ascorbic-acid and AIDS-Related-Complex

The activity-regulated gene Arc/Arg3.1 encodes a postsynaptic protein crucially involved in glutamatergic synaptic plasticity. Genetic mutations in Arc pathway and altered Arc expression in human frontal cortex have been associated with schizophrenia. Although Arc expression has been reported to vary with age, what mechanisms regulate Arc mRNA levels in frontal cortex during postnatal development remains unclear. Using quantitative mRNA analysis of mouse frontal cortical tissues, we mapped the developmental profiles of Arc expression and found that its mRNA levels are sharply amplified near the end of the second postnatal week, when mouse pups open their eyes for the first time after birth. Surprisingly, electrical stimulation of the frontal cortex before eye-opening is not sufficient to drive the amplification of Arc mRNA. Instead, this amplification needs both electrical stimulation and dopamine D1-type receptor (D1R) activation. Furthermore, visual stimuli-driven amplification of Arc mRNA is also dependent on D1R activation and dopamine neurons located in the ventral midbrain. These results indicate that dopamine is required to drive activity-dependent amplification of Arc mRNA in the developing postnatal frontal cortex and suggest that joint electrical and dopaminergic activation is essential to establish the normal expression pattern of a schizophrenia-associated gene during frontal cortical development.

Topics: Adrenergic Agents; Age Factors; AIDS-Related Complex; Amphetamine; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Antioxidants; Ascorbic Acid; Benzazepines; Dopamine; Dopamine Agents; Dopaminergic Neurons; Electroshock; Frontal Lobe; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Microarray Analysis; Oxidopamine; Receptors, Dopamine D1; RNA, Messenger; Ventral Tegmental Area

Clinical psychopathological, follow-up and neuropsychological evaluation was made for 125 HIV-infected patients in stage 2B of the disease (general lymphadenopathy by V. I. Pokrovskiĭ's classification). It is shown that seropositive subjects had asthenic syndrome for the initial 6 months of the disease. According to the manifestations, asthenia was defined as psychogenic-reactive and organic. In the former variant the treatment involved psychotherapy and occasionally drugs, the latter was treated with chemotherapy and psychopharmacological modalities as the first-line and psychotherapy as adjuvant means. The authors expect that a differential approach to HIV-infection-related asthenia at the disease onset may contribute to better life quality and prognosis in AIDS patients.

Topics: Adult; AIDS-Related Complex; Ascorbic Acid; Asthenia; Drug Therapy, Combination; Female; Glutamates; Glutamic Acid; HIV-1; Humans; Male; Vitamin B Complex