1.The role of microglia in Alzheimer′s disease
Xiangrong XIAO ; Ruolin LI ; Yanlei HAO
Chinese Journal of Neurology 2022;55(5):520-524
At present, many drugs were developed based on the main pathological feature of Alzheimer′s disease (AD): "β-amyloid cascade hypothesis and abnormal tau protein aggregation" as targets, but the efficacy is unsatisfactory. With the progress on the study of pathological mechanism of AD, the role of microglia and their related expression genes, such as TREM2, CD 33, ABCA7 gene and their related signal transduction pathways in the pathological mechanism of AD has been paid more and more attention. The study on AD biomarkers and therapeutic targets based on microglia and their related expression genes has also increased significantly. This review will mainly focus on the pathophysiology of microglia, the mechanism of microglia in AD, the biomarkers related to microglia and the drug treatment of AD.
2.Tyrobp promotes neuroinflammation in Tourette's syndrome model mice and related mechanisms
Xiangrong XIAO ; Ran SUN ; Xinyu YANG ; Ruolin LI ; Yanlei HAO
Chinese Journal of Behavioral Medicine and Brain Science 2022;31(12):1066-1072
Objective:To explore the effects and possible mechanisms of Tyrobp gene on neuroinflammation in Tourette's syndrome mice.Methods:Twenty C57BL/ 6J and Tyrobp knock-out male mice aged 6 weeks were randomly divided into 4 groups according to random number table method: WT+ NS group, Tyrobp -/-+ NS group, WT+ IDPN group and Tyrobp -/-+ IDPN group. Mice in WT+ IDPN group and Tyrobp -/-+ IDPN group were injected with IDPN intraperitoneally at a dose of 150 mg/kg·d, while mice in WT+ NS group and Tyrobp -/-+ NS group were injected with equal volume of normal saline, once a day for 7 days. Then stereotypical behavior of mice were evaluated. Western blot was used to detect the levels of Tyrobp, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, TLR4, Myd88, p-NF-κB p65 and p-IκBα in the striatum of mice. Immunofluorescence staining was used to observe the activation of microglia. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism 8.0 software, and t-test was used for comparison between two groups. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the means of multiple samples, and LSD test was used for further pairwise comparison. Results:The results of behavior assessment showed that there were significant differences in the motor stereotypic behavior and categorical stereotypic behavior score( F=270.9, 379.7, P<0.01), and the scores in WT+ IDPN group were higher than those in Tyrobp -/-+ IDPN group (motor stereotypic behavior: (3.23±0.26), (2.13±0.21), t=9.02, P<0.05; categorical stereotypic behavior: (45.80±4.29), (26.60±3.48), t=12.00, P<0.05). Western blot results showed that there were significant differences in the protein expression level of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, TLR4, Myd88, p-NF-κB p65 and p-IκBα ( F=29.07, 23.09, 39.36, 57.6, 52.55, 15.50, 40.48, all P<0.05), the level of those in WT + IDPN group was higher than those in WT+ NS group( t=8.31, 7.37, 8.13, 11.43, 10.47, 6.05, 9.96, all P<0.05), Tyrobp -/-+ IDPN group was higher than Tyrobp -/-+ NS group ( t=3.60, 3.00, 5.84, 4.81, 3.59, 2.26, 4.68, all P<0.05), and WT + IDPN group was higher than Tyrobp -/-+ IDPN group ( t=3.97, 3.93, 4.14, 6.40, 7.63, 3.45, 3.03, all P<0.05). Immunofluorescence showed that microglial cells in the striatum region of mice in WT+ IDPN group and Tyrobp -/-+ IDPN group were enlarged and microglial cells were activated, and the activation pattern of microglial cells in WT+ IDPN group was more obvious than that in Tyrobp -/-+ IDPN group. Conclusion:Tyrobp may be involved in the pathogenesis of Tourette's syndrome by promoting neuroinflammation mediated by TLR4/Myd88/NF-κB signaling pathway.
3.Effects of regulation of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway by TYROBP on neuroinflammation and autophagy
Xiangrong XIAO ; Li GONG ; Yunliang ZHU ; Xinyu YANG ; Yanlei HAO ; Ruolin LI
Chinese Journal of Geriatrics 2023;42(11):1330-1336
Objective:To investigate the effects of TYRO protein tyrosine-binding protein(TYROBP)on neuroinflammation and autophagy via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in a transgenic APP/ PS1 mouse model of AD. Methods:C57BL/6J, TYROBP-/- and APP/ PS1 transgenic male mice aged 15-month-old were randomly divided into 3 group: the C57BL/6J group, the TYROBP-/- group and the APP/ PS1 group, with 19 in each group.The eight-arm maze test and novel object recognition test were conducted to assess the learning and memory ability of mice.The activation of microglia and NLRP3 inflammasomes were assessed by immunofluorescence.The mRNA levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β were measured by real-time PCR, and the protein expression levels of NLRP3, cleaved caspase-1, SQSTM1, LC3B, TYROBP, p-PI3K, PI3K, p-AKT and AKT were assayed by Western blot. Results:Compared with the C57BL/6J group, the learning and memory abilities were significantly decreased(all P<0.05), activated microglia and NLRP3 inflammasomes were increased(all P<0.05), the mRNA and protein expression levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β were increased(all P<0.05)and the protein expression levels of LC3B-Ⅱ, SQSTM1, TYROBP, p-PI3K, p-AKT were increased(all P<0.05)in the APP/ PS1 group.Compared with C57BL/6J group, the protein expression levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, LC3B Ⅱ, SQSTM1, p-PI3K and p-AKT were decreased(all P<0.05). Conclusions:TYROBP promotes the inflammatory response and inhibits autophagy possibly by activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, thus participating in the occurrence and development of AD.
4.Multi-phase CT synthesis-assisted segmentation of abdominal organs
Pinyu HUANG ; Liming ZHONG ; Kaiyi ZHENG ; Zeli CHEN ; Ruolin XIAO ; Xianyue QUAN ; Wei YANG
Journal of Southern Medical University 2024;44(1):83-92
Objective To propose a method for abdominal multi-organ segmentation assisted by multi-phase CT synthesis.Methods Multi-phase CT synthesis for synthesizing high-quality CT images was used to increase the information details for image segmentation.A transformer block was introduced to help to capture long-range semantic information in cooperation with perceptual loss to minimize the differences between the real image and synthesized image.Results The model was trained using multi-phase CT dataset of 526 total cases from Nanfang Hospital.The mean maximum absolute error(MAE)of the synthesized non-contrast CT,venous phase contrast-enhanced CT(CECT),and delay phase CECT images from arterial phase CECT was 19.192±3.381,20.140±2.676 and 22.538±2.874,respectively,which were better than those of images synthesized using other methods.Validation of the multi-phase CT synthesis-assisted abdominal multi-organ segmentation method showed an average dice coefficient of 0.847 for the internal validation set and 0.823 for the external validation set.Conclusion The propose method is capable of synthesizing high-quality multi-phase CT images to effectively reduce the errors in registration between different phase CT images and improve the performance for segmentation of 13 abdominal organs.
5.Multi-phase CT synthesis-assisted segmentation of abdominal organs
Pinyu HUANG ; Liming ZHONG ; Kaiyi ZHENG ; Zeli CHEN ; Ruolin XIAO ; Xianyue QUAN ; Wei YANG
Journal of Southern Medical University 2024;44(1):83-92
Objective To propose a method for abdominal multi-organ segmentation assisted by multi-phase CT synthesis.Methods Multi-phase CT synthesis for synthesizing high-quality CT images was used to increase the information details for image segmentation.A transformer block was introduced to help to capture long-range semantic information in cooperation with perceptual loss to minimize the differences between the real image and synthesized image.Results The model was trained using multi-phase CT dataset of 526 total cases from Nanfang Hospital.The mean maximum absolute error(MAE)of the synthesized non-contrast CT,venous phase contrast-enhanced CT(CECT),and delay phase CECT images from arterial phase CECT was 19.192±3.381,20.140±2.676 and 22.538±2.874,respectively,which were better than those of images synthesized using other methods.Validation of the multi-phase CT synthesis-assisted abdominal multi-organ segmentation method showed an average dice coefficient of 0.847 for the internal validation set and 0.823 for the external validation set.Conclusion The propose method is capable of synthesizing high-quality multi-phase CT images to effectively reduce the errors in registration between different phase CT images and improve the performance for segmentation of 13 abdominal organs.
6.Risk factors associated with the progression from keloids to severe keloids.
Ruolin LIU ; Haitao XIAO ; Ru WANG ; Wei LI ; Ke DENG ; Ying CEN ; Xuewen XU
Chinese Medical Journal 2022;135(7):828-836
BACKGROUND:
Keloids are benign fibrous growths that are caused by excessive tissue build-up. Severe keloids exert more significant effects on patients' quality of life than do mild keloids. We aimed to identify factors associated with the progression from mild keloids to severe keloids, as distinct from those associated with the formation of keloids.
METHODS:
In this retrospective case-control study, 251 patients diagnosed with keloids at West China Hospital between November 2018 and April 2021 were grouped according to the severity of lesions (mild [n = 162] or severe [n = 89]). We collected their basic characteristics, living habits, incomes, comorbidities, and keloid characteristics from Electronic Medical Records in the hospital and the patients' interviews. Conditional multivariable regression was performed to identify the independent risk factors for the progression of keloids.
RESULTS:
Eighty-nine patients (35.5%) were classified as having severe keloids. We found the distribution of severe keloids varied with sex, age, excessive scrubbing of keloids, family income, the comorbidity of rheumatism, disease duration, characteristics of the location, location in sites of high-stretch tension, the severity and frequency of pain, the severity of pruritus, and infection. Multivariable analysis revealed significant associations between severe keloids and infection (odds ratio [OR], 3.55; P = 0.005), excessive scrubbing of keloids (OR, 8.65; P = 0.001), low or middle family income (OR, 13.44; P = 0.021), comorbidity of rheumatism (OR, 18.97; P = 0.021), multiple keloids located at multiple sites (OR, 3.18; P = 0.033), and disease duration > 15 years (OR, 2.98; P = 0.046).
CONCLUSION
Doctors should implement more active and thorough measures to minimize the progression of mild keloids in patients who have any of the following risk factors: infection, excessive scrubbing of keloids, low or middle family income, comorbidity of rheumatism, multiple keloids located at multiple sites, and disease duration > 15 years.
Case-Control Studies
;
Humans
;
Keloid/epidemiology*
;
Quality of Life
;
Retrospective Studies
;
Rheumatic Diseases
;
Risk Factors