ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
October 2024
Interleukin 6 (IL-6), produced by immune cells, is crucial in promoting T cell trafficking to infection and inflammation sites, influencing various physiological and pathological processes. Concentrations of IL-6 and other cytokines and chemokines can influence T cell differentiation and activation. Understanding the dual faces of IL-6 within the tumor microenvironment is crucial to understanding its role.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe sedative and hypnotic properties of 5,7,3',4',5'-pentamethoxyflavone (PMF), a monomer extracted from the leaves of Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack, have been reported. However, the role of PMFs in the development of anxiety remains uncertain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroglia continuously remodel synapses, which are embedded in the extracellular matrix (ECM). However, the mechanisms, which govern this process remain elusive. To investigate the influence of the neural ECM in synaptic remodeling by microglia, we disrupted ECM integrity by injection of chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) into the retrosplenial cortex of healthy adult mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: Animals exhibit physiological changes designed to eliminate the perceived danger, provoking similar symptoms of fever. However, a high-grade fever indicates poor clinical outcomes. Caspase11 (Casp11) is involved in many inflammatory diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Hyperphosphorylation and aggregation of the microtubule-associated protein tau cause the development of tauopathies, such as Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). We recently uncovered a causal link between constitutive serotonin receptor 7 (5-HT7R) activity and pathological tau aggregation. Here, we evaluated 5-HT7R inverse agonists as novel drugs in the treatment of tauopathies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDysregulated cortical expression of the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and deficits of its associated polysialic acid (polySia) have been found in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. However, the functional role of polySia in cortical synaptic plasticity remains poorly understood. Here, we show that acute enzymatic removal of polySia in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) slices leads to increased transmission mediated by the GluN1/GluN2B subtype of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), increased NMDAR-mediated extrasynaptic tonic currents, and impaired long-term potentiation (LTP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRemodeling of synapses by microglia is essential for synaptic plasticity in the brain. However, during neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases, microglia can induce excessive synaptic loss, although the precise underlying mechanisms are unknown. To directly observe microglia-synapse interactions under inflammatory conditions, we performed in vivo two-photon time-lapse imaging of microglia-synapse interactions after bacterial lipopolysaccharide administration to model systemic inflammation, or after inoculation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain extracts to model disease-associated neuroinflammatory microglial response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The interactions between tumor cells and the host immune system play a crucial role in lung cancer progression and resistance to treatment. The alterations of EGFR signaling have the potential to produce an ineffective tumor-associated immune microenvironment by upregulating a series of immune suppressors, including inhibitory immune checkpoints, immunosuppressive cells, and cytokines. Elevated Heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF) expression, one EGFR ligand correlated with higher histology grading, worse patient prognosis, and lower overall survival rate, acts as a chemotactic factor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDysregulation of dopaminergic transmission induced by the HIV-1 transactivator of transcription (Tat) has been implicated as a central factor in the development of HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). We have demonstrated that the tyrosine470 residue of the human dopamine transporter (hDAT) plays a critical role in Tat-hDAT interaction. Based on the computational modeling predictions, the present study sought to examine the mutational effects of the tyrosine467 residue of the human norepinephrine transporter (hNET), a corresponding residue of the hDAT tyrosine470, on Tat-induced inhibition of reuptake of dopamine through the hNET.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is a link between exposure to air pollution and the increased prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and declining pulmonary function, but the association with O desaturation during exercise in COPD patients with emphysema is unclear. Our aims were to estimate the prevalence of O desaturation during exercise in patients with COPD, and determine the association of exposure to air pollution with exercise-induced desaturation (EID), the degree of emphysema, and dynamic hyperinflation (DH).
Methods: We assessed the effects of 10-year prior to the HRCT assessment and 7 days prior to the six-minute walking test exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of < 10 µm (PM) or of < 2.
Phage is a promising therapeutic agent for treating antibiotic resistant bacteria. However, in the process of treatment, phage may be cleared by the immune system and cleaved by protease, which could affect the efficacy of phage. In order to solve the above problems, phage encapsulation is usually adopted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAberrant activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR/ERBB1) by erythroblastic leukemia viral oncogene homolog (ERBB) ligands contributes to various tumor malignancies, including lung cancer and colorectal cancer (CRC). Epiregulin (EREG) is one of the EGFR ligands and is low expressed in most normal tissues. Elevated EREG in various cancers mainly activates EGFR signaling pathways and promotes cancer progression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe retrosplenial cortex (RSC) has diverse functional inputs and is engaged by various sensory, spatial, and associative learning tasks. We examine how multiple functional aspects are integrated on the single-cell level in the RSC and how the encoding of task-related parameters changes across learning. Using a visuospatial context discrimination paradigm and two-photon calcium imaging in behaving mice, a large proportion of dysgranular RSC neurons was found to encode multiple task-related dimensions while forming context-value associations across learning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHIV-1 transactivator of transcription (Tat) has a great impact on the development of HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorders through disrupting dopamine transmission. This study determined the mutational effects of human dopamine transporter (hDAT) on basal and Tat-induced inhibition of dopamine transport. Compared to wild-type hDAT, the maximal velocity (V) of [H]dopamine uptake was decreased in D381L and Y88F/D206L/H547A, increased in D206L/H547A, and unaltered in D206L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), microglia are transformed to an activated phenotype with thickened and retracted processes, migrate to the site of amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques, and proliferate. In the early stages of AD, it is still poorly understood whether the microglial function is altered and which factors may regulate these changes. Here, we focused on studying microglia in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) in 3- to 4-month-old 5xFAD mice as a transgenic mouse model of AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh dynamic range (HDR) has wide applications involving intelligent vision sensing which includes enhanced electronic imaging, smart surveillance, self-driving cars, intelligent medical diagnosis, etc. Exposure fusion is an essential HDR technique which fuses different exposures of the same scene into an HDR-like image. However, determining the appropriate fusion weights is difficult because each differently exposed image only contains a subset of the scene's details.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo-photon imaging of fluorescently labeled microglia provides a direct approach to measure motility of microglial processes as a readout of microglial function that is crucial in the context of neurodegenerative diseases, as well as to understand the neuroinflammatory response to implanted substrates and brain-computer interfaces. In this longitudinal study, we quantified surveilling and photodamage-directed microglial processes motility in both acute and chronic cranial window preparations and compared the motility under isoflurane and ketamine anesthesia to an awake condition in the same animal. The isoflurane anesthesia increased the length of surveilling microglial processes in both acute and chronic preparations, while ketamine increased the number of microglial branches in acute preparation only.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDysregulation of dopaminergic system induced by HIV-1 Tat protein-mediated direct inhibition of the dopamine transporter (DAT) has been implicated as a mediating factor of HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorders. We have reported that single point mutations on human DAT (hDAT) at tyrosine88 (Y88F), lysine92 (K92M), and histidine547 (H547A) differentially regulate basal dopamine uptake but diminish Tat-induced inhibition of dopamine uptake by changing dopamine transport process. This study evaluated the effects of double (Y88F/H547A) and triple (Y88F/K92M/H547A) mutations on basal dopamine uptake, Tat-induced inhibition of DAT function, and dynamic transport process.
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