Psychotropic treatments were more complex, and metabolic measures more abnormal among bipolar disorder than schizophrenia patients. Intensive psycho-education, clinical monitoring, and encouragement of weight-control for six months were associated with improvements in metabolic measures (but not to BMI), and more realistic attitudes about medication.
Interleukin-15 (IL-15) enhances the effector mechanisms of anti-HIV immune responses and thus is considered a potential adjuvant of HIV-1 vaccine. However, there are a lack of data concerning the relationships between IL-15 expression and regulation in HIV-1-infected patients and the course of disease progression. We found that IL-15, but not IL-15Ra, is expressed at significantly higher levels in the CD14 + monocytes [stimulated or not with interferon (IFN)-c] of long-term nonprogressors (LTNP) than in those of HIV-1 progressors or healthy controls. There was no between-group difference in the amounts of soluble IL-15 released from the cells. We also found that like the healthy controls, the LTNP expressed the IL-15 and IL-15Ra genes in a more coordinated manner than the progressors. Our findings show that there are significant differences in IL-15 expression between patients with different courses of HIV infection, and that the coordinated expression of the IL-15 and IL-15Ra genes is dysregulated in patients with progressive disease. They also provide important information concerning the mechanisms of infection and the potential use of IL-15 as a therapeutic agent.
Erythropoietin (EPO) is of great interest as a therapy for many of the central nervous system (CNS) diseases and its administration is protective in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). Endogenous EPO is induced by hypoxic/ischemic injury, but little is known about its expression in other CNS diseases. We report here that EPO expression in the spinal cord is induced in mouse models of chronic or relapsing-remitting EAE, and is prominently localized to motoneurons. We found a parallel increase of hypoxia-inducible transcription factor (HIF)-1α, but not HIF-2α, at the mRNA level, suggesting a possible role of non-hypoxic factors in EPO induction. EPO mRNA in the spinal cord was co-expressed with interferon (IFN)-γ and tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and these cytokines inhibited EPO production in vitro in both neuronal and glial cells. Given the known inhibitory effect of EPO on neuroinflammation, our study indicates that EPO should be viewed as part of the inflammatory/anti-inflammatory network in MS.
PurposeAs weight-gain and metabolic abnormalities during treatment with psychotropic drugs are of great concern, we evaluated effects of psychoeducation and medical monitoring on metabolic changes among severely mentally ill patients.Materials and MethodsDuring repeated, systematized psychoeducation about physical health among 66 consecutive patients diagnosed with DSM-IV schizophrenia (SZ; n=33) or type-I bipolar disorder (BD; n=33), we evaluated (at intake, 1, 2, 3, and 6 months) clinical psychiatric status, treatments and doses, rated drugs- attitude of patients, and recorded physiological parameters.ResultsAt intake, BD vs. SZ patients were receiving 3–7-times more psychotropic medication, with correspondingly higher initial body-mass index (BMI: 29.1 vs. 25.6 kg/m2), 12-times more obesity, and significantly higher serum lipid concentrations. During 6-month follow-up, ratings of drugs- attitude of patients improved, polytherapy decreased in BD, and BMI decreased slightly, as serum lipid concentrations declined continuously (e.g., total cholesterol+triglycerides: BD by 3.21 > SZ by 1.75%/month). Declining lipid levels were associated with: [a] older age, [b] BD diagnosis, [c] being unemployed, [d] higher antipsychotic dose, [e] lower initial BPRS scores (all p≤0.001).
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