Objective:To explore any effect of electrical stimulation of the right median nerve (RMNS) in modulating arousal patterns in the prefrontal cortex of a healthy adult.Methods:Twenty-three right-handed healthy participants received block-designed patterns of RMNS arousal. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to record any hemodynamic response in their prefrontal cortex. Changes in oxyhemoglobin (HbO), deoxyhemoglobin (HbR), and total hemoglobin (HbT) were analyzed by comparing the levels in stimulation blocks with resting-state periods.Results:fNIRS revealed significant activation of HbO signals in the left frontopolar area (channel 15) and the right frontopolar area (channels 37, 43 and 48) following RMNS arousal. There were significant differences in the HbR signals from the right frontopolar area (channel 41). There were, however, no significant differences in the HbT signals across all the measured channels.Conclusion:RMNS arousal enhances neurometabolic activity within the frontopolar sub-region of the prefrontal cortex in healthy adults.

Objective:To explore any effect of electrical stimulation of the right median nerve (RMNS) in modulating arousal patterns in the prefrontal cortex of a healthy adult.Methods:Twenty-three right-handed healthy participants received block-designed patterns of RMNS arousal. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to record any hemodynamic response in their prefrontal cortex. Changes in oxyhemoglobin (HbO), deoxyhemoglobin (HbR), and total hemoglobin (HbT) were analyzed by comparing the levels in stimulation blocks with resting-state periods.Results:fNIRS revealed significant activation of HbO signals in the left frontopolar area (channel 15) and the right frontopolar area (channels 37, 43 and 48) following RMNS arousal. There were significant differences in the HbR signals from the right frontopolar area (channel 41). There were, however, no significant differences in the HbT signals across all the measured channels.Conclusion:RMNS arousal enhances neurometabolic activity within the frontopolar sub-region of the prefrontal cortex in healthy adults.

The establishment of a traceability system for the entire industry chain of Chinese medicinal materials can enhance regional brand building,raise the quality awareness of medicinal material producers,standardize the production processes of Chinese medicinal materials,and ensure the production of high-quality medicinal materials.Sichuan Province has successfully implemented a provincial-level Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM)tracing system that is interconnected across provinces,cities,and counties.This system enables the complete tracking of the entire supply chain,starting from seed and seedling cultivation,through planting and breeding,harvesting and processing,and finally to the production and distribution of decoction pieces in trade and medical institutions.This research provides a comprehensive overview of the progress made in establishing the Chinese herbal medicine traceability system in Sichuan Province.It analyzes the existing challenges faced by participating enterprises,such as the hierarchy of involvement,information integrity,and the overall impact of the system.Moreover,the paper presents valuable insights and suggestions for the further development of the Chinese herbal medicine traceability system in Sichuan Province.These recommendations focus on enhancing the traceability scope,improving service capabilities,promoting data sharing,and establishing standardized norms and guidelines.

Objective:To explore the characteristics of functional connectivity (FC) and regional spontaneous brain activity in patients in a minimally-conscious state (MCS).Methods:Resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy (rs-fNIRS) was used. Ten minimally-conscious patients were studied along with 12 healthy counterparts as healthy controls (HC). Five minutes of rs-fNIRS data were recorded from each subject and FC and the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFFs) of 53 channels were computed using the NIRS-KIT toolbox. The results were compared between the two groups.Results:Compared with the HC group, a significant decrease was observed in the average FC strength of seventeen channel pairs after false discovery rate (FDR) correction. Most were in the right and left frontal pole, as well as the dorsolateral prefrontal lobe. Compared with the HC group, the average fALFF values of Broca′s area (channel 2), the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor cortex (channels 4, 10, and 40), the dorsolateral prefrontal lobe (channels 6, 11, 25, 39), the eye motor area of the frontal lobe (channel 12) and the frontal pole (channels 23, 27, 36) were significantly greater in the MCS group. The fluctuations of the frontal pole (channel 19) were significantly less (after FDR correction).Conclusion:In an MCS spontaneous neural activity is over-active in the prefrontal lobe and some speech- and motor-related brain regions, and coordination of the internal prefrontal functional network is disordered.

Biliary atresia is a rare infant disease that predisposes patients to liver transplantation and death if not treated in time. However, early diagnosis is challenging because the clinical manifestations and laboratory tests of biliary atresia overlap with other cholestatic diseases. Therefore, it is very important to develop a simple, safe and reliable method for the early diagnosis of biliary atresia. Herein, a novel NIR-II fluorescence probe, HZL2, with high quantum yield, excellent biocompatibility, low cytotoxicity and rapid excretion through the liver and gallbladder was developed based on the oil/water partition coefficient and permeability. A simple fecal sample after injection of HZL2 can be used to efficiently identify the success of the mouse model of biliary atresia for the first time, allowing for an early diagnosis of the disease. This study not only developed a simple and safe method for the early diagnosis of biliary atresia with great potential in clinical translation but also provides a research tool for the development of pathogenesis and therapeutic medicines for biliary atresia.

Objective:To explore any changes in the topology of the brain′s resting-state functional networks after an ischemic stroke causing cognitive impairment (iPSCI) and their relationship with the impairment.Methods:Twenty-one patients with impaired cognition after a stroke were recruited into an iPSCI group, and 21 healthy counterparts matched in gender, age and the education level formed the control (HC) group. Three-dimensional T1-weighted anatomical images and resting state functional magnetic resonance images of all of the subjects were collected and any differences in brain network topology were analyzed using graph theory. The degree of centrality (DC), between centrality (BC) and the global topological properties of each brain region were compared using independent-sample t-tests. Spearman correlation coefficients were computed to analyze the significance of any correlation between topology differences and Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA) or Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) scores.Results:Compared with the HC group, a significant DC increase was observed in the orbital part of the right of middle frontal gyrus (ORBmid.R), the right hippocampus (HIP.R), and the right thalamus (THA.R). There was a significant decrease in the left Rolandic operculum (ROL.L), the left postcentral gyrus (PoCG.L), the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG.L), the left angular gyrus (ANG.L), the left and right caudate nucleus (CAU.L and CAU.R), the putamen of the left lenticular nucleus (PUT.L), the left Heschl gyrus (HES.L), the left superior temporal gyrus (STG.L), and the temporal pole of the left superior temporal gyrus (TPOsup.L). Compared with the HC group, the brain regions of the iPSCI group in which the BC had increased significantly were the orbital part of the left middle frontal gyrus (ORBmid.L), the left cuneus (CUN.L), and the right precuneus (PCUN.R). DC was significantly decreased in the left caudate nucleus (CAU.L), the left temporal pole of the superior temporal gyrus (TPOsup.L), and the left of inferior temporal gyrus (ITG.L). Compared with the HC group, the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) of the shortest path length (Lp) and the normalized Lp (λ) of the iPSCI group increased significantly, and the AUC of the normalized clustering coefficient (γ) and small-worldness (σ) decreased significantly. The DCs of the ROL.L, PoCG.L, CAU.L, HES.L, STG.L and TPOsup.L regions showed moderate positive correlation with the MoCA and MMSE scores ( r>0.4), as did the BC of the CAU.L and TPOsup.L regions ( r>0.4). Conclusions:Cognitive impairment is mainly associated with decreased nodal properties in the brain regions related to language and in the caudate nucleus. The topology of the frontal lobe, hippocampus, thalamus, striatum and default networks may self-repair after an iPSCI. The brain′s functional network after an iPSCI still has small-world properties, but with low efficiency and high cost.

Objective To investigate the effects of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) deficiency on neuromyelitis optica (NMO) model of spinal cord sections induced by NMO-IgG and complement in vitro.Methods NMO-IgG was extracted from the patients with NMO,and complementary serum from healthy people.The spinal cord sections of seven days old C57BL / 6J mice with wild type (WT) or ApoE knockout (ApoE-/-) were cultured for seven days.The spinal cords of the two genotypes were randomly divided into experimental groups (NMO-ApoE-/-group,NMO-WT group) and control groups (C-AopE-/-group,C-WT group),respectively.The experimental groups were treated with NMO-IgG and complementary serum,and the control groups only with complementary serum.Then all the sections were continued incubating for 24 h before harvested.Immunofluorescence staining and modified thick tissue film immunofluorescence were used to detect the expression of aquaporin 4 (AQP4),glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP),ionic calcium fibronectin (IBA1),myelin basic protein (MBP) and human neurofilament protein L (NFL) respectively.The lesion score was calculated according to the areas percentage of AQP4 and GFAP deficiency in spinal cord sections.Results Compared with the respective control groups,the expressions of AQP4,GFAP,MBP and NFL were deficient in the experimental groups (The percentages of missing area in the NMO-ApoE-/-group were 83.88％ ± 5.01％,82.44％ ± 6.11％,45.02％ ± 5.11％ and 54.65％ ± 7.66％ respectively,while the percentages of missing area in the C-ApoE-/-group were 10.44％ ± 4.07％,5.73％ ±0.82％,9.12％ ±1.41％ and 5.72％ ±0.81％,t=34.143,37.269,20.300,19.051,allP ＜0.05;The percentages of missing area in the NMO-WT group were 77.74％ ± 6.75％,75.62％ ± 5.76％,37.60％ ± 4.88％ and 46.29％ ± 4.98％,while the percentages of missing area in the C-WT group were 9.31％ ± 2.97％,5.80％ ± 0.82％,9.10％ ± 1.63％,5.80％ ± 0.81％ respectively,t =27.828,35.934,16.613,24.057,all P ＜ 0.05).While IBA1 was up-regulated and the damage scores were higher in both the NMO-ApoE-/-group and the NMO-WT group.The percentages of missing area in the NMO-ApoE-/-group and the NMO-WT group showed statistically significant difference (t =2.194,2.436,3.149,2.746,all P ＜ 0.05).The expression level of IBA1 in the NMO-WT group was higher than that in the C-WT group (19.88 ± 1.11 vs 11.18 ±0.65,t =25.270,P ＜0.05),while the expression level of IBA1 in the NMO-ApoE-/-group was higher than that in the NMO-WT group (25.81 ± 1.61 vs 19.88 ± 1.11,t =9.101,P ＜0.05).The degree of deficiency or up-regulation of above-mentioned proteins was more obvious in the NMO-ApoE-/-group than that in the NMO-WT group.Conclusions NMO-IgG extracted from NMO patients can induce NMO-like damage in isolated tissue at the presence of complement.ApoE deficiency promotes the further activation of microglia,thereby aggravates the injury of astrocyte in the model of NMO.

Objective To explore the effect of high-frequency, repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) together with mirror neuron training on the cognition of persons with vascular cognitive impairment but without dementia (VCIND). Methods Thirty-three persons with VCIND were randomly divided into an rTMS+MNS group (n =17) and an rTMS group (n =16) using a random number table. Both groups were given conventional rehabilitation training and rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at 10 Hz, 2000 pulses per day at their individual motor thresholds on weekdays for 4 weeks using a CCY- I stimulator. The rTMS+MNS group was additionally given mirror neuron training. The Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and the modified Barthel Index (MBI) were administered before and after the treatment. The P300 latency and amplitude of both groups were also measured. Results Before the treatment, no significant differences were found in any of the measurements. After the treatment, the average MoCA, MMSE and MBI scores had increased significantly in both groups, with those of the rTMS+MNS group increasing significantly more than those of the rTMS group. After the treatment, the average P300 latency and amplitude of both groups were also significantly better than before the treatment. Compared with the rTMS group, the average P300 latency of the rTMS+MNS group was significantly shorter, while the average amplitude was significantly greater. Conclusion Mirror neuron training combined with rTMS is more effective than rTMS alone in improving the cognition and ADL performance of VCIND patients. It is worth applying in clinical practice.

Objective:To study the effect of the three kinds of EE on the cognitive function and the expression of SYN and MAP-2,and the dentritic growth of pyramidal cells of the cerebral cortex in rats.Method:Forty-eight male SD rats were divided into preserving the physique EE group (EE1),preserving the spirit EE group (EE2),preservation for both physique and spirit EE group(EE3) and standard group (SE),12 rats in each group.Rats were put into the three kinds of EE or standard cages after pre-training.The environmental enrollment lasted for 14 days and followed by a 6-days Morris water maze test.After the Morris water maze test,all the rats were sacrificed for histological study,including using the immunohistochemistry method to detect the expression of SYN and MAP-2,and using the Golgi-Cox staining to study the dentritic growth of pyramidal cells in cerebral cortex.Result:In the Morris water maze,the EE3 group exhibited shorter escape latency than the MCAO+SE group (P＜0.05) on day 5,while no significant differences were seen for the time spent in the target quadrant among the 4 groups (P＞ 0.05).The results of immunohistochemical staining of SYN showed that the expression of SYN was the lowest in the SE group,and there was no significant difference between EE1 and EE3 groups but significantly higher than the EE2 group.The expression of MAP-2 was the lowest in the SE group,and there was no significant difference of expression between EE1 and EE2 groups but significantly lower than the EE3 group.The results of Golgi-Cox staining showed that there was no difference of the dentritic branch among groups in mPFC (P＞ 0.05) while the spine density of the EE1 group was significantly greater than that of the SE and EE2 groups (P ＜ 0.05),but significantly lower than that of the EE3 group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion:Two weeks of preservation from both physique and spirit EE can improve the cognitive function,and promote the expression of MAP-2 and SYN and the dentritic growth of pyramidal cells in normal rats.

Objective To systematically review the clinical efficacy of botulinum toxin A for the treatment of upper limb spasticity after stroke. Methods PubMed,EMbase,Cochrane Library,CBM, China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI),and Wanfang Data were retrieved by a computer. The randomized controlled trials and Case-control study of comparing botulinum toxin A combined with rehabilitation training and routine rehabilitation treatment for upper limb spasticity after stroke were collected. The retrieval time was from the foundation of the database to September 1,2016. At least two reviewers conducted literature screening,data extraction,and quality evaluation according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Rev-Man 5. 3 software provided by the Cochrane Collaboration was used to conduct the Meta-analysis. Results A total of 356 articles were retrieved. Finally,11 articles met the inclusion criteria. The modified Jadad score showed that the scores of 9 articles were more than 4,which belonged to high-quality literature. Eleven articles included 614 patients,in which 316 were treated with botulinum toxin A. There were 298 patients in the control group. The results of Meta-analysis indicated that the Fugl-Meyer score (SMD =0. 94,95% CI 0. 75 to 1. 12),modified Ashworth score (SMD = - 1. 59,95% CI - 1. 78 to - 1. 40),and modified Barthel index (SMD = 0. 86,95% CI 0. 65 to 1. 08)in the botulinum toxin treatment group were superior to the control group. There were significant differences (all P < 0. 05). The incidence of adverse events (RR = 1. 06,95% CI 0. 78 to 1. 45)was similar in both groups. There was no significant difference (P > 0. 05). Conclusion The efficacy of treatment of upper limb spasticity after stroke with botulinum toxin A is exact,and the security is high. The appropriate rehabilitation training can effectively improve the limb motor function,muscle tension,and quality of life of patients.