ABSTRACT
Objective:To evaluate the short-term influence of bilateral subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in anxiety symptoms and quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).Methods:Thirty-nine PD patients underwent bilateral STN-DBS in our hospital from August 2017 to August 2018 were chosen in our study. Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scales were performed in these patients before and one month after surgery, and at the last follow-up, respectively. Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-8 (PDQ-8) was performed before surgery and at the last follow-up. Statistical methods were used to analyze the differences of the above scores at different time points, and correlations between each two improvement degrees of above scores. The participants were subsequently divided into four groups based on preoperative BAI scores: no anxiety group ( n=18), mild anxiety group ( n=10), moderate anxiety group ( n=8), and severe anxiety group ( n=3); the above scales were performed. Results:(1) The BAI scores of 39 patients one month after surgery and at the last follow-up (14 [8, 20] and 9 [3, 14]) were significantly lower than those before surgery (16 [9, 27]), and the BDI scores (8[6, 16]) and PDQ-8 scores (3 [2, 6]) at the last follow-up were significantly lower than those before surgery (15 [8, 21] and 9 [6, 13], P<0.05). (2) Correlation analysis revealed that the improvement degree of BAI scores was positively correlated with that of BDI scores ( r s=0.722, P=0.000), and negatively correlated with preoperative baseline scores of BDI and PDQ-8, respectively ( r s=-0.714, P=0.000; r s=-0.378, P=0.018). (3) The BAI scores in the mild and moderate anxiety groups at the last follow-up were significantly lower as compared with the preoperative baseline BAI scores ( P<0.05). The improvement degree of BAI scores in mild, moderate, and severe anxiety groups was significantly higher than that in the no anxiety group ( P<0.05). Conclusion:The bilateral STN-DBS has considerable benefit effect on anxiety symptoms and health-related quality of life in PD patients during short-term follow-up, suggesting an involvement of STN in the pathogenesis of anxiety in PD.
ABSTRACT
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play an anti-inflammatory effect to protect against ischemic stroke. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) can induce regulatory T cells tolerance in sterile-inflammation conditions. However, whether and how pDCs-mediated Tregs response play a part in the pathology of ischemic stroke remains unclear. In this study, we showed that pDCs were increased in the brain of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) mice. Depletion of pDCs with 120G8 exacerbated MCAO-induced brain injury, peripheral pro-inflammation response and decreased the systemic Tregs in mice. Furthermore, the data of mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) in vitro demonstrate that splenic pDCs from MCAO mice can significantly promote Tregs proliferation, accompanying with the increased expression of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) on pDCs. Taken together, the findings here suggested that under the pathologic state of stroke, pDCs protect against MCAO-induced brain injury by priming Tregs, illustrating that pDCs represented as a therapeutic target for the prevention of ischemic brain injury.
ABSTRACT
Neurostimulation remarkably alleviates the symptoms in a variety of brain disorders by modulating the brain-wide network. However, how brain-wide effects on the direct and indirect pathways evoked by focal neurostimulation elicit therapeutic effects in an individual patient is unknown. Understanding this remains crucial for advancing neural circuit-based guidance to optimize candidate patient screening, pre-surgical target selection, and post-surgical parameter tuning. To address this issue, we propose a functional brain connectome-based modeling approach that simulates the spreading effects of stimulating different brain regions and quantifies the rectification of abnormal network topology in silico. We validated these analyses by pinpointing nuclei in the basal ganglia circuits as top-ranked targets for 43 local patients with Parkinson's disease and 90 patients from a public database. Individual connectome-based analysis demonstrated that the globus pallidus was the best choice for 21.1% and the subthalamic nucleus for 19.5% of patients. Down-regulation of functional connectivity (up to 12%) at these prioritized targets optimally maximized the therapeutic effects. Notably, the priority rank of the subthalamic nucleus significantly correlated with motor symptom severity (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale III) in the local cohort. These findings underscore the potential of neural network modeling for advancing personalized brain stimulation therapy, and warrant future experimental investigation to validate its clinical utility.
Subject(s)
Adult , Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Brain Mapping , Connectome , Deep Brain Stimulation , Methods , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Neural Pathways , Diagnostic Imaging , Physiology , Oxygen , Blood , Parkinson Disease , Diagnostic Imaging , Pathology , Therapeutics , ROC Curve , United KingdomABSTRACT
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic,disabling,mental disorder,which has been linked to significant abnormalities in certain brain areas,including the orbital frontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex.Neuroimaging studies have also shown that brain areas related to the decision-making function include the orbital frontal cortex and the dorsal prefrontal lobes.Furthermore,the association between OCD and decision-making function has been consistently demonstrated from a neurobiological perspective.Clinically,impaired decision-making ability is commonly observed in OCD patients,and there is a correlation between OCD and abnormal decision function.Decision-making tasks are typically divided into two types,decision-making under risk and decision-making under ambiguity,with the former commonly evaluated using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the latter using the Game of Dice Task (GDT).In this article the neural mechanism and evaluation methods of decision making in OCD were reviewed.
ABSTRACT
Objectives To observe the effect of Luoyutong capsule on neurological function following focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in rats and to preliminarily study the protective mechanism of Luoyutong capsule for focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in rats. Methods A rat model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)was induced by the modified Longa method. After 1. 5 h of ischemia,reperfusion started. Ten male SD rats were selected as sham operation group,and forty male SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups:Model (MCAO),Luoyutong moderate-dose (LYTM),Luoyutong high-dose (LYTH),and citicoline sodium (CS)groups (n=10 in each group). At day 3 and 7 after modeling,the neurological function of the rats was evaluated by using 12 neurological score and forelimb placing test. Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF),basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF),and phosphor/protein kinase (p-AKT/AKT)on the ischemic side of the rats and in the ipsilateral brain tissue at day 3 after modeling,as well as the expression level of Caspase-12 at day 7 after modeling in the ipsilateral brain tissue,and a comparison was performed among the groups. Results (1 )Neurological score:At day 3 after modeling,there was no significant difference between the 12 neurological score and the forelimb placing test score (all P>0. 05);At day 7 after modeling, there were obvious improvement in the LYTM,LYTH,and CS groups compared with model group (all P0. 05);the expression levels of proCaspase-12 and cleavage Caspase-12 in the CS group were obviously lower than those of the MCAO group (P<0. 05). Conclusion Luoyutong capsule may play a protective effect for focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats by promoting neural survival and regeneration,and this protective effect may be associated with the inhibition of neuronal apoptosis.