Background

Effective pain management with long-lasting effects for patients with chronic pain is still a challenge.

Aim

Investigation of the effects of a health-promoting intervention with “eye movement desensitization and reprocessing” (EMDR) in patients with chronic pain and a possible improvement of their quality of life.

Method

Using a paper–pencil survey, 30 patients with chronic pain were interviewed at two timepoints using subscales of the German Pain Questionnaire (DSF), the Pain Disability Index (PDI), and the WHO Quality of Life—Short Version (WHOQOL-BREF). Between the two timepoints, the patients in the intervention group were treated with EMDR.

Results

Some significant results indicate that quality of life is improved by using EMDR to treat chronic pain. In the intervention group, quality of life improved significantly in the domains of physical, psychological, and global quality of life compared to both timepoints.

Conclusion

Due to the explorative character of this study, however, findings can only be cautiously interpreted, and long-term studies with larger samples and follow-up surveys should be conducted to clarify statements about the efficacy and long-term effects of EMDR treatment for chronic pain. This treatment method appears to be of great potential, and use of EMDR an integral part of a multimodal, interdisciplinary pain therapy seems promising.

OCT1 and OCT2 are polyspecific membrane transporters that are involved in hepatic and renal drug clearance in humans and mice. In this study, we cloned dog OCT1 and OCT2 and compared their function to the human and mouse orthologs. We used liver and kidney RNA to clone dog OCT1 and OCT2. The cloned and the publicly available RNA-Seq sequences differed from the annotated exon-intron structure of OCT1 in the dog genome CanFam3.1. An additional exon between exons 2 and 3 was identified and confirmed by sequencing in six additional dog breeds. Next, dog OCT1 and OCT2 were stably overexpressed in HEK293 cells and the transport kinetics of five drugs were analyzed. We observed strong differences in the transport kinetics between dog and human orthologs. Dog OCT1 transported fenoterol with 12.9-fold higher capacity but 14.3-fold lower affinity (higher KM) than human OCT1. Human OCT1 transported ipratropium with 5.2-fold higher capacity but 8.4-fold lower affinity than dog OCT1. Compared to human OCT2, dog OCT2 showed 10-fold lower transport of fenoterol and butylscopolamine. In conclusion, the functional characterization of dog OCT1 and OCT2 reported here may have implications when using dogs as pre-clinical models as well as for drug therapy in dogs.

Specialized surveillance mechanisms are essential to maintain the genetic integrity of germ cells, which are not only the source of all somatic cells but also of the germ cells of the next generation. DNA damage and chromosomal aberrations are, therefore, not only detrimental for the individual but affect the entire species. In oocytes, the surveillance of the structural integrity of the DNA is maintained by the p53 family member TAp63α. The TAp63α protein is highly expressed in a closed and inactive state and gets activated to the open conformation upon the detection of DNA damage, in particular DNA double-strand breaks. To understand the cellular response to DNA damage that leads to the TAp63α triggered oocyte death we have investigated the RNA transcriptome of oocytes following irradiation at different time points. The analysis shows enhanced expression of pro-apoptotic and typical p53 target genes such as CDKn1a or Mdm2, concomitant with the activation of TAp63α. While DNA repair genes are not upregulated, inflammation-related genes become transcribed when apoptosis is initiated by activation of STAT transcription factors. Furthermore, comparison with the transcriptional profile of the ΔNp63α isoform from other studies shows only a minimal overlap, suggesting distinct regulatory programs of different p63 isoforms.

BCL11B, an essential transcription factor for thymopoiesis, regulates also vital processes in post-thymic lymphocytes. Increased expression of BCL11B was recently correlated with the maturation of NK cells, whereas reduced BCL11B levels were observed in native and induced T cell subsets displaying NK cell features. We show that BCL11B-depleted CD8+ T cells stimulated with IL-15 acquired remarkable innate characteristics. These induced innate CD8+ (iiT8) cells expressed multiple innate receptors like NKp30, CD161, and CD16 as well as factors regulating migration and tissue homing while maintaining their T cell phenotype. The iiT8 cells effectively killed leukemic cells spontaneously and neuroblastoma spheroids in the presence of a tumor-specific monoclonal antibody mediated by CD16 receptor activation. These iiT8 cells integrate the innate natural killer cell activity with adaptive T cell longevity, promising an interesting therapeutic potential. Our study demonstrates that innate T cells, albeit of limited clinical applicability given their low frequency, can be efficiently generated from peripheral blood and applied for adoptive transfer, CAR therapy, or combined with therapeutic antibodies.

Within the last years, more and more noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) became the focal point to understand cell regulatory mechanisms because one class of ncRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs), plays an essential role in translation repression or degradation of specific mRNAs and is implicated in disease etiology. miRNAs can serve as oncomiRs (oncogenic miRNAs) and tumor suppressor miRNAs, thus, miRNA therapeutics in clinical trials have become a vital component with respect to cancer treatment. To circumvent side-effects and allow an accurate effect it is crucial to accurately predict miRNAs and their mRNA targets. Over the last two decades, different approaches for miRNA prediction as well as miRNA target prediction have been developed and improved based on sequence and structure features. Nowadays, the abundance of high-throughput sequencing data and databases of miRNAs and miRNA targets from different species allow the training, testing, and validation of predicted miRNAs and miRNA targets with machine learning methods. This book chapter focuses on the important requirements for miRNA target prediction tools using ML like common features used for miRNA-binding site prediction. Furthermore, best practices for the prediction and validation of miRNA-mRNA targets are presented and set in the context of possible applications for cancer diagnosis and therapeutics.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.931017.].

Tafazzin-an acyltransferase-is involved in cardiolipin (CL) remodeling. CL is associated with mitochondrial function, structure and more recently with cell proliferation. Various tafazzin isoforms exist in humans. The role of these isoforms in cardiolipin remodeling is unknown. Aim of this study was to investigate if specific isoforms like Δ5 can restore the wild type phenotype with respect to CL composition, cellular proliferation and gene expression profile. In addition, we aimed to determine the molecular mechanism by which tafazzin can modulate gene expression by applying promoter analysis and (Ingenuity Pathway Analyis) IPA to genes regulated by TAZ-deficiency. Expression of Δ5 and rat full length TAZ in C6-TAZ- cells could fully restore CL composition and-as proven for Δ5-this is naturally associated with restoration of mitochondrial respiration. A similar restoration of CL-composition could not be observed after re-expression of an enzymatically dead full-length rat TAZ (H69L; TAZMut). Re-expression of only rat full length TAZ could restore proliferation rate. Surprisingly, the Δ5 variant failed to restore wild-type proliferation. Further, as expected, re-expression of the TAZMut variant completely failed to reverse the gene expression changes, whereas re-expression of the TAZ-FL variant largely did so and the Δ5 variant to somewhat less extent. Very likely TAZ-deficiency provokes substantial long-lasting changes in cellular lipid metabolism which contribute to changes in proliferation and gene expression, and are not or only very slowly reversible.