Uniform 3 nm‐sized ceria nanoparticles can protect against ischemic stroke by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reducing apoptosis. PEGylated ceria nanoparticles showed protective effects ...against ROS‐induced cell death in vitro. Optimal doses of ceria nanoparticles reduced infarct volumes and the rate of ischemic cell death in vivo.
Dietary interventions have not been effective in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, we show that periodic 3-day cycles of a fasting mimicking diet (FMD) are effective in ameliorating ...demyelination and symptoms in a murine experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model. The FMD reduced clinical severity in all mice and completely reversed symptoms in 20% of animals. These improvements were associated with increased corticosterone levels and regulatory T (Treg) cell numbers and reduced levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, TH1 and TH17 cells, and antigen-presenting cells (APCs). Moreover, the FMD promoted oligodendrocyte precursor cell regeneration and remyelination in axons in both EAE and cuprizone MS models, supporting its effects on both suppression of autoimmunity and remyelination. We also report preliminary data suggesting that an FMD or a chronic ketogenic diet are safe, feasible, and potentially effective in the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients (NCT01538355).
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•FMD reduces pro-inflammatory cytokines and increases corticosterone levels•FMD suppresses autoimmunity by inducing lymphocyte apoptosis•FMD promotes regeneration of oligodendrocyte in multiple MS models•FMD is a safe, feasible, and potentially effective treatment for MS patients
Choi et al. show that cycles of a fasting mimicking diet (FMD) ameliorate disease severity by suppressing autoimmunity and stimulating remyelination via oligodendrocyte regeneration in multiple sclerosis (MS) mouse models. They also show that a similar FMD is a safe, feasible, and possibly a potentially effective treatment for patients with relapsing-remitting MS.
Digital health technologies are becoming increasingly available to children and young people and their families. However, there are no scoping reviews that provide both an overview of the ...characteristics of digital interventions for children and young people and potential challenges to be considered when developing and implementing them.
This study aimed to systematically review scientific publications to identify the current characteristics and potential complications of digital interventions for children and young people.
This scoping review was conducted using the framework of Arksey and O'Malley and adheres to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines for scoping reviews. A search of 5 databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, MEDLINE, and CINAHL) and Google Scholar was performed for eligible clinical trials published between January 1, 2018, and August 19, 2022.
The initial search of the 5 databases yielded 3775 citations; duplicates and those not meeting the inclusion criteria were eliminated. In total, 34 articles were included in the final review and relevant information, such as the descriptive characteristics and potential challenges, were classified. Mental health (26/34, 76%) was the most common target for the digital intervention for children and young people, exceeding physical health (8/34, 24%) by more than 3 times. In addition, a substantial number of digital interventions were dedicated solely to children and young people. Digital interventions for children and young people were more likely to be delivered via computers (17/34, 50%) rather than smartphones (13/34, 38%). More than one-third of the studies (13/34, 38%) applied cognitive behavioral theory as the theory of digital interventions. The duration of the digital intervention for children and young people was more likely to vary depending on the target user rather than the target disease. Intervention components were classified into 5 categories: guidance, task and activity, reminder and monitoring, supportive feedback, and reward system. Potential challenges were subcategorized into ethical, interpersonal, and societal challenges. For ethical challenges, the consent of children and young people or caregivers, potential risk of adverse events, and data privacy issues were considered. For interpersonal challenges, the engagement of children and young people was affected by the preference or barrier of caregivers to participate in studies. For societal challenges, restricted ethnicity in recruitment, limited availability of digital technology, differences in internet use patterns between girls and boys, unified clinical settings, and language barriers were described.
We identified potential challenges and provided suggestions about ethical, interpersonal, and societal aspects to consider when developing and deploying digital-based interventions for children and young people. Our findings provide a thorough overview of the published literature and may serve as a comprehensive, informative foundation for the development and implementation of digital-based interventions for children and young people.
Purpose
New frequency correction methods are required to achieve the accurate measurement of frequency drifts in MRS and MRSI. We present a prospective frequency correction method with outer volume ...suppression (OVS)‐based localization and selective water excitation for effective frequency correction with better SNR improvement compared to other techniques.
Methods
An OVS‐localized navigator was developed to prospectively correct frequency drifts during MRS and MRSI measurements. The performance of the navigator was tested on the human brain and a solution phantom for frequency drifts induced by head motion or gradient heating by a preceding DWI experiment at 3T.
Results
The OVS‐localized navigator could accurately track motion‐induced frequency drifts with an RMS error of 0.5 Hz. The SNR of MRS signals was not affected by use of the OVS‐localized navigator when compared with and without the navigator (P > 0.05). The frequency drifts induced by DWI experiments were 5.1 ± 0.3 Hz/min during MRSI measurements on humans, resulting in increased spectral linewidth, significant bias in metabolite concentrations, and significantly increased Cramér‐Rao lower bounds (P < 0.05). After prospective frequency corrections, the quality of MRSI was recovered to the level of those without any DWI‐induced frequency drifts, judged by the spectral linewidth, metabolite concentrations, and Cramér‐Rao lower bounds.
Conclusion
The OVS‐localized navigator demonstrated effective prospective frequency corrections for large frequency drifts (5 Hz/min) without introducing any saturation‐induced SNR loss. These benefits can be particularly beneficial for the acquisition of MRS signals with long T1 and/or short TR, and spectral editing.
Erysiphe magnifica causes powdery mildew on Magnolia compressa Choi, Young‐Joon; Choi, Byoung‐Ki; Choi, In‐Young ...
Forest pathology = Journal de pathologie forestière = Zeitschrift für Forstpathologie,
August 2021, 2021-08-00, 20210801, Letnik:
51, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In October 2017, Magnolia compressa, an endangered species in Korea, was found to be heavily infected with a powdery mildew. Morphological examination of anamorph structures and molecular analyses of ...the ITS and 28S rDNA regions confirmed Erysiphe magnifica as the fungus causing the mildew. The host range of E. magnifica has been limited to Magnolia species, with an occasional record of infection on Nelumbo nucifera. This report presents the first finding of E. magnifica infection on M. compressa worldwide.
Occupation ratio and fatty infiltration are important parameters for evaluating patients with rotator cuff tears. We analyzed the occupation ratio using a deep-learning framework and studied the ...fatty infiltration of the supraspinatus muscle using an automated region-based Otsu thresholding technique. To calculate the amount of fatty infiltration of the supraspinatus muscle using an automated region-based Otsu thresholding technique. The mean Dice similarity coefficient, accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and relative area difference for the segmented lesion, measuring the similarity of clinician assessment and that of a deep neural network, were 0.97, 99.84, 96.89, 99.92, and 0.07, respectively, for the supraspinatus fossa and 0.94, 99.89, 93.34, 99.95, and 2.03, respectively, for the supraspinatus muscle. The fatty infiltration measure using the Otsu thresholding method significantly differed among the Goutallier grades (Grade 0; 0.06, Grade 1; 4.68, Grade 2; 20.10, Grade 3; 42.86, Grade 4; 55.79, p < 0.0001). The occupation ratio and fatty infiltration using Otsu thresholding demonstrated a moderate negative correlation (ρ = - 0.75, p < 0.0001). This study included 240 randomly selected patients who underwent shoulder magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from January 2015 to December 2016. We used a fully convolutional deep-learning algorithm to quantitatively detect the fossa and muscle regions by measuring the occupation ratio of the supraspinatus muscle. Fatty infiltration was objectively evaluated using the Otsu thresholding method. The proposed convolutional neural network exhibited fast and accurate segmentation of the supraspinatus muscle and fossa from shoulder MRI, allowing automatic calculation of the occupation ratio. Quantitative evaluation using a modified Otsu thresholding method can be used to calculate the proportion of fatty infiltration in the supraspinatus muscle. We expect that this will improve the efficiency and objectivity of diagnoses by quantifying the index used for shoulder MRI.
As a portable media device that enables ubiquitous access to friends and entertainment, smartphones are inextricably linked with our lives. Although there is growing concern about the detrimental ...effect of problematic smartphone use on attentional control, the underlying neural mechanisms of impaired attentional control in problematic smartphone users (PSU) has yet to be investigated. Using a modified cognitive conflict task, we examined behavioral performance in the presence of distracting words during functional magnetic resonance imaging in 33 PSU and 33 control participants (CON). Compared with the CON group, the PSU group demonstrated impaired performance that was accompanied by constantly enhanced but not differentiated activation in the frontoparietal regions across all conditions, regardless of distractor saliency. The inferior parietal lobule (IPL) activation in the PSU group, in particular, showed an association with performance deficits in the distractor conditions. Furthermore, the PSU group exhibited decreased functional connectivity of the right IPL with the right superior temporal gyrus of the ventral attention system in the attention-demanding condition relative to the easiest condition, which was associated with the severe dependence on smartphone use. Our findings suggest that greater distractibility in the PSU group during the attentional control task may be associated with inefficient recruitment of the ventral attention network involved in bottom-up attentional processing, as indicated by hyperactivation but less coherence within the network. The present study provides evidence for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the impaired ability to keep attention from being oriented to task-irrelevant stimuli observed in PSU.
The type 2 cannabinoid receptor (CB2R) was recently shown to mediate neuroprotection in ischemic injury. However, the role of CB2Rs in the central nervous system, especially neuronal and glial CB2Rs ...in the cortex, remains unclear. We, therefore, investigated anti-ischemic mechanisms of cortical CB2R activation in various ischemic models. In rat cortical neurons/glia mixed cultures, a CB2R agonist, trans- caryophyllene (TC), decreased neuronal injury and mitochondrial depolarization caused by oxygen-glucose deprivation/re-oxygenation (OGD/R); these effects were reversed by the selective CB2R antagonist, AM630, but not by a type 1 cannabinoid receptor antagonist, AM251. Although it lacked free radical scavenging and antioxidant enzyme induction activities, TC reduced OGD/R-evoked mitochondrial dysfunction and intracellular oxidative stress. Western blot analysis demonstrated that TC enhanced phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and cAMP responsive element-binding protein (CREB), and increased expression of the CREB target gene product, brain-derived neurotrophic factor. However, TC failed to alter the activity of either Akt or extracellular signal–regulated kinase, two major CB2R signaling pathways. Selective AMPK and CREB inhibitors abolished the neuroprotective effects of TC. In rats, post-ischemic treatment with TC decreased cerebral infarct size and edema, and increased phosphorylated CREB and brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression in neurons. All protective effects of TC were reversed by co-administration with AM630. Collectively, these data demonstrate that cortical CB2R activation by TC ameliorates ischemic injury, potentially through modulation of AMPK/CREB signaling, and suggest that cortical CB2Rs might serve as a putative therapeutic target for cerebral ischemia.
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex chronic metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia because of insulin resistance. Diabetes with chronic hyperglycemia may alter brain metabolism, including ...brain glucose and neurotransmitter levels; however, detailed, longitudinal studies of metabolic alterations in T2D are lacking. To shed insight, here, we characterized the consequences of poorly controlled hyperglycemia on neurochemical profiles that reflect metabolic alterations of the brain in both humans and animal models of T2D. Using in vivo 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we quantified 12 metabolites cross‐sectionally in T2D patients and 20 metabolites longitudinally in T2D db/db mice versus db+ controls. We found significantly elevated brain glucose (91%, p < 0.001), taurine (22%, p = 0.02), glucose+taurine (56%, p < 0.001), myo‐inositol (12%, p = 0.02), and choline‐containing compounds (10%, p = 0.01) in T2D patients versus age‐ and sex‐matched controls, findings consistent with measures in T2D db/db versus control db+ littermates. In mice, hippocampal and striatal neurochemical alterations in brain glucose, ascorbate, creatine, phosphocreatine, γ‐aminobutyric acid, glutamate, glutamine, glutathione, glycerophosphoryl‐choline, lactate, myo‐inositol, and taurine persisted in db/db mice with chronic disease progression from 16 to 48 weeks of age, which were distinct from control db+ mice. Overall, our study demonstrates the utility of 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy as a non‐invasive tool for characterizing and monitoring brain metabolic changes with T2D progression.
Choi et al. present a 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) study to delineate the effect of poorly controlled chronic hyperglycemia from type 2 diabetes (T2D) on neurochemical profiles in humans and mice. Brain glucose levels were higher in humans cross‐sectionally and animals longitudinally in addition to taurine, glucose+taurine, myo‐inositol, and choline‐containing compounds compared with controls. Overall, this study demonstrates hyperglycemia‐induced changes in neurochemicals that serve a suite of biological functions, including as neurotransmitters, bioenergetic substrates, organic osmolytes, and messenger molecules. Paired neurochemical plots show reliable separation of the diabetic group from controls with brain regional differences during disease progression.
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