Electrophysiological predictors of early response to antidepressants in major depressive disorder.

Background: Psychomotor retardation (PMR) is a core feature of major depressive disorder (MDD), which is characterized by abnormalities in motor control and cognitive processes. PMR in MDD can predict a poor antidepressant response, suggesting that PMR may serve as a marker of the antidepressant response. However, the neuropathological relationship between treatment outcomes and PMR remains uncertain.

Impulsivity and neural correlates of response inhibition in bipolar disorder and their unaffected relatives: A MEG study.

Background: Response inhibition is a core cognitive impairment in bipolar disorder (BD), leading to increased impulsivity in BD. However, the relationship between the neural mechanisms underlying impaired response inhibition and impulsivity in BD is not yet clear. Individuals who are genetically predisposed to BD give a way of identifying potential endophenotypes.

Altered beta band spatial-temporal interactions during negative emotional processing in major depressive disorder: An MEG study.

Background: The mood-concordance bias is a key feature of major depressive disorder (MDD), but the spatiotemporal neural activity associated with emotional processing in MDD remains unclear. Understanding the dysregulated connectivity patterns during emotional processing and their relationship with clinical symptoms could provide insights into MDD neuropathology.

Methods: We enrolled 108 MDD patients and 64 healthy controls (HCs) who performed an emotion recognition task during magnetoencephalography recording.

Convergent and divergent cognitive impairment of unipolar and bipolar depression: A magnetoencephalography resting-state study.

Background: Unipolar depression (UD) and bipolar depression (BD) showed convergent and divergent cognitive impairments. Neural oscillations are linked to the foundational cognitive processes. We aimed to investigate the underpinning spectral neuronal power patterns by magnetoencephalography (MEG), which combinates high spatial and temporal resolution.

Aberrant functional connectivity in insular subregions in somatic depression: a resting-state fMRI study.

Background: Somatic depression (SD) is different from non-somatic depression (NSD), and insular subregions have been associated with somatic symptoms. However, the pattern of damage in the insular subregions in SD remains unclear. The aim of this study was to use functional connectivity (FC) analyses to explore the bilateral ventral anterior insula (vAI), bilateral dorsal anterior insula (dAI), and bilateral posterior insula (PI) brain circuits in SD patients.

Connectivity of the Frontal Cortical Oscillatory Dynamics Underlying Inhibitory Control During a Go/No-Go Task as a Predictive Biomarker in Major Depression.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by core functional deficits in cognitive inhibition, which is crucial for emotion regulation. To assess the response to ruminative and negative mood states, it was hypothesized that MDD patients have prolonged disparities in the oscillatory dynamics of the frontal cortical regions across the life course of the disease.

Method: A "go/no-go" response inhibition paradigm was tested in 31 MDD patients and 19 age-matched healthy controls after magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanning.

[Correlation of betweenness centrality of the right hemispheric network with ejaculatory function in premature ejaculation patients].

Objective: To explore the topological properties of the betweenness centrality of the nodes and edges in the brain white matter network of premature ejaculation (PE) patients and analyze the correlation of the importance of the key brain regions and interregional white matter structural connectivity with the ejaculatory function of the patients.Method: We collected the demographic and clinical data, along with the T1 and MR diffusion tensor imaging (MR-DTI) data, on 18 PE patients and 22 normal controls matched in age, sex and education. After preprocessing of the data obtained, we divided the whole brain into 90 symmetrical cortical and subcortical regions (defined as nodes of the brain network) by automated anatomical labeling, examined the structural connectivity between different brain regions by probabilistic white matter fiber tracking (defined as edges of the brain network), and calculated the betweenness centrality of the nodes and edges using the brain connection toolbox.

Abnormal Alterations of Regional Spontaneous Neuronal Activity in Inferior Frontal Orbital Gyrus and Corresponding Brain Circuit Alterations: A Resting-State fMRI Study in Somatic Depression.

Major depressive disorders often involve somatic symptoms and have been found to have fundamental differences from non-somatic depression (NSD). However, the neural basis of this type of somatic depression (SD) is unclear. The aim of this study is to use the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and functional connectivity (FC) analyses to examine the abnormal, regional, spontaneous, neuronal activity and the corresponding brain circuits in SD patients.

[Correlation of abnormal topological properties of the white matter fibers connecting the left amygdale with psychogenic erectile dysfunction].

Objective: To explore the topological properties of the degree and strength of nodes in the binary and weighted brain white matter networks of the patients with psychogenic erectile dysfunction (pED) and analyze the changes of myelin integrity, number and length of the white matter fibers in the topological space.

Methods: Diffusion tensor imaging data were obtained from 21 patients with pED and 24 healthy controls matched in sex, age, and years of education and subjected to preprocessing. The whole cerebral cortex was divided into 90 regions, followed by fiber tracking, construction of the binary and weighted white matter networks, and calculation of the node degrees and connectivity strengths in different brain regions.

Aberrant Global and Regional Topological Organization of the Fractional Anisotropy-weighted Brain Structural Networks in Major Depressive Disorder.

Background: Most previous neuroimaging studies have focused on the structural and functional abnormalities of local brain regions in major depressive disorder (MDD). Moreover, the exactly topological organization of networks underlying MDD remains unclear. This study examined the aberrant global and regional topological patterns of the brain white matter networks in MDD patients.

Heritability of blood pressure responses to dietary sodium and potassium intake in a Chinese population.

The heritability of blood pressure responses to dietary intervention has not been well studied. We examined the heritability of blood pressure responses to dietary sodium and potassium intake in a family feeding study among 1906 study participants living in rural North China. The dietary intervention included a 7-day low-sodium feeding (51.

[The neural substrates for voice familiarity in schizophrenic patients with auditory verbal hallucinations: an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study].

Objective: To study the physiologic base of voice familiarity (VF) and the mechanism of auditory verbal hallucination (AVH) in the patients with schizophrenia (SCH).

Methods: Twenty-six schizophrenic patients, 13 with and 13 without AVH, and 13 healthy control subjects were instructed to passively listen to familiar or unfamiliar voices and to give their judgment and underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (efMRI) based on blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal efficacy. The functional images were collected by using a 1.

[Detection of anti-Scl-70 antibody by recombinant fusion peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay: a preliminary study].

Objective: To detect anti-Scl-70 antibody with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a recombinant fusion peptide which comprises 207 - 765 amino acid fragment of Scl-70 as antigen.

Methods: cDNA encoding Scl-70 antigen fragment from aa207 to aa765 from human placenta cDNA first strand was amplified with PCR. The obtained cDNA was inserted into expression vector Pet-42b and transferred into E.

[Study of the proteins associated with Sa antigen].

Objective: To study the proteins associated with Sa antigen, a target of the anti-Sa antibodies specific for rheumatoid arthritis, and to elucidate the nature of these proteins.

Methods: Sa antigen was extracted from fresh human placental tissue by anion exchange chromatography and subjected to SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. Serum samples were collected from 155 patients with connective tissue diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (71 cases), ankylosing spondylitis (11 cases), psoriatic arthritis (7 cases), reactive arthritis (7 cases), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (4 cases), osteoarthritis (5 cases), polymyalgia rheumatica (6 cases), gout (6 cases), systemic lupus erythematous (7 cases), Sjogren's syndrome (10 cases), adult onset Still's disease (3 cases) and Sa antibodies were detected by immunoblotting.

[No association of -1438G/A polymorphism in promoter region of 5-HT2A receptor gene with antipsychotic agent-induced weight gain].

Objective: To investigate whether the -1438G/A polymorphism in the promoter region of 5-HTR2A gene associates with the weight gain following antipsychotic agents (APS) acute treatment in schizophrenic patients.

Methods: Eighty-four Chinese Han patients with schizophrenia at the first onset were recruited from among 70 nuclear families. The polymorphism of 5-HTR2A gene was determined with PCR-RFLP technique.

[Identification of HCV antigen epitopes from a random 15-peptide library by anti-HCV polycloral antibody].

Aim: To analyze epitope recognized by anti-HCV antibodies; patients suffered from hepatitis C.

Methods: Anti-HCV Abs were purified from the patients serum through an affinity chromatography column which was prepared with sepharose 4B coupled with protein A. These Abs were used for biopanning of a phage-displayed random 15-peptide library.

[Association of -2548G/A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of leptin gene with antipsychotic agent-induced weight gain].

Objective: To investigate whether the -2548G/A functional polymorphism in promoter region of leptin gene influencing weight gain following antipsychotic agents (APS) acute treatment in schizophrenic patients.

Methods: 128 Chinese Han untreated patients with schizophrenia (male 61, female 67) with an age and gender matched health controls (n = 38) were recruited. The polymorphism of leptin gene was determined with PCR-RFLP technique.

Effects of antipsychotics on fat deposition and changes in leptin and insulin levels. Magnetic resonance imaging study of previously untreated people with schizophrenia.

Background: Weight gain is a common consequence of antipsychotic drug treatment and can lead to further morbidity.

Aims: To assess the effects of antipsychotic drug therapy on abdominal fat deposition, on insulin and leptin secretion, and on circulating glucose and lipids.

Method: Abdominal body fat was determined by magnetic resonance imaging in a group of previously untreated patients with schizophrenia, before and after 10 weeks' antipsychotic drug treatment.

Identification and characterization of simple sequence repeats in the genomes of Shigella species.

A variety of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) have been identified in the genome of Shigella flexneri serotype 2a (strain Sf301), an enteric pathogen that causes bacillary dysentery in man. The distribution of SSRs, with unit length ranging from 1 to 9 nucleotides, was biased in different regions of the genome. The tri-, tetra- and hexanucleotide SSRs prevailed in the coding regions while the mono- and dinucleotide SSRs were more common in the noncoding regions.

Protein kinase C/zeta (PRKCZ) gene is associated with type 2 diabetes in Han population of North China and analysis of its haplotypes.

Aim: To identify the susceptible gene (s) for type 2 diabetes in the previously mapped region, 1p36.33-p36.23, in Han population of North China using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and to analyze the haplotypes of the gene (s) related to type 2 diabetes.

[Functional analysis of the single nucleotide polymorphisms in the PRKCZ gene].

Objective: To study the function of 5 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the PRKCZ gene, a susceptibility gene for type 2 diabetes in Han population of North China, in the pathogenesis of the disease.

Methods: Bioinformatic methods and reporter gene activity determination were used to analyze the function of the 5 SNPs.

Results: The reporter gene activities of different alleles of 2 SNPs, rs427811 and rs809912, were obviously different, which implies that these 2 SNPs might be susceptibility loci of the disease.