Biology subjects

Rubio, J. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Rubio, J. M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Sex differences in the functional network underpinnings of psychotic-like experiences in children

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) include a range of sub-threshold symptoms that resemble aspects of psychosis but do not necessarily indicate the presence of psychiatric illness. These experiences are highly prevalent in youth and are associated with developmental disruptions across social, academic, and emotional domains. While not all youth who report PLEs develop psychosis, many develop other psychiatric illnesses during adolescence and adulthood. As such, PLEs are theorized to represent early markers of poor mental health. Here, we characterized the similarities and differences in the neurobiological underpinnings of childhood PLEs across the sexes using a large sample from the ABCD Study (n=5,260), revealing sex-specific associations between functional networks connectivity and PLEs. We find that although the networks associated with PLEs overlap to some extent across the sexes, there are also crucial differences. In females, PLEs are associated with dispersed cortical and non-cortical connections, whereas in males, they are primarily associated with functional connections within limbic, temporal parietal, somato/motor, and visual networks. These results suggest that early transdiagnostic markers of psychopathology may be distinct across the sexes, further emphasizing the need to consider sex in psychiatric research as well as clinical practice.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Effects of phase encoding direction on test-retest reliability of human functional connectome

The majority of human connectome studies in the literature based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data use either an anterior-to-posterior (AP) or a posterior-to-anterior (PA) phase encoding direction. However, whether and how phase encoding direction would affect test-retest reliability of functional connectome is unclear. Here, in a sample of healthy subjects with two sessions of fMRI scans separated by 12 weeks (two runs per session, one with AP, the other with PA), we tested the influence of phase encoding direction on global and nodal connectivity in the constructed brain networks. All data underwent the state-of-the-art Human Connectome Project (HCP) pipeline to correct for phase-encoding-related distortions before entering analysis. We found that at the global level, the PA scans showed significantly higher intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for global connectivity compared with AP scans, which was particularly prominent when using the Seitzman-300 atlas (versus the CAB-NP-718 atlas). At the nodal level, regions most strongly affected by phase encoding direction were consistently mapped to the cingulate cortex and temporal lobe, with significantly higher ICCs during PA scans compared with AP scans, regardless of atlas. Further, we demonstrated that the observed reliability differences between phase encoding directions may relate to a similar effect on the reliability of temporal signal-to-noise ratio (tSNR) in the same regions (that PA scans were associated with higher reliability of tSNR than AP scans). Averaging the connectivity outcome from the AP and PA scans could slightly, but overall have limited value to boost the ICCs. These results were largely replicated in an independent, public dataset from the HCP-Early Psychosis (HCP-EP) study with a similar design but a much shorter scan session interval. Our findings suggest that phase encoding direction has significant effects on the reliability of connectomic estimates in fMRI studies. We urge that these effects need to be carefully considered in future neuroimaging designs, especially in longitudinal studies such as those related to neurodevelopment or clinical intervention.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Plasmodium falciparum immunodominant IgG epitopes in subclinical malaria

Incomplete non-sterile immunity to malaria is attained in endemic regions after recurrent infections by a large percentage of the adult population, who carry the malaria parasite asymptomatically. Although blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum rapidly elicits IgG responses, the target antigens of partially protective and non-protective IgG antibodies as well as the basis for the acquisition of these antibodies remain largely unknown. We performed IgG-immunomics to screen for P. falciparum antigens and to identify epitopes associated with exposure and clinical disease. Sera from malaria cases identified five prevalent antigens recognized by all analyzed patients IgGs. For further epitope mapping, peptide microarrays designed to cover their sequences were probed with a set of 38 sera samples from adult individuals of an endemic malaria region in Ghana. Eight 20-mer peptides with the highest affinity and frequency of recognition among the population were subsequently validated with 16 sera from the same region, segregated into patients with positive or negative subclinical detection of P. falciparum. Significant binding specificity for two immunodominant antigenic regions was uncovered within the START-related lipid transfer protein and the protein disulfide isomerase PDI8. These 20-mer peptides challenged with sera samples from children under 5 years old displayed specific IgG binding in those with detectable parasitemia, even at subclinical level. These results suggest that the humoral response against START and PDI8 antigens may be triggered even at submicroscopic parasitemia levels in children and may eventually be used to differentially diagnose subclinical malaria in children.\n\nSignificanceMalaria in Africa is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. The reservoirs of the malaria parasite are asymptomatic patients who carry it subclinically. Identifying the parasite antigens and its fragments that trigger the most common immunity response by immunoglobulin G that partially protect people can have profound implications for both, development of a malaria vaccine and diagnosis of the subclinical parasite carriers. Antigen discovery and mapping, validated with sera from subclinical carriers, showed that immunoglobulin G responses in children against parasites START and PDI8 may eventually be used to differentially diagnose non-infected from subclinical cases. Furthermore, anti-START and anti-PDI8 endemic immunodominance provides association of these antigens with long-term acquired immunity and immune evasion to malaria.

microbiology↗