Valproate-induced hyperammonemic encephalopathy treated by L-ornithine-L-aspartate: a case report.

A 63-year-old man developed reduced consciousness and dysphagia progressively. Examination and parameters were normal, except for a Glasgow Coma Scale score of seven, and his grading on the swallow water test increased from grade 1 to grade 5. Brain imaging and blood tests were unexplainable except by high plasma ammonia. His past medical history included cerebral infarction, hypertension and epilepsy induced by cerebral hyperperfusion syndrome. He was rceiving antiepileptic treatment of continuously intravenously pumped sodium valproate of 64 mg/h for 4 days, which overlapped for 12 hours with taking 500 mg sustained release tablets. Sodium valproate was stopped; testing demonstrated normal plasma concentrations of sodium valproate and elevated concentrations of ammonia. Ornithine aspartate was administrated. The patient's level of responsiveness and ammonia levels gradually improved. The patient was also being treated with ceftriaxone sodium for a hypostatic pneumonia and with desmopressin for diabetes insipidus. There is an association between sodium valproate and hyperammonaemia and encephalopathy. Immediate recognition of the serious but uncommon adverse effects is essential. To our knowledge this is the first report of ornithine aspartate being used in this disorder.

MicroRNAs and autophagy after cerebral ischemia / 国际脑血管病杂志

MicroRNA is a class of short-chain non-coding RNA that regulates gene expression at post-transcriptional level.It can participate in the pathophysiology processes of tumor regulation,neurodegenerative disease,and cardiovascular disease.Recent studies have shown that microRNA can play a reguhtory role in ischemic brain damage through autophagy.This article reviews the effect of microRNA on autophagy after cerebral ischamia and its possible mechanisms.

Correlation study of DWI types and degree of neurologic impairment in acute ischemic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation / 实用放射学杂志

Objective To explore the correlations of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) types and the degree of neurologic impairment in acute ischemic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation.Methods DWI images and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale(NIHSS) of 186 patients with acute ischemic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation were collected retrospectively.The correlation of DWI features and NIHSS was analyzed.Results On DWI,all acute ischemic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation presented high signal intensity.Single cortex-subcortical infarction mostly appeared in the anterior circulation(94,50.5%);Multi-infarction commonly occurred in the posterior circulation(18,13.0%);The neurological deficit scores of subcortical-cortex infarction in the left anterior circulation(16.75±7.10) were higher than that in the right side(13.50±5.70)(P<0.05).The neurological deficit scores of cortex-subcortical infarction in the posterior circulation (6.38±2.03) were significantly lower than that in the multi-infarction (16.77±8.90) (P<0.05).Conclusion DWI types are valuable for etiological diagnosis in ischemic stroke.Combination with NIHSS score could provide a basis for clinical individual treatment programs selection and prognostic evaluation.

Analysis of the expressions of alphaB-crystallin in the brain tissues of agent 263K-infected hamsters at terminal stage / 病毒学报

alphaB-crystallin is a member of the sHSP (Small heat shock protein) family, which plays an impor tant role in multiple neurodegeneration diseases. To give insight into the possible alternation and the role of aB-crystallin in prion disease, the alphaB-crystallin levels in the brain tissues of agent 263K-infected hamsters were evaluated. Western blots and IHC revealed that at the terminal stages of the diseases, the levels of alphaB-crystallin were increased up to 3-fold in the brain tissues of scrapie infected 263K hamsters compared with normal controls. Immunofluorescent assays revealed that the up-regulated alphaB-crystallin was mainly observed in astrocytes, but not in neurons. The co-localization between alphaB-crystallin and abnormal deposition of PrPsc in the brain tissues of the scrapie infected hamsters was not observed. The study may provide a foundation for further revealing the potential role of alphaB-crystallin in prion disease.

Study on the correlation between membrane protein Flotillin-1 and PrPc endocytosis / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore whether the membrane-associated protein Flotillin-1 has relationship with endocytosis of PrPc.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The expression of Flotillin-1 in different cell lines was detected with the method of Western Blot; the interaction between Flotillin-1 and PrPc in Cells which were treated with copper ions was observed using immunoprecipitation method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) Flotillin-1 was widely expressed in many cell lines without significant difference in the amounts of expression level; (2) Only in the appearance of copper ions, the protein complexes of PrPc and Flotillin-1 can be detected with the method of IP, which were related to copper ions concentration and processing time.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The membrane-associated protein Flotillin-1 has the relationship with the endocytosis of PrPc.</p>