Exploring the Kidney-Brain Crosstalk: Biomarkers for Early Detection of Kidney Injury-Related Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: The phenomenon of "kidney-brain crosstalk" has stimulated scholarly inquiry into the correlations between kidney injury (KI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nonetheless, the precise interactions and shared mechanisms between KI and AD have yet to be fully investigated. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the link between KI and AD, with a specific focus on identifying diagnostic biomarkers for KI-related AD.

Exploring methodological frontiers in laminar fMRI.

This review examines the methodological challenges and advancements in laminar functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). With the advent of ultra-high-field MRI scanners, laminar fMRI has become pivotal in elucidating the intricate micro-architectures and functionalities of the human brain at a mesoscopic scale. Despite its profound potential, laminar fMRI faces significant challenges such as signal loss at high spatial resolution, limited specificity to laminar signatures, complex layer-specific analysis, the necessity for precise anatomical alignment, and prolonged acquisition times.

Integrated network pharmacology, bioinformatics, and experiment analysis to decipher the molecular mechanism of Salidroside on Gastric cancer via targeting NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy.

Gastric cancer (GC) is a highly aggressive and heterogeneous malignancy. The process of ferroptosis regulates tumor growth and represents a promising therapeutic target for GCs. Despite Salidroside (Sal) being able to regulate ferroptosis in a variety of diseases, there are still limited reports on its therapeutic effects and potential targets in treating GC.

Synthesizing network pharmacology, bioinformatics, and in vitro experimental verification to screen candidate targets of Salidroside for mitigating Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurological disorder leading to cognitive deficits. Salidroside (Sal), a primary bioactive ingredient extracted from the roots of Rhodiola rosea L., has potent neuroprotective effects in AD.

Impact of intra-patient variability of tacrolimus on allograft function and CD4 + /CD8 + ratio in kidney transplant recipients: a retrospective single-center study.

Background: Tacrolimus is a critical component of immunosuppressive therapy for kidney transplant recipients. Intra-patient variation (IPV) of tacrolimus levels affects the function of transplanted kidney.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the impact of tacrolimus IPV on kidney function, examine its association with post-transplant duration, and assess its effect on the immune status of transplant recipients.

Layer-specific, retinotopically-diffuse modulation in human visual cortex in response to viewing emotionally expressive faces.

Viewing faces that are perceived as emotionally expressive evokes enhanced neural responses in multiple brain regions, a phenomenon thought to depend critically on the amygdala. This emotion-related modulation is evident even in primary visual cortex (V1), providing a potential neural substrate by which emotionally salient stimuli can affect perception. How does emotional valence information, computed in the amygdala, reach V1? Here we use high-resolution functional MRI to investigate the layer profile and retinotopic distribution of neural activity specific to emotional facial expressions.

Salidroside Ameliorates Depression by Suppressing NLRP3-Mediated Pyroptosis P2X7/NF-κB/NLRP3 Signaling Pathway.

Depression is a common and serious mental disorder. Data on its pathogenesis remain unclear and the options of drug treatments are limited. Here, we explored the role of pyroptosis, a novel pro-inflammatory programmed cell death process, in depression as well as the anti-depression effects and mechanisms of salidroside (Sal), a bioactive extract from .

Salidroside Ameliorates Alzheimer's Disease by Targeting NLRP3 Inflammasome-Mediated Pyroptosis.

Amyloid β-protein (Aβ) is reported to activate NLRP3 inflammasomes and drive pyroptosis, which is subsequently involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). To date, the pathogenesis of AD is unfortunately insufficiently elucidated. Therefore, this study was conducted to explore whether Salidroside (Sal) treatment could benefit AD by improving pyroptosis.

Layer-specific activation in human primary somatosensory cortex during tactile temporal prediction error processing.

The human brain continuously generates predictions of incoming sensory input and calculates corresponding prediction errors from the perceived inputs to update internal predictions. In human primary somatosensory cortex (area 3b), different cortical layers are involved in receiving the sensory input and generation of error signals. It remains unknown, however, how the layers in the human area 3b contribute to the temporal prediction error processing.

Quantification of cerebral blood volume changes caused by visual stimulation at 3 T using DANTE-prepared dual-echo EPI.

Purpose: We investigate the influence of moving blood-attenuation effects when using "delay alternating with nutation for tailored excitation" (DANTE) pulses in conjunction with blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) of functional MRI (fMRI) at 3 T. Based on the effects of including DANTE pulses, we propose quantification of cerebral blood volume (CBV) changes following functional stimulation.

Methods: Eighteen volunteers in total underwent fMRI scans at 3 T.

Magnetization transfer weighted EPI facilitates cortical depth determination in native fMRI space.

The increased availability of ultra-high field scanners provides an opportunity to perform fMRI at sub-millimeter spatial scales and enables in vivo probing of laminar function in the human brain. In most previous studies, the definition of cortical layers, or depths, is based on an anatomical reference image that is collected by a different acquisition sequence and exhibits different geometric distortion compared to the functional images. Here, we propose to generate the anatomical image with the fMRI acquisition technique by incorporating magnetization transfer (MT) weighted imaging.

Topographical and laminar distribution of audiovisual processing within human planum temporale.

The brain is capable of integrating signals from multiple sensory modalities. Such multisensory integration can occur in areas that are commonly considered unisensory, such as planum temporale (PT) representing the auditory association cortex. However, the roles of different afferents (feedforward vs.

NtAIDP1, a novel NtJAZ interacting protein, binds to an AT-rich region to activate the transcription of jasmonate-inducible genes in tobacco.

In plants, jasmonate ZIM-domain proteins (JAZs) act as critical regulators, interacting physically with transcription factors (TFs) and other transcriptional regulators to modulate jasmonate (JA)-responsive gene expression and participate in crosstalk with other hormone signalling pathways. Identifying novel JAZ-interacting proteins will provide new insights into JA signalling cascades in plants. Here, we performed yeast two-hybrid screening to identify 70 NtJAZ1-interacting proteins, including an A/T-rich interaction domain containing protein 1 (NtAIDP1) from JA-treated tobacco Bright Yellow-2 (BY-2) cells.

Layer-dependent functional connectivity methods.

Recent methodological advances in fMRI contrast and readout strategies have allowed researchers to approach the mesoscopic spatial regime of cortical layers. This has revolutionized the ability to map cortical information processing within and across brain systems. However, until recently, most layer-fMRI studies have been confined to primary cortices using basic block-design tasks and macro-vascular-contaminated sequence contrasts.

Integrated VASO and perfusion contrast: A new tool for laminar functional MRI.

Earlier research in cats has shown that both cerebral blood volume (CBV) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) can be used to identify layer-dependent fMRI activation with spatial specificity superior to gradient-echo blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast (Jin and Kim, 2008a). CBF contrast of perfusion fMRI at ultra-high field has not been widely applied in humans to measure laminar activity due to its low sensitivity, while CBV contrast for fMRI using vascular space occupancy (VASO) has been successfully used. However, VASO can be compromised by interference of blood in-flow effects and a temporally limited acquisition window around the blood-nulling time point.

Visual temporal frequency preference shows a distinct cortical architecture using fMRI.

Studies of visual temporal frequency preference typically examine frequencies under 20 Hz and measure local activity to evaluate the sensitivity of different cortical areas to variations in temporal frequencies. Most of these studies have not attempted to map preferred temporal frequency within and across visual areas, nor have they explored in detail, stimuli at gamma frequency, which recent research suggests may have potential clinical utility. In this study, we address this gap by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure response to flickering visual stimuli varying in frequency from 1 to 40 Hz.

Frequency-dependent tACS modulation of BOLD signal during rhythmic visual stimulation.

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has emerged as a promising tool for modulating cortical oscillations. In previous electroencephalogram (EEG) studies, tACS has been found to modulate brain oscillatory activity in a frequency-specific manner. However, the spatial distribution and hemodynamic response for this modulation remains poorly understood.

Transcriptome-wide analysis of jasmonate-treated BY-2 cells reveals new transcriptional regulators associated with alkaloid formation in tobacco.

Jasmonates (JAs) are well-known regulators of stress, defence, and secondary metabolism in plants, with JA perception triggering extensive transcriptional reprogramming, including both activation and/or repression of entire metabolic pathways. We performed RNA sequencing based transcriptomic profiling of tobacco BY-2 cells before and after treatment with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) to identify novel transcriptional regulators associated with alkaloid formation. A total of 107,140 unigenes were obtained through de novo assembly, and at least 33,213 transcripts (31%) encode proteins, in which 3419 transcription factors (TFs) were identified, representing 72 gene families, as well as 840 transcriptional regulators (TRs) distributed among 19 gene families.

MR imaging of oscillatory magnetic field changes: Progressing from phantom to human.

Detection of ultra-weak oscillatory magnetic field changes using MRI is of great research interest not only for neuronal current MRI of endogenous neuronal oscillations but also for direct visualization of exogenous transcranial currents or iron oxide contrast agent distribution. In this work, we present a novel oscillatory-selective detection (OSD) method that is magnitude-sensitive to the oscillatory magnetic field changes and immune to the main field inhomogeneity. In OSD, a train of 180° pulses with alternating polarity and mirror symmetry are used to refocus and accumulate magnetization changes induced by external oscillatory fields.

A comprehensive study of sensitivity in measuring oscillatory magnetic fields using rotary saturation pulse sequences.

Detecting the oscillatory currents with a specific frequency distribution may have the potential to make neuronal current MRI (ncMRI) come true. The phase shift or dephasing induced by both positive and negative episodes of oscillatory neuronal currents is likely to be canceled out over the echo time in typical BOLD-contrast fMRI experiments. Based on the contrast of rotary saturation, both of the recently developed spin-locked oscillatory excitation (SLOE) and stimulus-induced rotary saturation (SIRS) pulse sequences have been demonstrated to be able to detect weak oscillatory magnetic fields in phantoms with 3T MR scanners.

Direct detection of optogenetically evoked oscillatory neuronal electrical activity in rats using SLOE sequence.

The direct detection of neuronal electrical activity is one of the most challenging goals in non-BOLD fMRI research. Previous work has demonstrated its feasibility in phantom and cell culture studies, but attempts in in vivo studies remain few and far between. Most recent in vivo studies used T2*-weighted sequences to directly detect neuronal electrical activity evoked by sensory stimulus.

Detection of subnanotesla oscillatory magnetic fields using MRI.

Purpose: Direct mapping of neuronal currents using MRI would have fundamental impacts on brain functional imaging. Previous reports indicated that the stimulus-induced rotary saturation (SIRS) mechanism had the best potential of direct detection of neural oscillations; however, it lacked the high-sensitivity level needed. In this study, a novel strategy is proposed in an effort to improve the detection sensitivity.