Research and progress of focused ultrasound in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is one of the most common degenerative diseases of the central nervous system, with progressive cognitive and memory impairment and decreased ability of daily life as the cardinal symptoms, influencing the life quality of patients severely. There are currently approximately 46 million people living with Alzheimer's disease worldwide, and the number is expected to triple by 2050, which will pose a huge challenge for healthcare. At present, the Food and Drug Administration of the United States has approved five main drugs for the clinical treatment of Alzheimer's disease, which are cholinesterase inhibitors tacrine, galantamine, capalatine and donepezil, and N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist memantine, although these drugs have shown good efficacy in clinical trials, the actual clinical effect is less effective due to the existence of blood brain barrier. With the continuous development of ultrasound technology in recent years, focused ultrasound, as a non-invasive treatment technique, may target ultrasound energy to the deep brain for treatment without damaging the surrounding tissue. For the past few years, some studies could use focused ultrasound combined with microvesicles to induce blood brain barrier opening and targeted drug delivery to treat Alzheimer's disease, providing new opportunities for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. This article reviews the application research and progress of focused ultrasound in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, in order to provide new directions and ideas for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Application and progress of transcranial substantial ultrasound in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common nervous system disease, mainly manifested as motor retardation, resting tremor, etc. (1). The clinical features of early PD patients are not characteristic, and diagnosis is very difficult. When obvious PD manifestations are found, the number of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra of patients has been reduced by more than half, and the treatment is difficult (2). Early diagnosis or auxiliary diagnosis of PD in clinical work is crucial for the treatment of PD and the prognosis of patients. In recent years, cerebral ultrasound has been widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of some diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, tuberculous meningitis, brain injury, etc., especially for the study of PD. The European Union of neuroscience and the latest diagnostic guidelines for PD in China have confirmed the role of the transcranial sonography (TCS). This article reviews the recent advances in the study of PD by transcranial sonography.

Application and Research Progress of High Frequency Ultrasound in the Diagnosis of Chronic Inflammatory Neuropathies.

In recent years, clinicians have gradually improved their understanding of multiple neuropathy and have done some studies about chronic inflammatory neuropathies, for example, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, multifocal motor neuropathy, and Lewis-Sumne syndrome. The early diagnosis is very important for the next step treatment and long-term prognosis. At present, the disease mainly depends on clinical and neural electrophysiological examination, but imaging studies are few. In recent years, with the rapid development of high frequency ultrasound, it could clearly show the morphology of the nerve, and it has been an emerging diagnosis tool of polyneuropathies. This article mainly reviews the application and the latest research progress of high frequency ultrasound in these diseases.

Applicability of High-Frequency Ultrasound to the Early Diagnosis of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy.

This study investigated the applicability of high-frequency ultrasound (HFU) to the early diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Patients with type 2 diabetes (N = 60) were divided into diabetic nonperipheral neuropathy and DPN groups (group A and group B, respectively; n = 30 each) based on electroneurophysiologic findings. Additionally, 30 nondiabetic patients were included as the healthy control group (group C). We calculated the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the median nerve (MN) of the right upper limb at 7 different sites (MN1-7) based on measured width (W) and thickness (T). Ultrasound imaging characteristics of the MN including internal echo, internal structure, boundary, epineurium, and blood flow were recorded. The 90 subjects (51 male and 39 female) had an average age of 56.09 ± 12.66 years. W, T, and CSA of the MN were increased in group A compared to group C (with significant differences at MN1, MN4, and MN7 (P < 0.05)) and in group B compared to group C (with significant differences at all 7 levels, especially MN6 and MN7 (P < 0.05)). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that CSA at the MN7 level had the highest diagnostic accuracy for DPN in group B, with a threshold value of 12.42 mm2. Ultrasound examination revealed that the MN had lost the internal sieve mesh structure and showed reduced echo, a partial blood flow signal, and thickened epineurium in patients with DPN; these findings were particularly obvious at MN6 and MN7, corresponding to the carpal tunnel. CSA was positively correlated with motor latency and F wave average latency and negatively correlated with motor conduction velocity, motor amplitude, and sensory conduction velocity in group B. Thus, HFU may be useful for the early diagnosis of DPN, which can improve clinical outcomes.

MiR-4500 Regulates PLXNC1 and Inhibits Papillary Thyroid Cancer Progression.

Although most patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) are curable, there are still a few patients showing poor outcomes and increased risk of secondary cancers after therapies. In this study, we aimed to investigate the correlation between miR-4500 and PTC and to explore its molecular functions. A total of 50 patients were included, and sonography and histological examinations were used for diagnosis. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was applied for detection of mRNA levels while Western blotting was used for measuring protein expression. Cell proliferation was tested using CCK-8 and colony formation assays. Caspase-3 activity and nucleosomal fragmentation assays were employed to test cell apoptosis. Cell invasive ability was measured using transwell assay. MiR-4500 target was identified using luciferase assay and RNA pull-down assay. MiR-4500 expression was significantly decreased in five PTC cell lines compared with Nthy-ori 3-1 cells and in PTC tissues compared with adjacent normal thyroid tissues, respectively. Decreased expression of miR-4500 showed lower survival rate, higher cancer stage, and lymphatic metastasis. Therefore, our results implied that miR-4500 could serve as a potential biomarker for PTC prognosis. Overexpression of miR-4500 repressed colony formation, proliferation, and invasiveness of PTC cells whereas increased cell apoptosis. We identified that PLXNC1 was a direct target of miR-4500. PLXNC1 knockdown showed similar effects on cell viability, colony formation, and cell apoptosis as overexpression of miR-4500 in PTC cells. In conclusion, miR-4500 inhibits the malignant transformation of PTC cells by directly targeting and repressing PLXNC1.