Brain Inflammatory Marker Abnormalities in Major Psychiatric Diseases: a Systematic Review of Postmortem Brain Studies.

Schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) are common neuropsychiatric disorders that lead to neuroinflammation in the pathogenesis. It is possible to further explore the connection between inflammation in the brain and SCZ, BD, and MDD. Therefore, we systematically reviewed PubMed and Web of Science on brain inflammatory markers measured in SCZ, BD, and MDD postmortem brains. Out of 2166 studies yielded by the search, 46 studies met the inclusion criteria in SCZ, BD, and MDD postmortem brains. The results were variable across inflammatory markers. For example, 26 studies were included to measure the differential expression between SCZ and control subjects. Similarly, seven of the included studies measured the differential expression of inflammatory markers in patients with BD. The heterogeneity from the included studies is not clear at present, which may be caused by several factors, including the measured brain region, disease stage, brain source, medication, and other factors.

The antifibrotic effects of the novel compound gorse isoflavone alkaloid on chemical liver injury in rats.

OBJECTIVE: Liver fibrosis is a frequently occurring liver injury which lacks of effective treatment clinically. Here, we investigated the protective effects of a novel compound Gorse isoflavone alkaloid (GIA) against liver fibrosis. METHODS: Totally forty rats were randomly divided into four groups. Then we established a model of liver fibrosis induced by the intragastric administration of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). This treated group was followed by the intragastric administration of GIA and colchicine. Then the liver index and spleen index, and liver function indexes were detected by kit. Western blotting assay was performed to estimate the expression of Transforming Growth Factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1) and related proteins. Tissue fibrosis was observed by Masson staining. RESULTS: Our results suggested that GIA reduced the deposition of collagen fibres and the fibrosis index hydroxyproline (Hyp) of liver tissue. Furthermore, we found that GIA significantly decreased the expression of Transforming Growth Factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1) and the ratio of p-smad2/3 to smad2/3, enhanced the level of superoxide dismutase (SOD), and decreased the concentration of malonic dialdehyde (MDA) in the liver. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings revealed that GIA has a beneficial effect to resist the liver fibrosis, and could be ideal for potential use in antifibrotic drugs for the liver.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Decoction Combined With Antipsychotic for Chronic Schizophrenia Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Despite several studies suggesting the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in schizophrenia, there is still a lack of systematic summary and analysis on the role of TCM as adjuvant therapy in chronic schizophrenia. For this purpose, we conducted a meta-analysis to study the efficacy of TCM as an adjuvant combined with antipsychotics in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia. Until April 2020, based on the review of six electronic databases, eight articles were selected. The articles compared TCM decoction assisted antipsychotic therapies with an antipsychotic alone in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia by analyzing a total of 810 cases. The results showed that TCM combined with antipsychotics have beneficial effects on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), including the changes in total score, negative score, and the clinical effects evaluated by the PANSS scale. Subgroup analysis showed that the effects of auxiliary TCM with different efficacy on the positive and psychopathological scores were significantly different. It was found that adjuvant treatment with TCM can reduce some side effects and improve the patient's living conditions in the evaluation of the Schizophrenia Quality Of Life Scale (SQLS). Many studies have proved that TCM is safe and well-tolerated. Although the difficulties of using limited TCM remains to be generalized, it still has great potential in the adjuvant treatment of chronic schizophrenia.