Markers of low-grade peripheral inflammation have been reported amongst people with epilepsy. The... more Markers of low-grade peripheral inflammation have been reported amongst people with epilepsy. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon areunknown. Weattempted to characterize peripheral immune cells and their activation status in people with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE)and healthy controls. Twenty people with TLE and 19 controls were recruited, and peripheral blood lymphocyte and monocyte subsets evaluated ex vivoby multi-color flow cytometry. People with TLE had higher expression of HLA-DR, CD69, CTLA-4, CD25, IL-23R, IFN-γ, TNF and IL-17 in CD4(+) lymphocytes thancontrols. Granzyme A, CTLA-4, IL-23R and IL-17 expression wasalso elevated in CD8(+) T cells frompeople with TLE. Frequency of HLA-DR in CD19(+) B cells and regulatory T cells CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) producing IL-10 was higher in TLE when comparedwithcontrols. Anegative correlation between CD4(+)expressing co-stimulatory molecules (CD69,CD25 and CTLA-4) with age at onset of seizures was found. The frequency of CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)cells wasalso positivelycorrelated withage at onset of seizures. Immune cells of people withTLE show an activation profile, mainlyin effector T cells, in line with the low-grade peripheral inflammation.
To quantify the use of question marks in titles of published studies. Literature review. All Pubm... more To quantify the use of question marks in titles of published studies. Literature review. All Pubmed publications between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2013 with an available abstract. Papers were classified as being clinical when the search terms clin*, med* or patient* were found anywhere in the paper's title, abstract or the journal's name. Other papers were considered controls. As a verification, clinical journals were compared to non-clinical journals in two different approaches. Also, 50 highest impact journals were explored for publisher group dependent differences. Total number of question marks in titles. A total of 368,362 papers were classified as clinical and 596,889 as controls. Clinical papers had question marks in 3.9% (95% confidence interval 3.8-4.0%) of titles and other papers in 2.3% (confidence interval 2.3-2.3%; p < 0.001). These findings could be verified for clinical journals compared to non-clinical journals. Different percentages between four publ...
To ascertain whether characteristics of ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation (VT/VF) differed bet... more To ascertain whether characteristics of ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation (VT/VF) differed between people with epilepsy and those without and which individuals with epilepsy were at highest risk. We ascertained 18 people with active epilepsy identified in a community-based registry of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) with ECG-confirmed VT/VF (cases). We compared them with 470 individuals with VT/VF without epilepsy (VT/VF controls) and 54 individuals with epilepsy without VT/VF (epilepsy controls). Data on comorbidity, epilepsy severity, and medication use were collected and entered into (conditional) logistic regression models to identify determinants of VT/VF in epilepsy. In most cases, there was an obvious (10/18) or presumed cardiovascular cause (5/18) in view of preexisting heart disease. In 2 of the 3 remaining events, near-sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) was established after successful resuscitation. Cases had a higher prevalence of congenital/inherited heart disea...
The Epilepsy Genetics (EPIGEN) Consortium was established to undertake genetic mapping analyses w... more The Epilepsy Genetics (EPIGEN) Consortium was established to undertake genetic mapping analyses with augmented statistical power to detect variants that influence the development and treatment of common forms of epilepsy. We examined common variations across 279 prime candidate genes in 2717 case and 1118 control samples collected at four independent research centres (in the UK, Ireland, Finland, and Australia). Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and combined set-association analyses were used to examine the contribution of genetic variation in the candidate genes to various forms of epilepsy. We did not identify clear, indisputable common genetic risk factors that contribute to selected epilepsy subphenotypes across multiple populations. Nor did we identify risk factors for the general all-epilepsy phenotype. However, set-association analysis on the most significant p values, assessed under permutation, suggested the contribution of numerous SNPs to disease predisposition in an a...
Markers of low-grade peripheral inflammation have been reported amongst people with epilepsy. The... more Markers of low-grade peripheral inflammation have been reported amongst people with epilepsy. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon areunknown. Weattempted to characterize peripheral immune cells and their activation status in people with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE)and healthy controls. Twenty people with TLE and 19 controls were recruited, and peripheral blood lymphocyte and monocyte subsets evaluated ex vivoby multi-color flow cytometry. People with TLE had higher expression of HLA-DR, CD69, CTLA-4, CD25, IL-23R, IFN-γ, TNF and IL-17 in CD4(+) lymphocytes thancontrols. Granzyme A, CTLA-4, IL-23R and IL-17 expression wasalso elevated in CD8(+) T cells frompeople with TLE. Frequency of HLA-DR in CD19(+) B cells and regulatory T cells CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) producing IL-10 was higher in TLE when comparedwithcontrols. Anegative correlation between CD4(+)expressing co-stimulatory molecules (CD69,CD25 and CTLA-4) with age at onset of seizures was found. The frequency of CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)cells wasalso positivelycorrelated withage at onset of seizures. Immune cells of people withTLE show an activation profile, mainlyin effector T cells, in line with the low-grade peripheral inflammation.
To quantify the use of question marks in titles of published studies. Literature review. All Pubm... more To quantify the use of question marks in titles of published studies. Literature review. All Pubmed publications between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2013 with an available abstract. Papers were classified as being clinical when the search terms clin*, med* or patient* were found anywhere in the paper's title, abstract or the journal's name. Other papers were considered controls. As a verification, clinical journals were compared to non-clinical journals in two different approaches. Also, 50 highest impact journals were explored for publisher group dependent differences. Total number of question marks in titles. A total of 368,362 papers were classified as clinical and 596,889 as controls. Clinical papers had question marks in 3.9% (95% confidence interval 3.8-4.0%) of titles and other papers in 2.3% (confidence interval 2.3-2.3%; p < 0.001). These findings could be verified for clinical journals compared to non-clinical journals. Different percentages between four publ...
To ascertain whether characteristics of ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation (VT/VF) differed bet... more To ascertain whether characteristics of ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation (VT/VF) differed between people with epilepsy and those without and which individuals with epilepsy were at highest risk. We ascertained 18 people with active epilepsy identified in a community-based registry of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) with ECG-confirmed VT/VF (cases). We compared them with 470 individuals with VT/VF without epilepsy (VT/VF controls) and 54 individuals with epilepsy without VT/VF (epilepsy controls). Data on comorbidity, epilepsy severity, and medication use were collected and entered into (conditional) logistic regression models to identify determinants of VT/VF in epilepsy. In most cases, there was an obvious (10/18) or presumed cardiovascular cause (5/18) in view of preexisting heart disease. In 2 of the 3 remaining events, near-sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) was established after successful resuscitation. Cases had a higher prevalence of congenital/inherited heart disea...
The Epilepsy Genetics (EPIGEN) Consortium was established to undertake genetic mapping analyses w... more The Epilepsy Genetics (EPIGEN) Consortium was established to undertake genetic mapping analyses with augmented statistical power to detect variants that influence the development and treatment of common forms of epilepsy. We examined common variations across 279 prime candidate genes in 2717 case and 1118 control samples collected at four independent research centres (in the UK, Ireland, Finland, and Australia). Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and combined set-association analyses were used to examine the contribution of genetic variation in the candidate genes to various forms of epilepsy. We did not identify clear, indisputable common genetic risk factors that contribute to selected epilepsy subphenotypes across multiple populations. Nor did we identify risk factors for the general all-epilepsy phenotype. However, set-association analysis on the most significant p values, assessed under permutation, suggested the contribution of numerous SNPs to disease predisposition in an a...
Uploads
Papers by Josemir Sander