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Big stars advance, Tiger’s record tied and everything to know from Friday at WGC-Dell Match Play – PGA TOUR – PGA TOUR

  1. Big stars advance, Tiger’s record tied and everything to know from Friday at WGC-Dell Match Play – PGA TOUR PGA TOUR
  2. Hours After His Sweet Victory, Jon Rahm Raises Concerns About a ‘Huge Divide’ in Golf Over a Brewing Debate EssentiallySports
  3. Rickie Fowler caps off wife Allison Stokke’s birthday with Jon Rahm upset New York Post
  4. Roundtable: Picks, potential matches for WGC-Dell Match Play’s knockout rounds – PGA TOUR PGA TOUR
  5. Successful first day for Jon Rahm who enjoys a comprehensive win over Mitchell marca.com
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Romanian cops raid 7 homes tied to Andrew Tate case

Romanian anti-terrorism cops raided seven homes Thursday as part of the ongoing investigation into accused sex-trafficking rapist Andrew Tate.

The Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) announced the raids early Thursday as the 36-year-old US-born influencer remains in custody facing a slew of serious sex-crime charges.

The morning raids were “in the continuation of the investigations” in the case “constituting an organized criminal group, human trafficking and rape,” DIICOT said.

The raids were on seven homes “within the radius of Bucharest municipality and Ilfov counties and Prahova,” the anti-terror unit said. Local cops helped carry out the search warrants.

The new raids came two days after Tate, 36, was seen handcuffed to his brother Tristan, 34, while arriving in court for a doomed bid to be released.
AP
Romanian anti-terrorism cops raided seven homes Thursday as part of the ongoing investigation into accused sex-trafficking rapist Andrew Tate.
Andrew Tate

Tate remains in custody alongside his 34-year-old brother Tristan and two so-called “Tate’s Angels” — the influencer’s rumored girlfriend Georgiana Naghel, 28, and an ex-Romanian cop, Luana Radu, 32.

All four were arrested late last month and lost their bid to be released on Tuesday after a judge ruled they were a flight risk. On Wednesday, Tate lost a separate bid to get back his seized assets, including the fleet of luxury cars he parades to flaunt his wealth.

DIICOT also announced a similar raid Thursday tied to a suspected organized gang accused of trafficking in minors and pimping. It was not immediately clear if it was tied to Tate’s case.

In that raid, DIICOT said eight homes were searched and three people — none of whom were identified — taken in for questioning.

The Tate brothers and their two co-accused all failed to get released from custody Tuesday.
AFP via Getty Images
The incendiary influencer has been in custody since his arrest late last month.
REUTERS
Tate also failed this week to get back his seized assets, including his fleet of luxury sports cars.
Twitter/Andrew Tate

That alleged operation started in 2019 and “some of the injured persons traveled with the members of the organized criminal group outside the country,” DIICOT said, including France, Germany and the UK. They were also taken to “the United Arab Emirates, where they practiced prostitution for the benefit of investigated persons.”

Officials said the gang members used the “loverboy method” to seduce and then trick victims, the same tactic Tate is accused of employing.

DIICOT did not immediately respond to a message asking if that raid was connected to Tate, who was raised in the UK and lived partly in the UAE.

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US issues new sanctions targeting Russian proxies in Ukraine, Russian governors and an oligarch tied to Putin

One of Ukraine’s most senior military officers said that nearly 400 clashes have taken place between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the eastern regions of Ukraine this week.

Brig. Gen. Oleksiy Hromov, deputy chief of the Ukrainian military’s Main Operational Directorate, said Russia continues to launch attacks using missiles and artillery along a wide front.

“Since Dec. 8, the enemy has launched 41 missile strikes,” including 38 attacks with S-300 missiles, on the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine and positions of troops.

Russia has also launched 32 drones loaded with explosives at energy facilities, including 15 self-detonating drones at the civilian infrastructure of Kyiv, he said. Almost all the Iranian-made drones were intercepted.

Hromov said that “388 military clashes with the enemy took place in eastern Ukraine this week” and claimed the Russians had experienced heavy casualties.

“During Dec. 1 and 2, up to 500 wounded were taken to hospitals in Luhansk, mostly from among the mercenaries of the Wagner private military company,” he claimed.

“In total, as of Dec. 4, more than 3,600 wounded Russian servicemen from the so-called special contingent were in hospitals in the occupied territories,” Hromov claimed. There is no way to verify the estimate.

Hromov also said that Ukrainian attacks on Russian positions and facilities behind the front lines continued.

“During the week, artillery units have struck 309 enemy targets, including 34 control points, 24 warehouses with ammunition and fuel,” he said.

Additionally, he said, high-precision weapons had targeted 58 sites, including five ammunition warehouses.

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COVID origins ‘may have been tied’ to China’s bioweapons program: GOP report

FIRST ON FOX: Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee are alleging in a newly released report that there are “indications” that COVID-19 could be tied to China’s biological weapons research program and “spilled over” to the general human population during an incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

The information was released in a minority staff report by members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday night.

“Contrary to the implication of the [Intelligence Community’s] declassified report, based on our investigation involving a variety of public and non-public information, we conclude that there are indications that SARS-CoV-2 may have been tied to China’s biological weapons research program and spilled over to the human population during a lab-related incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” a summary of the report states. “The IC failed to adequately address this information in its classified Updated Assessment. When we attempted to raise the issues with the IC, it failed to respond.”

In a declassified assessment on the origins of COVID-19 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in October 2021, the report states that SARS-CoV-2 was “probably not a biological weapon,” adding, “We remain skeptical of allegations that SARS-CoV-2 was a biological weapon because they are supported by scientifically invalid claims.”

CHINA’S COVID-19 SURGE: LEADERS PLOT ECONOMIC RECOVERY AS CASES SPIKE DUE TO POLICY ROLLBACK AFTER PROTESTS

Members of the World Health Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease are seen.
(Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Wednesday’s report released by House Republicans also alleges that its investigation “revealed serious shortcomings with both the classified and declassified versions of the Intelligence Community’s,” and states that the omissions “likely skewed the public’s understanding of key issues and deepened mistrust.”

“The Committee believes the IC downplayed important information relating to the possible links between COVID-19 and China’s bioweapons research based in part on input from outside experts,” the report states, adding that the intelligence community “refuses to be transparent with the Committee regarding which experts it relied on.”

CHINA STRUGGLES TO DISMANTLE CONTROVERSIAL ‘ZERO COVID’ POLICIES

A security person moves journalists away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

While alleging that COVID’s origins were likely tied to China’s biological weapons research program, the report states, “We have not seen any credible indication that the virus was intentionally, rather than accidentally, released.”

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Security personnel gather near the entrance of the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a visit by the World Health Organization team in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province on Feb. 3, 2021.
(AP)

“Nor do we claim the information we have found is a smoking gun that definitively resolves the question of the origins of COVID-19 beyond all doubt. However, the information is important to furthering the public’s understanding, and we will seek to declassify the classified version of our report in the next Congress to further the conversation,” the report states.

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Kristallnacht chicken: KFC Germany apologizes for ‘unacceptable’ promotion tied to anniversary of massacre

KFC Germany issued an apology after a “semi-automated” push notification system promoted “tender cheese with crispy chicken” as a way to remember the anniversary of a Jewish massacre. 

“It’s memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!” the message said according to the BBC. 

The company apologized for an “obviously wrong, insensitive and unacceptable message” pushed out on the Nov. 9 anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass” when a Nazi paramilitary group carried out an organized massacre of Jewish people. 

The name derived from the morning after when broken glass from the shattered storefronts of Jewish-owned businesses littered the streets. An estimated 91 Jewish people died and 267 synagogues were destroyed, with many businesses looted, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. 

ADIDAS ENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH KANYE WEST OVER ANTISEMITIC COMMENTS

KFC Germany claimed in a statement that the message had generated as part of a “semi-automated content creation process linked to calendars that include national observances.” 

The exterior of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant is seen on Feb. 5, 2022, in Dusseldorf, Germany.  (Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“In this instance, our internal review process was not properly followed, resulting in a nonapproved notification being shared,” the statement said.

NIKE SUSPENDS RELATIONSHIP WITH KYRIE IRVING AMID ANTISEMITIC CONTROVERSY

The company issued an apology within an hour of the push notification, saying it “sincerely” apologized for the “unplanned, insensitive and unacceptable message.” 

Daniel Sugarman, the director of public affairs at the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called the message “absolutely hideous,” while Dalia Grinfeld, associate director for European affairs at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tweeted “Shame on you!” 

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Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Parliament on the night of the anniversary that the memory would “forever remain a night of shame for our country.” 

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Kristallnacht chicken: KFC Germany apologizes for ‘unacceptable’ promotion tied to anniversary of massacre

KFC Germany issued an apology after a “semi-automated” push notification system promoted “tender cheese with crispy chicken” as a way to remember the anniversary of a Jewish massacre. 

“It’s memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!” the message said according to the BBC. 

The company apologized for an “obviously wrong, insensitive and unacceptable message” pushed out on the Nov. 9 anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass” when a Nazi paramilitary group carried out an organized massacre of Jewish people. 

The name derived from the morning after when broken glass from the shattered storefronts of Jewish-owned businesses littered the streets. An estimated 91 Jewish people died and 267 synagogues were destroyed, with many businesses looted, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. 

ADIDAS ENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH KANYE WEST OVER ANTISEMITIC COMMENTS

KFC Germany claimed in a statement that the message had generated as part of a “semi-automated content creation process linked to calendars that include national observances.” 

The exterior of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant is seen on Feb. 5, 2022, in Dusseldorf, Germany.  (Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“In this instance, our internal review process was not properly followed, resulting in a nonapproved notification being shared,” the statement said.

NIKE SUSPENDS RELATIONSHIP WITH KYRIE IRVING AMID ANTISEMITIC CONTROVERSY

The company issued an apology within an hour of the push notification, saying it “sincerely” apologized for the “unplanned, insensitive and unacceptable message.” 

Daniel Sugarman, the director of public affairs at the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called the message “absolutely hideous,” while Dalia Grinfeld, associate director for European affairs at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tweeted “Shame on you!” 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP

Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Parliament on the night of the anniversary that the memory would “forever remain a night of shame for our country.” 

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Is Muscle Weakness the New Smoking? Grip Strength Tied to Accelerated Biological Age

Summary: Muscle weakness marked by grip strength was associated with accelerated biological aging, a new study reports.

Source: University of Michigan

Everyone ages at a different pace. That’s why two 50-year-olds, despite living the same number of years, may have different biological ages—meaning that a host of intrinsic and extrinsic factors have caused them to age at varying paces with different levels of risk for disease and early death.

Lifestyle choices, such as diet, and smoking, and illness all contribute to accelerating biological age beyond one’s chronological age. In other words, your body is aging faster than expected.

And for the first time, researchers have found that muscle weakness marked by grip strength, a proxy for overall strength capacity, is associated with accelerated biological age.

Specifically, the weaker your grip strength, the older your biological age, according to results published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.

Researchers at Michigan Medicine modeled the relationship between biological age and grip strength of 1,274 middle aged and older adults using three “age acceleration clocks” based on DNA methylation, a process that provides a molecular biomarker and estimator of the pace of aging. The clocks were originally modeled from various studies examining diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, physical disability, Alzheimer’s disease, inflammation and early mortality.

Results reveal that both older men and women showed an association between lower grip strength and biological age acceleration across the DNA methylation clocks.

“We’ve known that muscular strength is a predictor of longevity, and that weakness is a powerful indicator of disease and mortality, but for the first time, we have found strong evidence of a biological link between muscle weakness and actual acceleration in biological age,” said Mark Peterson, Ph.D., M.S., lead author of the study and associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at University of Michigan.

“This suggests that if you maintain your muscle strength across the lifespan, you may be able to protect against many common age-related diseases. We know that smoking, for example, can be a powerful predictor of disease and mortality, but now we know that muscle weakness could be the new smoking.”

The real strength of this study was in the 8 to 10 years of observation, in which lower grip strength predicted faster biological aging measured up to a decade later, said Jessica Faul, Ph.D., M.P.H., a co-author of the study and research associate professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research.

Past studies have shown that low grip strength is an extremely strong predictor of adverse health events. One study even found that it is a better predictor of cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction, than systolic blood pressure—the clinical hallmark for detecting heart disorders. Peterson and his team have previously shown a robust association between weakness and chronic disease and mortality across populations.

This evidence coupled with their study’s recent findings, Peterson says, shows potential for clinicians to adopt the use of grip strength as a way to screen individuals for future risk of functional decline, chronic disease and even early mortality.

“Screening for grip strength would allow for the opportunity to design interventions to delay or prevent the onset or progression of these adverse ‘age-related’ health events,” he said.

Lifestyle choices, such as diet, and smoking, and illness all contribute to accelerating biological age beyond one’s chronological age. Credit: Justine Ross, Michigan Medicine

“We have been pushing for clinicians to start using grip strength in their clinics and only in geriatrics has this sort of been incorporated. However, not many people are using this, even though we’ve seen hundreds of publications showing that grip strength is a really good measure of health.”

Investigators say future research is needed to understand the connection between grip strength and age acceleration, including how inflammatory conditions contribute to age-related weakness and mortality.

Previous studies have shown that chronic inflammation in aging—known as “inflammaging”—is a significant risk factor for mortality among older adults. This inflammation is also associated with lower grip strength and may be a significant predictor on the pathway between lower grip strength and both disability and chronic disease multimorbidity.

Additionally, Peterson says, studies must focus on how lifestyle and behavioral factors, such as physical activity and diet, can affect grip strength and age acceleration.

“Healthy dietary habits are very important, but I think regular exercise is the most critical thing that somebody can do to preserve health across the lifespan,” he said. “We can show it with a biomarker like DNA methylation age, and we can also test it with a clinical feature like grip strength.”

See also

Additional authors include Stacey Collins, M.A., Helen C.S. Meier, Ph.D., M.P.H., Alexander Brahmsteadt, M.D., all of University of Michigan.

About this aging and muscle strength research news

Author: Noah Fromson
Source: University of Michigan
Contact: Noah Fromson – University of Michigan
Image: The image is credited to Justine Ross, Michigan Medicine

Original Research: Open access.
“Grip strength is inversely associated with DNA methylation age acceleration” by Mark D. Peterson et al. Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle


Abstract

Grip strength is inversely associated with DNA methylation age acceleration

Background

There is a large body of evidence linking muscular weakness, as determined by low grip strength, to a host of negative ageing-related health outcomes. Given these links, grip strength has been labelled a ‘biomarker of aging’; and yet, the pathways connecting grip strength to negative health consequences are unclear. The objective of this study was to determine whether grip strength was associated with measures of DNA methylation (DNAm) age acceleration.

Methods

Middle age and older adults from the 2006 to 2008 waves of the Health and Retirement Study with 8–10 years of follow-up were included. Cross-sectional and longitudinal regression modelling was performed to examine the association between normalized grip strength (NGS) and three measures of DNAm age acceleration, adjusting for cell composition, sociodemographic variables and smoking. Longitudinal modelling was also completed to examine the association between change in absolute grip strength and DNAm age acceleration. The three DNAm clocks used for estimating age acceleration include the established DunedinPoAm, PhenoAge and GrimAge clocks.

Results

There was a robust and independent cross-sectional association between NGS and DNAm age acceleration for men using the DunedinPoAm (β: −0.36; P < 0.001), PhenoAge (β: −8.27; P = 0.01) and GrimAge (β: −4.56; P = 0.01) clocks and for women using the DunedinPoAm (β: −0.36; P < 0.001) and GrimAge (β: −4.46; P = 0.01) clocks. There was also an independent longitudinal association between baseline NGS and DNAm age acceleration for men (β: −0.26; P < 0.001) and women (β: −0.36; P < 0.001) using the DunedinPoAm clock and for women only using the PhenoAge (β: −8.20; P < 0.001) and GrimAge (β: −5.91; P < 0.001) clocks. Longitudinal modelling revealed a robust association between change in grip strength from wave 1 to wave 3 was independently associated with PhenoAgeAA (β: −0.13; 95% CI: −0.23, −0.03) and GrimAgeAA (β: −0.07; 95% CI: −0.14, −0.01) in men only (both P < 0.05).

Conclusions

Our findings provide some initial evidence of age acceleration among men and women with lower NGS and loss of strength over time. Future research is needed to understand the extent to which DNAm age mediates the association between grip strength and chronic disease, disability and mortality.

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Black Death plague survivors’ genetic traits tied to autoimmune diseases: study

Comment

The Black Death, the 14th-century bubonic plague that killed some 1 in 3 people in Europe and an estimated 200 million across the world, has left another long-lasting mark: on the immune systems of people living today.

Four DNA variants appear to have helped boost survival rates from the plague — caused by a bacterium, “Yersinia pestis,” carried by small mammals and their fleas — in the mid-1300s and in recurring bouts of plague in later centuries, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature.

Researchers from the University of Chicago, McMaster University in Ontario and the Pasteur Institute in Paris say at least two of those variants associated with surviving the Black Death can be linked to autoimmune conditions common in modern society — including Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Hendrik Poinar, a professor of anthropology at McMaster University and senior co-author on the study, said in the release that the research offered insight into “how pandemics can modify our genomes but go undetected in modern populations.”

Poinar noted that while the genes “provided tremendous protection during hundreds of years of plague epidemics,” they are linked to autoimmune disorders. “A hyperactive immune system may have been great in the past but in the environment today it might not be as helpful,” he said.

Having “two copies of a specific variant of one gene in particular, ERAP2, was strongly associated with surviving the plague,” according to a video published by the University of Chicago to explain the findings. People who survived the Black Death eventually passed the genetic variant to their children. Individuals who inherited such mutations were about 40 percent more likely to survive the plague, the research found.

Luis Barreiro, a professor of genetic medicine at the University of Chicago, said in a release on the study that the group’s findings served as “evidence that this one single disease event was enough to lead to selection in the human immune system.”

Barreiro said the findings were one of a kind. “This is, to my knowledge, the first demonstration that indeed, the Black Death was an important selective pressure to the evolution of the human immune system,” he said.

The medieval plague remains a topic of fascination among researchers and historians due to its “extensive demographic impact and long-lasting consequences,” the study notes, some 700 years after the deadliest pandemic recorded in history.

Researchers involved in the study analyzed high-quality genetic variation in more than 200 DNA samples extracted from the bones or teeth of individuals from Denmark and London who lived before the plague, died of it or lived between one and two generations after it swept the world.

There are different clinical forms of plague, though the most common are bubonic, pneumonic and septicemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Black Death, also referred to as the Pestilence, was a bubonic plague pandemic. Symptoms included skin tissue darkened by gangrene and swelling of lymph nodes, or buboes — the source of the term “bubonic.”

DNA evidence reveals where the Black Death began

The plague strain eventually evolved into a less-dangerous variety, and today the protective variant is present in about 45 percent of British people, according to the 1000 Genomes database, Science Magazine reported in a write-up of the study. Deadly plague outbreaks remain a threat in some areas, but prevention and treatment methods have improved drastically, especially through the use of antibiotics.

Bubonic plague was so deadly an English village quarantined itself to save others

The findings have raised the question: Will the coronavirus pandemic have a big impact on human evolution?

Fortune magazine reported that Barreiro is not convinced. The Black Death was far deadlier, he said, killing on scale orders of magnitude beyond the effects of covid-19, and had a more devastating effect on the young, killing people before they could pass on their genes.

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Astros-Yankees tied early in ALCS Game 1 as Aaron Judge shows off the glove

It’s the American League Championship Series, which means the Houston Astros are playing. The Astros — through all the self-inflicted turmoil in the wake of the sign-stealing scandal — have reached the ALCS for the sixth straight season. For the third time in that run, they’re matching up with the New York Yankees. The first two times, Houston prevailed — much to the chagrin of Yankees fans.

They will enter the series favored to do it again. The Astros are the top seed and will have home-field advantage, starting with Game 1 Wednesday night. They have the deeper pitching staff, and fewer question marks entering the series. Overall, the Yankees boasted a better offense in 2022, but it came with serious peaks and valleys. Aaron Judge was the constant in his history-making 62-homer season.

He will lead the charge against Astros ace Justin Verlander — coming off his own eye-popping season — in Game 1. Verlander battled through a subpar start against the Seattle Mariners in the ALDS, and has now had plenty of time to work through the mechanical issues that apparently plagued him that day. Jameson Taillon will start for the Yankees after they used top starters Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes Jr. in the final two ALDS games against Cleveland.

In the Astros lineup, the biggest threat is Yordan Alvarez. His thunderous performance in the ALDS included two massive game-winning homers.

One thing to watch will be the Yankees’ injury-altered roster. Outfielder Aaron Hicks is out after injuring his knee in ALDS Game 5. Rookie shortstop Oswald Peraza is in. Also in: Trade deadline acquisition Frankie Montas, who has struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness since joining New York in August.

The game starts at 7:37 p.m. ET on TBS. Follow live on Yahoo Sports.

Need to catch up on the major October storylines? We’ve got you covered.

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Human Cocaine and Heroin Addiction Is Found Tied to Impairments in Specific Brain Circuit Initially Implicated in Animals

Summary: Greater impairment of the prefrontal cortex-habenula pathway was correlated with earlier age of first drug use.

Source: Mount Sinai Hospital

White matter in the brain that was previously implicated in animal studies has now been suggested to be specifically impaired in the brains of people with addiction to cocaine or heroin, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Baylor College of Medicine.

The study was published October 6 in Neuron.

The study looked at the connectivity of the tract between the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a brain region critical for regulating higher-order executive functions, and the habenula, a region that plays a critical role in reward and reward-associated learning.

The habenula has emerged as a key driver of drug-seeking behaviors in animal models of addiction. Specifically, signaling from the PFC to the habenula is disrupted in rodent cocaine addiction models, implicating this PFC-habenula circuit in withdrawal and cue-induced relapse behaviors.

However, until now, the PFC-habenula path has remained poorly understood in the human brain. Furthermore, its involvement in the neuropathological effects of drugs other than cocaine has not been previously explored.

For the first time in the human brain, a team led by Rita Z. Goldstein, PhD, and Junqian Xu, PhD, used diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tractography to investigate the microstructural features of the PFC-habenula circuit in people with cocaine or heroin addiction compared to healthy control participants.

Diffusion MRI tractography uses noninvasive brain imaging to model fiber bundles in the living human brain.

Dr. Goldstein is the Mount Sinai Professor in Neuroimaging of Addiction and Director of the Neuroimaging of Addictions and Related Conditions Research Program at Icahn Mount Sinai. Dr. Xu is Associate Professor of Radiology, and Psychiatry, at Baylor College of Medicine.

Structural connections with the prefrontal cortex modeled from targeted nuclei in the subcortex (blue: habenula, yellow: anterior thalamus, red: ventral tegmental area) using diffusion MRI tractography. Microstructural properties of the habenula tract were uniquely reduced in individuals with cocaine or heroin use disorder. Results highlight the potential specificity of distinct prefrontal cortical connections to the neuropathology of drug addiction. Credit: Mount Sinai Health System

“In addition to identifying microstructural differences, specifically reduced coherence in the orientation of the white matter fibers in the cocaine-addicted group that comprised both current cocaine users and those with short-term abstinence, we extended results beyond cocaine (a stimulant) to heroin (an opioid), suggesting that abnormalities in this path may be generalized in addiction,” said Sarah King, a PhD student in Neuroscience in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Icahn Mount Sinai, who led the analyses and is first author of the paper.

“Importantly, we found that across all addicted individuals, greater impairment was correlated with earlier age of first drug use, which points to a potential role for this circuit in developmental or premorbid risk factors.”

The results advance ongoing research in the field by targeting a previously unexplored circuit in the pathophysiology of addiction in humans, where deficits may predispose an individual to both the development of drug addiction and to relapse and which may be potentially amenable for individually tailored treatment or prevention efforts.

About this addiction and neuroscience research news

Author: Elizabeth Dowling
Source: Mount Sinai Hospital
Contact: Elizabeth Dowling – Mount Sinai Hospital
Image: The image is credited to Mount Sinai Hospital

Original Research: Closed access.
“Prefrontal-habenular microstructural impairments in human cocaine and heroin addiction” by Rita Z. Goldstein et al. Neuron


Abstract

See also

Prefrontal-habenular microstructural impairments in human cocaine and heroin addiction

Highlights

  • Diffusion MRI tractography models a plausible PFC-Hb connection in human brain
  • People with cocaine addiction showed reduced PFC-Hb microstructural coherence
  • Results showed a similar pattern in heroin addiction, extending preclinical models
  • Impairments were associated with earlier onset of drug use in the addiction groups

Summary

The habenula (Hb) is central to adaptive reward- and aversion-driven behaviors, comprising a hub for higher-order processing networks involving the prefrontal cortex (PFC).

Despite an established role in preclinical models of cocaine addiction, the translational significance of the Hb and its connectivity with the PFC in humans is unclear.

Using diffusion tractography, we detailed PFC structural connectivity with the Hb and two control regions, quantifying tract-specific microstructural features in healthy and cocaine-addicted individuals. White matter was uniquely impaired in PFC-Hb projections in both short-term abstainers and current cocaine users.

Abnormalities in this tract further generalized to an independent sample of heroin-addicted individuals and were associated, in an exploratory analysis, with earlier onset of drug use across the addiction subgroups, potentially serving as a predisposing marker amenable for early intervention.

Importantly, these findings contextualize a plausible PFC-Hb circuit in the human brain, supporting preclinical evidence for its impairment in cocaine addiction.

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