Improving the accuracy and consistency of clinical target volume delineation for rectal cancer by an education program

BACKGROUND Accurate target volume delineation is the premise for the implementation of precise radiotherapy.Inadequate target volume delineation may diminish tumor control or increase toxicity.Although several clinical target volume(CTV)delineation guidelines for rectal cancer have been published in recent years,significant interobserver variation(IOV)in CTV delineation still exists among radiation oncologists.However,proper education may serve as a bridge that connects complex guidelines with clinical practice.AIM To examine whether an education program could improve the accuracy and consistency of preoperative radiotherapy CTV delineation for rectal cancer.METHODS The study consisted of a baseline target volume delineation,a 150-min education intervention,and a follow-up evaluation.A 42-year-old man diagnosed with stage IIIC(T3N2bM0)rectal adenocarcinoma was selected for target volume delineation.CTVs obtained before and after the program were compared.Dice similarity coefficient(DSC),inclusiveness index(IncI),conformal index(CI),and relative volume difference[ΔV(%)]were analyzed to quantitatively evaluate the disparities between the participants’delineation and the standard CTV.Maximum volume ratio(MVR)and coefficient of variation(CV)were calculated to assess the IOV.Qualitative analysis included four common controversies in CTV delineation concerning the upper boundary of the target volume,external iliac area,groin area,and ischiorectal fossa.RESULTS Of the 18 radiation oncologists from 10 provinces in China,13 completed two sets of CTVs.In quantitative analysis,the average CTV volume decreased from 809.82 cm3 to 705.21 cm3(P=0.001)after the education program.Regarding the indices for geometric comparison,the mean DSC,IncI,and CI increased significantly,whileΔV(%)decreased remarkably,indicating improved agreement between participants’delineation and the standard CTV.Moreover,an 11.80%reduction in MVR and 18.19%reduction in CV were noted,demonstrating a smaller IOV in delineation after the education program.Regarding qualitative analysis,the greatest variations in baseline were observed at the external iliac area and ischiorectal fossa;61.54%(8/13)and 53.85%(7/13)of the participants unnecessarily delineated the external iliac area and the ischiorectal fossa,respectively.However,the education program reduced these variations.CONCLUSION Wide variations in CTV delineation for rectal cancer are present among radiation oncologists in China's Mainland.A well-structured education program could improve delineation accuracy and reduce IOVs.

Complex Target Volume Delineation and Treatment Planning in Radiotherapy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM)

Introduction: Radiotherapy alone or combined with surgery and/or chemotherapy is being investigated in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). This study aimed to simulate a Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) treatment of a patient with MPM. Materials and Methods: CT images from a patient with intact lungs were imported via DICOM into the Pinnacle3 treatment planning (TP) system (TPS) and used as a model for MPM to delineate organs at risk (OAR) and both clinical and planning target volumes (CTV and PTV) with a margin of 5 mm. Elekta Synergy with 6 MV photons and 80 leafs MLCi2 was employed. VMAT plans were generated using two coplanar arcs with gantry rotation angles of 178° - 182°, the collimator angles of each arc were set to 90°, Octavius® 4D 729 was employed for quality assurance while the calculated and measured doses were compared using VeriSoft. Results: A TP was achieved. The Gamma volume analysis with criteria of 3 mm distance to agreement and 3% dose difference yielded the gamma passing rate = 99.9%. The reference isodose was 42.75 Gy with the coverage constraints for the PTV D95 and V95 = 95.0% of 45 Gy. The remaining dosimetric parameters met the recommendations from the clinically acceptable guidelines for the radiotherapy of MPM. Conclusion: Using well-defined TV and VMAT, a consistent TP compared to similar ones from publications was achieved. We obtained a high agreement between the 3D dose reconstructed and the dose calculated.

Partial and Full Arc Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy in Lung Cancer Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy with Different Definitions of Internal Target Volume Based on 4D CT

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of partial arc volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in lung cancer stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), as well the volumetric and dosimetric effects of different internal target volume (ITV) definitions with 4D CT. Methods: Fourteen patients with primary and metastatic lung cancer underwent SBRT were enrolled. Full and partial arc VMAT plans were generated with four different ITVs: ITVall, ITVMIP, ITVAIP and ITV2phases, representing ITVs generated from all 10 respiratory phases, maximum intensity projection (MIP), average intensity projection (AIP), and 2 extreme respiratory phases. Volumetric and dosimetric differences, as well as MU and delivery time were investigated. Results: Partial arc VMAT irradiated more dose at 2 cm away from planning target volume (PTV) (P = 0.002), however, it achieved better protection on mean lung dose , lung V5, spinal cord, heart and esophagus compared with full arc VMAT. The average MU and delivery time of partial arc VMAT were 240 and 1.6 min less than those of full arc VMAT. There were no significant differences on target coverage and organ at risks (OARs) sparing among four ITVs. The average percent volume differences of ITVMIP, ITVAIP and ITV2phases to ITVall were 8.6%, 13.4%, and 25.2%, respectively. Conclusions: Although partial arc VMAT delivered more dose 2 cm out of PTV, it decreases the dose to lung, spinal cord, and esophagus, as well decreased the total MU and delivery time compared with full arc VMAT without sacrificing target coverage. Partial arc VMAT was feasible and more efficient for lung SBRT.

A Survey on Automatic Delineation of Radiotherapy Target Volume based on Machine Learning

Radiotherapy is one of the main treatment methods for cancer,and the delineation of the radiotherapy target area is the basis and premise of precise treatment.Artificial intelligence technology represented by machine learning has done a lot of research in this area,improving the accuracy and efficiency of target delineation.This article will review the applications and research of machine learning in medical image matching,normal organ delineation and treatment target delineation according to the procudures of doctors to delineate the target volume,and give an outlook on the development prospects.

Mitophagy in intracerebral hemorrhage:a new target for therapeutic intervention

Intracerebral hemorrhage is a life-threatening condition with a high fatality rate and severe sequelae.However,there is currently no treatment available for intracerebral hemorrhage,unlike for other stroke subtypes.Recent studies have indicated that mitochondrial dysfunction and mitophagy likely relate to the pathophysiology of intracerebral hemorrhage.Mitophagy,or selective autophagy of mitochondria,is an essential pathway to preserve mitochondrial homeostasis by clearing up damaged mitochondria.Mitophagy markedly contributes to the reduction of secondary brain injury caused by mitochondrial dysfunction after intracerebral hemorrhage.This review provides an overview of the mitochondrial dysfunction that occurs after intracerebral hemorrhage and the underlying mechanisms regarding how mitophagy regulates it,and discusses the new direction of therapeutic strategies targeting mitophagy for intracerebral hemorrhage,aiming to determine the close connection between mitophagy and intracerebral hemorrhage and identify new therapies to modulate mitophagy after intracerebral hemorrhage.In conclusion,although only a small number of drugs modulating mitophagy in intracerebral hemorrhage have been found thus far,most of which are in the preclinical stage and require further investigation,mitophagy is still a very valid and promising therapeutic target for intracerebral hemorrhage in the long run.

Mitochondrial targeting sequence of magnetoreceptor MagR:More than just targeting

Iron-sulfur clusters(ISC)are essential cofactors for proteins involved in various biological processes,such as electron transport,biosynthetic reactions,DNA repair,and gene expression regulation.ISC assembly protein IscA1(or MagR)is found within the mitochondria of most eukaryotes.Magnetoreceptor(MagR)is a highly conserved A-type iron and iron-sulfur cluster-binding protein,characterized by two distinct types of iron-sulfur clusters,[2Fe-2S]and[3Fe-4S],each conferring unique magnetic properties.MagR forms a rod-like polymer structure in complex with photoreceptive cryptochrome(Cry)and serves as a putative magnetoreceptor for retrieving geomagnetic information in animal navigation.Although the N-terminal sequences of MagR vary among species,their specific function remains unknown.In the present study,we found that the N-terminal sequences of pigeon MagR,previously thought to serve as a mitochondrial targeting signal(MTS),were not cleaved following mitochondrial entry but instead modulated the efficiency with which iron-sulfur clusters and irons are bound.Moreover,the N-terminal region of MagR was required for the formation of a stable MagR/Cry complex.Thus,the N-terminal sequences in pigeon MagR fulfil more important functional roles than just mitochondrial targeting.These results further extend our understanding of the function of MagR and provide new insights into the origin of magnetoreception from an evolutionary perspective.

High-speed penetration of ogive-nose projectiles into thick concrete targets:Tests and a projectile nose evolution model

The majority of the projectiles used in the hypersonic penetration study are solid flat-nosed cylindrical projectiles with a diameter of less than 20 mm.This study aims to fill the gap in the experimental and analytical study of the evolution of the nose shape of larger hollow projectiles under hypersonic penetration.In the hypersonic penetration test,eight ogive-nose AerMet100 steel projectiles with a diameter of 40 mm were launched to hit concrete targets with impact velocities that ranged from 1351 to 1877 m/s.Severe erosion of the projectiles was observed during high-speed penetration of heterogeneous targets,and apparent localized mushrooming occurred in the front nose of recovered projectiles.By examining the damage to projectiles,a linear relationship was found between the relative length reduction rate and the initial kinetic energy of projectiles in different penetration tests.Furthermore,microscopic analysis revealed the forming mechanism of the localized mushrooming phenomenon for eroding penetration,i.e.,material spall erosion abrasion mechanism,material flow and redistribution abrasion mechanism and localized radial upsetting deformation mechanism.Finally,a model of highspeed penetration that included erosion was established on the basis of a model of the evolution of the projectile nose that considers radial upsetting;the model was validated by test data from the literature and the present study.Depending upon the impact velocity,v0,the projectile nose may behave as undistorted,radially distorted or hemispherical.Due to the effects of abrasion of the projectile and enhancement of radial upsetting on the duration and amplitude of the secondary rising segment in the pulse shape of projectile deceleration,the predicted DOP had an upper limit.

Natural gas exploration potential and favorable targets of Permian Fengcheng Formation in the western Central Depression of Junggar Basin,NW China

Based on the organic geochemical data and the molecular and stable carbon isotopic compositions of natural gas of the Lower Permian Fengcheng Formation in the western Central Depression of Junggar Basin,combined with sedimentary environment analysis and hydrocarbon-generating simulation,the gas-generating potential of the Fengcheng source rock is evaluated,the distribution of large-scale effective source kitchen is described,the genetic types of natural gas are clarified,and four types of favorable exploration targets are selected.The results show that:(1)The Fengcheng Formation is a set of oil-prone source rocks,and the retained liquid hydrocarbon is conducive to late cracking into gas,with characteristics of high gas-generating potential and late accumulation;(2)The maximum thickness of Fengcheng source rock reaches 900 m.The source rock has entered the main gas-generating stage in Penyijingxi and Shawan sags,and the area with gas-generating intensity greater than 20×10^(8) m^(3)/km^(2) is approximately 6500 km^(2).(3)Around the western Central Depression,highly mature oil-type gas with light carbon isotope composition was identified to be derived from the Fengcheng source rocks mainly,while the rest was coal-derived gas from the Carboniferous source rock;(4)Four types of favorable exploration targets with exploration potential were developed in the western Central Depression which are structural traps neighboring to the source,stratigraphic traps neighboring to the source,shale-gas type within the source,and structural traps within the source.Great attention should be paid to these targets.

Deployment optimization for target perpetual coverage in energy harvesting wireless sensor network

Energy limitation of traditional Wireless Sensor Networks(WSNs)greatly confines the network lifetime due to generating and processing massive sensing data with a limited battery.The energy harvesting WSN is a novel network architecture to address the limitation of traditional WSN.However,existing coverage and deployment schemes neglect the environmental correlation of sensor nodes and external energy with respect to physical space.Comprehensively considering the spatial correlation of the environment and the uneven distribution of energy in energy harvesting WSN,we investigate how to deploy a collection of sensor nodes to save the deployment cost while ensuring the target perpetual coverage.The Confident Information Coverage(CIC)model is adopted to formulate the CIC Minimum Deployment Cost Target Perpetual Coverage(CICMTP)problem to minimize the deployed sensor nodes.As the CICMTP is NP-hard,we devise two approximation algorithms named Local Greedy Threshold Algorithm based on CIC(LGTA-CIC)and Overall Greedy Search Algorithm based on CIC(OGSA-CIC).The LGTA-CIC has a low time complexity and the OGSA-CIC has a better approximation rate.Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the OGSA-CIC is able to achieve lower deployment cost and the performance of the proposed algorithms outperforms GRNP,TPNP and EENP algorithms.

Humanβ-defensin-1 affects the mammalian target of rapamycin pathway and autophagy in colon cancer cells through long noncoding RNA TCONS_00014506

BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer has a low 5-year survival rate and high mortality.Humanβ-defensin-1(hBD-1)may play an integral function in the innate immune system,contributing to the recognition and destruction of cancer cells.Long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)are involved in the process of cell differentiation and growth.AIM To investigate the effect of hBD-1 on the mammalian target of rapamycin(mTOR)pathway and autophagy in human colon cancer SW620 cells.METHODS CCK8 assay was utilized for the detection of cell proliferation and determination of the optimal drug concentration.Colony formation assay was employed to assess the effect of hBD-1 on SW620 cell proliferation.Bioinformatics was used to screen potentially biologically significant lncRNAs related to the mTOR pathway.Additionally,p-mTOR(Ser2448),Beclin1,and LC3II/I expression levels in SW620 cells were assessed through Western blot analysis.RESULTS hBD-1 inhibited the proliferative ability of SW620 cells,as evidenced by the reduction in the colony formation capacity of SW620 cells upon exposure to hBD-1.hBD-1 decreased the expression of p-mTOR(Ser2448)protein and increased the expression of Beclin1 and LC3II/I protein.Furthermore,bioinformatics analysis identified seven lncRNAs(2 upregulated and 5 downregulated)related to the mTOR pathway.The lncRNA TCONS_00014506 was ultimately selected.Following the inhibition of the lncRNA TCONS_00014506,exposure to hBD-1 inhibited p-mTOR(Ser2448)and promoted Beclin1 and LC3II/I protein expression.CONCLUSION hBD-1 inhibits the mTOR pathway and promotes autophagy by upregulating the expression of the lncRNA TCONS_00014506 in SW620 cells.

Real-time Rescue Target Detection Based on UAV Imagery for Flood Emergency Response

Timely acquisition of rescue target information is critical for emergency response after a flood disaster.Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)equipped with remote sensing capabilities offer distinct advantages,including high-resolution imagery and exceptional mobility,making them well suited for monitoring flood extent and identifying rescue targets during floods.However,there are some challenges in interpreting rescue information in real time from flood images captured by UAVs,such as the complexity of the scenarios of UAV images,the lack of flood rescue target detection datasets and the limited real-time processing capabilities of the airborne on-board platform.Thus,we propose a real-time rescue target detection method for UAVs that is capable of efficiently delineating flood extent and identifying rescue targets(i.e.,pedestrians and vehicles trapped by floods).The proposed method achieves real-time rescue information extraction for UAV platforms by lightweight processing and fusion of flood extent extraction model and target detection model.The flood inundation range is extracted by the proposed method in real time and detects targets such as people and vehicles to be rescued based on this layer.Our experimental results demonstrate that the Intersection over Union(IoU)for flood water extraction reaches an impressive 80%,and the IoU for real-time flood water extraction stands at a commendable 76.4%.The information on flood stricken targets extracted by this method in real time can be used for flood emergency rescue.

Precision targeting in hepatocellular carcinoma:Exploring ligandreceptor mediated nanotherapy

Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is the most common primary liver cancer and poses a major challenge to global health due to its high morbidity and mortality.Conventional chemotherapy is usually targeted to patients with intermediate to advanced stages,but it is often ineffective and suffers from problems such as multidrug resistance,rapid drug clearance,nonspecific targeting,high side effects,and low drug accumulation in tumor cells.In response to these limitations,recent advances in nanoparticle-mediated targeted drug delivery technologies have emerged as breakthrough approaches for the treatment of HCC.This review focuses on recent advances in nanoparticle-based targeted drug delivery systems,with special attention to various receptors overexpressed on HCC cells.These receptors are key to enhancing the specificity and efficacy of nanoparticle delivery and represent a new paradigm for actively targeting and combating HCC.We comprehensively summarize the current understanding of these receptors,their role in nanoparticle targeting,and the impact of such targeted therapies on HCC.By gaining a deeper understanding of the receptor-mediated mechanisms of these innovative therapies,more effective and precise treatment of HCC can be achieved.

Delineation of clinical target volume in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Radiotherapy is the mainstay treatment modality for nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC).Intensity-modulated radiation therapy(IMRT),as the standard technique,achieves the purpose of improving target coverage and better sparing of normal tissue.Increased attention has been given to explore various strategies for deescalating treatment intensity.The optimization of clinical target volume(CTV)is one of the most active research areas being widely discussed.Although the International Guidelines for the delineating of CTV in NPC had provided important references for clinicians,there are marked variations in practice among different institutions.This article reviews the development of CTV delineation in non-metastatic NPC patients among centers,and compares the similarities and differences in CTV delineation of various current guidelines in the hope of providing insights for future investigation.This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the development and evolution of CTV delineation on primary tumor and lymph nodes for definitive radiotherapy in non-metastatic NPC through historical lens.We also compare the differences of CTV delineation ways.In addition,we look into the clinical and practical challenges of CTV delineation,hoping to provide direction for future research.

基于TARGET融合ARCS动机模型的应用统计学课程教学改革研究

学生的学习动机直接关系到课程教学目标的达成,激发学习动机是推动课程教学改革的应有之义。将TARGET和ARCS学习动机模型引入应用统计学课程教学,分析当前教学中存在的动机问题,提出有效激发学生动机的教学方案和实践策略,结果既可促进应用统计学课程教学质量提升,也可为其他相似课程教学设计提供参考借鉴。

Target acquisition performance in the presence of JPEG image compression

This paper presents an investigation on the effect of JPEG compression on the similarity between the target image and the background,where the similarity is further used to determine the degree of clutter in the image.Four new clutter metrics based on image quality assessment are introduced,among which the Haar wavelet-based perceptual similarity index,known as HaarPSI,provides the best target acquisition prediction results.It is shown that the similarity between the target and the background at the boundary between visually lossless and visually lossy compression does not change significantly compared to the case when an uncompressed image is used.In future work,through subjective tests,it is necessary to check whether this presence of compression at the threshold of just noticeable differences will affect the human target acquisition performance.Similarity values are compared with the results of subjective tests of the well-known target Search_2 database,where the degree of agreement between objective and subjective scores,measured through linear correlation,reached a value of 90%.

Potentials of ribosomopathy gene as pharmaceutical targets for cancer treatment

Ribosomopathies encompass a spectrum of disorders arising from impaired ribosome biogenesis and reduced functionality.Mutation or dysexpression of the genes that disturb any finely regulated steps of ribosome biogenesis can result in different types of ribosomopathies in clinic,collectively known as ribosomopathy genes.Emerging data suggest that ribosomopathy patients exhibit a significantly heightened susceptibility to cancer.Abnormal ribosome biogenesis and dysregulation of some ribosomopathy genes have also been found to be intimately associated with cancer development.The correlation between ribosome biogenesis or ribosomopathy and the development of malignancies has been well established.This work aims to review the recent advances in the research of ribosomopathy genes among human cancers and meanwhile,to excavate the potential role of these genes,which have not or rarely been reported in cancer,in the disease development across cancers.We plan to establish a theoretical framework between the ribosomopathy gene and cancer development,to further facilitate the potential of these genes as diagnostic biomarker as well as pharmaceutical targets for cancer treatment.

Distinct molecular targets of ProEGCG from EGCG and superior inhibition of angiogenesis signaling pathways for treatment of endometriosis

Endometriosis is a common chronic gynecological disease with endometrial cell implantation outside the uterus.Angiogenesis is a major pathophysiology in endometriosis.Our previous studies have demonstrated that the prodrug of epigallocatechin gallate(ProEGCG)exhibits superior anti-endometriotic and anti-angiogenic effects compared to epigallocatechin gallate(EGCG).However,their direct binding targets and underlying mechanisms for the differential effects remain unknown.In this study,we demonstrated that oral ProEGCG can be effective in preventing and treating endometriosis.Additionally,1D and 2D Proteome Integral Solubility Alteration assay-based chemical proteomics identified metadherin(MTDH)and PX domain containing serine/threonine kinase-like(PXK)as novel binding targets of EGCG and ProEGCG,respectively.Computational simulation and BioLayer interferometry were used to confirm their binding affinity.Our results showed that MTDH-EGCG inhibited protein kinase B(Akt)-mediated angiogenesis,while PXK-ProEGCG inhibited epidermal growth factor(EGF)-mediated angiogenesis via the EGF/hypoxia-inducible factor(HIF-1a)/vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)pathway.In vitro and in vivo knockdown assays and microvascular network imaging further confirmed the involvement of these signaling pathways.Moreover,our study demonstrated that ProEGCG has superior therapeutic effects than EGCG by targeting distinct signal transduction pathways and may act as a novel antiangiogenic therapy for endometriosis.

Ghost-YOLO v8:An Attention-Guided Enhanced Small Target Detection Algorithm for Floating Litter on Water Surfaces

Addressing the challenges in detecting surface floating litter in artificial lakes,including complex environments,uneven illumination,and susceptibility to noise andweather,this paper proposes an efficient and lightweight Ghost-YOLO(You Only Look Once)v8 algorithm.The algorithmintegrates advanced attention mechanisms and a smalltarget detection head to significantly enhance detection performance and efficiency.Firstly,an SE(Squeeze-and-Excitation)mechanism is incorporated into the backbone network to fortify the extraction of resilient features and precise target localization.This mechanism models feature channel dependencies,enabling adaptive adjustment of channel importance,thereby improving recognition of floating litter targets.Secondly,a 160×160 small-target detection layer is designed in the feature fusion neck to mitigate semantic information loss due to varying target scales.This design enhances the fusion of deep and shallow semantic information,improving small target feature representation and enabling better capture and identification of tiny floating litter.Thirdly,to balance performance and efficiency,the GhostConv module replaces part of the conventional convolutions in the feature fusion neck.Additionally,a novel C2fGhost(CSPDarknet53 to 2-Stage Feature Pyramid Networks Ghost)module is introduced to further reduce network parameters.Lastly,to address the challenge of occlusion,a newloss function,WIoU(Wise Intersection over Union)v3 incorporating a flexible and non-monotonic concentration approach,is adopted to improve detection rates for surface floating litter.The outcomes of the experiments demonstrate that the Ghost-YOLO v8 model proposed in this paper performs well in the dataset Marine,significantly enhances precision and recall by 3.3 and 7.6 percentage points,respectively,in contrast with the base model,mAP@0.5 and mAP 0.5:0.95 improve by 5.3 and 4.4 percentage points and reduces the computational volume by 1.88MB,the FPS value hardly decreases,and the efficient real-time identification of floating debris on the water’s surface can be achieved costeffectively.

Target Detection Algorithm in Foggy Scenes Based on Dual Subnets

Under the influence of air humidity,dust,aerosols,etc.,in real scenes,haze presents an uneven state.In this way,the image quality and contrast will decrease.In this case,It is difficult to detect the target in the image by the universal detection network.Thus,a dual subnet based on multi-task collaborative training(DSMCT)is proposed in this paper.Firstly,in the training phase,the Gated Context Aggregation Network(GCANet)is used as the supervisory network of YOLOX to promote the extraction of clean information in foggy scenes.In the test phase,only the YOLOX branch needs to be activated to ensure the detection speed of the model.Secondly,the deformable convolution module is used to improve GCANet to enhance the model’s ability to capture details of non-homogeneous fog.Finally,the Coordinate Attention mechanism is introduced into the Vision Transformer and the backbone network of YOLOX is redesigned.In this way,the feature extraction ability of the network for deep-level information can be enhanced.The experimental results on artificial fog data set FOG_VOC and real fog data set RTTS show that the map value of DSMCT reached 86.56%and 62.39%,respectively,which was 2.27%and 4.41%higher than the current most advanced detection model.The DSMCT network has high practicality and effectiveness for target detection in real foggy scenes.

The functions of exosomes targeting astrocytes and astrocyte-derived exosomes targeting other cell types

Astrocytes are the most abundant glial cells in the central nervous system;they participate in crucial biological processes,maintain brain structure,and regulate nervous system function.Exosomes are cell-derived extracellular vesicles containing various bioactive molecules including proteins,peptides,nucleotides,and lipids secreted from their cellular sources.Increasing evidence shows that exosomes participate in a communication network in the nervous system,in which astrocyte-derived exosomes play important roles.In this review,we have summarized the effects of exosomes targeting astrocytes and the astrocyte-derived exosomes targeting other cell types in the central nervous system.We also discuss the potential research directions of the exosome-based communication network in the nervous system.The exosome-based intercellular communication focused on astrocytes is of great significance to the biological and/or pathological processes in different conditions in the brain.New strategies may be developed for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders by focusing on astrocytes as the central cells and utilizing exosomes as communication mediators.