In this review, we evaluate the role of the major types of interneurons across hippocampal subregions in the adaptation to chronic and acute stress and to emotional memory formation.Current knowledge on the general somatic health and causes of death in Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorder is very limited. Here, we review the available literature on the topic, while highlighting strengths and weaknesses of the studies conducted to date. These previous works have suggested associations between Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorder and a range of health conditions, including autoimmune disorders, common allergies and respiratory diseases, sleep difficulties, and metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes. Additionally, the risk of mortality in tic disorders might be higher than that of the general population, but specific causes of death have rarely been studied, except for substance use-related deaths and suicide, which are significantly higher in individuals with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorder. Many of these emerging findings require replication and extension but, taken together, they suggest that that it might be sensible to monitor the general health and suicide risk of individuals with Tourette syndrome or chronic tic disorder across the lifespan. We suggest further avenues for research on this topic.The hippocampus is vulnerable to traumatic brain injury (TBI), and hippocampal damage is associated with cognitive deficits that are often the hallmark of TBI. Recent studies have found that TBI induces enhanced neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus, and this cellular response is related to innate cognitive recovery. However, cellular mechanisms of the role of DG neurogenesis in post-TBI recovery remain unclear. This study investigated changes in long-term potentiation (LTP) within the DG in relation to TBI-induced neurogenesis. Adult male rats received a moderate TBI or sham injury and were sacrificed for brain slice recordings at 30 or 60 days post-injury. Recordings were taken from the medial perforant path input to DG granule cells in the presence or absence of the GABAergic antagonist picrotoxin, reflecting activity of either all DG granule cells or predominately newborn granule cells, respectively. Measurements of LTP observed in the total granule cell population (with picrotoxin) showed a prolonged impairment which worsened between 30 and 60 days post-TBI. Under conditions which predominantly reflected the LTP elicited in newly born granule cells (no picrotoxin), a strikingly different pattern of post-TBI changes was observed, with a time-dependent cycle of functional impairment and recovery. At 30 days after injury this cell population showed little or no LTP, but by 60 days the capacity for LTP of the newly born granule cells was no different from that of sham controls. The time-frame of LTP improvements in the newborn cell population, comparable to that of behavioral recovery reported previously, suggests the unique functional properties of newborn granule cells enable them to contribute to restorative change following brain injury.Pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PXF) is the most common cause of secondary open angle glaucoma worldwide. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene Lysyl oxidase like 1 (LOXL1) are strongly associated with the development of pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PXFG). However, these SNPs are also present in 50-80% of the general population, suggestive of other factors being involved in the pathogenesis of PXFG. In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence of epigenetic regulation, specifically DNA methylation, on LOXL1 expression in PXFG using human tenons fibroblasts (HTFs), aqueous humour and serum samples from donors with and without PXFG. LOXL1 expression in HTFs was measured by qPCR and Western Blotting and LOXL1 concentration in aqueous humour was determined by ELISA. Global DNA methylation levels were quantified using an ELISA for 5-methylcytosine. MeDIP assays assessed the methylation status of the LOXL1 promoter region. Expression of methylation-associated enzymes (DNMT1, DNMT3a and MeCP2) were don was increased in patients with PXFG compared to Control patients in both blood (3.98 ± 2.24, 2.10 ± 1.29, P less then 0.05) and HTF cells (37.31 ± 22.0, 8.66 ± 10.40, P less then 0.01). Treatment of PXFG HTFs with in 5-azacytidine increased LOXL1 expression when compared with untreated PXFG HTFs (Fold change 2.26 ± 0.67, P less then 0.05). These data demonstrate that LOXL1 expression is altered in PXFG via DNA methylation and that reversal of these epigenetic changes may represent future potential therapeutic targets in the management of PXFG.Chitin nanofibers (ChNFs) were extracted from Mucor indicus by a purification method followed by a mechanical treatment, cultivated under obtained optimum culture medium conditions to improve fungal chitin production rate. A semi synthetic media containing 50 g/l glucose was used for cultivation of the fungus in shake flasks. The cell wall analysis showed that N-acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc) content, which is an indication of chitin content, was maximum in presence of 2.5 g/l H3PO4, 2.5 g/l of NaOH, 1 g/l of yeast extract, 1 mg/l of plant hormones, and 1 ml/l of trace metals. The chemical characterizations demonstrated that the isolated fibers had a degree of deacetylation lower than of 10%, and were phosphate free. The FTIR results revealed successful removal of different materials during the purification step. The FE-SEM of fibrillated chitin illustrated an average diameter of 28 nm. Finally, X-ray diffraction results showed that the crystallinity index of nanofibers was 82%.Brown seaweeds are rich source of functional polysaccharides that exhibit various bioactivities. However, Malaysian seaweeds are under-utilised, leading to low revenue throughout the supply chain of the seaweed industry. The aims of this study were to extract the functional polysaccharides, namely fucoidan (F), laminaran (L) and alginate (A) from Malaysian brown seaweeds (Sargassum polycystum, Turbinaria ornata and Padina boryana) and subsequently evaluate the properties of the extracted polysaccharides. C381 compound library chemical P. boryana recorded the significantly (p ≤ 0.05) highest carbohydrate content (74.78 ± 1.63%) with highest fucoidan yield (Fpad = 1.59 ± 0.16%) while T. ornata contained significantly (p ≤ 0.05) highest alginate yield (Atur = 105.19 ± 3.45%). Water activities of these extracted polysaccharides varied from 0.63-0.71 with average score of browning indexes (~40). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis demonstrated that the extracted polysaccharides exhibited similar spectral pattern of spectra with the respective standards.