Upconversion electroluminescence in 2D semiconductors integrated with plasmonic tunnel junctions.

Plasmonic tunnel junctions are a unique electroluminescent system in which light emission occurs via an interplay between tunnelling electrons and plasmonic fields instead of electron-hole recombination as in conventional light-emitting diodes. It was previously shown that placing luminescent molecules in the tunneling pathway of nanoscopic tunnel junctions results in peculiar upconversion electroluminescence where the energy of emitted photons exceeds that of excitation electrons. Here we report the observation of upconversion electroluminescence in macroscopic van der Waals plasmonic tunnel junctions comprising gold and few-layer graphene electrodes separated by a ~2-nm-thick hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barrier and a monolayer semiconductor. We find that the semiconductor ground exciton emission is triggered at excitation electron energies lower than the semiconductor optical gap. Interestingly, this upconversion is reached in devices operating at a low conductance (<10-6 S) and low power density regime (<102 W cm-2), defying explanation through existing proposed mechanisms. By examining the scaling relationship between plasmonic and excitonic emission intensities, we elucidate the role of inelastic electron tunnelling dipoles that induce optically forbidden transitions in the few-layer graphene electrode and ultrafast hot carrier transfer across the van der Waals interface.

Prelimbic cortical pyramidal neurons to ventral tegmental area projections promotes arousal from sevoflurane anesthesia.

AIMS: General anesthesia has been used in surgical procedures for approximately 180 years, yet the precise mechanism of anesthetic drugs remains elusive. There is significant anatomical connectivity between the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the prelimbic cortex (PrL). Projections from VTA dopaminergic neurons (VTADA ) to the PrL play a role in the transition from sevoflurane anesthesia to arousal. It is still uncertain whether the prelimbic cortex pyramidal neuron (PrLPyr ) and its projections to VTA (PrLPyr -VTA) are involved in anesthesia-arousal regulation. METHODS: We employed chemogenetics and optogenetics to selectively manipulate neuronal activity in the PrLPyr -VTA pathway. Electroencephalography spectra and burst-suppression ratios (BSR) were used to assess the depth of anesthesia. Furthermore, the loss or recovery of the righting reflex was monitored to indicate the induction or emergence time of general anesthesia. To elucidate the receptor mechanisms in the PrLPyr -VTA projection's impact on anesthesia and arousal, we microinjected NMDA receptor antagonists (MK-801) or AMPA receptor antagonists (NBQX) into the VTA. RESULTS: Our findings show that chemogenetic or optogenetic activation of PrLPyr neurons prolonged anesthesia induction and promoted emergence. Additionally, chemogenetic activation of the PrLPyr -VTA neural pathway delayed anesthesia induction and promoted anesthesia emergence. Likewise, optogenetic activation of the PrLPyr -VTA projections extended the induction time and facilitated emergence from sevoflurane anesthesia. Moreover, antagonizing NMDA receptors in the VTA attenuates the delayed anesthesia induction and promotes emergence caused by activating the PrLPyr -VTA projections. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that PrLPyr neurons and their projections to the VTA are involved in facilitating emergence from sevoflurane anesthesia, with the PrLPyr -VTA pathway exerting its effects through the activation of NMDA receptors within the VTA.

Computational understanding of the coalescence of metallic nanoparticles: a mini review.

Metallic nanoparticles exhibit extraordinary properties that differ from those of bulk materials due to their large surface area to volume ratios. Coalescence of metallic nanoparticles has a huge impact on their properties. Remarkable progress has been made by using computational methods for understanding nanoparticle coalescence. This work aims to provide a mini review on the state-of-the-art modelling and simulation of nanoparticle coalescence. First, we will discuss the outstanding performances and coalescence behaviors of metallic nanoparticles, and list some challenges in the coalescence of metallic nanoparticles. Next, we will introduce the applications of molecular dynamics and the Monte Carlo method in nanoparticle coalescence. Furthermore, we will discuss the coalescence kinetics and mechanisms of metal nanoparticles with the same element and different elements, alloy nanoparticles and metal oxide nanoparticles. Finally, we will present our perspective and conclusion.

Sevoflurane exerts antidepressant-like effects via the BDNF-TrkB pathway.

Depression has emerged as the predominant psychiatric affliction affecting individuals. Prior research has substantiated the antidepressant properties exhibited by numerous anesthetics. Sevoflurane, a widely utilized inhalant anesthetic in clinical practice, remains relatively uncharted in terms of its specific antidepressant effects. In this study, we used open field test, forced swimming test and novelty-suppressed feeding test to investigate the anxiety and depression-like behaviors in C57BL/6 mice following the inhalation of sevoflurane. We then used western blotting to scrutinized the expression levels of proteins associated with the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)-tryosine receptor kinase B (TrkB) pathway in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. To further investigate whether sevoflurane exerts antidepressant-like effects via the BDNF-TrkB pathway, we downregulated TrkB expression by administering siRNA into the lateral ventricle. We found that the inhalation of 2.5 % sevoflurane exerted a significant antidepressant-like effect, accompanied by an elevation in p-TrkB expression levels in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Intriguingly, this antidepressant-like effect was abrogated following the downregulation of TrkB expression through the microinjection of siRNA into the lateral ventricle. In conclusion, this study provides evidence supporting the notion that sevoflurane exerts its antidepressant-like effect via the BDNF-TrkB signaling pathway.

MS-CFNet: a multi-scale clinical studying-based and feature extraction-guided network for breast fibroadenoma segmentation in ultrasonography.

Segmenting breast tumors in ultrasonography is challenging due to the low image quality and presence of artifacts. Radiologists' studying and diagnosis skills are integrated with artificial intelligence to establish a clinical learning-based deep learning network in order to robustly extract and delineate features of breast fibroadenoma. The spatial local feature contrast (SLFC) module captures overall tumor contours, while the channel recursive gated attention (CRGA) module enhances edge perception through high-dimensional information interaction. Additionally, full-scale feature fusion and enhanced deep supervision are applied to improve model stability and performance. To achieve smoother boundaries, we introduce a new loss function (cosh-smooth) that penalizes and finely tunes tumor edges. Our dataset comprises 1016 clinical ultrasound images of breast fibroadenoma with labeled masks, alongside a publicly available dataset of 246 ones. Segmentation performance is evaluated using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and mean intersection over union (MIOU). Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed MS-CFNet outperforms state-of-the-art methods. Compared to TransUNet as a baseline model, MS-CFNet improves by 1.47% in DSC and 2.56% in MIOU. The promising result of MS-CFNet is attributed to the integration of radiologists' clinical diagnosis procedure and the bionic mindset, enhancing the network's ability to recognize and segment breast fibroadenomas effectively.

A neural network with a human learning paradigm for breast fibroadenoma segmentation in sonography.

BACKGROUND: Breast fibroadenoma poses a significant health concern, particularly for young women. Computer-aided diagnosis has emerged as an effective and efficient method for the early and accurate detection of various solid tumors. Automatic segmentation of the breast fibroadenoma is important and potentially reduces unnecessary biopsies, but challenging due to the low image quality and presence of various artifacts in sonography. METHODS: Human learning involves modularizing complete information and then integrating it through dense contextual connections in an intuitive and efficient way. Here, a human learning paradigm was introduced to guide the neural network by using two consecutive phases: the feature fragmentation stage and the information aggregation stage. To optimize this paradigm, three fragmentation attention mechanisms and information aggregation mechanisms were adapted according to the characteristics of sonography. The evaluation was conducted using a local dataset comprising 600 breast ultrasound images from 30 patients at Suining Central Hospital in China. Additionally, a public dataset consisting of 246 breast ultrasound images from Dataset_BUSI and DatasetB was used to further validate the robustness of the proposed network. Segmentation performance and inference speed were assessed by Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), Hausdorff distance (HD), and training time and then compared with those of the baseline model (TransUNet) and other state-of-the-art methods. RESULTS: Most models guided by the human learning paradigm demonstrated improved segmentation on the local dataset with the best one (incorporating C3ECA and LogSparse Attention modules) outperforming the baseline model by 0.76% in DSC and 3.14 mm in HD and reducing the training time by 31.25%. Its robustness and efficiency on the public dataset are also confirmed, surpassing TransUNet by 0.42% in DSC and 5.13 mm in HD. CONCLUSIONS: Our proposed human learning paradigm has demonstrated the superiority and efficiency of ultrasound breast fibroadenoma segmentation across both public and local datasets. This intuitive and efficient learning paradigm as the core of neural networks holds immense potential in medical image processing.

Age-associated cortical similarity networks correlate with cell type-specific transcriptional signatures.

Human brain structure shows heterogeneous patterns of change across adults aging and is associated with cognition. However, the relationship between cortical structural changes during aging and gene transcription signatures remains unclear. Here, using structural magnetic resonance imaging data of two separate cohorts of healthy participants from the Cambridge Centre for Aging and Neuroscience (n = 454, 18-87 years) and Dallas Lifespan Brain Study (n = 304, 20-89 years) and a transcriptome dataset, we investigated the link between cortical morphometric similarity network and brain-wide gene transcription. In two cohorts, we found reproducible morphometric similarity network change patterns of decreased morphological similarity with age in cognitive related areas (mainly located in superior frontal and temporal cortices), and increased morphological similarity in sensorimotor related areas (postcentral and lateral occipital cortices). Changes in morphometric similarity network showed significant spatial correlation with the expression of age-related genes that enriched to synaptic-related biological processes, synaptic abnormalities likely accounting for cognitive decline. Transcription changes in astrocytes, microglia, and neuronal cells interpreted most of the age-related morphometric similarity network changes, which suggest potential intervention and therapeutic targets for cognitive decline. Taken together, by linking gene transcription signatures to cortical morphometric similarity network, our findings might provide molecular and cellular substrates for cortical structural changes related to cognitive decline across adults aging.

The co-activation pattern between the DMN and other brain networks affects the cognition of older adults: evidence from naturalistic stimulation fMRI data.

Brain function changes affect cognitive functions in older adults, yet the relationship between cognition and the dynamic changes of brain networks during naturalistic stimulation is not clear. Here, we recruited the young, middle-aged and older groups from the Cambridge Center for Aging and Neuroscience to investigate the relationship between dynamic metrics of brain networks and cognition using functional magnetic resonance imaging data during movie-watching. We found six reliable co-activation pattern (CAP) states of brain networks grouped into three pairs with opposite activation patterns in three age groups. Compared with young and middle-aged adults, older adults dwelled shorter time in CAP state 4 with deactivated default mode network (DMN) and activated salience, frontoparietal and dorsal-attention networks (DAN), and longer time in state 6 with deactivated DMN and activated DAN and visual network, suggesting altered dynamic interaction between DMN and other brain networks might contribute to cognitive decline in older adults. Meanwhile, older adults showed easier transfer from state 6 to state 3 (activated DMN and deactivated sensorimotor network), suggesting that the fragile antagonism between DMN and other cognitive networks might contribute to cognitive decline in older adults. Our findings provided novel insights into aberrant brain network dynamics associated with cognitive decline.

Ventrolateral periaqueductal gray GABAergic neurons promote arousal of sevoflurane anesthesia through cortico-midbrain circuit.

The mechanism of general anesthesia remains elusive. The ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) in the midbrain regulates sleep and awake states. However, the role of vlPAG and its circuits in anesthesia is unclear. We utilized opto/chemogenetics, righting reflex, and electroencephalographic recording to assess consciousness changes. We employed fiber photometry to measure the activity of neurons and neurotransmitters. As a result, photometry recording showed that the activity of GABA neurons in vlPAG decreased during sevoflurane anesthesia and was reactivated after anesthesia. Activating GABAergic neurons in vlPAG promoted arousal during anesthesia, while inhibiting them delayed this process. Furthermore, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to vlPAG pyramidal neurons projections and vlPAG to ventral tegmental area (VTA) GABAergic projections played a prominent role in the anesthesia-awake transition. GABA neurotransmitter activity of VTA synchronized with mPFC-vlPAG pyramidal neuron projections. Therefore, the cortico-midbrain circuits centered on vlPAG GABAergic neurons exert an arousal-promoting effect during sevoflurane anesthesia.

Mental health changes in elderly patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic in China.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has a heavy impact on the mental health of elderly surgical patients worldwide. In particular, the elderly patients faced considerable psychological stress due to various environmental and medical factors during the outbreak. This study aims to examine changes in mental health trends among non-cardiac surgical patients aged 65 and above in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This multi-center, convenient sampling, longitudinal observational study was conducted from April 1, 2020 to April 30, 2022. Primary outcome was the prevalence of postoperative depression. Secondary outcome was the prevalence of postoperative anxiety. Follow-up was conducted separately at 7 days and 30 days after surgery. Depression symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) scale. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale, with scores of ≥5 defining positive depression or anxiety symptoms. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to investigate risk factors of mental health status in more elderly patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery. RESULTS: A total of 4639 patients were included, of whom 2279 (46.0 %) were male, 752 (15.2 %) were over the age of 75, and 4346 (93.7 %) were married. The monthly prevalence trends demonstrated that compared to the outbreak period, a significant reduction in the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms in elderly patients who underwent surgery during the post-pandemic period. In post-pandemic period, a statistically significant decrease in the prevalence of all severity depression and anxiety patients was noted at the 7-day follow-up, but no significant decrease was observed for severe depression and anxiety in the 30-day follow-up. In COVID-19 low-risk area, a significant overall decrease in prevalence of mental health was observed during the post-pandemic period compared to the outbreak period, including 7-day depression, 7-day anxiety, 30-day depression, and 30-day anxiety (all with P < 0.001). Female and patients with ≥2 comorbidities appeared to be more susceptible to postoperative depression and anxiety during the pandemic. LIMITATION: The absence of data from the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak. CONCLUSIONS: This study analyzed the prevalence of depression and anxiety in elderly non-cardiac patients during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on dimensions such as severity, risk-areas, gender, and comorbidity. Our findings revealed a significant decrease in the prevalence of depression and anxiety in elderly surgery patients during the post-pandemic period.

Molluscicidal activity of Nicotiana tabacum extracts on the invasive snail Pomacea canaliculata.

Botanical molluscicides for controlling the invasive snail Pomacea canaliculata have attracted worldwide attention because of their cost and environmental friendliness. Aqueous extracts from discarded tobacco leaf (Nicotiana tobacum) were evaluated for molluscicidal activity against different-sized P. canaliculata under laboratory conditions. The results showed that over 90% of the snails died in 1 g/L tobacco extract within 4 days, and the survival of P. canaliculata was inversely proportional to the snail size, tobacco extract concentration and length of exposure time. Adult males were more susceptible to tobacco extract than females. The snails had few chances to feed or mate in 0.5 g/L tobacco extract, and reproduction was greatly limited in 0.2 g/L. The growth of juvenile snails was inhibited in 0.2 g/L tobacco extract, but adults were unaffected. The antioxidant capacity of P. canaliculata in response to tobacco extract can be size- and sex-dependent, and the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and acetylcholinesterase and the contents of glutathione and malondialdehyde were increased in adult males. These results suggest that discarded tobacco leaves can be useful as a molluscicide for controlling the invasive snail P. canaliculata based on its effects on survival, behaviour, food intake, growth performance and antioxidant capacity.

Immediate visual reproduction negatively correlates with brain entropy of parahippocampal gyrus and inferior occipital gyrus in bipolar II disorder adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Brain entropy reveals complexity and irregularity of brain, and it has been proven to reflect brain complexity alteration in disease states. Previous studies found that bipolar disorder adolescents showed cognitive impairment. The relationship between complexity of brain neural activity and cognition of bipolar II disorder (BD-II) adolescents remains unclear. METHODS: Nineteen BD-II patients (14.63 ±1.57 years old) and seventeen age-gender matched healthy controls (HCs) (14.18 ± 1.51 years old) were enlisted. Entropy values of all voxels of the brain in resting-state functional MRI data were calculated and differences of them between BD-II and HC groups were evaluated. After that, correlation analyses were performed between entropy values of brain regions showing significant entropy differences and clinical indices in BD-II adolescents. RESULTS: Significant differences were found in scores of immediate visual reproduction subtest (VR-I, p = 0.003) and Stroop color-word test (SCWT-1, p = 0.015; SCWT-2, p = 0.004; SCWT-3, p = 0.003) between the two groups. Compared with HCs, BD-II adolescents showed significant increased brain entropy in right parahippocampal gyrus and right inferior occipital gyrus. Besides, significant negative correlations between brain entropy values of right parahippocampal gyrus, right inferior occipital gyrus and immediate visual reproduction subtest scores were observed in BD-II adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study suggested that the disrupted function of corticolimbic system is related with cognitive abnormality of BD-II adolescents. And from the perspective temporal dynamics of brain system, the current study, brain entropy may provide available evidences for understanding the underlying neural mechanism in BD-II adolescents.

Preoperative Frailty Assessment Predicts Postoperative Mortality, Delirium and Pneumonia in Elderly Lung Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive value of the 5-factor modified frailty index (mFI-5) for postoperative mortality, delirium and pneumonia in patients over 65 years of age undergoing elective lung cancer surgery. METHODS: Data were collected from a single-center retrospective cohort study conducted in a general tertiary hospital from January 2017 to August 2019. In total, the study included 1372 elderly patients aged over 65 who underwent elective lung cancer surgery. They were divided into frail group (mFI-5, 2-5), prefrail group (mFI-5, 1) and robust group (mFI-5, 0) on the basis of mFI-5 classification. The primary outcome was postoperative 1-year all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes were postoperative pneumonia and postoperative delirium. RESULTS: Frailty group had the highest incidence of postoperative delirium (frailty 31.2% versus prefrailty 1.6% versus robust 1.5%, p < 0.001), postoperative pneumonia (frailty 23.5% versus prefrailty 7.2% versus robust 7.7%, p < 0.001), and postoperative 1-year mortality (frailty 7.0% versus prefrailty 2.2% versus robust 1.9%. p < 0.001). Frail patients have significantly longer length of hospitalization than those in the robust group and prefrail patients (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed a clear link between frailty and increased risk of postoperative delirium (aOR 2.775, 95% CI 1.776-5.417, p < 0.001), postoperative pneumonia (aOR 3.291, 95% CI 2.169-4.993, p < 0.001) and postoperative 1-year mortality (aOR 3.364, 95% CI, 1.516-7.464, p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: mFI-5 has potential clinical utility in predicting postoperative death, delirium and pneumonia incidence in elderly patients undergoing radical lung cancer surgery. Frailty screening of patients (mFI-5) may provide benefits in risk stratification, targeted intervention efforts, and assist physicians in clinical decision-making.

A pan-cancer analysis of the expression and molecular mechanism of DHX9 in human cancers.

Finding new targets is necessary for understanding tumorigenesis and developing cancer therapeutics. DExH-box helicase 9 (DHX9) plays a central role in many cellular processes but its expression pattern and prognostic value in most types of cancer remain unclear. In this study, we extracted pan-cancer data from TCGA and GEO databases to explore the prognostic and immunological role of DHX9. The expression levels of DHX9 were then verified in tumor specimens by western blot and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The oncogenic roles of DHX9 in cancers were further verified by in vitro experiments. We first verified that DHX9 is highly expressed in most tumors but significantly decreased in kidney and thyroid cancers, and it is prominently correlated with the prognosis of patients with different tumors. The phosphorylation level of DHX9 was also increased in cancers. Enrichment analysis revealed that DHX9 was involved in Spliceosome, RNA transport and mRNA surveillance pathway. Furthermore, DHX9 expression exhibited strong correlations with immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoint genes, and tumor mutational burden (TMB)/microsatellite instability (MSI). In liver, lung, breast and renal cancer cells, the knockdown or depletion of DHX9 significantly affected the proliferation, metastasis and EMT process of cancer cells. In summary, this pan-cancer investigation provides a comprehensive understanding of the prognostic and immunological role of DHX9 in human cancers, and experiments indicated that DHX9 was a potential target for cancer treatment.

GABAergic neurons in the nucleus accumbens core mediate the antidepressant effects of sevoflurane.

General anaesthetics have been widely applied to induce reversible loss and recovery of consciousness in clinical practice and have been shown to have reliably safe profiles. Since brief exposure to general anaesthetics can result in long-lasting and global changes in neuronal structures and function, these drugs also exhibit strong therapeutic potential for mood disorders. Preliminary and clinical studies have suggested that the inhalational anaesthetic drug sevoflurane might relieve symptoms of depression. However, the antidepressant effects of sevoflurane and the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. In the present study, we confirmed that the antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of inhaling 2.5% sevoflurane for 30 min were comparable to those of ketamine and could be sustained for 48 h. Activation of GABAergic (γ-aminobutyric acidergic) neurons in the nucleus accumbens core by chemogenetics was shown to mimic the antidepressant effects of inhaled sevoflurane, whereas inhibition of these neurons significantly prevented these effects. Considered together, these results suggested that sevoflurane might exert rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects via modulation of neuronal activities in the nucleus accumbens core nucleus.

[Immobilization of Lactobacillus bulgaricus with gellan gum and its application in continuous fermentation of D-lactic acid from corn straw].

Biorefinery of chemicals from straw is an effective approach to alleviate the environmental pollution caused by straw burning. In this paper, we prepared gellan gum immobilized Lactobacillus bulgaricus T15 gel beads (LA-GAGR-T15 gel beads), characterized their properties, and established a continuous cell recycle fermentation process for D-lactate (D-LA) production using the LA-GAGR-T15 gel beads. The fracture stress of LA-GAGR-T15 gel beads was (91.68±0.11) kPa, which was 125.12% higher than that of the calcium alginate immobilized T15 gel beads (calcium alginate-T15 gel beads). This indicated that the strength of LA-GAGR-T15 gel beads was stronger, and the strain was less likely to leak out. The average D-LA production was (72.90±2.79) g/L after fermentation for ten recycles (720 h) using LA-GAGR-T15 gel beads as the starting strain and glucose as the substrate, which was 33.85% higher than that of calcium alginate-T15 gel beads and 37.70% higher than that of free T15. Subsequently, glucose was replaced by enzymatically hydrolyzed corn straw and fermented for ten recycles (240 h) using LA-GAGR-T15 gel beads. The yield of D-LA reached (1.74±0.79) g/(L·h), which was much higher than that of using free bacteria. The wear rate of gel beads was less than 5% after ten recycles, which indicated that LA-GAGR is a good carrier for cell immobilization and can be widely used in industrial fermentation. This study provides basic data for the industrial production of D-LA using cell-recycled fermentation, and provides a new way for the biorefinery of D-LA from corn straw.

Low acyl gellan gum immobilized Lactobacillus bulgaricus T15 produce D-lactic acid from non-detoxified corn stover hydrolysate.

Straw biorefinery offers economical and sustainable production of chemicals. The merits of cell immobilization technology have become the key technology to meet D-lactic acid production from non- detoxified corn stover. In this paper, Low acyl gellan gum (LA-GAGR) was employed first time for Lactobacillus bulgaricus T15 immobilization and applied in D-lactic acid (D-LA) production from non-detoxified corn stover hydrolysate. Compared with the conventional calcium alginate (E404), LA-GAGR has a hencky stress of 82.09 kPa and excellent tolerance to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), ferulic acid (FA), and vanillin. These features make LA-GAGR immobilized T15 work for 50 days via cell-recycle fermentation with D-LA yield of 2.77 ± 0.27 g/L h, while E404 immobilized T15 can only work for 30 days. The production of D-LA from non-detoxified corn stover hydrolysate with LA-GAGR immobilized T15 was also higher than that of free T15 fermentation and E404 immobilized T15 fermentation. In conclusion, LA-GAGR is an excellent cell immobilization material with great potential for industrial application in straw biorefinery industry.

Cortical thickness alterations are associated with astrocytes and excitatory neuron-specific transcriptome signatures in pediatric bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a heritable psychiatric disorder with a complex etiology that is often associated with cortical alterations. Morphometric studies in adults with BD are well established; however, few have examined cortical changes in pediatric BD (PBD). Additionally, the correlation between cortical thickness (CT) changes in PBD and gene expression remains elusive. Here, we performed an integrative analysis using neuroimaging data from 58 PBD individuals and the Allen human brain transcriptomic dataset. We applied partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis on structural MRI data and cortical gene expression, enrichment and specific cell type analysis to investigate the genetic correlates of CT alterations in PBD. We found the expression levels of PBD-related genes showed significant spatial correlations with CT differences. Further enrichment and specific cell type analysis revealed that transcriptome signatures associated with cortical thinning were enriched in synaptic signaling, ion channels, astrocytes, and excitatory neurons. Neurodevelopmental patterns of these genes showed significantly increased expression in the cerebellum, cortex, and subcortical regions during the adolescence period. These results highlight neurodevelopmental transcriptional changes could account for most of the observed correlations with CT differences in PBD, which offers a novel perspective to understand biological conceptualization mechanisms for the genetic correlates of CT alterations.

GABAergic neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus regulate states of consciousness in sevoflurane anesthesia.

The neural inhibitory gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system in the regulation of anesthetic consciousness is heterogeneous, and the medial hypothalamus (MH), consisting of ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) and dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH), plays an important role in sleep and circadian rhythm. However, the role of MH GABAergic neurons (MHGABA) in anesthesia remains unclear. In this study, we used righting reflex, electroencephalogram (EEG), and arousal behavioral score to evaluate the sevoflurane anesthesia. Activation of MHGABA or DMHGABA neurons prolonged the anesthesia induction time, shortened the anesthesia emergence time, and induced EEG arousal and body movement during anesthesia; meanwhile, VMHGABA neurons activated only induced EEG changes during 1.5% sevoflurane anesthesia. Furthermore, inhibition of DMHGABA neurons significantly deepened sevoflurane anesthesia. Therefore, DMHGABA neurons exert a strong emergence-promoting effect on induction, maintenance, and arousal during sevoflurane general anesthesia, which helps to reveal the mechanism of anesthesia.

Activation of the ERK1/2 pathway mediates the neuroprotective effect provided by calycosin treatment.

Calycosin is a natural product extracted from some plant families and exhibits various biological properties. But the effect of calycosin on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury has not been fully elucidated. In this study, the neuroprotective effect of calycosin treatment on the differentiated SH-SY5Y cells exposed to OGD was evaluated using MTT and flow cytometry. Rats that were pretreatment with calycosin were subjected to MCAO, neurological behavior scores and brain infarct volume were evaluated. The protein expression of pERK/ERK were assessed using Western blot. siRNA-pERK and U0126 were administered to investigate the impact of the ERK pathway on calycosin preconditioning. The results demonstrated the neuronal viability in the calycosin-treated SH-SY5Y cells increased significantly, and the rate of apoptosis decreased compared with the Oxygen-glucose deprivation only SH-SY5Y cells. Calycosin pretreatment reduced infarct volume and improved neurological outcome in rats subjected to MCAO. Administration of calycosin increased the ratio of pERK/ERK expression, which was down-regulated in ischemia-reperfusion group. Down-regulation of pERK/ERK significantly attenuated the neuroprotective effect induced by calycosin pretreatment in vitro and in vivo. We concluded calycosin treatment could induce a neuroprotective effect against ischemia, which was related to the regulation of the ERK1/2 pathway.