Bmc Neurosci
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The aim of this study was to investigate whether AMN082 exerts its neuroprotective effect by attenuating glutamate receptor-associated neuronal apoptosis and improving functional outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI). ⋯ We concluded that intraperitoneal injection of AMN082 for 3 days may ameliorate TBI by attenuating glutamate receptor-associated nitrosative stress and neuronal apoptosis in the pericontusional cortex. We suggest that AMN082 administration in the acute stage may be a promising strategy for TBI.
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Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) evaluates the effect of a painful conditioning stimulus (CS) on a painful test stimulus (TS). Using painful cutaneous electrical stimulation (PCES) as TS and painful cold water as CS, the pain relief was paralleled by a decrease in evoked potentials (PCES-EPs). We now aimed to compare the effect of CPM with cognitive distraction on PCES-induced pain and PCES-EP amplitudes. ⋯ CPM and cognitive distraction reduced the PCES-induced pain to a similar extent. The more pronounced decrease of PCES-EP amplitudes after distraction by a cognitive task implies that both conditions might not represent the general pain modulatory capacity of individuals, but may underlie different neuronal mechanisms with the final common pathway of perceived pain reduction.
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Cerebral stroke occurs following ischemic and hemorrhagic lesions in the brain. Survival and recovery of stroke patients depend on the severity of the initial injury but also the therapeutic approaches applied for emergent lifesaving and continuing post-stroke management. Dl-3-n-Butylphthalide (NBP), an active compound derived from Chinese celery seeds, has shown clinical efficacy in the treatment of ischemic cerebral stroke. ⋯ These results suggest that NBP can alleviate neurological defects following experimentally induced local brain hemorrhage, which is associated with a potential role of this drug in promoting neovascularization surrounding the bleeding loci.
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Neurological complications may occur in patients with acute or chronic renal failure; however, in cases of acute renal failure, the signs and symptoms are usually more pronounced, and progressed rapidly. Oxidative stress and nitric oxide in the hippocampus, following kidney injury may be involved in cognitive impairment in patients with uremia. Although many women continue taking hormone therapy for menopausal symptom relief, but there are also some controversies about the efficacy of exogenous sex hormones, especially estrogen therapy alone, in postmenopausal women with kidney injury. Herein, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, spatial memory and synaptic plasticity at the CA1 synapse of a uremic ovariectomized rat model of menopause was characterized by estradiol replacement alone. ⋯ Although, estrogen may have some positive effects on cognitive function in healthy subjects, but its efficacy in menopause subjects under uremic states such as renal transplantation, needs to be further investigated in terms of dosage and duration.
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Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) have elevated levels of brain iron, especially in the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the iron deposition in the substantia nigra (SN) and other deep gray matter nuclei of PD patients using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and its clinical relationship, and to explore whether there is a gradient of iron deposition pattern in globus pallidus (GP)-fascicula nigrale (FN)-SN pathway. ⋯ PD is closely related to iron deposition in the SNc. The condition of PD patients is related to the SNc and the SNr. There is not an increasing iron deposition gradient along the GP-FN-SN pathway. The source and mechanism of iron deposition in the SN need to be further explored, as does the relationship between the iron deposition in the RN and PD.