Anatomical locations of the motor endplates of sartorius muscle for botulinum toxin injections in treatment of muscle spasticity.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to detect the idyllic locations for botulinum neurotoxin injection by analyzing the intramuscular neural distributions of the sartorius muscles. METHODS: An altered Sihler's staining was conducted on sartorius muscles (15 specimens). The nerve entry points and intramuscular arborization areas were measured as a percentage of the total distance from the most prominent point of the anterior superior iliac spine (0%) to the medial femoral epicondyle (100%). RESULTS: Intramuscular neural distribution were densely detected at 20-40% and 60-80% for the sartorius muscles. The result suggests that the treatment of sartorius muscle spasticity requires botulinum neurotoxin injections in particular locations. CONCLUSIONS: These locations, corresponding to the locations of maximum arborization, are suggested as the most suggestive points for botulinum neurotoxin injection.

Nec-1 alleviates cognitive impairment with reduction of Aß and tau abnormalities in APP/PS1 mice.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive symptoms of learning and memory deficits. Such cognitive impairments are attributed to brain atrophy resulting from progressive neuronal and synaptic loss; therefore, alleviation of neural cell death is as an important target of treatment as other classical hallmarks of AD, such as aggregation of amyloid-ß (Aß) and hyperphosphorylation of tau. Here, we found that an anti-necroptotic molecule necrostatin-1 (Nec-1) directly targets Aß and tau proteins, alleviates brain cell death and ameliorates cognitive impairment in AD models. In the cortex and hippocampus of APP/PS1 double-transgenic mice, Nec-1 treatment reduced the levels of Aß oligomers, plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau without affecting production of Aß, while it altered the levels of apoptotic marker proteins. Our results showing multiple beneficial modes of action of Nec-1 against AD provide evidence that Nec-1 may serve an important role in the development of preventive approach for AD.