ObjectiveTo investigate the therapeutic effect of Siegesbeckiae Herba water decoction （SWD） at different doses on atherosclerosis （AS） in a mouse model induced by a high-fat diet and analyze its potential mechanism of action. MethodsThirty-six male ApoE^-/- mice were randomly divided into six groups： blank control group， model group， low-dose， medium-dose， and high-dose SWD groups， and positive control group. Firstly， the AS mouse model was created by feeding mice a high-fat diet. After successful modeling， the low-， medium-， and high-dose SWD groups were intragastrically administered with SWD at 0.65， 1.3， 2.6 g·kg^-1， respectively. The positive control group was intragastrically administered with 30 mg·kg^-1 of atorvastatin calcium aqueous solution， while the blank and model groups received an equal volume of 0.9% sodium chloride solution via oral gavage， all administered for 12 weeks. During the administration period， the general condition of the mice was observed and recorded daily. Before sampling， color Doppler ultrasound was performed to observe the pathological changes in atherosclerotic plaques in the aortic wall of mice. Hematoxylin-eosin （HE） staining was used to observe the pathological changes in aortic tissue in mice， and oil red O staining was used to detect the atherosclerotic plaque area in the aorta. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA） was used to detect the serum lipid indices and the levels of interleukins （IL-1β， IL-4， IL-6， and IL-10） and tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α） in mice. Protein expression levels of IKKα， IKKβ， and NF-κB p65 in mouse aortic tissue were detected by Western blot. ResultsCompared with the blank control group， the model group showed a significant increase in body weight. The results of color Doppler ultrasound showed enhanced vascular wall echo， suggesting the presence of atherosclerotic plaques. HE staining showed foam cell aggregation， fibrous connective tissue proliferation， and vascular intima injury in the aortic tissue. Oil red O staining showed a significant increase in the plaque area in the aortic tissue （P<0.01）. ELISA results indicated significantly elevated levels of IL-1β， IL-6， TNF-α， total cholesterol （TC）， triglyceride （TG）， and low-density lipoprotein （LDL） in mouse serum （P<0.01）， as well as significantly decreased levels of IL-4， IL-10， and high-density lipoprotein （HDL） （P<0.01）. Western blot results showed that the expression of IKKα， IKKβ， and NF-κB p65 in mouse aortic tissue increased significantly （P<0.01）. Compared with those in the model group， mice in the middle- and high-dose SWD groups showed significant weight loss. In the high-dose group， the aortic vascular wall echoes were weakened， and the atherosclerotic plaques were reduced. The aortic lesions of mice in the medium- and high-dose SWD groups were significantly alleviated. The plaque area percentage showed an inverse correlation with the administered dose in all groups treated with SWD （P<0.05）. In the medium-dose SWD group， serum levels of IL-1β， IL-6， TNF-α， TC， TG， and LDL were significantly decreased （P<0.05， P<0.01）， while those of IL-4 and IL-10 were significantly increased （P<0.01）. In the high-dose SWD group， levels of IL-1β， IL-6， TNF-α， TC， TG， and LDL were significantly decreased （P<0.01）， while IL-4， IL-10， and HDL were significantly increased （P<0.01）. The IKKα and IKKβ expression was significantly decreased in the low-dose SWD group （P<0.05）， and IKKα， IKKβ， and NF-κB p65 were significantly decreased in the medium- and high-dose SWD groups （P<0.05， P<0.01）. ConclusionSWD may exert therapeutic effects on AS by regulating the expression of related inflammatory factors through the NF-κB signaling pathway， thereby reducing inflammation， plaque area， and lipid content in the body.

Alzheimer's disease(AD)is the most prevalent form of cognitive impairment.Alongside common cognitive deficits, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and compromised daily activities, a growing body of research indicates that AD patients exhibit various forms of motor dysfunction, such as eye movement, upper limb movement, and gait and balance issues, even in the early stages, including the prodromal and preclinical phases of AD.This article introduced the presentation of motor dysfunction, its correlation with cognitive impairment and AD biomarkers, with the aim of aiding in the early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of AD.

Cognition is the most basic human mental process,and is a higher neural function of the brain.Cognitive dysfunction caused by various neuropsychiatric diseases may involve one or more cognitive domains such as working memory,attention and executive function,which can seriously affect the quality of patients'survival.Transcranial alternating current stimulation(tACS)can directly modulate cortical oscillations as well as intrinsic oscillatory activity,thereby affecting sensory,perceptual and cognitive processes.This paper analyses and summarizes domestic and international studies on tACS applied to cognitive disorders based on evidence-based medicine methods,to provide the theoretical basis for future scientific application of tACS in cognitive disorders.

Post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) is a common complication after stroke, which has high disability rate and mortality rate, and can affect the patient′s daily living ability and quality of life. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has the advantages of non-invasiveness, safety, and ease of operation, and is easily accepted by patients. NIBS has a good application prospect in the treatment of PSCI, especially the representative treatment repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) such as have good clinical application effects. At present, there is no standardized treatment plan for NIBS, and there are large individual differences in therapeutic effects. This study reviewed the mechanism and clinical application of NIBS in the treatment of PSCI, and discussed the future application direction of NIBS.

Somatostatin (SST) is an inhibitory polypeptide hormone that plays an important role in a variety of biological processes. Somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2) is the most widely expressed somatostatin receptor. However, the specific cell types expressing Sstr2 in the tissues have not been investigated. In this study, we detected the expression pattern of SSTR2 protein in mouse at different development stages, including the embryonic 15.5 days and the postnatal 1, 7, 15 days as well as 3 and 6 months, by multicolour immunofluorescence analyses. We found that Sstr2 was expressed in some specific cells types of several tissues, including the neuronal cells and astrocytes in the brain, the mesenchymal cells, the hematopoietic cells, the early hematopoietic stem cells, and the B cells in the bone marrow, the macrophages, the type Ⅱ alveolar epithelial cells, and the airway ciliated cells in the lung, the epithelial cells and the neuronal cells in the intestine, the hair follicle cells, the gastric epithelial cells, the hematopoietic stem cells and the nerve fibre in the spleen, and the tubular epithelial cells in the kidney. This study identified the specific cell types expressing Sstr2 in mouse at different developmental stages, providing new insights into the physiological function of SST and SSTR2 in several cell types.
Mice ; Animals ; Receptors, Somatostatin/metabolism* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells/metabolism* ; Epithelial Cells

ObjectiveTo conduct a visualized analysis of the research related to the use of brain-computer interface technology for stroke rehabilitation in the past ten years, and identify and predict the hot spots and hot trends in order to promote the further development of this field. MethodsThe Web of Science Core Collection database was searched for literature related to brain-computer interface technology for stroke rehabilitation from January, 2011 to October, 2022. CiteSpace 5.8.R3 was used to analyze the number of publications, countries, institutions, authors, keywords, co-citations, and grant support. Results and ConclusionA total of 592 papers were included, and the annual number of publications in this field of research showed a rapid growth trend, and the research enthusiasm continued to increase. The United States was in the leading position in this field, with the highest number of cooperative publications and the highest intermediary centrality; China had certain advantages in this field, but still needed to strengthen the exchange and cooperation with other countries/regions. Foreign institutions and authors had formed a network of close cooperative relationships, and formed a high-impact team represented by Niels Birbaumer, Cuntai Guan, Kai Keng Ang, etc.; there were poor cooperative relationships among domestic authors and institutions, and there were geographical restrictions and lack of high-impact academic groups. The keywords "motor imagery" and "recovery" formed ten major clusters and 15 prominent words with high variation rates, showing a trend of diversification in research directions. The study of the efficacy of upper limb motor rehabilitation and central mechanisms has been the hot topics in this field and will continue for some time in the future; the use of lower limb brain-computer interface systems for improving foot drop, gait and balance in stroke patients and the application of multimodal brain-computer interfaces will probably become a hot topic in the future. Finally, the use of brain-computer interface-guided neurofeedback training for cognitive and language rehabilitation in stroke also needs attention.

Objective:To retrospectively analyze the efficacy and safety of dupilumab in the treatment of bullous pemphigoid (BP) .Methods:Clinical data were collected from BP patients who received injections of dupilumab at an initial dose of 600 mg followed by an every-2-week regimen at a dose of 300 mg (the frequency of injections could be increased if necessary) in Department of Dermatology, Peking University First Hospital from October 2020 to October 2021, and their clinical manifestations and changes in laboratory indices were analyzed.Results:A total of 21 BP patients treated with dupilumab were included in this study. Nineteen (90.5%) patients achieved complete or marked disease control after 2-week treatment with dupilumab; 12 patients were followed up for 16 weeks, and all maintained complete disease control at 16 weeks. All patients had a bullous pemphigoid disease area index (BPDAI) score of 122.5 ± 51.1 points at baseline, which decreased to 30.6 ± 27.4 points after 2-week treatment with dupilumab ( t = 8.53, P < 0.001) , and continued to decrease to 12.7 ± 9.1 points after 4-week treatment ( t = 9.73, P < 0.001) . Pruritus was markedly relieved in all the 21 patients within 4-week treatment with dupilumab. Among 10 patients with elevated eosinophil counts at baseline, the eosinophil counts markedly decreased in 9 after treatment. The serum IgE level was elevated in 7 patients at baseline, which markedly decreased in 6 after treatment. Viral conjunctivitis occurred in 1 (4.8%) patient, and no adverse reactions were observed in other patients. Conclusion:Dupilumab is effective in the control of BP and relief of pruritus, with a favorable safety profile.

A fundamental challenge that arises in biomedicine is the need to characterize compounds in a relevant cellular context in order to reveal potential on-target or off-target effects. Recently, the fast accumulation of gene transcriptional profiling data provides us an unprecedented opportunity to explore the protein targets of chemical compounds from the perspective of cell transcriptomics and RNA biology. Here, we propose a novel Siamese spectral-based graph convolutional network (SSGCN) model for inferring the protein targets of chemical compounds from gene transcriptional profiles. Although the gene signature of a compound perturbation only provides indirect clues of the interacting targets, and the biological networks under different experiment conditions further complicate the situation, the SSGCN model was successfully trained to learn from known compound-target pairs by uncovering the hidden correlations between compound perturbation profiles and gene knockdown profiles. On a benchmark set and a large time-split validation dataset, the model achieved higher target inference accuracy as compared to previous methods such as Connectivity Map. Further experimental validations of prediction results highlight the practical usefulness of SSGCN in either inferring the interacting targets of compound, or reversely, in finding novel inhibitors of a given target of interest.
Drug Delivery Systems ; Proteins ; Transcriptome

Objective:To investigate the effect of the combination of Auto-prescription and ODM full on image quality and radiation dose of chest enhanced CT inorder to explore the feasibility of individualized low radiation dose chest enhanced CT. Methods:The phantoms PH-75 in two sizes were scanned with four scanning modes: group A, 120 kVp + Smart-mA; group B, 120 kVp + Smart-mA+ ODM full; group C, Auto-prescription + Smart-mA; group D, Auto-prescription + Smart-mA+ ODM full. The images of each group were reconstructed with 40%-80% ASIR-V (interval 20%), recorded as A 1-3-D 1-3. Image quality and radiation dose were evaluated in order to obtain optimal scanning modes. Totally 35 cases(from the First Hospital of Dalian Medical University during November 2021 to July 2022) of chest enhancement CT were collected prospectively in the clinical study using the parameters of D 2 group recorded as D patients. Patients in this group received chest enhancement CT scanning for the second time within three months. The CT parameters in first enhanced scanning recorded as A patient were as same as those in group A 1, and the parameters in second scanning recorded as D patient were as same as those in group D 2. The SNRs, CNRs, subjective grading and imaging findings of the lesion in two groups were compared. Results:In phantom study, the radiation dose of each group was statistically significant, and that in D group was the lowest. For two sizes of phantoms, A 1 was uesd as the control group in pairwise comparison. The SDs of B 1, C 1, and D 2 images had no statistical difference with that of A 1 ( P > 0.05), and SD of D 1was higher than that of A 1, and SDs of other groups were lower than that of A 1( F=10.77, 122.50, P<0.05). CNR of B 1 had no statistical difference with that of A 1, and the CNRs of other groups were higher( F=136.20, 30.21, P<0.05). Subjective scores of A 2, C 2, D 2 had no statistical difference with that of A 1 and those of other groups were lower than that of A 1( H=52.89, 43.95, P<0.05). In clinical study, 80 kVp was uesd for 22 cases and 100 kVp was used for 13 cases in D patients group. SNRs and CNRs in the D patients group were all higher than those in the A patients group ( P > 0.05). The consistency of image quality scores for two observers was good ( kappa = 0.754, P < 0.05). The median scores of the two groups were (4, 4). Conclusion:Auto-prescription combined with ODM full in chest enhanced CT imaging can achieve individualized low radiation dose with meeting the requirements of image quality and clinical diagnosis.

Image 1.