Life and disease status of patients with Parkinson's disease during and after zero-COVID in China: an online survey.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) at different stages of the pandemic. This study aims to assess the lives and disease status of PD patients during the zero-COVID policy period and after ending the zero-COVID policy. METHODS: This multicenter cross-sectional study included two online surveys among PD patients in China, from May 30 to June 30 in 2022 and from January 1 to February 28 in 2023, respectively. The survey questionnaires contained four sections: (1) status of COVID-19 infection; (2) impact on motor and non-motor symptoms; (3) impact on daily and social lives; and (4) impact on PD disease management. RESULTS: A total of 1764 PD patients participated in the first online survey, with 200 patients having lockdown experience and 3 being COVID-19-positive (0.17%). In addition, 537 patients participated in the second online survey, with 467 patients having COVID-19 infection (86.96%). (1) During zero-COVID, all of the COVID-19-positive patients had mild symptoms of COVID-19 and no death was reported. After zero-COVID, 83.51% of the COVID-19-positive patients had mild symptoms. The overall death rate and inpatient mortality rate of COVID-19-positive PD patients were 3.21% and 30.00%, respectively. (2) During zero-COVID, 49.43% of PD patients reported worsening of PD-related symptoms (lockdown vs. unlockdown, 60.50% vs. 48.02%, P = 0.0009). After zero-COVID, 54.93% of PD patients reported worsening of PD-related symptoms (COVID-19 positive vs. COVID-19 negative, 59.31% vs. 25.71%, P < 0.0001). (3) During zero-COVID, 62.36% of patients felt worried, and 'limited outdoor activities' (55.39%) was the top reason for mental health problems. After zero-COVID, 59.03% of patients felt worried, with 'poor health' (58.10%) being the top reason. The PD patients tended to change their daily activities from offline to online, and their economic and caregiver burdens increased both during and after zero-COVID. (4) Most PD patients would like to choose online rehabilitation during (69.56%) and after zero-COVID (69.27%). The demand for online medication purchasing also increased during (47.00%) and after zero-COVID (26.63%). CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic aggravated the motor and non-motor symptoms of PD patients either during or after the zero-COVID policy period. The PD patients also experienced prominent mental health problems, changes in daily activities, and increases in economic and caregiver burdens. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed ways of PD management with increasing demands for online medication purchasing and rehabilitation.

A meta-analysis of the value of serum TSH concentration in the diagnosis of differentiated thyroid cancer in patients with thyroid nodules.

Background: In recent years, most studies believe that high TSH level is positively correlated with the incidence of thyroid cancer, but it is still controversial. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between preoperative TSH level and thyroid malignant nodules using pathological diagnosis as the gold standard. To evaluate the role of serum TSH in predicting malignancy of thyroid nodules with uncertain cytology.As an important member of the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis in the endocrine system, TSH plays a crucial role in regulating the growth, differentiation, and function of thyroid cells (Zhang et al., 2023) [1]. Therefore, it has always been considered closely related to TC. Currently, most studies have compared the TSH levels of TC patients and individuals with benign thyroid disease or healthy controls. These findings from various studies indicated that TC patients often demonstrate elevated TSH levels, even when their TSH falls within the normal range. However, it is important to highlight that the current evidence primarily relies on cross-sectional studies, which mainly describe a phenomenon without establishing causal relationships. The involvement of TSH in the early onset or late progression of TC remains unknown, the interaction between TSH and other factors and how it affects TC is not well understood (Gubbi et al., 2020) [2].Symptoms of thyroid cancer are usually insidious, and early thyroid cancer often has no obvious clinical symptoms. Therefore, early detection and early treatment are particularly important, and how to improve the preoperative diagnosis rate of thyroid nodules is also a problem that clinicians pay close attention to. Objective: To evaluate the value of serum TSH concentration in the diagnosis of differentiated thyroid carcinoma in patients with thyroid nodules. Methods: Our study searched databases in both Chinese and English.China Academic Journals FULL-text Database (CNKI), China Online Journals, Chinese Scientific Journals database and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) were searched by computer. The English literature was established by PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and other databases until June 2022 to search for relevant literatures on the diagnostic test of serum TSH concentration in patients with thyroid nodule. The literatures that met the criteria were screened, the data were extracted, and the literature quality was evaluated. The sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio of the method for the diagnosis of differentiated thyroid carcinoma were calculated and summarized. The receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was drawn and the area under the curve was obtained. Results: A total of 23 diagnostic tests were included (5348 lesions). Meta-analysis showed that the combined sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio of serum TSH concentration in the diagnosis of differentiated thyroid carcinoma were 0.64, 0.72, 2.511, 0.386 and 7.14, respectively. The area under SROC curve (AUC) was 0.79, and the Q index was 0.7283, indicating no statistically significant difference. Conclusion: Based on current evidence, detection of serum TSH concentration in thyroid nodule patients has high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of differentiated thyroid cancer, which has good clinical application value. However, other auxiliary examinations are still needed to improve the diagnosis rate.

High-grade transformation of head and neck adenoid cystic carcinoma demonstrates distinctive clinicopathological features and an unfavorable prognosis: a matched case-control study of the largest series in China.

PURPOSE: Amidst the rarity of High-grade transformation (HGT) in adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), this study offers unprecedented insights into its aggressive nature and clinical implications. METHODS: A 1:1 match comparison between 23 HGT patients and non-HGT counterparts was extracted from 412 ACC cases, focusing on dissecting distinctive clinicopathological features and prognostic outcomes. RESULTS: The predominant sites of HGT were the sinonasal and lacrimal glands (30.4% each). Notably, the solid subtype was the most prevalent pattern within HGT, accounting for 69.6% of cases. Compared to non-HGT, the HGT cohort exhibited significantly higher rates of lymph node metastasis (39.1% vs. 8.7%; P < 0.05), perineural invasion (60.9% vs. 26.1%; P < 0.05), and increased Ki-67 proliferation index (35.0% vs. 10.0%; P < 0.05). Moreover, HGT regions typically showed reduced or absent p63 expression, along with high-grade pathomorphology. HGT was associated with increased recurrence (55.0%) and distant metastasis (78.3%), leading to an average survival of 35.9 months and a 3-years mortality rate of 35.0%. Overall and progression-free survival rates were significantly decreased in the HGT group. CONCLUSION: This study represents the largest single-center cohort of HGT cases to our knowledge, highlighting its frequent occurrence in the sinonasal and lacrimal glands and association with poorer outcomes. The findings support classifying HGT in ACC as Grade 4, reflecting its severity.

Successful treatment of new-onset diabetes mellitus and IgA nephropathy after COVID-19 vaccination: a case report.

De novo glomerular injuries or relapse of nephropathy following COVID-19 vaccine has been reported. Here we present the first case of successful treatment of new-onset diabetes mellitus and biopsy-proven IgA nephropathy after COVID-19 vaccination. A 56-year-old man with no known medical history of renal dysfunction or diabetes mellitus developed both within 3 months after receiving a third dose of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine (Vero cells). His symptoms were characterized by brown urine, severe dry mouth, and excessive thirst. Randomly acquired blood glucose levels exceeded 33.3 mmol/L. A kidney biopsy showed IgA nephropathy. He was started on insulin for glycemic control. After glucocorticoid and cyclophosphamide treatment, oral tablets of repaglinide, combined with acarbose, controlled blood glucose and stabilized kidney function. This case is unique because the kidneys and pancreas were simultaneously affected by the vaccine. Successful treatment of the disease proved that cyclophosphamide combined with glucocorticoids were effective and that blood glucose was successfully controlled. This treatment option could be useful in similar cases in the future.

Correction: DPPA2/4 and SUMO E3 ligase PIAS4 opposingly regulate zygotic transcriptional program.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000324.].

Ferroptosis in Parkinson's disease: Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic potential.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN), leading to motor and non-motor symptoms. While the exact mechanisms remain complex and multifaceted, several molecular pathways have been implicated in PD pathology, including accumulation of misfolded proteins, impaired mitochondrial function, oxidative stress, inflammation, elevated iron levels, etc. Overall, PD's molecular mechanisms involve a complex interplay between genetic, environmental, and cellular factors that disrupt cellular homeostasis, and ultimately lead to the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Recently, emerging evidence highlights ferroptosis, an iron-dependent non-apoptotic cell death process, as a pivotal player in the advancement of PD. Notably, oligomeric α-synuclein (α-syn) generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxides within cellular membranes, potentially triggering ferroptosis. The loss of dopamine, a hallmark of PD, could predispose neurons to ferroptotic vulnerability. This unique form of cell demise unveils fresh insights into PD pathogenesis, necessitating an exploration of the molecular intricacies connecting ferroptosis and PD progression. In this review, the molecular and regulatory mechanisms of ferroptosis and their connection with the pathological processes of PD have been systematically summarized. Furthermore, the features of ferroptosis in PD animal models and clinical trials targeting ferroptosis as a therapeutic approach in PD patients' management are scrutinized.

Increased retinoic acid signaling decreases lung metastasis in salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma by inhibiting the noncanonical Notch1 pathway.

MYB-NFIB fusion and NOTCH1 mutation are common hallmark genetic events in salivary gland adenoid cystic carcinoma (SACC). However, abnormal expression of MYB and NOTCH1 is also observed in patients without MYB-NFIB fusion and NOTCH1 mutation. Here, we explore in-depth the molecular mechanisms of lung metastasis through single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and exome target capture sequencing in two SACC patients without MYB-NFIB fusion and NOTCH1 mutation. Twenty-five types of cells in primary and metastatic tissues were identified via Seurat clustering and categorized into four main stages ranging from near-normal to cancer-based on the abundance of each cell cluster in normal tissue. In this context, we identified the Notch signaling pathway enrichment in almost all cancer cells; RNA velocity, trajectory, and sub-clustering analyses were performed to deeply investigate cancer progenitor-like cell clusters in primary tumor-associated lung metastases, and signature genes of progenitor-like cells were enriched in the "MYC_TARGETS_V2" gene set. In vitro, we detected the NICD1-MYB-MYC complex by co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) and incidentally identified retinoic acid (RA) as an endogenous antagonist of genes in the "MYC_TARGETS_V2" gene set. Following this, we confirmed that all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) suppresses the lung metastasis of SACC by correcting erroneous cell differentiation mainly caused by aberrant NOTCH1 or MYB expression. Bioinformatic, RNA-seq, and immunohistochemical (IHC) analyses of primary tissues and metastatic lung tissues from patients with SACC suggested that RA system insufficiency partially promotes lung metastasis. These findings imply the value of the RA system in diagnosis and treatment.

Gestational age-specific neonatal mortality in Hong Kong: a population-based retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: The neonatal period is the most vulnerable period during childhood, with the risk of death being the highest even in developed countries/regions. Hong Kong's neonatal mortality (1‰) is among the world's lowest and has remained similar for 15 years. This study aimed to explore neonatal deaths in Hong Kong in detail and determine whether neonatal mortality is reducible at such a low level. METHODS: Live births in public hospitals in Hong Kong during 01 Jan 2006-31 Dec 2017 were included. Relevant data were extracted from the electronic medical records. Gestational age-specific mortality was calculated, and the trends were analyzed using the Cochran-Armitage trend test. Causes of death were summarized, and risk factors were identified in multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: In 490,034 live births, 755 cases (1.54‰) died during the neonatal period, and 293 (0.6‰) died during the post-neonatal period. The neonatal mortality remained similar overall (P = 0.17) and among infants born at 24-29 weeks' gestation (P = 0.4), while it decreased in those born at 23 (P = 0.04), 30-36 (P < 0.001) and ≥ 37 (P < 0.001) weeks' gestation. Neonates born at < 27 weeks' gestation accounted for a significantly increased proportion among cases who died (27.6% to 51.9%), with hemorrhagic conditions (24%) being the leading cause of death. Congenital anomalies were the leading cause of death in neonates born ≥ 27 weeks' gestation (52%), but its cause-specific mortality decreased (P = 0.002, 0.6‰ to 0.41‰), with most of the decrease attributed to trisomy 13/18 and multiple anomalies. CONCLUSION: Reduction of neonatal mortality in developed regions may heavily rely on improved quality of perinatal and neonatal care among extremely preterm infants.

Pre-operative external ventricle drainage improves neurological outcomes for patients with traumatic intracerebellar hematomas.

Objectives: Traumatic intracerebellar hematoma (TICH) is a very rare entity with a high morbidity and mortality rate, and there is no consensus on its optimal surgical management. In particular, whether and when to place external ventricle drainage in TICH patients without acute hydrocephalus pre-operation is still controversial. Methods: A single-institutional, retrospective analysis of total of 47 TICH patients with craniectomy hematoma evacuation in a tertiary medical center from January 2009 to October 2020 was performed. Primary outcomes were mortality in hospital and neurological function evaluated by GOS at discharge and 6 months after the ictus. Special attention was paid to the significance of external ventricular drainage (EVD) in TICH patients without acute hydrocephalus on admission. Results: Analysis of the clinical characteristics of the TICH patients revealed that the odds of use of EVD were seen in patients with IVH, fourth ventricle compression, and acute hydrocephalus. Placement of EVD at the bedside can significantly improve the GCS score before craniotomy, as well as the neurological score at discharge and 6 months. Compared with the only hematoma evacuation (HE) group, there is a trend that EVD can reduce hospital mortality and decrease the occurrence of delayed hydrocephalus, although the difference is not statistically significant. In addition, EVD can reduce the average NICU stay time, but has no effect on the total length of stay. Moreover, our data showed that EVD did not increase the risk of associated bleeding and intracranial infection. Interestingly, in terms of neurological function at discharge and 6 month after the ictus, even though without acute hydrocephalus on admission, the TICH patients can still benefit from EVD insertion. Conclusion: For TICH patients, perioperative EVD is safe and can significantly improve neurological prognosis. Especially for patients whose GCS dropped by more than 2 points before the operation, EVD can significantly improve the patient's GCS score, reduce the risk of herniation, and gain more time for surgical preparation. Even for TICH patients without acute hydrocephalus on admission CT scan, EVD placement still has positive clinical significance.

The optimized jugular vein catheterization reinforced cocaine self-administration addictive model for adult male Sprague-Dawley rats.

The self-administration (SA) model represents one of the most important and classic methods for drug addiction, and jugular vein catheterization is one of the most critical techniques in this animal model. We aimed to explore an optimized scheme to improve the success rate of rat jugular vein catheterization and SA model. Our experiment provided an optimized scheme which including numerous details, materials, approaches, updated techniques and protocols. Our experimental group consisted of 120 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats, which were divided into the Traditional Operation group (TO group) and the Optimized Operation group (OO group) by the random number table method and then further individually divided into the Saline Training group and the Cocaine Training group for the following SA training. Our results showed that the success rate of the jugular vein catheterization in the OO group was significantly greater than that in the TO group (93.33% vs 46.67%, χ2 = 31.11, P < 0.001). The optimized jugular vein catheterization could make the SA model more stable, reliable and efficient than the traditional operation. Compared with traditional methods, our optimized scheme made numerous improvements in materials and techniques including uniformity, individualized variability of the S-type positioning nail, the length and connection matching, the shape of the end and low cost. Our optimized scheme could provide a more stable and efficient tool for basic research on drug addiction. Several subtle improvements under our personal experience are usually important for augmenting operational efficiency.

Melatonin intervention to prevent delirium in hospitalized patients: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of the effectiveness of melatonin is necessary to prevent the development of delirium in hospitalized patients. Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is a hormone produced by the pineal gland of the brain from the amino acid tryptophan. Synthetic melatonin supplements have been used for various medical conditions, especially sleep-related diseases, and have proved to be successful. AIM: To determine the effect of melatonin on the prevention of delirium in hospitalized patients. METHODS: A literature search of the CNKI, Wanfang Database, VIP Database, China Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and other databases was conducted. The CNKI, Wanfang Database, VIP Database (VIP), and China Biomedical Literature Database were searched for Chinese studies, and PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and other databases were searched for international studies. It will be established in June 2021 in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) whether melatonin treatment for 6 mo prevents delirium in hospitalized patients. Literature screening, quality review, and data extraction were carried out using the Cochrane Manual 5.1.0 systematic evaluation method, and Stata 15.0 software and Review Manager 5.3 were used for meta-analysis and processing. RESULTS: A total of 18 new RCT articles and 18 experimental subjects were identified. The results of the meta-analysis showed that following the occurrence of delirium, melatonin reduced the incidence of delirium in patients (RR = 0.69, 95%CI: 0.60-0.80), which is of significance, but heterogeneity was significant I 2 = 62%. Subgroup analysis was performed to examine the source of heterogeneity, and it was found that different patient types were the source of heterogeneity; the research on subgroup analysis was of high quality and homogeneous. To determine the reliability and robustness of the research results, a sensitivity analysis was carried out. The results showed that after excluding individual studies one by one, the effect size was still within 95%CI, which strengthened the reliability of the original meta-analysis results. Melatonin has a significant preventive effect on delirium in hospitalized medical patients [RR = 0.60, 95%CI: 0.47-0.76), P < 0.001]. CONCLUSION: Melatonin can reduce the rate of delirium in medical patients, and the role of melatonin in reducing the incidence of delirium in surgical patients and critical care unit patients requires further study.

Erratum: Comparative study of nanostructured carriers of calcium phosphate and magnesium phosphate loaded with SRT1720 for the protection of H2O2-induced senescent endothelium.

[This corrects the article on p. 2068 in vol. 10, PMID: 30093944.].

Correction: Highly porous and elastic aerogel based on ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowires for high-performance bone regeneration and neovascularization.

Correction for 'Highly porous and elastic aerogel based on ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowires for high-performance bone regeneration and neovascularization' by Gao-Jian Huang et al., J. Mater. Chem. B, 2021, 9, 1277-1287, DOI: 10.1039/D0TB02288H.

In vitro Preparation and Evaluation of Sustained-Release Microcapsules of Salvianolic Acid.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the preparation of sustained-release microcapsules of salvianolic acid. METHODS: The stability of salvianolic acid microcapsules was improved, and the time of action was prolonged in the present study. This was prepared using the spray-drying method, with chitosan as the carrier. In the preparation process, the prescription and process were optimized by L9 (34) using an orthogonal design, with yield and drug loading as indexes, in order to obtain optimum conditions. RESULTS: The optimal process and prescription for the preparation of salvianolic acid microcapsules were found to be as follows: mass concentration of chitosan, 1.5%; mass ratio of salvianolic acid to chitosan, 1:3; inlet air temperature, 190°C; and peristaltic pump speed, 300 mL·h-1. The surface of the microcapsules was round, the drug loading was 25.99% ± 2.14%, the yield was 51.88% ± 2.84%, the entrapment efficiency was 86.21% ± 2.89%, and the average particle size was 105.6 ± 2.56 nm. The microcapsules in vitro had certain sustained release characteristics. The internally fitted first-order release model equation was ln(1-Q) = -0.236 t + 4.591 7, r = 0.920. In addition, the results of differential scanning calorimetry show that the properties of salvianolic acid were not changed by the microcapsules. CONCLUSION: Sustained-release microcapsules of salvianolic acid can be successfully prepared by adopting marine polysaccharide as a carrier.

Synergistic preparation of modified alginate aerogel with melamine/chitosan for efficiently selective adsorption of lead ions.

Superior mechanical properties, high adsorption capacity, and excellent regeneration property are crucial design criterions to develop a new-type aerogel for adsorptive applications towards heavy metal removal from water. Herein, chitosan and melamine not only introduced abundant functional groups to increase adsorbing sites for lead ions, but also reinforced the three-dimensional network skeleton structure of absorbents to improve the service life in adsorption applications. As-fabricated alginate/melamine/chitosan aerogel can extract Pb (II) from aqueous solution efficiently, i.e., the optimum adsorption quantity of 1331.6 mg/g at pH 5.5, which exhibited excellent and selective adsorption capacity for Pb (II) against the competition of coexisting divalent metal ions. More importantly, alginate/melamine/chitosan aerogel could be regenerated using dilute acidic solution and recovered well after eight adsorption-desorption cycles. This work might offer a new idea for design and preparation of biomass-based aerogel sorbents with promising prospect in the remediation of Pb (II)-contaminated wastewater.

Highly porous and elastic aerogel based on ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowires for high-performance bone regeneration and neovascularization.

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is promising for the clinical treatment of bone defects because of its excellent biocompatibility and osteo-conductivity. However, highly porous HAP scaffolds usually exhibit high brittleness and poor mechanical properties, thus organic constituents are usually added to form composite materials. In this work, a highly porous and elastic aerogel made from ultralong HAP nanowires with ultrahigh porosity (∼98.5%), excellent elasticity and suitable porous structure is prepared as the high-performance scaffold for bone defect repair. The highly porous structure of the as-prepared aerogel is beneficial to bone ingrowth and matter/fluid transfer, and the high elasticity can ensure the structural integrity of the scaffold during bone regeneration. Therefore, the HAP nanowire aerogel scaffold can promote the adhesion, proliferation and migration of rat bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (rBMSCs), and elevate the protein expression of osteogenesis and angiogenesis related genes. The in vivo experimental results demonstrate that the HAP nanowire aerogel scaffold is favorable for the ingrowth of new bone and blood vessels, and thus can greatly accelerate bone regeneration and neovascularization. The as-prepared HAP nanowire aerogel scaffold shows promising potential for biomedical applications such as bone defect repair.

Transcriptome profiling reveals the high incidence of hnRNPA1 exon 8 inclusion in chronic myeloid leukemia.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a malignancy that evolves through a multi-step process. Alternative splicing of several genes has been linked to the progression of the disease, but involvement of alternations in splicing profiles has not been reported. RNA-seq of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples characterized the differentially expressed and spliced transcripts in five CML chronic phase (CP) and five blast phase (BP) patients, and five healthy controls. Global splicing alteration analysis detected 6474 altered splicing events altered between CML and healthy samples, including many of the previously reported splicing variants and showing a more profound altered splicing deregulation in BP samples. Functional clustering of differentially spliced genes in CP revealed a preferred enrichment relating to cell signaling, while the spliceosome pathway was most overrepresented in BP samples. One differentially spliced spliceosome gene hnRNPA1 showed two splice isoforms; the longer isoform contained exon 8 was preferentially expressed in the BP patients, and the short one excluding exon 8 was specific to healthy controls. Our findings suggested that alternative splicing deregulation played a central role during the progression of CML from CP to BP, and the longer isoform of hnRNPA1 might represent a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for CML.

The NAc lesions disrupted the hippocampus-mPFC theta coherence during intravenous cocaine administration in rats.

Synchronization and desynchronization of neuronal oscillatory activities between different brain areas play an important role in effective information communication. The hippocampus-mPFC circuit is well recognized as an important neural circuit pathway involved in drug addiction. We aimed to examine cocaine-related changes in oscillation synchronization in the hippocampus-mPFC circuit and to explore the role of the NAc in oscillation synchronization between the hippocampus and the mPFC during intravenous cocaine administration. In our experiment, adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into the Saline group, Cocaine group and Lesion group by the random number table method. Using an electrophysiological method, we continuously recorded the local field potentials (LFPs) of the hippocampus and the mPFC after pulse intravenous cocaine or saline. Our results showed that theta coherence occurred in the hippocampus-mPFC circuit during intravenous cocaine administration (Coherenceθ, Pre-drug = 0.2212 ±â€¯0.0126, Coherenceθ, Post-drug = 0.3118 ±â€¯0.0149, t = 4.894, P < 0.001), and the NAc Lesions could disrupt hippocampus-mPFC theta coherence (Coherenceθ, Pre-drug = 0.3164 ±â€¯0.0188, Coherenceθ, Post-drug = 0.2628 ±â€¯0.0248, t = 2.408, P < 0.05). These findings indicated that the NAc could influence oscillation synchronization between the hippocampus and mPFC during intravenous cocaine administration, which might help to elucidate the neurophysiological mechanisms of the neural circuits that underlie the function of the NAc during the strengthening of drug addiction.

Upon designing carboxyl methylcellulose and chitosan-derived nanostructured sorbents for efficient removal of Cd(II) and Cr(VI) from water.

Considering that the hazardous heavy metal ions like Cd(II) and Cr(VI) are widely present in the environment, nowadays employing easy-to-handle adsorption-oriented processes are feasible choices towards efficient remediation of Cd(II) and Cr(VI) from aqueous systems. Herein we developed a novel amino-functionalized bead with cost-effectiveness, high sorption capacity and fast sorption kinetics to remove Cd(II) and Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. The carboxyl methylcellulose and chitosan-derived nanostructured sorbents synthesis were mainly through chitosan and dopamine self-polymerization, doped in sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, and glutaraldehyde cross-linking. The pH value, initial concentration and contact time were investigated. Experimental data were commendably described by Freundlich isotherm and Pseudo-second-order model. The maximum adsorption capacities of Cd(II) and Cr(VI) obtained from the experimental data were 470.0 mg/g and 347.0 mg/g, respectively. The adsorbents were collaboratively characterized by FT-IR, SEM, TGA, XPS, etc., and the adsorbent basically exhibited high complexation ability to Cd(II) and showed strong electrostatic effect with Cr(VI) under acidic conditions. The recycling characteristics suggested that it possesses an outstanding recyclability. The adsorbent may have a potential as high-value biological adsorbent to remove heavy metals and it deserves further research into the practical application.

The Ras Superfamily of Small GTPases in Non-neoplastic Cerebral Diseases.

The small GTPases from the Ras superfamily play crucial roles in basic cellular processes during practically the entire process of neurodevelopment, including neurogenesis, differentiation, gene expression, membrane and protein traffic, vesicular trafficking, and synaptic plasticity. Small GTPases are key signal transducing enzymes that link extracellular cues to the neuronal responses required for the construction of neuronal networks, as well as for synaptic function and plasticity. Different subfamilies of small GTPases have been linked to a number of non-neoplastic cerebral diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), intellectual disability, epilepsy, drug addiction, Huntington's disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and a large number of idiopathic cerebral diseases. Here, we attempted to make a clearer illustration of the relationship between Ras superfamily GTPases and non-neoplastic cerebral diseases, as well as their roles in the neural system. In future studies, potential treatments for non-neoplastic cerebral diseases which are based on small GTPase related signaling pathways should be explored further. In this paper, we review all the available literature in support of this possibility.