A review of gut microbiota and Parkinson’s disease

In Parkinson’s disease (PD), the alpha- synuclein (α-syn) pathology occurs both in the enteric nervous system (ENS) and parasympathetic nerves in the early stage of PD, which precedes the central nervous system (CNS) pathology and is related to gastrointestinal dysfunction precedes the onset of motor symptoms in PD. Studies have shown that gut microbiota can affect brain activity through the microbiota-gut-brain axis in PD patients. They can promote the development of PD and might be the origin of PD. There are four communication routes between gut microbiota and brain, which respectively are the gut-brain’s neural network, endocrine system, gut immune system, and barrier paths which include intestinal mucosal barrier and blood-brain barrier (BBB). Based on the alteration of fecal microbiota composition in PD, it is worthwhile to investigate whether microbiota analysis could be used as a biomarker for premotor PD. As a potential therapy, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) may be a promising treatment for PD patients. Further studies are needed to elucidate the causal relationship between gut microbiota and PD.

In vivo calcium imaging and Parkinson's disease

Brain function depends on patterns of synaptic input and neurocircuits, which are accompanied by transient changes in free intracellular calcium concentration （Resendez et al., 2015）. A recent topic of interest has been the illumination of neuronal circuit activity by calcium imaging in vivo. As a new biological tool for recording behavioral signals in the animal brain, in vivo calcium imaging is performed to mon- itor neuronal activity based on intracellular calcium. In vivo calcium imaging is an advanced technique by which indi- vidual cells and/or even subcellular compartments can be observed in real time. Thus, it readily enables simultaneous recording of individual cells and subcellular compartments.

Ginsenoside Rg1 and astaxanthin act on the hypothalamus to protect female mice against reproductive aging

To the Editor:Female infertility due to reproductive aging has become a prominent concern in the population.Evidence indicates that oxidative stress is one of the dominant mechanisms underlying reproductive aging.[1,2]Although female reproductive aging involves gradual changes to the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian(HPO)axis,previous studies support a key involvement of the hypothalamus.[3,4]In our recent dataset,it was shown that estrogen-induced oxidative stress led to the senescence of hypothalamic astrocytes that predated reproductive dysfunction.[3]Growing evidence has demonstrated that antioxidants might delay reproductive aging by reducing oxidative damage to ovaries.[1,2]However,the effect of antioxidants on the hypothalamus has not been reported.Astaxanthin(AST),3,3'-dihydroxy-β-carotene-4,4'-dione,is a xanthophyll carotenoid found predominantly in marine animals such as salmon,trout,lobster,and shrimp.Ginseng is a tonic drug in traditional Chinese medicine.Ginsenoside Rg1,a class of steroidal glycosides,is a prominent active anti-aging ingredient within ginseng responsible for these effects.Notably,the two antioxidants freely cross the blood-brain barrier.In this study,we evaluated the effects of these two natural compounds on the hypothalamus and ovaries in protecting female mice from reproductive aging.

Advances in quantitative assessment of parkinsonian motor symptoms with wearable devices

Parkinson's disease(PD)is featured with motor disorder and nonmotor manifestations(Li et al.,2017;Zhang et al.2016) under the pathological change of Substantia Nigra(Dong et al.,2017)and non substantia nigra including medial prefrontal cortex(Li et al.,2017).Its primary motor symptoms include tremor(oscillatory movement),bradykinesia(slowness of motion),rigidity(increment of muscle tone),and postural instability,which seriously affect patients'quality of life(Du and Chen,2017).