Publications by authors named "Ching-Sui Hung"

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), a highly prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, causes motor and cognitive deficits. The main pathophysiologies of DLB are glutamate excitotoxicity and accumulation of Lewy bodies comprising α-synuclein (α-syn) and β-amyloid (Aβ). Amitriptyline (AMI) promotes expression of glutamate transporter-1 and glutamate reuptake.

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Light can induce an alertness response in humans. The effects of exposure to bright light vs. dim light on the levels of alertness during the day, especially in the afternoon, as reported in the literature, are inconsistent.

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Epilepsy, which is caused by abnormal neuronal firing in the brain, is a common neurological disease and affects motor and cognitive functions. Excessive levels of glutamate and insufficient levels of inhibitory GABA are involved in its pathophysiology. Valproic acid (Val), a GABAergic agonist, is one of the first-line antiepileptic drugs, but it shows many adverse side effects at the clinical dose.

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New Findings: What is the central question of this study? Imbalance of activities between GABAergic and glutamatergic systems is involved in epilepsy. It is not known whether simultaneously increasing GABAergic and decreasing glutamatergic activity using valproic acid and ceftriaxone, respectively, leads to better seizure control. What is the central question of this study? Ceftriaxone suppressed seizure and cognitive deficits and restored neuronal density and the number of newborn cells in the hippocampus in a rat model of epilepsy.

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Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is caused by accumulation of Lewy bodies, destruction of mitochondria, and excess of glutamate in synapses, which eventually leads to excitotoxicity, neurodegeneration, and cognitive impairments. Ceftriaxone (CEF) reduces excitotoxicity by increasing glutamate transporter 1 expression and glutamate reuptake. We investigated whether CEF can prevent cognitive decline and neurological deficits and increase neurogenesis in DLB rats.

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Several neurodegenerative disorders, namely Parkinson's disease dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and Alzheimer's disease, share common pathophysiological features, such as (1) cognitive deficits, (2) glutamatergic hyperactivity-related excitotoxicity, and (3) deposition of α-synuclein (α-syn) and β-amyloid (Aβ). Ceftriaxone (CEF) is a well-tested and safe drug that has been used as an antibiotic for several decades. Recent studies have demonstrated the following effects of CEF: (1) increasing glutamate transporter-1 expression and glutamate reuptake and suppressing excitotoxicity, (2) binding well with α-syn and inhibition of α-syn polymerization, (3) modulating expression of genes related to Aβ metabolism, and (4) enhancing neurogenesis and recovery of neuronal density.

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Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is characterized by neuronal deficits and -synuclein inclusions in the brain. Ceftriaxone (CEF), a -lactam antibiotic, has been suggested as a therapeutic agent in several neurodegenerative disorders for its abilities to counteract glutamate-mediated toxicity and to block -synuclein polymerization. By using manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) and immunohistochemistry, we measured the effects of CEF on neuronal activity and -synuclein accumulation in the brain in a DLB rat model.

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Hyperactivity of the glutamatergic system is involved in excitotoxicity and neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD) so that glutamatergic modulation maybe a potential therapeutic target for PD. Ceftriaxone (CEF) has been reported to increase glutamate uptake by increasing glutamate transporter expression and has been demonstrated neuroprotective effects in animal study. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of CEF on behavior and neurogenesis in the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced PD rat model.

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Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) is a widely used technique for detecting neuronal activity in the brain of a living animal. Ceftriaxone (CEF) has been shown to have neuroprotective effects in neurodegenerative diseases. The present study was aimed at clarifying whether, in an 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced Parkinson's disease (PD) rat model, the known CEF-induced neuronal protection was accompanied by neurogenesis and decreased loss of neuronal activity.

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Osteoporosis is a major disease associated with aging. We have previously demonstrated that diosgenin prevents osteoporosis in both menopause and D-galactose-induced aging rats. OXYS rats reveal an accelerated senescence and are used as a suitable model of osteoporosis.

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Both ceftriaxone (CEF) and erythropoietin (EPO) show neuroprotection and cognitive improvement in neurodegenerative disease. The present study was aimed at clarifying whether combined treatment with CEF and EPO (CEF+EPO) had superior neuroprotective and behavioral effects than treatment with CEF or EPO alone in a 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced Parkinson's disease (PD) rat model. The rats were injected with CEF (5 mg/kg/day), EPO (100 IU/kg/day), or CEF+EPO after MPTP lesioning and underwent the bar-test, T-maze test, and object recognition test, then the brains were taken for histological evaluation.

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Glutamatergic hyperactivity plays an important role in the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD). Ceftriaxone increases expression of glutamate transporter 1 (GLT-1) and affords neuroprotection. This study was aimed at clarifying whether ceftriaxone prevented, or reversed, behavioral and neuronal deficits in an 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced PD rat model.

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Brain functions express rhythmic fluctuations accompanied by sleep and wakefulness each day, but how sleep regulates brain rhythms remains unclear. Following the dose-dependent local sleep concept, two succeeding questions emerge: (1) is the sleep regulation a network-specific process; and (2) is the awakening state dependent on the previous sleep stages? To answer the questions, we conducted simultaneous EEG and fMRI recordings over 22 healthy male participants, along pre-sleep, nocturnal sleep and awakening. Using paired comparisons between awakening and pre-sleep conditions, three scenarios of the regional specificity were demonstrated on awakening: (1) the default-mode and hippocampal networks maintained similar connectivity and spectral power; (2) the sensorimotor network presented reduced connectivity and spectral power; and (3) the thalamus demonstrated substantially enhanced connectivity to the neo-cortex with decreased spectral power.

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Twenty to thirty percent of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) suffer from not only motor disorder, but also symptoms of dementia, named Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). Cognitive deficits in PDD include memory, recognition, and attention. Although patients with PDD show fluctuation of internal attention when taking an attentional test, they perform better when provided with an external cue, indicating that they have normal external attention.

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Study Objectives: Prolonged wakefulness leads to a progressive increase in sleep pressure, reflected in a global increase in slow wave activity (SWA, 0.5-4.5 Hz) in the sleep electroencephalogram (EEG).

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The function of sleep in humans has been investigated using simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings to provide accurate sleep scores with spatial precision. Recent studies have demonstrated that spontaneous brain oscillations and functional connectivity dissociate during nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep; this leads to spontaneous cognitive processes, such as memory consolidation and emotional modulation. However, variations in network connectivity across the sleep stages or between sleep/wake transitions require further elucidation.

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Mobile phones signals are pulse-modulated microwaves, and EEG studies suggest that the extremely low-frequency (ELF) pulse modulation has sleep effects. However, 'talk', 'listen' and 'standby' modes differ in the ELF (2, 8, and 217Hz) spectral components and specific absorption rates, but no sleep study has differentiated these modes. We used a GSM900 mobile phone controlled by a base-station simulator and a test SIM card to simulate these three specific modes, transmitted at 12.

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