Caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease patients endure chronic stress associated with a decline of immune function. To assess the psychological and immunological changes of caregivers, we compared depressive symptoms, PBMC composition, in vitro activation-induced proliferation and cytokine production, and telomere length and telomerase activity of 82 individuals (41 caregivers and 41 age- and gender-matched controls). We found depressive symptoms were significantly higher in caregivers than in controls (p < 0.001). Correspondingly, caregivers had significantly lower T cell proliferation but higher production of immune-regulatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-10) than controls in response to stimulation in vitro. We examined the impact of these changes on cellular replicative lifespan and found that caregivers had significantly shorter telomere lengths in PBMC than controls (6.2 and 6.4 kb, respectively, p < 0.05) with similar shortening in isolated T cells and monocytes and that this telomere attrition in caregivers was not due to an increase of shorter telomere possessing T cell subsets in PBMC. Finally, we showed that basal telomerase activity in PBMC and T cells was significantly higher in caregivers than in controls (p < 0.0001), pointing to an unsuccessful attempt of cells to compensate the excessive loss of telomeres in caregivers. These findings demonstrate that chronic stress is associated with altered T cell function and accelerated immune cell aging as suggested by excessive telomere loss.

The function of Sac2/INPP5F in the endocytic pathway and its activity as a 4-phosphatase suggest that Sac2/INPP5F and OCRL may cooperate in the sequential dephosphorylation of PI(4,5)P2 in a partnership that mimics that of the two phosphatase modules of synaptojanin.

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Calcium calmodulin dependent kinase II (CaMKII) is sequestered in dendritic spines within seconds upon synaptic stimulation. The program Smoldyn was used to develop scenarios of single molecule CaMKII diffusion and binding in virtual dendritic spines. We first validated simulation of diffusion as a function of spine morphology. Additional cellular structures were then incorporated to simulate binding of CaMKII to the post-synaptic density (PSD); binding to cytoskeleton; or their self-aggregation. The distributions of GFP tagged native and mutant constructs in dissociated hippocampal neurons were measured to guide quantitative analysis. Intra-spine viscosity was estimated from fluorescence recovery after photo-bleach (FRAP) of red fluorescent protein. Intra-spine mobility of the GFP-CaMKIIα constructs was measured, with hundred-millisecond or better time resolution, from FRAP of distal spine tips in conjunction with fluorescence loss (FLIP) from proximal regions. Different FRAP \ FLIP profiles were predicted from our Scenarios and provided a means to differentiate binding to the PSDs from self-aggregation. The predictions were validated by experiments. Simulated fits of the Scenarios provided estimates of binding and rate constants. We utilized these values to assess the role of self-aggregation during the initial response of native CaMKII holoenzymes to stimulation. The computations revealed that self-aggregation could provide a concentration-dependent switch to amplify CaMKII sequestration and regulate its activity depending on its occupancy of the actin cytoskeleton.

Axonal regeneration in the adult mammalian central nervous system is limited in part by the non-permissive environment, including axonal growth inhibitors such as the Nogo-A protein. How the functions of these inhibitors can be blocked remains unclear. Here, we examined the role of LOTUS, an endogenous Nogo receptor antagonist, in promoting functional recovery and neural repair after spinal cord injury (SCI), as well as axonal regeneration after optic nerve crush. Wild-type untreated mice show incomplete but substantial intrinsic motor recovery after SCI. The genetic deletion of LOTUS delays and decreases the extent of motor recovery, suggesting that LOTUS is required for spontaneous neural repair. The neuronal overexpression of LOTUS in transgenic mice promotes motor recovery after SCI, and recombinant viral overexpression of LOTUS enhances retinal ganglion cell axonal regeneration after optic nerve crush. Thus, the level of LOTUS function titrates axonal regeneration.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many exams, written tests and interviews are conducted online and remotely, which raises a series of questions such as how to prevent cheating. In this project, the methods commonly used in the existing cheating monitoring system are fully investigated and their shortcomings are improved one by one. Finally, a line of sight detection algorithm based on computer vision technology is designed, and a prototype of auxiliary cheating detection system that can get good results only with a small number of samples is developed.