Characterization of a novel panel of plasma microRNAs that discriminates between Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and healthy individuals.

Cavities are important in clinical diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Although microRNAs (miRNAs) play a vital role in the regulation of inflammation, the relation between plasma miRNA and pulmonary tuberculosis with cavity remains unknown. In this study, plasma samples were derived from 89 cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis (CP-TB) patients, 89 non-cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis (NCP-TB) patients and 95 healthy controls. Groups were matched for age and gender. In the screening phase, Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology was employed to analyze miRNA profiles in plasma samples pooled from CP-TB patients, NCP-TB patients and healthy controls. During the training and verification phases, quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) was conducted to verify the differential expression of selected miRNAs among groups. Illumina high-throughput sequencing identified 29 differentially expressed plasma miRNAs in TB patients when compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis validated miR-769-5p, miR-320a and miR-22-3p as miRNAs that were differently present between TB patients and healthy controls. ROC curve analysis revealed that the potential of these 3 miRNAs to distinguish TB patients from healthy controls was high, with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) ranged from 0.692 to 0.970. Moreover, miR-320a levels were decreased in drug-resistant TB patients than pan-susceptible TB patients (AUC = 0.882). In conclusion, we identified miR-769-5p, miR-320a and miR-22-3p as potential blood-based biomarkers for TB. In addition, miR-320a may represent a biomarker for drug-resistant TB.

Reduced prefrontal activation during verbal fluency task in chronic insomnia disorder: a multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy study.

PURPOSE: Daytime complaints such as memory and attention deficits and failure to accomplish daily tasks are common in insomnia patients. However, objective psychological tests to detect cognitive impairment are equivocal. Neural function associated with cognitive performance may explain the discrepancy. The aim of this study was to investigate the hemodynamic response patterns of patients with chronic insomnia disorder (CID) using the noninvasive and low-cost functional neuroimaging technique of multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in order to identify changes of neural function associated with cognitive performance. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-four CID patients and twenty-five healthy controls matched for age, right-hand dominance, educational level, and gender were examined during verbal fluency tasks (VFT) using NIRS. A covariance analysis was conducted to analyze differences of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) changes in prefrontal cortex (PFC) between the two groups and reduce the influence of the severity of depression. Pearson correlation coeffcients were calculated to examine the relationship between the oxy-Hb changes, with the severity of insomnia and depressive symptoms assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD). RESULTS: The number of words generated during the VFT in CID groups showed no statistical differences with healthy controls. CID patients showed hypoactivation in the PFC during the cognitive task. In addition, we found that the function of left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) during the VFT was significantly negatively correlated with the PSQI scores and the function of right dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) was significantly negatively correlated with the HAMD scores. CONCLUSION: The present study detected dysfunctions in PFC in spite of intact performance which indicates the role of PFC in the neurophysiological underpinnings. Left OFC function is associated with insomnia symptoms and right DLPFC function is associated with depressive symptoms.

Improvement of Orbitofrontal Cortex Function Associated with Blephrospasm Symptom Remission.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) function improves with blepharospasm (BSP) symptom remission using a verbal fluency task and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). METHODS: Nineteen BSP patients and 9 healthy controls (HCs) matched by gender and education were examined using NIRS. The BSP patients were divided into 2 groups based on the onset or remission of BSP symptoms. A covariance analysis was conducted to analyze the differences among the 3 groups to avoid the influence of different ages. The least significant difference was used to process the post hoc test. RESULTS: The hemoglobin concentration and cerebral blood flow of the bilateral orbitofrontal area (channels 27, 31, 34, 37, and 39) were not significantly different between the BSP remission and HC groups (p > 0.05); however, both groups were significantly increased compared with the BSP onset group (BSP remission group vs. BSP onset group: p = 0.003, p = 0.018, p = 0.013, p = 0.001, and p = 0.011, respectively; BSP remission group vs. BSP onset group: p = 0.037, p = 0.044, p = 0.023, p = 0.016, and p = 0.025, respectively). CONCLUSION: This is the first investigation to control for symptom stages in BSP patients examined via NIRS. Cognitive ability and OFC function improve with BSP symptom remission. Thus, the OFC may be inter-connected with motor and cognitive symptoms in BSP.

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Reveals Abnormal Hemodynamics in the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex of Menopausal Depression Patients.

Background/Objective. Menopausal depression (MD) is characterized by depressive symptoms along with hormonal fluctuations. We investigate brain function alteration between major depressive disorder (MDD) and MD. Methods. The difference in oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) for the prefrontal cortex (PFC) was compared retrospectively among 90 females presented with 30 MDD, 30 MD, and 30 healthy controls (HCs) using verbal fluency task (VFT) with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Results. We observed a significant difference in Oxy-Hb alteration in the left dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) using VFT with NIRS (channel 18, P = 0.007) between the MD and MDD groups. A significant difference in Oxy-Hb levels was observed among the three groups in the bilateral DLPFC (channels 18, 27, 33, 39, 41, and 45; P < 0.05). Compared to the HCs, the MD group presented lower Oxy-Hb activation in the right DLPFC (channel 41; P = 0.048) and the left DLPFC (channels 18, 39, and 45; P < 0.05), and the MDD group presented lower Oxy-Hb activation in the right DLPFC (channels 27, 33, and 41; P < 0.05) and the left DLPFC (channels 39 and 45; P < 0.05). Conclusion. Abnormal hemodynamics of the left DLPFC can differentiate MD from MDD by NIRS.

Prefrontal Hemodynamic Functions during a Verbal Fluency Task in Blepharospasm Using Multi-Channel NIRS.

Blepharospasm (BSP) has a morbidity of 16 to 133 per million and is characterized by orbicularis oculi spasms. BSP can severely impact daily life. However, to date, its pathophysiology has not been clearly demonstrated. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a portable, non-invasive, and high time resolution apparatus used to measure cerebral blood flow. This study aimed to investigate the hemodynamic response patterns of BSP patients and determine whether BSP alone can be an attributional factor to influence the function of the prefrontal area using a verbal fluency task (VFT) and NIRS. Twenty-three BSP patients (10 males and 13 females) and 13 healthy controls (HC; five males and eight females) matched by gender and education were examined using NIRS. BSP patients were divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of depression and anxiety symptoms. A covariance analysis was conducted to analyze differences between the three groups and reduce the influence of different ages and educational levels. Bonferroni was used to process the post hoc test. The bilateral orbitofrontal area (ch36, 39, and 41; P<0.01) exhibited a lower activation in BSP patients without psychiatric symptoms compared with HC. This study is the first report to identify the prefrontal function in BSP using NIRS. Our findings indicate that BSP alone may cause a hypoactive hemodynamic performance in the prefrontal cortex in the absence of psychiatric symptoms. These findings provide evidence to support novel pathophysiological mechanisms of BSP.

Dominant modern sublineages and a new modern sublineage of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing family clinical isolates in Heilongjiang Province, China.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing family includes a variety of sublineages. Knowledge of the distribution of a certain sublineage of the Beijing family may help to understand the mechanisms of its rapid spread and to establish an association between a certain genotype and the disease outcome. We have previously found that M. tuberculosis Beijing family clinical isolates represent approximately 90% of the clinical isolates from Heilongjiang Province, China. To clarify the distribution of M. tuberculosis Beijing family sublineages in Heilongjiang Province, China and to investigate the regularity rule for their evolution, we examined single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 250 M. tuberculosis Beijing family clinical isolates using 10 SNP loci that have been identified as appropriate for defining Beijing sublineages. After determining the sequence type (ST) of each isolate, the sublineages of all M. tuberculosis Beijing family isolates were determined, and phylogenetic analysis was performed. We found that 9 out of the 10 SNP loci displayed polymorphisms, but locus 1548149 did not. In total, 92.8% of the isolates in Heilongjiang Province are modern sublineages. ST10 is the most prevalent sublineage (ST10 and ST22 accounted for 63.2% and 23.6% of all the Beijing family isolates, respectively). A new ST, accounting for 4% of the Beijing family isolates in this area, was found for the first time. Each new ST isolate showed a unique VNTR pattern, and none were clustered. The present findings suggest that controlling the spread of these modern sublineages is important in Heilongjiang Province and in China.