Publications by authors named "Qi-Yan Cai"

Patients diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma (STS) often present at intermediate to advanced stages, with inherently limited therapeutic options available. There is an urgent need to identify novel therapeutic targets. In this study, by screening STS data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) databases, KIFC1 is identified as a potential biomarker and a promising therapeutic target for STS.

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Increasing evidence has demonstrated that in addition to dysfunction of neuronal circuitry, oligodendroglial dysfunction and/or disruption of white matter integrity are found in the brains of patients with schizophrenia. DNA methylation, a well-established risk factor for schizophrenia, has been demonstrated to cause neuronal dysfunction; however, whether dysregulation of DNA methylation contributes to oligodendroglial/myelin deficits in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia remains unclear. In the present study, by using L-methionine-treated mice, we confirmed that mice with DNA hypermethylation exhibited an anxious phenotype, impaired sociability, and sensorimotor gating deficits.

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Demyelination occurs widely in neurodegenerative diseases. Progesterone has neuroprotective effects, is known to reduce the clinical scores and the inflammatory response. Progesterone also promotes remyelination in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and cuprizone-induced demyelinating brain.

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Remyelination of the central nervous system in multiple sclerosis patients is often incomplete. Remyelination depends on normal oligodendrogenesis and the differentiation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPC) into mature oligodendrocytes (OL). Inhibitor of DNA binding (ID), a transcription factor, is thought to inhibit oligodendrogenesis and the differentiation of OPC.

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The mechanisms underlying oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination are still unclear, but understanding them will be critical for the development of therapies for multiple sclerosis. Inhibitor of DNA binding 2 (Id2) is a transcription factor thought to inhibit oligodendrocyte differentiation, however, it is not known whether the developmental changes and subcellular localization of Id2 are related to myelination. Therefore, we investigated the developmental changes in and the subcellular localization of Id2 immunoreactivity in the rat Corpus callosum, at post-natal developmental stages P0, P7, P14, P21, P42 and P90, by immunohistochemistry.

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Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion is thought to induce white matter lesions (WMLs) with oligodendrocyte (OLG) death and myelin breakdown. Although apoptosis is believed to be involved in the pathologic process of WMLs, effective therapies for such remain lacking. In the present study, we investigated whether catalpol, an iridoid glycoside, could act on oligodendrocytes (OLGs) and myelin sheaths in a rat chronic hypoperfusion model, and whether transcription factor cAMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation is involved in the resulting neuroprotection.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common demyelination disease of central nervous system (CNS). The deterioration of the disease is characterized by the axonal loss with defective remyelination. Progesterone can promote the remyelination, but whether it exerts beneficial effect on treatment of MS still remains unclear.

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Engrailed-1 (En-1) is a transcription factor involved in the development of the midbrain/hindbrain during mouse early embryogenesis. Although En-1 is expressed from embryogenesis to adulthood, there has been no detailed description of its expression during late mouse embryonic development. Here we report the expression pattern of En-1 in the mouse embryo from E10.

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Alpha-synuclein (alpha-SYN) is one of the major components of intracellular fibrillary aggregates in the brains of a subset of neurodegenerative disorders. Although alpha-SYN expression has been found in developing mouse brain, a detailed distribution during mouse-embryonic development has not been made. Here we describe the expression pattern of alpha-SYN during the development of mice from E9.

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The tumor suppressor phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) is a protein and lipid phosphatase. PTEN mutations have been associated with a large number of human cancers. To understand the physiological role of PTEN in the brain and its relationship to Akt in ischemic injury, we first investigated the localization of PTEN immunoreactivity in the brains of normal adult rats using immunohistochemistry.

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