Objective To investigate the apathy and neuropsychological characteristics of newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.Methods Eighty-two newly diagnosed PD patients and 30 matched healthy controls by age,sex and education level were recruited in the present study.Apathy was assessed using Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES) and related factors,including age,sex,education level and disease duration were simultaneously evaluated.Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS),Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD),as well as Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were employed in order to respectively evaluate the motor function,depression and cognition.Results The AES scores in the PD patients were significantly higher when compared to the healthy controls.The prevalence of apathy and depression in the PD patients was 51.2％ (42/82) and 19.5％ (16/82),respectively.There were no statistically significant differences in age,sex,education level,UPDRS-Ⅱ/Ⅲ scores and MoCA scores between apathy (n =42) and no-apathy (n =40) PD patients (P ＞ 0.05),while the statistically significant difference in HAMD scores between apathy (n =42) and no-apathy (n =40) PD patients was shown (the HAMD scores of apathy PD patients were 10.61 ± 3.30,the HAMD scores of no-apathy PD patients were 5.96 ± 1.90,t =7.87,P ＜ 0.05).The correlation analysis indicated that there were no correlations between AES scores and the related factors,including age,education level,disease duration and UPDRS-Ⅱ / Ⅲ scores,but AES scores were positively correlated with HAMD scores.Conclusion In newly diagnosed PD patients,the apathy is independent of depression,motor dysfunction,as well as cognitive impairment,which may be an early signal for PD.

Objective To investigate the associated protein markers in urine of patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) based on surface enhanced laser desorption and ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS)technique.Methods Urine samples were taken from 150 CRF patients and 50 healthy people,and investigated by proteomic techniques with H4 gene chip.Results Compared to healthy group,141 different protein peaks were identified within the range of 1000 to 20 000 M/Z in the protein map of CRF group,whose differences were all significant (all P＜0.01).The decision tree model for CRF urine was constructed after bioinformation analysis to significantly differentiate between CRF and healthy group.The accuracy rate,sensitivity and specificity of the decision tree model were 96.0％,100.0％ and 94.7％ respectively.In CRF group and healthy group,the different protein peaks in urine were identified to probably be 17 proteins with reference to SwissProt database.Conclusions Candidate protein markers in urine are screened and prediction model of CRF urine is established.The markers are identified with the database which provides a more accurate prediction and solid evidence for early diagnosis of CRF.

Objective To study the relationship of Wnt receptor signaling pathway and severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).Method From January 2011 to June 2015,preterm infants with severe ROP admitted to the NICU of our hospital were enrolled prospectively.Preterm infants with similar gestational age,gender,and age (in days) admitted to our hospital during the same period were selected as the control group.FZD4,LRP5,and ND gene mutations in Wnt receptor signaling pathway were examined.Result A total of 61 Chinese preterm infants were screened for these three candidate genes of Wnt receptor signaling pathway,32 in ROP group and 29 in control group.ND and FZD4 gene mutations were not found among all cases.Eight types of LRP5 mutations were found in 26 cases of ROP group,including 7 cases of Exon18 missense mutation [c.3989C ＞ T;p.Ala1330Val (rs3736228)],5 cases of Exon8 synonymous mutation (c.1647T ＞ C;p.Phe549Phe),5 cases of Exon6 intronic mutation [c.1412 + 8G ＞ A (rs4988319)],3 cases of Exon2 missense mutation [c.266A ＞ G;p.Gln89Arg (rs41494349)],2 cases of Exon21 intronic mutation [c.4349-17C ＞ T (rs372086596)],2 cases of Exon19 synonymous mutation (c.4089C ＞ T;p.Asp 1363 Asp),one case of Exon9 synonymous mutation (c.1 932G ＞ A;p.Glu644Glu),and one case of Exon16 missense mutation (c.3580C ＞T;p.Arg1194Cys).Three types of LRP5 mutations were found in 6 cases of the control group,including 4 cases of Exon8 synonymous mutation,one case of Exon19 synonymous mutation,and one case of Exon9 synonymous mutation.The positive rates of Exonl8 missense mutation and Exon6 intronic mutation in severe ROP group were significantly higher than the control group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion LRP5 gene mutations in Wnt receptor signaling pathway may be associated with the occurrence of severe ROP.

Background: Xylazole (Xyl) is a veterinary anesthetic that is structurally and functionally similar to xylazine. However, the effects of Xyl in vitro remain unknown. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the anesthetic mechanism of Xyl using fetal rat nerve cells treated with Xyl. Methods: Fetal rat nerve cells cultured for seven days were treated with 10, 20, 30, and 40 μg/ mL Xyl for 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 min. Variations of amino acid neurotransmitters (AANTs), Nitric oxide-Cyclic GMP (NO-cGMP) signaling pathway, and ATPase were evaluated. Results: Xyl decreased the levels of cGMP and NO in nerve cells. Furthermore, Xyl affected the AANT content and Na+ -K+ -ATPase and Ca2+ -Mg2+ -ATPase activity in nerve cells. These findings suggested that Xyl inhibited the NO-cGMP signaling pathway in nerve cells in vitro. Conclusions This study provided new evidence that the anesthetic and analgesic effects of Xyl are related to the inhibition of the NO-cGMP signaling pathway.