     

植物抗氧化动态平衡研究进展

植物在生长发育的过程中会产生代谢副产物活性氧,其含量在植物生长过程中起双重作用。适量的活性氧可提高植物对逆境胁迫的耐受性,但是过量的活性氧会诱发氧化猝发反应,严重影响植物的生长发育。因此,提高植物的抗氧化能力对于提高植物的抗逆能力来说显得尤为重要,该方面的研究也成为近年来逆境生物学的一大热点。植物体为了应对逆境环境造成的活性氧动态失衡,进化出了含酶和非酶组分的抗氧化系统。本文主要介绍了参与高等植物活性氧代谢的相关物质,对近年来国内外报道的代谢途径进行了综述,为提高植物的抗逆能力提供参考依据。     

Cancer mortality in Itapúa—A rural province of Paraguay 2003–2012

BackgroundItapúa is a rural department in Paraguay with a population of about 500,000 and a high degree of agro-mechanization for the production of soybean and other crops. So far, only basic health care is provided. Here we analyzed the cancer mortality in this region as a first step towards epidemiological data for cancer prevention.MethodsWe calculated the age-adjusted mortality rates according to world standard (AMRWs) for the major cancer sites in both males and females between 2003 and 2012, and estimated the differences between the capital and more central districts of Itapúa vs. remote districts.ResultsThere were about 2000 cancer deaths in the decade studied, with AMRWs for all malignancies of 90.9/100,000 in males from central vs. 49.1/100,000 in remote districts and 69.0/100,000 vs. 45.0/100,000 in women. Cancer was mentioned in 12.4% of all death certificates and outweighed mortality from certain infectious and parasitic diseases (3.6%). Cause of death was ill-defined in 19.6% of all death certificates, especially in remote regions and among the elderly. The part of cancer located in the uterus (47.8%) or cell type of neoplasm of the lymphatic or hematopoietic system (73.1%) were often not specified. The uterus (mainly the cervix) (C53–C55) was the leading cancer site in women with AMRWs of 17.2/100,000 in central and 14.0/100,000 in remote districts, followed by the breast. Lung and prostate were the leading cancer sites among men. The lung cancer mortality rate was 19.3/100,000 in the central region but 9.5/100,000 in remote districts. Although children comprised 36% of the population, only 24 death certificates listed cancer as cause of death in this decade.ConclusionsAnalysis of cancer mortality in this rural region of Paraguay, which lacks resources for diagnostics and care, revealed an already large number of cases, with higher rates in the central region than in remote districts. Lung and uterus (primarily the cervix) are common cancer sites and indicate the potential for prevention. However, the quality of the vital statistics needs to be improved. The true cancer burden is most likely underestimated, especially in remote regions and children.     

Oral zinc and common childhood infections—An update

Zinc is an essential micronutrient important for growth and for normal function of the immune system. Many children in developing countries have inadequate zinc nutrition. Routine zinc supplementation reduces the risk of respiratory infections and diarrhea, the two leading causes of morbidity and mortality in young children worldwide. In childhood diarrhea oral zinc also reduces illness duration and risk of persistent episodes. Oral zinc is therefore recommended for the treatment of acute diarrhea in young children. The results from the studies that have measured the therapeutic effect of zinc on acute respiratory infections, however, are conflicting. Moreover, the results of therapeutic zinc for childhood malaria also are so far not promising.This paper gives a brief outline of the current evidence from clinical trials on therapeutic effect of oral zinc on childhood respiratory infections, pneumonia and malaria and also of new evidence of the effect on serious bacterial illness in young infants.     

Childhood adversity during the post-apartheid transition and COVID-19 stress independently predict adult PTSD risk in urban South Africa: A biocultural analysis of the stress sensitization hypothesis

Objectives

The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa introduced new societal adversities and mental health threats in a country where one in three individuals are expected to develop a psychiatric condition sometime in their life. Scientists have suggested that psychosocial stress and trauma during childhood may increase one's vulnerability to the mental health consequences of future stressors—a process known as stress sensitization. This prospective analysis assessed whether childhood adversity experienced among South African children across the first 18 years of life, coinciding with the post-apartheid transition, exacerbates the mental health impacts of psychosocial stress experienced during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (ca. 2020–2021).

Materials and Methods

Data came from 88 adults who participated in a follow-up study of a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto, South Africa. Childhood adversity and COVID-19 psychosocial stress were assessed as primary predictors of adult PTSD risk, and an interaction term between childhood adversity and COVID-19 stress was calculated to evaluate the potential effect of stress sensitization.

Results

Fifty-six percent of adults exhibited moderate-to-severe PTSD symptoms. Greater childhood adversity and higher COVID-19 psychosocial stress independently predicted worse post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adults. Adults who reported greater childhood adversity exhibited non-significantly worse PTSD symptoms from COVID-19 psychosocial stress.

Discussion

These results highlight the deleterious mental health effects of both childhood trauma and COVID-19 psychosocial stress in our sample and emphasize the need for greater and more accessible mental health support as the pandemic progresses in South Africa.     

Changing Selves in Remote Australia? Observations on Aboriginal Family Life,Childhood and ‘Modernisation’

The idea of modernity is increasingly called upon to describe and understand change in Indigenous societies, replacing the older paradigms of colonisation, culture change and the short-lived misnomer hybridity. This paper problematises such an approach in the field of Australian Aboriginal Studies, with special attention to the question of whether individualisation and individualism are real phenomena in Aboriginal life-worlds, or else what kind of subjectivities might be in the making. The focus is on childhood as a site of change towards, and resistance to, modern individualism in reference to the history of state and religious interventions into Aboriginal family life.     

Understanding recent trends in childhood obesity in the United States

The prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled over the last four decades from 5 percent in 1978 to 18.5 percent in 2016. There is evidence for a break in trend in recent years: after growing from 0.4 to 0.7 percentage point per year between 1978 and 2004, the rate of increase has slowed to 0.1 percentage point per year from 2004 to 2016. To better understand these trends, in this paper we analyze a range of datasets that collect information on childhood obesity. We analyze the data overall, across the age distribution, across birth cohorts, and for subgroups of interest. We find steady increases in cohort-level obesity prevalence through approximately age 10, with levels unchanged thereafter, suggesting a need for additional interventions at early ages. We find that the prevalence of obesity has diverged by race and gender in recent years, especially among children entering kindergarten. Compared with 5-year-olds in 1997, 5-year-olds in 2010 were 2 percentage points more likely to be obese overall. Black and Hispanic 5-year-olds were 5 and 3 percentage points more likely to be obese, respectively, while whites had a 1 percentage point increase in obesity. However, overall and among all subgroups the rate of growth in obesity from kindergarten through 3rd grade has declined in recent years. Together, these findings can inform a future research literature that aims to target obesity interventions where they will be most impactful.     

Disruption of Contactin 4 in two subjects with autism in Chinese population

Autism is a heterogeneous childhood neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterised by deficits in verbal communication, impaired social interactions, restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. Using an Illumina HumanCNV370-Quad BeadChip, we identified two Han Chinese individuals with autism and large duplications (~1.6 Mb and ~2.4 Mb) disrupting the same CNTN4 gene. CNTN4 encodes a protein that functions as a cell-adhesion molecule and may play an essential role in the formation of axon connections in the developing nervous system. The disruption of this gene has been reported to be the cause of the 3p deletion syndrome and also a possible susceptibility factor for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Our results suggest that rare copy number variations (CNVs) in CNTN4 may also influence autism susceptibility in Asian populations. Interestingly, a comparison of the clinical phenotypes between the two subjects revealed that the subject with the 2.4 Mb CNV (involving several other genes) presented with a more severe phenotype than the subject with the 1.6 Mb CNV (disrupting only CNTN4 and CNTN6). This suggests that other genes in the nearby region may contribute to the pathogenesis.     

Urbanicity,social adversity and psychosis

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in research on geographical variation in the incidence of schizophrenia and other psychoses. In this paper, we review the evidence on variation in incidence of schizophrenia and other psychoses in terms of place, as well as the individual‐ and area‐level factors that account for this variation. We further review findings on potential mechanisms that link adverse urban environment and psychosis. There is evidence from earlier and more recent studies that urbanicity is associated with an increased incidence of schizophrenia and non‐affective psychosis. In addition, considerable variation in incidence across neighbourhoods has been observed for these disorders. Findings suggest it is unlikely that social drift alone can fully account for geographical variation in incidence. Evidence further suggests that the impact of adverse social contexts – indexed by area‐level exposures such as population density, social fragmentation and deprivation – on risk of psychosis is explained (confounding) or modified (interaction) by environmental exposures at the individual level (i.e., cannabis use, social adversity, exclusion and discrimination). On a neurobiological level, several studies suggest a close link between social adversity, isolation and stress on the one hand, and monoamine dysfunction on the other, which resembles findings in schizophrenia patients. However, studies directly assessing correlations between urban stress or discrimination and neurobiological alterations in schizophrenia are lacking to date.     

A 1.5 Mb terminal deletion of 12p associated with autism spectrum disorder

We report a patient with a terminal 12p deletion associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This 12p13.33 deletion is 1.5 Mb in size and encompasses 13 genes (B4GALNT3, CCDC77, ERC1, FBXL14, IQSEC3, KDM5A, LINC00942, LOC574538, NINJ2, RAD52, SLC6A12, SLC6A13 and WNK1). All previous cases reported with partial monosomy of 12p13.33 are associated with neurodevelopmental delay, and we suggest that ERC1, which encodes a regulator of neurotransmitter release, is the best gene candidate contributing to this phenotype as well as to the ASD of our patient.