Biology subjects

Baumbach, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Baumbach, C..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Impact of air pollution on Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density metrics (NODDI) in 10-13-year-old children with and without ADHD diagnosis

Air pollution is a significant risk factor for adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. While studies have linked pollutants to changes in brain structure, specific effects on white matter microstructure remain inconclusive. Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) provide two nuanced, separate white matter measures that serve as proxies for neurite density and cell-body organization. We used NODDI to examine potential associations between prenatal, early life and current exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter with diameter < 10 micrometers (PM10) and white matter microstructure in school-aged children. We also explored whether ADHD diagnosis moderated these associations. We observed several negative associations between both NO2 and PM10 exposure and neurite density across various white-matter fibers and exposure windows, but none of the associations were statistically significant after correcting for multiple comparisons. In this analysis, we did not find any statistically significant associations between long-term exposure to PM10 and NO2 and white matter microstructural integrity as measured by NODDI. Our results highlight the challenge of detecting modest environmental impacts on the brain and underscore the need for larger, more targeted studies to confirm these preliminary trends.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Association between Cortical Thickness and Functional Response to Linguistic Processing in the Occipital Cortex of Early Blind Individuals

Blindness has been shown to induce changes in the structural and functional organization of the brain. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between these structural and functional changes. In this study, we examined cortical thickness within occipital regions of interest in 38 early blind individuals and explored its relationship to functional activation during linguistic processing. Participants engaged in tactile Braille reading and auditory processing tasks involving words, pseudowords, and control conditions to assess various aspects of linguistic processing. Linear mixed models revealed a significant association between cortical thickness and functional activation in the occipital cortex during linguistic tasks. Specifically, lower cortical thickness in the middle occipital gyrus, the calcarine sulcus, and the parieto-occipital sulcus were linked to increased activation during orthographic processing in blind participants (Braille pseudowords vs. Braille nonsense-symbols). Similarly, lower cortical thickness in the calcarine sulcus and parieto-occipital sulcus was associated with greater functional activation during phonological processing (auditory pseudowords vs. auditory control). These findings align with prior research suggesting that structural and functional adaptations in the visual cortex of blind individuals may be influenced by developmental mechanisms such as pruning or myelination. This study highlights the interplay between cortical structure and functional reorganization in the blind brain.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Mystery of fatal "Staggering disease" unravelled: Novel rustrela virus causes severe encephalomyelitis in domestic cats

Staggering disease is a neurological disorder considered a threat to European domestic cats (Felis catus) for almost five decades. However, its aetiology has remained obscure. Rustrela virus (RusV), a relative of rubella virus, has recently been shown to be associated with encephalitis in a broad range of mammalian hosts. Here, we report the detection of RusV RNA and antigen by metagenomic sequencing, RT-qPCR, in-situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry in brain tissues of 28 out of 29 cats with non-suppurative meningoencephalomyelitis and staggering disease-like neurological disorder from Sweden, Austria, and Germany, but not in non-affected control cats. Screening of possible reservoir hosts in Sweden revealed RusV infection in wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus). Our work strongly indicates RusV as the long-sought cause of feline staggering disease. Given its broad host spectrum and considerable geographic range, RusV may be the aetiological agent of neuropathologies in further mammals, possibly even including humans.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2021

Revisiting rustrela virus - new cases of encephalitis and a solution to the capsid enigma

Rustrela virus (RusV, species Rubivirus strelense) is a recently discovered relative of rubella virus (RuV) that has been detected in cases of encephalitis across a wide spectrum of mammals, including placental and marsupial animals. Here we diagnosed two additional cases of fatal RusV-associated meningoencephalitis in a South American coati (Nasua nasua) and a Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) that were detected in a zoological garden with history of prior RusV infections. Both animals showed abnormal movement or unusual behaviour and their brains tested positive for RusV using specific RT-qPCR and RNA in situ hybridization. As previous sequencing of RusV proved to be very challenging, we employed a sophisticated target-specific capture enrichment with specifically designed RNA baits to generate complete RusV genome sequences from both detected encephalitic animals and apparently healthy wild yellow-necked field mice (Apodemus flavicollis). Furthermore, the technique was used to revise three previously published RusV genomes from two encephalitic animals and a wild yellow-necked field mouse. Virus-to-host sequence ratio and thereby sequence coverage improved markedly using the enrichment method as compared to standard procedures. When comparing the newly generated RusV sequences to the previously published RusV genomes, we identified a previously undetected stretch of 309 nucleotides predicted to represent the intergenic region and the sequence encoding the N-terminus of the capsid protein. This indicated that the original RusV sequence was likely incomplete due to misassembly of the genome at a region with an exceptionally high G+C content of >80 mol%, which could not be resolved even by enormous sequencing efforts with standard methods. The updated capsid protein amino acid sequence now resembles those of RuV and ruhugu virus in size and harbours a predicted RNA binding domain that was not encoded in the original RusV genome version. The new sequence data indicate that RusV has the largest overall genome (9,631 nucleotides), intergenic region (290 nucleotides) and capsid protein-encoding sequence (331 codons) within the genus Rubivirus.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2017

An epigenome-wide association study of educational attainment (n = 10,767)

The epigenome has been shown to be influenced by biological factors, such as disease status, and environmental factors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and body mass index. Although there is a widespread perception that environmental influences on the epigenome are pervasive and profound, there has been little evidence to date in humans with respect to environmental factors that are biologically distal. Here, we provide evidence on the associations between epigenetic modifications--in our case, CpG methylation--and educational attainment (EA), a biologically distal environmental factor that is arguably among of the most important life-shaping experiences for individuals. Specifically, we report the results of an epigenome-wide association study meta-analysis of EA based on data from 27 cohort studies with a total of 10,767 individuals. While we find that 9 CpG probes are significantly associated with EA, only two remain associated when we restrict the sample to never-smokers. These two are known to be strongly associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy, and thus their association with EA could be due to correlation between EA and maternal smoking. Moreover, their effect sizes on EA are far smaller than the known associations between CpG probes and biologically proximal environmental factors. Two analyses that combine the effects of many probes--polygenic methylation score and epigenetic-clock analyses--both suggest small associations with EA. If our findings regarding EA can be generalized to other biologically distal environmental factors, then they cast doubt on the hypothesis that such factors have large effects on the epigenome.

genetics↗