Objective:To study the neural mechanism between abnormal brain functional activity and alertness function in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients with or without hippocampal sclerosis.Methods:A total of 21 TLE patients with hippocampal sclerosis (TLE-HS), and 18 TLE patients without hippocampal sclerosis (TLE-N) diagnosed in the Department of Neurology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from May 2016 to November 2022 and 28 healthy controls (HC) matched with demographic data were recruited.All the 67 participants completed the attention network test (ANT) and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) scans. The REST software was used to analyze fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) and functional connectivity (FC) based on one-way ANOVA in order to obtain differential brain regions in abnormal spontaneous neuronal activity and functional connectivity among the three groups. The SPSS 26.0 software was used to analyze the correlation between fALFF/FC values in differential brain regions and alertness network efficiency by Pearson correlation analysis.Results:There was a significant difference in the alerting network effect among the three groups ( F=4.621, P=0.013), and the post-hoc analysis showed that the alerting network effect in the TLE-HS group((59.40±22.85)ms)was significantly higher than that in the HC group((38.85±21.08)ms)(Bonferroni correction, P=0.017). The fALFF analysis showed that the fALFF values of the right superior frontal gyrus in the TLE-HS group (0.16±0.52) and the TLE-N group (0.49±0.51) were significantly lower than that in the HC group (1.01±0.46), while the fALFF values of the left precentral gyrus in the TLE-HS group (0.60±0.55) was significantly higher than that in the TLE-N group (-0.19±0.51) and the HC group (-0.15±0.36) (Bonferroni correction, all P<0.05). The functional connectivity analysis revealed that the FC values between the left inferior frontal gyrus and the right superior frontal gyrus in the TLE-HS group (0.11±0.16) and TLE-N group (0.02±0.19) were significantly higher than those in the HC group (-0.18±0.18). The FC values between the right supramarginal gyrus and the right superior frontal gyrus in the TLE-HS group (0.10±0.21) were significantly higher than those in the HC group (-0.18±0.16). The FC values between the left supplementary motor area and the right superior frontal gyrus in the TLE-HS group (0.20±0.21) were significantly higher than those in the TLE-N group (-0.03±0.31) and the HC group (-0.10±0.15) (Bonferroni correction, all P<0.05). The correlation analysis showed that the FC values between the left supplementary motor area and the right superior frontal gyrus in the TLE-HS group were significantly positively correlated with alertness network efficiency ( r=0.436, P=0.048). Conclusions:There are abnormal spontaneous neuronal activity and brain functional connectivity in TLE patients with or without hippocampal sclerosis, and the abnormality is more pronounced in the TLE-HS group. The abnormal brain functional connectivity may play an essential role in alertness dysfunction.

Objective: To understand the characteristics of genotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in Yunnan province, and provide the molecular epidemiological evidence for prevention and control of tuberculosis in Yunnan Province. Methods: Mycobacterium Tuberculosis isolates were collected from 6 prefectures of Yunnan province in 2014 and their Genetypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were obtained using spoligotyping and multiple locus variable numbers of tandem repeats analysis (MLVA). The results of spoligotyping were entered into the SITVITWEB database to obtain the Spoligotyping International Type (SIT) patterns and the sublineages of MTB isolates. The genoyping patterns were clustered with BioNumerics (version 5.0). Results: A total of 271 MTB isolates represented patients were collected from six prefectures in Yunnan province. Out of these patients, 196 (72.3%) were male. The mean age of the patients was (41.9±15.1) years. The most MTB isolates were from Puer, totally 94 iusolates(34.69%). Spoligotyping analysis revealed that 151 (55.72%) MTB isolates belonged to the Beijing genotype, while the other 120 (44.28%) were from non-Beijing genotype; 40 genotypes were consisted of 24 unique genotypes and 16 clusters. The 271 isolates were differentiated into 30 clusters (2 to 17 isolates per cluster) and 177 unique genotypes, showing a clustering rate of 23.62%. Beijing genotype strains showed higher clustering rate than non-Beijing genotype strains (29.14% vs 16.67%). The HGI of 12-locus VNTR in total MTB strains, Beijing genotype strains and non-Beijing genotype was 0.993, 0.982 and 0.995 respectively. Conclusion The Beijing genotype was the predominant genotype in Yunnan Province, the characteristics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis showed high genetic diversity. The genotyping data reflect the potential recent ongoing transmission in some area, which highlights the urgent need for early diagnosis and treatment of the infectious TB cases, to cut off the transmission and avoid a large TB outbreak.

Objective:To explore the changes in topological attributes of structural covariance network based on cortical thickness and the brain functional activities in patients with anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis by graph theory and functional connectivity (FC) analyses, and to investigate whether these changes were correlated to cognitive impairment.Methods:A total of 33 patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis from Department of Neurology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University(patient group) and 35 healthy controls(control group) with matched gender, age, and education were included from July 2018 to November 2021.All subjects received cognitive function assessments, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.Structural covariance networks were constructed in the two groups based on cortical thickness values and topological characteristics of networks were computed.A non-parametric permutation test which repeated 1 000 times was used to compare the characteristics of the networks between the two groups.Brain regions with abnormal topology were defined as region of interest(ROI), and FC values in global brain level were calculated.SPM 12 and RESTplus were used to identify the brain regions with significant differences in FC values between the two groups.Finally, Spearman correlation analysis between FC values of significant brain regions and cognitive scores were performed by SPSS 24.0.Results:The cognitive score of patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis (27.0(23.5, 28.0)) was lower than that in control group(29.0(27.0, 30.0)) ( Z=-3.029, P=0.002). Graph theory analysis found that the patients showed significantly increased clustering coefficients ( P=0.004) and decreased global efficiency ( P=0.004) compared with healthy controls.Moreover, the nodal efficiency of left ventral posterior cingulate cortex (vPCC) and right dorsal posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC), as well as the nodal degree centrality of left vPCC and left polar planum of superior temporal gyrus (ppSTG) in patient group were significantly decreased ( P<0.05, FDR corrected) compared with control group.FC analysis showed the increased FC values between left vPCC and posterior cerebellum (MNI: x=6, y=-66, z=-21), as well as between left ppSTG and anterior cerebellum (MNI: x=6, y=-54, z=-12) (GRF corrected, voxel level P<0.001, cluster level P<0.05) in patient grooup.The FC values between left vPCC and posterior cerebellum were negatively correlated with the cognitive scores ( r=-0.403, P=0.020). Conclusion:Patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis show abnormal topology of structural covariance network based on cortical thickness and altered FC values, some of which are correlated to cognition and may be the underlying neural mechanism of cognitive impairment in patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis.