Hydrogen sulfide controls peripheral nerve degeneration and regeneration:a novel therapeutic strategy for peripheral demyelinating disorders or nerve degenerative diseases

After peripheral nerve injury, the process of Wallerian degeneration is initiated in the distal stump of injured nerves. Wallerian degeneration in peripheral nerves involves axonal degeneration and degradation of the myelin sheath in Schwann cells. This provides the necessary conditions for axonal regeneration and remyelination. After nerve injury, macrophages are also recruited to the distal nerve stump and, together with Schwann cells, play a role in the clearance of myelin debris.

Serotonin controls axon and neuronal regeneration in the nervous system:lessons from regenerating animal models

Traumatic brain injury （TBI） is a mechanical injury to brain tissue that leads to an impairment of function and a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities; often, it is followed by diffuse axonal injury, which causes denaturation of the white matter and axon retraction, leaving patients with severe brain damage or even in a persistent vegetative state.

Zishenpingchan granules for the treatment of Parkinson＇s disease：a randomized,double-blind,placebo-controlled clinical trial

Levodopa preparations remain the preferred drug for Parkinson＇s disease.However,long-term use of levodopa may lead to a series of motor complications.Previous studies have shown that the combination of levodopa and Zishenpingchan granules（consisting of Radix Rehmanniae preparata,Lycium barbarum,Herba Taxilli,Rhizoma Gastrodiae,Stiff Silkorm,Curcuma phaeocaulis,Radix Paeoniae Alba,Rhizoma Arisaematis,Scorpio and Centipede） can markedly improve dyskinesia and delay the progression of Parkinson＇s disease,with especially dramatic improvements of non-motor symptoms.However,the efficacy of this combination has not been confirmed by randomized controlled trials.The current study was approved by the Hospital Ethics Committee and was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Register（registration number：Chi CTR-INR-1701194）.From December 2014 to December 2016,128 patients（72 males and 56 females,mean age of 65.78 ± 6.34 years） with Parkinson＇s disease were recruited from the Department of Neurology of Longhua Hospital and Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China.Patients were equally allocated into treatment and control groups.In addition to treatment with dopamine,patients in treatment and control groups were given Zishenpingchan granules or placebo,respectively,for 24 weeks.Therapeutic efficacy was assessed using the Unified Parkinson＇s Disease Rating Scale,on-off phenomenon,Hoehn-Yahr grade,Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson＇s disease–Autonomic,Parkinson＇s disease sleep scale,Hamilton Anxiety Scale,Hamilton Depression Scale,Mini-Mental State Examination,and the Parkinson＇s Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire.Artificial neural networks were used to determine weights at which to scale these parameters.Our results demonstrated that Zishenpingchan granules significantly reduced the occurrence of motor complications,and were useful for mitigating dyskinesia and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson＇s disease.This combination of Chinese and Western medicine has the potential to reduce levodopa dosages,and no obvious side effects were found.These findings indicate that Zishenpingchan granules can mitigate symptoms of Parkinson＇s disease,reduce toxic side effects of dopaminergic agents,and exert synergistic and detoxifying effects.

Real-time and wearable functional electrical stimulation system for volitional hand motor function control using the electromyography bridge method

Voluntary participation of hemiplegic patients is crucial for functional electrical stimulation therapy.A wearable functional electrical stimulation system has been proposed for real-time volitional hand motor function control using the electromyography bridge method.Through a series of novel design concepts,including the integration of a detecting circuit and an analog-to-digital converter,a miniaturized functional electrical stimulation circuit technique,a low-power super-regeneration chip for wireless receiving,and two wearable armbands,a prototype system has been established with reduced size,power,and overall cost.Based on wrist joint torque reproduction and classification experiments performed on six healthy subjects,the optimized surface electromyography thresholds and trained logistic regression classifier parameters were statistically chosen to establish wrist and hand motion control with high accuracy.Test results showed that wrist flexion/extension,hand grasp,and finger extension could be reproduced with high accuracy and low latency.This system can build a bridge of information transmission between healthy limbs and paralyzed limbs,effectively improve voluntary participation of hemiplegic patients,and elevate efficiency of rehabilitation training.

The cortical activation pattern during bilateral arm raising movements

Bilateral arm raising movements have been used in brain rehabilitation for a long time. However, no study has been reported on the effect of these movements on the cerebral cortex. In this study, using functional near infrared spectroscopy（f NIRS）, we attempted to investigate cortical activation generated during bilateral arm raising movements. Ten normal subjects were recruited for this study. f NIRS was performed using an f NIRS system with 49 channels. Bilateral arm raising movements were performed in sitting position at the rate of 0.5 Hz. We measured values of oxyhemoglobin and total hemoglobin in five regions of interest： the primary sensorimotor cortex, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, prefrontal cortex, and posterior parietal cortex. During performance of bilateral arm raising movements, oxyhemoglobin and total hemoglobin values in the primary sensorimotor cortex, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, and prefrontal cortex were similar, but higher in these regions than those in the prefrontal cortex. We observed activation of the arm somatotopic areas of the primary sensorimotor cortex and premotor cortex in both hemispheres during bilateral arm raising movements. According to this result, bilateral arm raising movements appeared to induce large-scale neuronal activation and therefore arm raising movements would be good exercise for recovery of brain functions.

Activation of hypothalamic gono-like neurons in female rats during estrus

In mammals, gonadal function is controlled by the activity of hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons, which control the secretion of adenohypophyseal and gonadal hormones. However, there are a number of unanswered questions in relation to gonadal function. It is currently unknown how erotogenic stimulation of the genitals influences the subpopulation of hypothalamic medial preoptic area neurons, antidromically identified as projecting to the median eminence at different periods of the estrous cycle. Additionally, the distinctiveness of hypothalamic medial preoptic area neurons, with respect to methods of feedback control by exogenous hormones, is also unknown. In this study, spontaneous discharges from individual neurons encountered within the medial preoptic area, gono-like neurons, were recorded extracellularly using glass microelectrodes. To confirm the cellular and histochemical properties of the recording units, antidromic stimulation was performed using a side-by-side bipolar stimulating electrode placed into the median eminence, alongside microiontophoretic injections of the conventional tracer, horseradish peroxidase. In addition, further immunohistochemical analyses were performed. Results showed that elevated gono-neuron activity was accompanied by increased background activity and greater responses to erotogenic stimuli during estrus. Application of clitoral traction stimulation resulted in increased activation of the gono-like neurons. This neuronal activity was noticeably inhibited by β-estradiol administration. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed the presence of gonadotropin-releasing hormone-reactive protein in hypothalamic cells in which electrophysiological recordings were taken. Thus, medial preoptic area neurons represent the subset of hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons described from brain slices in vitro, and might serve as a useful physiological model to form the basis of future in vivo studies.

A cascade model of information processing and encoding for retinal prosthesis

Retinal prosthesis offers a potential treatment for individuals suffering from photoreceptor degeneration diseases.Establishing biological retinal models and simulating how the biological retina convert incoming light signal into spike trains that can be properly decoded by the brain is a key issue.Some retinal models have been presented,ranking from structural models inspired by the layered architecture to functional models originated from a set of specific physiological phenomena.However,Most of these focus on stimulus image compression,edge detection and reconstruction,but do not generate spike trains corresponding to visual image.In this study,based on stateof-the-art retinal physiological mechanism,including effective visual information extraction,static nonlinear rectification of biological systems and neurons Poisson coding,a cascade model of the retina including the out plexiform layer for information processing and the inner plexiform layer for information encoding was brought forward,which integrates both anatomic connections and functional computations of retina.Using MATLAB software,spike trains corresponding to stimulus image were numerically computed by four steps：linear spatiotemporal filtering,static nonlinear rectification,radial sampling and then Poisson spike generation.The simulated results suggested that such a cascade model could recreate visual information processing and encoding functionalities of the retina,which is helpful in developing artificial retina for the retinally blind.

Proteomic analysis identifies translationally controlled tumor protein as a mediator of phosphatase of regenerating liver-3-promoted proliferation, migration and invasion in human colon cancer cells

Background Considerable evidence suggests that phosphatase of regenerating liver-3 （PRL-3） plays multiple roles in cancer metastasis; however, the molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. The aim of this study was to identify proteins associated with PRL-3-promoted colon cancer metastasis, by comparative proteomic analysis. Methods Proteomes of human colon cancer LoVo cells transfected with PRL-3 gene （LoVo-PRL-3） or empty vector PAcGFP-C3 （LoVo-control） were compared using 2D gel electrophoresis. Proteins that varied significantly in concentration were selected and identified using mass spectrometry. Expression of translationally controlled tumor protein （TCTP） mRNA and protein in LoVo-PRL-3 and LoVo-control cells was detected by real-time PCR and Western blotting. Small interfering RNA （siRNA） targeting TCTP was used for silencing TCTP expression in LoVo-PRL-3 cells. Functional significance of TCTP in PRL-3-promoted colon cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion was investigated by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and transwell chamber. Results Seventeen proteins displaying significant and reproducible differences between LoVo-PRL-3 and LoVo-control cells were identified. Ten proteins were upregulated and seven were downregulated in LoVo-PRL-3 cells when compared with LoVo-control cells. Eight identified proteins are associated with distinct steps of tumor metastasis： ubiquitin-like protein ISG15, interleukin-18, TCTP, serpin B5, annexin A3, macrophage-capping protein, ATP-dependent RNA helicase DDX3X, and cathepsin D. Real-time PCR and Western blotting results showed that both TCTP mRNA and protein were significantly increased in LoVo-PRL-3 cells compared to LoVo-control cells. Transfection with TCTP siRNA significantly reduced the expression of both mRNA and protein levels of TCTP in LoVo-PRL-3 cells. Knockdown of TCTP by siRNA inhibited PRL-3-promoted proliferation, migration and invasion of LoVo-PRL-3 cells. Conclusion Our results imply that TCTP might be a mediator of PRL-3-promoted proliferation, migration and invasion of human colon cancer cells.