Current Status of Clinical and Experimental Researches on Cognitive Impairment in Diabetes

This article reviews the clinical and experimental researches on cognitive impairment related to diabetes in the recent decade. Most clinical studies indicate that the cognitive impairment in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus is related to recurrent hypoglycemia closely. There is little research about whether or not hyperglycemia is related to cognitive impairment in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Most studies indicate that the cognitive impairment in type 2 diabetes involves multiple factors through multiple mechanisms, including blood glucose, blood lipid, blood pressure, level of insulin, medication, chronic complication, etc. But, there has been no large-scale, multi-center, randomized controlled clinical trial in China recently. And what is more, some problems exist in this field of research, such as the lack of golden criterion of cognitive function measurement, different population of studied objects, and incomprehensive handling of confounding factors. Experimental studies found that hippocampal long-term potentiation （LTP） was impaired, which were manifested by impairment of spatial memory and decreased expression of LTP, but it＇s relation to hyperglycemia, the duration of diabetes, learning and memory has always been differently reported by different researches. Thus, there are a lot of unknown things to be explored and studied in order to clarify its mechanism. TOM has abundant clinical experience in treating cerebral disease with medicine that enforces the kidney and promotes wit. However, there has been no research on treating diabetic cognitive impairment, which requires work to be done actively and TOM to be put into full play, in order to improve the treatment of diabetes and enhance living quality of patients.

Macroscopic Self-Organized Electrochemical Patterns in Excitable Tissue and Irreversible Thermodynamics

In this paper we make the assertion that the key to understand the emergent properties of excitable tissue (brain and heart) lies in the application of irreversible thermodynamics. We support this assertion by pointing out where symmetry break, phase transitions both in structure of membranes as well as in the dynamic of interactions between membranes occur in excitable tissue and how they create emergent low dimensional electrochemical patterns. These patterns are expressed as physiological or physiopathological concomitants of the organ or organism behavior. We propose that a set of beliefs about the nature of biological membranes and their interactions are hampering progress in the physiology of excitable tissue. We will argue that while there is no direct evidence to justify the belief that quantum mechanics has anything to do with macroscopic patterns expressed in excitable tissue, there is plenty of evidence in favor of irreversible thermodynamics. Some key predictions have been fulfilled long time ago and they have been ignored by the mainstream literature. Dissipative structures and phase transitions appear to be a better conceptual context to discuss biological self-organization. The central role of time as a global coupling agent is emphasized in the interpretation of the presented results.

Electroacupuncture with Bushen Jiannao improves cognitive deficits in senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 mice by inhibiting neuroinflammation

OBJECTIVE:To investigate effect of electroacupuncture(EA)with Bushen Jiannao on learning and memory ability in senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8(SAMP8)mice and the related mechanisms.METHODS:8-month-old senescence-accelerated-resistant(SAMR1)and SAMP8 mice were treated with EA at Baihui(GV 20),Shenshu(BL 23),and Taixi(KI 3)acupoint once a week for 8 weeks.The Morris water maze,enzyme linked immunosorbent assay,immunohistochemistry,and Western blot were used to assess Alzheimer’s disease(AD)-associated cognitive and neuroinflammatory phenotypes.RESULTS:Our data showed that EA treatment decreased activation of microglia and astrocytes,decreased levels of inflammatory factors including tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α),interleukin(IL)-6,and IL-17,and improved spatial memory deficits in SAMP8 mice.EA therapy with Bushen Jiannao exhibited anti-inflammatory properties and improved cognitive function.CONCLUSION:The present study indicates that EA treatment based on the interaction between kidney and brain can improve learning and memory ability by inhibiting activation of astrocytes and microglia and decreasing expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines,TNF-αand IL-17.EA treatment based on the interaction between kidney and brain may be an effective treatment for AD.