COVID-19 vicarious traumatization links functional connectome to general distress.

As characterized by repeated exposure of others' trauma, vicarious traumatization is a common negative psychological reaction during the COVID-19 pandemic and plays a crucial role in the development of general mental distress. This study aims to identify functional connectome that encodes individual variations of pandemic-related vicarious traumatization and reveal the underlying brain-vicarious traumatization mechanism in predicting general distress. The eligible subjects were 105 general university students (60 females, aged from 19 to 27 years) undergoing brain MRI scanning and baseline behavioral tests (October 2019 to January 2020), whom were re-contacted for COVID-related vicarious traumatization measurement (February to April 2020) and follow-up general distress evaluation (March to April 2021).

Brain morphometric features predict medication response in youth with bipolar disorder: a prospective randomized clinical trial.

Background: Identification of treatment-specific predictors of drug therapies for bipolar disorder (BD) is important because only about half of individuals respond to any specific medication. However, medication response in pediatric BD is variable and not well predicted by clinical characteristics.

Methods: A total of 121 youth with early course BD (acute manic/mixed episode) were prospectively recruited and randomized to 6 weeks of double-blind treatment with quetiapine ( = 71) or lithium ( = 50).

Using graph convolutional network to characterize individuals with major depressive disorder across multiple imaging sites.

Background: Establishing objective and quantitative neuroimaging biomarkers at individual level can assist in early and accurate diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, most previous studies using machine learning to identify MDD were based on small sample size and did not account for the brain connectome that is associated with the pathophysiology of MDD. Here, we addressed these limitations by applying graph convolutional network (GCN) in a large multi-site MDD dataset.

Disrupted Brain Functional Network Topology in Essential Tremor Patients With Poor Sleep Quality.

Sleep disturbances, especially poor quality of sleep (QoS), are common among essential tremor (ET) patients and may have adverse effects on their quality of life, but the etiology driving the poor QoS in these individuals remains inadequately understood. Few data are available on the neuroimaging alterations of ET with poor QoS. Thirty-eight ET patients with poor QoS (SleET), 48 ET patients with normal QoS (NorET), and 80 healthy controls (HCs) participated in this study.

Pretreatment topological disruptions of whole-brain networks exist in childhood absence epilepsy: A resting-state EEG-fMRI study.

Purpose: Childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) is associated with functional changes in specific brain regions and connections. However, little is known about the topological properties of the functional brain connectome in drug naive CAE.

Methods: We adopted the resting-state EEG-fMRI and graph theoretic approach to investigate both local and global brain functional network properties of drug naive CAE during interictal resting state compared with healthy control.

Connectome gradient dysfunction in major depression and its association with gene expression profiles and treatment outcomes.

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) exhibit concurrent deficits in both sensory and higher-order cognitive processing. Connectome studies have suggested a principal primary-to-transmodal gradient in functional brain networks, supporting the spectrum from sensation to cognition. However, whether this gradient structure is disrupted in patients with MDD and how this disruption associates with gene expression profiles and treatment outcome remain unknown.

A Dendritic Polymer-Based Nanosystem Mediates Drug Penetration and Irreversible Endoplasmic Reticulum Stresses in Tumor via Neighboring Effect.

Nanoparticles (NPs)-based cancer therapeutics are generally impeded by poor drug penetration into solid tumors due to their dense tumor extracellular matrix (ECM). Herein, pH/redox-responsive dendritic polymer-based NPs are developed to amplify the neighboring effect for improving drug penetration and driving cell apoptosis via combination therapy. Pyropheophorbide a (Ppa) is conjugated with PEGylated dendritic peptides via disulfide bonds and doxorubicin (DOX) encapsulated in the conjugate to construct dual-responsive NPs, PDPP@D.

PEGylated amphiphilic polymeric manganese(II) complexes as magnetic resonance angiographic agents.

Currently, the most commonly used clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, Gd(III) chelates, have been found to be associated with nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) in renally compromised patients. Toxicity concerns related to Gd(III)-based agents prompted intensive research toward the development of safe, efficient, and long-cycle non-Gd contrast agents. Herein, three amphiphilic polymeric manganese (Mn) ligands (mPEG-P(L-a-HMDI)-mPEG, mPEG-P(L-a-HMDI)-mPEG and mPEG-P(L-a-HMDI)-mPEG) were synthesized, and then end-capped respectively with different molecular weights of polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether (mPEG 1 kD, 2 kD and 4 kD) to obtain amphiphilic polymer Mn ligands.

Detecting brain lesions in suspected acute ischemic stroke with CT-based synthetic MRI using generative adversarial networks.

Background: Difficulties in detecting brain lesions in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) have convinced researchers to use computed tomography (CT) to scan for and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to search for these lesions. This work aimed to develop a generative adversarial network (GAN) model for CT-to-MR image synthesis and evaluate reader performance with synthetic MRI (syn-MRI) in detecting brain lesions in suspected patients.

Methods: Patients with primarily suspected AIS were randomly assigned to the training (n=140) or testing (n=53) set.

A subtype of institutionalized patients with schizophrenia characterized by pronounced subcortical and cognitive deficits.

Some patients with schizophrenia have severe cognitive impairment and functional deficits that require long-term institutional care. The patterns of brain-behavior alterations in these individuals, and their differences from patients living successfully in the community, remain poorly understood. Previous cognition-based studies for stratifying schizophrenia patients highlight the importance of subcortical structures in the context of illness heterogeneity.

Anticancer nanomedicines harnessing tumor microenvironmental components.

Introduction: Small-molecular drugs are extensively used in cancer therapy, while they have issues of nonspecific distribution and consequent side effects. Nanomedicines that incorporate chemotherapeutic drugs have been developed to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of these drugs and reduce their side effects. One of the promising strategies is to prepare nanomedicines by harnessing the unique tumor microenvironment (TME).

Dual stimuli-responsive dendronized prodrug derived from poly(oligo-(ethylene glycol) methacrylate)-based copolymers for enhanced anti-cancer therapeutic effect.

In this study, we developed an enzyme- and pH-responsive dendronized poly(oligo-(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) (pOEGMA)-doxorubicin (DOX) polymeric prodrug, which combined the pOEGMA structure with a degradable peptide dendron. The introduction of the dendron in the prodrug hindered the entanglement of brush oligo-(ethylene glycol) (OEG) chains, allowed the prodrug to possess dual stimuli-responsiveness, and mediated self-assembly of the polymeric prodrug to form stable nanoparticles (NPs). Brush conformation of polyethylene glycol (PEG) side chains endowed the NPs with long-term circulation with a half-life of 16.

Patterns of a structural covariance network associated with dispositional optimism during late adolescence.

Dispositional optimism (hereinafter, optimism), as a vital character strength, reflects the tendency to hold generalized positive expectancies for future outcomes. A great number of studies have consistently shown the importance of optimism to a spectrum of physical and mental health outcomes. However, less attention has been given to the intrinsic neurodevelopmental patterns associated with interindividual differences in optimism.

Characterizing multiscale modular structures in medication-free obsessive-compulsive disorder patients with no comorbidity.

Brain networks exhibit signatures of modular structure, which maintains a fine trade-off between wiring cost and efficiency of information transmission. Alterations in modular structure have been found in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, previous studies were focused on a single scale (i.

A Transformable Amphiphilic and Block Polymer-Dendron Conjugate for Enhanced Tumor Penetration and Retention with Cellular Homeostasis Perturbation via Membrane Flow.

Efficient penetration and retention of therapeutic agents in tumor tissues can be realized through rational design of drug delivery systems. Herein, a polymer-dendron conjugate, POEGMA-b-p(GFLG-Dendron-Ppa) (GFLG-DP), is presented, which allows a cathepsin-B-triggered stealthy-to-sticky structural transformation. The compositions and ratios are optimized through dissipative particle dynamics simulations.

Cortical thickness abnormalities in patients with first episode psychosis: a meta-analysis of psychoradiologic studies and replication in an independent sample.

Background: Abnormalities of cortical thickness (CTh) in patients with their first episode psychosis (FEP) have been frequently reported, but findings are inconsistent.

Objective: To define the most consistent CTh changes in patients with FEP by meta-analysis of published whole-brain studies.

Methods: The meta-analysis used seed-based d mapping (SDM) software to obtain the most prominent regional CTh changes in FEP, and meta-regression analyses to explore the effects of demographics and clinical characteristics.

Abnormal resting-state functional connectivity in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) displays widespread disruption across brain regions revealed by resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with inconsistent results between studies. We performed a systematic review of 47 seed-based rsFC studies (1863 patients; 1795 healthy controls) to explore brain intrinsic connectivity alterations. Quantitative coordinate-based meta-analysis was conducted for seed regions in the striatum (putamen, caudate, nucleus accumbens [Nac]), thalamus, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) because there were an adequate number of studies.

Nucleolar RNA in action: Ultrastructure revealed during protein translation through a terpyridyl manganese(II) complex.

Nucleolar RNA stored within the interphase nucleus offers a targetable site for processing ribosomal RNAs that can significantly impact the synthesis of cytosolic protein. Nevertheless, information regarding nucleolus ultrastructure is still largely limited to observations from electron microscopy, while its interior information including the correlation between nucleolar RNA and ribosomes remains to be elucidated. In this work, we designed a highly charged terpyridyl manganese(II) complex which could rapidly penetrate into live cell nucleus and selectively 'light up' nucleolar RNA.

GSH-sensitive polymeric prodrug: Synthesis and loading with photosensitizers as nanoscale chemo-photodynamic anti-cancer nanomedicine.

Precisely delivering combinational therapeutic agents has become a crucial challenge for anti-tumor treatment. In this study, a novel redox-responsive polymeric prodrug (molecular weight, MW: 93.5 kDa) was produced by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization.

Impaired Topographic Organization in Patients With Idiopathic Blepharospasm.

Idiopathic blepharospasm (BSP) is a common adult-onset focal dystonia. Neuroimaging technology can be used to visualize functional and microstructural changes of the whole brain. We used resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and graph theoretical analysis to explore the functional connectome in patients with BSP.

Pretreatment Alterations and Acute Medication Treatment Effects on Brain Task-Related Functional Connectivity in Youth With Bipolar Disorder: A Neuroimaging Randomized Clinical Trial.

Objective: Disruptions in cognition are a clinically significant feature of bipolar disorder (BD). The effects of different treatments on these deficits and the brain systems that support them remain to be established.

Method: A continuous performance test was administered to 55 healthy controls and 71 acutely ill youths with mixed/manic BD to assess vigilance and working memory during task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.

Brain functional network abnormalities in parkinson's disease with mild cognitive impairment.

Mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD-M) is related to a high risk of dementia. This study explored the whole-brain functional networks in early-stage PD-M. Forty-one patients with PD classified as cognitively normal (PD-N, n = 17) and PD-M (n = 24) and 24 demographically matched healthy controls (HC) underwent clinical and neuropsychological evaluations and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Structural and functional deficits and couplings in the cortico-striato-thalamo-cerebellar circuitry in social anxiety disorder.

Although functional and structural abnormalities in brain regions involved in the neurobiology of fear and anxiety have been observed in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD), the findings have been heterogeneous due to small sample sizes, demographic confounders, and methodological differences. Besides, multimodal neuroimaging studies on structural-functional deficits and couplings are rather scarce. Herein, we aimed to explore functional network anomalies in brain regions with structural deficits and the effects of structure-function couplings on the SAD diagnosis.

Data-driven clustering differentiates subtypes of major depressive disorder with distinct brain connectivity and symptom features.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a clinically and biologically heterogeneous syndrome. Identifying discrete subtypes of illness with distinguishing neurobiological substrates and clinical features is a promising strategy for guiding personalised therapeutics.

Aims: This study aimed to identify depression subtypes with correlated patterns of functional network connectivity and clinical symptoms by clustering patients according to a weighted linear combination of both features in a relatively large, medication-naïve depression sample.

Age-associated network controllability changes in first episode drug-naïve schizophrenia.

Background: Recent neuroimaging studies revealed dysregulated neurodevelopmental, or/and neurodegenerative trajectories of both structural and functional connections in schizophrenia. However, how the alterations in the brain's structural connectivity lead to dynamic function changes in schizophrenia with age remains poorly understood.

Methods: Combining structural magnetic resonance imaging and a network control theory approach, the white matter network controllability metric (average controllability) was mapped from age 16 to 60 years in 175 drug-naïve schizophrenia patients and 155 matched healthy controls.