MGMT and MLH1 methylation in Helicobacter pylori-infected children and adults

AIM: To evaluate the association between Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) infection and MLH1 and MGMT methylation and its relationship with microsatellite instability (MSI). METHODS: The methylation status of the MLH1 and MGMT promoter region was analysed by methylation specific methylation-polymerase chain reaction (MSPPCR) in gastric biopsy samples from uninfected or H. pylori -infected children (n = 50), from adults with chronic gastritis (n = 97) and from adults with gastric cancer (n = 92). MLH1 and MGMT mRNA expression were measured by real-time PCR and normalised to a constitutive gene (β actin). MSI analysis was performed by screening MSI markers at 4 loci (Bat-25, Bat-26, D17S250 and D2S123) with PCR; PCR products were analysed by single strand conformation polymorphism followed by silver staining. Statistical analyses were performed with either the χ 2 test with Yates continuity correction or Fisher's exact test, and statistical significance for expression analysis was assessed using an unpaired Student's t -test. RESULTS: Methylation was not detected in the promoter regions of MLH1 and MGMT in gastric biopsy samples from children, regardless of H. pylori infection status. The MGMT promoter was methylated in 51% of chronic gastritis adult patients and was associated with H. pylori infection (P < 0.05); this region was methylated in 66% of gastric cancer patients, and the difference in the percentage of methylated samples between these patients and those from H. pylori -infected chronic gastritis patients was statistically significant (P < 0.05). MLH1 methylation frequencies among H. pylori -infected and non-infected chronic gastritis adult patients were 13% and 7%, respectively. We observed methylation of the MLH1 promoter (39%) and increased MSI levels (68%) in samples from gastric cancer patients in comparison to samples from H. pylori -infected adult chronic gastritis patients (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively). The frequency of promoter methylation for both genes was higher in gastric cancer samples than in H. pylori -positive chronic gastritis samples (P < 0.05). The levels of MLH1 and MGMT mRNA were significantly reduced in chronic gastritis samples that were also hypermethylated (P < 0.01). MGMT promoter region was analysed by methylation specific methylation-polymerase chain reaction (MSPPCR) in gastric biopsy samples from uninfected or H. pylori -infected children (n = 50), from adults with chronic gastritis (n = 97) and from adults with gastric cancer (n = 92). MLH1 and MGMT mRNA expression were measured by real-time PCR and normalised to a constitutive gene (β actin). MSI analysis was performed by screening MSI markers at 4 loci (Bat-25, Bat-26, D17S250 and D2S123) with PCR; PCR products were analysed by single strand conformation polymorphism followed by silver staining. Statistical analyses were performed with either the χ 2 test with Yates continuity correction or Fisher's exact test, and statistical significance for expression analysis was assessed using an unpaired Student's t -test. RESULTS: Methylation was not detected in the promoter regions of MLH1 and MGMT in gastric biopsy samples from children, regardless of H. pylori infection status. The MGMT promoter was methylated in 51% of chronic gastritis adult patients and was associated with H. pylori infection (P < 0.05); this region was methylated in 66% of gastric cancer patients, and the difference in the percentage of methylated samples between these patients and those from H. pylori -infected chronic gastritis patients was statistically significant (P < 0.05). MLH1 methylation frequencies among H. pylori -infected and non-infected chronic gastritis adult patients were 13% and 7%, respectively. We observed methylation of the MLH1 promoter (39%) and increased MSI levels (68%) in samples from gastric cancer patients in comparison to samples from H. pylori -infected adult chronic gastritis patients (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively). The frequency of promoter methylation for both genes was higher in gastric cancer samples than in H. pylori -positive chronic gastritis samples (P < 0.05). The levels of MLH1 and MGMT mRNA were significantly reduced in chronic gastritis samples that were also hypermethylated (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: In summary, MGMT and MLH1 methylation did not occur in earlier-stage H. pylori infections and thus might depend on the duration of infection. © 2013 Baishideng. All rights reserved.

Children and HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America, around 36,000 children under 15 have HIV, and in the Caribbean estimates are of 11,000 children living with the virus. Although some progress has been made in the region in the care and treatment of adults that is not the case with children. This issue number 7 of Challenges is devoted to the latest information on the vertical transmission (mother-to-child) of HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean, and how children are accessing life-saving treatment in the region.

The right of children and adolescents to a healthy environment. A diagnosis from Latin America and the Caribbean

Healthy environment: unresolved debts that affect childhood and adolescenceIn this new edition, we point out the right of children and adolescents to live in a healthy environment with emphasis on adequate access to drinking water and sanitation, including diagnosis as well as policy perspective. It is our contribution to the challenges set out by the Millennium Development Goals and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Children and international migration in Latin America and the Caribbean

Child migration in the region has many contradictory aspects, as reported in the feature article of this bulletin. On the positive side, there are better educational opportunities in countries of destination and, in countries of origin, greater well-being thanks to remittances; greater protection gained by migrating away from situations of violence and social risk; and new horizons for broadening life experiences. On the negative side, there are precariousness and heightened family environment risks when the parents migrate and the children are left behind in the care of others; exposure to abuse and violation of rights during migratory processes; and possibly lower citizen status in receiving countries.

Children’s rights in the digital age

The digital divide exacerbates inequalities in access to information and knowledge, making it more difficult to socialize with peers and limiting awareness of and the ability to use basic tools for life in society. Reducing this gap sets in motion virtuous synergies of social and cultural inclusion for children and adolescents, facilitating skills development and generating lifelong opportunities. Although the younger generations are connected digital natives, inequalities persist among socioeconomic groups, though these have been tempered by connectivity programmes in public schools in the region. The main article of this edition of Challenges uses current information to examine the progress made and the gaps that remain in this area. Providing children and adolescents with access is merely a first step. They then need to be protected from the risks associated with information and communications technologies (ICTs), which must be harnessed for purposes of meaningful learning, promoting uses that are more in line with the educational curriculum. Lastly, the article posits that connectivity policies must be linked to the fulfilment of children’s rights in the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. As is customary, this issue also contains information on meetings and conferences held in the region during the year and recent publications in this field. Mention is also made of good practices from Peru in reducing gender gaps and a joint initiative between mobile operators and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to protect children in the digital age. Viewpoints includes expert opinion on the potential of ICTs as tools that can facilitate the exercise of the rights of children and adolescents, but also lead to violations of these rights.

Perceptual and acoustic parameters of vocal nodules in children

Vocal nodules constitute the major cause of dysphonia during childhood. Auditory-perceptual and acoustic vocal analyses have been used to differentiate vocal nodules from normal voice in children.Purpose: To study the value of auditory-perceptual and acoustic vocal analyses in assessments of children with nodules.Design: Diagnostic test study.Patients and interventions: A comparative study was carried out including 100 children with videolaryngoscopic diagnosis of vocal nodules (nodule group-NG); and 100 children without vocal symptoms and with normal videolaryngoscopic exams (control group-CG). The age range of both groups was between 4 and 11 years. All children underwent auditory-perceptual vocal analyses (GRBASI scale); maximum phonation time and s/z ratio were calculated, and acoustic vocal analysis (MDVP software) were carried out.Results: There was no difference in the values of maximum phonation time and s/z ratio between groups. Auditory-perceptual analysis indicated greater compromising of voice parameters for NG, compared to CG: G (79 versus 24), R (53 versus 3), B (67 versus 23) and S (35 versus 1). The values of acoustic parameters jitter, PPQ shimmer, APQ, NHR and SPI were higher for NG for CG. The parameter f0 did not differ between groups.Conclusion: Compromising of auditory-perceptual (G, R, B and S) and acoustic vocal parameters (jitter, PPQ shimmer, APQ, NHR and SPI) was greater for children with nodules than for those of the control group, which makes them important methods for assessing child dysphonia. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emergence and stability of interlimb coordination patterns in children with developmental coordination disorder

The purpose of this study was to investigate the emergence and stability of coordination patterns in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) when performing a rhythmic interlimb coordination task on rigid (floor) and elastic (mini-trampoline) surfaces. Twelve typically developing (TD) children and 12 children with DCD were required to clap while jumping under different conditions: in a chosen pattern Free; when the feet touched the surface - Clapping-surface; when the body reached the maximum jumping height, Clapping-jump; and when the feet touched the surface and the body reached the maximum jumping height - Clapping-both. The results showed that the coordination pattern of children with DCD was more variable in the Free, Clapping-surface, and Clapping-jumping conditions and more variable on the mini-trampoline than on the floor under the Free condition when compared with the TD children. Clapping-jumping was more difficult to perform than Clapping-surface for both groups. These findings suggest that the children with DCD were less capable of rhythmically coordinating the jumping-clapping task because they used a type of exploratory strategy regarding the physical properties of the surfaces, whereas the TD children used a type of adaptive strategy displaying behavior that was more consistent across the tasks/environmental demands. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oral microbial colonization in children with sickle cell anaemia under long-term prophylaxis with penicillin

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies of echocardiographic findings in OSA children after adenotonsilectomy

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Dyslexic children suffer from less informative visual cues to control posture

The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of manipulation of the characteristics of visual stimulus on postural control in dyslexic children. A total of 18 dyslexic and 18 non-dyslexic children stood upright inside a moving room, as still as possible, and looked at a target at different conditions of distance between the participant and a moving room frontal wall (25-150 cm) and vision (full and central). The first trial was performed without vision (baseline). Then four trials were performed in which the room remained stationary and eight trials with the room moving, lasting 60 s each. Mean sway amplitude, coherence, relative phase, and angular deviation were calculated. The results revealed that dyslexic children swayed with larger magnitude in both stationary and moving conditions. When the room remained stationary, all children showed larger body sway magnitude at 150 cm distance. Dyslexic children showed larger body sway magnitude in central compared to full vision condition. In the moving condition, body sway magnitude was similar between dyslexic and non-dyslexic children but the coupling between visual information and body sway was weaker in dyslexic children. Moreover, in the absence of peripheral visual cues, induced body sway in dyslexic children was temporally delayed regarding visual stimulus. Taken together, these results indicate that poor postural control performance in dyslexic children is related to how sensory information is acquired from the environment and used to produce postural responses. In conditions in which sensory cues are less informative, dyslexic children take longer to process sensory stimuli in order to obtain precise information, which leads to performance deterioration. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visuomotor processing and hand force coordination in dyslexic children during a visually guided manipulation task

Developmental Dyslexia negatively affects children's reading and writing ability and, in most cases, performance in sensorimotor tasks. These deficits have been associated with structural and functional alterations in the cerebellum and the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). Both neural structures are active during visually guided force control and in the coordination of load force (LF) and grip force (GF) during manipulation tasks. Surprisingly, both phenomena have not been investigated in dyslexic children. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare dyslexic and non-dyslexic children regarding their visuomotor processing ability and GF-LF coordination during a static manipulation task. Thirteen dyslexic (8-14YO) and 13 age- and sex-matched non-dyslexic (control) children participated in the study. They were asked to grasp a fixed instrumented handle using the tip of all digits and pull the handle upward exerting isometric force to match a ramp-and-hold force profile displayed in a computer monitor. Task performance (i.e., visuomotor coordination) was assessed by RMSE calculated in both ramp and hold phases. GF-LF coordination was assessed by the ratio between GF and LF (GF/LF) calculated at both phases and the maximum value of a cross-correlation function (r(max)) and its respective time lag calculated at ramp phase. The results revealed that the RMSE at both phases was larger in dyslexic than in control children. However, we found that GF/LF, rmax, and time lags were similar between groups. Those findings indicate that dyslexic children have a mild deficit in visuomotor processing but preserved GF-LF coordination. Altogether, these findings suggested that dyslexic children could present mild structural and functional alterations in specific PPC or cerebellum areas that are directly related to visuomotor processing. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions in a population-based, cross-sectional sample of school-aged children

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A Culture of Relationships: Early Care for Italian and American Children

A culture of childhood is a shared vision – an agreed upon vision – of the needs and rights of children, including ideas about how the people of the community can collectively nurture them and at the same time be renewed by them. In other words, it is a set of values, beliefs, and practices that people have created to guide their way of nurturing young children and their families. The vision is about investing in young children and investing in the supports and relationships that children need to learn and grow, both for the reason that children carry our future and because they carry our hopes and dreams for the future. These hopes and dreams begin with birth. Sensitive, emotionally available parents create the framework for interaction with their children by responding to the baby’s cues, engaging the baby in mutual gazes, and imitating the baby. The baby, born with a primary ability to share emotions with other human beings eagerly joins the relationship dance. The intimate family circle soon widens. Providers, teachers, and directors of early childhood programs become significant figures in children’s lives—implicit or explicit partners in a "relationship dance" (Edwards & Raikes, 2002). These close relationships are believed to be critical to healthy intellectual, emotional, social, and physical development in childhood and adolescence as well. These conclusions have been documented by diverse fields of science, ranging from cognitive science to communication studies and social and personality psychology. Close relationships contribute to security and trust, promote skill development and understanding, nurture healthy physical growth, infuse developing self-understanding and self-confidence, enable self-control and emotion regulation, and strengthen emotional connections with others that contribute to prosocial motivation (Dunn, 1993; Fogel, 1993; Thompson, 1996). Furthermore, many studies showing how relationship dysfunction is linked to child abuse and neglect, aggression, criminality, and other problems involving the lack of significant human connections (Shankoff & Meisels, 2000). In extending the dance of primary relationships to new relationships, a childcare teacher can play a primary role. The teacher makes the space ready--creating a beautiful place that causes everyone to feel like dancing. Gradually, as the dance between them becomes smooth and familiar, the teacher encourages the baby to try out more complex steps and learn how to dance to new compositions, beats, and tempos. As the baby alternates dancing sometimes with one or two partners, sometimes with many, the dance itself becomes a story about who the child has been and who the child is becoming, a reciprocal self created through close relationships.

Does group size matter? Cheating and cooperation in Brazilian school children

Cooperation between individuals is an important requisite for the maintenance of social relationships. The purpose of this study was to investigate cooperation in children in the school environment, where individuals could cooperate or not with their classmates in a public goods game. We investigated which of the following variables influenced cooperation in children: sex, group size, and information on the number of sessions. Group size was the only factor to significantly affect cooperation, with small-group children cooperating significantly more than those in large groups. Both sex and information had no effect on cooperation. We suggest that these results reflect the fact that, in small groups, individuals were more efficient in controlling and retaliating theirs peers than in large groups. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Behavior problems and prevalence of asthma symptoms among Brazilian children

Objective: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood and has been designated a public health problem due to the increase in its prevalence in recent decades, the amount of health service expenditure it absorbs and an absence of consensus about its etiology. The relationships among psychosocial factors and the occurrence, symptomatology, and severity of asthma have recently been considered. There is still controversy about the association between asthma and a child`s mental health, since the pathways through which this relationship is established are complex and not well researched. This study aims to investigate whether behavior problems are associated with the prevalence of asthma symptoms in a large urban center in Latin America. Methods: It is a cross-section study of 869 children between 6 and 12 years old, residents of Salvador, Brazil. The International Study of Allergy and Asthma in Childhood (ISAAC) instrument was used to evaluate prevalence of asthma symptoms. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was employed to evaluate behavioral problems. Results: 19.26% (n = 212) of the children presented symptoms of asthma. 35% were classified as having clinical behavioral problems. Poisson`s robust regression model demonstrated a statistically significant association between the presence of behavioral problems and asthma symptoms occurrence (PR: 1.43; 95% Cl: 1.10-1.85). Conclusion: These results suggest an association between behavioral problems and pediatric asthma, and support the inclusion of mental health care in the provision of services for asthma morbidity. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.