Search results for "311"
showing 10 items of 433 documents
Azulene as a biphenyl mimetic in orexin/hypocretin receptor agonists
2023
Azulene is a rare ring structure in drugs, and we investigated whether it could be used as a biphenyl mimetic in known orexin receptor agonist Nag 26, which is binding to both orexin receptors OX1 and OX2 with preference towards OX2. The most potent azulene-based compound was identified as an OX1 orexin receptor agonist (pEC50 = 5.79 +/- 0.07, maximum response = 81 +/- 8% (s.e.m. of five independent experiments) of the maximum response to orexin-A in Ca2+ elevation assay). However, the azulene ring and the biphenyl scaffold are not identical in their spatial shape and electron distribution, and their derivatives may adopt different binding modes in the binding site. Peer reviewed
Early auditory processing in musicians and dancers during a contemporary dance piece
2016
AbstractThe neural responses to simple tones and short sound sequences have been studied extensively. However, in reality the sounds surrounding us are spectrally and temporally complex, dynamic and overlapping. Thus, research using natural sounds is crucial in understanding the operation of the brain in its natural environment. Music is an excellent example of natural stimulation which, in addition to sensory responses, elicits vast cognitive and emotional processes in the brain. Here we show that the preattentive P50 response evoked by rapid increases in timbral brightness during continuous music is enhanced in dancers when compared to musicians and laymen. In dance, fast changes in brigh…
Auditory and Cognitive Deficits Associated with Acquired Amusia after Stroke: A Magnetoencephalography and Neuropsychological Follow-Up Study
2010
Acquired amusia is a common disorder after damage to the middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory. However, its neurocognitive mechanisms, especially the relative contribution of perceptual and cognitive factors, are still unclear. We studied cognitive and auditory processing in the amusic brain by performing neuropsychological testing as well as magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements of frequency and duration discrimination using magnetic mismatch negativity (MMNm) recordings. Fifty-three patients with a left (n = 24) or right (n = 29) hemisphere MCA stroke (MRI verified) were investigated 1 week, 3 months, and 6 months after the stroke. Amusia was evaluated using the Montreal Battery of …
Multilabel segmentation of cancer cell culture on vascular structures with deep neural networks
2020
New increasingly complex in vitro cancer cell models are being developed. These new models seem to represent the cell behavior in vivo more accurately and have better physiological relevance than prior models. An efficient testing method for selecting the most optimal drug treatment does not exist to date. One proposed solution to the problem involves isolation of cancer cells from the patients' cancer tissue, after which they are exposed to potential drugs alone or in combinations to find the most optimal medication. To achieve this goal, methods that can efficiently quantify and analyze changes in tested cell are needed. Our study aimed to detect and segment cells and structures from canc…
Cortical beta burst dynamics are altered in Parkinson's disease but normalized by deep brain stimulation
2022
Funding Information: Amande Pauls was supported by a personal grant from the University of Helsinki . Olesia Korsun was supported by the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation , the Orion Research Foundation , the Finnish Parkinson Foundation and the Finnish Brain Foundation . Mia Liljeström was supported by the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland , the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation , and the Finnish Cultural Foundation . Eero Pekkonen was supported by Finnish Government research funding ( TYH- fund ). Hanna Renvall was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant number 321460 ) and Paulo Foundation. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Exaggerated subthalamic beta oscillatory activity …
Sodium channels enable fast electrical signaling and regulate phagocytosis in the retinal pigment epithelium
2019
Background Voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels have traditionally been considered a trademark of excitable cells. However, recent studies have shown the presence of Nav channels in several non-excitable cells, such as astrocytes and macrophages, demonstrating that the roles of these channels are more diverse than was previously thought. Despite the earlier discoveries, the presence of Nav channel-mediated currents in the cells of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) has been dismissed as a cell culture artifact. We challenge this notion by investigating the presence and possible role of Nav channels in RPE both ex vivo and in vitro. Results Our work demonstrates that several subtypes of Nav cha…
GRB 070311: a direct link between the prompt emission and the afterglow
2007
We present prompt gamma-ray, early NIR/optical, late optical and X-ray observations of the peculiar GRB 070311 discovered by INTEGRAL, in order to gain clues on the mechanisms responsible for the prompt gamma-ray pulse as well as for the early and late multi-band afterglow of GRB 070311. We fitted with empirical functions the gamma-ray and optical light curves and scaled the result to the late time X-rays. The H-band light curve taken by REM shows two pulses peaking 80 and 140 s after the peak of the gamma-ray burst and possibly accompanied by a faint gamma-ray tail. Remarkably, the late optical and X-ray afterglow underwent a major rebrightening between 3x10^4 and 2x10^5 s after the burst …
Hijacking the human complement inhibitor C4b-binding protein by the sporozoite stage of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite
2022
We thank Anna Blom for donating the C4bpα CCP1-2 expression plasmid (pET26-CCP1-2). The following reagent was obtained through BEI Resources, NIAID, NIH: Plasmid pDS56-32/RBSII-CS27IVC-6XHis, MRA-272, contributed by Photini Sinnis. The complement system is considered the first line of defense against pathogens. Hijacking complement regulators from blood is a common evasion tactic of pathogens to inhibit complement activation on their surfaces. Here, we report hijacking of the complement C4b-binding protein (C4bp), the regulator of the classical and lectin pathways of complement activation, by the sporozoite (SPZ) stage of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. This was shown by direct binding …
Fitness Trade-Offs Determine the Role of the Molecular Chaperonin GroEL in Buffering Mutations
2015
Molecular chaperones fold many proteins and their mutated versions in a cell and can sometimes buffer the phenotypic effect of mutations that affect protein folding. Unanswered questions about this buffering include the nature of its mechanism, its influence on the genetic variation of a population, the fitness trade-offs constraining this mechanism, and its role in expediting evolution. Answering these questions is fundamental to understand the contribution of buffering to increase genetic variation and ecological diversification. Here, we performed experimental evolution, genome resequencing, and computational analyses to determine the trade-offs and evolutionary trajectories of Escherich…
More Than Meets the Eye: Toward a Post-Materialist Model of Consciousness.
2015
Commonly accepted models of human consciousness have substantial shortcomings, in the sense that they cannot account for the entire scope of human experiences. The goal of this article is to describe a model with higher explanatory power, by integrating ideas from psychology and quantum mechanics. In the first part, the need for a paradigm change will be justified by presenting three types of phenomena that challenge the materialistic view of consciousness. The second part is about proposing an alternative view of reality and mind–matter manifestation that is able to accommodate these phenomena. Finally, the ideas from the previous parts will be combined with the psychological concepts deve…