Publications by authors named "Yong Mei Zhang"

Neuroinflammation is a key factor in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Activated microglia in the central nervous system (CNS) and infiltration of peripheral immune cells contribute to dopaminergic neuron loss. However, the role of peripheral immune responses, particularly triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1), in PD remains unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Fear memory formation has been implicated in fear- and stress-related psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias. Synapse deficiency and microglial activation are common among patients with PTSD, and induced in animal models of fear conditioning. Increasing studies now focus on explaining the specific mechanisms between microglia and synapse deficiency.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Depressive disorders are a significant global issue linked to inflammation, particularly increased after the COVID-19 pandemic, with the JAK-STAT signaling pathway not yet fully explored in this context.
  • A recent analysis suggests that the JAK inhibitor tofacitinib may have potential beyond immune diseases by possibly preventing mood disorders.
  • Research indicates that the JAK-STAT pathway is activated in depressive mouse models, leading to inflammation and synaptic issues, but tofacitinib shows promise in reversing these effects, highlighting its potential for treating depression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Somatostatin (SOM)-expressing neurons in the central lateral amygdala (CeL) are responsible for fear memory learning, but the circuit and molecular mechanisms underlying this biology remain elusive. Here, we found that glutamatergic neurons in the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPB) directly dominated the activity of CeL neurons, and that selectively inhibiting the LPB→CeL pathway suppressed fear memory acquisition. By contrast, inhibiting CeL-projecting glutamatergic neurons in the paraventricular thalamic nucleus (PVT) interfered with consolidation-related processes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: This retrospective cohort study aimed to investigate the composition and diversity of lung microbiota in patients with severe pneumonia and explore its association with short-term prognosis.

Methods: A total of 301 patients diagnosed with severe pneumonia underwent bronchoalveolar lavage fluid metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) testing from February 2022 to January 2024. After applying exclusion criteria, 236 patients were included in the study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of health education based on the transtheoretical model in reducing symptoms of kinesiophobia and enhancing rehabilitation outcomes among elderly patients post-total knee arthroplasty.

Methods: Elderly patients post-knee replacement surgery were randomly divided into a control group, which received standard health education, and an experimental group, which received transtheoretical model-based health education. The intervention commenced on the day after surgery and continued for a duration of six months.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To explore the effect of a video teach-back method on continuous family nursing care of stroke patients.

Methods: Stroke patients hospitalized in our hospital between March 2020 and March 2023 who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into an intervention group ( = 45), who received routine health education plus video teach-back training of caregivers, and a control group ( = 45), who received routine health education only. The effects on nursing-related variables were compared between the two groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Letermovir is a specific inhibitor of cytomegalovirus (CMV) terminase complex. Several studies have reported that letermovir can effectively prevent CMV activation after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). We aimed to identify the efficacy and safety of letermovir prophylaxis for CMV infection after allo-HSCT with a systemic review and meta-analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

One case with ascites and lower limb edema as the initial manifestations was reported.The echocardiography revealed inferior vena cava and right atrial occupation,which combined with increased alpha fetoprotein and imaging examination,suggested liver malignant tumor combined with tumor thrombus of inferior vena cava and right atrium.After targeted therapy combined with immunotherapy,the tumor shrank and alpha fetoprotein decreased significantly,suggesting that the treatment was effective.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Epilepsy is a complex and multifaceted neurological disorder characterized by spontaneous and recurring seizures. It poses significant therapeutic challenges due to its diverse etiology and often-refractory nature. This comprehensive review highlights the pivotal role of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a key metabolic regulator involved in cellular energy homeostasis, which may be a promising therapeutic target for epilepsy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Depression is a global disease with a high prevalence. Here, we examine the role of the circuit from prelimbic mPFC (PrL) to the anterior ventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (avBNST) in depression-like mice through behavioral tests, immunofluorescence, chemogenetics, optogenetics, pharmacology, and fiber photometry. Mice exposed to chronic restraint stress with individual housing displayed depression-like behaviors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Diabetic patients receiving the antidiabetic drug metformin have been observed to exhibit a lower prevalence of anxiety disorders, yet the precise mechanism behind this phenomenon is unclear. In our study, we found that anxiety induces a region-specific reduction in AMPK activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Concurrently, transgenic mice with brain-specific AMPK knockout displayed abnormal anxiety-like behaviors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Astrocytes comprise half of the cells in the central nervous system and play a critical role in maintaining metabolic homeostasis. Metabolic dysfunction in astrocytes has been indicated as the primary cause of neurological diseases, such as depression, Alzheimer's disease, and epilepsy. Although the metabolic functionalities of astrocytes are well known, their relationship to neurological disorders is poorly understood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Population aging is a social problem that is being faced in most countries.

Objective: To apply the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) for an early warning on the vital signs and consciousness of elderly patients who are hospitalized in the gastrointestinal surgical department and to provide a reference for early detection of changes in illness severity in elderly patients by studying the correlation between NEWS value and changes in illness severity.

Methods: We enrolled 528 elderly patients who were hospitalized in the gastrointestinal surgical department of a tertiary grade A hospital in Guizhou Province between June 2020 and May 2021, to analyze how NEWS max value correlates with illness severity and obtain the optimal NEWS cutoff value for both potentially critically ill and critically ill elderly patients using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Early-life stress (ELS) is thought to cause the development of visceral pain disorders. While some individuals are vulnerable to visceral pain, others are resilient, but the intrinsic circuit and molecular mechanisms involved remain largely unclear. Herein, we demonstrate that inbred mice subjected to maternal separation (MS) could be separated into susceptible and resilient subpopulations by visceral hypersensitivity evaluation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aims: The basolateral amygdala (BLA) plays an integral role in anxiety disorders (such as post traumatic stress disorder) stem from dysregulated fear memory. The excitability of glutamatergic neurons in the BLA correlates with fear memory, and the afterhyperpolarization current (I ) mediated by small-conductance calcium-activated potassium channel subtype 2 (SK2) dominates the excitability of glutamatergicneurons. This study aimed to explore the effect of MPP2 interacts with SK2 in the excitability of glutamatergic neurons in the BLA and the extinction of conditioned fear in mice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This work reports the isolation of seven undescribed polyphenolic glycosides (1-7) together with fourteen known compounds (8-21) from the fruit of Lycium ruthenicum Murray. The structures of the undescribed compounds were identified based on comprehensive spectroscopic methods including IR, HRESIMS, NMR and ECD, and chemical hydrolysis. Compounds 1-3 possess an unusual four-membered ring, while 11-15 were firstly isolated from this fruit.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The Citrullus genus has significant genetic diversity that can enhance watermelon breeding efforts, with a newly presented pan-genome based on extensive resequencing data.
  • A total of 8795 genes exhibit presence/absence variations (PAVs), indicating that many genes have been selected during the domestication process, including favorable and unfavorable genes.
  • The research identified key genes linked to flesh color and carotenoid accumulation, which could be valuable for developing different watermelon varieties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic condition with a high recurrence rate. To date, the clinical treatment of IBD mainly focuses on inflammation and gastrointestinal symptoms while ignoring the accompanying visceral pain, anxiety, depression, and other emotional symptoms. Evidence is accumulating that bi-directional communication between the gut and the brain is indispensable in the pathophysiology of IBD and its comorbidities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Borophene has been reported as the latest very promising 2D material. We theoretically investigate the thermal radiation of β borophene. β borophene has been composited on Ag substrate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lycium barbarum (LB) is a famous traditional Chinese medicinal plant as well as food supplement possessing various pharmacological functions such as anti-aging and antioxidant effects. The Parkinson's disease (PD)-related kinase Pink1 plays vital role in maintaining the neuron cell homeostasis, having been recognized as a potential target for the development of anti-PD drugs. In this work, the neuroprotective effects of methanol extract of LB fruit (LBFE) were investigated using a Drosophila PD model (PINK1) and a human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell line.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The rhizome tuber known as 'Bai Fuzi' in China has been used in traditional medicine for treating neurological diseases, especially Parkinson's disease (PD).
  • Researchers isolated nineteen compounds from Bai Fuzi, among which four (berberine, nicotinamide, rutin, and 5-caffeoylquinic acid) were reported for the first time.
  • Six of these compounds showed moderate inhibition of the MAO-B enzyme, and two exhibited significant protective effects in a PD cell model, indicating Bai Fuzi's potential as an anti-PD herb in traditional Chinese medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Opioids are the frontline analgesics for managing various types of pain. Paradoxically, repeated use of opioid analgesics may cause an exacerbated pain state known as opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH), which significantly contributes to dose escalation and consequently opioid overdose. Neuronal malplasticity in pain circuits has been the predominant proposed mechanism of OIH expression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Electronic band structure and optical conductivity of single-layer graphene could be altered by applied uniaxial strain. Valley and space inversion symmetries are broken. Dirac cones are deformed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aims: Visceral hypersensitivity in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is widespread, but effective therapies for it remain elusive. As a canonical anti-inflammatory protein, suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) reportedly relays exchange protein 1 directly activated by cAMP (Epac1) signaling and inhibits the intracellular response to inflammatory cytokines. Despite the inhibitory effect of SOCS3 on the pro-inflammatory response and neuroinflammation in PVN, the systematic investigation of Epac1-SOCS3 signaling involved in visceral hypersensitivity remains unknown.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF