Recent Research Trends in Neuroinflammatory and Neurodegenerative Disorders.

Neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are chronic major health disorders. The exact mechanism of the neuroimmune dysfunctions of these disease pathogeneses is currently not clearly understood. These disorders show dysregulated neuroimmune and inflammatory responses, including activation of neurons, glial cells, and neurovascular unit damage associated with excessive release of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, neurotoxic mediators, and infiltration of peripheral immune cells into the brain, as well as entry of inflammatory mediators through damaged neurovascular endothelial cells, blood-brain barrier and tight junction proteins.

Nanostructure-induced DNA condensation.

The control of the DNA condensation process is essential for compaction of DNA in chromatin, as well as for biological applications such as nonviral gene therapy. This review endeavours to reflect the progress of investigations on DNA condensation effects of nanostructure-based condensing agents (such as nanoparticles, nanotubes, cationic polymer and peptide agents) observed by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and other techniques. The environmental effects on structural characteristics of nanostructure-induced DNA condensates are also discussed.