Identification of galectin-3 as a novel potential prognostic/predictive biomarker and therapeutic target for cerebral cavernous malformation disease

cerebrovascular disease of genetic origin characterized by abnormally dilated capillaries and a wide spectrum of symptoms,including headaches,seizures,neurological deficits,and intracerebral hemorrhage.Its unpredictable clinical course and the current lack of therapies make the identification of prognostic and predictive biomarkers an imperative research challenge.1 Herein,we provide evidence that galectin-3(Gal-3),a major tissue and circulating biomarker of oxidative stress and inflammation,is significantly up-regulated both in CCM patients and experimentalmodels.Specifically,wholetranscriptome sequencing,qRT-PCR,and Western blotting studies demonstrated a significant up-regulation of Gal-3 expression levels both in surgical CCM specimens and in blood samples of CCM patients.

癫痫发作的可预测性研究

Objective: An important issue in epileptology is the question whether informat ion extracted from the EEG of epilepsy patients can be used for the prediction o f seizures. Several studies have claimed evidence for the existence of a pre-se izure state that can be detected using different characterizing measures. In thi s paper, we evaluate the predictability of seizures by comparing the predictive performance of a variety of univariate and bivariate measures comprising both li near and non-linear approaches. Methods: We compared 30 measures in terms of th eir ability to distinguish between the interictal period and the pre-seizure pe riod. After completely analyzing continuous inctracranial multi-channel recordi ngs from five patients lasting over days, we used ROC curves to distinguish betw een the amplitude distributions of interictal and preictal time profiles calcula ted for the respective measures. We compared different evaluation schemes includ ing channelwise and seizurewise analysis plus constant and adaptive reference le vels. Particular emphasis was placed on statistical validity and significance.Re sults: Univariate measures showed statistically significant performance only in a channelwise, seizurewise analysis using an adaptive baseline. Preictal changes for these measures occurred 5-30 min before seizures. Bivariate measures exhib ited high performance values reaching statistical significance for a channelwise analysis using a constant baseline. Preictal changes were found at least 240 mi n before seizures. Linear measures were found to perform similar or better than nonlinear measures. Conclusions: Results provide statistically significant evide nce for the existence of a preictal state. Based on our findings, the most promi sing approach for prospectiveseizure anticipation could be a combination of biva riate and univariate measures. Significance: Many measures reported capable of s eizure prediction in earlier studies are found to be insignificant in performanc e,which underlines the need for statistical validation in this field.

儿童颞叶癫痫手术后的功能恢复更好

The purpose of our study is to evaluate whether children recover better than adults from memory deficits as a consequence of temporal lobe surgery. We compared 3 and 12 month outcomes obtained in children and adults with medically refractory epilepsy. Each candidate underwent temporal lobe resection for seizure control and children were matched with regard to pathology, onset of epilepsy, side of surgery and type of surgery with adults (N = 30 for each group, mean age at surgery 13 versus 30 years). Three months after surgery, both left-resected groups displayed a significant decline in verbal learning capacity. During the following 9 months, only the children recovered and were able to reach their preoperative level 1 year after surgery. The left-resected adults remained, for the most part, on their low level and one year after surgery, they were still significantly worse than at the time of their preoperative examination. The right-resecte d adults experienced a deterioration in visual memory 1 year after surgery relative to the results of the short-term follow-up; the children improved. The children also had a better outcome with regard to attentional functions and, as a trend, a better seizure outcome (Engel Outcome 1-1 year after surgery: 63%adult s, 80%paediatric patients). Our neuropsychological data provide evidence of greater plasticity and compensational capacity in childhood. The results can be taken as a strong argument for early surgical intervention.

颞叶内侧对名人面孔的识别:一项侵袭性的ERP研究

Objective: To investigate the involvement of the rhinal cortex and the hippoca mpus in the processing of famous faces in contrast to nonfamous faces using intr acranial event related potentials (ERPs), and to analyze repetition effects for famous and nonfamous faces. Methods: ERPs were elicited by pictures of famous a nd nonfamous faces and recorded from rhinal and hippocampal sites of intracrania l electrodes in 10 presurgical patients with unilateral medial temporal lobe epi lepsy. Famous and nonfamous faces were presented twice and mixed with distorted faces serving as targets. There was no instruction for an overt discrimination b etween famous and nonfamous faces. In contrast to nonfamous faces, famous faces stimulate processes related with access and retrieval of semantic memory. Result s: All faces evoked anterior medial temporal lobe N400 like (AMTL N400) potent ials in the rhinal cortex and P600like potentials in the hippocampus. The AMTL N400 and the hippocampal P600 amplitudes were larger for famous faces than for n onfamous faces. Mean amplitudes of the first and second presentation of famous f aces suggest a repetition effect for the rhinal sites; however, they are signifi cant only in the later signal components. No repetition effect was found for non famous faces and for potentials from the hippocampus. Conclusion: The anterior m edial temporal lobe N400 and the hippocampal P600 may be related to the access a nd retrieval of person specific semantic memory.