Microstructural white matter abnormalities in obsessive-compulsive disorder: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of diffusion tensor imaging studies.

BACKGROUND: There are no conclusive diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) findings on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) for now. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of DTI studies to identify white matter (WM) microarchitecture changes in OCD, and also to compare the results differences between the two most frequently used methods (voxel-based analysis, VBA versus tract-based spatial statistics, TBSS) for DTI data. METHODS: A systematic search was performed on relevant studies that reported fractional anisotropy (FA) alterations between patients with OCD and healthy controls (HC). Seed-based d mapping (SDM) was applied to analyze microstructural WM abnormalities in OCD patients. Subgroup meta-analysis was subsequently performed to explore methodological differences between VBA and TBSS approaches. RESULTS: A total of 30 studies (with 31 datasets) that comprised 855 patients and 875 HC were identified. OCD patients exhibited significantly decreased FA in the right cerebellar hemispheric lobule, corpus callosum (CC), left superior frontal gyrus (orbital part), right gyrus rectus, left superior longitudinal fasciculus and right lenticular nucleus in the pooled meta-analysis. The VBA subgroup showed lower FA in several brain regions while the TBSS subgroup only exhibited significant FA reductions in the CC. CONCLUSION: According to the pooled meta-analysis, OCD patients presented microstructural abnormalities in distributed WM tracts. However, heterogeneous results were found between VBA and TBSS studies.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Improves Amygdale Functional Connectivity in Major Depressive Disorder.

Emotional abnormality in major depressive disorder (MDD) is generally regarded to be associated with functional dysregulation in the affective network (AN). The present study examined the changes in characteristics of AN connectivity of MDD patients before and after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) treatment over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and to further assess how these connectivity changes are linked to clinical characteristics of patients. Functional connectivity (FC) in the AN defined by placing seeds in the bilateral amygdale was calculated in 20 patients with MDD before and after rTMS, and in 20 healthy controls (CN). Furthermore, a linear regression model was used to obtain correlations between FC changes and Hamilton depression scale (HAMD) changes in MDD before and after rTMS. Before rTMS, compared with CN, MDD exhibited significantly lower FC between left insula (INS.L), right superior and inferior frontal gyrus (SFG.R and IFG.R), right inferior parietal lobule (IPL.R), and amygdala, and showed an increment of FC between the bilateral precuneus and amygdala in AN. After rTMS, MDD exhibited a significant increase in FC in the INS.L, IFG.R, SFG.R, IPL.R, and a significant reduction in FC in the precuneus. Interestingly, change in FC between INS.L and left amygdala was positively correlated with change in HAMD scores before and after rTMS treatment. rTMS can enhance affective network connectivity in MDD patients, which is linked to emotional improvement. This study further suggests that the insula may be a potential target region of clinical efficacy for MDD to design rationale strategies for therapeutic trials.

Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms of High School Students in Shandong Province During the COVID-19 Epidemic.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) has brought physical risks as well as psychological challenges to the whole world. High school students are a special group suffering from both the academic pressure and the threat of the epidemic. The present study aims to conduct an online survey to investigate the psychological status of high school students in Shandong Province. Methods: Using a web-based cross-sectional survey, data was collected from 1,018 voluntary high school students assessed with demographic information, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and a self-designed online-study effect survey. Correlation analysis was performed to explore the relationships between depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and study effect. Result: The prevalence of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and a combination of depressive and anxiety symptoms was 52.4, 31.4, and 26.8%, respectively, among high school students in Shandong Province during the COVID-19 epidemic. And from moderate to severe severity level, the rates of depressive symptoms and anxious symptoms were 17.6 and 4.6%. Female students exhibited a higher rate and severity of mental symptoms than male, and grade one senior high school students got a higher rate and severity of mental symptoms than the other two grades. Nearly half of the students were not satisfied with their online-study effect. The PHQ-9 score had a strong positive correlation with the GAD-7 score. Both the PHQ-9 score the GAD-7 score had a negative correlation with the study-effect survey score. Conclusion: Quite a number of high school students suffered from depression and anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 epidemic. Sufficient attentions should be paid, and necessary supports should be provided, to protect the mental health of this special group.

Paeoniflorin Alleviates H2O2-Induced Oxidative Injury Through Down-Regulation of MicroRNA-135a in HT-22 Cells.

Paeoniflorin (PF) has been reported to possess neuroprotective influences on cognitive dysfunction illness. In current research, we attempted to probe into the protective influences of PF against H2O2-induced damage and the underlying regulating mechanisms on hippocampal HT-22 cells. HT-22 cells were pretreated with PF, and then induced by H2O2. Afterwards, the influences of PF pretreatment were examined using CCK-8 assay, apoptosis assay, western blot and ROS assay, respectively. In addition, the expression of microRNA-135a (miR-135a) was analyzed and altered by qRT-PCR and cell transfection, respectively. After overexpression of miR-135a, the effects of miR-135a mimic on cell functions were detected again. Moreover, influences of H2O2, PF and miR-135a overexpression on JAK2/STAT3 and ERK1/2 signal pathways were further investigated. Further experiments verified that PF pretreatment alleviated H2O2-induced oxidative stress through increasing cell viability, inhibiting cell apoptosis, reducing ROS generation and activating JAK2/STAT3 and ERK1/2 pathways. Besides, expression of miR-135a was declined by PF pretreatment. Whereas, miR-135a mimic abrogated the protective effects triggered by PF pretreatment. These results indicated that PF can alleviate H2O2-induced oxidative stress by down-regulation of miR-135a via activation of JAK2/STAT3 and ERK1/2 pathways.