Neuroscience
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Early and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its prodromal period mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is essential for the delayed disease progression and the improved quality of patients' life. The emerging computer-aided diagnostic methods that combine deep learning with structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) have achieved encouraging results, but some of them are limit of issues such as data leakage, overfitting, and unexplainable diagnosis. In this research, we propose a novel end-to-end deep learning approach for automated diagnosis of AD. ⋯ Our approach has been evaluated on two publicly accessible datasets for two classification tasks of AD vs. cognitively normal (CN) and progressive MCI (pMCI) vs. stable MCI (sMCI). The experimental results indicate that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches, including those using multi-model and three-dimensional (3D) CNN methods. The resultant heatmaps from our approach also highlight the lateral ventricle and some regions of cortex, which have been proved to be affected by AD.
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Growing evidence has demonstrated that treadmill exercise is beneficial to increase β-amyloid (Aβ) clearance and protect against Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Recently, microglia dysfunction leading to Aβ clearance impairment is proved an important mechanism for later Aβ deposition and AD pathogenesis. ⋯ Moreover, treadmill exercise partly restored microglial Aβ degradation and clearance in the hippocampus, which was impaired in APP/PS1 mice. However, the impaired microglial Aβ phagocytosis in APP/PS1 mice was not altered after 3 months of treadmill exercise intervention. These findings demonstrate that 3 months of treadmill exercise alleviates hippocampal Aβ deposition and restores spatial learning and memory in APP/PS1 mice, partly by promoting microglial Aβ degradation and clearance.
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Post-weaning is a critical period for brain maturation in the rat and is comparable to childhood and adolescences in humans. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are two brain regions that continue to mature during post-weaning and establish a critical circuit regulating the acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear. We previously demonstrated that exposure to stress leads to significant differences between adults and PWs in the kinetics of extinction behavior as well as differential effects on long-term potentiation. ⋯ Further, freezing levels during extinction positively correlated with the magnitude of LTP only in adult animals. These results suggest that the changes occurring at the synaptic level following fear extinction are dissimilar in adult and PW animals. Our results further strengthen the assertion that PW and adult fear extinction learning may rely on different mechanisms.
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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most common, most formidable, and deadliest malignant types of primary astrocytoma with a poor prognosis. At present, the standard of care includes surgical tumor resection, followed by radiation therapy concomitant with chemotherapy and temozolomide. New developments and significant advances in the treatment of GBM have been achieved in recent decades. ⋯ In this review, we outline some of the most recent literature on the various available treatment options such as surgery, radiotherapy, cytotoxic chemotherapy, gene therapy, immunotherapy, phototherapy, nanotherapy, and tumor treating fields in the treatment of GBM, and we list some of the potential future directions of GBM. The reviewed studies confirm that GBM is a sophisticated disease with several challenges for scientists to address. Hence, more studies and a multimodal therapeutic approach are crucial to yield an effective cure and prolong the survival of GBM patients.