Co-registered photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging for tongue cancer detection

Tongue cancer is an increasingly common disease with high morbidity,Besides clinical obser-vation,biomedical imaging techniques have been investigated for early detection of tonguecancer.In this paper,we proposed a co-registered dual-modality photoacoustic(PA)and ul.trasound imaging technique to simultaneously map the functional and structural information ofhuman tongue,which has the potential to detect and diagnose tongue cancer in early stage,Theimaging probe comprises a 20-MHz side-view focused transducer for ultrasound imaging and PAdetection,a light path constructed by a multimode optical fiber,and a prism for PA illumination.Phantom experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the system includingpenetration depth,spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio.In vivo imaging of animaltumor and human tongue was carried out to show the feasibility of the proposed technique todetect tumor lesions in human tongue.The results of phantom and in vivo experiments suggestthat the proposed technique has the potential to detect the early-stage cancer lesions in humantongue.

Photoacoustic molecular imaging using combined acupuncture and gold nanorods as a composite contrast agent

In this study,we developed a novel photoacoustic imaging technique based on poly(ethyleneglycol)-coated(PEGylated)gold nanorods(PEG-GNRs)(as the contrast agent)combined with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)acupuncture(as the auxiliary method)for quantitatively monitoring contrast enhancement in the vasculature of a mouse brain in vivo.This study takes advantage of the strong near-infrared absorption(peak at700 nm)of GNRs and the ability to adjust the hemodynamics of acupuncture.Experimental results show that photoacoustic tomography(PAT)successfully reveals the optical absorption variation of the vasculature of the mouse brain in response to intravenous administration of GNRs and acupuncture at the Zusanli acupoint(ST36)both individually and combined.The quantitative measurement of contrast enhancement indicates that the composite contrast agents(integration of acupuncture and GNRs)would greatly enhance the photoacoustic imaging contrast.The quantitative results also have the potential to estimate the local concentration of GNRs and even the real-time effects of acupuncture.

RESTplus: an improved toolkit for resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data processing

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI)[1,2] provides relatively high spatial and temporal resolution for mapping spontaneous brain activity non-invasively. It has been widely used in cognitive neuroscience and clinical studies. A number of comprehensive software packages have been developed for RS-fMRI data analysis, among which a MATLAB package named REST (RESing-state fMRI data analysis Toolkit, released in October 2008 at http://www.restfmri.net)[3] is the earliest one dedicated to RS-fMRI analysis. REST focuses on RS-fMRI postprocessing metrics.

PHYPred:a tool for identifying bacteriophage enzymes and hydrolases

Bacteriophages are viruses that attack bacteria and kill them through the lytic replication cycle. Many studies have reported that phages are more specific to bacteria than antibiotics are; thus, phage therapy has many poten- tial applications in human medicine, with the advantage of having few side effects （Keen, 2012）. Investigating the mechanisms of bacteria-killing phages will therefore aid in the development of antibacterial drugs.

Transcriptomic and Macroscopic Architectures of Multimodal Covariance Network Reveal Molecular–Structural–Functional Co-alterations

Human cognition is usually underpinned by intrinsic structure and functional neural co-activation in spatially distributed brain regions.Owing to lacking an effective approach to quantifying the covarying of structure and functional responses,how the structural–functional circuits interact and how genes encode the relationships,to deepen our knowledge of human cognition and disease,are still unclear.Here,we propose a multimodal covariance network(MCN)construction approach to capture interregional covarying of the structural skeleton and transient functional activities for a single individual.We further explored the potential association between brain-wide gene expression patterns and structural–functional covarying in individuals involved in a gambling task and individuals with major depression disorder(MDD),adopting multimodal data from a publicly available human brain transcriptomic atlas and 2 independent cohorts.MCN analysis showed a replicable cortical structural–functional fine map in healthy individuals,and the expression of cognition-and disease phenotype-related genes was found to be spatially correlated with the corresponding MCN differences.Further analysis of cell type-specific signature genes suggests that the excitatory and inhibitory neuron transcriptomic changes could account for most of the observed correlation with task-evoked MCN differences.

A Review of the Functional and Anatomical Default Mode Network in Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder characterized by impaired perception, delusions, thought disorder, abnormal emotion regulation, altered motor function, and impaired drive. The default mode network （DMN）, since it was first proposed in 2001, has become a central research theme in neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. In this review, first we define the DMN and describe its functional activity, functional and anatomical connectivity, heritability, and inverse correlation with the task positive network. Second, we review empirical studies of the anatomical and functional DMN, and anti-correlation between DMN and the task positive network in schizophrenia. Finally, we review preliminary evidence about the relationship between antipsychotic medications and regulation of the DMN, review the role of DMN as a treatment biomarker for this disease, and consider the DMN effects of individualized therapies for schizophrenia.

MCP-1-induced ERK/GSK-3β/Snail signaling facilitates the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and promotes the migration of MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cells

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1)is a chemotactic cytokine that can bind to its receptor cysteine-cysteine chemokine receptor 2(CCR2)and plays an important role in breast cancer cell metastasis.However,the molecular mechanisms underlying MCP-1-induced alterations in cellular functions during tumor progression are poorly understood.Here,we showed that MCP-1 stimulated the epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)and induced the tumorigenesis of breast cancer cells by downregulating E-cadherin,upregulating vimentin and fibronectin,activating matrix metallopeptidase-2(MMP-2),and promoting migration and invasion.Moreover,MCP-1 treatment reduced glycogen synthase kinase-3β(GSK-3β)activity via the MEK/ERK-mediated phosphorylation of serine-9 in MCF-7 cells.The inhibition of MEK/ERK by U0126 attenuated the MCP-1-induced phosphorylation of GSK-3βand decreased the expression of Snail,an EMT-related transcription factor,leading to the inhibition of MCF-7 cell migration and invasion.Inactivation of GSK-3βby LiCl(lithium chloride)treatment notably increased MMP-2 activity,vascular endothelial growth factor expression and EMT of MCF-7 cells.These findings revealed that MCP-1-induced EMT and migration are mediated by the ERK/GSK-3β/Snail pathway,and identified a potential novel target for therapeutic intervention in breast cancer.

Altered relationship between thickness and intrinsic activity amplitude in generalized tonic–clonic seizures

A thinner cortex has higher potential for binding GABA receptor A which is associated with larger amplitudes of intrinsic brain activity(i BA). However, the relationship between cortical thickness and i BA is unknown in intact and epileptic brains. To this end, we investigated the relationship between cortical thickness measured by highresolution MRI and surface-based i BA derived from resting-state functional MRI in normal controls(n = 82) andpatients with generalized tonic–clonic seizures(GTCS)only(n = 82). We demonstrated that the spatial distribution of cortical thickness negatively correlated with surface-based i BA amplitude at both whole-brain and within independent brain functional networks. In GTCS patients,spatial coupling between thickness and i BA amplitude decreased in the default mode, dorsal attention, and somatomotor networks. In addition, the vertex-wise acrosssubject thickness–i BA amplitude correspondence altered in the frontal and temporal lobes as well as in the precuneus in GTCS patients. The relationship between these two modalities can serve as a brain-based marker for detecting epileptogenic changes.