Neuroscience
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The aim of this study was to assess the potential causal relationship between lifestyle factors and intracranial aneurysms (IAs) using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. The study used a pooled dataset from a genome-wide association study that covered information on 24 lifestyle factors, intracranial aneurysm cases, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and unruptured aneurysms. Five MR methods were applied for analysis by selecting single nucleotide polymorphisms as instrumental variables, with the inverse variance weighting method as the main method. ⋯ Sensitivity analyses and inverse MR verified the robustness of these results. After adjusting for exposure factors, multivariate MR confirmed daily smoking and smoking initiation as risk factors for intracranial aneurysms, unruptured aneurysms, and subarachnoid hemorrhage, whereas red wine intake was a genetically protective factor against intracranial aneurysms and subarachnoid hemorrhage. This MR analysis revealed a genetic causal link between specific lifestyle factors and intracranial aneurysms, emphasizing the need for further studies to confirm these findings and explore their mechanisms.
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Focal Cortical Dysplasia (FCD) & Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy-Hippocampal Sclerosis (MTLE-HS) are two common pathologies of drug-resistant focal epilepsy (DRE). Inappropriate localization of the epileptogenic zones (EZs) in FCD is a significant contributing factor to the unsatisfactory surgical results observed in FCD cases. Currently, no molecular or cellular indicators are available which can aid in identifying the epileptogenic zones (EZs) in FCD. ⋯ These findings suggest that employing distinct lipid mass spectra could be an effective method for identifying the EZs in FCD. The unique lipid mass spectra of cortical tissues from patients with FCD can be utilized for real-time surgical guidance. Additionally, the plasma triglyceride (TAG) level has the potential to act as a biomarker once validated on a larger cohort.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a growing health problem worldwide, particularly in the developed world due to an ageing population. Glutamate excitotoxicity plays a major role in the pathophysiology of AD, and glutamate re-uptake is controlled by excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs). The EAAT2 isoform is the predominant transporter involved in glutamate reuptake, therefore EAAT1 has not been the focus of AD research. ⋯ Labeling of EAAT1 appeared astrocytic in nature, showing close association with astrocytic processes in AD cases. We also report that a higher EAAT1 density was positively correlated with the age of AD cases, but this relationship was not observed in control cases. Overall, our results indicate an upregulation of EAAT1 across several hippocampal subregions and layers in AD cases, indicating a potential physiological role for this transporter that needs further investigation.
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Determining the neural bases of basic linguistic composition is central to research on the cognitive neuroscience of language. The left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) is widely reported during linguistic composition of visual stimuli in magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies. However, this effect is less reported during the linguistic composition of auditory stimuli in intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) studies. ⋯ Participants were asked to read minimal two-word phrases in the composition condition and read words preceded by pound signs in the noncomposition condition. The results showed that high-gamma power in the LATL was higher in the composition condition compared to the noncomposition condition. These results provide more substantial evidence for the role of LATL in basic linguistic composition (at least in visual modality) and highlight the potential role of stimuli modality (visual vs. auditory) in the phrasal composition effect in LATL.
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Apelin, an endogenous ligand of G protein-coupled receptor APJ, is widely distributed in the central nervous system (CNS). It can be divided into such subtypes as Apelin-13, Apelin-17, and Apelin-36 as they have different amino acid structures. ⋯ As an adipokine, Apelin has been found to play a crucial role in cardiovascular disease development. In this paper, we reviewed the effects and mechanisms of Apelin in treating CNS diseases, such as neurotrauma, stroke, spinal cord injury, primary tumors, neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric diseases, epilepsy, and pain.