n-Butylidenephthalide recovered calcium homeostasis to ameliorate neurodegeneration of motor neurons derived from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis iPSCs.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable neurodegenerative disease that causes muscle atrophy and primarily targets motor neurons (MNs). Approximately 20% of familial ALS cases are caused by gain-of-function mutations in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), leading to MN degeneration and ion channel dysfunction. Previous studies have shown that n-Butylidenephthalide (BP) delays disease progression and prolongs survival in animal models of ALS.

Deep Residual Learning-Based Classification with Identification of Incorrect Predictions and Quantification of Cellularity and Nuclear Morphological Features in Digital Pathological Images of Common Astrocytic Tumors.

Interobserver variations in the pathology of common astrocytic tumors impact diagnosis and subsequent treatment decisions. This study leveraged a residual neural network-50 (ResNet-50) in digital pathological images of diffuse astrocytoma, anaplastic astrocytoma, and glioblastoma to recognize characteristic pathological features and perform classification at the patch and case levels with identification of incorrect predictions. In addition, cellularity and nuclear morphological features, including axis ratio, circularity, entropy, area, irregularity, and perimeter, were quantified via a hybrid task cascade (HTC) framework and compared between different characteristic pathological features with importance weighting.

Engineered Exosomes Containing microRNA-29b-2 and Targeting the Somatostatin Receptor Reduce Presenilin 1 Expression and Decrease the β-Amyloid Accumulation in the Brains of Mice with Alzheimer's Disease.

Purpose: Exosomes are membrane vesicles secreted by various cells and play a crucial role in intercellular communication. They can be excellent delivery vehicles for oligonucleotide drugs, such as microRNAs, due to their high biocompatibility. MicroRNAs have been shown to be more stable when incorporated into exosomes; however, the lack of targeting and immune evasion is still the obstacle to the use of these microRNA-containing nanocarriers in clinical settings.