The Role of Prefrontal Cortex in Social Behavior / 生物化学与生物物理进展

Social behavior is extremely important for the physical and mental health of individuals, their growth and development, and for social development. Social behavioral disorders have become a typical clinical representation of a variety of psychiatric disorders and have serious adverse effects on the development of individuals. The prefrontal cortex, as one of the key areas responsible for social behavior, involves in many advanced brain functions such as social behavior, emotion, and decision-making. The neural activity of prefrontal cortex has a major impact on the performance of social behavior. Numerous studies demonstrate that neurons and glial cells can regulate certain social behaviors by themselves or the interaction which we called neural microcircuits; and the collaboration with other brain regions also regulates different types of social behaviors. The prefrontal cortex (PFC)-thalamus projections mainly influence social dominance and social preference; the PFC-amygdala projections play a key role in fear behavior, emotional behavior, social exploration, and social identification; and the PFC-nucleus accumbens projections mainly involve social preference, social memory, social cognition, and spatial-social associative learning. Based on the above neural mechanism, many studies have focused on applying the non-invasive neurostimulation to social deficit-related symptoms, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) and focused ultrasound stimulation (FUS). Our previous study also investigated that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation can improve the social behavior of mice and low-intensity focused ultrasound ameliorated the social avoidance behavior of mice by enhancing neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex. In this review, we summarize the relationship between neurons, glial cells, brain projection and social behavior in the prefrontal cortex, and systematically show the role of the prefrontal cortex in the regulation of social behavior. We hope our summarization will provide a reference for the neural mechanism and effective treatment of social disorders.

Effect of Jianpi Shugan Tongru prescription combined with staged medicinal diet therapy in treating postpartum hypogalactia of qi and blood deficiency pattern / 中国药师

Objective To analyze the efficacy of Jianpi Shugan Tongru prescription combined with staged medicinal diet therapy in the treatment of postpartum hypogalactia of qi and blood deficiency pattern.Methods Patients with postpartum hypogalactia of qi and blood deficiency pattern who gave birth in Jinhua People's Hospital from March 2022 to March 2023 were selected as the research subjects,and were divided into control group(conventional treatment)and test group(treated with Jianpi Shugan Tongru prescription combined with staged medicinal diet therapy).The clinical efficacy,TCM syndrome scores,lactation-related indexes,prolactin(PRL)and estradiol(E2)levels were compared between the two groups.Results A total of 100 patients were included in the study,including 50 patients in the test group and 50 in the control group.After treatment,the total effective rate and the TCM syndrome scores in the test group were better than those in the control group(P<0.05),the time to initiation of lactation,breast filling score and milk production in the test group were better than those in the control group(P<0.05),the PRL level in the test group was higher than that in the control group,the E2 level was lower than that in the control group,and the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05).Conclusion Jianpi Shugan Tongru prescription combined with staged medicinal diet therapy has a good effect on the treatment of patients with postpartum hypogalactia of qi and blood dificiency pattern,and can improve the TCM syndrome scores and lactation-related indexes of patients,and can regulate the levels of PRL and E2.

Nanopolyphenol rejuvenates microglial surveillance of multiple misfolded proteins through metabolic reprogramming

Microglial surveillance plays an essential role in clearing misfolded proteins such as amyloid-beta, tau, and α-synuclein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases. However, due to the complex structure and ambiguous pathogenic species of the misfolded proteins, a universal approach to remove the misfolded proteins remains unavailable. Here, we found that a polyphenol, α-mangostin, reprogrammed metabolism in the disease-associated microglia through shifting glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation, which holistically rejuvenated microglial surveillance capacity to enhance microglial phagocytosis and autophagy-mediated degradation of multiple misfolded proteins. Nanoformulation of α-mangostin efficiently delivered α-mangostin to microglia, relieved the reactive status and rejuvenated the misfolded-proteins clearance capacity of microglia, which thus impressively relieved the neuropathological changes in both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease model mice. These findings provide direct evidences for the concept of rejuvenating microglial surveillance of multiple misfolded proteins through metabolic reprogramming, and demonstrate nanoformulated α-mangostin as a potential and universal therapy against neurodegenerative diseases.

Research progress in immunotherapy for glioblastoma / 药学学报

Glioma is the most common primary intracranial tumor, among which glioblastoma (GBM) is the most malignant subtype. Because of its high heterogeneity and invasiveness, GBM can't be completely removed by surgical resection and is also resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Even after a standard therapy, the median survival time is only 14.6 months, the five-year survival rate is less than 10%, and the relapse of GBM is common. Immunotherapy, a new treatment paradigm, treats cancer through regulating the autologous immune system and the tumor microenvironment. As a promising method to improve the prognosis of GBM, immunotherapy has attracted more and more attention. This paper gives a review to the difficulty, the mainly existing strategies and the bottlenecks in GBM immunotherapy, aiming at providing new direction to improve the prognosis of GBM patients.