Clinical Insight-Augmented Multi-View Learning for Alzheimer’s Detection in Retinal OCTA Images

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) poses a significant globalchallenge, with a notable absence of accessible and cost-effectivediagnostic tools for widespread AD detection. The retina, mirroringthe brain in anatomy and physiology, has emerged asa potential avenue for rapid AD identification through retinalimaging. The current retinal image-based AD detection methodsusually focus primarily on the macular area, but ignore thepotential value that the optic disc region may have for thedetection task. In this study, we leverage both macular- anddisc-centered OCTA images and propose a multi-region fusionframework for AD detection. Based on clinical evidence, weintegrate handcrafted features into the framework to improvemodel performance and interpretability. Specifically, vascularmorphological parameters extracted from the macular and discregions are used as input to a revalued KNN model to improvepredictive capabilities. Furthermore, recognizing the significanceof extracting and utilizing complementary information from themacular and optic disc regions, we propose an uncertaintyguidedstrategy based on Dempster-Shefer Theory (DST) tofuse knowledge from different regions. This approach considerseach region’s forecast quality and significantly improves theeffectiveness and robustness of the model. Through comparativeanalysis with existing methods, we have demonstrated that ourmethod outperforms the state-of-the-art ones and provides morevaluable pathological evidence for the association between retinalvascular changes and AD

Relationship between obesity and structural brain abnormality: Accumulated evidence from observational studies

Body mass index; Structural brain abnormalitiesÍndex de massa corporal; Anormalitats estructurals del cervellÍndice de masa corporal; Anomalías estructurales del cerebroWe aimed to evaluate the relationship between obesity and structural brain abnormalities assessed by magnetic resonance imaging using data from 45 observational epidemiological studies, where five articles reported prospective longitudinal results. In cross-sectional studies’ analyses, the pooled weighted mean difference for total brain volume (TBV) and gray matter volume (GMV) in obese/overweight participants was -11.59 (95 % CI: -23.17 to -0.02) and -10.98 (95 % CI: -20.78 to -1.18), respectively. TBV was adversely associated with BMI and WC, GMV with BMI, and hippocampal volume with BMI, WC, and WHR. WC/WHR are associated with a risk of lacunar and white matter hyperintensity (WMH). In longitudinal studies’ analyses, BMI was not statistically associated with the overall structural brain abnormalities (for continuous BMI: RR = 1.02, 95 % CI: 0.94–1.12; for categorial BMI: RR = 1.18, 95 % CI: 0.75–1.85). Small sample size of prospective longitudinal studies limited the power of its pooled estimates. A higher BMI is associated with lower brain volume while greater WC/WHR, but not BMI, is related to a risk of lacunar infarct and WMH. Future longitudinal research is needed to further elucidate the specific causal relationships and explore preventive measures.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82070851, 81870556, 81930019, 81770686, 81970591), Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospital’s Youth Program (QML20170204), Excellent Talents in Dongcheng District of Beijing

p21-activated kinase is involved in the sporulation, pathogenicity, and stress response of Arthrobotrys oligospora under the indirect regulation of Rho GTPase-activating protein

The p21-GTPase-activated protein kinases (PAKs) participate in signal transduction downstream of Rho GTPases, which are regulated by Rho GTPase-activating proteins (Rho-GAP). Herein, we characterized two orthologous Rho-GAPs (AoRga1 and AoRga2) and two PAKs (AoPak1 and AoPak2) through bioinformatics analysis and reverse genetics in Arthrobotrys oligospora, a typical nematode-trapping (NT) fungus. The transcription analyses performed at different development stages suggested that Aopaks and Aorga1 play a crucial role during sporulation and trap formation, respectively. In addition, we successfully deleted Aopak1 and Aorga1 via the homologous recombination method. The disruption of Aopak1 and Aorga1 caused a remarkable reduction in spore yield and the number of nuclei per cell, but did not affect mycelial growth. In ∆Aopak1 mutants, the trap number was decreased at 48 h after the introduction of nematodes, but nematode predatory efficiency was not affected because the extracellular proteolytic activity was increased. On the contrary, the number of traps in ∆Aorga1 mutants was significantly increased at 36 h and 48 h. In addition, Aopak1 and Aorga1 had different effects on the sensitivity to cell-wall-disturbing reagent and oxidant. A yeast two-hybrid assay revealed that AoPak1 and AoRga1 both interacted with AoRac, and AoPak1 also interacted with AoCdc42. Furthermore, the Aopaks were up-regulated in ∆Aorga1 mutants, and Aorga1 was down-regulated in ∆Aopak1 mutants. These results reveal that AoRga1 indirectly regulated AoPAKs by regulating small GTPases