Promoting salutogenic pathways to health through complementary and integrative health approaches.

Health restoration and disease prevention are important strategies to achieve health and well-being. This provides a conceptual overview of the key concepts of salutogenesis (health restoration), chronic stress, resilience, and emotional well-being, and describes how they are distinct and interrelated. We posit, and demonstrate through scientific evidence, that complementary and integrative health approaches, including mind and body interventions, can be used to mitigate the effects of chronic stress and promote salutogenic pathways.

NIH Music-Based Intervention Toolkit: Music-Based Interventions for Brain Disorders of Aging.

Music-based interventions (MBIs) show promise for managing symptoms of various brain disorders. To fully realize the potential of MBIs and dispel the outdated misconception that MBIs are rooted in soft science, the NIH is promoting rigorously designed, well-powered MBI clinical trials. The pressing need of guidelines for scientifically rigorous studies with enhanced data collection brought together the Renée Fleming Foundation, the Foundation for the NIH, the Trans-NIH Music and Health Working Group, and an interdisciplinary scientific expert panel to create the NIH MBI Toolkit for research on music and health across the lifespan.

Music and Brain Circuitry: Strategies for Strengthening Evidence-Based Research for Music-Based Interventions.

The neuroscience of music and music-based interventions (MBIs) is a fascinating but challenging research field. While music is a ubiquitous component of every human society, MBIs may encompass listening to music, performing music, music-based movement, undergoing music education and training, or receiving treatment from music therapists. Unraveling the brain circuits activated and influenced by MBIs may help us gain better understanding of the therapeutic and educational values of MBIs by gathering strong research evidence.

The Emerging Science of Interoception: Sensing, Integrating, Interpreting, and Regulating Signals within the Self.

Interoception refers to the representation of the internal states of an organism, and includes the processes by which it senses, interprets, integrates, and regulates signals from within itself. This review presents a unified research framework and attempts to offer definitions for key terms to describe the processes involved in interoception. We elaborate on these definitions through illustrative research findings, and provide brief overviews of central aspects of interoception, including the anatomy and function of neural and non-neural pathways, diseases and disorders, manipulations and interventions, and predictive modeling.

[Prevention and Treatment of Cancer Therapeutics-related Cardiac Dysfunction].

Cancer therapeutics-related cardiac dysfunction(CTRCD)is receiving more attention.Risk factors assessment before cancer therapy,cardiac function monitoring during and after cancer therapy,and early detection and treatment of myocardial injury are key to preventing clinical heart failure.The incidence and severity of cardiotoxicity can be reduced by measures such as reducing drug dose,adjusting administration route,and using low toxic drugs.

Aging, the Central Nervous System, and Mobility in Older Adults: Interventions.

Background: Research suggests that the central nervous system (CNS) and mobility are closely linked. CNS-mediated mobility impairment may represent a potentially new and prevalent syndrome within the older adult populations. Interventions targeting this group may have the potential to improve mobility and cognition and prevent disability.

Aging, the Central Nervous System, and Mobility in Older Adults: Neural Mechanisms of Mobility Impairment.

Background: Mobility is crucial for successful aging and is impaired in many older adults. We know very little about the subtle, subclinical age-related changes in the central nervous system (CNS) that mediate mobility impairment.

Methods: A conference series focused on aging, the CNS, and mobility was launched.

Aging, the central nervous system, and mobility.

Background: Mobility limitations are common and hazardous in community-dwelling older adults but are largely understudied, particularly regarding the role of the central nervous system (CNS). This has limited development of clearly defined pathophysiology, clinical terminology, and effective treatments. Understanding how changes in the CNS contribute to mobility limitations has the potential to inform future intervention studies.

Personalized medicine and opioid analgesic prescribing for chronic pain: opportunities and challenges.

Unlabelled: Use of opioid analgesics for pain management has increased dramatically over the past decade, with corresponding increases in negative sequelae including overdose and death. There is currently no well-validated objective means of accurately identifying patients likely to experience good analgesia with low side effects and abuse risk prior to initiating opioid therapy. This paper discusses the concept of data-based personalized prescribing of opioid analgesics as a means to achieve this goal.

Improving the pharmacologic management of pain in older adults: identifying the research gaps and methods to address them.

Objective: There has been a growing recognition of the need for better pharmacologic management of chronic pain among older adults. To address this need, the National Institutes of Health Pain Consortium sponsored an "Expert Panel Discussion on the Pharmacological Management of Chronic Pain in Older Adults" conference in September 2010 to identify research gaps and strategies to address them. Specific emphasis was placed on ascertaining gaps regarding use of opioid and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications because of continued uncertainties regarding their risks and benefits.

Harnessing neuroplasticity for clinical applications.

Neuroplasticity can be defined as the ability of the nervous system to respond to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganizing its structure, function and connections. Major advances in the understanding of neuroplasticity have to date yielded few established interventions. To advance the translation of neuroplasticity research towards clinical applications, the National Institutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research sponsored a workshop in 2009.

Double-balloon enteroscopy for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding: a single center experience in China.

Aim: To evaluate the diagnostic value of double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE) for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB).

Methods: The data about 75 OGIB patients who underwent DBE in January 2007-June 2009 in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed.

Results: DBE was successfully performed in all 75 patients without complication.

Brain-specific phosphorylation of MeCP2 regulates activity-dependent Bdnf transcription, dendritic growth, and spine maturation.

Mutations or duplications in MECP2 cause Rett and Rett-like syndromes, neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by mental retardation, motor dysfunction, and autistic behaviors. MeCP2 is expressed in many mammalian tissues and functions as a global repressor of transcription; however, the molecular mechanisms by which MeCP2 dysfunction leads to the neural-specific phenotypes of RTT remain poorly understood. Here, we show that neuronal activity and subsequent calcium influx trigger the de novo phosphorylation of MeCP2 at serine 421 (S421) by a CaMKII-dependent mechanism.

Proteomic analysis of cellular signaling.

Protein phosphorylation events are key regulators of cellular signaling processes. In the era of functional genomics, rational drug design programs demand large-scale high-throughput analysis of signal transduction cascades. Significant improvements in the area of mass spectrometry-based proteomics have provided exciting opportunities for rapid progress toward global protein phosphorylation analysis.

BDNF regulates the translation of a select group of mRNAs by a mammalian target of rapamycin-phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-dependent pathway during neuronal development.

Local regulation of mRNA translation plays an important role in axon guidance, synaptic development, and neuronal plasticity. Little is known, however, regarding the mechanisms that control translation in neurons, and only a few mRNAs have been identified that are locally translated within axon and dendrites. Using Affymetrix gene arrays to identify mRNAs that are newly associated with polysomes after exposure to BDNF, we identified subsets of mRNAs for which translation is enhanced in neurons at different developmental stages.

Derepression of BDNF transcription involves calcium-dependent phosphorylation of MeCP2.

Mutations in MeCP2, which encodes a protein that has been proposed to function as a global transcriptional repressor, are the cause of Rett syndrome (RT T), an X-linked progressive neurological disorder. Although the selective inactivation of MeCP2 in neurons is sufficient to confer a Rett-like phenotype in mice, the specific functions of MeCP2 in postmitotic neurons are not known. We find that MeCP2 binds selectively to BDNF promoter III and functions to repress expression of the BDNF gene.

Upstream stimulatory factors are mediators of Ca2+-responsive transcription in neurons.

To identify molecular mechanisms that control activity-dependent gene expression in the CNS, we have characterized the factors that mediate activity-dependent transcription of BDNF promoter III. We report the identification of a Ca(2+)-responsive E-box element, CaRE2, within BDNF promoter III that binds upstream stimulatory factors 1 and 2 (USF1/2) and show that USFs are required for the activation of CaRE2-dependent transcription from BDNF promoter III. We find that the transcriptional activity of the USFs is regulated by Ca(2+)-activated signaling pathways in neurons and that the USFs bind to the promoters of a number of neuronal activity-regulated genes in vivo.

A calcium-responsive transcription factor, CaRF, that regulates neuronal activity-dependent expression of BDNF.

Transcription of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene is regulated in a calcium- and neuron-selective manner; however, the mechanisms that underlie this selectivity are not known. We have characterized a new calcium-response element, CaRE1, that is required for activity-dependent transcription of BDNF exon III and have cloned a transcription factor, CaRF, that activates transcription from BDNF promoter III in a CaRE1-dependent manner. The transcriptional activity of CaRF is regulated in a calcium- and neuron-selective manner, suggesting that CaRF may confer selectivity upon the activity-dependent induction of BDNF exon III expression.